This is my Lobstercon report.
Thursday
I take the train into Boston. Only slightly longer than driving, plus I'm able to get some work done while travelling. I get to the AirBNB which is a two minute walk from the venue (props to Will for booking!). I meet Svante for the first time. We discuss our decks while I take my deck photos. Will and Lucy show up and we then Uber over to DFB's house for the evening. It was a lot of fun, but not much to report besides some photos.
Photo credit to DFB's daughter
When the sun goes down, the ante decks come out
My cube draft deck with the full Opposition plus Blinding Angel lock to deck Aaron Dicks through his Worship
Friday
For Premodern, I did not do as much preparation as I would have liked. In the end, I decided to play Land Tax before it gets banned. I also have these sweet Land Tax from [redacted] event that I wanted to use. I didn't have any practice with it, so my main goal was to avoid any draws. Here is my list:
CounterParfaitOath
After playing four rounds, I think that the Counterspells were there worst part of the deck. Gush and Foil are great, should have played more Foil. I don't know what the best way to build the Parfait deck is but I think it has Oath and probably fewer counters, if not zero like Lanny's top 8 list.
Round 1 - Joshua Nyer on Mono Blue StifleNought
Game one he has an early Dreadnought that I cannot answer. I have Oath of Druids into Ancestor's Chosen for enough life to make it interesting when combined with my Ivory Tower. He has a second Dreadnought and I don't find an answer to either and die. Game two I have Annul for the first Dreadnought and Swords to Plowshares for the second one. I then resolve two Meddling Mage on Dreadnought and Boomerang and he concedes. Game three goes very long. I answer a the first Dreadnought with Annul and resolve a Meddling Mage. He has Null Rod to stop my Scroll Rack and Mox Diamond. I have Land Tax plus Sylvan but he's avoiding the Tax. Eventually he uses Powder Keg along with Vision Charm on his Null Rod to remove the Meddling Mage. I find another Meddling Mage after Swords on his Dreadnought. Time is running low when I find second Mage. He's at 16 life when time is called on his turn. I need to find third Mage to play on turn one of extra turns to kill him exactly. He tries to tell me his turn was turn one, but I don't fall for the trick (weird angle shoot?). I do find the third mage and my hand of three Counterspell plus Foil is able to stop his last ditch effort to mill me with two Vision Charm plus Stifle on my Blessing trigger. I attack for exactly lethal on turn five of extra turns.
1-0
Round one at table one.
Round Two - Roland Chang on Mono Blue Dreadnought
Game one he has Foil for my Land Tax but I resolve a Scroll Rack. A Gush on my turn after I Rack end of his turn was going to let me play Swords on his Dreadnought with Counterspell backup, but I somehow dexterity errored the Mox Diamond I needed to the wrong part of the top of my library. Game two my deck did not do much and he was able to stick a 12/12 before I had Counterspell up.
1-1
Round Three - Tino Galizio on MonoRed Goblins
Game one I have turn two Oath of Druids that hits Ancestor's Chosen for 31 extra life. Eventually I'm able to win. Game two he has no plays until turn three Sulfuric Vortex. I have hard cast Shard Phoenix and Ancestor's Chosen to try to get aggressive. He uses Pyrokinesis plus Lightning Bolt to clear my board. I have an Engineered Plague and a Hydroblast for the Vortex. Eventually I find Oath of Druids for Akroma and win in short order.
2-1
Round Four - Joel Bowers on Sligh
Game one I mulligan to six and bottom Shard Phoenix. I have turn one Oath if I draw a land but I miss. I play the Flooded Strand in my hand. Turn two I draw an Island for the Mox Diamond but have to shuffle in order to play Oath. This means I'm no longer guaranteed to hit Ancestor's Chosen and indeed I hit Phoenix. It is useful but not enough against his follow up Ball Lightnings and Browbeats. Game two I keep a very bad hand in retrospect with Island, Ivory Tower, Land Tax, Oath of Druids but no other mana. I play turn one Tower but he has Black Vise. I don't find any more mana and he has turn three Sulfuric Vortex to lock up the game.
2-2
After the poor play of round four, I decide to drop from the event. I think Premodern is in a weird spot and I wasn't convinced on playing any deck in particular. Maybe by next Lobstercon I'll have a better idea about what I want to do.
The rest of Friday involved a cube draft where I went 3-0 6-0, but my team lost so I had to ship Mano $20. Then there was excitement in birding the ante 40k matches where a Savannah, Taiga, Chaos Orb, and Mishra's Workshop all exchanged hands. Finally there was the Old School themed Cards Against Humanity that was a great time. Plus the bartenders made an extra extra strong Jack and Coke that made the night better.
