Chains of Bogardan at the Storm Crow Cup

(Editor's Note: I'm trying to go with a more streamlined approach to posting, so I can get things actually out. Stay tuned for some overdue posts)

This past Saturday I played in the Storm Crow Cup in Philadelphia. The format was Scryings, of which I am a huge fan. 

The Deck

Scryings offers so many directions that I really don't want to play the same thing twice. I believe TwiddleVault or Reanimator to be the best deck, but there is lots of room for fun  if you aren't going all-out to win.

Here is what I played:

Chains of Bogardan

This deck began as a concept for the third deck for Team Unified at MobsterCon last year. When my teammate Dan mentioned that he owned three copies of Chains of Mephistopheles, it went from being a fringe sideboard card to a possible build-around. Chains is very good against the two best decks in Scryings thanks to its interaction with Howling Mine and Bazaar of Baghdad, as well as Lat-Nam's Legacy and various Libraries and Books. We didn't go with any of the five versions I brewed up for other reasons, but I wanted to revisit the idea next time I had the opportunity.

The way the deck works is by assembling Chains with Anvil of Bogardan. This restricts any player with an empty hand to effectively drawing no more cards the rest of the game. In the draw step after you draw for turn, the Anvil will trigger with "draw plus discard". However, Chains forces you to discard first, so you discard the card you drew for the turn, and then mill one. There is a window where you can play an instant, but only if it is the first card you draw for the turn. Players with cards in their hands at the start of the turn will get a lot of "rummages" and "loots", but won't net any cards. Each card they subsequently played gets them closer to being locked.

There are many ways you can build the deck to break the symmetry and win once the lock is in place. Having more Mishra's Factories in play than the opponent is one. Other options include Stormbind (you can do 2 damage in your draw step before the Anvil trigger), Sacred Mesa (you just need 4 mana in play to net one Pegasus a turn), The Rack (self-explanatory), Nether Shadow / Ashen Ghoul, Hammer of Bogardan (rebuying every turn lets you draw a card, plus eventually you can burn them out), and just by being ahead on board with creatures. Also to note, Thawing Glaciers lets you continue to make land drops while being able to cast one additional sorcery-speed spell in the game.

I decided to build with creatures plus Hammer, since this was a better deck when the combo is not online. Also, Bogardan name is on theme. For creatures you want the ones that are most resilient to instant speed removal and also better on average than your opponents. River Boa and Sedge Troll were early candidates since they dodge Bolt. Wildfire Emissary dodges Bolt and STP while being a good mana sink to close the game ASAP.

Getting the opponent empty handed to make the lock work is also important. Stupor is a solid card that probably doesn't see enough play. It's not quite as good as Hymn to Tourach, but not by that much. Being able to use off-color Mox to cast it is huge. At some point (likely in the build with The Rack), I had as many as 4 Winds of Change which Mind Twists both players if Chains is in play. I decided Winds wasn't powerful enough on its own. The Wheel of Fortune also went in and out a few times, but it's a much stronger card. I didn't play Library of Alexandria because I couldn't imagine every activating it.

The sideboard was mainly to shore up against creatures that don't die to Bolt and Hammer, as well as the creatureless matchups. Dwarven Miner also had the potential to even further lock the opponent out. 

Big props to Jared Susney for letting me borrow the 3 Chains I needed for the event.

The Games

Round 1 - Jared Susney on RW Dreadnought

Speaking of Jared... Game one I have turn two Mind Twist for 4, leaving him with one card. His next turn he plays Mask plus Dreadnought. I have Maze of Ith to try to buy time, but eventually he finds a second one and I die 4 points short of burning him out. Game two I Stupor him a few times. He's in topdeck mode but managed to get a Rukh Egg in play. I have Maze and some Sedge Troll beat downs to chip away. Eventually I Fireball him for the win. Game three he has Disenchant for Mox and Chaos Orb for a Maze to set me back. He follows up with Mask plus two Dreadnought and I have zero answers.

0-1

Round 2 - Eureka Shivan on Lich with Dreadnought

Game one I have turn two Chains, but no black mana. I play Anvil instead and he kills me on his turn. Game two he has Disenchant for two of my Chains. I do get him low on life, but he finds Mask plus Dreadnought to stabilize. He can't attack because he's dead on the backswing to Emissary, but his Sylvan finds a second Dreadnought to kill me.

0-2

Round 3 - Tom Swindell on Twiddle Vault

Game one he has Emerald Charm for my first Chains. He has three Howling Mine plus a Vault when he casts Timetwister, but doesn't find an untap effect. I play Chains on my turn which he Mana Drains. I follow up with Demonic Tutor for third Chains and this one sticks. I use Wheel to put us both in instants-only mode. I beat down with two Factories hoping to dodge an Emerald Charm on any of his first draws. He never gets there and I win. Game two I don't remember that well. He Transmutes but doesn't have Howling Mines left in the deck. He's forced to get Su-Chi, which I think trades with a Emissary. I have a REB for his Time Walk and then resolve a Chains, but I don't remember how I kill him.

1-2

Tom experiences the lock supported by Factory beatdown

Round 4 - Parker on Greed Ivory Tower Mirror Universe

Game one he has Disenchant for Chains and buries me with Greed plus Tower. Game two I sneak a win when he neglects to use Mirror Universe at 7 life and I have enough burn to take him out. Game three I play three Mox plus Land Lotus for Emissary and Troll turn 1. He has turn two Balance, but I'm far ahead on mana and have Miner in play. He does draw follow up Ancestral, but then I find Chains plus Anvil and take out his mana for an almost flawless victory (he has a Zuran Orb in play).

2-2

Near flawless victory

Round 5 - Chris Nemeth (Neemzor) on Goblins

Game one I'm too slow and die to a Ball Lightning. I side out 4 Chains and 4 Anvil. Game two and three I just midrange him out with bigger creatures plus Stupor to empty his dangerous burn. Game three he lands a Blood Moon, but that just turns on my own Hammer recursion.

3-2

Round 6 - Ian on Goblins

I get full lock with two Emissary vs his two Miners while at 4 life. I attack for 4 a turn with one Emissary hoping to dodge a Lightning Bolt. He's forced to chump the turn before he finds the Bolt and I win. I side out the lock pieces again. Game two he has just enough burn to finish me off. Game three I just midrange value and win.

