You Lika the Juice? - Regionals Sightseeing, Part 2 (and a Special Request)

Before I continue Sightseeing through Regionals from last week, I wanted to put out a special request to you all. The websites out there are chock full of pro player writers, writing about pro level play, high level strategy, and cracking open the metagame. I enjoy reading this stuff as much as you all, and occasionally I’m inspired to write about my own thoughts on that stuff. On the other end of the spectrum there are some great columns aimed squarely at the casual Magic player, and I’ve certainly been known to write about that stuff too.

Now, there’s no dearth of writers who also play Magic and enjoy cranking out several thousand words on various topics. What about those Magic players who don’t happen to also be writers? How do they get their thoughts and deeds recorded to the Magic Community? If they’re pro players, there’s plenty of opportunity to tap into the Magic Community, whether it’s being interviewed, polled, or hooking up with a well-known writer to collaborate on decks or an article.

But what about non-pro players who don’t have the time or inclination to write 2-3,000 words about a topic and submit it to various sites in the hopes of getting noticed? Or to build up a presence and following on the forums? A large portion of those players are stuck on the receiving end of the Magical communication pipeline.

One thing I’ve tried to do from time to time when I’ve had the opportunity is to shine the spotlight on local level players who’ve done well or had an interesting story to tell, but those times have been infrequent and sporadic, predicated by happy circumstance. I’ve decided to formalize a pipeline to my column for you all out there who’ve got something to say, questions to ask, a concern you may have, or some sort of observation. I’ve set up an email account for that purpose – starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com (just replace the AT and DOT with the appropriate symbols). To kick it off, I’d like to specifically ask for candidates for what I hope to be a recurring feature here; I’m going to call it Spotlight on Hometown Hero. I envision these as local players who go the extra mile for their local Magic scene. If you’ve got a story about someone who you see as a Magic Hometown Hero, send me the details on why you’re nominating him or her, and also send me their email contact information so I can find out more about them.

Even if you don’t have a Hometown Hero you want to tell me about, feel free to use this email address to ask me anything at all. This is your conduit to a regular StarCityGames.com column, so take advantage of it! Bombard my email account – starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Okay, let’s finish off my spotlight on some of the more interesting decks from Regionals.

Detroit, Michigan
Did you know? Detroit was founded by a Frenchman named Antoine de Cadillac in 1701. Henry Ford built his first automobile here. During Prohibition, the notorious “Purple Gang” of Detroit is thought to have killed nearly 500 members of rival bootleggers. One of Detroit’s sister cities is Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Woo-hoo! Steve Rocked the house with Green/Black and won himself an invite to Nationals. Featuring both ultra-hyped creatures in Future Sight Tarmogoyf and Korlash, Heir to Blackblade, a nice discard suite with Augur of Skulls, Cry of Contrition, Stupor, and Smallpox, decent removal in Putrefy and Tendrils of Corruption, graveyard hosing Withered Wretch, and Bob the card drawing machine. Just and all-around solid package of cards that seems particularly good at smashing control and combo, with additional removal in the sideboard to help fight creature decks. Man, if Steve had randomly dropped his decklist in my mailbox the night before Regionals I soooooo would have ran this!

G/B Korlash Pox

Steve Collett

3rd Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (21)

Lands (20)

Spells (19)

Sideboard

Edison, New Jersey
Did you know? The original town name was changed to honor the “Wizard of Menlo Park" Thomas Edison. Christie Street was the first street to use electric lights for illumination. Actresses Susan Sarandon and Brittany Murphy are from Edison.

Okay, I have to admit Jeffrey’s deck drew my eye with his Worships, and I have to assume they were much more helpful to him than they were to me. Chord of Calling was sure to surprise people expecting Project X, especially in conjunction with Saffi Eriksdotter, but it looks more likely the glue that pairs up Saffi with Deadwood Treefolk for a steady stream of creatures. Shapeshifter and Fathom Seer offers up a nice card drawing engine. I can’t help but wonder why not a single Brine Elemental, in the sideboard if nothing else. Perhaps in some ways Jeffrey’s deck was an exercise in misdirection, playing the expectation game and winning by working towards a goal different than what his opponent was expecting. Whatever the case, it was good enough to win an impressive first place.

