From: ejkmcsm@arctic.net (jeff moeller) Subject: Tournament Report and deck listings, Alaskan Regionals Rex Plunkett won the 1997 Alaska Regionals 2-0 against perennial Fairbanks stalwart Hal Tippens. Rex's Rogue White Weenie beat down Hal's 5-color green deck in the finals; Danyel James and the Slighbrary deck 2-1 in the semis; and my five-color green deck 2-1 in the quarters. The other top 8 finishers were George Lee (b/r turbo dirt); David Derrickson (mono-blue big flyers); Ben Weaver (Counterpost); and Leo Helmar from Juneau (r/u Frenetic Efreet deck). Rex asked me to give some credit to Darrell Breese, Jarrod Long and myself for helping with his deck design (especially the part where it got thumped in playtesting by the five-color green and Slighbrary and adjusted accordingly). Rex's closest calls came in the semis against Danyel, with both down to one life in Game 3; and in Game 2 against Hal Tippens when Hal got out an early Dervish that it took Rex a long time to stop. Rex lost his match against Danyel in the Swiss pairings but pulled it out in the clutch. Rex's funniest moment came in game 2 of his match against me when it dawned on both of us that we had both sideboarded out our Winter Orbs, relying on the other guy to play his. Good job Rex and congratulations. REX'S ROGUE WHITE WEENIE: This is a variation on a Turbo Crusade deck, using lots of banding and first striking white weenies, those !@#$ Falcons, Crusades, Enlightened Tutors to find the Crusades, light counter magic to guard against enchantment removal, and a splash of direct damage. The low casting cost and use of Undiscovered Paradise helped with the Winter Orb, and the banding/first striking caused trouble for five-color green. Rex's rogue gimmick was the splashing in of one each of various other irritating, color-hosing enchantments or deck-screwing artifacts that could be fished for with the Enlightened Tutor. Land (23): 9x Plains; 3x Quicksand; 2x City of Brass; 4x Adarkar Wastes; 4x Undiscovered Paradise; 1x Kjeldoran Outpost. Creatures (22): 2x Longbow Archer; 3x White Knight; 3x Pikemen; 3x Mtenda Herder; 4x Benalish Hero; 4x Freewind Falcon; 3x Mesa Pegasus. Other Stuff (17): 4x Crusade; 3x Enlightened Tutor; 1x Wand of Denial; 1x Winter Orb; 1x Justice; 1x Zur's Weirding; 1x Earthquake; 1x Honorable Passage; 2x Meddle; 2x Arcane Denial. Sideboard: 1x Plains; 1x Enlightened Tutor; 1x Honorable Passage; 1x Afterlife; 1x Island Sanctuary; 2x Disenchant; 1x Justice; 1x Karma; 1x Earthquake; 1x Fireball; 1x Mystical Tutor; 2x Mind Harness; 1x Arcane Denial. HAL'S FIVE COLOR GREEN WEENIE: A little different from the usual mold, but the same basic idea-- Land (15): Forest x13; Karplusan Forest x2. (15 is the fewest I've seen yet). Other Mana Producers (9): Barbed Sextant x4; Mana Birds x4; Mana Prism x1. (Hal likes the card drawing off the Sextant). Creatures (22): Granger Guildmage x3; Quirion Ranger x4; Jolrael's Centuar x4; Whirling Dervish x3; River Boa x4; Maro x2; Stampeding Wildebeest x1; Llurgoyf x1. The usual five-color stuff (14): Armor of Thorns x2; Winter Orb x3; Incinerate x2; Terror x2; Armageddon x1; Spirit Link x1; Arcane Denial x2; Creeping Mold x1. Sideboard: Terror x2; Incinerate x2; Pyroblast x1; Pyrotechnics x3; Emerald Charm x2; Windreaper Falcon x2; Simoon x1; Femeref Archers x1. SLIGHBRARY: This is a fast, versatile R/G speed deck that makes use of the Quirion Ranger, Birds of Paradise, Orcish Artillery, and the Sylvan Library/Thawing Glaciers combo. Burn, Earthquakes and Artillery clear the board for the Viashino Sandstalker to do its dirty work. Disks are in as a reset button which does not bother the Boas or Sandstalkers. The Quirion Ranger/Artillery combo hurts, but it has won me games. The deck was also designed to get around Stasis decks, through the Boas, Rangers, and Fireblasts. This is my version of the deck; the one played by Danyel James at the Regionals is very similar. I agree with Danyel now that Pyrokinesis belongs in the sideboard as an anti "Five Color Green" measure; nasty after an Orb or Armageddon. Mine has a little white stashed in the sideboard; Danyel plays with bigger creatures (Shivans being notable). 28 More Days until Stormbind is back... Land (22): 9x Mountains; 5x Forests; 2x Karplusan Forest; 2x Undiscovered Paradise; 2x Quicksand; 2x Thawing Glaciers. Creatures (20): 3x Birds of Paradise; 2x Quirion Ranger; 4x River Boa; 3x Orcish Artillery; 3x Viashino Sandstalker; 2x Maro; 2x Wildfire Emissary; 1x Orgg. Burn (12): 4x Incinerate; 2x Earthquake; 2x Fireball; 2x Fireblast; 2x Hammer of Bogardan. Other Stuff (6): 2x Sylvan Library; 2x Creeping Mold; 2x Nevinyrral's Disk. Sideboard: 2x Fireblast; 3x Emerald Charm; 3x Pyroblast; 2x Pyrokinesis; 2x Primitive Justice; 1x Honorable Passage; 2x Afterlife. "NOT SO MONOGREEN". Also known as the 16 land, 5 color green deck, this deck dominated Regionals this year. It won approximately 10 Regionals outright, and made it to the finals up here only to get beaten down by a rogue deck. This deck is not done yet; I think that it gets better with Weatherlight and the return of Swords to Plowshares. The Fallow Wurm is the leading candidate for addition to the deck; Briar Shield and the Benalish Knight are also possibilities. I play 17 lands, so sue me. I did not get mana screwed all day. Land (17): 9x Forests; 4x Undiscovered Paradise; 4x City of Brass. Green Stuff: 3x Whirling Dervish; 4x River Boa; 3x Elvish Archer (a lot of people play Jolrael's Centaur, which you can't Giant Growth or untap); 2x Maro; 1x Llurgoyf (won the deciding game of the last round of Swiss for me); 4x Quirion Ranger; 4x Birds of Paradise; 4x Giant Growth (many people play some mixture of these and Armor of Thorns). Black Stuff: 1x Vampiric Tutor; 2x Terror. Red Stuff: 3x Incinerate. White Stuff: 1x Disenchant; 2x Armageddon. Blue Stuff: 3x Arcane Denial; 3x Prodigal Sorcerer (many people play Granger and/or Shadow Guildmages instead. They cost mana and make it harder to swing the Quirion Ranger/Tim machine gun combo, which won me games in Rounds 1 and a clutch game in round 4, when Tim gunned down three mana producers at the end of his turn, followed by an Armageddon). Also, Timmies are blue, thereby getting around COP:Green, and they don't hurt you too). Artifact Stuff: 3x Winter Orb. Sideboard: 1x Disenchant; 2x Emerald Charm; 2x Terror; 3x Hydroblast; 3x Pyroblast; 2x Simoon (for opposing similar decks); 1x Tranquil Domain; 1x Seeds of Innocence (anti-Diamonds). -Jeff Moeller http://www.cce2.com/~jmoeller/magic.html