On Saturday, I played in the Old School MobstercoM event put on by Bryan Manolakos. Last year they did team unified constructed, but with the move to doing events online, team events weren't going to work logistically. I had hoped to maybe attend with some other Falling Stars, but now that it was online I was for sure going to play.
The format still required some creative deckbuilding. Participants had to build three Swedish legal decks that met unified construction requirements. You would play your decks randomly against your opponents corresponding list, no sideboards. Best of three. Also, you can play as many Savannah as you want in any deck. Even though Mano usually runs Atlantic rules for events, Swedish made sense. Last time, almost every team played a mono-black deck with 4x Hymn to Tourach as one of the three builds. That would certainly be the case again, so the Swedish rules were chosen to exclude Fallen Empires. However, the event still used EC/Atlantic reprint policy and damage on the stack, so maybe it would have been less confusing to just say "Atlantic Rules with no Fallen Empires". That may have saved me some trouble in round 3...
Brewing
I did most of my brewing with fellow Falling Star Simon Christie (aka mtgmisprint). There was concern about how many dead cards you could afford in your decks, since you didn't have opportunity to sideboard them out. If you were to find a way to play all creatureless decks, you could blank all the creature removal across all of your opponents lineup. Simon decided to take this route and build three different creatureless control decks. I kept this principal in mind when selecting my lists, making sure to minimize the amount of potential dead cards against creatureless decks in my lists that weren't also creatureless. By having at least one creatureless deck in the lineup, I'd hope to have an advantage against slower decks. The other decks I used generic answers like direct damage and Icy Manipulator to support a land destruction plan.
My Decks
Deck A (A is for Atog) is pretty standard powered Atog list. I moved the black power cards to deck C, but this may have been a mistake. Demonic Tutor isn't very good without stuff like Ancestral and Time Walk to fetch, and Mind Twist much better with fast mana like Mox and Sol Ring and Lotus. Shatter were the narrowest cards I played in any deck, and I wasn't impressed. Overall though, the deck was a machine and definitely lived up to it's reputation as the best deck in Old School (according to me).
Deck B (B is for Bant) is Land Tax / Ivory Tower control deck. Perhaps the Sylvan Library was unnecessary, but I'm a big fan of it with Ivory Tower. Sylvan could have helped the GB deck in the card advantage department. Millstone as the kill is very good with Sylvan though, letting you dig deeper when you are looking for key end game cards. I likely should have played more cards like Moat and Wrath of God and maybe fewer Swords to Plowshares.
Deck C (C is for Crap) is a BG Land Destruction deck. I recently acquired Sinkholes and wanted to put them to use, along with the Ice Storms I never play. I'm a big fan of decks with 8 elves from Standard and Modern, so I wanted to use some of the same philosophies here. It would be pretty easy to splash a third color if you wanted to, but I had everything I needed already so I didn't get greedy. The Triskelion was nice as a tutor target, and the Arena wasn't actually legal (oops!) so maybe it should have been the second Trike.
I'll do my best to recollect the individual records of decks. I wasn't keeping detailed notes since I was also playing the MTG Arena Open in between rounds (insert link to future blog post here).
A 5-1
B 4-2
C 3-2*
*would be 4-1 if the Arena game counted
The Games
David is probably my favorite person I've met from playing Old School. We met at the Battle for the Alamo back in February, and have played several times on webcam since. It's good to start against a familiar face. My C deck mulligan and then he had turn one Library of Alexandria. Despite 8 LD spells in the deck, I didn't draw one soon enough and lost to the card advantage. My deck A had an extremely powerful draw and killed him with multiple Black Vice and Ankh thanks to getting to play first. Game three with the B decks was a grind. I countered his early Mirror Universe, but he was on some time of Enchantress combo. I get out Millstone and try to work on ending the game. He casts Timetwister, which I counter. I counter the Regrowth for Timetwister. I counter a Feldon's Cane. Eventually I've used all my countermagic trying to stop his Timetwister and I can't find a Recall to get them back. He gets another Recall and resolves the Twister. Post Twister, I have to be careful until I can find all my countermagic again, but I'm able to use Swords to Plowshares on Force of Nature and Yavimaya Enchantress to prevent dying. Eventually Sylvan plus Millstone finds me the goods and I lock up the game. I had to play super fast first thing in the morning. We both needed more caffeine after the match.
