2nd place with TrollAtog at Eternal Weekend North American Old School Magic Cup

This past weekend, Eternal Weekend took place in Philadelphia. I've wanted to participate in EW for a long time now, but have never been able to make it work except for the online version in 2020. This year, it would be only an hour away, so I wanted to play as many events as possible. Unfortunately, work and other commitments meant I would only be able to play in the Legacy Championship on Saturday. 

However, the plans I had on Thursday evening canceled at around 14:30, which left me just enough time to rearrange my schedule to get to Philadelphia and Love City Brewing for the 17:45 player meeting. Luckily, I already had a deck sleeved up in preparation for the upcoming Winter Derby. 

The Deck

4 Atog

4 Sedge Troll

4 Black Vice

1 Jalum Tome

1 Copy Artifact

2 Relic Barrier

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Psionic Blast

1 Fireball    

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestrall Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 City in a Bottle

1 Mind Twist

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Volcanic Island

4 Badlands

4 Underground Sea

1 City of Brass

1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard

1 Falling Star

1 Earthquake

2 City in a Bottle

3 Shatter

3 Copper Tablet

2 Gloom

1 Terror

1 Shatterstorm

1 Braingeyser

This is the next iteration of the BottleAtog list I played in Buffalo in October. Once again, the idea is to use City in a Bottle to destroy City of Brass and use the 4x Strip Mine to further constrain the mana. This time I opted for Black instead of White as my support color. This gives access to Demonic Tutor, which means multiple Bottles main deck is no longer necessary. This also gives Mind Twist, which just wins games.

For supplemental threat, I went with Sedge Troll. I was already planning on playing the full eight dual land Swamps, so it was a natural fit. As it is more of a midrange card, I didn't think playing Chain Lightning was necessary. There are no turn one Savannah Lions to clear the way for, and a lot of the creatures that Chain kills are blanked by having a Troll in play. 

The other strategy in the main deck was to not have any non-restricted cards that couldn't be converted into damage. So instead of Shatter or other reactive cards, I played artifacts like Relic Barrier that could be sacrificed to Atog for damage. 

The sideboard options in black aren't quite as good as with white, but they are serviceable. Earthquake is always a consideration when you don't play Savannah Lions and it works fine with Troll. Terror is a reasonable Swords to Plowshares replacement. There isn't an answer to The Abyss or Moat as good as Disenchant, but Gloom does a good enough job at stopping Circle of Protection: Red which is significantly better against the increased red threat count.

The Event

I believe 50 or so players showed up. The brewery was very nice. There was a small hiccup where the bartenders thought it was open bar, but it was sorted out quickly enough before round one to not be a total disaster, and most people ended up with a free beer or two from the mix-up. 

I don't have great notes or full record of pairings, so some names and events might be slightly off.

Round 1 - Jason Castonguay

He did not show up, so I win this round. Lucky

1-0

Round 2 - Brett Attmore - UR Atog

He had basic Island and basic Mountain. Game one he has an early Ankh of Mishra, but is stuck on two mana so while I take 6 damage from it, I'm never in danger of dying and I think I burn him out. I don't remember game two, but it might have involved Mind Twist.

2-0

Round 3 - Andy Callaghan? - MonoGreen Aggro

Game one I have turn one Timetwister but I'm on the draw so its parity vs his land and Llanowar Elf. He has too many cheap beaters to follow up and I don't have enough removal. Game two I think I land a Black Vise and Strip Mine him twice and he's never really in it. Game three he has two Scryb Sprites and an Argothian Pixies, but they get swept up by my Falling Star. I think I have Mind Twist the following turn to ensure the game is locked up.

3-0

Round 4 - Michael Scheffenacker - RUG 12 Bolt with Kird Ape

I win game one with a Demonic Tutor for City in a Bottle to get his City of Brass and Serendib Efreet. Game two he has two Argothian Pixies but I have Earthquake for 1 and then Demonic Tutor for Relic Barrier to stop his Jade Statue. I think I also have Library going for a few turns this game. Eventually I draw some beaters to kill him as he floods out.