U/G/w Pickles

Jeffrey Bravstein

1st Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (32)

Lands (22)

Spells (6)

3 Worship
3 Chord of Calling

Sideboard

Hartford, Connecticut
Did you know? Was originally settled by the Dutch at Fort Goede Hoop, a.k.a. “Good Hope,” but was abandoned 30 some years later and eventually settled by the English. After World War II, many residents of Puerto Rico moved to Hartford and today Puerto Rican flags can be found on cars and buildings all over the city. As of 2000, nearly 1/3 of Hartford residences claim Puerto Rican heritage. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) lived here for 20 years.

When I was building my Project X variant I drew a lot from my Green/White/Black Teneb the Harvester deck, and I see a lot of similar stuff in this deck. Saffi and Hierarch combine wonderfully with Magus of the Disk, and I wish I could find a decklist and a metagame where that combination is consistently strong. I wasn’t overly fond of the Glittering Wish version of Project X, but having access to a sideboard toolbox is an obvious boon. One nice touch I really liked was the singleton Shimian Specter, making a resolved end-of-turn Chord of Calling potentially backbreaking against certain decks.

Project X

Jonathan Sharp

6th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (29)

Lands (21)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Houston, Texas
Did you know? Houston was built on land along Buffalo Bayou. Houston’s Johnson Space Center is home to NASA’s Mission Control Center. The Astrodome was the first indoor domes sports stadium. When Hurricane Rita approached the Gulf Coast in 2005 only one month after Hurricane Katrina, approximately 2.5 million residents of the Houston area evacuated, marking the largest urban evacuation in the history of the U.S.

Mmmm, Scryb & Force took an invite down in Houston, taking advantage of Delay as another decent tempo-oriented counter to the lethal combination of early beater plus counter your response. I haven’t seen Voidslimes showing up in decklists (outside of those belonging to my buddy Jay) in a while, so that was nice to see. I also like the Loxodon Warhammers, helping to make even a lowly Elf or Bird into a threat that needs answering. The sideboard looked a little odd, making me go back and check for Summoner’s Pact or Chord of Calling due to the 1-2 copies of cards, but it apparently worked for him. Bravo!

U/G Aggro

William Hale

3rd Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (16)

Lands (20)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

Indianapolis, Indiana
Did you know? Elvis Presley’s last public performance was held here in 1977. Unigov is the name adopted by the city of Indianapolis to describe its consolidated city-county government, adopted in 1970 by act of the Indiana state legislature. Yes, that’s “Unigov.” Indianapolis also currently hosts Gen Con – coming up in August!

Cryptic Annelid is what drew my eye to this decklist. That’s one card with some serious library manipulation action built in! I suppose he comes in quite handy when you’re focusing so heavily on mana disruption as this one; your opponent is bound to have more lands than you do land disruption, so if he stays ahead of you in drawing lands all your hard work can be for naught. Of course, Ancestral Visions and Aeon Chroniclers in the main and the Detritivores in the board can also help keep the relevant cards flowing. So where are the Magnivores? I suppose the Greater Gargadons fills that role more consistently when graveyard hate is as plentiful as it is now.

U/R Gargadon Wildfire

Christopher Murphy

6th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (12)

Lands (20)

Spells (28)

Sideboard

Lincoln, Nebraska
Did you know? Lincoln started out as the village of Lancaster, and changed names after President Lincoln was assassinated. There’s a school there that’s named Pius X; it’s a Catholic school named after a Pope, but isn’t that a bad-ass name for a school? Their mascot is the Pius X Thunderbolts – talk about Wrath of God! Hilary Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, as was the real-life Brandon Teena she played and won an Oscar for in Boys Don’t Cry.

If you’re a deck tinkerer like me, you always have a Red/Black deck cooking on the backburner chock full of Rakdos-powered goodness. Heck, even Mike Flores came damn close to running Red/Black at Regionals, but I think most of our decklists always get sunk by all the nagging what-ifs. What if your opponent runs Worship or some other enchantment we can’t handle? What if your opponent cheats a fast Akroma out there? Steve shrugged off The Fear and went for it, and not only got an invite to Nationals but he got a first place trophy to boot. Well done!

R/B

Steve Locke

1st Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (16)

Lands (22)

Spells (22)

Sideboard

Los Angeles, California
Did you know? The name Los Angeles is shortened from "La Ciudad de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula" (The City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula). I somehow think the city wouldn’t have been quite so successful if it had been shorted to Porciuncula instead. In 1969, Los Angeles was one of two birthplaces of the Internet, as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park.

