I suppose, after States, Regionals is my favorite tournament to play in. I’ve never failed to do well at these tournaments, they’ve always been a big ratings boost, I enjoy the events tremendously and they’ve been some of my closest calls in finally getting that brass ring I’ve lusted after lo these many years.
Regionals would be my first big tournament after Grand Prix: Seattle…and the reason you didn’t read the tournament report for that was, well, uh…I scrubbed out.
Badly.
Really badly.
The only thing I got out of that experience was this little ditty.
The problem is all inside your head, you see,
So many decks to play, you must choose wisely,
I’d like to help you in your trouble to decide,
There’s fifty ways to kill your rating.
You make the wrong block, Brock,
Choose the wrong play, Trey,
Cast the wrong spell, Del
And the game is lost,
You pick the wrong deck, Chet
And kiss your rating goodbye.
I’m waiting for the royalties to start rolling in, but according to my lawyer, there are apparently some copyright issues that I was unaware of.
After my horrendous play at the Grand Prix, I re-dedicated myself to Standard and Regionals and started testing as much as possible. Early on, as those who have been reading my stuff for the past three months know of my love of all things Forest-y, and I was homing in on some flavor of mono/mostly-Green aggro to play.
So which Green build did I end up going with?
Uh, yeah, about that… It’s like this, see: I had a really tight, really strong version of MGA to bring. Then Jamie Wakefield had to go and publish Joshie Green, and that blew everything out of the water.
I immediately threw it into my testing gauntlet and found myself in the grip of The Fear. MGA – my build, at least – couldn’t beat it. I kept tweaking, fiddling and modifying MGA, but to no avail – this was the No Win Matchup.
This presented a horrible dilemma. Here you had a deck could beat both Tooth and Nail and MGA – my top two decks in the format (you may disagree, but I put them at the top). So what the heck do I do now?
I have a friend, Chris Fox, who is an ardent follower of the teachings of Sts. Price and Paskins, and we frequently have discussions prior to big tournaments that can basically be summed up as follows:
Me: “I’m playing deck X.”
Chris: “Don’t be an idiot. Play Red.”
Me: “I like deck X. It has great potential.”
Chris: “Dude, Red decks just win.”
Me: “You are correct. I should play Red.”
Chris: “Told you so.”
Of the three flavors of Red out there – Ponza, Medium Red and Flores Red, I liked Flores’ build the best… it was consistent, resilient, and, by God, what’s more fun than consistently snatching victory from the jaws of defeat with Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] and Shrapnel Blast?
I made some adjustments to Flores’ build and went with this.
20 Mountain
4
“>Blinkmoth Nexus
4
“>Magma Jet
4
“>Shrapnel Blast
4
“>Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3
“>Beacon of Destruction
4 Solemn Simulacrum (a.k.a. “Fatbot” or “Strong Sad”)
4
“>Arc-Slogger
4
“>Sensei’s Divining Top
4
“>Wayfarer’s Bauble
3
“>Flamebreak
2 Shatter
Sideboard:
3
“>Defense Grid
3
“>Unforge
3
“>Oblivion Stone
4
“>Molten Rain
2 Sowing Salt
Flores’s original main deck was filled out with five land destruction spells; four Molten Rain and one Sowing Salt. Expecting a field of heavy Green, I took out the land destruction and went with maindeck Flamebreaks, Troll killer extraordinaire, which proved to be very valuable against most of what MGA wanted to throw at me.
That left two slots. I played around with Hidetsugu’s Second Rite, and when people weren’t expecting it, it was an awesome card. Unfortunately, once you lose the surprise factor, the Second Rite can easily be played around, either via mana burn or, in a few games I tested against, self-immolation with a Shock or Magma Jet.
So I switched to Goblin Charbelcher, which also proved to be a versatile source of extra burn. But, as I also discovered, the deck doesn’t need any additional burn, and it felt too much like a “win more” card.
At the last minute, I decided to put in two Shatter, believing their versatility would prove useful against the many artifact-centric decks I expected.
As for the sideboard: Defense Grid was, in my opinion, the best defense against MUC. I wasn’t to sure about it, since, as I noted to Chris, it basically turns all your instants into sorceries. Chris responded with “So?” True. Counterspells are crummy sorceries, and the Grid can’t be targeted with Spectral Shift, whereas Boil and Genju of the Spires can, and the Boseiju/Fireball lock is disrupted by another Boseiju or Shifting Borders.
