The PWP History: Regionals

For the first 15 years of Magic, you almost never had to play Standard competitively. Constructed Pro Tours were usually some untested format, whether that was a completely new block constructed format, or an extended format that was likely four sets and a possible rotation from the last time it had been played. These two took up the two constructed PT spots, and then the other three were different variations of limited (Booster Draft, Rochester Draft, and Team Rochester). From the first PT in 1996 (which was Standard) until the split into multi-format PTs in 2009, there were only five Standard only Pro Tours (out of 59 non-Worlds events). The PTQs for the PTs at the time were always the same as the PT they fed (though Block fed Extended and Extended fed Block). Grand Prix were run as just very large PTQs and had the same seasonal PTQ format schedule, with an occasional Standard GP included to spice it up (15 out of 249 in the same period). 

That didn't mean you couldn't play Standard if you wanted to. Standard was what you played at FNM. Games being played every week across the country was thought to lead to a solved metagame that wouldn't challenge the Pros on the highest stage (hmmm). The times the PT was Standard, there weren't huge surprises from the decks the Pros showed up with. PTs back then seemed more about Pros defining the metagame and trying to build the best decks possible, not an exercise in choosing the best deck from a set of known decks like more recent years. You also could play Standard at the State Championship, one of the few times the non-pros got a crack at a format before the pros did. And Wizards wasn't completely against Standard on the highest levels: it was often a part of the Masters series, and it was the main format on the path to the World Championship.

To qualify for Worlds back then (up through the 2011 WC), you needed to either have the prerequisite number of Pro Points, be in the top X in the world on rating, or finish in the top three or four of your National Championship. To qualify for Nationals, you needed to top eight your Regional Championship. This blog will be about my experience in those regional qualifiers.

I played in six Regionals over the years before they went away. The last year I played there were also several one-spot National Qualifier tournaments that happened in addition to Regionals. I didn't play in those because I had already qualified for Nationals that year, but I felt like it was worth mentioning. I made the top eight of Regionals three of the six times I played. Two of them happened in Hawaii, where you needed to top two in order to qualify for Nationals. I managed to make the top two in those as well, so I qualified for three National Championships over the years (I will talk about Nationals in a separate post).

Regionals 2003

I was very excited to play in my first Regionals. I had heard stories from my friends about the experiences in the years before. I was also feeling pretty good about my abilities as a player, since I had just won a PTQ for the first time. That the PTQ win was Limited and Regionals was Standard didn't discourage me. I remember scouring the internet for decklists from other Regionals that had happened already. The Italian Regionals had a bunch of decklists published somewhere, and I noticed that Goblins had been doing very well.

The general consensus in America at the time was that Goblins was not good. There was a strong anti-aggro sentiment among the pros and writers of the time. The aggro decks they preferred were decks like UG Madness with its ability to disrupt the control strategies of the day like Psychatog, Wake, and MonoBlackControl. If you had to play red cards, the RG Aggro deck popularized by Kai Budde from the Masters Series earlier in the season was the default. I was skeptical though. The aggressive Goblin cards weren't in the style of traditional Sligh decks and were probably unfairly discounted. There was also the anti-foreign sentiment that dismissed non-professionals from other countries as being "bad players", which also didn't make any sense to me. I played a couple of games on Apprentice with a Goblins build, and I saw it had potential.

There were dozens of different configurations though. Since it wasn't a "good" deck, there hadn't been a pro or writer to write something to definitively set the decklist. I decided I would incorporate all the decklists I saw from Italian Regionals and find the most commonly played numbers. Nowadays, a website like mtgtop8.com can do all this for you with a click of a button, but in 2003 I was doing it all myself.

I can't really remember what I ended up playing in my Goblin deck. I'll try to remember what I can below:

4 Goblin Sledder

4 Goblin Grappler

4 Grim Lavamancer

4 Sparksmith

4 Goblin Piledriver

4 Goblin Goon

2 Clickslither

4 Firebolt

4 Volcanic Hammer

4 Reckless Charge

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Bloodstained Mire

4 Barbarian Ring

10 Mountain

Sideboard:

4 Threaten

4 Blistering Firecat

2 Clickslither

A lot of it was influenced by Jay Schneider's Legions of Geeba deck and article he had recently wrote. The numbers of the powerful four-drops were decided by my speadsheet, but I still wanted access to four Firecat in the sideboard. This is pretty close to a recent deck I've been playing in Middle School that I may write about soon.

I went 2-2, and it was entirely on me. My deck was giving me the tools and I was not good enough to make it happen. I don't know if I could have made top eight with proper play, but I did know I wasn't good enough. It was a wake-up call that maybe I wasn't as good as I had thought. I played in a side event draft and lost in the first round while being watched by Fletcher Peatross. He made some comments about my play and I again realized that I was far from the best player in the room at the time. 

This started my love of Goblins though. Eventually, Scourge was released and it changed the way that Goblins and aggressive red decks in general were played. This could be one of the many many times I was slightly ahead of my time with deck choice and trying to make something work when all the tools were not available. This will happen time and again in this series, but this was probably the first time.

