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Editor: Staff. Wednesday 29th June 2005.
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"Regionals 2005 - The Payoff " In my previous article I talked about how I playtested online to prepare for Regionals this year. This is a story about the payoff at the end of the rainbow. On Adelaide 26th June 2005 fifty-five hopeful souls gathered at the Irish Club to play for the rights to play in the ultimate event in Australia - The Nationals in Canberra. Whilst I calmly waited for the tournament to begin a sea of chaos enveloped the room. So many people still searching for those last few cards to perfect their personal creations, crazy combos and knock offs of netdecks. I had decided that if people didn't ask to borrow cards before the day I wouldn't bring them. Carrying around my bag with trade folder plus both Type 2 play folders is almost backbreaking - I wanted to worry about playing cards and not the state of my spine. I managed to sell off enough cards to cover my entry fee so I was happy and my long list of cards lent out had been prepared long ago. My decklist had been carefully written out the night before so all I had to do was pay my entry fee and hand it in. What's that I hear? You remember me saying that I would reveal my deck after the regionals? Well, I'm a man of my word so I had better reveal it now... Burning Matrix (Version 2.2) 21 Mountains 4 Damping Matrix 4 Shock 4 Volcanic Hammer SIDEBOARD I have finally revealed my deck to all those whom were to lazy to trawl through magic-league.com to find it. Kudos to Pikemania for finding the deck before anyone else did! I said I hoped to see you all in Canberra. I guess its time for you to find out if I'm going. If you remember my last article I mentioned how my partner wouldn't let me go unless I qualified as shredding $20 notes in The Grinders won't go down well with her.
The wise Yoda once said - "Do or do not. There is no try". I either go to Canberra after finishing top 8 or I don't go at all. On to round one... Round One - Andrew Deanovic (Mono Black Aggro Rats) Andrew works at Infinity Games and has been playing Magic longer than I have. I've known him since I was a teenager and I knew he would be a formidable opponent to play against. As soon as I sat down against him I asked "So are you running your beta lands?", to which he replied."I didn't have time to put them into my deck". Andrew then told me how he was playtesting a Zur's Weirding deck but decided to switch decks on the day. We started game one and Andrew had a second turn Aether Vial. I played third turn Damping Matrix and shut it down. He played a few rats that hit my hand a little and I blazed away at them with my burn. He managed to get out an Ink Eyes late game and beat me senseless as I used Pulse of the Forge to keep him honest. I managed to draw into Shrapnel Blast and a shock to finally finish Andrew off. In game 2 Andrew had sided in Cranial Extraction and extracted my Ensnaring Bridges. I burnt through Pyrite Spellbombs to draw into and play a Damping Matrix the turn after he played Umezawa's Jitte. Late game I mana burning myself for five at the end of his turn to finish him off in my turn with Pulse, Pulse, Shrapnel Blast. 2-0 win, 1-0-0 overall. Round Two - David Mariner (Red/Green Beats) David is a regular in the tournament scene in Adelaide and has been playing Magic for years. We've faced each other at tournaments in the past - sometimes he wins, sometimes I win. I knew I was in for a tough matchup with David piloting the deck. Game one I managed to get third turn damping matrix, fourth turn ensnaring bridge and I proceeded to slowly burn David to death as he recurred Magma Jet with Eternal Witness in an attempt to scrye into some answers. Game two I managed to get three ensnaring bridges out against David (he could deal with 2) and a damping matrix as I slowly burned him to death again. Flamebreak is truly the bane of Troll Ascetic! 2-0 win, 2-0-0 overall Round Three - Kieran Koch (Mono Black Stompy) Kieran made it to nationals a couple of years ago and is on the fringe of my core playtesting group. I had heard stories about the speed of his deck but I knew he had weaknesses I could exploit. I think this round turned out to be his worst matchup all game. In game one he got out a Raving Oni-Slave turn one via Chrome Mox. After it bit me once I Volcanic Hammered it to death. Kieran then proceeded to play a Takenuma Bleeder and another Raving Oni-Slave. In my turn I cast Flamebreak. With the combination of Oni-Slave pain, using 2 City of Brass and flamebreak pain Kieran was now on 3 life! I drew into burn and ended this rather short game. In game two Kieran managed to use Cranial Extraction to kill off my Ensnaring Bridges. He beat me down to 2 life by the time I killed him with burn - finishing him off with a Shrapnel Blast when he was on 5 life and all I had on the table was a Culling Scales. 