Chicago Regionals 2008!

What up fools? Well, Regionals 2008 is now behind us. And what fun it was! I was planning on doing some sort of exhaustive tourney report, but then I would need to explain why I went 4-4-1. Instead I will just lay it out for you; I don't normally play Standard, I play tested for about a total of four hours prior to showing up, and most all, I am bad at Magics. There you go.



Let's start with some photos. I hear people love the multimediaz. Thanks to Captain Bondage Goth for the ride down and the help taking these pics.

It's me, TooSarcastic, smiling gaily as I flaunt one of the pretty Faeries that will soon be merrily prancing into the red zone. Uh, actually I think that's a Mutavault.

Tabasco Tony here.

He piloted G/B Elves to a winning record, I believe. More about Hot Sauce and his Garruk exploits later.

The Captain.

Apparently he plays Limited, Vintage, AND Standard. Don't even get me started about the man's EDH decks.

Pseudonymous Drama Student. He played an awesome Zur deck that fetched all sorts of silver bullet enchantments. Rogue, I tells ya, rogue!

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A Milwaukee native did actually make it in to Top 8. Harry Potter, young wizard and student at an all boys high school (Ha!) slid into 8th place playing G/B Elves to an astounding record of 7-1-1. Good form! He tweaked the maindeck to include the full quad of Garruks, going down to 3x Chameleon Colossus, and also chose basic Swamp over the fancier Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. There were definitely more Elves running around than at PT Hollywood. I don't know if he anticipated more mirror matches instead of Faerie matchups, but I think both changes helped him, since Garruk is a dog to the Fae, but is quite nice in the mirror. Maybe our young friend also got some advantage from his opponent's Urborgs while avoiding the dreaded "Wasteland your Legendary land" moment, I don't know. I'd like to have seen his sideboard, but didn't get the chance. I don't know if he got the Nationals Invite (it was very late and The Captain, Tabasco and I couldn't stay to watch the rubber match). Wizard's site doesn't yet say, and neither does the Pastimes website. If someone knows of young Potter's fate, comment.

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Here's the quick and dirty of my less-than-glamorous Regionals. I promise I'll make it as painless as possible.

Round 1: Quick n' Toast. Draw. He played very slowly, and was nervous, but I saw soooo many Kitchen Finks and Firespouts. I hear they aren't good for little blue men.

Round 2: R/G Big Mana. He is also super slow (and I am not a fast player either) and I get game three on turn five after time is called. More Firespouts/Finks!

Round 3: Reveilark combo, sort of. Got there in two games. He did play a Red Akroma against me in game 2. That was scary, because I didn't have Terror in hand. He swung, I flashed in a Scion of Oona and blocked with three black Bitterblossom tokens. He didn't have the removal for my Scion, but he did pump his Akroma to 10/6, so I took 4, but got rid of the angry Angel. Let's say I didn't expect to be playing against THAT card this weekend.

Round 4: Faeries. I lose 0-2. I did not test the mirror matchup and played like ass in both games, but really the games were over turn 2. The first game I ran out a turn two Bitterblossom on the draw- right into his Rune Snag. Genius. And game 2 I play first, end up ripping an Ancestral Vision off the top turn 2, and suspend it instead of leaving Rune Snag mana up. Yep, his turn 2= Bitterblossom. GG.

Round 5: G/B Elves. Got there in 3, mostly because I drew 4 Damnations total between the post sideboard games.

Round 6: Zvi's Deus of Calamity G/R deck. I go on tilt from here on out. Although I'm not sure what exactly I am supposed to do about turn 2 Magus of the Moon. It's bad news when you die before your turn 1 Ancestral Visions unsuspends. She plays turn 1 Llanowar Elves, turn 2 Magus, turn 3 Chameleon Colossus, turn 4 Chameleon Colossus, turn 5 kill me. Game 2 I should have sided in Damnations instead of Thoughtseize. I didn't. I lost, even though I forced the Magus of the Moon to get discarded turn one, because Deus + Countryside Crusher = better than my Razormane Masticore.

