Fellow Team 5FU Member Cormac is in first
place, with me in second. There are only 3 others on 9 points. Other team
member Noel and Dave were in trouble, but Dave Finething still had a chance on 6
points. Now at last years Nationals, I made the mistake of staying in and
playtesting before day 2. This was followed by bad performance the next day. I
firmly believe that after a day of Magic you should either rest and go to bed
early, or go out partying. I choose the later – at least that way you had a
good time no matter what happens day 2.
I had meant to do some playtesting, but evil
owner of The Gathering card shop, Gary Jackson, put paid to that. After an all
you can eat Chinese Buffet, he brought us to a Goth Club - Dominion. I had
never been in a Goth Club before, and it was an eye opener. Fishnet tights, see
through tops, chokers, weird makeup. And that was just the men. Really. No
joke. There was a tiny dance floor, where these Goth chicks would just wave
around in their cool black taffeta dresses to mental music. (if you know what
taffeta is, you’re either married, a girl or a fashion designer!) But any place
that plays the Cure can’t be bad, and I had a great time. Got back around 3am,
and rose at 8.30 for the
Myself and Cormac both realised we could be
paired against each other in round 4, which would suck. We asked Keith, head
judge and all round cool guy, if we could be feature match if we were paired,
and he said we would be. I had been playtesting Fires for a good while, and
when I heard there were only 3 rounds Day 2, I decided it was definitely the
deck to play. Its consistent, and often get the unstoppable draw. On the
Thursday before Nationals, I saw the 4X4 Listing by Adam Chambers, which got
2nd Place in the Northeast Regional Championships. I decided to play it as I
was fed up of holding Ghitu Fire in my hand against Control Opponents. I played
it without any changes from the Regionals list I saw.
//NAME: 4X4Fires
3 Rith's Grove
4 Rishadan Port
3 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
6 Forest
1 Dust Bowl
4 Brushland
2 Shivan Wurm
1 Rith, the Awakener
4 Fires of Yavimaya
4 Thornscape Battlemage
4 Saproling Burst
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Jade Leech
4 Blastoderm
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Flametongue Kavu
SB: 4
Armadillo Cloak
SB: 4
Pure Reflection
SB: 4
Aura Mutation
SB: 3
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
ROUND 4: Franco Cordillo – Zombies
I thought this was going to be easy, but when I
lost game 2 to two 4/4 Voldian Zombies I changed my mind. Lord of the Undead
bringing back pro green creatures can hurt. Game 3 though, I once more got 1 of
the two shiny Blastoderms Cormac leant me, and my two Bursts were enough to get
past the undead defence.
ROUND 5: Cormac Smyth – Blinding Angel
We asked Keith for our feature match, but he
refused to have anyone write up our ID handshake no matter how slow we did it.
ROUND 6: Rob McKweon – Rebels
Quicker handshake this time ensures no feature
match for me.
Unfortunately, Noels amazing Red deck (which
beats Fires ALL the time) and Daves Fires let them down. And Steve never got
out of bed after Dominion.
TOP 8:
Lee from WOTC interviews me for Sideboard. I
give him my previous wins of Nationals 97 and PTQ New York, that I’m married,
how good Goth clubs are. Turns out he used be a Goth! Then I tell him how heavy
playtesting with my Texan teammate Dustin Towry on Apprentice, and weekly
sessions in the house of Magic that is where Cormac and Steve live got me to top 8.( and Stewart
Shenkins help for the few months he lived there) After my 2 minutes of fame,
its back to find out the pairings. Keith Anderson tells how this year instead
of the usual plane tickets to Europeans for top 8, with tickets to Worlds for
top 4, that year all everyone gets is invites. Top 3 get $1000 if they all
arrive in Toronto. Its not his fault, but paying for a trip to Milan, and
Toronto, before I see a cent from WOTC is a bit crap. (Not to mention the money
I have to save for normal summer holidays for myself and my wife.)
Rob McKweon – Rebels
Rob is playing Rebels, with Parralax Waves, and
some Blue for Power Sink and Teferis Moat. Game 1, I get the turn 1 BoP, turn 4
Wurm and CHOMP! Shivan Wurm licks his lips, and we’re onto game 2. Side out 2
Blastoderms, 1 Shivan Wurm, and I think 3 Leeches and 1 Burst for 3 Tahngarth
and 4 Aura Mutation. I usually take out both Wurms against guys playing Wrath
of God, but reckoned bouncing a Flametongue or Battlemage was worth leaving one
in for.
He Waves some of my guys, including Flametongue
Kavu, but that means he can’t save his own Rebels when I Battlemage/Tongue his
Rebels. I knew Rob was in trouble when he disenchanted his own Parallax Wave in
response to my Aura Mutation. Game 3 his Rebels outrace Tahngarth. Game 4
Tahngarth and his fellow mutants (from Aura Mutation) romp home. Think I got
Rith out as well. Made one very bad mistake though – Tahngarth and 2
Flametongue fade back in with no other creatures in play, and I let the
Flametongues target themselves. The correct play was of course to have both
Flametongues target the ONE Flametongue. Doh!
Overall, I think this was a bad matchup for Rob,
with Aura Mutation (especially the shiny 1), Blastoderm (Cormacs 2 shiny
beasts) and Tahngarth winning it for me.
Dave Coughlan - Rebels
I’m feeling confident now. Cormac is playing against
Dave Greys GoMar in the other semi, and we plan to meet in the finals and see
how much drink we can take before we collapse.
Daves a nice guy, so we settle down for a
relaxed game. First game he uses his Battlemage to kill one of my guys, then I use
my Battlemage to kill his Battlemage and his Chimeric Idol. Then out comes my
Rith, flys over to bite Daves head off, and we’re onto game 2.
