Eternal Weekend 2023

It's been a busy holiday season, but I've finally found time to finish the report from Eternal Weekend 2023. This happened December 7-10 in Pittsburgh. I drove six hours from New Jersey to play in several events. I really love events where I can play in a different tournament every day.

Thursday - Old School

Atog Shops

I played Atog Shops. The event was Eternal Central rules, and I hadn't played Workshops in a 4-strip format before. I played Atog because I wanted a cheaper threat than Juggernaut and I also wanted to have Red sideboard cards instead of White.

Round 1 - Brian Vesgo - Atog

Game one he has multiple Black Vise and Timetwister. Game two I have turn one Chaos Orb for his Orb. I follow up with multiple Icy Manipulator for his Serendib Efreet and City of Brass. I eventually kill him with Atog and Fireball. Game three have two Su-Chi and he only has Hurkyl's Recall to delay the beatdown. Instead of replaying a Su-Chi, I play Atog and Chaos Orb to stay under Vise. He Timewisters at some point and played Library of Alexandria. He was never able to activate it though due to my pressure and never used the mana. He died to Atog when he didn't have colored mana up.

1-0

Round 2 - Ward Crane - Esper shops with Hymn and Jade Statue

Game one my Icy and Su-Chi beat his Su-Chi.  Game two I have Strip Mine for his turn one Library and follow up with my own Library on turn two. He has Strip Mine for it, but I do get one activation. However, he has another Strip Mine and I never draw a fourth land. He draws enough lands to kill me with a couple of Su-Chi.  Game three I have Library again but he has turn two Hymn. I build back up to seven cards in hand but then he has Balance. I draw a bunch of mana after the Balance and he draws all removal. It takes him a long time to kill me because he doesn't have extra mana to activate Jade Statue but eventually he draws out of it.

1-1

Round 3 - Brendan McBain - 12 bolt 

Game one I Mind Twist for two turn one and Strip Mine his next land. He never recovers. Game two he has turn one Library. I play two Atog turn one and then Demonic Tutor for City in a Bottle to shut off his Library. I draw Workshop and kill him exactly with Triskelion plus Copy plus Atog.

2-1

Round 4 - Thomas Swindell - RUG

Game one I have a turn one Icy which I use to disrupt his turn one Library. I activate in upkeep a few times to keep him from having the extra cards. I have Atog doing some beatdown against his two Kird Ape but he has no Forest. I then stick Triskelion to take out both Apes and win easily from there. I think on the critical turn I even Icy his Library in his draw step. Game two I have Ancestral and Mind Twist early, but he topdecks Timetwister to get back in it. I find City in a Bottle of the Twister though and win with Triskelion and Copy Artifact.

3-1 

Round 5 - Evan DeWitt - Grixis Hymn

Game one I have early Icy and Trike. I'm pretty far ahead so I don't cast the Wheel in my hand. He does find Hymn to take out my Wheel and then answers for both Icy and Trike. Now that we are at parity, I cast the Timetwister I draw and find Trikselion to kill him.. Game two he Hymns into Hyppie and Troll and I die without colored mana. Game three I Lotus into Su-Chi turn one and Copy Artifact on turn two. He is too far behind and two Strip Mine seal the game.

4-1

Round 6 Daniel Mowaf - The Deck / Some type of Tome Control

Game one I have a turn one Triskelion. He has turn one Chaos Orb but misses his flip. He draws three City of Brass takes too much damage. Game two he has Disenchant for first two Su-Chi and then I resolve Blood Moon. We play draw go for several turns. Eventually he finds Pearl and casts a third Disenchant on Moon. Now with white mana, he can Divine Offering on Trike. I have Mind Twist with double REB backup at this point and win from there.

5-1

I finish in 3rd Place and got this prize cards:

Friday - Vintage

I've always wanted to play in the Vintage Championships and this was finally my first time. I played UW Lurrus and went 2-3 before dropping to find food. I didn't really take any notes on the rounds. I think failing to eat breakfast contributed to dropping early because I would have liked to play all the rounds. Vintage is always fun when I get a chance to play it. I did manage to win game three of round one despite missing three Bauble triggers. I'm really not on top of my game outside of Old School anymore.

Saturday - Middle School World Championships

This was the event I was most looking forward to, and it delivered on the hype. For those that aren't aware, Middle School is a format covering the cards released in the years between Old School and Modern. The card pool is similar to Premodern, but the ban list has some major differences. Its only played in a few local pockets of America, but also Japan. The events are sporadic so still a lot of discovery and a more casual atmosphere.

About twenty people showed up to the Sly Fox brewery south of downtown Pittsburgh. It was a lot of people in town from Austin and Cleveland. I got to meet several people I'd only ever played against in the online leagues. The vibes were reminiscent of my first Old School event. 

I played what I believe to be the strongest deck in the format:

4 Worldgorger Dragon

1 Ambassador Laquatas

4 Animate Dead

4 Dance of the Dead

4 Entomb

4 Intuition

4 Careful Study

4 Whispers of the Muse

4 Frantic Search

3 Abeyance

2 Cunning Wish

4 Gemstone Mine

2 Undiscovered Paradise

4 Polluted Delta

1 Swamp

2 Island

4 Ancient Tomb

1 Underground River

2 Dromar's Cavern

1 Caves of Koilos

1 Adarkar Wastes

Sideboard

1 Capsize

1 Chain of Vapor

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Abeyance

1 Enlightened Tutor

2 Duress

1 Disenchant

1 Stroke of Genius

2 Necromancy

1 Funeral Charm

I made some changes since the last time I played this deck. Because you need both a creature and an enchantment to combo, this deck is susceptible to all forms of interaction: graveyard hate, creature removal, enchantment removal. I could not find a good way to counteract all of these at first, and had cards like Null Rod that don't even do anything. However, Abeyance stops all the reactive cards nicely while also being able to be cycled when you don't need it. The major issue would be getting enough white sources in the deck. I think I managed to do it though. Moving them to the main over Duress or Force of Will worked out even better than I was hoping. Adding white also gives access to Swords to Plowshares as a good answer for Meddling Mage (I even considered playing my own Mages but couldn't come up with a reason why I'd want to).

The tournament was going to be five rounds of swiss, no cuts. That meant I would need to 5-0 to be the Middle School World Champion.

Round One - Steve M on UWG Survival

Game one I play like eight or nine turns without finding a Dragon or Entomb and die without my opponent even knowing what I'm playing. Game two I probably misplay by wish for Funeral Charm but immediately draw two discard outlets and only one Animate and it gets countered. Wishing for Abeyance would have won easily. After he counters I draw nothing but land and he had all spells and I die.

0-1

Round Two - Eric on RG Oath (Firecats and Ball Lightnings I think)

Game one I win on turn two. Game two goes long but he let's an Intuition resolve and I get Abeyance so his Pyroblast, Furnace, and Naturalize are all stopped.

1-1

Round Three - Angelo on Fires

Game one I win on turn two. Game two I win on turn four with Abeyance protection.

2-1

Round Four - Stu on RDW

Game one I mulligan to four and don't draw second land for the turn two kill. He has Wasteland and I never draw more land to get back in. Game two I draw the game on turn two. Game three I win on turn two. Game four I draw the game on turn three. Game five I play three Frantic Search in a turn and just need to draw a colored mana source to win the game but miss. I took too much damage from Ancient Tomb and die. 

2-2

Round Five - Patrick on Landstill

Deck performs great. Win with Abeyance backup pretty early both games, maybe turn four game one and turn six through a Seal of Cleansing game two. Abeyance is great.

3-2

I think this record got me a back door Top 8, but the results truly didn't matter. Everyone at the event was there because they loved the format. Most people skipped playing Legacy Champs or other events at the actual EW site to be there. The vibes were great, the beer was great, the food was pretty good. 

All the Middle School World Championship Competitors

Props:

Jimmy for running the OS Event on Thursday.

Collin for sharing room and meals

Eric for putting on MS Worlds

Pittsburgh seems like a nice town

My wife for all the love and support

Bryan for winning MS Worlds and 2nd at Vintage Champs

Slops:

Pittsburgh traffic. Guess when the roads are just bottlenecked by bridges everywhere you can't expect much better. The train was not running on the weekend for construction. 

Weather on Sunday.