Of course, I never ran into a MUC deck all day.
Oblivion Stone made the cut for those occasional you run into something you just otherwise had no answer for: Blanchwood Armor, Worship, Circle of Protection: Red, a swarm of Insect tokens, etc.
Molten Rain and Sowing Salt were there for Tooth and Nail, but Molten Rain is also good for the mirror at taking out Blinkmoth Nexii.
As for Unforge…
BDM thought of the Unforges in the sideboard and they have been nothing short of brutal. Every time a Troll dies to one I am overjoyed, but it is almost more fun to make them stare at a Sword and a Birds and decide to say go. That’s the best.
Seth Burn, But, Really, Who Forestwalks?, 6/22/05
You do have Hearth Kami to help out against equipment heavy decks, but if, indeed, equipment-heavy decks come to the fore, I’d suggest adding a Shatter or two (Demolish is too slow) or – call me crazy; you wouldn’t be the first – Unforge to combat these decks.
Yours truly, Mono-Red in the New Standard, 4/8/05
I just mention this as proof that I am not crazy. A little off, maybe, but crazy? No.
For the tournament, figuring I need all the good juju I can get, I bedecked myself in various good luck charms and talismans.
Favorite cheesy Hawaiian shirt? Check?
Trogdor the Burninator T-shirt? Check?
Lucky boxer shorts? Check.
Aside the first:
There’s Magic hats, T-shirts, jackets, etc. – why not underwear? Think of the possibilities?
“Why, yes, I do have a Giant Growth in my pants.”
“Wanna see my Rod of Ruin?”
“That’s not my Bone Flute, but please, don’t stop Twiddling.”
I have dozens more, but I don’t think the editors will let me get away with any more.
End Aside
In lieu of any good road trip anecdotes, let’s saddle up, space ponies!
Round 1: Tony Neboff (Kodama A-Go-Go)
Tony appears to be about thirteen years old and is running what appears to be a KBC mono-Green deck, complete with both Kodamas of the North and South variety. I would go out on a limb and deduce that this is his first Regionals.
I make a mental note to not to fall victim to one of my greatest flaws as a Magic player: underestimating my opponent. I remember one tournament where I was playing a nine-year-old player, and I started getting sloppy and careless and the next thing you know, my rating took a 30-point hit.
I lose the coin flip and end up mulliganing into a less than impressive one land hand, but I have a Top, and since I’m on the draw, I keep, and am rewarding with three straight land off the top. Hooray for high mana counts.
Tony lays a Child of Thorns and Kami of the Hunt in short order, unfortunately, they meet Mr. Flamebreak, and he’s a bit of a hothead. Tony is able to rebuild fairly quickly via Jukai of Elder Pine and start beating me down, however, as anyone who has played Flores Red can attest, you like getting beat down, as the re-usable Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] is one of the most potent and scary weapons in your arsenal. Sure enough, he swings with his army to knock me to four, I respond with a Pulse and Beacon at EOT, untap, and Pulse twice for the win.
I know Flores has stated that you only hope to get one extra use out of the Pulse, but I found that I had considerable success stretching a single Pulse, as you’ll discover should you choose to read on – I promise a shocking plot twist.
Sideboarding: -2 Shatter, -1 Beacon of Destruction, +3 Oblivion Stone
Game two sees me take another trip to the mulligan man into a dreamy draw of turn 2 Wayfarer’s Bauble, turn 3 Fatbot, turn 4 Slogger. Unfortunately, I’m forced to burn twenty cards on an Elder Pine of Jukai before he started going nuts on me, while Tony drops a Kodama of the North Tree and two South Trees on me – criminy, I’ve got a lumber yard on my tail. All is fine, however, as I chump for a while, fall to three, then finish him off with a quadruple Pulse.
Ha ha ha! Trogdor strikes again!
Speaking of Trogdor, I wasn’t the only person wearing a Trogdor T-shirt at the event, and we were much complimented for our choices in outerwear. That was nothing, however, compared to the guy with Trogdor tattooed on his leg.
I can safely speak for Strong Bad when I say “Whoa! That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!”
