For me, last year's Worlds - my most enjoyable and yet disappointing Magic event ever - ended with a visit to the dentist.

Weird.

It had been six years since I had been, so I was nervous. Twenty minutes later and he's leaning over me, elbow pressed against my numbed jaw as he wrestles the dead molar out of my gums... Yanking it back and forth, back and forth. He stops midway, takes a step back, eyeballs me, gives me a friendly, reassuring grin, and asks me:

"Do you wish you hadn't waited for six years now?"

Mother****er. Waiting till he has half my tooth out to stop and ask me that. He must love his job.

I'm aware that I'm pretty helpless right now, so I bite back the sarcastic reply and grimace at him in agreement. (Plus, he has a point: I just wish he hadn't timed the comment specifically for his own amusement!)

Yeah, yeah - so the bold dentist eventually yanks the miscreant tooth out. Big deal, I hear you say. Get on with it. Well, I have two points for you impatient readers:

• It hurt. Talking about it helps me!
• That incident, more than anything else, made me realize that I was back in Ireland and not in the magical fairyland of Worlds in Sydney anymore.

Personally, it was a big bump mentally coming out of that marvelous trip for once and for all - so coming to this year's Nationals, I was pretty determined to qualify again. So I tested. A lot.

Other Important Things To Know When Reading This Report:

• I like beer.
• I am from Cork. Cork is the cultured, refined"real" capital of Ireland.
• I have not drunk alcohol for ten days before this tournament so that I am in a proper frame of mind for it.
• And I really, really like beer.
• Cork people are arrogant, but there's a reason: We are that damn good. Dublin is the"official" capital of Ireland merely by an accident of history. Therefore, they tend to be jealous of us, and this reflects in their attitude.

I arrived in the Dolmen hotel on Friday evening after driving up with three friends that day: Paddy"Family Guy" Walsh, Darragh"Kryptonite" Long and Ian"Yeah!" Desmond. We strolled into the Tournament Hall and said hello to all the other players we knew. Ireland is a small country with an active player base, and at this level we all know 80% of the competitors already.

I ended up in the pub, chatting with my World's teammates from last year Robbie McKeown and John Larkin, showing them the photos from Sydney that I had developed earlier that day and resisting the urge to have a pint. I also had a good chat with Steve Thompson, a Scottish multiclassed player/poet who's been living in Belfast for the last few years.

Note: Ireland, being the civilized, literate country that it is, also uses its national Magic mailing list as a springboard for various online poetry reading sessions. After one such unsuccessful foray into the genre from Michael McFadden, the aforementioned Steve (our Magic Poet Laureate) had this to say:

A note to young Michael McFadden,
Well, your rhymes would make anyone sadden,
Though your poetry's poor,
May you make the Pro Tour,
And get paired with Osama Bin Laden.

I know what you are thinking: The man will go far if he ever joins the American Foreign Service. Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell, eat your heart out!

And what the hell is this doing in a Magic report? I can't work that out, either. I can never stay on topic.

Alas! Steve's drunken state didn't augur well for a good performance this year, but it didn't look to me as if he was going to lose any sleep over it! Unfortunately, I was wrong, as apparently he stayed up drinking with Robbie till about five hours before the first draft started. McKeown never seems to play well unless he has some kind of performance millstone hanging around his neck. (Normally it's his lack of talent!)

First Draft:
I woke up Saturday morning with a throbbing pain at the base of my head that I am very used to. I used to think it was a hangover, as I get it every Saturday morning - but I have realized over the last two Saturdays that it is merely my body clock's inherent indolence shining through:

Body:"Hey, it's Saturday morning. Give Upper Neck Areas 1, 2 and 4 a throbbing pain and link it up to the rest of the back of his head."
Brain:"Why? Cormac hasn't drunk in ten days."
Body:"Meh; force of habit, I guess."

After a lot of draft testing, I had 3-0'd the two most recent drafts where I had gone with B/W clerics, getting multiple Vile Deacons in both. Therefore, all things being equal I was ready to go for U/R, B/G, or preferably B/W. (Zombie/Soldiers are also nice.) I'm not picky!