4-0

Round 5 - Will Parshall - Atog

Game one he has early Vise and Ankh, but is losing to my board presence. I'm two points short of killing him with Atogs when he draws Ancestral to find the burn he needs to kill me. I maybe could have avoiding playing one land, but I'm not sure. Game two I don't remember but I think I win quickly with Vise and Timetwister. Game three I keep a hand with Lotus, Time Walk, Badlands, Factory, Atog, Demonic Tutor, Psionic Blast. He has turn one Vise so my first turn is Badlands Lotus Atog Time Walk to avoid Vise damage. I have drawn City in a Bottle for the extra turn but no other mana source. I play City instead of Demonic Tutor in order to wait for more information and to have protection for my Atog from a bolt. He has Chain Lightning which I sacrifice the Bottle to save Atog. He also has Strip Mine for my Factory. I never draw another mana source and die to his Vise and Factory shortly after. There is some debate whether to tutor for a Mox, or to mulligan the hand, but I'm not sure either play is better than taking the occasional loss to Strip Mine.

4-1

Round 6 - I don't remember who I played this round - Shops

Game one I'm ahead with some Vise and Atog damage. He has two Icy holding me down, but then draws the sixth mana to play Triskelion. This gives me a turn to Timetwister into another Vise and two Lightning Bolt which is enough to finish him off. Game two he has an early Su-Chi and Copy. I have turn one Library so I start digging. I use Shatter to kill one and then Mind Twist to get the two Trikes in his hand when he's on five mana. I manage to get Relic Barrier to stop the other Su-Chi beats. Eventually Library finds me enough burn to end the game before he can find any more threats.

5-1

Will Parshall ends up the lone undefeated for first place. I have the best tiebreakers of the 5-1s and take second place. I select the Winter Orb for my prize.

Conclusion

The deck performed about as expected. I don't think this build is the best way to build Atog but I think it has unique advantages. I've still yet to face anyone on The Deck with these builds so the viability there is still just theoretical.

The event was a great time. Thanks to Jimmy for putting it on with short notice.

Props:

Love City Brewing - beer was fine, but rolling with the open bar / cash bar mix up was nice. The venue was a great spot for event

Philadelphia parking - I've shit on Philly parking and road layout previously, but this area was very easy to get to and I didn't struggle to find street parking. Probably not good enough for a true "prop", but in the interest of fairness I'll put them here

My wife Beth for allowing me last minute to go to the event after our other plans fell through

Slops:

Strip Mine - just when you think 4 Strip is no big deal after 10 rounds of it, Strip Mine is there to remind you who the boss is. (I've got nothing against 4 Strip formats, just salty about the round 5 loss)

Two-Headed Giant Old School at Jawncon 2022

This past weekend I participated in the first Jawncon in Philadelphia. The format was Two-Headed Giant Old School using Atlantic restricted list with a few modifications: Shahrazad was banned and Ankh of Mishra, The Abyss, Time Vault, and Underworld Dreams were restricted. Additionally, each player was allowed to play a Chaos Orb.

I've always enjoyed Two-Headed Giant (2HG) as a Magic format ever since it was formally introduced in 2006 or so. I like the deeper gameplay and longer games, especially in limited. I like being on a team and having more people in the game without the political shenanigans of other multiplayer formats. I also like how certain cards function much differently than they do in normal 1v1. I also had some success with the format, winning the 2HG State Championship in two different states. 

I was able to convince Simon Christie from the Houston Falling Stars to once again travel to Philadelphia and be my teammate. 

The Brewing Process

My first instinct was to play a control deck and a combo deck. One of the first times I remember playing 2HG was in 2006 Standard with a Mono-Blue Counterspell deck protecting the UG Early Harvest deck. For Old School, I thought the best combo would be Power Artifact / Basalt Monolith combo. I expected Fireball to be a good card in general and wanted to try to play mostly creatureless to turn off any anti-creature cards our opponents had. 

Next, I started looking at cards that are increased power level in 2HG. These cards include Copper Tablet/Syphon Soul, Earthquake/Hurricane/Inferno, the restricted Underworld Dreams, and most importantly Pestilence. We looked at trying to make a WWr aggro deck with eight protection from black creatures to pair with a UB Workshop deck that would play four Pestilence along with some Cylcopean Tomb. I was worried that pro-black creatures were underpowered though and wouldn't be good against all the Moats I expected to face. Also, when you don't draw Pestilence you just had two mediocre creature decks. Our round three opponents did this best though by still playing mostly creatureless with their Pestilence and just had Mishra's Factory to keep it around at the end of the turn. We never quite got to that part in the development.

