The Sylex Slam, AKA the New Jersey Old School Championships, was held Saturday February 10th at Time Warp Games in Cedar Grove NJ. 30 players showed up, proving that if you name your tournament a Championship, they will come. Every state should try to run one. This was my fourth time participating in event at Time Warp. Nick and Reggie have done a great job building the community up, and I was excited to participate again.
The Deck
I played Workshops with White. I haven't played the White version before, and I wanted to give the Howling Mine package a try. I expected Mine to be good as the field is usually a lot of Hymn to Tourach decks. Overall I maybe wanted another Winter Orb or Armageddon, and maybe the Blue Elemental Blast I cut at the last minute. The second City in a Bottle is probably overkill, and Animate Dead might not be strong enough to be a sideboard card.
The Tournament
With 30 players, the tournament was run at Swiss Minus One : four rounds with a cut to top 8. After the Swiss, players would draft the donation cards and play for the champion Golgothian Sylex trophy.
Round 1 - Nick M on UB Shops
I played Nick a few months ago in a Premodern 1K and encouraged him to get into Old School when he expressed interest. Here we are a few months later and playing in round one. I start with a Howling Mine and Strip Mine for his Workshop. He has a second Workshop and continues to deploy Juggernauts and Triskelions, but my own Su-Chi and Triskelions trade to keep the board mostly clear. Eventually I Copy the Howling Mine and get two Icy Manipulator plus Relic Barrier in play. I win with the card advantaged generated. I don't remember much about game two besides me winning. I know I had Divine Offering for his first threat and then maybe a Braingeyser to pull ahead on cards.
1-0
Round 2 - Eric Pallone on StasisVault
Game one he counters my first Juggernaut. I play two Howling Mine for lack of anything else to do. He does get a Time Vault in play, but I have Chaos Orb and Copy it twice to keep any Twiddle shenanigans from happening. He doesn't have enough mana and a couple of robots take him out before he draws out of it. Game two I don't have much pressure at all, but I do have Relic Barrier to stop his Howling Mine. He has a Black Vise which does 6 damage to me before I can get my hand down. He goes for a play of Hurkyl's Recall on my entire board one turn, so I'm forced to Mana Drain. He then draws Ancestral. I have a Triskelion and Winter Orb to apply pressure. He has a second Black Vise but hasn't drawn much else. After I play a Su-Chi, he uses Twiddle to tap the Winter Orb, getting his mana back. He then plays Stasis, locking up most of the board. I still have Su-Chi to attack him to 10 and play a Copy Artifact on the tapped Trike. He is forced to use another Hurkyl's to stay alive, which lets me Strip Mine his last blue mana to kill Stasis. I win easily by casting Triskelions when I get to untap.
2-0
Round 3 - David Third on GhostShipDisco
Game one I play a turn one Timetwister and he doesn't have any land. I use Relic Barrier to stop his only mana source, a Mox Emerald, but he does get an Ivory Tower out. I find a Triskelion and Su-Chi to beat down easily. Game two I'm stuck on three mana without much going on. He Amnesias me and I'm never really in it. Game three I have a turn one Su-Chi. the Robot attacks for 8 before getting Control Magic. He has UU untapped but I decide I have to cast Ancestral on my turn for best possible chance to win. He doesn't counter, so I assume he's repping Power Sink. I play a Triskelion with enough untapped, and the following turn play Armageddon with enough to pay for a Power Sink. We trade Trike for Su-Chi, and I play a Factory. He does have a Mox and Ivory Tower, but the Factory gets him low enough he's forced to play out cards from hand in hopes I have no follow up. I find another Su-Chi and do the last points.
3-0
Round 4 - Brian P on BlackWhite Deadguy
Game one I have turn one Juggernaut and turn two Su-Chi. He Hymns my land, but I have plenty of Mox in play... until he casts Nevinyrral's Disk. I'm only able to get him to 2 life before he Disks. He has two Factories to start attacking me. My only land is Workshop. I draw a second Workshop and take 2 mana burn to cast Su-Chi and Icy, but never draw a mana to activate Icy. He finishes me off with two Drain Life. Game two I come out too fast and he dies to a Su-Chi despite early Demonic Tutor Black Lotus Mind Twist, he was just too far behind on board. Game three he plays Swamp go. I play two Mox, Copy a Mox, and cast Time Walk. On turn two I can either cast Timetwister or Juggernaut. I only have three cards in hand after, so decide I need to Twister now to avoid a Hymn. I draw into two Factories, Strip mine, Copy, and some more mana. I elect to Strip his Swamp to protect my Factories in hand. He just has Swamp go again. I play Factory and Copy it. He has PLains and Demonic Tutor. I play another Factory and attack for 5. He has Black Lotus and Nevinyrral's Disk. I play another Factory and attack for 7. He uses Disk to get all my Mox and my Copy Factory. I attack with two Factory and he Disenchant one, I pump the other. The next turn he uses Mind Twist to empty my hand of lands and plays a Maze. I attack with two Factories, he Mazes and goes to 3 life. THen he has Sinkhole for a Factory. I draw another land and can no longer attack. He has Sengir Vampire. I draw land. He plays Hypnotic Specter, while I play Howling Mine. He attacks for 6 and passes. I draw two more land. He then attacks with the fliers and kills me with Drain Life. I have three Triskelion in my top 4 cards when I die with him at 3 life.
