Subject: Brief US Nationals report from the world's oldest scrub. Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 11:16:33 -0400 From: "Alan M. Newman" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi! Origins was again a great place to be for the 4th and I'm now hoping the next 360 days go as quickly as the last 5, so I can return and try again. ;-) 5 of us piled into the van for the trip including my son David (played in 2 Junior Pro events but is now more interested in other pursuits) and three teammates, including Erik Rodriguez (who also played in the Nationals) and Carl LiBassi and Chris Donovan. Another teammate, Sergio Costanzo, made it there in Sean Fleishman's van. We arrived Wednesday and relaxed, attempting to guess what might qualify in the Open and never gave the Oath of Druids a thought. I sat down behind Mike Pustilnick for the first qualifier and proceeded to watch him deploy one of the most unusual (possibly demented) ideas I've seen in a long time. Mike is clearly creative ;-). Squandered Stasis with the Oath of Druids bringing an Archangel into play. Although Mike didn't make it all the way through with this concoction, the oath was widely noticed. When the main hall opened the next morning, Oath of Druids shot up from $3.50 to $8 in 5 minutes and eventually topped out north of $12. Erik and I felt we were well prepared for the draft portion of the Nationals and I can't speak for him, but I had a lot more bad luck than good and I did *not* play well at all. Overall, in 12 rounds of play, I suffered a total of 9 paris mulligans, including a double mulligan in one round. This is *way* above the normal odds and hopefully, will be balanced by more favorable circumstances in some future event. As for my play, in one round against Michelle Bush, I counted a total of 4 playing errors on my part, about as scrubby as one can get. Michelle had atrocious draws and actually lost two straight, so I guess I had some luck after all. Memorable moments: top decking a Sky Shaper with four critters ready to attack for 8 and the win in draft. Standard: playing Jim Lemire when we were both clearly out of contention. We had some fun in a very close match. Jim needed to sleight two Knights to win. Considering I had a Knight of Mists and Capsize in hand, the match would have been mine otherwise. He topdecked both sleights! Sooner or later you will hear about the Mike Long incident (what, again?!) and I hope everyone just allows DCI to do their job and not automatically assume the popular notion. Without direct and incontrovertible evidence of cheating, such as "gotcha on videotape," assumptions are only assumptions. Truth be told, Long was held to a higher standard and given a double-game loss for an infraction anyone else would have received a simple warning for. I'm not comfortable defending Mike, but I'm also not comfortable villifying a compatriot on the U.S. National team. Congrats to those who did well. The tournament was, as always, well run and Andy Finch and Charlie Cantino (head judge) did a great job. Erik & I finished 64th and 65th, not a memorable finish, but overall, we had a great time. Hope to see you there next year. Regards, Al "Papa Bear" Newman