4-2

Winning  with this board G1 was the highlight for me

I ended up the last of all the 4-2s in 12th place. Also didn't get first or second on spice, which hurt a bit more. I've probably looked at way more Scryings decks that most so I wasn't really impressed with the ones that won, but if you've never seen them before I guess they are much spicier.

The End

I had a great time preparing for the event. I had an even better time at the event, despite my foot barely functioning (there was plenty of alcohol available to help with that).

Props:

Dan and all the Philly OS group for putting on great event at a great location

Jared for lending me Chains

Everyone who traveled from much further away than I would have

Gregg for winning the whole thing (good thing I caught that incorrect pairing round 4!)

One Magic Play - Overanalyzed

Picture this: It's the final game of the final match of the tournament. The board state is such that either you or your opponent will be dead within the next turn cycle. You will win the game if nothing happens, but just barely. You have the opportunity to win the game this turn, but going for it creates a risk that you might lose immediately. How do you decide what to do?

I was recently in this situation. Perhaps because it was the final play of the entire tournament, or the uniqueness of some of the cards involved, this one has stood out to me. I spent several hours over the next day thinking about it and wondering if I actually got the play right. Thinking through conditional probabilities has lead to some confusing moments, but I think I've found an approach that results in clarity. 

This post will talk about that situation, as well as some similar situations that arise as a thought experiment.

The Game State

With actual deck lists and board state photos, an exact answer should be obtainable.

Deck lists:

Noah Shanning - Counterburn

(SB for game three: -1 Wheel, -1 Chain, -1 Lat Nam, -1 Pyroclasm, +2 Crypt, +1 Maze, +1 Blood Moon) (This is his actual sideboarding which I will use for analysis. In game, I assumed he may have some Pyroblasts as well since it can race a Deep Spawn in some situations)

Ty Thomason - Reanimator

(SB for game three: -1 Mana Crypt, -1 Mox Emerald, -1 Mox Ruby, -2 Disenchant, -1 Ashen Ghoul, -1 Mind Twist, +4 Hymn +3 Contagion)

Board state:

8 life with one unknown card in hand

4 life with the 4 cards in hand

The Options

The two main decisions at this point in the game are whether or not I should attack with Deep Spawn, and whether or not I should try to remove the Gorilla Shaman if I do attack so that it represents lethal damage.

Not attacking will not let me win. I will be at one life on my next turn so even Demonic Tutor for Contagion won't work. If I draw Contagion, I could Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus (or vice versa), but would still be one mana short from paying the cost. Even Consultation after a top deck of Lotus or Contagion would require tapping City of Brass. Attacking also leaves the opponent at 1 life after his upkeep, which means the Serendib will kill him before he can attack on the following turn. So even if he draws a removal for Deep Spawn (REB or Chaos Orb), attacking will win the race. Therefore, I must attack.

There are two ways to attempt to remove the Gorilla Shaman. The first is to cast Demonic Consultation for the last Contagion in my deck. The other option is to cast Demonic Consultation for one of four Bazaar of Baghdad, play the Bazaar and activate, and draw Black Lotus and Chaos Orb. I'm not going to do the math, but I think the Consult for Contagion is a bit more likely...

Any time opponent has a burn spell in hand, I lose the game. I am already dead to Psionic Blast, and any other spell will finish me off after Serendib attacks on the opponent's following turn. I will also lose to burn spell when I tap City of Brass to attempt to Consultation. We can ignore those situations. Therefore, assume no burn spells in opponent's hand.

If I attempt to remove the Shaman and my opponent has a Counterspell (Counterspell, Mana Drain, or Force of Will in this case) I will lose on the swing back. If I do not attempt to remove the Shaman, I will lose only to a non-Psionic Blast burn spell off the top during my opponents following turn. Also, sometimes I lose to my own Demonic Consultation.

So which choice gives me the best chance to win?

Detailed Analysis

Any creature in hand would have been played by opponent. This would provide an option to block and survive while still having enough damage left to attack back for the win. It also removes my option of holding back Deep Spawn to block. Therefore, assume no creatures can be in hand.

Additionally other cards we can rule out from being in his hand: Maze of Ith and Mishra's Factory (he played a Volcanic Island last turn), Blood Moon, Chaos Orb, Lat-Nams Legacy, Merchant Scroll, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Braingeyser and Timetwister. I don't know if he would play Tormod's Crypt at this point, so we will assume he could still have that.

Possible cards in his hand:

4 Island

4 City of Brass

2 Volcanic Island

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Tormod's Crypt

1 Counterspell

1 Force of Will

1 Mana Drain

So 3/16 of the time he will have a Counterspell here. (~19%)

What are the outs he can top decks to win if we give him an additional turn to live?

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Incinerate

1 Chain Lightning

So 8/47 is lethal. (~17%)

5 Redraws with Ancestral Recall, Merchant Scroll, Timetwister, Lat-Nam's Legacy, and Braingeyser (Time Walk will not win as he will die to Serendib before his next draw)

Redraws represent an additional 2% or so.

3 Drawing the game with Psionic Blast (~6%  plus ~0.5% on redraw)

Missing with Demonic Consultation - 14%

How to Interpret the Numbers

Here is where I may not have this exactly correct. How can you combine these probabilities to get the correct picture? (Reminder, all of this math is conditional on not being dead to burn spell in hand already.)

Is it right to say you lose 33% of the time by casting Consultation (19% to Counterspell and 14% to Consult itself)? No you have to combine the times they both fail and subtract from 100%, so this happens ~30% of the time.

Do you win 75% of the time you just attack without casting Consultation (100-17-2-6)? I think this approach works. 

But where I'm not sure I'm confident is the comparison of these values: 70% to win by casting Consultation vs 75% to win by not casting it. This would say that not casting it is better by about 5%.

Another way to look at it:

Assume instead of Consultation you have Contagion in hand. Sometimes, you cast Contagion and win the game, but you also would have won that game by not casting it (opponent's hand is blank and they don't draw the burn to kill you). Therefore, you only should cast it if the odds they have burn spell on top is greater than the odds they have a Counterspell in hand. Our math places both of those probabilities right around 19%. So with Contagion in hand, you probably can go either way. However, the added 14% fail rate of Consultation means you should not cast it and instead hope to fade the top deck.

What if you have a read?

