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)