Regionals Report: Montreal *Top 8* - Magic: the Gathering article

Written by st4x on June 10, 2007

Regionals Report: Montreal Top 8

by St4x

My regionals deck selection started last week when I was testing nothing but dralnu and was confident with my choice. Then late Thursday night or Friday morning (whatever you want to call it), my team mate Mike Di Piano (kikimikejiki) messages me on MSN and tells me to play the new Flores deck, which is Rakdos Aggro.

When I first looked at the list it looked quite weak, but he insisted that it was good, so I proxied it up after my exam the next day and did a few goldfish games and a few games on MWS. The deck did indeed pack quite a punch and you never lost any games in which you untapped with augermage or confidant.

So I decide to play that deck and we head out to jeux face a face to pick up all the cards since I don’t have anything from this deck. As were building the deck we get kicked out of the store and have no cards for the deck, so we head out to another store to see if we can scrape the deck out of nothing. We get there and obviously no one has graven cairns or blood crypts so that deck is out the window, and we played a few more games with the deck and it wasn’t really that good. I then decide to play my back up plan of my dralnu. Here's my list built by Pollo and tweaked by me:

Dralnu
Main Deck		Sideboard
3 Dreadship Reef 4 Watery Grave 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Urza's Factory 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 3 Dimir Aqueduct 1 Tolaria West 9 Island 1 Swamp 1 Magus of the Future 3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 2 Skeletal Vampire	1 Repeal 1 Seize the Soul 3 Think Twice 3 Spell Snare 4 Rune Snag 3 Damnation 4 Remand 3 Mystical Teachings 4 Rewind 1 Sudden Death 1 Tendrils of Corruption 1 Extirpate	3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Persecute 1 Shadow of Doubt 3 Last Gasp 3 Leyline of the Void 2 Annex 1 Trickbind

I put in a magus of the future because it is the stone cold nuts and dralnu isn’t needed as it is just overkill.

Sometime during FNM the rest of our west island crew shows up and deck designer extraordinaire Mathew Schmaltz Tziritas tells me I should play his zoo deck and he'll lend it to me in the morning as he will be judging.

Zoo York
Main Deck		Sideboard
3 Horizon Canopy 1 Battlefield Forge 4 Stomping Ground 3 Gemstone Mine 4 Temple Garden 4 Sacred Foundry 2 Karplusan Forest 2 Scorched Rusalka 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Kird Ape	2 Scab-Clan Mauler 4 Watchwolf 4 Savannah Lions 4 Rift Bolt 3 Seal of Fire 4 Lightning Helix 1 Brute Force 1 Giant Growth 2 Volcanic Hammer 4 Char	1 Greater Gargadon 3 Saffi Eriksdotter 4 Honorable Passage 2 Temporal Isolation 3 Tormod's Crypt 2 Fiery Justice

That is the list I played. When we got there I was missing a few cards so I had to go around begging for them (thanks to everyone who lent me cards) and I was forced to buy a one dollar giant growth. As I had two byes due to being runner up in the Montreal City Champs Finals (twice due to some poor organization by the hosting store the first time… grrr) I could scope out the field. I talked with Mike a bit as he beat me in the finals of the first City champs finals playing a 75 identical card deck as me he didn’t have to play regionals. After round one was over we headed over to Nickels for some breakfast. We got back before the round with seconds to spare (ok more like twenty minutes) and as round three started I check my seating and I’m at table one (how lucky!) and I’m playing ag

ainst Nikola Slako, who was playing dragonstorm. I sit down kind of nervous as I haven’t played any games with my deck before this round.

I mulligan game one and he agonizes over his opener so I guess immediately he's running the most feared deck in standard (in my opinion not a very good deck) and I play a dual and pass. He plays a land and suspends a lotus. I obviously draw my one drop for my turn and play a wolf. He draws and passes not playing a land. I attack play two more guys, and he doesn’t draw a land and scoops.