Sometimes you may have a read that the opponent has a Counterspell in hand. If you increase the chances they hold a counter, you can see the math will favor not casting a spell even more. This applies even if you have Contagion instead of Consultation.

Maybe you have the opposite read and know with high certainty the opponent is holding a land? You still would need to do the math on missing with Consultation vs them top decking a burn spell. This would favor casting Consultation by about 5%, but you can imagine situations where you should not cast it because it would add risk of losing compared to not.

What did I do?

I did not have time during the match to do such thorough analysis. My thought process was something like this: I lose 15% of the time to Consultation, I think it is likely his last card is a Counterspell given the way the past two turns had played out, so I should not play any spell and just attack. This is what I did and I won the game because of it. My opponent showed me the Mana Drain that was in his hand, along with the Chaos Orb he top decked that was a turn too late.

 At the time, I wasn't sure I made the right play, but I feel a bit better about it after doing this analysis. And so I won the NEOS Season 12 December Monthly.

If you think there is something else to consider or a cleaner way to present this math, please let me know.

My Romancing the Stones End of Year Report

(Editors Note: This was mostly written in December, but not published until March of 2025).

I've really been slacking on the blog posts this year. I played in a lot of events, and only wrote three reports. I even skipped writing a report on an event I won!

I've decided to summarize all my events of last year into a few posts. This is the first one on the Romancing the Stones run events. I hope to do another one for other Old School or Premodern events, and a final one that is just my Lobstercon report (it's over half done already!).

Romancing the Stones Middle School Leagues

I played in the three online MS leagues. I was unable to attend either Festival of Friendship or Houston Hurricane this year, so no OS or Vintage.

Dance Party - 9th Place

For the first league of the year, I played Worldgorger Dragon combo. I ran back the same list I used at the MS World Championships a month prior. I went 4-2 and finished 9th on tiebreakers. I defeated Nether Spirit Control and three others I cannot remember. I lost to TerraGeddon and MonoWhite Wayfarer. TerraGeddon had Sphere of Resistance and Wasteland to slow me down. MonoWhite used Wayfarer for Wastelands and had all angles of disruption. I guess I'll always be losing to Wayfarer Wasteland in these events.

I still think Dragon is a good deck (more on that in the future?). It's a lot harder to play than I ever would have expected, but the list is getting closer every time I play it.

School's Out Forever

I threw UR Stasis together right before the event and forgot to include Pyroblast in the SB which is one of the main reasons to even splash. I really liked the idea of switching to Sea Drake after SB. There might even be a UR Aggro deck out there. I went 5-1 in the Swiss before losing to Landstill in the top 8. I think I won a lot of my matches with Sea Drake as a surprise. A few opponents were not that familiar with the Stasis plan and I took advantage. I don't think this list is that strong, every game felt close. Arcane Denial is bad.

Fall Semester

I originally planned on playing a different list (no spoilers for future leagues here) but never found the time to brew on it. Instead, I made modifications to Michael Arnold's Lobstercon Elves list. I cut Elvish Champions from main for extra land and maximum of the good cards. Didn't play Champion in the SB either, but it may be an option. Absolute Law is suspect, but Armageddon was great. Thornscape Battlemage was MVP. I'd probably want another Battlemage and a Pyroblast in the SB.

This is recent enough I can do round by round:

R1 - Jeff on Sligh

I got to untap with a Priest of Titania somehow and won G1. G2 I think I had turn 2 Absolute Law but it wasn't enough. G3 he mulligan to 5 and I had Masticore I think.

1-0

R2 - Patrick on Landstill

I win G1 with just enough damage attacking and then Battlemage to kill him after combat. G2 he had an Exalted Angel and just raced me. G3 I win by lots of value with Acolyte and Symbiote.

2-0

R3 - Daisuke on UR Control

G1 I win with turn two Survival easily. G2 he has to counter my Absolute Law which lets me get him with Armageddon.

3-0

R4 - Gregg on Aluren

I don't remember G1 or G3, but G2 was an epic where I had to answer Plague Spitter, Engineered Plague, and Goblin Sharpshooter (thanks to Thornscape Battlemage). I had sided out my Masticore so couldn't close the door and his Walls stopping my attacks. I go for Armageddon but he draws just enough lands to cast Aluren and his last card is Recruiter. I still have a shot by flashing in a Acolyte and I need to draw Symbiote to untap an Elf, pick up a creature, and search for Lyrist and have the mana to activate it. I did not draw the Symbiote though. (Note: thinking back, this line doesn't really make sense to me but this is how I remember it)

4-0

R5 - Shun on Worldgorger Dragon

G1 he bricked and never found a dragon. He did Animate Dead Ambassador Laquatas to block but was quickly overwhelmed. G2 I had a good start with both Crypt and Lyrist. I was able to keep Lyrist up and eventually Armageddon set him too far back to recover.

5-0

R6 - Tak on UGw Madness

G1 I have Survival and he did not have Force of Will. I win easily from there. G2 he has Meddling Mage for Survival, but I naturally draw Masticore, Genesis, and Hermit to grind him out.

6-0

I'm first seed after Swiss. My R1 through R6 opponents all made top 8 as well. 

QF - Keith on The Rock

Probably my worst matchup in the top 8. He has four Plague in the sideboard, but fortunately for me he only has two Deed main. I don't really remember G1 or G2. G3 I feel like I'm going to lose but eventually chain enough Acolyte and Symbiote activations to pull it out.

7-0

SF - David on MonoU Flyers

Third time we've met in the top 8. He's out for revenge. This was probably the best match of the tournament. I actually have some detailed notes:

G1 mull to 6 I lead Llanowar into Survival, but he has Foil. His start of Sprite plus Curiosity means I can't really wait to draw better. My turn 3 Acolyte is countered, and I draw a bunch of lands and lose.

G2 I play turn one Llanowar Elves and turn two play 3 more elves with the help of a Cradle. He has turn 2 Sprite but he's holding up Annul. I play two more elves and start attacking. He goes to 9 before finding Hibernation, but Cradle lets me replay enough that I win the race easily.