TwiddleVault at the Stream of Life Tournament *1st Place*

Sunday November 12th I played in the Stream of Life tournament put on by Phil and Sunny of the Sisters of the Flame at the Endless Life Brewery in Brooklyn. I played Twiddle Vault and went undefeated to win the event. The event was a blast and I wanted to share my experience here.

The Deck

I picked up two CE Time Vault a few months back and I have been looking for an excuse to try them out. I played a couple of games at a local meetup against David Third and quickly realized this is not the deck to bring to a casual hangout. The deck was far stronger than I imagined and disproportionately wastes your opponents time as they watch you combo off. I decided to relegate it to only tournament play after that. The question was, which tournament?

I considered playing it for Spike Summit back in September, but realized it would probably not be very good against what I expected people to show up with. When the Stream of Life event was announced, I decided it would be the perfect time to play it. The tournament was low enough stakes that if I crash and burn spectacularly, I wouldn't be too upset. The player base was expected to mostly be NYC locals. I knew most of them and figured they wouldn't complain about it too much. They are already expecting me to show up with something extremely Spikey anyway. 

As for the specifics of the list, there isn't much to talk about. I copied some lists from Danny Friedman and Jim Allen Wallace and picked what I liked about both. A few comments on some card choices:

Mana Short - I don't think this card is needed in the main if you are playing Mind Twist. Really just want one effect to either set up the combo or stop their interaction in the middle of comboing. Two was overkill, and obviously Mind Twist is the stronger card on its own.

 

Strip Mine - I was able to use this as a pseudo Mana Short in a few games and kept people honest with their Libraries. There is enough generic mana costs in this deck I don't see a good reason for not playing it.

Fireball kill - I considered the main deck Erhnams, but wanted to play them along side Fireball for winning fair games anyway. So with Fireball in the deck, I think it's just better to leave them with dead cards in the first game and possible make the Erhnams stronger after sideboarding when they take out their creature removal.

Erhnam Djinn - Pretty much the perfect creature for this transformational plan. Cheapest threat that kills in the fastest number of turns balanced with how hard it is to kill with the direct damage that players more likely to leave in. Does make you a bit more susceptible to City in a Bottle, but not enough to where I'd want to play Shivan Dragon or Mahamoti Djinn. 

Glasses of Urza - What happens when you tap to look at their hand and they have the answer? Now what? I'll pass. 

The Event

Mano picked me up on his way to Brooklyn Sunday morning. We were excited about the tournament, but the real priority was the cheeseburger.

We got to Emily at 11:45 with plans to get the first burgers we could when they opened at noon. Luckily it was only 4 minutes from the tournament location. The wait time was only 10 minutes after we ordered.

The burger was solid. Mano liked it more than I did. I thought the meat was a bit too salty, which made the rest of the burger bland by comparisons. The bites from the inner part of the sandwich were less salty, but I still feel the flavor was too concentrated in the meat and not distributed throughout the onions, cheese, and bun. Fries and fry sauce were very good. Overall I'd rate it 7.5/10.

Definitely the best burger I've had from a pizza restaurant.

The beer at Endless Life was pretty good. They made a special sour for the event. I don't normally like sours, but I enjoyed that one. I had a couple of the dark beers before switching to the tap old fashions. Each drink would get a stamp on your Stream of Life and the person with the most at the end of the day would win a prize. 

No pictures of the beer, but this cocktail was nice.

5 drinks for 5 stamps. 

The Games

Round 1 - Noah Keating - Guardian Beast

I didn't see much of Noah's deck in game one. We both exchanged small Mind Twists for two. His mana was just Volcanic and Tundra so when I countered his Balance, I used Strip Mine on his Volcanic to prevent him from Lightning Bolt while I combo. This let me use Sylvan and City of Brass more freely. Game two he had several Factory and Sage beats, but I drew two Erhnam Djinn which I cast off City of Brass so I didn't have a Forest. He tried to push through enough damage but eventually I found enough extra turns to swing back for the win.

1-0

Round 2 - Claudia du Lac - UR Burn

Game one was wild. She plays first and has a Mox plus a land but no other play. I use Strip Mine and Black Lotus to Timetwister but don't have a follow up. She has Blood Moon, Ironclaw Orcs, and Time Walk. She follows up with another Orcs and a Serendib. I just play out some Mox and Mana Vault and my only blue is Sapphire. I use Recall to get back Timewister. She attacks for 7 to put me to 11 and after combat plays Chain Lightning. I copy it back on an Orc, she copies back to my face, and I copy to the other Orc. She's out of red mana so I'm now at 5 life.  On my turn, I cast Timetwister. I don't find anything useful so I have to Fireball the Serendib. The following turn she plays another Serendib. I'm forced to play Recall for Timetwister and Fireball. She counters the Fireball and attacks me down to 2 life. Another Serendib means I need to answer both, or win the game. I can Recall for Fireball and cast it on both, but I don't think that gets me anywhere closer to winning, so instead I play Timetwister yet again. Yet again, she does not draw any instant speed burn or countermagic. I find Time Walk and some Islands, so I start trying to combo. I'm worried I'm going to have to use Timetwister one more time, but I manage to chain together enough turns and finally find Black and Green Mox to Demonic for Regrowth and set up two Fireballs to kill. Game two I get an early Erhnam and take just enough turns to win.

2-0

Round 3 - Jelani Johnson - 4 Color Hymn

This one was on stream (shout out to Andy Baquero). Game one he hit me with two Hymns and three Disenchants to keep me from doing anything relevant. Game two he's stuck without White mana and I manage to win easily. Game three I have a turn one Sylvan, and then have the perfect cards on top to pay 8 life and go for turn "two" kill. Several untaps later, I'm successful.

3-0

My only picture from the games.

Round 4 - Matt Marmorato - Serra/Moti Deck

Game one there is a lot of draw go. Eventually he uses Recall to get back Counterspell with one other card in hand. I cast Mind Twist, forcing him to tap out of his Black Lotus to counter. After that, I'm free to combo that turn. Game two he has Counterspell for my turn two Howling Mine, but my turn three Erhnam resolves. He doesn't have any creature removal left in the deck. I manage to Twiddle to block a Factory along the way, but easily win after a few attacks.

4-0

Round 5 - Shaun Cole - The Deck

I don't recall much from game one, but I won through not much resistance. Maybe I had Mind Twist or Library. Game two I mulligan to six and keep Tropical, Lotus, Ruby, Sapphire, Mana Drain, Erhnam. Erhnam resolves and he reacts the way someone without any creature removal left in the deck would. He does have Chaos Orb, but I have the Mana Drain and he concedes. He shows me he boarded out not only Swords to Plowshares, but also Wrath of God, Maze of Ith, and Preacher.

5-0

The Aftermath

Final Standings

My first place prizes:

It feels good to win an event again after all of the 2nds and 3rds in the past two years of Old School. I'm ready to play the next one.

Props:

Phil and Sunny for organizing everything.

Endless Life for hosting.

Paul for helping run the show.

Jared and Andy for making the stream happen.
Mano for driving, being a burger buddy, and a great finish with extra spicy deck.

All my opponents for being good sports while I took all the turns.

Everyone that came out. Great to see familiar faces and meet new ones.

My wife for all the love and support. 

Swiss Minus One

Just the thought process on why this is a reasonable way to run a tournament.

A. Tournaments need a winner.

They don't need prizes, or long term ramifications, but this is their main function; it is their nature.

B. The winner of the tournament should be decided by a match of Magic: the Gathering.

Winners determined by tiebreakers is a far less compelling experience for everyone involved.

C. The participants of that tournament deciding match should know the stakes as the game is being played.

It can be argued that winning your last match to move into a tie with the leader and then winning the event on tiebreakers still satisfies point B, so this point shows how that fails to create the drama of a winner-take-all match.

At this point, there are three main ways I've identified which meet those requirements. Those are:

1. Elimination Bracket tournament

2. Some preliminary rounds (can vary in structure and number) followed by a Elimination Cut 

3. Straight Swiss

Elimination Brackets - straightforward for single elimination, increasingly complicated for double or triple or higher. Hard to have simultaneous play for double or more, lots of player downtime waiting for results. Single elimination does not provide enough matches of Magic for the average player. Generally Single Elimination is worse than Straight Swiss

Straight Swiss - this is effectively Single Elimination and, in fact, it can be run as such if you are willing to end the tournament once there is only one undefeated player left. Only when using a fixed number of rounds can you run into trouble where the winner is determined by tiebreakers. This happens when a paired-down player in the penultimate round loses, leaving only one undefeated player left for the final round. Then, this player also loses, creating a two- or three- or more way tie for first. As you approach the power-of-two limit for number of players, this situation happens less often.

