"Everything that has a beginning has an end."

I'm sure all of you out there have heard these words spoken more than once over the past couple of weeks. It is, of course, from the upcoming movie The Matrix: Revolutions. The only reason why I chose to start off my report on the 2003 ND State Championships with that quote will, just like the Wachowski brothers' vision, become apparent at a later time. Let's get to the tournament, shall we?

I could go into great detail about how I came to play the deck that I did - but to be perfectly honest, I just chose to play land destruction based on one card: Molten Rain. Wizard's R&D Department, specifically Randy Buehler, has been quoted as saying that,"We will never print a land destruction spell with a casting cost of three, other than Stone Rain, ever again". When I saw the spoiler list for Mirrodin, I thought it was a fake, and that was because I saw Molten Rain and thought,"No way. The card is a fake. It has to be!"

Oops! Oh well; my bad.

I looked at the builds that people were trying to make, mostly R/G variants using Birds of Paradise and Vine Trellis to get some early mana acceleration, but I didn't like it; it just looked too clunky. The last time I remember playing a land destruction deck as a good metagame choice was back when cards like Pillage, Avalanche Riders, Tectonic Break, and Rishadan Port were around. Throw down a Masticore or two for the kill, and there you go. Back then, the only enchantments you really had to worry about were the ones brought back from your opponent's graveyard via Replenish. I sometimes wonder just how good land destruction could have been if Nevinyrral's Disk had been legal back then. *shudder*

Anyway, I figured that the format was slow enough again (with the obvious exception of Goblins and White Weenie) that a land destruction deck could be viable. Here's the deck I chose to go with:

Grid Locked (a.k.a. Ponza)
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Chrome Mox
3 Starstorm
3 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Lay Waste
4 Demolish
4 Grid Monitor
4 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Stalking Stones
3 Forgotten Caves
17 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Starstorm
2 Blood Moon
2 Oblivion Stone
3 Flashfires
3 Pyroclasm
4 Shatter

I didn't base any of the cards on numerous hours of play testing or anything like that, so please don't think that I did. I just tried to put a deck together that comes as close as humanly possible to the land destruction deck I played all those years ago. I tried to get my hands on a third Chrome Mox before the tournament, but to no avail - but after playing the deck, I'm not so sure that the third one would even be necessary. The deck already has a fair number of artifacts in the main deck, so it might affect how everything works out in the end. I haven't done any additional testing with the deck, but if you'd like to give it a try I'd recommend taking out a Skirk Prospector for the third Chrome Mox.

Onto the tournament!

It seems like Magic is becoming more and more popular around the state of North Dakota every year, but there still are only a handful of places that a person can go to play in sanctioned Magic tournaments. This doesn't matter to some people - but to others, it's all that matters. I've played in North Dakota's State Championships every year since 1998, and back then if we had more than twenty-five players show up we counted that as a good turnout. Every year since then attendance has continued to rise, and this year we had a state best sixty-one players show up for the tournament. I didn't take very detailed notes during my matches, so you'll have to forgive me if things aren't in great detail.

Round 1: Scott Dandurand (White Weenie w/ splash of blue)
Scott's forces consisted of Daru Sanctifier, Deftblade Elite, Willbender, and another creature I can't remember right now. He backed those up with Spirit Link and Hindering Touch, but a timely Oblivion Stone took care of things. In game 2, he dropped five Plains in a row, and I cast Flashfires once I hit four mana; he never recovered after that.

After the match, I began to wonder why he never cast any of his creatures with Morph facedown to get their effects, but I never asked him.

(2-0)

Round 2: John Tomaszewski (Mono Black Control)
Game 1: John recovered from some early LD on my part to cast Promise of Power for a 5/5 demon that went all the way.

Games 2 and 3 were different stories; I dropped an Oblivion Stone on turn 3, and he dropped a Culling Scales on his next turn. Being rather fond of my Oblivion Stone, I topdecked a Shatter and started blowing up John's land to prevent him from casting Persecute; he never recovered. Game 3, I sacked a Skirk Prospector on turn 2 to keep him under two lands for the rest of the game.

(4-1)

Round 3: Tim Farrell (Zombies)
At first I thought Tim was playing MBC, but a first-turn Chrome Mox, Swamp, Withered Wretch told me immediately that he was playing Brian Kibler's Zombies deck. I sighed inwardly, dropped a Mountain, cast Pyrite Spellbomb, and said go.

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember the rest of the match except for near the end of Game 3. He had out Phyrexian Arena, Damping Matrix, and a couple of zombies (courtesy of a Rotlung Reanimator). I had drawn nothing but land for four turns in a row, and as I sat there staring at my now-useless Oblivion Stone and lone Grid Monitor I thought to myself,"Well, things look pretty grim for me; time to do some knocking!" I knocked the top of my deck three times and grabbed.... Another land. Definitely not what I was looking for.

Tim drew his cards, attacked, and I was beginning to think that this would be my first match loss of the day. Knock, Knock - Starstorm? Now we're talking! I tapped my land and wiped the board clean of all creatures except for my Grid Monitor. I attacked, and Tim's life total was at six. He drew his cards, dropped a Withered Wretch and a Graveborn Muse, and passes the turn to me. I'm down to six life at this point, and I'm afraid that he'll draw a Consume Spirit next turn. I'm thinking,"Man, I sure could go for some direct damage right about now."