92 Players invited. 86 Playing.

I ended up (un)lucky enough to be at a seven-person pod, which has its advantages (byes! mmm) and disadvantages: Color declarations getting skewed and impossibility to evenly divide the removal colors. This didn't appear to bother Roger to my right, who happily went into W/G after I had established W/B early on and with the player to his right B/U. These things happen and I was amused when he opened Rorix in his second booster and then hate-drafted it.

9 Swamps
8 Plains
1 Starlit Sanctum
1 Festering Goblin
1 Battlefield Medic
1 Wretched Anurid
1 Withered Wretch
1 Shepherd Of Rot
2 Smokespew Invoker
1 Daru Healer
1 Gustcloak Harrier
1 Daru Sanctifier
1 Aven Redeemer
1 Deathmark Prelate
1 Sootfeather Flock
1 Daunting Defender
1 Aven Soulgazer
1 Grassland Crusader
1 Swooping Talon
1 Crowd Favorites
1 Phage The Untouchable
1 Pacifism
1 Swat
1 Aphetto Dredging
1 Profane Prayers

6 Zombies
10 Clerics
4 Soldiers

Sideboard cards of note:
Soulless One
Dawning Purist
Crude Rampart
Crown of Awe

Round 1: Pavel B/G/r
I wrecked Pavel utterly in Game 1 with an army of clerics that destroyed his elves.

Game 2 Pavel killed me quite quickly with his Rockshard Elemental, and we were shuffling up for Game 3.

I can't remember a lot about the deciding game, but I do remember winning the turn before I would have died. I didn't take notes for this match; sorry. I do now know to pay more attention if I plan on writing a report, though!

Aaanyway: He was at five life and had no fliers. I attacked for two with my only creature left - an Aven Redeemer. I cast Profane Prayers for one and then sacrificed the Redeemer to my Starlit Sanctum to have him lose two life. Too close.

1-0, 2-1.

Round 2: Noel Peare U/R
Noel is a good friend of mine and regularly tests with me. We had had a very cooperative draft, and after I had established myself in B/W clerics and he had done same with red, he had quickly spotted the underdrafting of blue and collected a lot of the better cards available in that color.

He offered me the draw at the start, and I really wanted to take it but (as you shall see) I tend to pick up more draws than most and felt it was too early in the tournament not to risk two points just to get one.

Game one I came out of the blocks flying and had him under pressure from the outset, and in the mid-game I took him down with attacking Daunting Defenders, Wretched Anurids, and morph creatures with three damage preventers on the board. By the time he was stabilizing (thanks to a well-timed Willbender unmorph that I had gambled on), it was a little too late for him.

I got a good start again in game two, but lost control of the game when I drew six lands in a row from turn 6 on; Noel was patient and retaliated savagely in two big turns to kill me with three minutes left. At this point, we agreed to ID and Noel was generous enough not to harp (too much) about the wasted forty-seven minutes beforehand.

1-0-1, 3-2.

Round 3: Ed O'Kane, U/G
I soaked up a bit of damage early on before taking control of the board after he attacked me with a Crown of Vigored morph creature with five mana open. I blocked with an Aven Redeemer, a Daru Healer, a Festering Goblin, and a Withered Wretch.

An odd block? I did it as he had only one Venomspout Brackus in his deck that could hurt me here and multiple Snarling Undoraks and Spitting Gournas - and besides, I thought he was bluffing.

Aside: I really like Rochester drafting, as it allows a very different sort of bluffing to booster draft. In my opinion, a good player will know what tricks another player has available and, to a certain extent, what morphs they have. After I registered my deck in both drafts on day one, I went to the toilet and mentally went around the draft table and tried to remember the tricks and major threats that each player had drafted - which benefited me greatly a number of times during the day.

Aaanyway, he tapped five and unmorphed a Treespring Lorian. I panicked for a second before realizing he had only had five mana. I told him this and watched his face. His absolute, dawning horror convinced me that if he had been trying to cheat me, he was a really good actor. I didn't call a judge; simply blocking his morph, killing it, and making him take five mana burn was punishment enough! I untapped, resolved Crowd Favorites, and the game was over.