Swiss plus one - I don't know why this is popular. This was a weird structure invented to distribute prizes at GP side events in the late 2000s and it terrible at actually identifying a winner. If a player goes undefeated, it is no different than Swiss, but it guarantees the pair-down situation that causes straight Swiss to fail.

Elimination Cut - Top 8 is the standard, but there are other options. Top 16, Top 6 with byes, top 12 with byes, etc. Preliminary rounds can also vary with Swiss, group play, or Round Robin all possible depending on number of players. Deciding where to draw the line is key.

Personal Opinion - Elimination Cut playoffs are the best for both players and spectators. I suppose it is worse for the TOs, and they are the ones making the call. I find it humorous that European Old School events all use  Elimination Cut  playoffs and American ones do not, when it is the exact opposite divide in the soccer/football leagues. Playoffs are American; lets do them more!

D. Tiebreakers may be inevitable, but the impact of them should be minimized. 

A good reason for cut to elimination rounds is the tiebreaker is now between the 8th and 9th place person instead of the 1st and 2nd. This can be further improved in situations with byes in the elimination rounds, where there are two different possible tiebreaker impacts, and each is a smaller overall impact. 

E. Intentional Drawing is not immoral.

Draws may be discussed in the future, but for this post it is assumed draws and intentional draws are possible and allowed.

F. Intentional Drawing is largely a waste of time.

Many times in swiss plus top 8, the top 8 is locked going into the final round if they all agree to intentional draw. This effectively means the last round of the swiss is devoid of drama, which does not make sense for a final round. 

G. Starting the playoffs a round earlier gives you more time to finish the playoffs and may be more palatable to the TO. 

Having the first round of top 8 during prize announcements for other prizes could work to save time. 

H. Therefore, Swiss Minus One

This creates the same top 8 as normal Swiss a lot of the time, especially at lower ends of the player count range. Swiss round recommendations are designed so that everyone at X-1 or better is guaranteed to make top 8. I don't see a strong argument for why this needs to be the case in the OS community. The tiebreaks will still be between 8th and 9th as normal swiss. 

Glorycon Specific notes:

Using some swiss triangle calculations:

64 Players 

Note after round 5, you would expect two of the 4-1s to ID and the other 8 to play for the final four spots. This is because you have the maximum number of people for the recommended round count. A cut after round 5 would still have the same people in contention, but instead be decided on tiebreakers.

74 Players

Because you are now on the lower end of the recommended round count, both 6 and 7 rounds generate "good" cuts. Only doing 6 rounds would mean no one could really ID in round 6 and everyone playing to earn their spot in top 8.

80 Players

Just an illustration that while 7 rounds is recommended, in this case 6 rounds would only have one 5-1 player miss the top 8 on breakers. 

September NEOS 7Pt Singleton *Top4*

I hadn't planned on writing blog post about this event, so some details are fuzzy. 

I don't have much experience with the 7 point singleton format. It's a bit too casual for tournament play, but also still a bit too spikey for the casual meetups. The Sisters of the Flame have their own Singleton format thats 100 cards with almost all the best stuff banned. It's ideal for casual games and seeing cards you never see before. 7 point is close to that, but still the margins matter.

The Deck

Most of my experience in 7Pt is playing games against Simon when I was still in Texas. He usually has four or five decks put together so I'll play whatever he has. I played a few games in between rounds of the Sunday Vintage when I was in town for Hurricane Event. We discussed what we thought would be good for the NEOS. I really liked the way Stone Rain and Ice Storm were playing out, so I decided to be on RG. The black splash for Howl from Beyond is mostly free, and something I took from my Sisters singleton deck. Spending four points on the two mox was a mistake. I think the Mox Emerald was fine since there are a lot of one green mana plays, but the Ruby was never good. It's probably better to play Wheel, Sylvan Library, Earthquake, and something else instead of the Mox.

The Games

Match 1 - Craig Winzer - Mono G

Game one he chooses to draw, so by the time he stabilized I  had detonate for his Tetravus. Game two he had turn one Library (that explains drawing first) and I couldn't compete. Game three he had turn one Library but we both mulligan and I had three creatures in play turn two. He only got two extra cards before he had to come off Library and then killed him with his own Ifh-Biff.

1-0

Match 2 - Joseph Freshwater - Green Black

I don't remember much about this one except game two he was stuck on lands and used Berserk to kill my creature. Unfortunately for him, I had Giant Growth and he died.

2-0

Match 3 - Mark Evaldi - Mono Black

Game one had turn two Ifh-Biff but he had Ashes to Ashes into Mind Twist my hand. I did not recover. Game two he had Pestilence but had to use it up and then I have land destruction to put him back to one mana and win from there. Game three I Strip Mine him and he never hit 4th land.

3-0

Match 4 - Jon Tschida - GWb

Game one I mulligan to six and keep Sprites Trike four land. I draw only land for the game and die to Grizzly Bears, White Knight, and Derelor before I can play Triskelion. Game two I keep Mountain Forest Untamed Wilds Chaos Orb Giant Growth Erhnam Brassclaw and never draw 3rd land.

3-1

Match 5 - Cameron Eaton

He dropped :(

4-1

Match 6 - Tim Moran

We played this in person.

I don't remember which of the first two I won. I lost a game where I got aggressive with an Ice Storm to cut him off of red mana, but he then had Maze of Ith which wrecked my hand of Giant Growth and Howl From Beyond. Game three I keep hand of Elves of Deep Shadow, Scryb Sprites, Fellwar Stone, one land with some more one and two mana plays. His first land is Factory and then he uses Strip Mine on my only land before I can deploy the Fellwar. I still manage to play spells with a drawn Forest and the Deep Shadow. Eventually I get enough land to play more than one spell a turn and he's flooding out. I'm doing my best to kill him before he draws out of it. I'm down to 6 life from City of Brass and Elves of Deep Shadow. He can draw Triskelion or a bunch of other cards to just win, but he keeps drawing land and I win. 

5-1

Group Winner

8th seed after group play.

Top 16 - Joe Singer on Mono Black

Game one I mulligan to five cards and he had turn one Underworld Dreams and then The Rack. I do my best to race but it is tough because I also take damage from City of Brass. The game ends up at a spot where I'm at 4 he at 6, I have Taiga Mountain City of brass, Brassclaw Orcs in play. My hand is Forest Trike Bolt. He has Dreams Rack Scepter and five lands. His turn he plays Fallen Angel and passes. I had to do the math on if I should Bolt the angel or him. Plenty of cards win either way, but Giant Growth and Howl win if I Bolt the Angle, while only Chaos Orb wins if I Bolt face. I bolt the Angel and draw Detonate for the Scepter and win. Game two I had turn 5 Trike and he only had Jayemdae Tome and no interaction and died.

6-1

Top 8 - Lucas Glavin on 5 Color Control

Game one he has turn one Factory but my attacker is Scryb Sprites. I do about 6 with it while slowly building mana. He has City in a Bottle for my Erhnam Djinn. I play out Thorn Thallid and Pixies to attack past the Factory. He has Coffin to take care of the Thallid. I have Bolt for the Factory and then follow up with Tracker. He's at 6 facing 5 damage but has drawn nothing but lands. I win as he draws more lands. Game two he keeps a two lander and I have Strip Mine for his Savannah. He only has Plains but then has Underground Sea. I play Chaos Orb and flip it on the Sea. Then I draw Ice Storm and he has no lands for several turns. I only have a Scavenger Folk as an attacker so he's still at 10 but I find Howl From Beyond to close the game out.

7-1

Top 4 - Erik Ostman on 5 Color Combo Control

Game one I have very fast start. This is my turn 2: 

My next turn I have Scarwood Goblins which I decide to play into his Island plus Volcanic. I get punished as he has Mana Drain into Underground Sea plus The Abyss. I do manage to get him down to 2 life over the next several turns, but don't draw any way to push more damage until I draw Howl from Beyond and Regrowth after all my creatures die. He resolves Mirror Universe and I don't have an answer. A few turns later he uses Ring of Mar'uf to get Lightning Bolt to kill me.

