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
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