The next thing I looked at was ways to help out my partner. I envisioned a kind of artifact prison deck with Howling Mine, Relic Barrier, and Winter Orb to go with a deck with four Copy Artifact and Titania's Song for the kill. I think this configuration has more promise that I gave it credit for, as it is still mostly creatureless. Paul and Emily played some variation of this combination.

The final thing I looked at but probably not enough was the extreme control configuration. Simon wanted to play two decks where the only win condition was Timetwister and Tormod's Crypt. I think this combination of decks would have been great for the event, but the turns take so long in 2HG I was worried about running out of time before actually killing the opponent, even when it is just best-of-one.

In the end we decided to play the Control / Power Artifact configuration as nothing else seemed as strong, though we maybe came up with the actual best decks to play when we were just joking around the morning of the event (see bonus section).

Our Decks

Team Falling Stars

(sorry for the poor picture of the Power Artifact deck, I forgot to take a better one before taking it apart)

With the nature of the combo deck and the restricted cards, you quickly realize that you want all the power cards in the deck with Demonic Tutor. Besides the two restricted lands, there were just two Moxen and Balance in the UW deck, and I'm not sure that it should have had that many. We played too much anti-creature stuff and could have played fewer STP and not had the Moat or the Factories at all. Jayemdae Tome was far too slow for the format and should have been some Jalum Tome to work with the Land Tax. I don't think we got the Copy Artifact and Fellwar Stone split correct and probably should have played the maximum of each between the two. Additional countermagic like Flash Counter and Avoid Fate were some of the last cards cut. 

Mirror Universe was in as a Transmute target until being cut for Earthquake at the last minute. Without Balance to tutor for we wanted access to a cheap-ish sweeper. Transmuting for Triskelion also seemed strong enough and the bad synergry with Ivory Tower and Mirror Universe was a slight concern. I really want to play Sylvan Library and Channel in the combo deck but the green mana sources were tough. Overall I'm happy with about 105 of the 120 cards we submitted, though we did miss a big card that should have been more of a factor. Given what we knew, we were about 90% of the way there.

The Event

After some bagels and coffee, Simon and I drove to the site passing by the Home Depot with the giant abandoned smokestack along the way. This also took me through the craziest signalized intersection I've ever encountered at Roosevelt Blvd and Adams St. As a traffic engineer, it was fascinating but as a driver it was terrifying. In general, the boulevard traffic situation was something new to me.

In particular, this left turn on the way back crossing four travelways is mind-melting.

The event location was nice and spacious on the inside, but not much to look at from the outside. The food was solid all day and the special cocktail for the day, the "Healing Salve", was top notch. 

After a brief introduction and review of the 2HG rules including explanation of the penalty kick orb flip tiebreaker procedure, we began the tournament.

Round One - Wardens of Alcatraz

Their configuration was UW Tax Tower and Armageddon with Power Artifact and the Monoliths were  in the RB deck that also had Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole I think? We won the game on turn three or four with Counterspell backup. We played again for fun and they almost locked us out of the game with Cyclopean Tomb but Chaos Orb undid that and Time Walk let me combo.

1-0

Round Two - The Birb Maidens

We were under the gun facing an early Blood Moon and Scryb Sprites plus Zephyr Falcon. We used Orb to destroy the Moon but this turned on Pendelhaven and Mishra's Factory to do more damage. We had two Ivory Towers and they were forced to use their Chaos Orb on a Land Tax. They got us down to 8 life before Simon got back up to seven cards for Library and a Copy for a third Tower. A Wrath of God the next turn bought us plenty of time, but I drew Braingeyser for seven cards and won the next turn.