Game two I mulligan two hands with no lands into this on five cards:

I think long about it but ultimately decide to send it back and go to four cards. My four card hand is Llanowar Elves, Ice Storm, Thorn Thallid, Grizzly Bears, Erhnam Djinn, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning. I decide I can't go to three cards, and put the two burn spells and Erhnam on the bottom. I don't draw land for the first five turns of the game, eventually discarding to hand size. Meanwhile he has an Ivory Tower and a Rocket Launcher out. The first land I draw is Swamp to further rub salt in the wound. I finally draw a Forest to play some creatures. I have Thallid, Thorn Thallid, and Llanowar Elves out when he plays Drop of Honey. I decide to continue to play creatures since otherwise I'd likely end up discarding. He has Counterspell for my Chaos Orb and Mana Drain for my Detonate on Ivory Tower. I finally Shatter it but he has Regrowth. At this point I'm too far behind. I do manage to resolve a Triskelion after the Drop of Honey is gone, but never get him below 19 life thanks to his Tower. 

7-2

Thoughts on 7pt

I probably got a bit unlucky in the top four, but got plenty lucky along the way to get there. To make top four while effectively playing just 3 pointed cards does say something for the power of the strategy or how well I was running. 

Optimizing a deck for 7pt is really tough. I think ideally the RG deck would play one or two more lands to hopefully prevent what happen to me in game two of the semi-finals, but then you would flood out a lot more. Flooding seems to be the way most games were decided when both people could cast spells. There aren't many great options to fix this, and it does mean every deck kind of moves towards midrange. 

I think sideboards would help this format a lot, but, I love sideboarding more than most. 

Thanks for reading,

Ty

Selecting for Answer Diversity in Old School

In the most recent episode of All Tings Considered, Mano speaks to the difficulty of getting the right mix of reactive removal spells post-board in certain Old School matchups. The context was playing UWb midrange against a burn-heavy LDB list, but the principals can be applied to any matchup. In fact, some of the same tools you already use in deckbuilding can be utilized to come up with a coherent plan.

Sideboarding Basics (not Basic Lands)

When I've discussed sideboarding before, it was usually in the context of Modern or other current formats. The types of decks and sideboards I prefer in these formats lead me to play strong haymaker type cards that can turn bad matchups into good matchups, or punish people for getting out of line. These cards backed up with a reasonable clock form the basis for my strategy.

In Old School, these cards and strategies don't exist in the same way (one exception may be the Blood Moon Shops deck I played at Lobstercon). The haymakers are less specific and harder to utilize while still having a clock. The creatures are weaker in general. The opposing decks are more generically good and less susceptible to silver bullets. 

All that means your sideboard strategy is more akin to a modern control deck. You want to upgrade your weakest cards to give you either better answers or more efficient answers while still executing the same core game plan. 

Threat Diversity

For a given matchup, there will be a deck in the "beatdown" role and a deck in the "control" role. The beatdown player will want to diversify threats against the expected answers of the control player. I've spoken on this before, and I think most people have a basic understanding of this. The saying goes, "there are no wrong threats, only wrong answers". This is certainly an oversimplification, but is true enough. In the case of which one-for-one removal spells to plays, it is correct.

It's important to remember that the opponent is sideboarding as well. You may be tempted to bring in Blue Elemental Blast to answer their array of Lightning Bolts, Chain Lightnings, and other red cards. This would be a mistake if they are removing those cards post-board for non-red threats. Bringing in City in a Bottle is also tempting, but if they side out the Serendib Efreets, it can be a dead card.

Answer Diversity

Avoiding those dead cards is extremely important. Games after sideboarding generally go longer and come down to card advantage and attrition more often. However, there is a difference between a dead card and having the wrong answer and the wrong time. 

A hand with Terror, Blue Elemental Blast, and Counterspell is great on an empty board. None of the cards are actively useful, but over time you will hope they line up with the threats the opponent draws. This hand gets much worse as soon as the opponent plays Mishra's Factory though. At this point, these cards stop being potential answers and instead get closer to being dead cards.

A list of possible answers you could play against a LDB deck as a UWb midrange deck:

Blue Elemental Blast (for Orcs, Blood Moon, and Bolts/Chain)

Terror (for Savannah Lions, Serendib Efreet, and Serra Angel)

Divine Offering (for Mishra's Factory and Su-Chi)

Control Magic (any non-Factory creature, but not ideal against Lion)

Healing Salve (counters Bolt/Chain and most of a Psi Blast. can win a combat)

Flash Counter (Bolt, Psiblast, Disenchant, Counterspell)

City in a Bottle (Serendib, but can get more than one)

Maze of Ith (answers all creatures but susceptible to Armageddon and burn spells)

Swords to Plowshares (does everything! its the best! you heard it here today!)

I'm sure there are others, but these were the ones I considered when building my deck for the recent event.

Counting Mana Sources

One strategy for developing a sideboard is the Elephant Method. For this, you come up with a post-board configuration for all the matchups and then add the totals to see how many cards you want. Usually this will be in the 85-90 card range. Then you have to trim down based on expected metagame and concessions for overlapping cards.

This is a lot of work.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can just throw a bunch of sideboard looking cards until you hit fifteen and go from there. You might end up with unplayable Karma in your deck this way.

I've recently treated sideboards much like building mana bases. When building a mana base, I'll have an idea for how many sources of a certain color I want to include. The Frank Karsten articles on the internet provide a good reference, but generally don't apply to Old School because the mana is so bad. Still, I may want 13 blue sources and 11 white sources and 7 black sources, but only 26 sources total, so that leads me to playing 4 Tundra, 3 Underground Sea, 1 Scrubland, 3 City of Brass, 2 Plains and 2 Island. When you know the targets for your source counts, you can fiddle with the dual land numbers until things match up.

Trying this for the LDB matchup, you may want something like 8 answers to Savannah Lions, 8 answers to Mishra's Factory, 6 answers to Serendib Efreet, 8 answers to Serra Angel, and 6 answers to Lightning Bolt. These numbers are not quite as clearly defined as the number of mana sources needed, but you should look at your totals for the post-board configuration. If it's showing 12 answers for Savannah Lions but only 6 answers for Mishra's Factory, you may be weaker to Factory than you thought.

Going back to the lists of answers to put them in context of dual lands:

Blue Elemental Blast (Bolt/Chain dual land)

Terror (Lion/Dib/Serra dual land)

Divine Offering (Factory/Su-Chi dual land, sometimes Bolt)

Control Magic (Serendib / Serra dual land)

Healing Salve (Bolt/Chain/PsiBlast dual land)

Flash Counter (Bolt/Disenchant dual land)

City in a Bottle (Serendid only)

Maze of Ith (City of Brass)

Swords to Plowshares (Even better City of Brass!)

There are lots of ways to make these duals get the numbers you may want, and it depends on the number of slots you have available. If 4 Swords to Plowshares is always a give, there may be 7 additional slots. Here you can see why I ended up on multiple Maze of Ith in my sideboard. One way to configure that is:

2 Terror

2 Maze of Ith

1 City in a Bottle

2 Divine Offering

This has 8 answers to Factory, 8 for Lions, 8 for Serra, 9 for Serendib, but nothing for Lightning Bolt beyond however many Counterspells you leave in. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what sideboard they choose to play. 

Final Note on Divine Offering vs Disenchant

I'm ready to declare myself a Divine Offering skeptic. Its good against Robots and Workshops, and perfectly reasonable if you want more than the 4 Disenchant to stop Jayemdae Tome. I think incidental life gain on Su-Chi is way overrated and not worth the weakness to Control Magic. Yes, if you know 100% there are no enchantments to kill its all upside, but it's still killing a Factory for same result every time. I was happy to play 4 Disenchant even when no one was on Blood Moon or The Abyss, and with 4 Su-Chi in my own deck. Maybe its better in a burn vs burn matchup, but in the midrange deck I don't think a hedge is necessary. 

Thanks for reading,

Ty

Spike Summit '23 *4th Place*

This past weekend, there was a gathering of spikes and spike-adjacent players in a house in the Catskill mountains. Fifteen players showed up with the goal of winning. This was put on by Will Magrann so that he can get some solid practice for his upcoming trip to WinC0n in Italy. The format was Swedish, but American reprints.

My Deck

I played UWb midrange.