Game two I have my insanely good hate cards so I feel confident. He reluctantly keeps his hand while I immediately keep. He plays the best card in magic and passes (island for those people still playing forests) I play ape and he again plays the best card ever. I play some more guys and he finally draws a red source to play his martyr of ashes to try and wipe my team. Lucky for me I have a passage and still have a guy but he plays another martyr and I keep drawing burn to win.

Record 3

-0

Round 4 I’m vs UR Wildfire Tron

G1 I get a good hand but he takes control and I make a mistake and it costs me the game. I'm spell burst locked and I don’t play a scorched rusalka and char him in response to spell burst when he's at one life.
G2 : I have a very aggressive start and he rips tron to try and wildfire my board but I brute force my 3/3 and it takes it home.

G3 is close as he ends up at six after a wild fire with two rift bolts suspended. He remands one and after three turns I finally draw a land to win.

Record 4-0

Round 5 I’m against korlash control.

Game one I get a very good hand and rip two burn spells to kill him after his second damnation.
G2 I again make a mistake that costs me the game. I don’t giant growth my guy to get in for more damage and I had a seal in play and he ended game at five life and I had to s

eal my own guy to prevent a tendrils.
G3 I mull to four cards! And get a good hand and I rip a white land and try to helix his korlash which he tapped out for on turn three. He thinks for like three minutes before discarding another korlash. I'm angry at this point but I shrug it off and scoop as he plays a tendrils to kill my guy.

Record 4-1

Round 6 I’m against Paul Bernard with Mono blue splash black.

I get a god hand game one and take it home in about five seconds.

G2: I mulligan to five and he plays teferi and then a brine so I pack it up.

Before game three I take a breather and slap my self hard in the face in true Saito style (which I was doing all day) and the people watching found it quite funny. G3 I get a very good hand while he is somewhat land screwed and I helix/char him out.

Record 5-1

Round 7 : ID into top 8.

I look around and see that everyone at the top tables is playing and not drawing so it makes me kind of nervous but I look at the standings and see that already three people are ahead of me in top 8 and only four other people can pass me by getting to 6-1 and I have nuts tie breaks due to my byes ( 70%!!! OMGWTFBBQ!), so I’m confident I will get at least eighth. Standings go up and my tie breaks go up to 73% and I’m in eighth place by almost 20% tie breaks (thank god for byes). Going to nats! YAUS!

We leave the site to go team draft and we have to finish on the hood of Mike’s car and my team wins it. We random the rares up and I’m stuck with decent cards but nothing that good.

Props:
-Mat for lending me the deck
-Mike Foley for not showing up. You were present in heart as you were written on my chars.
-Mike for driving me even though you weren’t playing.
-Sal for trying to kill Moobs
-To Alex, Garreau ( both top8ed) and Francis Cormier (top 16) for lending me my missing cards
-Toby (I_threaten_u) for finally listening to what mat tells you to play.
-Brute force for saving a wolf from a wildfire

Slops:
-Mauro for taking everyone's money
-Mike Foley for not showing up.
-Cartman for almost becoming Quebec regional champ twice in a row (he’s from Ottawa, how insulting is that)
-Yatre for going 0-2 drop after top8ing a master, winning a trial and top3ing a trial with Project X.
-Toby (I_threaten_u) for being a gypsy.

Justin Richardson aka St4x
-Peace out

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by BigShow on 2007-06-10 19:18 MDT

God I hate you

by st4x on 2007-06-10 19:19 MDT

bigshow is moobs btw

by kikimikejiki on 2007-06-10 19:22 MDT

and he smells like poo

by scwizard on 2007-06-10 19:25 MDT

"Yatre for going 0-2 drop after top8ing a master, winning a trial and top3ing a trial with Project X."

