From: mod@teleport.com (Chris Heinonen) Subject: Northwest Regionals Report Date: Tue, 27 May 97 21:03:24 GMT Northwest Regionals Tournament Report I went to regionals last year and came in 34th going 4-2 just missing the single elimination cut of the top 32. This year I was determined to do better. I had not played Magic since last September when I took off for my freshman year in college, so if I did good at all it would be a surprise. I had spent the past 2 months testing decks myself and was playing a Frenetic Hammer deck, but at the last minute decided to change when I got to Seattle and tested the night before. I wound up with a Red-Green speed deck with my friend played with as well. Here is the deck I used - 4 River Boa 4 Elvish Archers 4 Suq'Ata Lancers 3 Nettletooth Djinn 2 Whirling Dervish 1 Lhurgoyf 4 Giant Growth 4 Incinerate 4 Kaervek's Torch 3 Earthquake 2 Shatter 1 Fireblast 4 Quicksand 4 Karplusan Forest 9 Forest 7 Mountain Sideboard - 4 Tranquil Domain 4 Pyroblast 2 Whirling Dervish 2 Lhurgoyf 2 Pillage 1 Pyrokenesis The deck tested very well the night before and the majority of the field appeared to be mostly Red-Green with some blue decks. Stayed up until 4 the night before testing the deck and working on the sideboard until I felt the deck was working well enough to make the top 8. Showed up at the tourney center at 9 AM, was pre-registered so I didn't have to wait in the long line outside, and was a little bit surprised to see Mark Justice playing up in Seattle and not in Colorado or California. They announced there were 182 entrants and mentioned the new scoring on wins and draws which brought a round of applause from the audience. I began to play my deck to see if I made a mistake changing at the last moment. Round 1 - Charles Cochran Mono Red deck with Hammers, Sandstalkers, Emissary, and Dwarven Miners. Game 1 - He lays down a Glaciers first turn and I look at my draw and think the game is mine. I get down a quick River Boa which he incinerates and then he glaciers continually to get out a ton of mountains on his side. I can only manage to get out 3 lands the whole game and hold off his Emissary with an Archer and Incinerates. I sit there with 3 lands in my play and stare at 2 Nettletooth and 2 Torches the whole game. He wins when he can continually regenerate a hammer. Game 2 - I get a good draw this time with mana, a couple of Boa's and an Archer. I get them out fast, attack with them and Giant Growths. He throws out a COP: Red using an Undiscovered Paradise which hurts my Lancer. I attack with everything, he has to tap out to stop the Lancer, and I quake for the win. Game 3 - I get 4 mana fast. He throws down 2 Dwarven Miners, I quake them away and throw down my Nettletooth and an Archer and begin to pound away. I Incinerate away his Emissary using my Archer to finish it off. He tries to fireball away my Nettletooth, but I Giant Growth it and he concedes. 1-0, 2-1 Overall Round 2 - Brendon, Last name missing Maro-Geddon deck with Maro, Bull Elephant, Afterlife, Rangers, and Ivory Gargoyles. Game 1 - He gets down a fast 7/7 to 8/8 Maro that I hold off with a River Boa for a long time. I have a Torch in my hand and need 1 more mana to finish off the Maro. I make a mistake and forget to lay a land one turn slowing me down. The next turn I draw the land that I need and lay down the land I forgot to play. He 'geddons on his turn and I hold off the Maro for a while with my creatures but he winds up winning. Game 2 - I get out fast creatures, he strikes back with a Maro to hold off my attackers. I get out a Nettletooth, he casts Afterlife on it. The next turn I attack with my 1/1 flyer, cast 2 Giant Growth on it and win. Game 3 - I get a Nettletooth, he gets 2 Ivory Gargoyles. 1 turn before I draw the torch that will let me win the game he 'geddons again and I lose. 1-1, 3-3 overall Round 3 - Paul Red-Green a lot like my deck but with Ants. Game 1 - My only green source for the first 10 turns is a Karplusan forest. It deals a ton of damage to me from playing Archers, Boas, and regenerating the Boas to stop his attacks. Brendon Herzog, who won NW Regionals last year, is sitting next to me and looks at my hand of 4 Giant Growths and feels my pain. I finally get a Nettletooth out with my 1st forest around turn 12 but he gets 2 Boa's out to hold off my Nettle. I being to slowly die from the Nettletooth, Brendon looks at my hand again, tells me to pray for any Torch, Quake, or Incinerate which I do but it appears right after I die from the Nettletooth's upkeep. The kid I was playing, he was around 14, obviously did not know his deck well. He had multiple chances to easily win with Ants and Boa's but didn't attack and just didn't seem to play his deck right. Game 2 - I get a nice, fast draw. He gets out a few quick critters but taps out to do so. I throw down an earthquake and get rid of all of them. A Nettletooth next turn finished him off quickly. Game 3 - I get another fast Nettletooth down and begin to beat down once again. I incinerate all the critters he can lay down and finish him off with a 7 point torch. 