I started with the list that Stebbo used to win at WinC0n last year. However, I realized the colored mana sources in the deck were very low. Only 10 white and 11 blue. I cut the two off color Mox to fit in an extra City of Brass and blue land. I played two Copy Artifact with the expectation they could be extra mana acceleration more often since everyone should be fully powered. It can also be additional threats by copying Su-Chi or Factory, or opponents Jayemdae Tomes. I wanted to be as good as possible vs The Deck in game one. I played four Disenchant and zero Divine Offering main to be better against Blood Moon and because I didn't think anyone would show up with Robots.

The Sideboard was chosen to combat the other parts of the meta I expected. I thought there would be lots of UR Burn with Blood Moon and various aggressive 12 Bolt three-color decks. The last card I added was the Chains of Mephistopheles to have something against TwiddleVault that might still be good vs The Deck.  This card did not come up.

Healing Salve is great, especially at protecting 4/4s from Psionic Blast. Two Terror and two Maze and one City in a Bottle is probably overkill. I should have had some Control Magic.

Several people showed up on similar decks at the event, which I was not quite prepared for. The games were very grindy as there generally more removal than there are threats. We decided after the tournament was over that the best card to have for these mirrors would be Recall. If I played it again, I would cut the two Copies for a Recall and a Serra. 

The Event

I left central NJ around 1pm on Friday afternoon. I picked up Simon at the airport. Only missed one exit while trying to get out of the state and took a 10 minute detour into Bayonne. The drive up was fairly annoying with traffic until getting into NY. The final 10 miles was scenic with windy roads around mountains including a cool waterfall.

The structure of the event was as follows: Each player would get assigned six opponents on Friday night. You had until 5pm on Saturday to play your six matches. After that, there would be one final round paired based on standings and then a cut to the top. A top 4 cut would be used if it was a clean break, otherwise it would be top 6 with the top two players getting byes. I think this top 6 idea worked out great and should be considered more in the future.

The Matches

Round 1 - Tim Moran - UR 12 Bolt

Game one I lead with Factory City of Brass and Copy on his Mox Ruby. He has Ruby Jet no land but Ironclaw Orcs and Shatter for my Mox. I don't find a third mana source. He gets a blue source and plays Blood Moon. I'm forced to Disenchant when I was planning on using Swords. Next turn he has Serendib and I have to Swords that. Meanwhile the Orcs has 8 damage and I never find a third land and die. Game two I'm mostly in control with Terror for Orcs and Swords on his two Factories. I have Su-Chi and Factory to start doing damage, but he deploys two Serendib Efreet. I draw Demonic Tutor but realize I forgot to bring in my City in a Bottle. Instead I find Healing Salve and use it to win the race at one life. Game three I have turn one Library on the draw and I'm never really in trouble.

1-0

I played Tim four times on the weekend. First we played our NEOS 7pt Singleton match which I narrowly won keeping one-lander in game three. Later we played our main even match. On Saturday, we played an epic match in the Broken Draft that I also won a tight game three. Finally, we played an Ante40k game where he had turn one Sengir Vampire. I don't have any ramp, but he doesn't have second land. He casts Winds of Change twice looking for the land, but doesn't find it. Meanwhile I find Psionic Blast for his Sengir and then two Icy Manipulator to stop his mana. A Su-Chi is racing but he has Lightning Bolts for my face. I tap him out on the last turn and he Bolts me to 1 life but doesn't have the mana to cast the final Lightning Bolt to kill me. I won his Plateau!

Round 2 - Ben Katz - UWb

I don't remember much about this match. Game one I have turn one Library and play Black Lotus after drawing. My hand is Counterspell, Mox Sapphire, and two Savannah Lions. He casts Disenchant on the Black Lotus and I never draw a White mana. Game two I win somehow. Game three he has Control Magic for a Su-Chi and I flood out.

1-1

Round 3 - Mike Franz - 12 Bolt

I don't remember much on this either. I think I won a close game one. Game two I think I had Library.

2-1

After this match, Mike had the privilege of playing me in my first ever Ante40K game. It wasn't close as I had turn one Sol Ring and Mana Vault into a Triskelion. I did win my first Bird.

Round 4 - Mano - UWb

Game one I'm on the play with Library, Lotus, Sol Ring, Mind Twist, Tundra, Underground Sea, Disenchant. I debate on the best strategy and decide to Twist for four cards turn one. He only has Factory for mana and I'm able to win easily. Game two he is firmly in control with an Ancestral and removal for my threats. He resolves a large Braingeyser through my Counterspell. On my turn, I play Lions and Balance with one card in hand. He plays a Counter, which lets me use my last card to Counter and resolve Balance. Both empty handed with empty boards, I draw Serra soon after. He draws Control Magic the next turn however, and I never find an answer. Game three is very long. I have Library going but he has Jayemdae Tome to keep up. Eventually he finds Mind Twist to empty my hand and I no longer have removal for his threats.

2-2

Round 5 - Rich Bourque - TaxTower Millstone

Game one  goes very long. I keep him off of Tower with Counterspells and Disenchant. I get him down to 4 life before he removes all my threats. I try to set up a turn with Time Walk and Mishra's Factory, but can't get past his Strip Mine. My last few threats were in my bottom cards and I get milled out. Game two has some similar back and forth. Once again, I fight him over the Ivory Towers to keep his life total manageable. At some point he decides to use Regrowth on a Millstone to try to win the game, but this opens the door for me to Braingeyser and Time Walk and he can't recover. Game three he mulligans to four cards. He does have turn one Moat, but I have the Disenchant and start attacking with Lions. He tries a Timetwister but I have Counterspell and win a few turns later.

3-2

Round 6 - Levi Baumgardner - Lion 12 Bolt

I played all six of my matches on Friday night, so the memory a bit foggy. Game one he has two Lions and a Chain for my own Lions. I die shortly after. Game two I don't remember but my life totals suggest I was never in any real danger. Game three is somewhat back and forth. He makes an all out attack at the end of the game that would only put me to 4 after I make blocks. He has Psionic Blast, but I have Swords for his unblocked creature and then a follow up Mana Drain to prevent him from topdecking and I win the race. 

4-2

I was the only one that managed to get all six matches in on Friday night. Saturday morning, some people were going on a hike. I considered it briefly, but then skipped in order to play in the broken draft. I drafted a UB deck with Recurring Nightmare, Opposition, two Baleful Strix and two Man-o'-War. I also had Mana Drain and two Force of Will. The highlight of the deck was Ashnod's Coupon, with errata to draw a card. Over the draft, I think I got five drinks. I stuck with mostly water and Coke Zero to stay hydrated, but did get a beer and a shot of whiskey with the last two.

After lunch, I watched a few of the other matches as the final results started trickling in. I played three Ante40k games against Paul, who had Library in all three. I somehow managed to go 2-1, only exchanging Birds in the process. I made him a Conan, the Librarian Bird. 

After the final matches came in, the standings looked like this:

Two players at 5-1

Five players at 4-2

Three players at 3-3

Round 7 pairings were based on standings. There would be a cut to top 6 with the top 2 players receiving byes unless there was a clean cut to top 4. The pairing for round 7 had me paired down against Paul. If I lost, there would be a clean cut top 4. If I won, there would be a top 6 and one of the players on 4-3 would sneak in.

Round 7 - Paul DeSilva - WUb Aggro

Paul's deck was much more aggressive with 15 creatures and Armageddon and no Counterspell or Swords to Plowshares. I'm not sure what happened in game one. I may have had Library. Game two he starts with two Black Vise, but I'm able to get under easily enough. I think he was stuck on only one White mana this game. Eventually I stick a Serra and ride it to victory.

5-2

Other winners from round 7: Parshall, Mano, Wheel, Levi, Tim, Emily.

Standings after round 7:

Bracket for top 6:

Quarterfinals - Will Magrann - The Deck

Will had taken the opposite approach to me and had to play four matches in a row over the past six hours to finish up. This would be his fifth match sitting in the same chair. I play first as higher seed. I keep a hand with two Swords, Ancestral, Mox Sapphire, three land. It's not great having two Swords in this matchup, but I don't think I can pass on a hand with Ancestral. I play it turn one and draw another Swords and two more land. I'm unable to pressure him at all as he has two Factory in play before I find my first threat, a Savannah Lions. He resolves Jayemdae Tome and is pulling ahead. Eventually I play a second Lions and a Strip Mine, but can't get through. This is when the game gets weird. My board is two Mox, two Lion, three dual lands and a Strip Mine. His board is Tome, Chaos Orb, Mox, two Factory, two City of Brass and a dual land. We both have five or six cards in hand. He decides to cast Balance (?). In response, I use Strip Mine on my own land. He's forced to sacrifice both Factories and is left without enough mana to activate Tome. A few turns go by after this where he's not activating Tome but I haven't drawn a threat. Eventually he gets fourth mana again but I have found Black Lotus and Braingeyser. I use a Counterspell to resolve the Geyser and I'm back in the game for real. A follow up Mind Twist hits his Regrowth, Timetwister, and Fireball. He had already used Recall earlier in the game. So while the next several turns involve him removing my threats and me trying to eliminate his Tome, eventually he realizes he only has two Factory left as win conditions. When he's down to 8 cards left in library he starts attacking. I use Swords to kill one Factory and he concedes as my life total is too high for him to win before he decks. Game two, he keeps a hand with turn one Library but I have turn one Strip Mine. His hand didn't do much without the Library and I get an easy-ish win. 

