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)