What a coward...
Anyways nice job T8ing and props to Mathew Schmaltz Tziritas for making the deck.

by Sandler on 2007-06-10 19:30 MDT

by Pollo on 2007-06-10 19:35 MDT

byes at regionals is the most amusing thing ever.
gj at top8, I hope you learned the lesson: dont change deck night before event, those missplays almost costed you the regs, i am sure you would also top8 with dralnu too.

by Yatre on 2007-06-10 19:42 MDT

fukin ppl that play tron man

by AkYo on 2007-06-10 19:52 MDT

check out my deck in standard forums =] nice article

by Wiley on 2007-06-10 20:56 MDT

Sucks for yatre, also this article was erm.. very.. eccentric? I get the feeling like the person who wrote it is not all there if you know what I mean, but it was good, I laughed a lot at just the general goofiness of how st4x covers his own matches, and the five paragraph introduction about how you wanted to play a certain deck, but then chose another, and then another, blah blah, etc :\

Also nice to hear from a Canadian, we'll take over the site someday

by TylerTMK on 2007-06-10 21:02 MDT

so with your 2 byes u only needed 3-1 to q for nats...seems like a good deal

by st4x on 2007-06-10 21:16 MDT

i didnt put a lot of detail into my matches because theyre all basically the same i play a 1 drop a 2 drop and then burn him to death or he casts damnation and then a tendrils and i die. it would become very redundant.

by Vlada on 2007-06-10 21:26 MDT

Before game three I take a breather and slap my self hard in the face in true Saito style (which I was doing all day) and the people watching found it quite funny.

noob

by kikimikejiki on 2007-06-10 22:14 MDT

dirty ass serb go cause another war

by ricebb on 2007-06-10 23:29 MDT

one dollar gaint growth ftw

by Vodka_7up on 2007-06-10 23:40 MDT

wow, i also came in 8th, but my situation was different. I was 3-0-1 i a five round tourney (man Saskatchewan's regionals are sweet), so I tried to go for the gold (1st), lost, sniff, and ended up 8th. The most irritating yet funny thing was the shop keep slow rolled 8th place during the announcements.

by Eldar on 2007-06-11 00:31 MDT

Hey congrats on making it to nats. I also played this deck at the Pittsburgh regionals. I ended up 5-3 sadly my ride was unreliable so we got there 30 seconds after round 1 pairings were put up and I had to start the day 0-1. I ended up losing one match to project x in 3 games to a top decked glittering wish for glare and another match to mono black rack him at 1 life me with 5 turns to draw either 1 of my 15 remaining burn spells hierarch or krosan grip to stall against the rack to win. I draw 4 lands (2 canopies) sac them for another land and a mauler. Great times losing to a bad deck easy matchup and not t16ing because of it. Oh well it happens I guess. But from what I can tell this deck has almost no bad matchups except for the korlash control one that I also noticed at FNM on friday. It appears you didn't get lucky and play vs dredge, dralnu, or gruul either seeing as those are almost always free wins. Good luck at nats

by Linkman on 2007-06-11 00:38 MDT

Tsk. 3-1 to t8 regionals. That's just lame. Wizards just made another stupid policy.

by Ro on 2007-06-11 00:42 MDT

No t8 report? :(

by Arcanis on 2007-06-11 01:19 MDT

"-Yatre for going 0-2 drop after top8ing a master, winning a trial and top3ing a trial with Project X."

so basically, french canadian regionals > magic-league?

lol

by Ro on 2007-06-11 04:51 MDT

Dude, everything > magic-league

(even jss)

by ringman on 2007-06-11 06:31 MDT

byes for winning champs?
i won my champs and i did not get byes at my regionals. Maybe that is only in America wich is kind of lame :/

by Splunge on 2007-06-11 07:38 MDT

by ringman on 2007-06-11 08:31 EDT

byes for winning champs?
i won my champs and i did not get byes at my regionals. Maybe that is only in America wich is kind of lame :/

____________________________________

I wasn't aware that Montreal was in America:)

BTW, You quebecois suck. Cartman rules you all.

by coolcreep on 2007-06-11 10:12 MDT

Quebec sucks, thats why an ontarian ownt you.

by Bozo on 2007-06-11 11:02 MDT

Splunge: I wasn't aware that Montreal was in America:)

What, are you retarded? It's in North America.