Round 7: G/B Elves. Lost in 2. I didn't draw Damnation post-board.

Round 8: G/B Elves. Lost in 2. This build was bizarre, with Wolf Skull Shamans. I should have gotten this one, but I made many mistakes because I am bad at Magic.

Round 9: I played a small child with what looked like a Block Constructed Kithkin deck. I don't know what's worse, beating up on a kid, or losing to one. I got there, 2-0. Woo Hoo, I guess.



I should have dropped at 3-2-1. But single elim drafts are so pricey, and nobody wanted to EDH. I guess I could have done coverage.

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MORE PICS!

Tabasco plays a G/W Elves deck. He literally spent six consecutive turns making a Beast token with Garruk to chump a Chameleon Colossus trying kill his planeswalker.

Here we see him about to win, with two Beast tokens, a Shriekmaw, Tarmogoyf and Garruk, still with one counter remaining. Tabasco used his Manlands to chump through the midgame until he out-drew his opponent late.

I don't know why I took so many pictures of Hot Sauce. Here he is facing an underage WI resident (who may not want to be named, I don't know), who is piloting Faeries. I think Faeries got there, but I don't know for certain.

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My best play of the tournament: Round 2 I found myself in the draw bracket against an opponent who needed to read all my cards. We went to time, after which a bunch of his friends came over to watch. Finally a judge arrives as well. I was at 12 with two Bitterblossoms and three tokens in play. He was at 20 life, with some Elves in play. This is how it goes down:

Turn 0: On his upkeep I cast Mistbind Clique as time is called. He thinks for a long time, taps his land and says, "You got it." I champion a token. He draws his cards and passes.

Turn 1: My turn I beat with the Clique and two Bitterblossom tokens. He goes to 14.

Turn 2: On his upkeep, I cast Mistbind Clique, champion another token, and his friends groan. He thinks, swears, and then taps his lands. He draws his card and passes turn.

Turn 3: My turn I beat with both Cliques and three Bitterblossom tokens. He goes to 3.

Turn 4: On his upkeep, I stop him and say, "Hold on." He shouts "Fucking A!" and his friends yell profanities. Then I say, "Dude, I was just fucking with you. I don't have the third Clique. Go to draw step?" That got a laugh from everyone, even the judge. Yeah, I got the win on turn 5, but just watching him freak out at the thought of getting Timewalked for all his extra turns was the best thing that happened all day. He was a good sport, I probably would have been pissed off.

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I got some good photos of Asshole Jason, who played a R/B token deck with Gargadon and Nantuko Husk, but I don't know if he would want me posting his mug online, so I won't. I'll leave you with a Magic: The Puzzling type situation. Asshole Jason's opponent is playing some kind of mono-black deck. This photo is shot from the opponent's perspective.

Yes those two lands facing the camera are Leechridden Swamps. The opponent also has a Bitterblossom, one token, one Demigod of Revenge (tapped, attacking) and six Snow-Covered Swamps. As you can see, he has only one card in hand. Now to Jason's side. He has two Faerie Macabre, two Kobold tokens, his own (shiny!) Demigod of Revenge, three Swamps, a Mountain, a Sulphurous Spring, and an untapped Kher Keep. If you squint you can see the life totals- Jason 4, his opponent 15. Jason's graveyard has; 2x Greater Gargadon, 2x Mogg War Marshal, a Mutavault, a Makeshift Mannequin, and a Nantuko Husk. Assume Jason has no hand. How does he win the game before those Leechridden Swamps kill him? I'll give you some space.

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Still no? That's because he fucking lost, suckers!

Ha!

T

Time for Regionals

I hope you all rip it up at Regionals. I will be there Vindicating things and maybe keeping tabs on one or two matches. I am gonna go out on a limb and say 2 Faeries, one GB midrange and one RG Aggro will get the slots. Not that it matters since I will be going to Nats to do sides and hang out anyway. I have to go pack because I am going down to suburban Chicago tonight.