Round 2: Steven Kerrigan (Ninja Rats)
Steven gets a deck check and we make idle chitchat while the judges – whom I notice are taking an unusually long time – make sure all is correct. Turns out it isn’t. Steven erroneously listed his Distresses as Dismisses, and for that error, he is given a game loss and has to replace the offending cards with Swamps. It takes him a few minutes to track them down, but I am a patient and understanding fellow; besides, I’m playing Red – win or lose, I’ll have plenty of time between rounds to get something caffeinated.
I open game two with a mulligan (criminy, I’m running a 24-land deck, what is the deal here?) and get another one land, Top special. Again, since I’m on the draw, I keep, and am forced to spend my second turn searching for a second land – and, of course, being the good Magic player I am, forget to put the cards in the proper order…I still get the land, but forget to get the second land in the right order. Steven drops a Ravenous Rats and a Skull Collector, but I have a Magma Jet handy to make sure the Collector’s drawback is just that.
I’m happy to sit back hoarding burn spells while Steven replays the Skull Collector and a Chittering Rats; this time, I have a Flamebreak available to do in “Skully” once and for all. A second attempt at mounting an offense meets Flamebreak #2. Out of gas, I draw into a Beacon and Arc-Slogger to finish the game.
Round 3: Sameer Merchant (MGA)
Now business is picking up. Sameer is the reigning Regionals champion, having piloted the innovative Elf & Nail deck to an undefeated mark last year. I finally get an opening draw with land, and that’s about it, also containing a Bauble, Flamebreak and two Tops. Weird, but I decide to keep, especially since I know beforehand he’s running a Troll-centric deck and I have the nut high in Troll removal spells.
Sameer starts with a Rushwood Dryad (the vaunted Dave tech is everywhere) and Viridian Zealot. I hold back on using my Flamebreak, trying to trap him into overcommitting, but as those of us who play poker know, sometimes you end up trapping yourself. I trade a Blinkmoth Nexus for a Zealot, which he then sacks to kill my Top – I let it go and cast my next one. I pass the turn, and Sameer casts Blanchwood Armor on his Dryad, then keeps me from getting to my burn with back-to-back Plow Unders.
Had I cast Flamebreak to get two for one, I might have taken that game, but I got greedy and it cost me.
Sideboarding: -2 Shatter, -2 Shrapnel Blast, -2 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Unforge.
This was definitely the wrong way to sideboard. I should have taken out all of one or the other, not split the difference, however, I never saw the O-Stones or Unforges, so the point is perhaps moot.
Game two sees Sameer mulligan twice down to five – never a good thing – but he draws gets two Troll Ascetics into play to chump block, although he’s stuck on three lands. I have Flamebreaks handy for both Trolls and an Arc-Slogger goes the distance.
Game three was tight, tough and intense, and I had Sameer sweating like a fat man at a Cajun all-you-can-eat restaurant.
He is again mana-screwed, stuck on two lands for a few turns with his only play being a Dryad. I don’t have much pressure but a more than happy to keep dropping Baubles and Fatbots. Sameer drops a Jitte; I burn out the Dryad. Then a Troll comes down, and I’m not happy. Sameer enchants the Troll with Blanchwood Armor – still stuck on three land – and I’m even less happy. I can’t find any business spells; and just keep dropping lands.
I draw a Beacon and Arc-Slogger and get the 4/5 fatty into play with all due haste, but Sameer has been able to Jitte up a Troll. He swings with both, tapped out, and I gang block the non-Equipped Troll with two Simulacrums and a Nexus, which Sameer immediately decrees a mistake, but in retrospect, the mistake may have been mine, trading three creatures for one.
The game is essentially decided with my next decision. I have an Arc-Slogger in play, facing down an invincible Troll, three cards in hand (a Beacon and two lands), no other permanents in play save a Bauble and nine lands, and 41 cards in my library. My options are a) hope I topdeck an answer to the Jitte – six cards out of 40 – or b) see if I can steal the game by reducing my library to zero cards and winning with a recursive Beacon I can cast for ten damage a turn. This plan works if Sameer doesn’t draw any kind of business spell and remains mana screwed, but if I give Sameer time to draw another land or two, I know he’ll put the game out of reach extremely quickly.
I go for Door #2.
Unfortunately, the plan didn’t work. If I had a Pulse in hand, there’s a good chance I might have done it, or if Sameer had made a mistake, but his play was flawless from there on, and he never gave me the opening I needed. I am able to double Beacon him to low life totals, but he finds a Beacon of Creation to chump with and keep getting tokens on his Jitte.