G3 I mulligan to 5, keep hand of Survival, Acolyte, Granger, two lands, putting a 3rd land and Battlemage on the bottom. He has turn 1 Sprite. I play land and pass. He plays two more Sprites. I play Survival, but it resolves! He plays turn 3 Sea Drake. I search for Wellwisher and play it, but he has Foil. He attacks me down to 8. On my turn I search for another Wellwisher and play it, this one resolves. He attacks me to 1. I play Quirion Ranger, Fyndhorn, gain 3 life, then return forest to untap Wellwisher play acolyte and gain 4. I gain 4 more on his turn. Now I'm at 12 and he attacks me to 5. I attack for 4 on my turn and gain 8 more life, but don't have a creature to use with Survival. He attacks with just the 1/1s for now leaving back Drake to block. So now I can just use Wellwisher once a turn and not have to bounce all my forests. Eventually I find a creature for Survival then find Squee and win easily from there, grinding through two more Force of Wills along the way.

8-0

Now I've beat everyone in the top 8 at one point in this league.

Finals - Tak on UGw Madness

I'm on the play G1 and my Survival resolves. I win easily from there. G2 he has Meddling Mage and I die with two Survivals in hand. G3 he has Mage on Survival and Mage on Hermit. Eventaully I find red mana for my MVP Thornscape Battlemage which I use with Symbiote to stabilize the board. Symbiote plus Battlemage / Acolyte means he can't really do anything and I win without drawing Survival.

9-0

So I finally win one of these leagues after four other top eights and two finals losses, plus three ninth places. winning qualified me for the Invitational. I wasn't sure at first if I would go, but I didn't have any big Magic events for the rest of the year. I was skipping Eternal Weekend and wanted one more thing to play. I committed to flying to Austin to play.

 

RTS Invitational

(Editors Note: I never wrote this part, so this just from memory months later)

I played Landstill in MS because I think its the best deck, even though I've never played it before. I was also expecting a field of mostly Burn/Sligh and Dreadnoughts, which was accurate.

I don't remember why I chose Oath, but I think I expected mostly Lurrus decks. I was wrong here, but wasn't unhappy with my choice.

Vintage I went 2-1. I lost to Rob Connely, beat Ben in the mirror, and then beat Stu after an awkward situation in game 2 where he tapped his opal for mana multiple turns without metalcraft. I was in a winning spot anyway and would have been further ahead had we caught it, so he conceded. I won game three by hard casting Atraxa on turn four.

Middle School I went 2-1. I lost to Tweedy in a terrible match, but managed to beat Lizzy on RG Oath and Paul on Dreadnought easily enough. I almost decked myself against Lizzy in game one though.

Top four I beat Rob Wilson with early Shown and Tell after seeing the coast was clear with a Probe. I lost the finals to Chase which should be on video somewhere. I may have over mulligan and was probably too aggressive with the trap in the third game.

Invitational was great and I'm really glad I finally got to play in one. 

Conclusion

Now that I'm finally publishing this, I've already completed the first league of 2025. I suppose I should start on that report. It looks to be a fun one.

MobsterCon 2024 - *1st place*

MobsterCon 2 finally happened! 

Periodically prodding Mano to run the Team Unified Scryings event in central New Jersey finally paid off. I helped behind the scenes in the planning process. By "helped" I mean I visited several restaurants and breweries in the area to scout for the right location. Eventually I remembered that Village Brewing Company had extra space, including a downstairs area, that might be able to host. Once Mano vetted the place, he finalized the location and my part of the planning was over.

The second step for me was to find some teammates. In the past, I've had the fortune of plenty of players I'm happy to team with. I've always said that teammate selection is the most important part of a team event. At first, I tried to get Simon Christie to team with me, but he had too much other travel planned. I also asked Wheel, but he refuses to play Scryings. 

It was also a given that I would be trying hard to win, or at least develop decks that gave me the best shot. For me, half of the fun of Magic is the process of getting a deck ready for the event. Even without playing any games, I'll spend probably four times the amount of time just thinking about all the cards I could play and what the best strategy would be.

For those reasons, I was hoping to find teammates that would want to try to win close to a similar amount, and also would either be willing to put up with my non-stop tinkering, or just leave me to make the deck building decisions. At the very least, I can always use my network of collaborators in the brewing process and have different people play the games with me.

At the recent Spike Summit, it came up that Will Parshall did not have a team yet either. I told him he could team with me, which gets a great player on my team while simultaneously removing a great player from the opposing player pool. We spent a week trying to find a third and eventually his friend Dan Miller agreed to join us. I had the cards to build most anything so I would provide the cardboard. 

On Scryings

Just three quick notes on Scryings:

1. I still love Scyrings. The games are way more interesting and less frequently decided by whoever draws more power or factories. This is even more so in team unified.

2. Scryings does struggle to get people in the door because its so hard to remember which cards are in and which are out. This is probably the biggest turnoff, but I think its worth the effort.

3. Specific to team unified, a lot of the cards in Scryings seem to operate under the assumption your opponents will be playing fully powered decks, or have the option to. The amount of Moxes you play against in team unified is reduced by 1/3, so many of the cards lose their potency. I think there could be a better designed set of cards for team unified, and I understand this wasn't designed necessarily to support that.  This is an extremely minor complaint.

Building Decks

Two main constraints in building team unified decks:

1.    How to divide the restricted power cards

2.    How to divide the dual lands / City of Brass / Mishra's Factories / etc

Additional for MobsterCon, you had to consider if having access to as many Savannah as you wanted to play actually mattered for anything.

Both issues can be solved at "level 1" by just dividing up the colors, splitting the Moxes and power cards by what can be cast, and avoiding overlapping colors between decks. This is similar to the "basic" strategy in Atlantic or Swedish unified where the colors don't have enough depth to support multiple players. However in Scryings all the colors have much more depth and can easily support two players if you are building decks not just piles of good cards.

The other issue with dividing the power cards, and the Moxes in particular, is that they are much better the more you have. A single Mox in your deck doesn't increase your deck's power by all that much. Ancestral is probably the strongest in this regard, but still represents a small power increase over 225 cards played. Cards like Mind Twist, Timetwister, and Balance are much better with all of the Moxes, and Demonic Tutor is better with those particular cards in your deck as well as with Time Walk and Ancestral. 

This leads to the conclusion that most, if not all, of the restricted cards should be in one deck. Which deck that should be felt obvious to me. The difference between Twiddle Vault and other fully powered decks is that your best draws actually win you the game, and 4x Recall let you abuse the fact that you have all of the power. 