Game two, Ed's briefly-active pair of Wirewood Savages netted him enough card advantage to keep blockers up while his Glintwing Invoker sauntered over to do me twenty-two damage - four of it in extra turns after a game-winning Vitality Charm. Booo!

1-0-2, 4-3.

So; five points from three rounds. Not so hot. I already can't make my target of fifteen and it's only halfway. Grim. And my headache hasn't gone away like a normal Saturday; it's just taken up residence in Neck area 3 as well.

Second Draft:
There were four Cork drafters in a row in the next pod in positions 5, 6, 7, and 8; I was in position 7. The rest of the table was Pavel, Gary Cosgrave, Kiaran Maher, and some guy. The draft ended up not as good as it could have been, as I went B/W again and was feeding Noel all the R/G (Sean was in U/R to my right), but Noel went B/G instead with a B drafter to his left and right. This weakened my deck a little bit - but it's a card tournament, not a love-in, so after frowning at him as much as I dared, I did the best I could. I was the one feeding him, after all!

8 Plains
8 Swamps
2 Secluded Steppes

2 Festering Goblin
1 Deftblade Elite
1 Starlight Invoker
1 Glory Seeker
1 Boneknitter
1 Whipcorder
1 Smokespew Invoker
1 Daru Healer
1 Gustcloak Harrier
1 Akroma's Devoted
1 Daru Stinger
1 Gustcloak Sentinel
1 Aven Redeemer
1 Daunting Defender
1 Corpse Harvester
1 Aven Soulgazer
1 Daru Lancer
1 Gempalm Avenger
1 Crowd Favorites
1 Dirge of Dread
1 Swat
1 Crown of Awe

5 Zombies
7 Clerics
9 Soldiers

I was pretty despondent at this point, as I felt sure I wouldn't do well enough here to leave myself breathing room the next day for the Standard portion.

One thing to note here is that although I rate Crown of Awe highly if you have a number of utility creatures that have incredibly useful abilities, the reason it made my deck was the other seven opponents at the table had all drafted red or black. This is unlike the first table I drafted at, where it had been (a) a seven-person table and (b) a table with only four other black and/or red drafters, hence the lack of the Crown in my first deck.

Round 4: Noel Peare G/B
Noel had ended up with a less-than-optimal selection of Black cards to go with his green and we joked a bit about which of our decks were worse beforehand.

Game 1: I resolved a turn 4 3/3 Daru Stinger with my Deftblade Elite on the table and butchered his early creatures to begin swinging for the win early. Game 2 was similar to the first. Mmmm. Gotta like the Stinger/Elite combo!

2-0-2, 6-3.

Round 5: Kieran Maher U/R
Kieran had a pretty broken selection of cards to his name, including Butcher Orgg, Imperial Hellkite, Riptide Shapeshifter to fetch them, and a lot of removal including a Lavamancer's Skill and that annoying Riptide Director. Thankfully, he arrived late for the game and my greedy little paw was up in the air like lightning looking for the game win for tardiness. Maybe I could top off my good play above in Game 1 with a mana screw victory!

I certainly knew I wasn't going to win any other way. I'm not too proud.

Kieran is a nice guy who I haven't seen around a lot, so he couldn't have had that much experience. From an incredibly advantageous position, Kieran - after making some errors during the game - managed to win in the 5^th extra turn thanks to an error on my part four turns earlier.

Essentially, from a complicated board position I had used various tricks to keep all but one creature alive from a Butcher Orgg attack, when with better use of my resources I could have kept them all alive. This is pretty much unforgivable at Nationals, no matter how complex the situation was.

2-0-3, 7-4.

Round 6: Ian Desmond B/G
Ian is another good buddy I had done a lot of testing with and he had a pretty strong deck, which tempted me to look for my fourth draw of the day here, as I was pretty demoralized at this point. I figured he wouldn't take it after I hinted at it before the game and met with no real response, but it turns out later he had missed my references.