If I had been a little more aggressive with the Nexii in the early game, perhaps, or not chumped that second Troll, I might have been able to burn him out. Still, those were fun, intense games, and a pleasure to play. At least (I hope) Sameer will be good for my tiebreakers.
Round 4: Christian Oliveros (White Weenie)
This is the challenge round – packs for everyone!
Christian is running an odd White weenie build (which I learn later), running no equipment but both Pithing Needle and Damping Matrix main. I think that’s a definition of “overkill.”
I can’t win a die roll to save my life, and Christian gets about the best start you can with a one-land hand, dropping two Savannah Lions and Isamaru, Hound of Konda, while I have land, land, nothing but land – but there’s a Top, thank goodness, to get me to my Arc-Slogger who eats my library to clear the board, and with a Shrapnel Blast backup, ends up being the difference.
Sideboarding: -2 Shatter, -1 Beacon of Destruction, +3 Unforge (obviously a mistake, but who plays White weenie without Equipment?)
Going first, Christian drops a Pithing Needle, naming Arc-Slogger. Well, that’s annoying, but I have an Oblivion Stone which will take care of that problem, but then I see the Damping Matrix overkill strategy.
Double bother.
Still, a turn 4 Arc-Slogger is a 4/5 fatty that is not to be scoffed at, but I’m soon looking at a 4/4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain, courtesy of double Glorious Anthem. I swing and forget about this little thing called bushido, and am forced to expend a Shrapnel Blast to save Sloggy.
After that, it’s just burn up the wazoo, with triple Pulses carrying the day, as Christian never sees another creature.
Trogdor strikes again!
Aside the Second:
The first “I” in “Pithing” is a short I, not long – it’s “pih-thing,” not “pie-thing.” This will be your only warning from Dave the Spelling & Pronunciation Nazi.
Round 5: Jeremiah Hobbs (Medium Red)
This matchup worries me a little, as Flores Red is both a little short on cheap, kill-your-2/2 burn spells and likes to get a lot of land into play, so Zo-Zu the Punisher is not the favorite card you want to see across the table from you. Flamebreak was added to the deck in part with Zo-Zu in mind, since Medium Red doesn’t run much in the way of beefy creatures.
The first game is far too close for my liking. Jeremiah opens with a Pyrite Spellbomb and Blinkmoth Nexus, I am content to play lands and hoard spells while he dinks me for a few points. When I draw a Shatter and decide to destroy his attacking Nexus, it gets fed to a Shrapnel Blast, and suddenly my life is getting a bit low for my tastes. I drop an Arc-Slogger and pass the turn.
Jeremiah draw a second card, throws his Pyrite Spellbomb at me and then Shrapnel Blasts a Mox to put me at one, which is never where you want to be against another Red deck.
I swing with the Slogger to take Jeremiah to 11. He has one turn to draw an out. He draws, looks – good poker face, too – and passes the turn. I then win with repeated Slogger activations and a Beacon of Destruction. The Chrome Mox he drew didn’t help him much.
Sideboarding: In all honesty, I don’t remember. I think I brought in Molten Rain for his Nexii but that’s about it.
The second game, Jeremiah makes a few play mistakes, such as imprinting a Chrome Mox with Shrapnel Blast on the first turn-but having no other turn 1 play. Inwardly, I pump the fist, seeing no Slith Firewalker. Later on, Jeremiah confesses to wanting that Blast back, but them’s the breaks.
I don’t draw any creatures but I do draw three of my four Pulses, and I deal all 20 damage to him that way.
What do we say when we win with quintuple Pulses?
Trogdor strikes again!
Good thing I didn’t draw any critters, as Jeremiah shows me a hand with Grab the Reins in it. Now that would have been painful.
Past the halfway point, I’m sitting pretty good at 4-1, with my only loss being to the defending Regionals champion, and I’ve only had a couple of really close games, as the deck has, so far, been dominating.
I allow myself to consider the possibility that I might actually make Top 8 if I can keep this up.
And that presents an unforeseen problem.
Next installment: More thrills! More chills! And many ills!
Can Dave keep winning and crack that vaunted Top 8?
Will he finally run into any of the decks that scared him out of playing MGA?
And what was the controversy surrounding the play-in games for the four Nationals slots?
Tune in next time, same Dave time, same Dave station, to find out!