Three Decks in Three Days at the Winc0n Old School Events in Genoa

I went to Genoa, Italy to participate in Winc0n, the 2022 Old School World Championships. My wife was attending a conference in Hamburg, Germany the week prior and I was planning on joining her for a nice vacation afterwards. When I found out at the tournament for Balance that Winc0n would be the same weekend, it was an easy decision to change the plans. I'd much rather visit Italy for vacation, and I always enjoy travelling to play Magic tournaments.

The event was actually three separate tournaments over three days. The first tournament was the Scryings World Championship. I didn't have any experience playing Scryings prior to this, but I was excited to brew in a new space. The second day was the real-deal no-shit Old School World Championship for the coveted Giant Shark. This event was Swedish rules with a more welcoming reprint policy. The final day was the Atlantic Cup, using the Atlantic rules popular in the eastern United States.

A Note on Magic Tournaments

I've heard a lot of things to the effect of "Forget about the Magic tournament, it's just an excuse to hang out with your friends and do all the fun surrounding activities". I cannot disagree more. I love Magic tournaments, and the tournament parts specifically. I enjoy all of the rest of the trappings of tournaments as well, but the tournament itself brings me a particular joy. Magic games are more enjoyable when something (even if it's "nothing") is on the line. Preparing for a tournament is one my favorite things to do. I don't think the extra-curricular activities would be nearly as fun without the tournament to give them some context. Maybe I will elaborate in a future post, but I wanted to mention it because I rarely hear contradicting opinions when people talk about "doing away with tournaments".

Top 8 playoffs are awesome, swiss + 1 is horrible. Props to Winc0n organizers for the commitment to real finishes. 

Friday Evening - Scryings

Here is the deck I played on Friday: 

RUG Burn

4 River Boa

2 Uktabi Orangutan

2 Goblin Vandal

1 Man-O-War

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

1 Mana Drain

4 Psionic Blast

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Chaos Orb

1 Mind Twist

1 Balance

1 Regrowth

1 Braingeyser

1 Stormbind

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Volcanic Island

4 Taiga

1 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 City of Brass

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Tropical Island

Sideboard

1 Man-O-War

3 Wildfire Emissary

3 Blue Elemental Blast

3 Tormod's Crypt

1 Forsaken Wastes

1 Pillage

1 Dwarven Miner

1 Uktabi Orangutan

1 Hammer of Bogardan

My biggest complaint about Scryings as a format is how much it feels like regular Old School. This deck is basically a 12-Bolt / Lion-Dib-Bolt with some small upgrades. Granted, I played 17 Scryings cards, definitely in the top few of players in the event. I cast all but the Forsaken Wastes. The rest were vital to my wins except for the Dwarven Miner. 

Orangutan and Vandal are obviously strong against artifacts and everyone has Moxen around. Man-O-War was not exciting to me until I realized it's effectively the 3rd Orangutan because you can bounce a monkey to your hand and replay it. Not being a dead card against creatureless decks was important to me. Stormbind was the card that drew me to this archetype even more than River Boa. Wildfire Emissary in the sideboard was a hedge against Blood Moon while also having utility against Kjeldoran Outpost and Sacred Mesa.

This deck performed well up until the top 8 where it didn't deliver in what was probably a favorable matchup. My biggest takeaway from the deck was how strong Regrowth is and I may look to play that card more in the future.

Round 1 - Chris Albrecht on Mono Red Atog with Blood Moon and Orgg
Game one he lands an early Su Chi and an Orgg but I end up killing his creatures and then reducing his mana down to just two mountains with Goblin Vandal. I'm two points short of being able to burn him out when he draws the lethal Lightning Bolt, so maybe I should have not blown up two of his Moxen, but then maybe he could cast some more creatures. Game two I win easily after I draw two Blue Elemental Blast and I think I win the game by discarding five cards to Stormbind when he's at 10 life thanks to Library and Braingeyser. Game three he has turn one Blood Moon but I have Emerald and can cast River Boa. He answers it with Chain lightning a turn later, but he only has three mana. I then draw three consecutive Wildfire Emissary to keep the pressure on and finish him off.