Anyway, Ian made some uncharacteristic errors in Game 1, which helped me steal it thanks to the amazing Corpse Harvester, which got me two Festering Goblins and then the killer Smokespew Invoker. Game 2 and a Crown of Awed Gustcloak Harrier went all the way when his only way of killing it, Noxious Ghoul, didn't turn up. His other fliers were all black and he had no Gournas.

3-0-3, 9-4.

Well. Day 1's over and I have twelve points. The equivalent of 4-2. Meh. At least I hadn't lost a match yet!

That night, I wrote out the decklist that I had been testing with for about four weeks:

3 Psychatog
4 Counterspell
4 Circular Logic
4 Force Spike
4 Smother
3 Innocent Blood
3 Aether Burst
3 Compulsion
3 Standstill
2 Upheaval
2 Cunning Wish
10 Islands
4 Swamps
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground River
2 Lonely Sandbar
1 Darkwater Catacombs

Sideboard:
3 Duress (vs. Tog, Wake, Reanimator and MBC)
2 Callous Oppressor (vs. U/G and W/G)
2 Persuasion (vs. U/g, W/G and R/G)
1 Persecute (vs. Tog, MBC and Wake)
1 Compulsion (vs. Tog, MBC, Wake)
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Coffin Purge
1 Mana Short
1 Opportunity
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Aether Burst

I like playing control, and had been playing with Kai's Tog list from his Sideboard article for quite a bit after it came out. I felt that the U/G and R/G matchups were quite difficult to go more than 50-50 with and did not expect Tog to dominate Nationals so much this year. Because of this, about a month ago I had taken out the Deep Analyses, Concentrates, and one Darkwater Catacombs to put in three Aether Bursts and three Standstills. While weakening my mirror match percentages, this had shored up the U/G and R/G matchups quite a bit - and I was willing to take a chance on running into more U/G and R/G than Tog over the day.

Round 7: Roger Grealish, Tog
I went first and winced when his second land was an Underground River. Mirror matches would not be what I want to see today. I had the turn 3 Compulsion with Force Spike backup, though so I was at the races when he missed his fourth land drop and had not cast a Compulsion of his own. I eventually won game 1 comfortably after patiently waiting to Wish for the Mana Short before Upheavaling, with him tapped out and slapping down two Togs.

Out: 3 Standstill, 1 Smother, and 1 Burst
In: 3 Duress, 1 Compulsion and 1 Persecute.

Game 2 was not so good, as he Haunting Echoed away my Circular Logics, Duresses, and three of my Compulsions (thankfully, the fourth safely resolved), but I was able to force through Upheaval on the third extra turn for the 1-0 win.

4-0-3, 10-4.

Round 8: Dara Butler, U/G
Dara went first and despite a slow start, my poor draws couldn't prevent him from killing me before I could stabilize.

Out: 3 Compulsion, 1 Standstill
In: 2 Callous Oppressor, 2 Persuasion

Game 2 was great, as I steadied the board with a Callous Oppressor and then had a Tog to his Squirrel Nest. I then Persuaded his Arrogant Wurm over to my side, Innocent Blooded for two turns in a row after taking his madness enablers first, and laid a devastating Standstill, which filled my hand up again.

Out: 2 Standstill
In 2: Compulsion

Game 3, Dara got the nuts draw against me and I knew I was dead before I untapped for my turn 3. Dara had been only playing about fifteen months and had gotten an awful lot better in that time. He impressed me a lot with the way he represented threats that didn't exist and made me doubt whether he had answers or not - especially in Game 1.

4-1-3, 11-6.

Round 9: Colin McBurney, W/B Clerics
I have been playing against Colin every year for the last five years, and I always enjoy playing him as he is a gent to play against and is always up for a laugh. This year he had a brought a wacky cleric deck to the table, with enough early threats to keep me under pressure and a nasty Patriarch's Bidding that I could barely counter after throwing all my resources into containing his religious fervor. Standstill was amazing here, as I would not have been able to match him card-for-card indefinitely, especially as it cost me only two mana to cast - which allowed me the ability to counter, kill, or bounce threats in his end step. When I was at five life, I was able to Upheaval/Tog for the win.