6-2

Semifinals - Will Parshall - Lion 12 Bolt

This match was rather anti-climactic. Both games he got of to early start and had multiple Counterspell to stop my interaction. I think it was game one when I went for an attack of my Factory into his Factory with Disenchant in hand, life totals both at 8 or so. He had already played two Counters but had the third to win that battle. This caused the game to end much quicker than if I had held off on attacks, but I think I was going to lose in that spot either way. Game two I was never really in it as I didn't have White mana for a long time and then my only White source was City of Brass. He cast Balance twice by turn five with Recall. 

6-3

Will Parshall faced off against Mano in the finals and won 2-1. A very impressive run only losing one match all weekend. 

For getting fourth place, I selected a Maze of Ith as my prize card. 

My Thoughts

I'm always impressed by how interesting the games of Old School can be when both decks are seriously trying to win. All of my matches had interesting moments. Sure, many games were decided by Library or Mind Twist, but even those can be interesting. The metagame might not have been what I expected, but it did confirm a few of my ideas about the format as well as change some of my thoughts:

1.    The Deck is not unbeatable. I felt pretty strongly about this before, but rarely had the chance to put it to the test. I can't say for sure if its the best deck or not until I decide to play it for myself, but I don't think it belongs in its own tier. 

2.    Serra Angel is the best creature. I boarded up to four copies in every match and felt dumb for not starting at least the third copy. I had considered Su-Chi to be the best creature in Swedish, but it did not impress me in this environment. I'd say maybe Su-Chi could still be the better creature in a wider field, but that logic seems suspect. Serra Angel is the truth.

3.    Savannah Lions plus Counterspell was just fine. This isn't the Fish deck I'm looking for. Creature removal is still too strong and not worth using Counterspell on when you also have to counter the extremely powerful cards. I think I'd rather play more midrange without Lions or more aggressive with Burn instead of Counterspells. 

4.    I should think about mirror matches more often. My experience in formats like Standard, Modern, Pioneer, etc. I'm usually playing decks that aren't significant parts of the metagame. That's impossible to do in Old School while still trying to win, so I should consider playing cards that are good in the mirror. Maze of Ith was nice, but Control Magic would have been nicer.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

-Ty

Hurricane 2023

I travelled back to Houston for the Hurricane event. It was my first time back in Houston since moving from Texas over a year ago. I tried to go to the event last year, but ended up with COVID and unable to travel. This year's event coincided with many of my non-MTG friends being in town as well, so I made it a priority to show up.

Old School Saturday

Saturday was Old School hosted by the Falling Stars. 

I played Naya Bazaar Zoo. The idea of every card costing one or two mana was very appealing for a four Strip Mine format. I did cut a creature for a Wheel of Fortune so there was one three mana card in the main. I played a couple of Ironclaw Orcs to have additional two power attackers and a bit more things to do under  Blood Moon.

Round 1 – Tom Basketball (AKA Bryan Hockey)
Hockey partied too hard on Friday night and the TO didn’t drop him because his name in the system was something else. I get the win. He's left in the system for the rest of the event. I don't know if he ever showed up to play games. While I'm waiting for the round to end, I play against Tweedy (who got the actual bye) for fun. He was on RW Tax Tower. Game one he has Blood Moon and I can’t play any creatures. I do draw 3 Chain and 3 Bolt and put him to 2 life. I go for a Wheel of Fortune when he’s about to get Tower online but fail to find one of my remaining Bolts and eventually he gains too much life. Game two he strips my first to lands and I can’t play any creatures. I do manage to play two Copper Tablet, but soon he has Ivory Tower again. I’m about to die to my own tables when I draw Dust to Dust to remove them, but he finds Lightning Bolt to kill me a few turns later.

1-0

Round 2 – Ashby Graves on Pink Weenie
Here my deck shows off doing its thing. Both games I end up with 3+ creatures in play while removing all his threats. Game two he does manage to play Blood Moon, but I did have my single Plains. This let me play more Savannah Lions plus Swords to plowshares and still could play Ironclaw Orcs and Lightning Bolts.
2-0

Round 3 – Sal C on Mono Green
I don’t remember these games that well. There was a lot of burn killing his creatures both games including a Falling Star maybe in game two? I was never in trouble. 

3-0

Round 4 – Brian Espinoza on Black
I win game one very quick. Game two he kills me with two copies of The Rack that I cannot race. Game three he has turn two Ritual plus two Hymn to Tourach and follow up Strip Mine. I never draw a second land and die.
3-1

Round 5 – Nick Olin on Disco Troll
Game one is weird. I Bazaar three or four times and he doesn’t know what's happening. Finally I reveal the trap and play Balance. My Sylvan lets me recover faster. Game two he has Earthquake and I don’t recover. Game three kind of a standstill but he doesn’t regenerate his Troll when I try for Chaos Orb and I’m able to clear the way and do enough damage.
4-1

Round 6 – Collin Rountree on FaeAtog
Game one I’m very close but he has just enough burn to kill my creatures. He plays Timetwister and I Swords my Orcs in response to go to 5 life while he’s at 7. I don’t draw enough burn to kill and and lose. Game two he is stuck on lands and uses Lotus to play Wheel. He still draws no lands and I win easily. Game three I have a turn where I can Bolt and Plow his Pixies and Atog, but I instead play my second creature to develop my board. He has Falling Star to turn the tide and then follows up with two Vise and a draw 7. I was stuck on two mana the whole game.
4-2

9th Place

Overall, the deck felt solid. The Kird Apes were strong against the various Savannah Lions, Argothian Pixies and Black Knights I faced. The Bazaars didn't do a lot, but weren't actively bad or anything. Sylvan was very strong against Hymn to Tourach. The only thing I wish I had was more Mishra's Factory, but that would start to eat into the Kird Ape functionality. Ironclaw Orcs was good enough I'd want to seriously consider Elvish Archers in future versions, though being Red was a strong part of their success. I'm not really sure how I could change the deck to improve the two matches I lost. Multiple Hymn early is just part of the format, as is losing to Draw 7 plus Vise. 

I either bought way too many raffle tickets, ran extremely lucky in the drawings, or some combination of both. I think I won 8 different drawings, some of the prizes can be seen here:

Sunday Vintage

Sunday was Vintage hosted by Romancing the Stones. Unfortunately, Stu had to leave as the event started so Simon from the Falling Stars took over TO duties. 

I played SqueeVine for the first time this event. I felt like trying something new besides my usual Doomsday plan. The deck was copied from an MTGO event and fairly stock. 

Vintage
Round 1 – Bo on Oath
Game one hand is Bazaar Strip Force of Negation Trap Trap Probe Force of Will. My turn I draw another Trap. I lead with Probe, he Misstep. I then Strip him. Next turn I play Bazaar and start generating value. I have enough counters to stop his deck. Game two he Oaths and counters my Force of Vigor. He hits Atraxa which hits a Serra Emissary. He has Lotus so he can hard cast it. He oaths into 2nd Serra Emissary next turn and I can’t win. Game three I Use force of vigor on oath and hit his Sapphire. I know he has Oath in hand. I draw wasteland and realize I should have hit his Emerald so I could stop him from casting oath. I can only attack him to 1 before he Oaths into Emissary and I lose.

