I guess I should publish this before publishing my 2025 Premodern Lobstercon Report. This was originally drafted in November 2024, but not published until May 2025
Lobstercon was great!
My wife had a conference to attend at Harvard the week prior, so we made a trip out of it. We drove up Monday afternoon. We had dinner at Daedalus on recommendation from DFB. The rooftop was nice and the food was tasty. The drinks were fine.
Tuesday through Thursday I worked from the hotel room while my wife was at her conference. Wusong Tiki Bar was excellent dinner on Tuesday. I ventured out alone to a bar called Joe Sent Me for some trivia. I was one point out of first place before the final wager round. I failed to answer that question correctly though and finished in 5th place I think.
Wednesday evening I made it out to Moogy's. I finally played my first AAA games. I won a Pendelhaven (Anthologies!) off DFB and he won a Bird off me. I would have won the second game if I just didn't play the Bird, not a good sign for how sharp I want to be for the weekend.
I played GW Oath. Thought there would be more mirrors, less goblins/elves, and wanted to have white cards in the sideboard. (its been 6 months or so, and any analysis probably outdated. Interestingly I played a Call of the Herd deck again though...)
Round 1 - Michael Belfanti on GB RecSur
Game one I have turn two Oath after his turn one Birds of Paradise. I Oath into a 0/0 Terravore. He lands a Survival but I have two LD spells for his green sources and he doesn't have enough resources to race the next to Terravores. Game two we play draw go for a few turns. It is clear he has an answer for Oath, but I didn't draw it this game. I play a Call of the Herd and he has Faceless Butcher and Bone Shredder to answer. I land a Sylvan but he doesn't use his Naturalize on it. I manage to draw three extra cards plus the selection while he floods out. Eventually I get another Call and a Terravore to trade with his board to stop any future Recurring Nightmare. He draws a Survival but only gets one activation as I have Ray of Revelation. I do draw Oath which gets Naturalized but at this point the Sylvan has done too much damage and I win.
1-0
Round 2 - Jordan Goodwin on Blue Storm
Game one I have turn one Sphere on the play. He plays a few islands but accidently drops a Snap at one point so I know what he's on for game two. Game two he has answer for my first Sphere, but I have a second one and a Naturalize for his Helm. He has another Helm and a Sapphire Medallion, but I have another Sphere and my LD spells keep him from ever casting Frantic Search.
2-0
Round 3 - Ian Hendry on GR OathPonza
I think game one I have turn one Sylvan into Sphere and some LD. He never has a Mox to catchup and the tempo is too much. Game two is similar except I think I have a second Mox plus a Plow for his Terravore and win without much resistance.
3-0
Round 4 - Scott Blumenthal on UW Replenish
I don't remember much about first two games, but game three comes down to a point where I have to hope he doesn't have Replenish plus Land in his hand. I screw up and port his Ancient Tomb with him at 1 life so now he doesn't need the land and I die to his Replenish. Time had just been called and I was trying to win the game instead of taking the slower line that may have resulted in a draw / victory for me not in 5 turns, but I also just punted by tapping the wrong land.
3-1
Round 5 - Sam Black on Enchantress w/ Red
Game one I maybe LD the wrong land on turn three letting him Gaea's Blessing plus Seal of Fire away my Terravore. Game two I think I have turn one Sphere and win. Game three he has four Tsabo's Web and I'm never really in it.
3-2
Round 6 - Guillaume Soucy on UW Landstill
Game one is a race under Standstill my two Factory vs his two Conclave but he gets to attack first. I don't draw any land based interaction and am forced to break Standstill with a Swords when he's attacking for lethal. I decided to play into the race because I'm mostly happy with him tapping out for Conclave every turn instead of cycling Decree of Justice. Game two I win when he never uses his Dust Bowl for some reason. Game three he has multiple Teferi's Response and multiple Dust Bowl and I can't really interact favorably.
3-3
Round 7 - Louis Neiman on GB Rock
Game one I have Sphere and Port to keep him from doing much of anything. Game two he has Pernicious Deed and I force him to use it on an Oath. I am keeping his mana down with two Ports but eventually he casts Ravenous Baloth. My board is empty so I decide to hold back on Port because what's the worst that could happen? If you said back to back turns of hard cast Krosan Tusker, you were right. Game three I managed to LD him enough that he doesn't play much and my Call of the Herd get some card advantage.
4-3
Round 8 - Robert Matthew Rivera on UW Stiflenought
Game one I win with turn one Sphere and some follow up LD. I only saw Islands but assume he's on 12/12 of some kind. Game two he wins even after I destroy his only white source in a spot he didn't want me to. He just found second Dreadnought and won anyway. Game three he has Tsabo's Web constricting my mana somewhat. I play a Call of the Herd and do maybe 3 damage but he makes a Dreadnought. I attack again with the Elephant and he blocks, which lets me cast Oath of Druids. He attacks me to 8, but I get an 8/8 Terravore plus hard cast one from my hand to have blockers. He can't find another spell to make a Dreadnought off of Oath so it is draw go for a couple of turns. I find Naturalize and attack him down to 4 and he Oath into another 12/12 but it isn't enough to stop my all out attack the following turn.