Knock, Knock - Hammer of Bogardan.

I cast it at Tim, bring him down to two life, and say go. He loses three life during his upkeep and extends his hand at the end of the match. Whew! I haven't had a close game like that in a long while.

3-0 (6-2)

Round 4: Jason Peyton (Mono Black Control)
I forget how I lost Game 2 (probably by not drawing any LD), but Games 1 and 3 were all about me keeping him at less than three lands each of those games, and having a Grid Monitor and a Stalking Stones go all the way for the win.

4-0 (8-3)

Round 5: Nickolas Lindvall (RW Control)
I drew an insane amount of land destruction in both of the games against Nick (it was something like seven or eight each game) and prevented him from ever casting anything more than a Lightning Rift or a face-down Exalted Angel. I just kept concentrating on his white mana, and a Grid Monitor won it for me both games.

5-0 (10-3)

Round 6: Paul Johnson (Ponza)
Paul and I are the only people left undefeated at this point, and we're both pretty proud of the fact that land destruction is back in a big way. We intentionally draw into the Top 8, wish each other good luck and do some scouting.

5-0-1 (10-3-3)

After prizes had been handed out to those who didn't make the Top 8, we found out who would be paired up against, and we started the last portion of the tournament.

Quarterfinals: John Runger (BRG Aggro)
I never really did find out how good John's deck was. Game 1, he dropped a Tree of Tales and a Birds of Paradise on the first turn, and I dropped a Mountain and a Skirk Prospector. He then put a Vault of Whispers and a second Birds of Paradise into play and said go. I attacked with the Prospector, dropped a second Mountain, sacked the Skirk Prospector, and cast Starstorm for one. John never recovered from that, as he dropped an Ancient Den and said go. I just cast three land destruction spells over the next four turns, along with a Grid Monitor, and John never dropped another card.

Game 2 went even worse for John, as he kept a two-land hand against me (a pair of Vaults) and never drew another land. I blew those up on turns 2 and 3 (thanks to a Chrome Mox on turn 1), dropped a Grid Monitor on turn three and never looked back.

6-0-1 (12-3-3)

Semifinals: Eric Reinhardt (Goblins)
I knew that this was going to be a tough matchup, but I guess I didn't realize just how hard it was going to be. I kept an opening hand that included a Pyrite Spellbomb and a Skirk Prospector, but he just kept dropping threat after threat. In the end, a pair of Clickslithers finished me off. Game 2, he dropped Sulfuric Vortex on his fourth turn, and that, coupled with a Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Warchief, and Clickslither, finished me off. I had him down to something like four or five at the end, but Clickslither really messes things up.

6-1-1 (12-5-3)

I received many congratulations from the people who stuck around to watch the finals, as well as a Top 8 place mat and 10 packs of Mirrodin (half of which were Japanese) for my accomplishment.

As I left Paradox Comics-N-Cards, I stopped briefly in the doorway to take a look back into the store. Brad was behind the counter, helping customers. Jon and Rich (the store's owner and last year's State Champion) were watching the remaining game from the back of the store. Woody (Jamie Woodward) had gone home earlier in the day, but was planning on joining everyone for some food and drink later on. While I have seen this picture (or ones similar to it) hundreds of times before, I was somewhat saddened by the fact that I knew that this might be the last time I walk out of there from a Magic tournament.

I know that I've said in the past that"I'm quitting Magic" or"I'm never going to play this stupid game ever again," but this time I really mean it. My friends all think I'm full of it. It has to do with a number of things, but it ultimately comes down to one: Magic is no longer fun for me. It was so different when I opened up my first booster pack back in May 1997. All of the cards looked so cool, but the one that really stood out for me was the rare in the pack: Shivan Dragon. Back then I didn't care about things like mana cost vs. card efficiency, or what made a card tournament-worthy, rather than a card that was good just because... It was fun. Somewhere along the road, I lost sight of why I fell in love with Magic in the first place. I think maybe it was the day I placed second in for North Dakota States back in 1999. Every since then I've only been concerned about one thing: Winning. I've had legitimate shots at qualifying for U.S. Nationals, back in 2000 and 2001 at Regionals, but I could never quite grab that elusive gold ring. I've made the Top 8 at various Pro Tour Qualifiers over the years, but never finished better than the Top 4.

This past weekend was probably my last chance at glory in the game of Magic, and as I sat across from each person I thought to myself,"Is this going to be the last time I shuffle a deck of Magic cards?" The answer, obviously, is no. While I definitely don't have the love for the game like I once did, I'll probably still play in the occasional booster draft or two every now and again; if nothing else, I'll need an excuse to go and visit with some of the people who have become my very good friends over the years.

The only regret I have in leaving Magic is that I won't see my friends as much as I used to, but I think they'll understand. After all, Magic isn't the reason why we've remained friends over the years; it just happened to be a common interest that we all share.

I'd like to take this time to thank all of the people whom I've had the pleasure of playing Magic with all these years, the staff at Paradox Comics-N-Cards in Fargo, ND (Rich, Woody, Jon, Brad and Nick), but most of all I'd like to thank the people who became my friends through Magic. There are way too many of you to list here, so I'll just say thanks to all of you who consider me your friend. Now you all know why I gave this tournament report the title that I did; because it is, most likely, my last.

Everything that has a beginning has an end.

Jack Christopher (Darth Jackass)