0-1
Round 2 – Oops All Spells
Game one he wins turn 1 through my Mindbreak Trap. Game two I have two Leyline and he can’t really do anything. Game three I have fast start, he mulligans to five, and I have enough counters to win.
1-1

Round 3 – Tim on UB Tinker
Game one I’m too fast. Game two I use Force of Vigor on his end step on a Urza’s Saga and he can’t play his Hullbreacher.
2-1

Round 4 – Goblins
Game one I use Strip Mine and Noxious Revival to cut him off mana. He has a Lackey though and uses Fury to clear the way and put in Muxus. I die. Game two I’m too fast. Game three he mulligans to 5. He resolves Recruiter, but I have wasteland for his Shatterskull Summit and he can’t play any more spells. 
3-1

Round 5 – ID

Simon tried to stop the Vintage players from IDing but that's just not the way they do things.

3-1-1

Round 6 – Mono White Initiative
These games aren’t close. Game one he has turn 1 Anointed Peacekeeper to stop Bazaar. Game two he has Wasteland for Bazaar and turn 1 Dungeoneer off of Black Lotus.  

7th place.

Vintage was a lot of fun. The deck I played was very interesting and not like anything I've played before. Unlike other Bazaar decks, you don't activate the Bazaars as much as possible. I might play it again in the future.

Acknowledgements

I had a great time going back to Houston. The food was great, the people were great, the Magic was great, and the heat was tolerable for a weekend. 

Props:

Houston Falling Stars and Romancing the Stones for organizing.

My wife Beth for supporting my decision to travel when all the stars aligned.

Collin for letting me sleep on his couch.

Simon for filling in as TO on Sunday and everything else.

Rudyard's for the great food and drinks.

Will, Haibing, and Collin for showing up to play a format they don't normally play mostly to hang out with me.

Slops:

Shane for playing full proxy The Deck with ugly card art. Three strikes in one sentence!

Houston heat. (It wasn't that bad, but I certainly don't miss it)

Whoever decided to close down The Stag's Head (I know its been 10 years but I'm still mad)

Survival Zombie Infestation in Middle School *2nd Place*

I played in the most recent Romancing the Stones Middle School league. I played SuZI Q and went 7-2 overall finishing in 2nd place. The deck surprised me at how strong it was. It is more explosive than it looks, and enchantments are still hard for opponents to deal with.

The Deck

I was unsure what to play for this league. I had played TaxRackOath in both LobsterCon and a PhillyOS league and knew I didn't want to keep playing it. The deck is very strong but I just wasn't having fun once I figured out some of the lines. I looked back at all the Middle School and Premodern decks I've played to see if there was something I hadn't explored yet. Two cards stood out: Standstill and Survival of the Fittest. 

I feel the same about Landstill as I do with TheDeck in OldSchool. I'd love to play it sometime, but I never want to be one of "those guys", so it stays at the bottom of my "to-do" list. You'll know I'm truly out of ideas when I play those. 

That left me with Survival. At first I looked to see if there were any existing Survival and Lion's Eye Diamond decks, since LED has recently been unbanned. I didn't find any but did find a Premodern list with many of the cards I imagined would be in such a list: Basking Rootwalla, Anger, Arrogant Wurm, etc. I spent some time thinking if LED would benefit the deck at all and decided it wasn't likely to make a large improvement and could end up hurting the deck. I made some updates based on what I liked and didn't like and ended up on this:

SuZI Q

Side note on deck names: I named this SuZI (Survival Zombie Infestation) Q (CCR reference) because I like decks to have names that aren't just descriptive of the cards. However, I'm not a fan of deck names that don't have much to do with the deck at all. Finding the right balance is key. There's been some discussion on Twitter about whether non-descriptive deck names are good or bad for the game. I think they are clearly good. I don't feel strongly enough to make an entire post explaining why, but I'll just say it adds to my enjoyment of the game.

The core of the deck is the following cards:

4 Basking Rootwalla

4 Wild Mongrel

4 Arrogant Wurm

4 Survival of the Fittest

4 Zombie Infestation

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

4 Krovikan Horror

1 Goblin Sharpshooter

1 Anger

Below are some quick thoughts about the rest:

I found in goldfishing that having Anger in your hand with Zombie Infestation leads to the most explosive starts, so I went up to four copies. I think you want at least three in the main deck. I did trim an Anger to fit in sideboard cards in almost every matchup, but I think its still right to play four. Just having more creatures in the deck is good with Survival and Krovikan Horror.

I played a second Sharpshooter as a way to help push through damage. It's very strong once you have four Anger in the deck. I think two in the main is right, but maybe you can play one and put one or two in the sideboard.

That leaves about 3-4 spots to play with. I wanted to try Entomb since it's not legal in Premodern. This is not the best Entomb deck in the format (that would probably be Worldgorger Dragon), but it could be additional copies of Squee and Horror and possibly let you play fewer Anger. It also enables playing some Cabal Therapy in the deck to search for. I found that having the extra mana to go get Anger wasn't better than having Anger in hand though. I wasn't sold on Therapy in the main either, but I do think it is the direction I would go in the future.

Saproling Cluster is just the 5th Zombie Infestation but much worse. It's nice to have Sharpshooter to break the symmetry, but I don't know if it's needed. Goblin Bombardment is very good but without a way to tutor for it maybe it isn't worth the slot. It's bad in multiples so playing more copies doesn't seem great to me. 

Gamble is a card I did not consider but that was played by David Gleicher, my semi-finals opponent. I think it could be a consideration instead of Entomb. It's almost always just as good as Entomb in this deck.

The way the deck played out, I won a lot of games just on the back of Arrogant Wurm. You don't need to get the full ZI engine going with multiple Squee and Horror. Just one of those plus a Wurm was tough for most decks to deal with.

The mana base isn't perfect. I liked having Undiscovered Paradise and Darigaaz's Caldera to help fix mana while also keeping cards in hand for Mongrel and ZI. At least one of each is easy enough. I didn't play any City of Brass and I don't think I missed it that much. I won some games where I would have taken a lot of damage if the Caldera had been a City and maybe lost. 

One issue I didn't consider was that playing 8 fetchlands makes Krovikan Horror a bit weaker. I had to sequence some land drops in weird orders to mitigate that. Peter Simpson, my Quarterfinals opponent on a very similar deck, played only one Bloodstained Mire and just had additional Swamps. I'm not sure I'm sold, but it is a consideration. 

Not playing a Gaea's Cradle was a big mistake. The Survival draws are still strong without Wall of Roots, but an additional burst of green mana would be appreciated. Treetop Village was just fine in the games I drew it; I wouldn't want any more copies.

The deck doesn't have any one mana plays really. It's almost always correct to hold Basking Rootwalla in hand for future value from ZI or Survival. One card I didn't consider until halfway through the league was Elvish Spirit Guide. It can help power out a turn one Mongrel or ZI, and it's still a creature that can be discarded to Survival. It wouldn't be new for me to play some "value" Spirit Guides.

The sideboard is fine, but can be a lot better. Therapy is great and there should be 4 copies between main and side. I think Mesmeric Fiend would be good additional disruption if you wanted more. There should probably be 4 Naturalize, the Hull Breach maybe too cute. I needed instant speed in a match I played against UR Tinker in a simultaneous league with the PhillyOS (I went 4-0 in that league, further impressing myself with the power of this deck).

So many of the sideboard cards are three mana and I'd like to find cheaper options. Engineered Plague might not be needed with the Sharpshooters. Firestorm could be better than Plague. I enjoyed having two Orangutans and two Feeders when they were at their best, but many times only brought in one copy. Genesis is unplayable in this deck with this manabase. Having one Bone Shredder would be good for when Sharpshooter isn't enough. 

The Games

(Video coverage linked where available)

Round One - Angelo on Sligh

Game one I have Mongrel into Arrogant Wurm with Anger. He trades Pup and Seal for the Wurm, then uses another Seal plus Incinerate to take out the dog. A timely Wasteland takes away my black source before I can cast Zombie Infestation so it's draw-go for a couple of turns. He finds a Mogg Fanatic but I finally get Bloodstained Mire for Swamp and the ZI plus two Squee and a Horror let me close the game out. Game two I have a good start with ZI and three Squee-types, but he has two Phyrexian Furnace. I can use some Fetchlands to leverage my recursion and create enough zombies to not die, but eventually I run out and he starts attacking with a Pup. I do find Survival and use it to get an Orangutan but by this point I'm low enough on life I lose to Fireblast. Game three I have a turn two Survival and all he has is Lavamancer, Furnace, and Port. I have Orangutan for the Furnace and then I search up several Rootwalla to start attacking but it's not a fast clock. He has multiple Cursed Scroll and five mana, so I need to kill him before he takes over. I search up a few Spike Feeder to give myself a life buffer and then get Arrogant Wurm plus Wild Mongrel with Anger in the yard to close the door.