2-1, 5-4 Overall Round 4 - Brian Wilson Squandered Stasis Game 1 - I see the 2nd turn resources and, noticing his lands, recognize the deck instantly. I attack with as much as I can, Giant Growth a ton, and Incinerate and torch as much as I can as fast as I can. The lock hits fast and I Fireblast him down to 1 but I can't recover from the lock as he has a Sheltered Valley and gains life back. Game 2 - I sideboard in 4 Tranquil Domain and 4 Pyroblast to stop the lock, if I can do that I can win easily I think. I hit him with burn really early and then he tries to lay down the lock. I try to Tranquil Domain away a Resources, Equipose, and Stasis at the end of his turn as he only has 2 of his 4 lands untapped. He counters it, I Pyroblast that, he sacs to lands to counter that, I Pyroblast that again, and he has a Force of Will and keeps it in play. A few turns later I draw another Pyroblast and make a final attempt to kill the stasis but I can't and concede the game to him. 2-2, 5-6 overall At this point I know I am out of it but decide to press on. My friend playing the same deck is at 3-1 at the moment, only losing to a deck that played a first turn Ghazban Ogre followed by an Armor of Thorns next turn. Round 5 - Name Unknown Maro-Geddon with Kaysa, Juniper Order Advocate, and other not that great cards. Game 1 - I get the fast critters, beat his down with flankers and burn, and finish him off with a Torch. Finally, I win a 1st game! Game 2 - A 'geddon and a Sprit Linked-Protection from Green-Elvish Bard kill me off barely. Game 3 - A very good game. We both get quick critters and I pound him down low. He manages to kill my critters, though, and the casts a geddon in an attempt to save himself. I get land faster, play 2 Archers and Boa and torch him for the win. 3-2, 7-7 overall In games 2 and 3, a Pyrokenesis saved me big time twice. I use it along with a torch to pitch and an Incinerate to deal more damage to kill a big Maro along with something small like an elves. Very valuable card against Green Weenie. Round 6 - Alan Epley Necro! Game 1- On his 2nd turn he rituals out a Black Knight and a Fallen Askari. I respond with an Archer. He brings out another knight. I follow with a Lancer. He attacks, I bring out another Lancer. He deals too much, too fast, however, and I fall to a drain life while I pray for an Earthquake and don't get it. Game 2 - I pay a 2nd turn Dervish, he plays 1 land and discards 2 straight turns. He finally gets a critter out, but I have a 5/5 dervish and can quake for the win. Game 3 - I get yet another 2nd turn Dervish and attack with it to grow it up. He gets out 2 knights and a Bad Moon this time and attacks once to get me down to 14 life. The next turn I attack with the Dervish and Giant Growth 3 times for the win, however. 4-2, 9-8 Overall Round 7 - Jason. Green Wintercharge - Weenies with Winter Orbs. Game 1- I don't quake early enough, probably not thinking it through right because of not playing for 9 months. I have to Pyroblast an Archer, losing 2 Mountains to do so to stall him. I get out a Nettletooth but his 2 Scryb Sprites finish me off. Game 2 - Pyrokenesis and Quake destroy his deck. I have 1 critter in my graveyard and he has 4 when I manage to get out a Lhurgoyf. The next turn I play another 5/6 Lhurgoyf and manage to finish him off with a Torch next turn. Game 3 - Much like the previous game, but with 2 Earthquakes and a Pyrokenesis to stall him this game. I get out an 8/9 Lhurgoyf (1 critter in my graveyard, 7 in his) and he has no way to stop it. He is not too happy when I win with it 2 turns later. 5-2, 11-9 Overall Round 8 - Lorna Wong White Weenie with Freewind Falcons, Knights, Crusade, Scars of the Veteran, Death Speakers. I had heard about her deck all day. She had started 5-0 only to lose and tie her next 2 games to drop to 5-1-1. I am not too confident before this match since a friend with a different style r/g deck got killed by her earlier. Game 1 - She gets a quick weenie horde that kills me off. A Freewind falcon manages to do the trick a turn before I could win. After this game Henry Stern, who was watching out game as he felt one of us would make the final 8, tells me that I should always examine all my options before I concede to make sure I don't make a mistake. I know I could not have won, but this still throws me off a little bit making my second guess myself. Game 2 - The might Lhurgoyf wins again! She gets out some quick critters, I quake away 10 critters of hers and mine with a 3 point earthquake then hit with a 10/11 Quake. She puts down some knights to hold him off a turn at a time, but he pounds his way through. Game 3- She only manages to draw 1 land the whole game and can only play 2 Metenda Herders the whole game. She holds me off 1 turn with a scars of the veteran when I try to Incinerate him, but I Pyrokenesis it away and win with 2 Boa's and an Elvish Archer. Crappy way to win but I can't help it. 6-2, 13-10 Overall I finish with 18 points and in 16th place due to an awful opponents match win percentage. My friend using the same deck finished 12th with the same record. 19 points is the cutoff and 1 person with 19 still does not make it. The 2 people who handed me my only losses, Brian and Brendon, finished 4th and 5th and are both going to nationals. For not playing for 9 months and coming in 16th I was happy but I still think I can beat any deck there over 50% of the time. Here are some notes on the tourney - - Earthquake was the card of the day. It gave me a huge card advantage and let me get a huge Lhurgoyf out there to win the games. Only Giant Growth was almost as good. - The top players there (Brian, Brendon Herzog, Mark Justice) were playing Squandered Stasis. Justice went 4-3 and dropped out after trying to stall one match (BethMo made him play and stop stalling) and Brendon dropped out after 7 rounds as well I believe. Brian made it to the semi-finals before losing to a 5 color green deck there. I didn't see the finals so I can't tell you who won. - I played no blue decks and my friends only played 1 the whole day. Guess things were just different up in the Northwest. Overall my deck did better than I thought it would but I think that, if I had not made mistakes or gotten better draws against my 2nd round opponent I would have made the top 8 but I guess I can try again next year. Thanks for reading this whole thing, hope you enjoyed it. - Chris PS - Send me any suggestions you have on my deck, I would love to hear them.