2-0

Round Three - Fee Fi Fo Fuck Outta Here

This team identified one card that was probably key for deckbuilding that we just missed: Fork. They had a mostly Black deck for Pestilence and Syphon Soul and a mostly Red deck for Fork and additional burn. They used Fork to stop our first combo attempt. I believe they cast Wheel of Fortune at some point after which I attempted a Braingeyser for nine cards. They had Fork which we should have let resolve since they would only have four mana left for counter interaction. Instead, we tried to counter the Fork and after a Counterspell and Red Elemental Blast, no one drew any cards. I took a gamble with Timetwister after this. Simon failed to draw a counter off of it and my great seven card hand was Mind Twisted away. They did play the ninth land that would tie with Simon for Land Tax, so I went for Orb flip on Simon's land but missed. We should have just used Swords to Plowshares instead of the Orb and then forgot to do that. Not getting to tax meant we only gained two life from Tower and the next turn they had Pestilence plus Syphon Soul plus Fork to burn us out exactly.

2-1

Round Four - Two Dinguses

Their configuration was a mostly Green fatty deck with Elves, Birds, Erhnam, and Iff-Biff along with a Dingus Egg Armageddon deck. We were never really in trouble as the Swords to Plowshares finally did something. Eventually I combo when they were tapped out.

3-1

Round Five - Bald Bearded and Beautiful

They were 4-0 at this point and there were three teams at 3-1. A win here could at least get us in the tiebreak conversation for first. They were also on Power Artifact deck, but their support deck was less anti-creature and more anti-spell. They had Flash Counter and Glasses of Urza(!) to further support the combo. I play a turn one Wheel of Fortune and draw six lands and Demonic Tutor. Simon's hand is mostly anti-creature, so I used Tutor to find Timetwister on turn three. Turn four we decide to tap Simon's white source to play Land Tax instead of leaving up Disenchant since I had REB and Simon had Counterspell up. This backfired and we immediately lost since they had Power Artifact plus Fireball and Flash Counter plus Mana Drain for our answers.

3-2

So in the end, one of the other Power Artifact configurations won the event at 5-0. The team with four Fork ended up at 4-1 for second place. Simon and I had the best breakers of the 3-2 so we got third place. Here is a photo of us in the same pose as the trophy card Clone:

Overall Impressions

Two-Headed Giant was a fun format to build decks for, but the gameplay was a bit lacking. I don't think that can really be fixed by banning or restricting any of the combo cards as the control cards that did nothing all day in Simon's deck would still be oppressing other strategies. I think the best way to do some 2HG in the future would be to do some kind of Singleton. There are enough ways to synergize with your partner in deckbuilding while still probably requiring normal Magic play patterns. 

The event was run extremely well and props to the Philly Old School group for putting it on. I will continue to attend events they run as long as I'm in the area. 

Props:

2HG just for being a cool thing

Simon for travelling all the way from Houston to be my other head

Philly Old School for running the event

the "Healings Salve" 

the team with all the Forks - this card is so good in 2HG

Simon and Will for completing this three-way Demonic Tutor trade

Slops:

Me for making some questionable plays and questionable deck building decisions

Weird Philly intersections

Me for missing my sister-in-laws 40th birthday party to play silly card game

Bonus Section

We came up with this Saturday morning trying to decide what Dom and Andy would be playing. It might actually be good:

Deck A:

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

4 Sword of the Ages

52 Giant Creatures

Deck B:

4 Eureka

4 All Hallow's Eve

4 Animate Dead

4 Concordant Crossroads

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Mind Twist

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Timetwister

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Regrowth

5 Moxen

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

4 Bayou

4 Tropical Island

4 Underground Sea

4 City of Brass

1 Forest

BottleAtog at Buffalo Stampede

 

This past Sunday I played in the Buffalo Stampede event in, you guessed it, Buffalo. I had a wonderful time both playing Magic and not playing Magic.

Saturday Night

Buffalo is a six-hour drive for me which is a bit too much to do in one day. I drove up Saturday morning and arrived around 4pm. I checked into my room and then met up with DFB, Chris Mason, and DFB's brother John at Nine-Eleven Tavern (no relation to the national tragedy) for chicken wings:

We sat at the bar and got our order in shortly after they opened so avoided having to wait the hour for seating or hour plus for food. We had some beers and some french fries while we waited but our wings came out in less than thirty minutes:

I'm not entirely sure how to explain these wings. I don't normally enjoy Buffalo sauce, but these were  the best wings I've ever had in my life. We ordered the medium heat sauce. The sauce was more complex with hints of vinegar and brown sugar (maybe?) but still the familiar heat and tang of Frank's. 