Ta ta

A Miss Mosh of Topics

Lots of diverse topics to write about tonight; I'll get right going.

Cube Draft!
To expand or not to expand? That is the question. I have had a few votes in favor and one "meh" (who stated that he actually enjoyed culling the weakest Cube cards from the cardboard herd). I am sorta kinda against it, but not in any real substantive way. My only arguments are that 1) The completist in me loves to know that we will have a full pool of awesome cards when we have an 8 man Cube draft, and 2) The elitist in me likes knowing that only the very most powerful 360 cards are deemed worthy of such an honor. Changing the number upward is fine, most notably if it gets people engaged in the Cube process again, which has been lacking since the increase in the number of expert level expansion releases this year. Also, I need to actually bring it along to Magic nights. And then there's EDH to blame too. God damnnit is EDH fun. It just wrecks other formats. But I digress! Here are questions that need answering if we want to expand ze Kube.
1) How do we decide the number of cards to add to the Cube?
We can do arbitrary, i.e. 100, or another 360 (not recommended, super duper power level drop off alert), or 140 (because that's the number that after much deliberation we estimate will provide the most delicious add-ins without a significant power drop off); OR we can just start tossing in good cards until we have a consensus moment when we say "stop." This would be something like, "Well, Armored Ascension is good enough but we need to draw the line at Silkbind Faerie." Or something like that. I would argue for some iteration of the former, not the latter, lest mass chaos erupt.
2) How do we decide which CARDS to add to the Cube?
Sounds kind of "obv" worthy, right? But the biggest argument for increasing Cube size has come because of the large amount of rad ass uncommons of Shadowmoor. True, there are many awesome potential includes in Shadowmoor, but we have also cut dozens of cards prior to this. Are those rejects now getting a new lease on Cube life? What about cards that were in other Cube lists that we rejected during building? Are they now too in the running? I guess my point is that thousands of cards may be competing for a scant 100 or so slots. Are we up to the challenge? Or will we provide some guidelines going in, like new cards have priority, or that we are only adding Shadowmoor cards? I really do come down egalitarian side of every card having an equal chance here. If we are expanding the Cube then all those mint Shadowmoor cards should have to compete with the dusty also-rans of yore. The Cube is about distilled power level, whatever else it is about. Adding cards is one thing, but not allowing all cards consideration for entry is ageist. Yeah I went there.

Regionals!
I will apparently be there! I have not tested at all, but might try to do so Wednesday eve. I am running the consensus "best deck" (duhr Faeries, duhr) because let's face it; me+ type 2 + no testing = Hope to be Lucksack McGee or 0-2 drop and EDH. I am leaning to the latter more than the former, but at least Faeries can just win sometimes. Here is a list of cards I need, should you be so kind to loan them.

1x Faerie Conclave
1x Underground River
1x Mutavault
2x Pendelhaven
3x Razormane Masticore
3x Thoughtseize
3x Ancestral Vision

And any sideboard/maindeck tech against Chameleon Colossus/Squall Line/Cloudthresher, and/or Kitchen Finks, because they all scare the hell out of me. Makes me want to play more counterspells out of the board or something. Lookit me, all pretending to know about Standard and shit!

Big Changes with Shards of Alara!
I am still processing this, but off the cuff it seems like having what amounts to super-duper rares is not an idea I can really support. I already spend way more money on this stupid hobby than I should. The realization that no one really learns the game through the Core Set seems like an open secret finally being publicly acknowledged. How many people watching a Magic game for the first time see people playing Xth edition cards? And we know that's how newbs learn, from watching non-newbs play. I personally am happy to see the number of cards printed per year go down. Learning Limited formats takes time, and I feel like I never really got enough play out of Lor/Lor/Mor draft before the switch. I KNOW I won't have drafted trips Shadowmoor more than 15 times before the new rotation, mostly because of new time constraints on my part. I guess the real problem here is the Wizards needs to give us more time between set releases, not fewer cards per release. Yes Rav/Guild/Diss was boring by the end, but at least we had time to "figure out" the format. And that was a format that turned out to really give players a lot of enjoyment for doing so. Now only the super die-hard drafters are going to "get" the current format before it rotates. You hear that? I'm not enough of a Limited player to keep up anymore! What the hell is this world coming to?