5-3
Old School
This is mostly from two month old notes at this point. (Even longer!)
I played Twiddle Vault. I think it is the best deck because it can play both draw sevens and Counterspell without being strategically dubious.
Round 1 - Brian Mann on UrzaTron Twiddle Vault
Game one I don't see his Time Vaults as he only plays some Tron lands, an Icy, and a Power Sink. I manage to combo easily as he doesn't have much going on. Game two he surprises me with a turn one Time Vault. We both end up with Time Vaults in play. He uses Twiddle to take an extra turn, so I burn a Twiddle on mine to cancel it. I then have a sequence of Hurkyl's into Mana Drain into Timetwister into Mind Twist and win from there.
1-0
Round 2 - Mark Tocco on The Deck
Game one I'm in a pretty good spot and resolve Timetwister but don't draw anything good off of it and he's able to take control. Game two I have Mind Twist into Erhnam Djinn that gets the job done. Game three was much longer. My notes say he missed an Orb flip on my Sylvan Library and I find an Erhnam shortly after. He's forced to use Divine Offering on my Sol Ring to stay alive but never finds an answer for the creature.
2-0
Round 3 - Jason Lee Smith on Black with Blue
Game one he has a very strong start turn one with Black Knight and Hymn to Tourach. He follows it up with a Sinkhole. I do manage to stick a Howling Mine and Sylvan Library and that lets me recover enough to win mostly easily. Game two he has three Hymn but I once again stick Howling Mine. I draw three Twiddles on the last turn before I would die and chain turns until I find Recall and win.
3-0
Round 4 - Michael Arnold on BRU Stuff
Game one I use Timetwister when I'm down to 8 life but have to pass the turn. He can't kill me on his turn and I have enough to win. Game two he has an early Energy Flux and I can't really do anything. Game three I have basically the best possible hand of Sapphire, Library, Ancestral, Demonic Tutor. I almost manage to punt when I DT for a Howling Mine that does absolutely nothing in the situation. To compound this, he has turn one Sol'Kanar so my Erhnam doesn't look great. I think I Chaos Orb the Swamp King and Mind Twist him so the Djinn eventually gets there, but it is way closer than it ever should have been.
4-0
Thanks to Simon, we have action photo of me wasting the Demonic Tutor
Round 5 - Liwen Li on Shops with Burn
Game one I play a turn one Sylvan, he has turn one Sol Ring. I think he is on The Deck for some reason so I pay 8 life on my turn. He then deploys a Juggernaut and finishes me off with some burn spells before I get anything going. Game two I'm forced to go for combo when I'm at 4 life and he has Triskelion in play. I can't tap any City of Brass but I manage to get there. Game three was really cool and I wish I had better notes. I know it involved Erhnam racing against Juggernaut and I used Twiddles to stop his attacks for enough turns to win. There may have been a stack at some point where I had both REB and BEB to stop his interaction.
5-0
Round 6 - Jens Jaeger on Shops
This was on stream. Game one I Timetwister in a great spot but completely miss and he kills me two turns later. Game two I mulligan to five and never really find anything.
5-1
Round 7 - Michael Phillips on Black with Blue
Game one he mulligans to four. Game two he mulligans to five. It's not a great matchup for him anyway but the mulligans really hurt.
6-1
Round 8 - Emily Sprague on UWR
Wish I had better notes on this one. Game one I use Timetwister to combo and have just enough mana. Game two her clock is just too fast and I die. Game three I mulligan to five but my hand is okay. She has turn one Lotus into Serendib and my Falling Star looks pretty bad. I don't remember how close I got but my notes say I needed to cast two Red spells in a turn but didn't have double red. That doesn't sound like I was in a good spot either way.
6-2
12th place
I was a bit disappointed in my finish, but the event was still a great experience. In the time since moving to the northeast, I've really got to know a lot of the old school magic community. It felt like everywhere I looked, there was someone I recognized. It reminded me of the 2012 Grand Prix San Antonio, where I'm sure I knew over half of the competitors thanks to all my time on the Texas PTQ circuit.
I also really appreciated everyone that was supporting me between rounds. There is a lot of talk about spice or spike in the OS community and sometimes I feel the smallest amount of guilt for trying as hard as I do. However, I do think having a group of spikey players at the tournament adds a legitimacy to the events and the format in general that even non-spikes appreciate. If everyone was doing silly stuff, it wouldn't feel as special. And maybe you don't think you have what it takes to be the best of the best, but its nice to know that its possible.
That's about all I have to say now.
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