1-0
R2 - Sammy Haghour - BCA
Game one I get to Land Tax quite a bit, but I'm not drawing any action spells. I resolve a Braingeyser but I'm at 2 life facing a Serra Angel. I brick again and use Recall to get back Braingeyser and an STP for the Angel. He has a follow up Angel that he had been holding after seeing me discard a Wrath of God earlier. I don't draw an answer and have to decide between casting Braingeyser for 5 and hoping to draw an STP or to use the Balance in my hand and discard down to 2 cards (counterspell and geyser) as well as sacrificing about 4 lands. I decide to play it safe and Balance. He chooses to use his own Swords to Plowshares on his Angel to force me to discard down to one card, but I use Counterspell on my own Balance to avoid that fate and win easily with Braingeyser and a full grip. Game two we both play Bayous. I have Icy and Royal for a Fungalsaur but he Crumbles the Icy. I get out an Erhnam and some mana Elves. He has a Whirling Dervish and an Erhnam. I use a Sinkhole and Ice Storm on his black mana. Eventually I attack with Erhnam which he blocks with his own. This lets me use Triskelion to kill his Djinn and Dervish. He finally draws second black for Pestilence, which is threatening to kill most of my team. I start being aggressive towards his life total. He kills my Ernie with a Terror I think and I lose the rest of my team to Pestilence. I decide I can afford to keep Pestilence in play because he is at two life and play another elf. He plays an Ernie and now I'm in trouble. I have to continue to Icy his Icy, but at any moment that could be over. He has Sylvan and finding what he needs. He gives my Elf forestwalk and attacks with Ernie leaving back Bayou and Factory. I tap his Icy at end of turn, and draw Pendelhaven. I immediately play it and he learns that you can't respond to land drops. I attack with the elf which puts him to 1 life and he can't activate Pestilence anymore and has to give my elf forestwalk again which kills him.
2-0
R3 - Andy Baquero - BAC
His B deck has a bunch of Savannah in a WW shell with Sylvan and Giant Growth. I try to Land Tax and Tower, but it's not enough. I Mana Drain something, but then don't use my mana correctly and take mana burn and die. I have turn 1 Library of Alexandria in game two and it helps me win even through a Nevinyrral's Disk for 7 of my permanents. Game 3 is super epic. I have early Erhnam and Sengir, but he has Rukh Egg and Ali from Cairo. He's stalling with Maze of Ith and eventually casts Lightning Bolt on his egg to get a Rukh. I draw some LD spells for the Maze and start racing, but he has a second Ali. I draw Arena which lets me start fighting his Ali or he can choose to lose his Rukh to my Djinn. Eventually he tries to Fireball my Sengir and I use Arena in response, forcing him to trade with the Rukh. Arena picks of the last Ali and I win the game....
....except Arena isn't legal in Swedish! Oops! We decide to give him the win and I'm forced to play Arena as a Savannah the rest of the event. I wasn't the only one confused on some of the rules. There was early confusion about if mana burn was in effect, as well as another player playing Rainbow Vale (I had Vale in my early Land Tax builds but realized it wasn't legal early on. Didn't help me figure out the Arena problem though.)