Geekerus Miscellaneous!
Fans of Wizards of the Coast and their business interests should note that Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition will be in stores this weekend. Wizards is a crafty company, and have recruited several behemoths of webcomicry to inaugurate this occasion. Penny-Arcade's Gabe and Tycho (or Jerry and Mike) and PVP's Scott Kurtz have agreed to do an adventure DMed by a Wizards employee familiar with the new 4E rules. The result a series of podcasts and comic panels, drawn by Mike and Scott. Because all of these men are hilarious the experience is worth a listen even for those hypocrites who decry paper and pencil Geekery. D&D players will glean some knowledge of the new system and have an opportunity to hear how the system works in real time.

DJ TooSarcastic!
New mix is up. Tracklist here. It is dark. Not much melody up in here. I was inspired by the kind of music that I most enjoy dancing to; rhythm-heavy techno. I ended leaning toward progressive house vibe as well. I thought I gave that sound up in college, but apparently I was not well-informed. It was a really easy mix to make, two takes, a few edits and that was that. I am much more used to mixing music like this, since this was what I enjoyed playing when I used to have proper gigs. I put this into my Itunes and it appears to have compressed the volume or something such that one or two tracks sound pretty fucking awful. I promise that if you listen to the MP3 file on its own it won't sound as terrible.
T

Regionals

This year Regionals is going to be held at the new DuPage Expo Center:

Location

Dupage Expo Center 4050 East Main St St. Charles, IL 60174 Tel: 866-239-EXPO (3976) www.dupageexpo.com

Directions to the DuPage Expo center -Click here

taken from Pastimes.net

TooSarcastic is dead

I killed him with a gun made of salami and Sunken Hope. Actually, he just asked me to step in and do the post for tonight because he is tired and he doesn't wanna talk about it. I think he has a headache and needs to wash his hair. It's not you, it's him. When you look back on this relationship, I hope you can remember the good times.

I have no idea what to talk about.

I am officially a Magic player now. Somebody just shipped me super secret tech for the very first time. No, I am not going to spill it. Apparently, it's going to hit SCG before the PT, but I ain't publishing shit 'til it's actually out.

Some chica asked me to dance on Saturday. That's never happened before. Very strange. Also, awesome, because while not completely smokin' she was definitely worth the effort. Of course I said yes, you ass.

I may go to Regionals and play EDH. I'll spend the $30 I would have blown on entry on a U Sea instead. Who's with me?

Oh, there's a good topic. Let's do the next EDH in July sometime. I can't do the 20th or 27th, but earlier in the month would be fine.

Reaper King is the next deck. I am thinking about including some five color cycles for fun. Maybe all the Genju and all the one mana tutors. Obv all the changelings and Shadowmoor scarecrows make it in. I wish I had a brain.

Nobody commented on my short story in any way. I hate you all.

Standard is officially stupid. I just wanna draft in my basement and drink.


Fuck yeah

Regionals testing

I think I really pissed Tabasco off Tuesday, which wasn't my intention. I built a Rg warriors deck that I wanted to test. Obviously, I threw it up against Alex Bertoncini's Faeries list. Here's my list.

4 Tattermunge Maniac
3 Firespout
3 Greater Gargadon
4 Obsidian Battle-Axe
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Stingscourger
4 Lash Out
4 Flame Javelin
4 Brighthearth Banneret

4 Fire-lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest
11 Mountain
3 Mutavault

The good: (1)Banneret. Dropping Battle-Axe, followed by Stingscourger and swinging for 4 is basically the reason to play the deck. Well, that or Keldon Marauders. Is that 12 damage from a single Marauders? Yes. Yes it is. (2) Lash Out is really solid right now.