1-0

Round Two - Jake on UB NetherSpirit LandStill

Game one he has maindeck Phyrexian Furnace to hamper my Squee engine and Duress, but I have two Survival in hand so I'm able to resolve one. I use it to make a bunch of madness creatures and win. Game two he has Intuition for Nether Spirit and two Coffin Purge. I draw Survival off the top when we're both empty handed and follow that with a Squee to overwhelm the Coffin Purge and win.

2-0

Round Three - Phil Collier on GW ThresholdGeddon

Game one I have turn two Zombie Infestation along with a Krovikan Horror for a bit of value. Eventually he is forced to Cataclysm. I only have one land but it's a Darigaaz's Caldera. This lets me find Squee when I draw Entomb. He rebuilds mana and plays an 8/8 Terravore, but I have too large of an army and he is too low on life. Game two I have turn two Wild Mongrel into turn three Arrogant Wurm. I resolve a Survival and he's forced again to Cataclysm, this time with a Mystic Enforcer in play. I make a mistake here and keep Mountain over Forest. I had Anger in the graveyard, but activating survival would have been a lot better. I kill his Enforcer with Wild Mongrel and five discards. He has Kor Haven to limit me to one damage a turn from Basking Rootwalla, but I do the final points as he doesn't find any more lands.

3-0

Round Four - Rajah on Burn

Both games I'm one turn too slow. Game two I could have tried for a faster clock by pitching Arrogant Wurm to Infestation turn two, but I held it hoping to draw a green source. I drew Treetop Village which didn't help my clock. It may not have been enough as he had plenty of burn to deal with zombies and wait until his double Fireblast would win.

3-1

Round Five - Kai on TaxRack TerraGeddon

Game one he has Seal of Cleansing for my first Zombie Infestation, but I have a second one. He has Propaganda to slow my attacks and Aura of Silence to remove the ZI. I have follow up Survival to start generating value but can't attack much. He has Meddling Mage for Wild Mongrel, and Engineered Plague on Goblin to stop my Sharpshooter. I cast a Krovikan Horror and a Saproling Cluster to start whittling away his life. He has Zuran Orb, Terravore, and Armageddon to win. Game two I once again have Zombie Infestation and Survival. He manages to destroy both, but not before I get two zombies and tutor up Orangutan for his Scroll Rack. He stabilizes at 4 life with two Werebear and I'm forced to cast Squee to get in extra damage and finish him off with Krovikan Horror. Game three he has no answer for my Zombie Infestation and Survival but does have Tormod's Crypt to stop my first Horror and Anger. He then gets Terravore plus Armageddon, leaving me with two zombies at 18 life and two cards in hand. He has one cards in hand and is at 14 life with a 7/7 Lhurgoyf. He attacked me to 11. I draw and attack him to 10. He draws Windswept Heath but only attacks for 7 and now I'm at 4. I draw up to four cards and I'm looking to make two zombies to trade with his 8/8 Terravore. I pass and end of turn he Enlightened Tutors for Zuran Orb, meaning his Terravore can be a 9/9. He attacked, I make two zombies but also make a Basking Rootwalla and block with just enough. He kills my board, but that means I get Horror back. I draw Forest to start using Survival again and find two Squee to start making two zombies each turn. He only has Mox Diamond for mana and doesn't find anything to stop the beats.

4-1

Round Six - Daisuke on UR Control

Game one I mulligan to five. He starts with two islands and no plays. I go for turn two Zombie Infestation as a long shot and he has Counterspell. Next few turns I have no plays as he cycles an Accumulated Knowledge, casts Fact or Fiction, and Prophetic Bolts me. I finally get to four mana to go for two Survival in the same turn. He has Cunning Wish for Annul for the first one and Force of Will for the second one. Knowing he still has a Counterspell in hand and facing a Factory, Conclave, and Ghitu Encampment (!), I concoded. Game two I start with turn one Cabal Therapy on Force of Will, taking one out of his hand. I'm planning on turn two Wild Mongrel, but I draw Zombie Infestation and win fairly easily from there. Game three I once again have turn one Therapy hitting a Force of Will, but revealing a Counterspell. He doesn't have UU and plays Ice on my upkeep turn two to buy time. Turn three I use Rootwalla to flashback therapy for the Counterspell, but he has a Mana Leak. I have two Survival however and resolve one the following turn. I'm low-ish on life thanks to a Llanowar Wastes and I take a turn off to Therapy his Rolling Earthquake, but eventually enough madness Arrogant Wurms win while I'm at a comfortable 7 life.

5-1

I'm 3rd seed after the end of Swiss.

Quarterfinals - Peter Simpson on Survival/Zombie Infestation

Game one I keep a land heavy hand. I have turn two Survival, he has Naturalize. I don't have a follow up play, but he doesn't have any black mana. Eventually I draw a Zombie Infestation, but I wait until I have five mana in play so I can immediately madness an Arrogant Wurm if he has another Naturalize. He finds his own ZI, but I draw more Squee and Horrors and can win the battle. He eventually finds another Naturalize but I then find Goblin Sharpshooter and can finish him off with it. Game two I keep one land hand with both Survival and Infestation. He has turn one Duress for the Survival. I draw the black land I need for turn two Infestation. He has turn two Survival and turn three ZI. I get him down to 6 life before he overwhelms me. Game three he mulligans to five cards. My hand is slow and I hold off of turn two Survival to at least get one activation. Sure enough, my turn three Survival is Naturalized, so I search up a Wild Mongrel. He has his own Mongrel, but I have Anger and Arrogant Wurm and I'm winning the race. His hand is full of mostly dead discard and enchantment removal cards, while I have a Rootwalla and Krovikan Horror to keep up the pressure and win before he finds anything relevant.

6-1

Semifinals - David Gleicher on RG Stormbind Survival (David wrote a great post about his experience in the match here)

I really like his deck. Orcish Settlers is one of my favorite cards. Game one goes very long. We both have Survival but he's stuck on mana. He has three Squee and keeps searching up Birds and Wall of Roots. I have two Wild Mongrel with several Squee/Horror. I finally draw Zombie Infestation and make some zombies, but he has Firestorm and Stormbind to stabilize. I keep making some zombies and search up some more Wild Mongrel. Finally, he activates his Walls on my turn which let me play Sharpshooter with Anger in the yard to take out all of his Birds and Walls and leave him without enough mana to stay in the game. Game two I have turn two Survival turn three Zombie Infestation. I search up a Squee and a Horror to start making zombies. I draw an Anger which lets me turn four discard it for Sharpshooter to stop his Elvish Lyrist. He still only has two lands plus Wall of Roots. He does Firestorm the Sharpshooter, but I have the second one in hand to take out more Birds. I keep drawing mana which lets me cast Krovikan Horror. He's forced to use Stormbind on Sharpshooter in response, but all he has left is four lands and a Wall against my ZI and Survival with three Horror and two Squee. He concedes as he's too far behind.

7-1

Finals - Rob Connolly on PonzaSligh

Game one I have turn two Wild Mongrel. He throws a Bolt at it, but I have Horror plus Squee. He throws an Incinerate the following turn after I pitched both for extra damage, but I have another copy of each and the game is over shortly. Game two I keep five green cards two Bloodstained Mire. I draw Foothills for turn and play it, but should have played a Mire. He has turn two Ankh, which I fetch in response to avoid damage. This opens up my Forest to a Stone Rain after I Naturalize the Ankh. I still manage to draw another green source for a Mongrel, but he has another Stone Rain. He has Vortex and is able to barely win the race with a Factory and chump blockers. Game three I keep Survival Rootwalla Rootwalla Squee Horror Swamp Llanowar Wastes. I have turn two Survival but he has two Vise and Wasteland for my green and I never draw another land and die.

7-2

The Ending

Another second place finish. On one hand, I'm happy to make it that far with a deck I didn't know much about before the event started. On the other hand, I'm disappointed to lose in what should be a good matchup. I knew what the plan was and I failed to execute. I could make excuses to help me feel better, but instead I'll just reread the worst play I've ever made and know this wasn't nearly that bad. Congrats to Robert for winning and having a sweet innovative deck.

Props:
Robert for winning and doing stream hosting duties simultaneously

Romancing the Stones for continuing to put on these great events

One match per week structure

Slops:

Me for playing poorly in the Finals