I started thinking about how decks without 7 SoLoMox could compete with the acceleration those cards provide. If a deck can compete on that level, it will have a leg up against decks that do not have acceleration. With a mind to the color distribution, I centered on Dark Ritual and mana creatures. 

For Dark Ritual, we were drawn to Reanimator right away. Replacing Moxes with Rituals is not quite the same for the plan B, but the plan A was very strong. Bazaar with Krovikan Horror and Ashen Ghoul make up for whatever clunkiness you could otherwise experience. There is only one Strip Mine available, and other land destruction is too slow to stop Bazaar from doing its thing. I did not expect as many City in a Bottle as the power level of creatures is improved enough that the Arabian creatures don't necessarily outclass everything.

For mana creatures, we first looked at a GW only list. Even with only 4 Savannah, there was enough intriguing to me with Tithe, Empyrial Armor, and Quirion Ranger. Then maybe combine it with Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves to power out an early Armor and Berserk to finish the job. Our spikey nature though prevented us from playing things that would too easily lose to single removal spells, and we were back looking at options with just good creatures. RGW Aggro was an option, but the creatures like Wildfire Emissary and trump cards like Stormbind didn't play well with what we thought was the best disruptive card in Armageddon. We really wanted a solid 3-drop creature to play off of turn 1 Birds, but nothing was exciting compared to Serendib Efreet. With Tropical Island tied up in the Twiddle Vault deck, I wasn't sure it was possible to play GWu. However, with 4 Tundra, 4 Tithe, and 4 Birds of Paradise, that in theory should be enough sources. Undiscovered Paradise could also play a role.

With these starting points, it then became a matter of adjusting the cards that multiple decks wanted in order to maximize the impacts, while also considering what decks we expected to face. A list of decks we thought people would play:

Twiddle Vault

Power Artifact

Reanimator

MaskNought

TaxTower Control

Various Tithe Aggro, Midrange, and Control decks

MonoGreen aggo

MonoRed Goblins

Various RG Jokulhaups decks

Other

I did not think much into how the lineups would exist, but just about which decks would be good or bad matchups for our decks. The biggest takeaway is that the top two decks both played City of Solitude, so whatever card we wanted for that matchup needed to work well as a sorcery. I had already earmarked Energy Flux for the Reanimator sideboard, but decided it would be more potent with Birds to accelerate and Armageddon to back it up.

It was also around this time I discovered that through Dan we had access to four copies of Chains of Mephistopheles. This card is a very potent sideboard card, and even has some maindeck potential with Anvil of Bogardan. I spent maybe a few days iterating all sorts of Chains/Anvil lists, but nothing that was as exciting as our current configuration. If deck choice was solely on my and not my teammates, I would have played Twiddle Vault, White Weenie, and Jund Chains/Anvil Aggro. However, this was banking a lot on people actually bringing the decks we expect.

In the end, we stuck with the original lineup and put the Chains in the Reanimator sideboard, even though its not the best with Bazaar. We had versions with a couple of Anvil in the maindeck to set up a lock after board, but it sacrificed too much of the explosiveness. 

The Reanimator deck was the hardest to build. There are so many options for discard outlets and large creatures, as well as plan Bs. It also doesn't work like a normal Magic deck, so balancing mana and spell ratios was tricky. Without playing any games, just some goldfishing, I think we did a solid job. There was room for improvement and I think Tom Swindell had a better strategy for it in Team Unified. A last minute debate about Mishra's Factory vs Thawing Glaciers meant we ended up without any Factories in our 225. A sad situation for me as it is my favorite card. However, I was getting to pilot the deck with all the power so I can't really complain.

Here are our decks:

Twiddle Vault

Derelor in the sideboard since Erhnam in the GWu deck, but it does have some upside (and some downside).

GWu Tempo

8 Savannahs. Not the most in the room, but it feels like 12 with Tithe. (*edit* actually we have the most in the room!) Sideboard is almost entirely blue cards. Two Lat-Nam's Legacy were cut for the 2nd Sylvan and 3rd Memory Lapse near the last minute. We played zero Lat-Nam's Legacy in our 225.

Reanimator

Shivan and Deep Spawn so that REB/BEB don't hit both targets. All Hallow's Eve is a good plan C. Played as many duals as we could afford, but not enough to support other colors much. Glaciers good in that regard.

So I would play Twiddle Vault, since I've only lost one match with it to this point. Will would play the GWu deck that is very similar to other decks he plays in OS. Dan would play Reanimator.

Pregame

Friday before the event, eight of us played round of golf at Makefield Highlands Golf Club. It was a lot of fun. Mano, Flint, Jeff Liu, and Will Larson crushed the team of Dom, Katz, Cliff, and myself. Personal injury and property damage was kept to a (non-zero) minimum. Afterwards we had a BBQ at Mano's house as more out-of-towners rolled in. The food and drink was great, the pool was refreshing, and the people were awesome. I was too exhausted from being in the sun all day so I left just as the draft was starting to go home and sleep.

The nice thing about local events is being able to sleep in. I made the 25 minute drive to the site to meet up with the team and finalize our decks. More importantly, we finalized our team name. After a week of brainstorming, we could do no better than the first team name that Will came up with:

Zur's Weirdos.

We even won prizes for having the second best team name!

Main Event

I'm seat A, Will is seat B, and Dan is seat C. Because of this, I don't see much of Dan's matches and can't recap them as well as the others.

Round One - Illuminati (Michael Scheffenacker, Seth Roncoroni, Tom Swindell)

Me vs Scheff on Twiddle Vault- He plays turn one Island. I play turn one land Mox Howling Mine, Lotus, Wheel. I can't do much else, and since he's also on Twiddle Vault he easily wins turn two.

Dan vs Tom (reanimator)- Dan gets game one after Tom uses Bazaar turn two and didn't know Dan also on reanimator. Dan Animate Dead it and the tempo was too much. Games two and three looked like terrible messes and I don't know what actually happened, but Dan ended up losing. 