No Changes.

Game 2 was all about his three City of Brass and my turn 2 Standstill. I was never really under pressure here, even though he resolved Withered Wretch, since he was simply too low on life to survive any kind of combo win - let alone the good kind involving Upheaval and a close personal friend of mine...

5-1-3, 13-6.

Round 10: Vincent Murphy U/G
Vincent is a pleasant guy who claims to be from Dublin, but who now lives in Carlow. I won game one when Standstill absolutely wrecked him three times. I seemed to draw it and an Aether Burst or Smother every time he broke Standstill.

Out: 1 Compulsion, 3 Standstill
In: 2 Callous Oppressor, 2 Persuasion

Game two, I mulliganed to six and kept a dodgy hand of island, swamp, Oppressor, Innocent Blood, Smother, and Tog. We all know what happened to me here...

Out: 2 Compulsion
In: 2 Standstill

Game 3 started with eleven minutes left - and when Vincent was slow to shuffle his deck, I called a judge over in case things got slow. I don't believe that Vincent deliberately stalled me out here, but I would have appreciated it if he had known what Callous Oppressor did before I cast it!

I Upheaval-Togged in the second extra turn with him on eleven and Logic'd his Logic of my Tog, and so had nothing for his Basking Rootwalla in his turn - besides the Aether Burst in my had that would cost me 2.5 damage to cast. I could only do 17.5 to Vincent, no matter how many times I counted it.

5-1-4, 14-7.

Wow! Four draws. That is pretty impressive, even for me! Now I have to win out to make it.

Oddly enough, I felt great. I had not played especially well so far, but I was two wins from a probable top 8. This is the kind of situation I love, and I had done the exact same last year (albeit with fewer draws). As Jamie Wakefield would have said (if he was still alive and from Ireland),"I could feel the hand of destiny on my shoulder." I find that a lot of the time in Magic, the attitude you have going into a game can really help decide how it goes. In this case, I think it was a great help to me that I 100% believed I was going to do it and carefully and methodically made sure that I made no errors in the next two hours.

Round 11: Stewart Shinkins B/R Reanimator
Stewart and I are good buddies and used to share an apartment in Cork a few years ago and traveled to Pro Tour: LA '01 together. We looked at each other and grinned; we've been in this situation against each other too many times. He's definitely got me on PTQ final battles, as it's 2-0 to him. I've nailed him at Nationals before, though, so there is no need for either of us to play mind games with each other. (Yet!) Stewart just reminds me that a draw is no good for either of us and it's in our best interests to play fast. (Hey! Are you implying that I'm a slow player? Never!)

I'm a bit worried about his hand disruption, but he has no turn 1 Duress and I resolved the turn 2 Standstill that I wanted. If he draws a Duress off the top, that will be a shame - but any discard or reanimation tricks won't be fast enough here and I have two Aether Bursts in hand. Sweet. I stay in control here for most of the game, and even have the luxury of Wishing for an Opportunity instead of the Coffin Purge I imply isn't in my Sideboard with Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Arcanis the Omnipotent in his 'yard due to the Bursts still in my paw on about turn 9 or 10. I benefited from a second Standstill at this stage and just want to find a certain sorcery to Upheaval-Tog the second he overextends himself mana-wise. I did.

I can't remember my sideboarding here, as I hadn't tested against Reanimator, so I presume I brought in Duresses and Persecutes for Standstills. That's what I'd do now, anyway.

Game Two: He resolves a Haunting Echoes after I Wish for the now-revealed Coffin Purge, and I remove the only Counterspell and Logic in my graveyard in response. This all takes time, and I draw straight into two Counterspells in a row straight after this to hold him off. He resolves a hasted Visara with my Tog on the board, and I Aether Burst both my tog and the legend when he kills it. Next turn, I Wish for the Circular Logic I removed earlier and he concedes in extra turns when he can't win.