Much better than normal CAH
Saturday
I had a particular deck in mind for several weeks, but I realized last week that the deck I wanted to play was Swedish legal so I decided to hold off on it for a different time. Instead I switched to Shops, since I've only played with my Shops one other time since acquiring them. I wanted to play Atog but I didn't want to play White for Armageddon, Swords, or Disenchant. I was going to play Winter Orb instead of Armageddon but a last minute conversation with Will Magrann convinced me to play Blood Moon instead. In the end, my deck looked like this:
AtogMoonShops
I think this deck is very good. I really like playing impactful permanents like The Abyss, City in a Bottle, and Blood Moon instead of reactive cards like Swords to Plowshares and Red Elemental Blast. The Atogs were only okay throughout the day. I think I would want to play another mana source over Braingeyser and a Shatter over an Atog. The extra artifact creatures were also only okay. They were nice to have when playing both Blood Moon and The Abyss but I don't know if all four were necessary or what the correct mix is. I could also see reworking the manabase to fit some basic Islands in as I was siding out Copy Artifact in almost every matchup where I brought in Blood Moon.
Round One - Nicky Scars on LionDibBolt
Game one I keep a hand with Black Lotus, Fellwar Stone, Su-Chi, Chaos Orb, Blood Moon, City in a Bottle and Mishra's Workshop. Except when I start my turn one, I realize the Shop was instead a Factory. I play turn one Su-Chi but never find another mana source and die. Game two I have a turn two Timetwister and then plays multiple Su-Chi plus an Ancestral Recall. He tries to race with Serendib and Serra, but I also have Time Walk and win with the Su-Chis plus three Factory. Game three I have The Abyss for his Serendib and then Blood Moon. I Wheel of Fortune into Black Lotus to Demonic Tutor for Mox Sapphire and Timetwister. He can't really beat the Blood Moon
1-0
This Shatterstorm was not enough for my opponent
Round Two - Ryan Rudolph on MotiSummer
Game one I have two early Su-Chi that attack him to 8 life before he resolves Balance. After the Balance, I resolve an Icy Manipulator which lets me resolve a Triskelion. He has a Serra and a Moti but misses the lethal line of Recall on Time Walk because he didn't realize I had taken 8 mana burn from the Su-Chis. I'm able to win exactly with two Factory and Triskelion damage before he can kill me. Game two I have turn one Blood Moon but he has Plains and Disenchant. My Clay Statue is met with Swords to Plowshares but I have Mana for his Jayemdae Tome. I then Timetwister and pass with four mana up. He tries to Mind Twist my hand, but I have Mana Drain along with Ancestral Recall and Red Elemental Blast to stop it. I then play another Blood Moon and some Su-Chi and win. I had Abyss in play most of the game which he never could answer because he has to hit the Blood Moon instead.
2-0
Round Three - Tim Atwood on Siren's Call
Game one he has a Will-O'-The-Wisp but light on mana. My Icy plus Relic Barrier for his Factory let me get some beats in and a Copy Artifact on Icy taps his Sengir and he never does much of anything. Game two I have him mostly locked out with Mind Twist and The Abyss but my hand doesn't have a way to win. I decide to go for Blood Moon + Timetwister to close the game out. He plays a Disk but I have Chaos Orb. His second Disk clears the board and he has Library active. I'm running out of time when I topdeck Disintegrate for exactly lethal.
3-0
Round Four - Will Setzer on The Deck with Serra
Game one I'm firmly in the lead but struggling to close the game out against his Serra Angel and Factories. My Icy can hold off the damage but not making any progress. Eventually I find Copy for the Icy and get him in range. He plays out two more Serra and I'm still short. The next turn I have lethal but instead I Mind Twist him, which doesn't leave me enough mana to activate all my Factory and kill him. After my attack he finds Time Walk after using Tome in upkeep and Sylvan in draw step and I die to the Serra Angels. Game two I have Blood Moon early but he has Disenchant. The Abyss takes out a Serra but he has Moat to stop me from attacking. I play a Wheel discarding Time Walk and Timetwister to try to get something going but he has a second Moat. We play draw go for several turns while he has Counterspell for my Icy's and Blood Moon. We end up at a spot where he has two cards left in his deck and he goes for Timetwister. I have Red Elemental Blast, but he has the last Counterspell. If I could have found another Blood Moon, Mana Drain, Braingeyser, or Ancestral by this point I would have decked him. I concede as we head into turns since I'm down a game. Punished for throwing away game one.