Will vs Seth (RWG Jokulhaups) - Game one is very close. Seth does enough early damage with Wildfire Emissary that when Will finally stabilizes with an Armageddon, he can Chain Lightning his Rukh Egg to fly over for the last damage. Game two Will is on the offensive and both players have Sylvan when Seth has to Jokulhaups. Will pays 8 life in order to recover faster and a few Savannah Lions and River Boas off the top finish it off. Game three they do not finish, but it was a spot where Seth was probably 90% to win (he thought only 60% since he didn't know Will boarded out the Armageddon). Either way, Mano decides to give the win to the Illuminati

0-1

Round Two - Don's Goblin Raiders (Don Perrien, Ian Hendry, Ben Katz)

Me vs Don (UW Flyer Control)

Will vs Ian (UB Robots) - Game one Ian has a turn two Triskelion and Will can't really do much. Game two Ian has Icy and Maze shutting down Will's army, but Armageddon lets Will breakthrough. Will races a Juggernaut after using Disenchant on The Abyss. Man-o-War turns the tempo up while also providing body for the second Abyss, and Erhnam plus Serendib do enough damage to win.

Dan vs Ben (Simoon Living Plane) - Dan is in a losing position in game three when we win the other two matches.

1-1

Round Three - Murder of Stormcrows (Geoff Zeiger, Joel Lopez, JeanPaul Bascelli)

Me vs Goblins - He plays a turn one Goblin Vandal, so I have to delay my setup. I play draw go with a Library while taking 3 damage a turn, but eventually have enough to go off in one turn when I'm at 8 life. Game two I use Falling Star and Derelor to win easily.

Will vs Mono Black - Will is never really in trouble. Serendib keeps the Hypnotic Specter from doing any damage until Erhnam can win the game. Game two is similar, but with Man-o-War to help out.

Dan vs UW Control - They don't finish game one.

2-1

Round Four - Scry Me A River (Jonathan Lai, Brian Popkin, Darin Wiesner)

Me vs Jonathan (Mono Green)- Game one I force him to use Scavenger Folk on a Time Vault since I have a second one. He gets multiple Whirling Dervish and I never find a source of card advantage to combo with and lose. Game two I miss with a Falling Star, but do kill three River Boas with a Fireball a few turns later. I finally stabilize at 5 life. He then draws River Boa with plenty of mana to regenerate and I cannot race it.

Will vs BrianP (WW with Land Tax and Armor) - Will is able to win games one and three with some flyers and River Boa blocking the first strike army. Man-o-War keeps Empyrial Armor from doing anything dangerous. Brian does steal game two with a surprise Wrath of God. 

Dan vs Darin (UR Counterspell) - Game three Dan is able to resolve Animate Dead through Counterspell thanks to REB and the opponent's Blood Moon. A second and third animation spell end the game quickly. 

4-1

Round Five - Hamburgers of Bogardan (with awesome diner themed playmats) (Billy Jannen, Bryce Menard, Mark Tocco)

Me vs WBR Underworld Dreams - Game one he leads on turn one Mana Vault. I Twiddle it to buy some time. He never finds triple black, so when I Twister plus Mind Twist a few turns later he concedes without showing me the Dreams. Game two he has turn three Dreams, but I have to just take 7 and play Wheel. He plays another Dreams, but I manage to find Emerald Charm and Recall to take them out and combo off.

Will vs UWG TaxTowerOrb control - Will loses game one, but wins game two and three easily with Disenchants and Armageddons. 

Dan vs RUG Aggro- I don't remember if they finished match or not.

4-1

This is so good

Round Six - Scrybabies (Jeremy Marcus, Nick Christie, and Jordan Rosales)

Me vs Jer (RG Aggro) - Game one I have explosive start but somehow only one blue source. He turn four Creeping Mold it, and I'm forced to Regrowth it. He hits it again with a Strip Mine, and I draw another one. Eventually I find Emerald Charm to take some extra turns without spending blue mana, and find second blue source to Transmute for Howling Mine and win, but it was close. Game two he does not have much interaction at all.

Will vs Nick (MonoBlack) - Game one winds up as a race of Erhnam Djinn vs Black Knight (with Forestwalk) and Underworld Dreams. Will makes an attack to put Nick to 1 life, but on the backswing Nick takes Will also to 1 life. Will's plan of using Swords to Plowshares on his freshly played Llanowar Elves to stay alive is thwarted by Funeral Charm. Game two Nick assembles several Juzams and Hypnotic Specters while Will has dead Disenchants in hand.

Dan vs Jordan (UWR Control) - Going into game three, we tell Dan to bring back in Deep Spawn and take out Shivan since we think my opponent would have REB and his opponent therefore would have more BEB. Jordan keeps a hand with just lands, Library, and Disenchant, but that gets disrupted by the turn two Hypnotic Specter. The Hyppie also gets rid of a Balance, and the coast is clear for Dan to reanimate Deep Spawn. Time is running out, but Mano says to keep playing to natural conclusion. Jordan plays Circle of Protection: Red and we internally high-five at taking out Shivan. A Buried Alive for Ashen Ghouls makes enough attackers to kill Jordan before he finds his second white source for Wrath of God.

5-1

CoP: Red

Top 4 Teams after Swiss:

1. Impossible Burger (featuring Jon Finkel)

2. Zur's Weirdos

3. Scrybabies

4. Boomer and the B Dots

Semifinals - Scrybabies - Jer, Nick, and Jordan (rematch from round 6)

Me vs Jer (RG Aggro) - Same as previous round, though he does win game two when we both mulligan to five cards. Game three he also mulligans to five and I have Mana Drain on his Primal Order and win easily.

Will vs Nick (MonoBlack) - Will recovers from the loss in previous round and wins with some well timed Armageddons in two games.

Dan vs Jordan (UWR Control) - Dan I think won game one before the match was over but Will and I finished before it mattered.

6-1

Finals - Boomer and the B Dots (Ben Farkas, Jeff White, Chris Manning)

Will vs Jeff (Mesa Control) - This match isn't close. Jeff counters / removes everything and plays Sacred Mesa to cleanup. Game two he gets the Abyss out and Will cannot recover.