I thank him for not playing the next two turns just to f**k with me and he smiles wanly. He's out again. Next year play a Tier 1 deck, ya fecker!

At this point, it became apparent that my buddy Darragh Long who was 5-0 with his modified U/G deck with maindeck Unsummons could ID into the top 8. Sweet.

6-1-4, 16-7.

Round 12: Dave Gray, Tog without Wishes
Dave is a great guy from Belfast who would make Bob Marley look stressed. Dave always gives the impression he is only there because he had nothing better to do that day. Don't be fooled by it! He's made numerous Nationals Top 8s and Pro Tour visits - but that doesn't mean he's not great fun to play against, as you're always guaranteed a bit of banter with him.

Game 1 was a bit too close for comfort, as after my turn 6 I had a Compulsion and a Standstill with four mana untapped. Somehow, control of the game slipped away from me as I drew more and more bounce and creature disruption. He resolved his own Compulsion in that period, but I was able to Wish for a Mana Short unmolested when he ill-advisedly tapped out to discard to Compulsion. Eventually I was back in control again, as Dave was unfortunately missing land drops and he was forced to make ever-increasingly desperate moves to prevent me Compulsing into an even-better situation and tried to resolve his third tog with five mana left. I wished for Opportunity with eight mana left and Opportunitied (is that even a word?) in response. He countered and I countered his counter, which he countered with one mana left. I untapped, cast Innocent Blood, and he conceded.

Out: 3 Standstill, 1 Smother, and 1 Burst
In: 3 Duress, 1 Compulsion and 1 Persecute.

Game 2 ended when I Upheavaled twice, the last before extra turns after Duressing away both his Upheavals. (One of them was foil, and I wanted to trade for them right away; I'm a sucker for the foils! What a scrub.)

This left him just a control deck with three kill methods, and I held him off quite easily in the two turns he had left to cast a Tog.

7-1-4, 17-7. (4-1-1 for the day)

Wasn't my deck meant to beat U/G and lose to Tog? What's up with six points versus two Tog decks and one point versus two U/G decks?

Hey, what do I care? I'm in the top 8 for the 3^rd year running! I come in 7^th and get paired with Gary Cosgrave, the only other Tog player in the Top 8.

For the record, the other Top 8 players were:

• John Larkin: Wake
• John Cowan: Wake
• Darragh Long: U/G
• Dave Coughlan: R/G
• Oli Bird: Clerics!?
• Alan Meaney: R/G

Quarterfinals: Gary Cosgrave, Tog
I had gone through Gary's decklist and I wasn't overly happy with what I saw. Two maindeck Memory Lapses, three Cunning Wish, three Concentrates and a Deep Analysis instead of my"three Standstill, three Aether Burst." He must have grinned when he saw my list.

I still felt really confident, as I hadn't lost a Nationals Quarterfinals (What do you mean I had only played two before? Shut up!) and thought as long as I got Compulsion I would be okay.

I'm smiling now as I think of it. What planet was I on? At least I don't suffer from a lack of self-confidence.

Anyway, Game 1 was a farce, as I missed my third land drop, going first after mulliganing down to six. I played a turn 4 Lonely Sandbar and Gary forced Compulsion through the next turn, countering my counter as I tried not to look at the two Force Spikes in my paw. When I didn't top deck a Compulsion the next turn, the writing was on the wall. Gary didn't make errors here and calmly ramped up to twelve mana, tapped me out, and Upheavaled and then double-Togged.

As he said:"Twelve mana to six, and drawing sixteen more cards through Compulsion and Concentrates is some good." Nice, insightful analysis there, Big Guy!

Out: 3 Standstill, 1 Smother, and 1 Burst
In: 3 Duress, 1 Compulsion and 1 Persecute.