2-0 win, 3-0-0 overall Round Four - Hieu Pham (Rogue Green/Red/Blue Trade Routes/Seismic Assault Control) Hieu is one of the best players in Adelaide and he comes up with some of the best rogue decks I have ever seen. I've played against Hieu a few times in the past where I'm usually running on a winning streak he promptly breaks. I hoped today would be the day I'd break his winning strak instead. Game one Hieu managed to get the combo (Trade Routes and Seismic Assault) with little intervention from me. About the most I did was Shrapnel Blasted a Meloku. Add a Troll Ascetic in to the mix and I was pushing up dasies in no time. Game two I had sided in Culling Scales and Thoughts of Ruin and I managed to keep Hieu at bay whilst he was stuck on 3 land with no green sources. I played Thoughts of Ruin for 3 land and next turn Hieu drew a City of Brass. He decided I had the game won so we went on to game three. In game three Hieu played a third turn Troll Ascetic which I promptly torched via Flamebreak. He dropped out another Troll the next turn. The race was on for me to drop my handsize down to two with an Ensnaring Bridge in play, 5 land and a hand full of 3 drops. It didn't happen and the Troll went all the way. 1-2 loss, 3-0-1 overall Round Five - Yi Fei Ruan AKA Fifi (Tooth and Nail) Funny story... we were originally paired up to play against each other in round one and a re-pairing had to be done. It turns out this was the match up that fate decreed we must play today. Yi Fei has had a lot of success with Tooth and Nail in Type 2 and I knew he'd be playing it. I know I'm in for a tight game with Yi Fei whenever I face him as he plays well and chooses his deck wisely. Game one I can't remember all that much except for Yi Fei using Tooth and Nail for Sundering Titan and Eternal witness, then Tooth and Nail for Sundering Titan and Kikki-Jikki in one turn! He even had the mana to play another Eternal Witness manually after everything resolved. He then attacked with Kikki-Jikki because of my Damping Matrix, Ensnaring Bridge and 2 cards in hand. I topdecked the Shrapnel Blast I needed to kill him the next turn. Game two I was owned by Imawori and his Eternal Witness friends. Game three I managed to get Yi Fei onto 2 life the turn before he blew away my ensnaring Bridge via Sensei's Divining Top and a Creeping Mold. My next card was a Shock! 1-2 loss, 3-0-2 overall Round Six - Scrabble AKA Daniel Piechnick (Black/Green Utility Beats) Scrabble started playing back around Tempest and has been one of the better consistant players here in Adelaide. His forte is limited over constructed but you can never write off players of this calibre. I always enjoy playing against Scrabble as his twisted yet silly sense of humour is akin to my own. Game one Scrabble hit me with a Persecute naming 'Green' as he thought I was playing a Green/Red deck and I had been colour screwed for green playing nothing but mountains. I revealed my hand of three copies of Damping Matrix and some burn spells. I started to lay out one Damping Matrix after the other in between burning creatures Scrabble played. He Persecuted me a second time and managed to knock two red spells out of my hand. I drew an Ensnaring Bridge and plenty of burn that game and managed to kill him. Game two was a war of control vs piles of equipment. Scrabble would play a creature, I would kill it. I hid behind an Ensnaring Bridge for most the game finally finishing Scrabble off with a few turns of Blinkmoth Nexus beats followed up by a Flamebreak. 2-0 win, 4-0-2 overall Round Seven - John Reiman (Mono Blue Control) Right now John is the only DCI Judge in Adelaide. I've played against him a few times at tournaments in the past with mixed results. John is part of our core playtest group and I had helped John a little to build his deck. I knew what he could throw at me - in fact I had lent him a lot of the cards. Since both of us were in with a chance of making top 8 we decided to split whatever prizes we both win regardless of who wins or loses. To begin I roll a 1 and John rolls a 2 to beat it. Game one I managed to break through the counter wall and burn John to death. Game two and three I was able to burn John down to 1 and 2 but it wasn't enough - Teincast copying my burn game two to kill me first. Game two multiple Blinkmoth Nexus and Thieving Magpie beatdown did the trick. 1-2 loss, 4-0-3 overall I died fighting for a place in the Top 8 - arguably the best way to go down at the Regionals if you have to go down. Looking at my countback if I had won that last round against John I might have squeezed into 8th place. I didn't win and it didn't happen. Looking back there isn't a whole lot I could have done differently. My deck behaved itself all day (no major cases of land flood/land screw) and for me that is an achievement considering my usual performance. This was also the first tournament where I had played against quality players each round. I have a feeling my lowly 1585 constructed rating is in for a huge boost! No I won't be seeing you all in Canberra but all is not lost. It just means I'll be going to GP Melbourne instead. Here are the final standings for Adelaide Regionals 2005 - 18 points 55 people started the tournament I guess I'll be seeing you all in Melbourne - good luck to all those playing at the Nationals! Joe Tobin (Aytakk2)
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