Subject: Western Canadian Regional(Vancouver) Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 13:04:30 -0700 From: "Mike Gurney (SFG)" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello there. This report is being written about 5 days after the regional and I have had time to think over what happened. I made it...but just barely...I ended up getting 5/6th place in this 6 slot regional...the deck is at the end...if anyone really cares...;) Ok..here it is round by round. 1st mono blue counterhell kinda deck that wins with stalking stones (Win) It was a little kid...but he played ok. First game I disrupted an early impulse. He couldn't stop a geddon and that was that..geddon backed by 2 counterspells is strong. 2nd game was very long...I got out a scragnoth and ended up losing it to a quicksand and a stalking stones...ugh...my first mistake of the day...he dropped 3(!) dream tides so I was attacking with a 3/6 tradewind(spike feeders are strong). He dropped a disk and blew it...since he was getting low on life. I gaea's blessinged the scrag back in(my only one) and drew it a couple rounds later..and it went all the way despite him whispering like mad for a disk or another stalking stones. His stalking stones had gotten me down to 7 earlier...and he dropped a couple rainbows in his last turn...but Scragnoth just walked through them to deliver the killing blow. 2nd red/green land dest (Win) A total chump..the highlight of this match was when he main deck Simooned away my birds of paradise. It was scary for a moment..but I geddoned and recovered WAY quicker...he was playing mana low i think cuz he never recovered from my geddon in the second game either (thank god he didn't have a simoon in response for my 3 birds. Disrupt wrecked his attempt at an apocalypse...(disrupt was the only card in my hand..so I didn't want to take a chance) 3rd countersliver (Loss) This was a player who has been out of the game for a while and I had just wrecked him the night before in a draft. The first game I was stuck at two mana for the first 6 turns...one of my first mana was a gemstone mine..and I didn't draw another til I blew the last counter on my mine. 4 Walls of blossoms don't stop slivers...and eventually he killed me(he kept on attempting to scroll my man o war with 5 cards in his hand)...for a while I wasn't sure what he was playing since all he had was a bunch of multicolored land and a scroll...then he dropped 3 slivers in one turn. The second game he got first turn muscle second turn muscle...thank god I went first turn bird second turn propaganda...5th turn geddon(had to wait for him to put more land down..=) ) and a tradewind soon followed. Last game was bad...he goes first turn mox/muscle, 2nd turn crystalline, 3rd turn winged...I played a propaganda 3rd turn..which he disenchanted the next turn and that was pretty much game..since I had 2 geddons and a winter orb in hand and that was about it. Countersliver is very good against controllish decks. I was hoping sligh would have wiped them out by now.(sligh beats them pretty bad most of the time) 4th white weenie (Win) Vince... Vince probably should have beat me..I had/have problems vs fast weenie shadow/armor...he also splashed red for firestorm which totally hoses my lock. First game I get a god draw...wall wall/bird wall/bird to match his knight knight knight...then I drop propaganda...he drops an armor on a knight (he stopped at 3 mana..which is about right for white weenie) and I dropped my geddon the next turn...tradewind lockdown ensued after another geddon(he reached 2 land!) Second game was much the same...prop prop geddon(I had an extra prop in my sboard)...I disrupted a firestorm for 7 in this game...thats pretty hefty card advantage. 5th black/blue/red frenetic/bottle gnome/dance (Win) This was Terry Lau...I wasn't looking forward to this one. His deck was interesting...he used the corpse dance to bring back frenetics that failed their flips...it's a neat concept and he had a pile of countermagic PLUS perish and Pyro's in the SB. 1st game we were both mana screwed...I disrupted an impulse but still drew no land...and he countered my sylvan library. He recovered first and layed a frenetic. I was still green screwed with a bird and 3 walls of blossoms in my hand. A couple turns later I started dropping green stuff...but he simply dismissed my tradewinds and propaganda's..and the frenetic went all the way flying over my 3 or so wall of blossoms. He then took 10 minutes sideboarding and at this time I was still fine and said 'I think you took a little more than your 5 minutes' kinda jokingly...he jokingly said 'maybe you should get a judge' I started looking around and said 'ok'...heh. Then the SLOW play began...bleah... In this game I forced a geddon through...but I had only one land in my hand and he recovered as quick as I...he perished away my two birds and pyro'd my counter...eventually I got out a couple more birds and geddoned again with major counterspell backup after he laid a frenetic...and I recovered FAST this time and laid a tradewind...eventually I beat him down with man o wars and spike feeders after he dealt with my tradewind. During this game he was taking 2-3 minute turns...one turn was easily 5 minutes when he looked through my graveyard 3 times and then counted his library once. I got a bit upset...he got a bit upset at my being upset. It was a bad scene. The last game was much the same..he was taking the full time for most of his turns...right near the end I geddon'd him again and he was screwed...and my turns were taking at most 30 seconds..while his were taking the full time. Eventually I beat him down to 4...it was his turn... he was sitting there with 2 mana on the table staring at his cards...Glenn(the head judge who I requested time Terry's turns) told Terry that I was going to get one more turn