After Nine-Eleven Tavern, we went to Anchor Bar, which claims to be the originator of the Buffalo chicken wing. 

Driving past the beautiful City Hall at sunset

These wings were much more like what I've experienced before. The quality was still better than your average Hooters or other chain, but the sauce not nearly as interesting to me as Nine-Eleven. We met up with Jeff Menges here. This place was very busy since it was near the Sabres stadium and people were eating here before the game. Dave happened to "know a guy" and we got seated almost right away. We had just got our beers from the bar when the table was ready. I wanted to have some ice cream after eating all these wings but they didn't have any. I settled for a cannoli which was below average.

After Anchor Bar, we went to Colter Bay in the Allentown area of Buffalo for some more drinks. This was a chill spot and a good way to end the night. I got back to my room which was above another bar. I watched the end of the World Series game (go Astros!) at the bar with another drink (or three, the locals bought me a few shots) before going to bed.

Sunday

I was a bit hungover when I got to Resurgence Brewing Company, so the first order of business was getting some food. I had the biscuits and gravy. It was good.

The beer at Resurgence was fine? It wasn't bad but nothing special. About your average micro-brewery beer. It may have been better if I wasn't as hungover. I had two different IPAs and their Blond ale. No photos of that.

Later during the day I ordered the poutine that caught my eye from the menu. I wanted to get it with short rib, but they had ran out. The waiter told me that "the pulled pork is even better". I don't believe him. This was just fine:

The other highlight of the brewery was this dog who was so short and yet had the longest ears. He kept stepping on them. I loved it: 

The Magic

It was refreshing to play some 4 Strip Old School again. I don't think I prefer it, but it is the format I've played the most. I played the following deck:

4 Atog

4 Savannah Lions

4 Black Vice

2 Relic Barrier

2 City in a Bottle

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Chain Lightning

2 Psionic Blast

2 Disenchant

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Balance

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Volcanic Island

4 Plateau

4 Tundra

1 City of Brass

Sideboard

2 Swords to Plowshares

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Disenchant

1 Divine Offering

1 City in a Bottle

3 Copper Tablet

2 Aeolipile

2 Icatian Javaleneers

1 Plains

I decided to try this version with the logic that City in a Bottle can add to the mana denial of Strip Mine against decks with lots of City of Brass. This would in turn make Black Vise better. Lion over Serendib is already pretty close. The real sacrifice is in number of colored sources in the deck. I was conservative with Psionic Blast and Chain Lightning, opting for more generic spells like Relic Barrier and Aeolipile that I can cast with any color lands. This also meant not playing Demonic Tutor and Mind Twist. I skewed all my sideboard to white cards to make mulligans easier and to have access to the basic Plains. This was probably too clever and not needed. I also wanted more proactive cards in the sideboard and didn't want to play BEB or REB, two cards I'm not really a fan of.

City in a Bottle worked extremely well in two matches, was not relevant in three matches, and then probably hurt me in one match where I drew it game one when it did nothing and needed to have anything else to be in the game. I don't think its worth it to give up on Tutor and Twist, so I don't think I'll play this version again. There may be a way to build with City and black cards but no white spells if you find a replacement for Savannah Lions. I may try that in the future.

I still think Atog is the strongest deck because of the free wins you get and being the best at leveraging the draw sevens. It's certainly not unbeatable but I'm still a believer.

Round 1 - Jason Shaw on White Workshop Archeologist

Game one I'm explosive from the start with Lion Tog and Vise. I think I have a Twister and win easily. Game two I get him low but he has two Triskelion and Coffin and Diamond Valley. I have Relic Barrier to tap a Trike on his turn and attack with a lethal Atog. He makes some plays and I sacrifice some artifacts to keep it alive but it was all a setup to get him to activate the Valley. When he does, I respond with two Lightning Bolts to kill him.