1-0

Round 2 - Peter Schnidrig on some MaskNaught variant.

Game one I time walk turn one and then play Vandal and Boa on turn two. I follow up with Demonic Tutor for Mind Twist and easily win. Game two I Orangutan and Man-o-War my Orangutan for enough value that I still easily win after he Mind Twist for four.

2-0

Round 3 - Messina Julien on RWB Sedge Troll Spirit Link

Game one I'm losing to a Spirit Link Troll and I have to make awkward play of chump attacking with River Boa but failing to regenerate to set up Balance. It works somehow but he draws Serra Angel of the top to finish me off. Game two he has turn one Serra Angel and I don't have an immediate answer but I find Chaos Orb at the right time and then use Regrowth on it to take control and eventually win. Game three I start with Library and Mind Twist. He has the Orb to stop the Library from taking over but I only get him to 9 life vs my 7 life with two City of Brass in play when he casts Wheel of Fortune. I manage to draw three Lightning Bolt and he only drew two and I didn't have to tap my Cities.

3-0

Round 4 - Danny Friedman on TwiddleVault

Game one he says was close but I just have to believe him. I only got him to 12 life before he easily combos off. Game two I mulligan to five cards and turn one play land Jet Demonic Tutor for Sapphire to cast Ancestral Recall. This may have been a mistake. After the match, he said I should have just went for Tormod's Crypt, as it would take him a long time to be able to beat that card. This is where my experience with future Magic formats maybe hurt me, as a single Crypt is probably not enough in Modern or Vintage, but maybe it is that good in Old School. Anyway, I thought I needed more gas and went for Ancestral, but didn't draw anything relevant enough to stop him from comboing easily.

3-1

Round 5 - Reindeer (Christian Reinhard) on RUG

He's on similar cards to me but still has stuff like Serendib Efreet. Game one I'm on the play and have turn two Timetwister and then later on Wheel of Fortune with just enough resource advantage and River Boa beats to win the race. Game two he has turn one Black Vise and turn two River Boa and I draw two City of Brass and lose this race. Game three turn one I play Sapphire, Ancestral plus two more Mox and Lotus. Turn two I Braingeyser for six. He doesn't have anything that can compete with this start and I win having seen 22 cards to his 11. 

4-1

I'm 3rd place after the swiss and will get to play first for the top eight.

Quarterfinals - Leo Bruder on Robots/BB8 with zero scryings cards (boo!)

Game one I have early River Boa beats and undo his Mana Vault into Su-Chi with a Man-o'-War. He takes too much damage before he can redeploy and I win easily. Game two he gets down an early Blood Moon and I'm completely unprepared. On the play for game three I don't make any changes since I don't expect him to even keep the Blood Moon in. I mulligan to six and keep a mana light hand. I have turn one River Boa which forces him to Fireball for one. I then have Orangutan which he Psionic Blasts. I then play Dwarven Miner but he has Terror and then Animate Dead on my Orangutan to set me back to two mana. He plays a Sage of Lat Nam and starts the tiny beats. I'm still stuck on two mana with nothing to play. I eventually get third mana for Stormbind which is looking to take over the game. He uses this turn to play a Copy Artifact from his hand on Mana Vault, taps it for mana, then sacrifices it to Sage for a draw. He finds Triskelion and his last card in hand after that is another Copy Artifact, so I'm basically dead on board. I fail to draw anything that can get me out of this and die.