Regionals 2004

One skill I've always had a knack is recognizing a good list when I see one. I knew I would probably be playing Skullclamp Ravager Affinity for Regionals this year, but I was not sure about the configuration. I once again scoured the internet (this was much harder to do back then!) and found some lists from Japanese Regionals. The big innovation was Seething Song and Furnace Dragon in the sideboard to beat the mirror match. It also had Tooth of Chiss-Goria and I realized I had not been playing with enough "free" artifacts in my lists. It's not perfect but was definitely good enough to bring me success. 

4 Vault of Whispers

4 Seat of the Synod

4 Great Furnace

4 Glimmervoid

2 Darksteel Citadel

3 Blinkmoth Nexus

4 Disciple of the Vault

4 Arcbound Worker

4 Arcbound Ravager

4 Frogmite

4 Myr Enforcer

3 Ornithopter

4 Thoughtcast

4 Shrapnel Blast

4 Welding Jar

3 Scale of Chiss-Goria

1 Mana Leak

Sideboard:

4 Furnace Dragon

4 Seething Song

4 Genesis Chamber

3 Krark-Clan Shaman

I opted for Scale to beat cards like Electrostatic Bolt and Sparksmith. Mana Leak was just some last minute spice. I didn't play Atog, and when I lost round 9 to an opponent who went all in on an Ornithopter for not lethal and killed me the following turn I realized how badly I had been playing the deck to that point. It didn't really matter because Skullclamp is a hell of a card, and most people were not ready to play games where both players could see half their deck every game. 

I got a Match Loss (Match Loss!!!) in Round 2 for not putting the 4 Glimmervoid on my decklist. I lost round 9 to drop me out of contention, and then conceded to my teammate Michael Musser the following round since he had better breakers and who knows what could happen after 11 rounds. He ended up losing the final round anyway and likely wouldn't have made top 8 with a win.

I beat good friend and teammate Justin Corbett in the mirror where he had Iron Myr instead of Seething Song to power out Furnace Dragon, but it didn't really matter. I think he mulligan and I drew better.

I think round 8 I played against future PT Finalist Billy Moreno. Game one he made an attack that would put me exactly dead with Ravager Disciple if he had Shrapnel Blast in his hand. I decided to block in a way that leaves me dead if he has it. He did have it and went all in on his Nexus, sacrificing it after combat damage to the Blast, but my last card in hand was Mana Leak. He complimented my play to bait him into going for it. Game two I got to trick him again, this time with Scale of Chiss-Goria. I had two Myr Enforcers in play, one was a 4/4 and the other a 5/5 from an Arcbound Worker token. I had him down to 9 life but he was the one with Skullclamp and Disciple so I needed to close the door soon. I attacked with my team and he blocked my Disciple and Frogmite with his Myr Enforcers and let my 9 damage go unblocked. He then tried to Shrapnel Blast my 5/5 Myr Enforcer before damage, but my Scale saved it and he took lethal. 

Josh Calvert played close to the same 75 as me and made top 8 on the strength of his Mana Leaks. David Solis dominated the tournament with Affinity going 11-0 I think? Nathan Zamora also made top 8 with Goblins despite almost being DQd for unsportsmanlike conduct when he would use his Walkman to play the Price Is Right theme after his early wins.

Regionals 2006

I don't remember much about this. I was in New York for Navy training and one of my Navy friends Ben Strickland asked me to go with him to Connecticut for Regionals. I hadn't played much Magic, especially Standard. I scrounged up a Zoo deck that I built to avoid Spell Snare. Disenssion had just been released and Spell Snare was going to be popular. I kept the powerful 2cc spells like Jitte in the sideboard to bring in against aggressive decks when the coast was clear. I ended up losing to the RUG Thoughts of Ruin deck that was both aggressive and had Spell Snare. I was trying to be too cute I think.

3 Savannah Lions

3 Isamaru, Hound of Kond

4 Kird Ape

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Burning Tree Shaman

4 Giant Solifuge

3 Lightning Helix

4 Char

4 Flames of the Blood Hand

3 Moldervine Cloak

4 Temple Garden

4 Stomping Ground

4 Sacred Foundry

3 Brushland

1 Gruul Turf

Sideboard

4 Silhanna Ledgwalker

4 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Tin Street Hooligan

3 Bathe in Light

The trip had some crazy memories. We picked up some random kid that Ben had met in Albany named Igor. This guy was a character, but I don't remember any details, just that it was good times all around. 

Regionals 2008

The first Regionals I played in Hawaii. I had just spent some time on vacation back home in Texas. I had taken part of my trip to hang out at PT Hollywood since many of my friends were qualified. I was really fascinated by the deck that Zvi Mowshowitz had brought to the tournament. This wasn't the first time a Zvi deck would catch my eye, nor would it be the last. I borrowed the cards from Tin in Houston to take back to Hawaii so I could play Regionals. The airline lost my luggage. I actually never got the one bag back, so most likely someone stole the contents included what was at the time one of the most expensive Standard decks ever. It would still be worth a solid amount if you were to come across it.