Me vs Chris (Goblins) - Game one I start with Sapphire Island into Mana Drain his one drop. Then turn two I play two more Mox and a Timetwister and win easily from there. Game two he has turn one Vise and it does 10 or 12 damage. I burn some Twiddles trying to get below the Vise before deploying two Derelor. They have to block until I draw a Twiddle and attack with one. He still doesn't attack so I attack with two, but I'm dead to any burn spell and he finishes me with Goblin Grenade. Game three I play Mox Time Vault on turn one. He has Goblin Vandal. I decide to Falling Star, but hit a corner and bounce of the table. He destroys the Time Vault. The next turn he plays a Goblin King and attacks for two damage. I have a second Falling Star and this time I hit both. He has Blood Moon but my Mox Jet lets me cast Derelor. I draw another Time Vault and some Twiddles to attack him down to 7. He plays a blocker but doesn't block and goes to 3 life. He then plays another Goblin King and one drop. I draw Island which lets me cast Recall for Falling Star and I can win if I hit all three. I only hit one, and then trade with the two goblins. His only follow up is a Black Vise which does nothing. I draw Ancestral Recall and he uses Fork. I eventually draw a Lotus and two Emerald Charms which I use to take an extra turn and blow up Blood Moon. He has the REB for my Braingeyser so I don't get very far. He has a Goblin Tinkerer which he uses to trade with my Time Vault.  He builds up to six cards in hand threatening to get his Library of Alexandria online. I draw Regrowth and have three choices: Derelor and hope he can't kill it to attack for the win, Mind Twist to buy some more time, or Ancestral Recall to dig for Lightning Bolt or Fireball or other good stuff. Ancestral would lose to REB so I decide against that, and also decide Mind Twist won't hit many good cards as I assume his hand is mostly REBs, Vises, or land. I grab Derelor, play it, he doesn't find an answer and I win! Crazy last game.

Dan vs Ben (Mono Blue Flyers) - Game one Dan wins easily. Game two he gets a lot of creatures in play but cannot race the flying army and loses. Game three I'm not sure how it ended up there but a Zur's Weirding that attempted to cut Dan off of mana backfires as he has Thawing Glaciers to play out his hand. Ben meanwhile draws too much land and can't attack through Shivan Dragon. Eventually Dan casts Buried Alive to get four Ashen Ghoul in the yard and win!

7-1 

1st Place

Best

We did it! The Zur's Weirdos defeated actual Zur's Weirding in the final game of the finals to win MobsterCon!

Zur's Weirdos

After

I ordered some food since eight rounds of Twiddle Vault taxes you mentally, even the easy games. I played on game of 40k vs Jeff Liu and won a Birds, helping him on his retirement mission. I stuck around to watch the draft, but once again was too tired to go all night. I stopped by the LGS across the street to buy a box of the new set for some future endeavors, and headed home uneventfully.

I had a great time at this event and hope that something like it happens again at some point in the future.

Props:

Mano and Family for great event

Village Brewing Company for good food and drink

Team Unified Scryings and everyone who showed up to play

Dan and Will for being great teammates and putting up with my constant tinkering and brewing

Man-O-War - probably our surprise MVP all day

Thawing Glaciers, I guess

Beth for all the love and support as always

Slops:

People who don't like Scryings

My Falling Star flips. I've got to practice more or they'll kick me out of the club.

New Jersey Old School Championships - *1st place*

The Sylex Slam, AKA the New Jersey Old School Championships, was held Saturday February 10th at Time Warp Games in Cedar Grove NJ. 30 players showed up, proving that if you name your tournament a Championship, they will come. Every state should try to run one. This was my fourth time participating in event at Time Warp. Nick and Reggie have done a great job building the community up, and I was excited to participate again.

The Deck

I played Workshops with White. I haven't played the White version before, and I wanted to give the Howling Mine package a try. I expected Mine to be good as the field is usually a lot of Hymn to Tourach decks. Overall I maybe wanted another Winter Orb or Armageddon, and maybe the Blue Elemental Blast I cut at the last minute. The second City in a Bottle is probably overkill, and Animate Dead might not be strong enough to be a sideboard card. 

The primary goal was to keep the people from NYC from winning and ensure the trophy doesn't cross the Hudson. The secondary goal was winning, with a third goal of having some fun.

The Tournament

With 30 players, the tournament was run at Swiss Minus One : four rounds with a cut to top 8. After the Swiss, players would draft the donation cards and play for the champion Golgothian Sylex trophy.

Round 1 - Nick M on UB Shops

I played Nick a few months ago in a Premodern 1K and encouraged him to get into Old School when he expressed interest. Here we are a few months later and playing in round one. I start with a Howling Mine and Strip Mine for his Workshop. He has a second Workshop and continues to deploy Juggernauts and Triskelions, but my own Su-Chi and Triskelions trade to keep the board mostly clear. Eventually I Copy the Howling Mine and get two Icy Manipulator plus Relic Barrier in play. I win with the card advantaged generated. I don't remember much about game two besides me winning. I know I had Divine Offering for his first threat and then maybe a Braingeyser to pull ahead on cards. 

1-0

Round 2 - Eric Pallone on StasisVault

Game one he counters my first Juggernaut. I play two Howling Mine for lack of anything else to do. He does get a Time Vault in play, but I have Chaos Orb and Copy it twice to keep any Twiddle shenanigans from happening. He doesn't have enough mana and a couple of robots take him out before he draws out of it. Game two I don't have much pressure at all, but I do have Relic Barrier to stop his Howling Mine. He has a Black Vise which does 6 damage to me before I can get my hand down. He goes for a play of Hurkyl's Recall on my entire board one turn, so I'm forced to Mana Drain. He then draws Ancestral. I have a Triskelion and Winter Orb to apply pressure. He has a second Black Vise but hasn't drawn much else. After I play a Su-Chi, he uses Twiddle to tap the Winter Orb, getting his mana back. He then plays Stasis, locking up most of the board. I still have Su-Chi to attack him to 10 and play a Copy Artifact on the tapped Trike. He is forced to use another Hurkyl's to stay alive, which lets me Strip Mine his last blue mana to kill Stasis. I win easily by casting Triskelions when I get to untap.

2-0

Round 3 - David Third on GhostShipDisco

Game one I play a turn one Timetwister and he doesn't have any land. I use Relic Barrier to stop his only mana source, a Mox Emerald, but he does get an Ivory Tower out. I find a Triskelion and Su-Chi to beat down easily. Game two I'm stuck on three mana without much going on. He Amnesias me and I'm never really in it. Game three I have a turn one Su-Chi. the Robot attacks for 8 before getting Control Magic. He has UU untapped but I decide I have to cast Ancestral on my turn for best possible chance to win. He doesn't counter, so I assume he's repping Power Sink. I play a Triskelion with enough untapped, and the following turn play Armageddon with enough to pay for a Power Sink. We trade Trike for Su-Chi, and I play a Factory. He does have a Mox and Ivory Tower, but the Factory gets him low enough he's forced to play out cards from hand in hopes I have no follow up. I find another Su-Chi and do the last points.