3-1
Round Five - Phillip Keffer on LionDibBolt
Game one he has turn one Lion and I have turn one Library. He attacks and plays Time Walk turn two but no follow up threat or third mana source. I play a Workshop and a Mox and go for a Triskelion on my turn three, but he has Power Sink! He still has no follow up mana so my second Triskelion resolved. He plays Swords to Plowshares on it, so I shoot the Lion and gain 3 life back to 15. I then resolve a Su-Chi and he finally gets third mana for Serendib. I Copy the Su-Chi and start attacking. He tries to race with two more Serendib but I have Triskelion and another Copy to win the game. Game two I have turn two Icy and then a Su-Chi which is countered then a Clay Statue which is Swords. He has no threat besides a Factory which I keep locked down with Icy. He Mind Twists me for three cards when my hand is Ancestral, Icy, The Abyss, and City in a Bottle. I'm left with the Bottle, which I use to take out his two City of Brass. He is lacking red mana at this point and I draw Strip Mine for his Plateau when he draws it. I chip in damage with a Factory for several turns before eventually resolving a Triskelion. He has a Serendib to make it interesting but I finally draw the red source I need for Blood Moon and he concedes.
4-1
Round Six - Andres Hojman on Four Color Black
Game one he has Mind Twist for six on turn two. I resolve a Su-Chi but then misplay by not using Strip Mine on his only white source, allowing him to Swords it and beat with a Troll and two Factory. I wanted to save my sixth mana in case I drew Triskelion but I don't think that was correct. I can't recover and lose. Game two my first hand has no mana, my second hand is Workshop, Workshop, Badlands, Time Walk, Icy, Blood Moon, and The Abyss. I think for a while and decide to mulligan but I'm still not sure. My five card hand is Workshop, Workshop, Library, Factory, Lotus, Mind Twist, Tetravus. I decide to put the Library and Factory on the bottom and Twist for two on turn one. I then play a turn two Tetravus but he has a Disenchant I can't really recover.
4-2
Round Seven - Simon Christie on Green Aggro with Black and Blue
Game one he has some early beats with Scryb Sprite but I resolve a Timetwister and then a Time Walk. There is some confusion about whether his Scavenger Folk was active on my second turn in response to a Blood Moon, but we play it as it wasn't active. This ends up doing additional four damage to me from mana burn as he uses it to kill my Su-Chi on his turn instead of my. However, I have two Triskelion by this point and an Icy for his Pixies and I win. Game two he has Library turn one so I get aggressive and play Factory Copy and Atog turn one. A second Atog lets me stay aggressive but he gets several Pixies. At some point I'm flooding out and I draw Demonic Tutor and search up The Abyss, but I'm too far behind and he has Whirling Dervish plus Crumble for my Icy to win. Game three I keep him off blue mana with Chaos Orb and Copy Artifact. Eventually I resolve a Blood Moon and some Atogs do enough damage to win.
5-2
Round Eight - Colin Smith on MonoRed Goblins
Game one he has turn one Black Vise but my turn one is Lotus Workshop Triskelion. I Copy the Trike on turn three to wipe his board and avoid any Goblin Grenades and win easily. Game two he has turn one Vise once again. My turn one is Factory, Lotus, Copy the Factory, Copy the Factory. Turn two I play another Factory and a Su-Chi so I have four Factory in play on turn two. He does have Blood Moon to somewhat mitigate this. He then goes for a Wheel of Fortune but I have more Su-Chi and Atog plus Falling Star for his Goblins. A Disintegrate plus Atog finishes him off.
6-2
Four Factories on turn two
I finished 21st place. Misplays in round four hurt me, but the misplays in round six probably didn't matter. I really like this deck and continue to think that Workshops is the best thing you can do in Atlantic. I might play it again for Summer Derby with a few updates. I learned that Shatter is really good in conjunction with Blood Moon. I also think I need at least one more REB.
After the event, we found some tacos at the only place that was still open. We ran into the central PA crew there and joined tables for a nice dinner. Afterwards, everyone went to State Park bar for shenanigans and ante matches. However, my foot was in extreme pain somehow so I went home early to sleep it off. I'm sorry I didn't get to hang out with everyone after the fact but I had a blast all weekend.
Props / Slops
Props:
Everyone involve for putting on the event.
Will Magrann for setting up the lodging and helping me with my list
Simon for everything despite the confusion in round seven
Andy Baquero for finally getting me a Sisters of the Flame shirt
Andy Blaufarb for getting me a Philadelphia Old School shirt
Money drafting still rules, even if I had to pay while going 3-0
The Houston Falling Stars
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