I had to scramble to get the cards from the limited connections I had in Hawaii. Luckily, Jeff Lee stepped up and let me use his cards. We became pretty good friends afterwards, and I found out he was on the team that I had beat in the finals of 2HG States the previous year.

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Countryside Crusher

4 Magus of the Moon

4 Chameleon Colossus

3 Deus of Calamity

2 Firespout

4 Lash Out

4 Tarfire

4 Karplusan Forest

2 Treetop Village

1 Mountain

4 Grove of the Burnwillows

4 Fire-Lit Thicket

8 Forest

Sideboard

2 Firespout

4 Kitchen Finks

2 Loxodon Warhammer

2 Squall Line

1 Cloudthresher

1 Akroma, Angel of Fury

2 Primal Command

1 Deus of Calamity

I don't remember much about the games. I got to use Magus of the Moon on turn two against just about everyone. Most of my opponents were playing Faeries. 

This was the first time I was qualified for Nationals. I was excited because I had always wanted to play in a multi-format event, even before I had ever played in a PT. I guess I got monkey's pawed and never got to play in any single-format  PTs though.

Regionals 2010

Once again, I can recognize a good deck when I see one. I saw Matt Sperling's PTQ winning Mythic Conscription deck. I basically copied it and was the only person at the event that had it. I easily won the event. Not much to say besides making sure to keep up with the latest developments paid off. I made some changes that clearly were worse than before but the power level was more than enough (I was still attached to Finest Hour - Rafiq combo from the non-Conscription Mythic decks).

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Lotus Cobra

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Dauntless Escort

2 Rafiq of the Many

3 Baneslayer Angel

3 Sovereigns of Lost Alara

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Eldrazi Conscription

1 Finest Hour

4 Celestial Colonnade

6 Forest

2 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Plains

1 Sejiri Steppe

2 Stirring Wildwood

2 Sunpetal Grove

3 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard

2 Gideon Jura

3 Kor Firewalker

3 Meddling Mage

3 Negate

3 Rhox War Monk

1 Telemin Performance

I mostly played against Jund decks all day. I played the deck again a week or two later in a PTQ and lost in the top 4 to an opponent who was ready to beat me now, but on this day no one was prepared.

Regionals 2011

I had just played GP DFW a week or two prior with Caw Blade, going undefeated on day 1 before the wheels came off and I backed into top 64 after a long day 2 of Caw Blade mirrors. It wasn't for naught though, as it gave me way more experience of playing the matchup at the highest levels. I played it again at regionals easily beating the several mirrors along the way. I lost to a good draw from a Boros aggro player, but won out to be able to draw into the top 8 and secure the invite. Berni had forgot his Caw Blade deck at the house so had to scrounge up a copy of the RUG deck. It didn't matter and he was undefeated when I was paired with him in the final round. He told me we had to play because his roommate might sneak into 8th if he beat me. I know Berni wanted me to qualify and wanted to go to Nationals together but he had to at least show his roommate he was trying. We played a match that Berni maybe didn't play his best and I won 2-1 (probably should have been 0-3 in those games). I have no idea if I would have still made top 8 with a loss, or if the roommate would have made it in instead. It's somewhat shady in retrospect, but maybe not that shady since Berni wanted to draw? Just an awkward interpersonal situation and not that awkward of a tournament situation.

4 Squadron Hawk

4 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Sun Titan

3 Gideon Jura

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Preordain

3 Mana Leak

3 Spell Pierce

2 Condemn

1 Day of Judgment

1 Into the Roil

2 Tumble Magnet

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Mortarpod

4 Celestial Colonade

4 Glacial Fortress

1 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Island

4 Plains

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Tectonic Edge

1 Marsh Flats

Sideboard

2 Condemn

1 Day of Judgment

4 Flashfreeze

2 Jace Beleren

3 Kor Firewalker

1 Sun Titan

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Volitions Reins

Some of these card choices look really suspect in retrospect. I would spend the next few months playing Caw Blade on MTGO an excessive amount, eventually leading to my second ever PTQ win. 

Conclusion

Regionals was an interesting tournament. It was generally the highlight of the year for most players, the tournament with the most on the line (back when Nationals was a really good tournament to qualify for). It attracted more people than PTQs because of the Standard format and centralized location and date. The weeks leading up to it, it was the focus of all the strategy content on the websites. 

I don't know if the old Regional system could come back. I definitely would like to see the old National Championships come back, and in that scenario you would need a way to determine who to invite. Regionals into Nationals into World Championships was a great system because someone with no pro status could earn the World Champion title by earning it that year. The World Champion title is probably better in the current iteration though. Maybe the lack of such a clearly merit-based system makes people that much more upset about perceived "non-merit" special invites to high level events.