“Of Luck, Foam, and Secrets…” The Regionals Experience Part One

Finally! I am writing my experience (with pictures included) during our recent trip to Cebu last May 18, 2008 to attend the MTG Regionals there. So let's get started. First off, I wasn't really prepared in going there. Maybe its because of being busy at work and doing some part time sponsored blogging. I made some final preparation when we held our “grand playtest” by playtesting the Merfolk deck, both the mono blue and the blue-white version. Although the results were pretty good, I still don't have the feel of piloting the deck. So I decided to stick with my Mono Red Burn deck. Here's the list:

Choose your 3 damage

RDW by Mark Ian Alloso

Maindeck
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Magus of the Scroll
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg War Marshall

4 Incinerate
4 Rift Bolt
4 Shard Volley
3 Sulfurous Blast
3 Threaten

4 Mutavault
19 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Cryoclasm
3 Everlasting Torment
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Magus of the Moon
3 Smash to Smithereens

Just a recap, the decks my teammates piloted were the following: Jonathan played home brewed Project R, Rei piloted B/G Elves, Ramon used B/U/G Mannequin, and Mao, Tonton, Patrick and Oliver, were nicknamed F4 or Faeries Four for piloting U/B Faeries. Just a note, the pics presented act as a guide and to help me in describing my trip there. Let's get it on!

May 16

I woke up early at around 1:00pm. You may be wondering why I call that early. It’s because I'm working during the night and my off is 6 o'clock in the morning. Our assembly time is supposed to be 3:00pm so I got 2 hrs to prepare my things. I logged in to my pc to check the net for the latest adjustment in my deck's sideboard and got a message from Jonathan that we will be going together to the rally point, which is our local MTG shop. He eventually arrived at around 3:10pm, so we immediately proceeded to the meeting place.

Playtest every moment

As expected, we were the second to arrive at the place. We just playtested with the other players there while waiting for the others. The ferry going to Cebu will be leaving at 6pm and our team finally got completed at around 5pm. We quickly went to the pier and boarded just in time.

Hanging out on the roof deck of M/V Asia Malaysia

We got a lot of time to rest and hang out that night so after dinner, we decided to do some playtest. Still wasn't sure of what build of faeries to use, these Faerie players playtested till the wee hours in the morning.

Deck discussions in the evening

They were acting like Pestermites coz they were even talking about it while in bed. That bothered my sleep a lot and I was able to get some sleep at around 2am. Grrrr...

May 17
The ferry finally arrived at the Cebu port at around 7am. Too early for me as I was still sleepy and my body clock is still adjusting. Oh well, no choice but to get up. We packed up and then went to Villa Mercedes, where we stayed for two days. Five of my teammates decided to join the FNM that afternoon to scout the metagame of Cebu so they packed in their spare decks and prepared for the event.

Team Iloilo preparing for the FNM

Master Oli preparing his B/G Elves for FNM

With a lot of time available, we entertained ourselves with our own version of Evan Erwin's “The Magic Show” at Starcitygames.com. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. Our very first episode of the “Mark Ian Show” Lol..

The FNM tournament started at around 2:30pm and a lot of players showed up including those from Cagayan and Dumaguete.

NG Cebu where the Regionals was held.

Feeling bored while they were playing, Athan and I decided to go to Ayala Cebu. We explored the place and I got awed on how big the mall was and the nice view of females there. Hehe... We decided to have some purpose in going there so we looked for a store that sells six-sided dices. We weren't able to find one so we just went to hang out at the coffee shop near the Ayala cinemas. We stayed there till 5pm while enjoying a cup of iced coffee and observing the social culture of the people of Cebu, the Cebuanas to be exact. Hehe... Sorry I got no time to take some pics at that moment. Lol..

The Friday Night Magic Tournament is held here every Saturday.

After that, we went back to JY Square and waited for the tournament to finish. Merfolks piloted by Ray Nava went 5-0 during that tournament and finished 1st place. I've observed a lot of variety of decks piloted and I find it hard to adjust my sideboard. I knew people were there to psycho each other on what deck each will be using for the Regionals the next day. We head back to the pension house after dinner and do our final preparation.

Kenny(left) playtesting with Athan

We also helped Kenny, our fellow Ilonggo friend who was working in Cebu, to tweak his U/W control deck into a somewhat Project R build. It was late but athan and I still decided to go with Oliver and check out the place they call “Mango Square”. We were curious about the Saturday night life in Cebu so we went to one of the bars there. Here's what I've “observed”. Hehehe...

The bar we went into had this pole dancing contest for the chics.

One of the contestants getting Low, low, low, low.

This bar had this portion filled up with some kind of foam and chics were dancing like crazy here. A good marketing idea for a party place. Hehehe...

We went back to the pension house at around 3am, tired and sleepy, but still enjoyed that night. A party boy nature indeed. Lol.. Now I'm worry on how we're gonna be able to prepare for tomorrow's tournament. Bahala na ah..

To be continued...