The bad: (1)Mutavault. This deck really, really, really wants its colored mana. I'd almost rather have Monkeytown since it (a) powers Thicket and (b) doesn't get chump blocked or countered. (2)Gargadon. Hot Sauce says should be Mogg Fanatic. I agree. (3)Firespout. I am a Limited player at heart, and the fact that I didn't immediately recognize this as trash in Constructed says all you need to know about how good a player I am.

The ugly: 0-5 vs. Faeries, 1-4 vs. Hot Sauce's RGoyf anti-faeries list.

I am giving up on this in its present form. Battle Axe is insane on turn 2, much less so on turn 3. I may run RedGoyf as I have most of the cards and it seems good. I do like the idea of maindeck Magus Moon (Man Cow).

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Maybe I should just play Faeries. Or I could shoot myself in the face. That sounds fun.

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coyoeuglly and I were talking and he made some comment about Shadow Guildmage being virtual card advantage. I didn't know what the heck he was talking about because (say it with me) CBG is bad at magic. Once he explained it, I talked about my unnatural love for Liege of the Pit and we promptly made this spicy little sauce monster.

Dirty Aggro

4 Shadow Guildmage
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Inkfathom Infiltrator
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Flame Javelin
4 Lash Out
4 Rift Bolt
3 Liege of the Pit
3 Gathan Raiders
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Mountain
10 Swamp

I don't know if the lands are right. Maybe one runs more mountains + 2 or 3 Urborg to get there. I think I will at least throw it out there and see how it does. It couldn't possibly be worse than Warriors.

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Tabasco and I have different views on testing. This is because he is good at magic and can figure out what is wrong with a deck after a couple games. I need a little more time with it in my hands just to get the kinks out. Losing tends to be my own misplays as much as anything else so deck doctoring is pretty tough for me. I hope I don't have to forfeit writing on the blog just because I admitted I am complete trash at magic and now have proof.

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My current Constructed rating : 1504

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I don't deny that the correct strategy for the EDH is to gang up on me and kill me dead. I just hope you all hate yourselves while doing it. No mercy. I will attempt to kill you. Actually, right now I just wanna Tunnel Vision coyoeuglly after he inexplicably activates his Mistveil Plains. Who does that?

Conclusions and Hypothesis

If Edds sister is reading this my number is 262-613-0405.

Moments after this was posted:
canntspell2 (2:25:34 PM): hit refreash... i just changed a couple things
WizrdOfEdd (2:25:56 PM): dick
WizrdOfEdd (2:25:58 PM): ;p

I've come to the conclusion recently that I'm an asshole about everything. Not that this is shocking to anyone but me. I just felt like sharing. While examining the inner workings of my brain upon realizing this conclusion. I feel it is something I have always known subconsciously and just recently realized consciously. I have always realized that I was definitely an asshole, I just didn't realize how all encompassing it was. What was this epiphany you ask? Probably it is best left unsaid. Let's just say it involves vagoo.

It is fun to watch CBG bitch while he is getting destroyed.

While typing the first paragraph I also realized how much it sucks to accidentally click the "add to dictionary" option when you have misspelled a word. Than I have to go look it up on a dictionary website. Highly annoying. Damn interweb and your

Dragons are scary. They eat Princesses.

Doran is a house. I'm pretty convinced there is no better turn two play in T2 than Doran. Also I would love to be able to play this deck for T2 on Saturday this week. Updated list:

2 Treefolk Harbinger
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Tarmogoyf
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege

3 Terror
2 Nameless Inversion
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Primal Command
3 Profane Command

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Horizan Canopy
2 Glit-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
3 Murmuring Bosk
3 Treetop Village
3 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Caves of Kolios

Sideboard:

3 Primal Rage
4 Eyes of the Wisent
3 Mindshatter
3 Thoughtseize
2 Spring Cleaning

I've been working with Bagha on the list. And we have pretty similar ones.