Mr. Wong took home the trophy and the invite by taking a full boat of Mr. Hype himself, Korlash, Heir to Blackblade, and surrounded it with the blackest, e-vilest bunch cards, with just a whiff of red for Rakdos Guildmage’s other color activation. Four full copies of Tendrils (and a couple Loxodon Warhammers too!) help offset the cost of power that Bob feeds you. Augur of Skulls, Stupor, and Hypnotic Specter disrupts opponents’ hands and then Extirpate takes them all out. One thing that really hit home with the Extirpates I played myself was how handy it was to take a peek at your opponent’s hand too, and in this case is a good way to see whether your opponent has an answer for Korlash before you play him.

Korlash Control

Stephen Wong

1st Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (22)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

Miami, Florida
Did you know? The Miami Circle consists of a perfect circle of 24 holes or basins cut into the limestone bedrock, on a coastal spit of land, surrounded by a large number of other "minor" holes. It is the only known evidence of a permanent structure cut into the bedrock in the United States, and considerably predates other known permanent settlements on the East Coast. It is believed to be up to 2,000 years old.

So, take an Angelfire base, and most all of the goodies that come with it, but trim just enough to squeeze in the wacky infinite combo of Djinn Illuminatus, Pact of the Titan, and Angel’s Grace and you’ve got infinite 4/4 giant token madness to get you within spitting distance of a Nationals qualification! With five Signets and a couple Karoo lands, plus a good amount of card drawing, ramping up mana enough to get Illuminatus online isn’t unreasonable, and even without the combo, the Djinn’s replicate ability is just fun to use on other spells like Compulsive Research and Lightning Helix. You can even be tricky with your Remand to effectively give it buyback – now that’s some kind of annoying to fight through!

Angelfire Illuminatus

Andrew Calderon

5th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (10)

Lands (23)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Did you know? Bob Dylan first started performing in coffee houses in and around the University of Minnesota here. The artist formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince also hails from here. Dr. Jean Felix Piccard was a Swiss-born American scientist and high-altitude balloonist who lived in Minneapolis and was the nominal inspiration for Gene Roddenberry’s Capt. Jean-Luc Picard character for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

So Minneapolis’ Top 8 included Dragonstorm, Dredge combo, Stormy Plans, Project X times two, Chapin Korlash, and a mono-Black Rack deck, all of them fairly standard stock builds. I’m not overly fond of the Urzatron archetype, but I have to give props to Michael Pederson’s Three Color Urzatron build. Over half of the deck is mana, including the Urzatron, but he’s certainly got plenty of uses for all that mana – Urza’s Factory, Aeon Chronicler, Detritivore, Demonfire, and Spell Burst. Clutch of the Undercity and Mystical Teachings fetches up many of the silver bullets, and while it seems overall to be slow developing, three Damnations help punish the overly aggressive. If I were to actually sleeve up an Urzatron this summer, it just might look like this one.

Go-Sis Tron

Michael Pederson

7th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (5)

Lands (25)

Spells (30)

Sideboard

Orlando, Florida
Did you know? Pioneer settlers in the area saw the name “Orlando Reeves” carved into a tree and assumed it was a grave marker for a soldier killed during the war against the Seminole Indians, and began referring to the area as “Orlando’s Grave.” The name actually referred to a gentleman who owned a sugar mill and plantation about 30 miles north. Isn’t it wild how misunderstandings often get codified by the tides of history? Oh, and you can also blame Orlando for the evil Disney Empire, Britney Spears, NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys. At least they named their pro basketball team after our lovely game!

Matt’s G/W toolbox Glare is sure to make my esteemed editor grin, and it’s got more bases covered than… well, insert some butchered baseball analogy here. I tend to like covering lots of bases because I hate being unable to answer something my opponent may play. I also love Saffi Eriksdotter, and Matt plays seven copies of the sexiest Lhurgoyf bait around!! Okay, okay – I imagine he rarely went and fetched Saffi with his Wishes with such juicy targets as Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (hel-lo Dragonstorm!!), Teferi’s Moat (hel-lo Dredge!!), and Glare of Subdual (hel-lo aggro!!). Fiery Justice is an interesting one-of, and Matt goes so far as to include Stomping Grounds specifically for that one card. And late game you can’t beat Debtors’ Knell to start bringing the noise. I’d definitely love giving this deck a whirl.

4-Color Control

Matt Gosche

8th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (27)

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Did you know? Benjamin Franklin helped found the nation’s first hospital here. The city’s climate is considered humid subtropical, and is the country’s northern-most city with that designation. The city is well known for its hoagies, soft pretzels, and is home to the cheesesteak.