no matter what he did. Terry seemed stunned...and eventually he attempted an incinerate on one of my creatures...I disrupted and that was game. After the game he was so pissed off...saying that he didn't try to stall me. We got into a big argument and I just walked away. 6th countersliver (Win) Ryan O'Donnell I believe was his name...he played VERY BADLY. He had me both games..but threw them both away...First game he tried to steal my tradewind with a legacy's allure when I had a spike feeder out...in response I put a counter on it and that was game pretty much. Next game he got out two(!) legacy's allures and I kept bouncing one at the end of his turn...so he could never take my tradewind...BUT.. nothing was stopping him from taking the two birds that I was using to bounce the allures...hehe. I ended up making the tradewind a 2/5 with a spike feeder for some reason...I don't remember exactly...but he forgot to put a counter on his legacy's allure twice..that gave me the ability to use my birds and such...and let me recover from a slightly mana low game... He had just knocked Radonjic out of the tourney the round before...but he made SO MANY MISTAKES.. 7th 5CG (Win) I don't remember too much about this...except that I WRECKED him...disrupted key spells twice..geddoned then locked...next game allure your birds allure your birds geddon tradewind game. quarters black/red settler recursion (Loss) Shane Neville I won the first game easily even after he started getting settler recursion cuz I got two birds out..countered a taal...and geddoned... he never recovered..I did. Next game was all him...he plays swamp...I play first turn bird...with an undiscovered...I had 2 islands and a undiscovered...he rituals out a taal to kill the bird..next turn drops a settler...wrecks my land...stronghold...wreck...stronghold...wreck..game. Next game was all mine...I dissipate the first settler(he had a stronghold already)...then he drops an abyssal spectre and I man-o-war it and drop an orb thinking the game would be mine..but over the next 2 turns...despite taking 8 from my sylvan library to draw extra cards...I couldn't find another counter...all I had was a dissipate. When he got to 5 mana he dropped a disk..I countered...he blasted...he took some more beats from my man o war and spike feeder...but then he blew the disk at the end of my turn..untapped..dropped 2 settlers(he had 7 mana on the table) I could only man o war one...and then he wrecked all my blue recursed the settler with the stronghold...wreck ..rinse repeat...game. Funny thing is I sided in all my artifact destruction vs that deck..I had 3 apes 1 disenchant...plus a hydroblast to stop pyros..but I got none of it and he wrecked me...frown. for 5/6th 5CU (W) Song Ly...he is a really good player from around here...playing Grauer's version of 5CU with wall of essences...and he was playing Humility standard I believe. He mulligans twice...I mulligan once and for some STUPID reason...keep a horrible hand...I was mana screwed and he recovered first...I almost came back..because that deck has no early kill power...but eventually he got gaea's recursion going with lots of counterspells and that wrecked me. Next two games were all about the geddon...I thought he had me one game when he recovered WAY faster from a geddon than I did (despite me having 2 birds) but I my ultra secret sideboard card destroyed him...he did something a wrath I think...I countered...he let me stop it(scared of more geddon!) and then I got out DISRUPTING SCEPTRE...backed with 2 counterspells...haha..he sided out his disenchants I think cuz I was only playing with propaganda's...eventually I decked him...while recursing counterspells. Fun games...close too... Grauer got 5/6th as well due to topdecking a fireball to kill a suicide black deck(forsaken wastes on the table..grauer at 1...opponent at 6 or so(had a sarcomancy without a zombie) and grauer topdecks a fireball to fireball the kid for 4 and attack for 3 with an avenging angel. So...I qualified...which is nice...just in case my rating drops from some tournament from a year ago that they forgot to enter or something. It was something like this (after a few modifications so I could beat countersliver standard) 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Wall of blossoms 4 Tradewind 4 Man O War 4 Counterspell 2 Dissipate 2 Disrupt 3 Armageddon 1 Winter Orb 2 Gaea's Blessing 1 Sylvan Library 2 Propaganda 2 Spike Feeders 3 Impulse 1 Wasteland 3 Undiscovered 1 Gemstone Mine 3 Reflecting Pool 6 Forest 6 Island 1 Brushland 1 Adarkar Wastes 22 Land SB: allures, props, apes, hydro, chill, it doesn't really matter.... it depends on your area's metagame..but allures wreck 5CG. Propagandas were house...I won so many games that I normally wouldn't have. I was actually trying to find a propaorb deck the night before that I could play...but it was late and sleep is good so I played this. Prop/geddon beats sliver....getting it out and keeping it out is the hard part. Gaea's and sylvan were good additions(this deck is based on El Nino in case anyone didn't know already) ...and I needed some library manipulation..and gaea'sing 3 geddons vs 5CU is strong. The top 8 were 2 5CU, 1 red celerity/burn, settler recursion, U/G/w Tradewind(me), U/b tradewind, suicide black, and one deck I believe was Bushwacker. Props and slops..nah. Just a gratz to Shane for making top 4 with a non-net deck...and taking it to me in the quarters...now if we can only teach him how to play sealed in time for nationals...=) Mike G ____________________________________________________________ Michael Gurney E-mail: mike.gurney@sfg.com ... Direct: (604) 570-4396 SFG Technologies Inc. General: (604) 570-4300 Box 442 - 9632 Cameron St Fax: (604) 291-0742 Burnaby, BC V3J 1M2 Canada Web: www.sfg.com ____________________________________________________________