9 Jun 4705 - Regionals Tournament Report

Keith and I had been working on a deck for a few months to prepare for Regionals. I had actually thought the date would be sooner than today, but more preparation is better than less. The metagame shifted a few times while we were making the deck, but ultimately presented no challenges to the concept. Then a week before the tournament, I decided to build a different deck and take that one instead. Keith happily took the one we were working on, and we went.

Mine was a variation of the Frank Karsten NarcoBridge deck. He basically told everyone to either play or hate this deck, and I had been working on a version of it well before I read his article, so I figured summoning a hoard of giant, hasty zombies from the grave was right up my alley to begin with. I had been using the mechanics for awhile so I didn't have to worry about knowing how to play the deck. It was pretty much the coolest choice available at the time.

To show my personal support for my zombies, I wore my Dead Rising tee-shirt, styled after the mall staff in the game. A perspicacious opponent may see this and make the connection, but if the deck is working at all, then they're going to have an unstoppable mass of zombies rolling into the red zone before it makes any difference.

First match, I was up against mono-black rack discard. Game 1 I combo off uninterrupted and pound him with zombies. Second game he comes out with the card I least wanted to see him board: Withered Wretch, there's some back and forth but he has enough hate to stop me. Game 3 went much the same way, only quicker than game 2 because of his better draw. I may have won that game with another mulligan, I never drew the second land I needed.

0-1

Second match, I was up against Gruul. Game 1 he got an amazing start and never lost steam. A Llanowar Elves, two Scab-clan Maulers, and three Chars are well enough to kill me before I enable the combo and blast him. Who the hell draws three Chars? Game 2, I miscount when I sideboard, and he counts my deck and asks me to count my sideboard and calls the judge. I admit my honest mistake and it earns me a game loss, which in this case is a match loss. I talk with friends between the match, and each has helpful advice about counting, but really you can never wean out simple mistakes. I've committed worse mistakes in my time, and if any of you would like to call me a bad Magic player, this would be a good reason why. I was upset because I didn't get to show him my zombies. My opponent offered to play for fun, but I declined, telling him to use the time to get something to eat instead, as such opportunities are uncommon in long tournaments. Also I didn't want him to know what the hell I was playing, and why I had six cards in my sideboard to fight Gruul. Also he was a dick.

0-2

Third match, I'm paired against the mirror. This guy's version has maindeck Leyline of the Void, Simian Spirit guide, and Gemstone Caverns: basically anything that can enable a turn-two victory at the cost of wild margins of consistency. The match came down to luck alone: he had it and I didn't. Any spike would tell you running the leyline maindeck is a foolish choice: against too much of the field it is simply a dead card. Against me, though, it let him win, and he got it in his opening hand both games. I fished for my Krosan Grip in the second game, and his massively inconsistent deck didn't combo off for awhile so as to let me fish, but I never did find it. No zombies for me this match, either. He was a friendly sort, though, and reminded me of my little brother with his mild autism. All except the uncleanliness and jerk part of my little brother, anyway.

0-3

Match 4, a lot of my friends would have dropped by this point. The side events didn't interest me, and I had the potential of a good record in the making. I'm thinking to myself that I'll go rogue from here on, being hated off the field is just too much. I hadn't been paired against any of my good matchups, either, and I wanted to summon zombies, so I kept on. In fact I didn't get a chance this round because my opponent showed up to concede the match so that he could go do a side event. It counted as a win, but I had to wait for the slow-ass judges to come around and discover what was what. I got to watch the matches nearby in the meantime, which were interesting. To my left, mono-black rack discard mirror. To my right, rogue Solar Flare against rogue Red Deck Wins. The judge finally came around and I finished watching the matches anyway. It was a nice place to sit in the meantime. I checked out what my draw would have been like, and I would have come online turn 4. Good enough.

1-3

Match 5, I'm paired against Gruul again. This time, the opponent's draw is too slow and I have a better hand than before anyway and I kill him with zombies. Game 2 I'm not holding the cards and he gets me. Game 3 I mistake a Highland Weald for a Stomping Ground, and once I realize, I block and kill his ape. It is a long game, and he sacs his creatures efficiently with the Scorched Rusalka to get rid of my bridges, but at the end he has to deal with a 13/13 hasty Golgari Grave Troll and a 4/5 Flame-Kin Zealot (by way of an equipped Sword of the Meek). He's impressed and had fun, whereas he thought he would hate to go against my deck, my version of it was cool to him. Mission accomplished for the day as far as I'm concerned. We chat a bit and he lives and games in Manassass. Unlike the previous Gruul player, this guy can see the game as a game, and can have fun.

2-3

Well, here I'm about to get the record I thought I would. Match 6, I'm paired against Red Deck Wins. This is my worst matchup. So, here's how he beats me with one mountain even when I have a good hand. Turn 1 Seal of Fire. Turn 2 Rift Bolt. Turn 3 Seal of Fire. Turn 4 Seal of Fire. Turn 5 Rite of Flame into Storm Entity. Turn 6 Rift Bolt. He gets to kill all four of the enablers I was clutching, and then burn and beat me to death anyway. In fact I did finally get a dredge or two in, and if two of the cards that came out had been Narcomoebas instead of the lands that they were, I would have killed him. Amazing. Game 2 he gets Seal of Fire again, and suspends two Rift Bolts on turn 2. Doesn't matter what draw I have then. What a matchup. He's a guy from Hungary and someone nearby asks him if he's Russian. He explains the difference. Apparently he was worried about my matchup. Hah. Cool cat, though. He said he didn't have any luck all day until he came against me. Pass it on, brother.

2-4

At this point, I drop. There are three more rounds to go in the tournament, but I'm out of the money for real at this point, and have nothing to prove to anybody about how cool my deck is. This is probably the last time this deck will be viable, and it's too bad. It is radically fun. I'll use a lot of the parts in decks for other versions. There must be a place for this in Extended even though Keith thinks it is outclassed there. With the Extended metagame creeping toward control-heavy every time I hear about it, there may well be a place. Aggro-loam is already around. Maybe I could use some Threshold as well?

Once again, apologies to non-Magic playing readers. Even among those, if you have no interest in where Standard is right now then it was probably ho-hum for you as well. The rest of the weekend is a matter for another article.

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