Garruk: Completely up in the air on this. Sometimes its amazing... sometimes its crap.

3 Goyf: While yes the card is stupid... It kind of just mopes around for awhile early without Thoughtseize main.

2 Harbinger: Yes this card is still very very good. But after cutting the Crib Swap and the Colossus and going back up to four Doran, there you don't really want four anymore.

Primal Rage: Chump block this Bitterblossom.

Spring Cleaning: I just don't think there are enough relevant artifacts in the format. The main deck Oblivion Rings have been enough for that.

Eyes of the Wisent: Combos with Primal Rage against Faeries.

Questions I have about the list:

1. Is Garruk good enough? He is really bad against Faeries and red decks. Which I am expecting to be the most popular decks are Regionals.

2. 22 or 23 land? I think 22 is enough. But I want 23. Mostly because Treetop is the suck in your opening hand. But the nuts on turn 4. There should be haves in the mana world.

3. Does the land base need work?

If anyone is showing up Saturday I would greatly appreciate being able to borrow the following:

2 Llanowar Elves
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Tarmogoyf
2 Kitchen Finks (I have 1 but it is MIA)
3 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
3 Terror
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Llanowar Wastes
2 Treetop Village
1 Caves of Kolios
3 Primal Rage
4 Eyes of the Wisent
1 Mindshatter
2 Spring Cleaning

Thanks in advance any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Just because there was some confusion at the store Saturday about what days things are this week. Triple Shadowmoor Draft Friday. Shadowmoor Standard Saturday. EDH Open Sunday. Haaker is an ijet.

I drafted at the store Saturday. I definitely walked out with a Woodfell Primus, Vexing Shusher (3rd), Wilt-Leaf Liedge, and Oversoul of Dusk and two other rares I can't think of. Along with a bunch of Constructed playables.

Scroll down the page a little to the Completely Off Topic entry and post your list. I am curious to see them. For the record Pong is 6th on my list. You haven't live until you start betting 20s on pong.

So here is my biggest problem when writing one of these, I never know how to end them.

Flash is still dumb. Even if everything in the deck is restricted.

Oh crap.

I totally clicked over to the blog this morning to see the new content.

Internal monologue: Hey, what's on the blog? Oh, the Friday asshole hasn't posted yet. Wait. I'm the Friday asshole. Curse, you Aquascum!

Let's take a look at the big events coming up in the Greater Midwest. Also, Memphis.

Regionals is on Saturday, June 7, down in Chicago (disclaimer:The presence of Chicago in Regionals Chicago is neither explicit nor implied). Actually, it's in St. Charles at the Dupage Eckspo (sry, that's Expo) Center. I may go as Wife of Captain Bondage Goth will be in Houston and Sister of Captain Bondage Goth lives in the vicinity and may be able to provide amusement for Child of Captain Bondage Goth. It's Standard, and the best deck plays like 5 different double digit money cards as 4-ofs. Can CBG buy a match win? Stay tuned!

GP:Indian City (wait, that's Indianapolis (note to self: parenthetical asides? not funny)) is coming up June 19-20 in the great state of Indianania. I have relatives in the area and may be going down. The format is Shadowmoor Sealed, my favorite format. Well, not Shadowmoor sealed. Just sealed in general. Should be a huge tournout as Indianapolis is quite a bit closer to those East Coasters than STL and that had like 460. OTOH, I may not be going down. It is summer. I am busy.

Then, we get Nationals on August 1-3. L2s get an invite. T4 at Regionals get an invite. Where is that? Oh right. Chicago. Here's hoping it's actually, you know, in Chicago. Not that Chicago is all that great, but it beats the ever-loving fuck out of St. Charles.

I just read that link. It's in Chicago. How refreshing.
View Larger Map

I expect to be there, doing PTQs and Car Tourneys and whatever else I can get my hands on.

And then there is Worlds in Memphis, but that ain't til like December, so screw that noise. Peace out.

---CBG-Dog