I reckon my sideboard, along with main deck
Jade Leeches, will kill him. I side out 4 Blastoderms, 4 Fires, 1 Flametongue
and 2 Battlemages. Bring in 4 Cloaks, 3 Tahngarth and 4 Aura Mutation. Game 2 I
draw the Mutation but get beaten down by Blastoderms. Game 3, I have no
threats, so I cloak an Elf. Which gets Flametongued. I lose soon after to a Burst. Game 3, he kills my early mana
guys, and I die with 3 Tahngarth in hand, with 4 land in play. Oh oh.
Luckily for me, the top 8 is double
elimination. But no drink in the finals for me! Double Elimination means the 4
guys who lost the quarters play out, with the 2 winners playing the 2 losers
from the semis. Then the 2 winners of that play off for third and fourth place.
Dave Kearney - Fires
Rob and his Rebels are paired up against Daves
Gomar, so everyone assumes the Fires mirror matchup will be over before they
get a game done. How wrong they were…….
Game 1, he plays Burst, I play Burst. He plays
Blastoderm, I play Burst. All of them fade without doing any damage. For some
reason, its like we’re playing Control Fires! After 32 minutes, Dave kills me
with a Burst. 32 minutes! Lucky we have 90 minutes.
Hey, its control Fires again. The judge laughs
at how he was looking forward to an exciting match, not this boredom. Then
suddenly, I have the broken play – Tahncloak. Yep, Tahngarth in the finest fur
of Armadillo. Declare Tahngarth as an attacker, tap him to kill your elf, hit
you for 6. Look, I go from 14 to 26 life! Still, this game took another 30
minutes. However, I win the next 2 games quickly. Cloak on a Leech wins game 3,
with cloak on a Flametongue and on Tahngarth win game 4.
This time though, I boarded differently. Only
brought in 3 Cloaks, 2 Tahngarth and 3 Mutation. Took out 4 Fires, 2
Blastoderm, 1 Flametongue and 1 Battlemage. Flametongues can suck in the mirror
if you’re getting beaten by Blastoderms. This board worked better, as last time
against Dave Coughlan I reckon 11 cards was changing the deck too much, and
removing too much fat. (or it may be that taking out Cormacs shiny Blastoderms
was a mistake!)
Rob is still playing Dave Grey. I like Dave,
but his Dromar/Nether Spirit deck is a bad matchup for me. So I root for Rob.
Before hand, the top 8 agreed to split the $1000 prize money amongst the top 4,
so the winner will get $250. Rob wins!
Rob McKweon – Rebels
I’m hoping this really is Double Elimination!
Rob goes first, and I have an iffy hand of a Forest and a BoP as my only mana.
The rest of cards all cost at least 4. I’m not sure what to do, when Rob
mulligans to 6. He keeps, and I decide to mulligan too. Looking at my top cards
reveal I would have had the perfect Fires draw, but there you go! I go to 6,
and get no land. Oops! Goto 5, with Brushland and no mana guys. Have to keep. I
topdeck a BoP, and say go. Rob plays Steadfast guard. I draw a Blastoderm. Rob
plays Rishadan Port, taps to play Lin Sivvi. I draw another fattie. Rob plays a
Port, whereupon I conceed. Oh oh.
Time is pushing on. The last train to Cork
leaves at 9pm, and its 8pm now. And I don’t fancy walking the 200 miles. I’m
feeling under pressure, when God sends an angel in the form of Dalton Maloney.
He is driving to Waterford and says he will drive me home if I miss the train.
Considering that’s over a 140 miles round trip out of his way, that’s some
offer! I give him my thanks, and relax back into game 2.
Board same as before. His turn 2 CoP Green
turns into the X-Men, and we’re off. (For some reason, it’s the 1 shiny Aura
Mutation again.) Moat Green holds me up for a while, but I have a BoP ready to
take one for the team when Flametongue Kave fades back in. Game 3, Rob has out
Crusade, but is under pressure. He plays Mageta and Liv Sivvi in one turn I
Mutate the Crusade and Tahngarth shows his superiority to other Legends by
killing both of them when he attacks. I win after that.
Next game, everyone gets some damage in,
including a BoP. Liv Sivvi is cast, I Flametongue it, and Rob disenchants my
Fires. I sac it for BoP to nip over for 2. Wave holds off my Burst, but I
mutate my own Burst to go for the kill.
Rob is still on the Irish team, but won’t get
any money for going to Toronto. Which sucks.
In the final, Cormac manages to down 6 pints of
Guinness and 2 Peach Snaps before losing to Dave Coughlan. He doesn’t notice –
we’re both going to Toronto!
PROPS:
Everyone on Team5FU who helped me out. Special
thanks go to my favourite Texan Dustin Towry for the endless hours on
Apprentice.
Dalton Maloney for driving me and Cormac back
to Cork.
Special thanks to Dalton, Craig and Ralph for putting
up with myself and Cormac on the trip back. Mainly because of the endless
repeats of the following:
Cormac:
Team 5FU rocks! We’re so cool! Man, you’re such a great player.
Diarmuid:
Wow, you’re such a great player! Team 5FU is so cool. We rock!
Dave Coughlan. National Champion, who qualified
through the meatgrinders – some good! And this also means Cormac is the only
unmarried man on the Irish team!
All the Judges and Competitors for making sure
Nationals was the usual fun. Special thanks to Wookie , Ollie and those mad
Scottish Judges.
Gary Jackson – so close at 9th
place.
SLOPS:
WOTC – 6 round Nationals! And only invites to
Europeans! That really sucks.
That’s all for now
Diarmuid Quirke
Team 5FU
https://www.angelfire.com/weird/Team5FU/