The day started out on a “Murphy’s Law” kind of note with an it doesn’t matter what time you go to bed (4am) or what time you get up (6.30am) you are still going to forget something. After meticulously checking and counter-checking that everything was packed and ready to go, I forgot the printer cable which caused a 25min delay to the start time whilst the cavalry went home and retrieved it. But other than having to run the gauntlet of anxious magic players twice, the delay certainly didn’t dampen the spirits of the card-floppers that had travelled from Wellington, Palmerston Nth, Tauranga, Rotorua, Auckland and Whangarei to have a crack at taking the coveted title of Waikato Champ home with them for the year to come.
A total of 43 Seniors, 4 Masters and 19 Juniors battled it out over 6 gruelling rounds with the top 8 playing off for the trophy's and the chance to say “I rock, you suck!”.
Not only at stake were the trophy's and the titles but also a box of boosters and some very juicy 32k-rating points which leading up to Nationals are very sought after especially for those on the brink of the composite points invite cut-off.
The final 8 of each group (after the Swiss rounds) were as follows:

Seniors                                           Juniors

1. Glenn Patel (Ak) Goblin Bidding                   1. Chris Chambers (Ak) Ravager Affinity
2. Shawn Chang (Ak) Red Sligh                      2. Hemi Witehira (Ham) Ravager Affinity
3. Nico Johnston (Ham) Ravager Affinity        3. Ivan Schroeder (Ham) 5 Colour Sliver
4. Hamish Reeve (Taur) RW Slide                   4. Basil Gammon (Ham) WW
5. John Reeve (Taur) RG Beast                      5. Nicholas Guy (?) WW
6. David Chambers (Ak) Tooth & Nail              6. Steele Williams (Ham) Ravager Affinity
7. Scott Couchman (Ham) Red Sligh                7. Josh Tutaki (Ham) URw Affinity
8. George Zhang (Ham) W Control                  8. Henry Gammon (Ham) Modular/Affinity

In the Juniors, some heavy play saw Auckland’s Chris Chambers dispose of the Gammon brothers (Henry and Basil) in the quarters and semis respectively to set up a Ravager Affinity mirror final with local 2nd generational magic player Steele Williams (son of the infamous semi-retired Dave Williams, who was a magic legend in his time). Unfortunately, Hamilton’s chances of keeping the Junior title were dashed when Chris carved Steele up like a Sunday roast winning 2-0 and taking the title north of the Bombay's. Notably Chris never dropped a game all day winning 9 rounds (18-0). Strong effort! Y’all come back next year to defend it!

Even stronger play was needed to make the top 8 of the senior tournament. Whilst some notables like Worlds contenders, Gene Brumby (03) and James White (02) and the 2003 Auckland Regional's Champ Mike Naisbitt, didn’t make the cut the top 8 still promised to be a stiffly fought affair. With another 2003 Worlds contender Shawn Chang, 2003 Hamilton Regional's Champ Leighton Archer and Scotty Couchman, who at present is leading the Waikato Player of the Year race, all wanting a piece of the glory the less fortunate ones waited for some exciting finals play and were far from disappointed.
John Reeve proved that his son wasn’t too big to be put over his knee and given a spanking when he despatched Hamish in the quarters 2-0. Scotty kept Hamilton’s hopes alive narrowly beating Shawn Chang (2-1) as did Nico Johnston who prevailed 2-1 over David Chambers (Chris’ brother) in a tightly fought match. Hamilton’s only other hope George Zhang was sent packing by Aucklander Glenn Patel who showed that his top Swiss finish was no fluke steaming through John Reeve in the semis to set up one half of an exciting final showdown. Hamilton was assured a berth in the finals as Nico and Scotty met in the semis to see who was going to show Glenn that Hamilton players aren’t all scrubs. Scotty won that honour beating Nico 2-1 in a nail biting finish that showed that they both wanted to be there at the end.
Going into the final I was quietly praying that the Senior trophy wasn’t going to also end up on a mantelpiece in Auckland and thankfully Scotty Couchman (Hamilton legend and downright nice guy) showed that he can also build and play a deck as well as he can the ones he borrows and also why he is leading the Mark One Waikato Player of the Year Championship at present. I won’t go into the how's and whys of the finals (read Scott’s article), all that matters is that Scott took the title convincingly and some serious rating points along with it.
The other honour of the day was the title of the top-finishing Master (40+) which went to Tauranga’s John Reeve and netted him some more boosters to go to the haul that he and Hamish took back to the East Coast.