Game 2 I keep a decent (going first) hand of land, Compulsion, Force Spike, Aether Burst and Smother. I lay my second land on turn 2 and instead of playing the turn 2 compulsion and risking the Spike, I decide to wait a turn. Gary misses out on laying a blue land turn 2 and lays a swamp and Duresses instead; he takes my Compulsion and draws three blue lands off the top in the next three turns, then resolves another Duress and a Compulsion to take control. At this point I play out a Tog with the purpose of purely forcing him to spend his mana on anything but getting ridiculous card quality advantage over me. I eventually run out of things to do to annoy him, and after Lapsing my desperate upheaval he Duresses me, takes nothing, and Upheaval-Togs for the win.

We embrace and I'm out.

I was pretty disappointed to miss out on being on the Worlds team again, but it was a big consolation to be knocked out by a pure gent. Gary is a friend who I have a lot of respect for, and have shared many a cigarette with between rounds. (Tog players don't get as much Nicotine Time as the R/G players.) I'm glad he's on my National Team.

Another big consolation was Darragh had won his Quarterfinals against Dave Coughlan (and ended up 4^th), which was the least he deserved with the massive effort he put in testing. (Mainly due to the threesome his hot girlfriend promised him if he made top 8. Sorry, Pam, I felt it was important that you knew that he was boasting to us all about it.) (As did I - The Ferrett, always willing to help out a friend)

Elements of the last paragraph may not be exactly true.

I hope Darragh, Gary, Alan and Oli have half as much fun this year representing their country as I have done in the past two years, because if they do they'll have a lot of tales to tell, and a lot of good memories to smile at. I think that this year's Nationals team is a good one, with plenty of talent and willingness to test. I would worry that it only has one Pro Tour between the four of them, but hopefully Euros will be enough of a learning experience for them to profit from in time for Worlds and - ooops! - let's not forget that Darragh has a GenCon US Worlds Top 8 in L5R.

As I type this I realize this means nothing as to many Magic players L5R is merely a lame, bastardized hybrid of Magic and Snap - but hey, but we all have our weaknesses. I mean, I support Liverpool!

It was weird writing this report. Any free time I've had in the last month has been spent thinking about the Nationals. Now they're over, all I feel is the same nagging echo of disappointment that I quickly drowned in beer last Sunday night, only for it to swell up every time I think about what might have been. It would have been cool to be on the team again, but Top 8 is some consolation I guess.

And I suppose it's not that bad, as I am flying out to SARS-infested Asia for PT Yokohama in a week with John Larkin. All you good players out there: Stay away from Japan!

Best of Luck,
Cormac.

• Well done to: John Larkin, Dave Coughlan, John Cowan and my wonderful self.
• Congrats to Alan Meaney, Oli Bird, Gary Cosgrave and Darragh Long.

A big thank you to:

• All the Cork Players who tested with me
• Noel, Paddy, Ian, DQ, Wayne, Ayden, Sean (good skillz on Euros, man!), Conor, Steve, DaveF, Elaine, Lee, Mulkabu and Darragh.
• Paddy, for driving me there and back without crashing
• Ben Andrew Fulton on MTGAuction.com, for the support.
• Team5fu international membership, for being there: Two more teammates going to Worlds!
• A big shout-out to Dalton Maloney who hid his disappointment of not being allowed to play in order to help judge an event that he really wanted to Top 8.
• All the other judges: Darryl, Lee, Justin and Thomas. Ye all did a great job and helped make it a tournament that was a pleasure to play in. I don't think that there was one bad call made, or one minute longer spent on the tournament than was necessary. Kudos.
• The TO's: Jim Brophy and Paddy McDonagh were determined to have Nationals in Carlow, and due to hard work and perseverance they got their. With those same qualities, they made it a real success and a Nationals to remember.
• Ralph, for being a gent, a fine chuckler and the beginner of the now annual Slow Clap for Brosnan.
• Dave Kearney, for making the effort at 06:00 Monday morning. I don't care what Darragh says. He's just got weak lungs!
• All my opponents. Thanks for the games and the general good sportsmanship.
• John Larkin, for becoming"Bi-hemispherical Ring-Golf" Champion.
• Dara and Gary, for beating me. I needed to be taken down a peg or two, as is apparent from the monstrosity above.
• Niamh, for once again offering to put me up, even though the tournament wasn't even in Dublin!