4-2

8th-ish place

Saturday - Swedish World Championship

Here is the deck I played on Saturday:

4 Savannah Lions

2 Serendib Efreet

2 Serra Angel

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

4 Psionic Blast

3 Disenchant

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Red Elemental Blast

1 Timetwister

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Mana Drain

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Mind Twist

1 Chaos Orb

1 Balance

1 Sol Ring

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Jet

1 Library of Alexandria

4 Mishra's Factory

1 Strip Mine

4 City of Brass

3 Tundra

3 Plateau

1 Scrubland

3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard

1 Blue Elemental Blast

2 Swords to Plowshares

4 Su-Chi

2 Divine Offering

1 Disenchant    

1 Braingeyser

1 Fireball

2 Armageddon

1 Control Magic

Here I basically copied Simon Christie's 12Bolt list from the Summer Derby. He recommended the REB in the main to keep people on their toes so I cut Counterspell for it. I played Control Magic over Serra Angel in the sideboard because it's a personal favorite and I like having different cards that do similar things. I fit in the second Armageddon because the REB was now in the maindeck. 

I knew I would play this list even before Simon won the Derby. I'm not super familiar with the Swedish metagame and I mostly trusted him when he told me to play it. I was happy with how it worked and I don't think I would change anything currently without getting more reps with it. I'm not sure this is the deck I want to be playing in Swedish if I was to play it a lot, but it is obviously a tier 1 list.

Round 1 - Resti Gonzalez  on Arabian Aggro

Game one my Lions and Factory are racing his Erhnam. He plays a second one and I have to try to double block with two Factories. This trade works and I draw Time Walk to pull ahead in the race. He has a hand full of lands at the end. Game two I have turn one Library on the draw and he doesn't draw anything to challenge it.

1-0

Round 2 - Gwenn De Schampelare on 12Bolt

He's also within three cards of Simon's list. Game one he has three Mox Sol Ring Timetwister turn one. I manage to sort of make a game of it but he eventually plays Armageddon with four Mox to my zero and I lose. Game two he has Library and I'm forced to Balance. He gets aggressive with Strip Mine on my only red source and I never draw another and lose with three red cards in hand.

1-1

Round 3 - David Maimone on MonoBlack Dreams

Game one he has turn one Underworld Dreams. I try to race but he answers my threats easily and then plays Warp Artifact on a Mox to kill me as I flood out. Game two I keep an iffy hand with turn one Lotus Land Su-Chi but no second land. He plays turn one Gloom off of Dark Ritual. I attack him to 16 and pass. He plays a Sol Ring with no second land either. I attack him to 12 and he spends his turn on Demonic Tutor. I attack him to 8 and then he plays the card he tutored for: Paralyze. I still haven't found a second land, and eventually he Sinkhole my only land and plays another Warp Artifact and I lose without casting another spell.

1-2

Round 4 - Andi Gerber on MonoGreen Berserk

Game one I kill all of his early creatures while killing him with three Lions and two Factories. Game two is similar but I tap out for Serra Angel and he kills me with Giant Growth and double Berserk. Game three I have turn one Sapphire Jet Sol Ring Timetwister. Turn three I have Ancestral and Lotus to play three Bolts on his creatures and he has no board. Eventually I find Mind Twist to take his Giant Growth and Berserk and I'm in no danger of losing. I believe I win with a Scryb Sprites I stole with Control Magic.

2-2

Round 5 - Peter Schnidrig on UW LionDib

Game one he has turn one Mind Twist for four. I recover somewhat with Balance. He then topdecks Braingeyser for six. I then topdeck Wheel of Fortune. I'm back in the game and find Time Walk and Timetwister but my City of Brass catch up with me and he's able to Psionic Blast me in response to my final burn spell. Game two I have early aggression with Lions and get him to 5 life before he stabilizes. I empty both of our hands with Balance and I manage to draw two Lightning Bolt before he finds a way to recover. Game three I have turn one Library on the draw. He manages to find Chaos Orb but not before I draw three cards. I have Mind Twist but no black mana and only one blue mana. I decide instead of Twist I'll hold up Lotus for the Mana Drain in my hand. I manage to win the game without casting either but it was an interesting spot. I had three Plateau so the last minute swap of 4th Tundra for 3rd Plateau maybe mattered but didn't effect the game result.