2-1
R4 - Øyvin Skattum Vesteng - ACB
I don't remember much about our game one. I think I killed with multiple Serendibs and his Juzam wasn't fast enough for my burn. Game two was much more interesting. I mulligan to five and play turn one elf. He uses Swords on the elf and then casts Winds of Change, hoping to screw me further. I play some more land and eventually an Erhnam. He has Land Tax and uses Strip Mine on himself to turn it on. I'm trying to kill him as fast as possible, but take a turn off to use Ice Storm on a Plateau to maybe cut him off of red mana and prevent Land's Edge. He has Mountain and Land's Edge anyway. On the last turn I attack him down to 2 life but don't have a land to kill him. I use Sinkhole on my own City of Brass to prevent him from using Tax one last time. He ends up with 14 points of damage with Lands Edge, but I'm at 15 life because of the Swords to Plowshares on turn one. Truly an epic finish.
3-1
R5 - Jeff Dehnhardt - CBA
Game one he plays the first Erhnam, but that means mine gets to do damage first. Icy and Ernie and Segnir race his lonely Djinn and I win. Game two he has Counterspell for my turn two Sylvan and then some Merfolk of the Pearl Trident. I'm Land Taxing but I can't find a way to stop the beats after he Spell Blasts my Ivory Tower. Eventually he has two Lord of Atlantis and I draw more lands and lose. Game three I keep an iffy hand that was Mox Emerald, Time Walk, Volcanic, Volcanic, Mountain, Shatter, Black Vice. I draw a bunch of mana and I'm never really in the game. I think I'm supposed to mulligan hands like this. The deck is too good to lose this way.
3-2
R6 - Dakota Martinez - BAC
His B deck is RG beats. I take a bunch from a Berserk Giant Growth Scryb Sprite before casting Wrath of God. I'm at 5 life but I Strip Mine his only Mountain and we play draw go for a while. I eventually find a Tower and he is on a short clock. I have removal for his fatties like Juggernaut and Erhnam but I'm still wary of being burned out. Eventually I get a second Tower and some more cards in hand and lock up the game with some Counterspells. My Atog deck puts enough pressure on him with Serendibs early and then I finish him with some Lightning Bolts.
4-2
R7 - Thomas Sutherland Borja - ABC
I have turn 1 Library of Alexandria and start using Lightning Bolt on his Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise. After four turns, he casts Armageddon hoping to stop the Library. I'm too far ahead and I'm able to deploy more lands afterwards while he has none. Game two he's able to use Dark Ritual to play Sengir and Juzam while stopping me from using Land Tax. I use Balance to clear the board, but he has Hypnotic Specter. I get to Tax once, and I'm trying to find an answer to Hyppie. Specter hits me twice discarding a Wrath of God and Tropical Island, but I still have enough mana left to Recall for Balance and we're in topdeck mode. I get a Tower out and start building up my hand. Eventually I'm at over 50 life with multiple towers and a Sylvan Library. He has a few Nevinyrral's Disks, but I have the Disenchant each time. Eventually I use Millstone to win the game.
5-2
Aftermath
I finished in 15th place, the worst of all the 15 point players. Simon also finished 5-2 and got 10th place.
Overall I had a great time playing the event. Webcam Magic isn't ideal, but I still felt drained by the end of the day (double queuing the Arena Open probably helped). I got to meet a lot of new people, but it was mainly my opponents. I didn't get to meet the people at the event that I didn't play against like I would have at a real life event. I did enjoy playing everything in one day and not over several weeks like some other events going on. The event was very well run and the concept was a huge success. I think both Simon and I did well by understanding the strength of creatureless strategies in a no sideboard environment. I learned some more about building Old School decks and got to pick up some cool versions of cards in preparation to add to my collection.
Props:
Mano for putting this on
The rest of the people that helped Mano do this, read his stuff or listen to his podcast All Tings Considered to find out more
All my opponents, especially those that let me Millstone them. I tried to play as fast as possible
Arena (the card) for being awesome!
Slops
Me for not mulliganing in round 5
Arena (the card) for not being legal in Swedish. Why? Its so awesome! I'll keep playing it when I can.
Savannah - you really didn't impress even when people could play 20. Be better.
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