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Well, regionals has come and gone, all the preparation has proved
to either be rewarding, or a waste of time. My regionals experience was
interesting to say the least. On Friday night I went over to the house of
the amazing Scott Gerhardt, still having no idea on what to play. After
playtesting various decks, at about 3 AM, both of us decided on playing one
of Scott's creations, a different version of Dark Fires. It was pretty much
normal Fires, but with less land, Thunderscape Familiar, and Phyrexian Scuta
main, plus black in the board.

Finally deciding what deck we were going to play we go to sleep around
4, with the alarm set for 7:15. Three hours later, we wake up, rush to get
ready, then, at my request, go to Jack In the Box for my good luck Ultimate
Bacon Cheeseburger. We arrive at the Costa Mesa Women's Club before
registration opens, and of course cut in line. ;) We have to rush to the dealer table to
find the last cards for our sideboard, Destructive Flow. (Who charges $3
apiece for a crap rare like that?! :( )

Anyway, we fill out our decklists, and it is announced that due to the
number of players and the small amount of tables and chairs, it will have to be
played in staggered swiss the first couple of rounds, which means that half the
people play, then the other half, meaning it would take twice the amount of time.
I was in the half that played first, so I sit down, and I have to play a friend of
mine, Danny Chung. He was playing Skies, normally a very easy matchup for
me, not only because of Flametongue Kavu, but because of Scuta being black,
making Wash Out alot less effective. Game 1 I get a light light mana draw,
so I paris into an amazing hand, with a Bird, Fires, and Blastoderm, plus
land. I get my turn 3 Derm Dazed, draw into another one, and get that one
Foiled, draw into ANOTHER one, which gets through, but by that time he has an
Airship and a Spiketail beating me down, then he Washes Out, and Counters the
burst that I play for the win the turn after I recast Bird and Fires. Game 2
I get a light land draw again, but keep, and never draw much more. I get
Washed Out, and beat down by a Troublesome. On a side note, I never saw a
Flametongue the entire match, and I had 3 main and boarded in one game 2. Ah
well, better to have lost to a friend.

Round 2 I have to play someone else I know, Shane Cargillo, playing
Nether-Go. I win game 1 pretty easily, as he doesn't get a Spirit until late game, when
enough of
my threats had slipped through his counters to make it stop enough of the
beatings. Game 2 he drops a Meekstone, and Counters enough threats so that
he can survive, Fact or Fictions and Accumulates into counters, and takes the
game fairly easily. Game 3 doesn't have much time left, he gets mana screwed
early, but recovers with a Meekstone and Spirit, then with no cards in my
hand, and no untapped creatures in play, he drops his tech, Forbidden Crypt
as time was called. His graveyard was filled with good stuff, multiple
Accumulated Knowledges, Recoils and Submerges, but with me being at 14 life,
he couldn't possibly deal that much with only 1 Nether Spirit, so it ended up
a draw. Wow, starting off 0-1-1 first two rounds, I was quite dissapointed.

Okay, I won't bore you with the long details of the next six rounds, I
ended up going 6-0, then round 9 I have to play a friend, Ali Eslami, playing
an amazing matchup, TurboHaups. Game 1 I don't overextend, only casting 1
threat at a time, and going land, mana creature after every time he resets.
I eventually win by him going Obliterate to stay alive with no Spirit, then
me going land, Bird, him drawing, not laying a land, me going land idol, and
going all the way. Game 2 I go turn one land bird, and he exclaims "Oh no,
you can get that piece of sh*t next turn". Oh yeah, he had heard of the
Destructive Flow tech. :) He goes untap, upkeep Vamp, then Cave In. He was
so affraid of the Flow that he had wasted 3 cards to get rid of a Bird, and I
didn't even have the Flow. This game goes pretty much the same as game 1, and
I take it fairly easy. Before this round, I had the lowest tie breakers of
all the 6-1-1's, so the chances of me making it all depended on 3 matches all
going the way I needed them to go. The time between when I won and the time
they announced T8 seemed like forever. They finally announced it, and I was
9th. :( I was less than 1% off of 8th seed.

Well, for the rest of the night I am very depressed, considering I
already have my ticket to go to Florida since I am qualified for the JSS
Championships, so it would have been really convenient to qualify for Nats.
We drive back to Scott's house and play this game where you each open a pack
and you draw 1 card a turn, and you have unlimited mana, but no more than 5 a
turn for something that can be infinite. It didn't really cheer me up,
although one pack I drew a Sparkcaster as my first card, winning in 4 turns.
;) I went to sleep still mad about it, and come to think of it, I'm still a
little angry.

Over all, the weekend was both good and bad. Good because I got to have
a good time playing Magic after taking a little break from it, but bad
because all of my preparation for regionals had essentially been for nothing.
Ah well, I will get over it, not any time soon, though. :) Any letters of
sympathy can be sent to nev@pojo.com.