3-2

Round 6 - Francesco Bilotto on DFB Green

Game one he has too many creatures and my one for one removal doesn't keep up. Game two I have a turn two Su-Chi and turn three Serra Angel that he can't deal with. I follow up with Armageddon and win. Game three he only has one land and I set him back by killing his Llanowar Elves with Bolts and a Chao Orb. Eventually I do enough damage that I can burn him out when he finally draws land to cast his spells.

4-2

Round 7 - Ivan Hernandez Chiva on DiscoTroll

His deck is a lot of reactive cards but not that many counterspells. Game one he has Library going for most of the game. Eventually I Mana Drain his Recall for two and then use the mana to play Mind Twist for seven and it resolves?! We're both in topdeck mode but he finds a Troll and then has a counter for my final burn spell. Game two I have early pressure and then Demonic Tutor for Ancestral and then Mind Twist for his hand. Game three he once again has Library since turn one. I have Swords for two of his Trolls so he doesn't have a good clock. Eventually he tries for a Recall for two for Braingesyer and Time Walk. When he casts the Time Walk I use REB and now he's tapped out. I Time Walk and attack with two Factories twice and finish him off with Fireball before he can untap.

5-2

I end up in 19th place, towards the bottom of the 15 point players. I think I got lucky to win round 7 but probably got unluck to lose round 3 so it probably evened out. Solid showing.

Sunday - Atlantic Cup

Here is the deck I played on Sunday:

4 Savannah Lions

4 Icatian Javelineers

4 Tundra Wolves

4 Order of Lietbur

4 White Knight

4 Thunder Spirit

1 Preacher

4 Crusade

3 Disenchant

3 Swords to Plowshares

1 Chaos Orb

1 Armageddon

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Pearl

1 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

15 Plains

1 Karakas

Sideboard

3 City in a Bottle

3 Dust to Dust

1 Serra Angel

1 Disenchant

2 Armageddon

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Spirit Link

1 Divine Offering

1 Aeolipile

1 Preacher

I sleeved up this deck for some casual Atlantic games a few months ago and I was surprised at how well it did. I mainly copied the list that Matt Marmorato played at LobsterCon. I was drawn to the 12 one-drops and 4 Crusade and they overperform in the fun games. I decided to play this on Sunday to mix it up and play something different than the previous two days. Also this would let me get a better idea about what is strong in this deck and what is not. I'd say its still a work in progress but I have a lot more ideas on what to improve.

Going forward, I would not play Preacher at all. This card has not impressed me. I also think one more pump effect would be nice. 5th Crusade ideally, but maybe Army of Allah or Angelic Voices. For additional removal, I would play at least one Maze of Ith in the main. I'm not a huge fan of the card in general, but when I start seriously contemplating Holy Day in the main deck, I know that Maze would be better almost always. I would play Sol Ring in the sideboard as a hedge against Gloom. Library and Balance should also probably be in the sideboard. Spirit Link did not do enough and should be more Aeolipile. I'm not sure about Serra Angel or how many Armageddon to play. Armageddon is strong but the deck does not have a lot of artifact mana to take advantage of it. If you don't win in the next few turns you would recover much slower than opponents with full power.

Round 1 - Claudio Gori on MonoBlack

Game one I play three one-drops and he Hymns me then plays Dark Ritual into Nevinyrral's Disk. I attack him to 13 and force him to use disk. He has follow up Order and Black Knight. I have follow up Order and White Knight, but also Crusade and I win the race. Game two he has a turn three Gloom. I'm stuck on land but draw Chaos Orb to get me out of it... but I miss the flip. Only flip I missed all weekend. I can't really recover after that. Game three he plays turn one Ritual Ritual Ritual Sengir Black Knight. I'm on the play though and have Order plus three one-drops and a Crusade and I win the race! The deck continues to impress me!