by empyre on 2007-06-11 11:16 MDT

by Arcanis on 2007-06-11 09:19 CET

"-Yatre for going 0-2 drop after top8ing a master, winning a trial and top3ing a trial with Project X."

so basically, french canadian regionals > magic-league?

lol

-> nope, Ronnan is the proof. Top magic-league player atm and got first in his local Regionals

by Avata on 2007-06-11 11:38 MDT

Where's the props to Montreal for being f**king awesome?

by Rodry on 2007-06-11 11:39 MDT

wow, obv ronnan is the best m-l player, thats why he has to play regionals :/

<3 Ronnan, Vladimir Belopavlovic, Kai Palo and some1 else

by kikimikejiki on 2007-06-11 13:41 MDT

city champs not champs duhh

by Thorns on 2007-06-11 16:54 MDT

"Toby (I_threaten_u) for being a gypsy."

Toby Shnayer?! ROFL Buddy of mine.
Good job on your Top 4 =]

by st4x on 2007-06-11 17:32 MDT

no not toby shnayer...lol tobias rosman the badboy of magic, but i kno shnayer and his brother dave

by DESTRUCTOR on 2007-06-11 19:30 MDT

by Splunge on 2007-06-11 09:38 EDT
I wasn't aware that Montreal was in America:)

Men america is a continent!!! USA is just a country ¬¬

Good job, Those byes really helped you...greater gargadon on sb? could you (or someone alse) explain to me against what matchup you bring him?

by Kiriel on 2007-06-11 20:13 MDT

He brings Gargadon vs mono blue pickle obv.

by Szelzki on 2007-06-11 20:53 MDT

Well,

Justin Richardson i'm glad you can play Zoo to a top 8. I'm also glad that i can Top 8 and win regionals 2 times in a row almost and have people sloping me. If you wanna $ Draft let me know, if you wanna lose let me know. Your missplays suck and for bashing me you suck.

Thanks to whoever attempted to come to my aid :) although Cartman can deal with so amazing Montreal players. Ottawa represents more than Quebec can.

by st4x on 2007-06-11 22:09 MDT

wasnt bashing u just making a joke, and i know ur better than me i dont care

by st4x on 2007-06-11 23:06 MDT

by kikimikejiki on 2007-06-11 23:09 MDT

kiriel who are u

by MistyFatDog on 2007-06-11 23:37 MDT

did you drop in top 8 or what?

by st4x on 2007-06-12 09:07 MDT

sry cartman if i offended u it was just a joke, and misty wat do u mean did i drop

by _Circa_ on 2007-06-12 13:11 MDT

Montreal fucking SUCKS

by yavin1 on 2007-06-12 17:00 MDT

1 dollar giant growth. I lost a remand rite before my match, cost me 6 dollars =(. I lost another one later. Luckily, i traded a foil remand for a regular playset of remand, but it was to late

by Szelzki on 2007-06-12 18:10 MDT

Alright,

it is i cool, i am just defending Ottawa players. It wasn't his fault to wildfire when you have the choice of dying or wildfiring you obviously wildfire and hope for you not to have a brute force.

:)

by babyface on 2007-06-13 04:17 MDT

dude I don't get it how in some places winning 5 matches out of 6 can qualify to nationals, seems retarded to me...

by ST4KZ on 2007-06-13 08:51 MDT

Stealing my name

by Rotstejn on 2007-06-13 10:18 MDT

lol so the random Brute Force sent you to nats ?

by kikimikejiki on 2007-06-13 21:57 MDT

lol how many in italy noob

by MistyFatDog on 2007-06-14 00:34 MDT

did you drop in top 8 or what

by Shivan1 on 2007-06-14 21:05 MDT

so a 1-of brute force won you the game against tron? How truly random.

by Paellin on 2007-06-15 17:30 MDT

West Coast owns East Coast at magic. Just wait for nats.

by Pollo on 2007-06-16 01:19 MDT

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/regionals07/montreal

by SpareSocks on 2007-06-25 16:27 MDT

HAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAAHAHA
HOPEEVERYONESHOUSEBURNSDOWN