3-0

Round 4 - Brian P on BlackWhite Deadguy

Game one I have turn one Juggernaut and turn two Su-Chi. He Hymns my land, but I have plenty of Mox in play... until he casts Nevinyrral's Disk. I'm only able to get him to 2 life before he Disks. He has two Factories to start attacking me. My only land is Workshop. I draw a second Workshop and take 2 mana burn to cast Su-Chi and Icy, but never draw a mana to activate Icy. He finishes me off with two Drain Life. Game two I come out too fast and he dies to a Su-Chi despite early Demonic Tutor Black Lotus Mind Twist, he was just too far behind on board. Game three he plays Swamp go. I play two Mox, Copy a Mox, and cast Time Walk. On turn two I can either cast Timetwister or Juggernaut. I only have three cards in hand after, so decide I need to Twister now to avoid a Hymn. I draw into two Factories, Strip mine, Copy, and some more mana. I elect to Strip his Swamp to protect my Factories in hand. He just has Swamp go again. I play Factory and Copy it. He has PLains and Demonic Tutor. I play another Factory and attack for 5. He has Black Lotus and Nevinyrral's Disk. I play another Factory and attack for 7. He uses Disk to get all my Mox and my Copy Factory. I attack with two Factory and he Disenchant one, I pump the other. The next turn he uses Mind Twist to empty my hand of lands and plays a Maze. I attack with two Factories, he Mazes and goes to 3 life. THen he has Sinkhole for a Factory. I draw another land and can no longer attack. He has Sengir Vampire. I draw land. He plays Hypnotic Specter, while I play Howling Mine. He attacks for 6 and passes. I draw two more land. He then attacks with the fliers and kills me with Drain Life. I have three Triskelion in my top 4 cards when I die with him at 3 life.

3-1

We draft the donation prize cards based on Swiss standings. I end up in 3rd place and take a Psionic Blast. 

The top 8 is:

1. Casey on Goblins plus Chains of Mephistopholes (the only 4-0)

2. Jordan on his URB Burn deck with Serendibs and Trolls

3. Myself on UBW Shops

4. David Third on MonoU DiscoShip

5. Bryan Manolakos on UWR AngelTrike

6. Parker Boab on UWR Lion Bolt

7. Jesus Mansilla on UWG Lion Pixies

8. Chris G on MonoBlack

Top 8 vs Parker Boab on UWR LionBolt

Game one I keep hand of two Mox, two land, Mind Twist, and two Triskelion. I play land and two Mox and pass. He plays turn one Library and passes. I draw Time Walk and cast it. ON the extra turn I draw another Triskelion. I fire off the Mind Twist for three cards. He uses Library in response. On his turn with six in hand he decides to pass and get Library back on line. I rip Mishra's Workshop though and play a Triskelion. I play another one each of the next two turns and all he can do to answer is play Psionic Blast, which leaves him dead. Game two I play turn one Sol Ring and Copy it. ON turn two I play Triskelion, but he has Mana Drain. All he can do though is play Shatterstorm for my mana and burn for 4. However, I don't draw anything good and he gets a Lions plus Factory to start attacking me. Eventually I find my own Factory, but he has Serra Angel and that's the game. Game three I keep seven and stop him from mulliganing to six cards, since I'm going to be playing Timetwister turn one. He only has land go. I decide to play Icy over Trike on turn two to cut off his mana. He has second land, but I draw Strip Mine for it while playing out Trike. He has a City of Brass for his second land again, but I have the City in a Bottle. I also Copy the Trike and when he finally gets to three mana for Psionic Blast he's dead.

4-1

Turn one Timetwister in game 3 of the top 8.

Top 4 vs Jordan on his URB deck (video will be here eventually thanks to Jesus's YT channel)

I have Library active turn one and trade some cards before Mind Twist him. He finds Timetwister shortly after though. I draw Mind Twist again off the Timetwister and never face any danger. Game two is interesting as I have turn one and turn two Su-Chi. His turn two he plays Demonic Tutor for turn three Energy Flux. I sac one Su-Chi to pay for Mox and the other, and then play Factory and Copy it. He doesn't have fourth land so I use City in a Bottle to take out his City of Brass, but let it die the next turn. He has a Psionic Blast for my Su Chi and his follow up is Mox, City of Brass and a Serendib Efreet. I have Triskelion and he's forced to Psionic Blast that as well. At this point, he's too low on life from the Blasts and Trike to attack with Serendib while I have to Factory available. We play draw go for a few turns while he takes 1 a turn, but I find Icy Manipulator and win.

5-1

At this point, I'm in the finals while Mano and David Third are in game two. Hoping for no game four shenanigans like at Glorycon, I join Parker outside for some parking lot beers.

Mano over David, then Mano over Chris

Finals vs Mano on URW Angel Trike

Mano is playing the Copy Artifact / Fellwar / Triskelion / Bolt / Swords deck we brewed together in the car ride back from GloryCon. He's also there with his daughter who managed to go 2-2 for 14th place in her first Old School event with RUG Aggro. He's looking to not play so they can go have a family dinner, so we make a deal: I get the title of NJ OS Champion and the Sylex Trophy, he gets the actual altered Golgothian Sylex card. I let him know if he ever wants to challenge me for the title he can, but he must ante the card in whatever future match we play. 

Do NOT let Mano claim to be "co-champion" or anything like that, the title is mine alone!

The top 2

The Spoils

I'm happy to add the NJ Old School State Championship to my other State Championship titles in Texas, South Carolina, and Hawaii.

Props / Slops

Props:

Time Warp for hosting

Nick for setting up and advertising the event

Reggie for stepping up and running the event when Nick had life come up

Reggie for being reasonable and running the event as Swiss Minus One with Top 8

All my opponents for being fun to play against

Mano for running the Angel/Trike brew to 2nd place

Jenna for 2-2 as the youngest player in the event

New Jersey for showing up and keeping the title in the state
Whatever Casey was doing to get 4-0

My wife for her love and support

Slops:

Mano for being afraid to miss with Falling Star so much, that he elected to Mana Drain a Hypnotic Specter while the opponent had a Black Knight in play. If you aren't going to cast the card, don't put it in your sideboard!

Seth for leaving without David