1-0

Round 2 - Ivan Hernandez Chiva on DiscoTroll (Round 7 yesterday)

He manages to have turn one Library in all three games. I have enough pressure in game one to steal a win as he didn't draw enough mana, but the other two games Maze and Troll and Disk keep me from ever doing damage. I resolve an Armageddon game two but it was mostly at parity and he recovered faster.

1-1

Round 3 - Valerio Gregori on FourColor Black

Game one his Hymn hits my spells not my redundant lands. His Order holds off my team until he draws a second and I find no way to break through. Maze would have been good. Game two I have turn one Lions and he has turn one Gloom. I play two Factory and manage to win as he never casts another spell. Game three I put Spirit Link on an Order but he has Lightning Bolt and I'm out of pressure. I'm in a tough spot against his Order and he attacks me down to 4 life. I topdeck Factory to block and try to race with my creatures. He has Orb for Factory, but I have Disenchant. His draw is Lightning Bolt though and his Order finishes me off.

1-2

Round 4 - James Burton on Grixis

Game one my turn one Lions trades with his turn two Factory. I follow up with more two-drops and a Factory of my own. A Disenchant on his Sol Ring and he can't play any spells to stop me. Game two he plays turn two Sinkhole after I didn't  have a turn one play (I should have mulligan) and then plays a Troll and two Serendib and I die. Game three I have two one-drops but he's holding me off with a Troll (Maze would be good once again). He Mind Twist my hand. I draw Crusade and a few more creatures. He has a Dib to race while leaving Troll back. I draw Swords for Troll and he's dead in two attacks thanks to Crusade.

2-2

Round 5 - Julien Messina on RWB Spirit Link

Game one I have some protection from black creatures and he has two Juzam Djinn which kill him. Game two he has turn one Gloom. Eventually I draw enough lands to play my hand. He then has Balance and I'm down to five mana. I draw back to back Thunder Spirit I can't cast and he finishes me off with Troll. Game three he kills my first three creatures then plays a Troll. I'm forced to Spirit Link it to not take too much damage (my Spirit Link was not good all day). He then draws Hypnotic Specter and Serra Angel and I can't race because of his Troll (Maze would have been good).

2-3

22nd place

Results

Before the weekend, my goal was to top 8 each event. I want to have goals that challenge me. If you are always meeting your goals, you are probably setting the bar too low. I'm not afraid of failure at this point in my Magic career. Overall I only met 33% of my goal. However I am happy with my performance in the main event. I managed to play some pretty great games and find enough success to where I don't feel like I underperformed. It would have been nicer to be in contention near the end instead of the backdoor X-2 finish. I was disappointed in my performance in the Atlantic cup, but I certainly didn't bring the A-game with deck selection, deck tuning, or metagame prediction (who knew people played so many Gloom?)

The Extracurriculars

My first four days in Italy were great. The tournaments were lots of fun. I met so many new people and they were all extremely welcoming. I think this is the one of the strongest aspects of the Old School community is how quickly people will take you in as a part of the group. Going out Sunday night for dinner and beers after the last event was the highlight of the non-Magic portion of my trip. The group was almost a dozen people by the end, and of those people, I only knew two prior to the weekend.

Unfortunately, my wife got Covid shortly after arriving in Italy. I spent the Monday and Tuesday doing some sight-seeing on my own while she had her own hotel. It was still a good time but not nearly as amazing as I was hoping for. We will have to get back to Italy again in the future.

Props / Slops

Props:

Simon Christie, Matt Marmorato, and Michael Scheffenacker for the lists I copied

Seth Roncoroni, Simon Christie, Will Lowry, and Collin Rountree for input on decklist updates

Andy, Emily, and Paul for representing the Sisters of the Flame

Paul for top 8 with Serendib Djinn on Saturday

Emily for 9th on Saturday

Andy for top 8 with unpowered Jacques le Vert on Sunday

Every person I met for the first time (way too many to name)

The hosts of the event for everything (and then some)

Foccacia

Pesto

Slops:

Layovers

Covid

Gloom