Deck Analysis:

As expected Affinity builds were to the fore with the new Arcbound Ravager making his way into the build and setting up a much stronger deck with an additional kill factor.
It was also interesting to see a resurgence of Goblin Bidding decks which utilised Skullclamps and Pulse of the Forge for card drawing and extra burn. Sligh also showed up strongly with Pulses and Shrapnel Blasts clearing the way for the Firecats and Sliths.
Juniors showed their everlasting devotion to Elves and White Weenie with the latter making a dual appearance in their top 8.
 

	Senior	Junior	Total
Goblins/ Bidding	7 (15%)	0	7 (11%)
Ravager Affinity	4 (9%)	3 (15%)	7 (11%)
WW	3 (6%)	4 (21%)	7 (11%)
Affinity Blue/UR	3 (6%)	3 (15%)	6 (9%)
RG/Beasts	5 (11%)	0	5 (8%)
Sligh	3 (6%)	1	4 (6%)
W/g/b/u Control	4 (9%)	0	4 (6%)
Elves	2 (4%)	2 (10%)	4 (6%)
RW Slide	3 (6%)	0	3 (4%)
Zombies/Clerics	2 (4%)	1	3 (4%)
Tooth & Nail Var.	3 (6%)	0	3 (4%)
RB	1	1	2
Gb/Gw	1	1	2
Other	1	1	2
MBC	1	0	1
Minds Desire	1	0	1
Slivers	0	1	1
Rolling Stones	0	1	1
Total	44	19	63

As you can see by the deck breakdown that there was an array of archetypes favoured with a few standing out e.g. Gob. Bidding, Sligh, Affinity builds, WW and W? control builds to name a few.
What the hell does all those stats mean you ask? Does they tell us anything? Well other than the fact that I obviously don’t have a life or else I wouldn’t be crunching numbers until the wee small hours, what it does tell us is that Mirrodin and Darksteel appear to have shaken up the Type 2 environment considerably.
Players are still evaluating D/steel with decks like Tooth and Nail becoming more popular.
Single cards like the pulses and Skullclamp are enhancing the older archetypes and bringing some of these back into feasibility city. Some of the older decks didn’t get any weaker, players just found funkier toys to play with and if you look closely I think you will find that decks like Beasts, Slide, and even Zombie/Clerics have the ability to utilise some of the cards that Mirrodin block has to offer and become tier one decks alongside of the aforementioned. This works for Regional's as they are only 6 weeks away. But it doesn’t work for the Nationals as, I feel, 5th Dawn will open a whole new can of worms and shake an already volatile environment.
Keep building and play testing as only then shall the truth be revealed.

PROPS & SLOPS

Props
Big ups to the Road Trippers who travelled from both ends of the island.
Props to Head Judge Grant Anderson and judges Tom Mathews & Dave Williams who worked hard deck-checking and sorting out the curly calls.
Major props to Vicki who worked her butt off in the kitchen feeding the multitude with fishes and loaves.

Slops
Major slops to whoever "accidentally" picked up 10yr old Julien Dusterwald's folder and took it home. Shame on you! I would like to think that somebody who finds this in their bag could return it to me "no questions asked" and help mend a little fella's disillusionment with magic and magic players.
The folder can be either posted or left in my mailbox
(41B Mahoe St, Melville, Hamilton)

Until next time.

Tony Wootton
DCI Certified Level 1 Judge
Tournament Organiser Fri-lite Magic
Chief Cook and Bottle washer.