Who knew that Philadelphia was Sliver Country, with two heavy-slivered decks muscling into the Top 8, with one taking home the championship trophy? Four each of Sinew Sliver, Cautery Sliver, and Sedge Sliver makes for a solid core of creatures that get pretty darn fierce when you get 2 or 3 different ones in play. The deck is pretty much a three-color good stuff deck, with nary a “bad” or simply synergistic card to be found – Dark Confidant, Castigate, Savannah Lions, Demonfire, Lightning Helix, all just high quality cards.

Sliver Aggro

Frederick Chang

1st Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (23)

Lands (23)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Did you know? The city was named after named after British Secretary of State William Pitt the Elder back in the mid-1700s. Pittsburgh is one of the few American cities to be spelled with an “h” at the end of a “burg” suffix. For this reason, it is also the most commonly misspelled city in America. Residents of the city are called Pittsburghers, and their fair home was ranked "the most livable city in the United States" in 2007 by the Places Rated Almanac. The local word for "y’all," is “yinz.” George Romero, Andy Warhol, and Charles Bronson hail from this area.

Mr. Ripple took a rather stock build of mono-Black Rack, complete with the awesome Augur of Skulls, but then splashed a little Green for the awesome Tarmogoyf and a couple Calls of the Herd. So where’s his Svogthos, the Restless Tombs? I suppose it’s hard to argue with his 2nd place finish…

The Rack

Chris Ripple

2nd Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (18)

Lands (22)

Spells (20)

Sideboard

I also wanted to mention Justin Ramano’s nifty 4th place deck – a Blink-riders variant without the Red Avalanche Riders in the maindeck (there is one in the sideboard), but instead utilizing Chord of Calling to access a maindeck toolbox, and Cloudstone Curios to supplement the Momentary Blinks. Man, that’s a lot of bouncing in and out of play!

Snake Blink

Justin Ramano

4th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (22)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

Portland, Oregon
Did you know? One of the founders named the city after his hometown of Portland, Maine. Portland apparently has a climate ideal for growing roses and microbreweries. Portland is also home to the “Shanghai Tunnels,” a group of underground passages connecting hotel and bar basements to the Willamette River waterfront. During the end of the 19th century, up to 1,500 people a year were kidnapped out of Portland through these tunnels and sold as slaves to waiting ships. Matt Groening hails from Portland. D’OH!!

Aaron’s 3rd place deck is chock full of Orzhov goodness, including the hard to kill Ghost Council of Orzhova, but adding the recent synergy of Calciderm and Stonecloaker. I like how Stonecloaker not only resets Calciderm to come down and apply some more beats, but I also like how it can reuse Shrieking Grotesque. The one random Tombstalker in the sideboard strikes me as a bit odd in a deck that runs Dark Confidant – does he board out the Bobs and bring in the Stalker? Or is it in there as a bone to toss to Ben Bleiweiss and BDM?

Suicide Squad

Aaron Harleman

3rd Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (24)

Lands (23)

Spells (13)

Sideboard

Salt Lake City, Utah
Did you know? The Mormon’s Family History Library is the world’s largest genealogical library. Dan Brown, the author of The DaVinci Code, was in the city recently studying the symbols on the Salt Lake LDS Temple and the Masonic Temple, among other historical buildings, for inclusion in an upcoming book.

One thing I’ve noticed in the recent metagame is the remarkable lack of Sulfur Elementals running around in maindecks (and many sideboards are even surprisingly void of the once omnipresent split second flasher). Sulfur Elemental was made to prey on annoying Martyr of Sands and Proclamation of Rebirth combos that R&D’s Future Future League produced, and without Sulfur Elemental in the mix, Mr. Sittner in Salt Lake City broke into the Top 8 with that same life-gaining crazy combo. Gaining tons of life, “fogging” with Dawn Charm, preventing damage with Cover of Winter, all that stuff makes it an incredibly hard slog through to win on damage. Meanwhile, Sittner’s deck goes for the alternate win of decking with Howling Mine, Jester’s Scepter, and Jester’s Cap, with Academy Ruins to reuse them when needed. Oh, check out the Porphyry Nodes in the sideboard!

Snow White

Jeff Sittner

6th Place at Regionals on 06-10-2007

Standard

Creatures (8)

Lands (22)

Spells (30)

Sideboard

Okay, whew that was quite a haul! I know this isn’t all the U.S. Regionals, but it’s all that was posted when I began this project. Don’t forget to drop me a line (starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com) for your Hometown Heroes, or just to say hello. Join me next week as I jump into a cool new casual online format!

Until next week,

Bennie