3-1
We draft the donation prize cards based on Swiss standings. I end up in 3rd place and take a Psionic Blast.
The top 8 is:
1. Casey on Goblins plus Chains of Mephistopholes (the only 4-0)
2. Jordan on his URB Burn deck with Serendibs and Trolls
3. Myself on UBW Shops
4. David Third on MonoU DiscoShip
5. Bryan Manolakos on UWR AngelTrike
6. Parker Boab on UWR Lion Bolt
7. Jesus Mansilla on UWG Lion Pixies
8. Chris G on MonoBlack
Top 8 vs Parker Boab on UWR LionBolt
Game one I keep hand of two Mox, two land, Mind Twist, and two Triskelion. I play land and two Mox and pass. He plays turn one Library and passes. I draw Time Walk and cast it. ON the extra turn I draw another Triskelion. I fire off the Mind Twist for three cards. He uses Library in response. On his turn with six in hand he decides to pass and get Library back on line. I rip Mishra's Workshop though and play a Triskelion. I play another one each of the next two turns and all he can do to answer is play Psionic Blast, which leaves him dead. Game two I play turn one Sol Ring and Copy it. ON turn two I play Triskelion, but he has Mana Drain. All he can do though is play Shatterstorm for my mana and burn for 4. However, I don't draw anything good and he gets a Lions plus Factory to start attacking me. Eventually I find my own Factory, but he has Serra Angel and that's the game. Game three I keep seven and stop him from mulliganing to six cards, since I'm going to be playing Timetwister turn one. He only has land go. I decide to play Icy over Trike on turn two to cut off his mana. He has second land, but I draw Strip Mine for it while playing out Trike. He has a City of Brass for his second land again, but I have the City in a Bottle. I also Copy the Trike and when he finally gets to three mana for Psionic Blast he's dead.
4-1
Turn one Timetwister in game 3 of the top 8.
Top 4 vs Jordan on his URB deck (video will be here eventually thanks to Jesus's YT channel)
I have Library active turn one and trade some cards before Mind Twist him. He finds Timetwister shortly after though. I draw Mind Twist again off the Timetwister and never face any danger. Game two is interesting as I have turn one and turn two Su-Chi. His turn two he plays Demonic Tutor for turn three Energy Flux. I sac one Su-Chi to pay for Mox and the other, and then play Factory and Copy it. He doesn't have fourth land so I use City in a Bottle to take out his City of Brass, but let it die the next turn. He has a Psionic Blast for my Su Chi and his follow up is Mox, City of Brass and a Serendib Efreet. I have Triskelion and he's forced to Psionic Blast that as well. At this point, he's too low on life from the Blasts and Trike to attack with Serendib while I have to Factory available. We play draw go for a few turns while he takes 1 a turn, but I find Icy Manipulator and win.
5-1
At this point, I'm in the finals while Mano and David Third are in game two. Hoping for no game four shenanigans like at Glorycon, I join Parker outside for some parking lot beers.
Mano over David, then Mano over Chris
Finals vs Mano on URW Angel Trike
Mano is playing the Copy Artifact / Fellwar / Triskelion / Bolt / Swords deck we brewed together in the car ride back from GloryCon. He's also there with his daughter who managed to go 2-2 for 14th place in her first Old School event with RUG Aggro. He's looking to not play so they can go have a family dinner, so we make a deal: I get the title of NJ OS Champion and the Sylex Trophy, he gets the actual altered Golgothian Sylex card. I let him know if he ever wants to challenge me for the title he can, but he must ante the card in whatever future match we play.
Do NOT let Mano claim to be "co-champion" or anything like that, the title is mine alone!
The top 2
The Spoils
I'm happy to add the NJ Old School State Championship to my other State Championship titles in Texas, South Carolina, and Hawaii.
Props / Slops
Props:
Time Warp for hosting
Nick for setting up and advertising the event
Reggie for stepping up and running the event when Nick had life come up
Reggie for being reasonable and running the event as Swiss Minus One with Top 8
All my opponents for being fun to play against
Mano for running the Angel/Trike brew to 2nd place
Jenna for 2-2 as the youngest player in the event
New Jersey for showing up and keeping the title in the state
Whatever Casey was doing to get 4-0
Whatever Casey was doing to get 4-0
My wife for her love and support
Slops:
Mano for being afraid to miss with Falling Star so much, that he elected to Mana Drain a Hypnotic Specter while the opponent had a Black Knight in play. If you aren't going to cast the card, don't put it in your sideboard!
Seth for leaving without David