1-0

Round 2 - Pete Lankering on Workshops

Game one I have Vise into Lion Vise. He only has two Mox so my Relic Barrier in his upkeep on his Sapphire forces him to Ancestral. The Vises do enough damage from there to win. Game two I don't remember very well. I think I had Divine Offering for a Su-Chi and STP for a Triskelion and then eventually found enough burn to win.

2-0

Round 3 - Nick Cummings on CounterBurn

Game one he sticks a Serendib that I never find an answer to. He only sees red and white cards though and sideboards thinking I'm Pink Weenie. Game two I manage to win with two Atogs. He adjusts his sideboard for game three but my City in a Bottle plus Relic Barrier plus Strip Mines keep him below three mana for too long and by the time he recovers he's facing lethal Atog and I win.

3-0

Round 4 - Raymond Mitchell on Shaharazad Burn

Game one I have City in a Bottle turning off a lot of his deck. He has to kill it with Shatter and finally casts Shaharazad. I think about scooping immediately since I'm at 20 and he's at 12 but I have two Bolts in hand and Lion plus Atog in play. I play the subgame just to see more of the deck but I end up losing. I take 10 but he's now tapped out in the main game and I draw the artifact I need to do lethal. Game two is a fight over City in a Bottle. I have one in play but am forced to sacrifice it to save my Atog. I play a second one and he has Energy Flux. The game then draws out extremely long with me paying for two  Flux every turn while he has spells that he can't cast. I'm not drawing much gas but he also has CoP: Red in play so it is going to be a struggle. Eventually he finds Timetwister which lets him Disenchant the City and plays some spells. Unfortunately he tapped out in the process leaving him open to my burn spells that kill him.

4-0

Round 5 - Tino Galizio on Deadguy

Game one I have Vise plus two Lions. He takes a lot of damage before recovering with Balance at 1 life. I've got Psionic Blast in hand but only one land left after a Sinkhole. He Hymns and hits a Mox and a Disenchant so I'm still live to Psionic Blast. I draw Strip Mine and leave it in play for mana and then find the blue source the next turn to win as he's starting to get a threating board. Game two I'm not quite as aggressive start but I do manage to Strip his Scrubland and win with Atog when he can't cast Balance or STP.

5-0

I'm the only 5-0 going into the final round, but my tiebreakers aren't that strong compared to the three people on 4-1. I need to win to lock up first place.

Round 6 - Rich Borque on Workshops

Game on I have turn one Savannah Lion plus City in a Bottle. This draw is not good against Shops and he finds two Triskelion to easily win as I draw mostly nothing. Game two he has Abyss plus CoP:Red and the game goes really long. I manage to deal with all his threats and win with more Mishra's Factories than he has Relic Barriers. Game three is similar as he has Abyss and CoP: Red again. I draw a lot of lands but this time they aren't factories. He gets two Icy Manipulator in play and I decide to destroy one instead of his Factory thinking its going to be harder to beat the Icy. He then has a second Factory and a Jayemdae Tome. I draw two Factories but they don't do anything against his Icy and he draws too many cards with Tome and I can't comeback.

5-1

I end up in third place on tiebreakers. I did manage to get the Strip Mine from the prize pool though. You can't ever have enough Strip Mines.

Also received the nice Divine Offering for participation and had these Merfolk of the Pearl Trident altered by Jeff:

Props / Slops

Props:

DFB for putting on the event and the chicken wing tour

Nine-Eleven Tavern chicken wings

Buffalo for being a great place to visit

Slops:

Me for not playing Demonic Tutor

Me for not playing Mind Twist

-Ty

Three Decks in Three Days at the Winc0n Old School Events in Genoa

I went to Genoa, Italy to participate in Winc0n, the 2022 Old School World Championships. My wife was attending a conference in Hamburg, Germany the week prior and I was planning on joining her for a nice vacation afterwards. When I found out at the tournament for Balance that Winc0n would be the same weekend, it was an easy decision to change the plans. I'd much rather visit Italy for vacation, and I always enjoy travelling to play Magic tournaments.

The event was actually three separate tournaments over three days. The first tournament was the Scryings World Championship. I didn't have any experience playing Scryings prior to this, but I was excited to brew in a new space. The second day was the real-deal no-shit Old School World Championship for the coveted Giant Shark. This event was Swedish rules with a more welcoming reprint policy. The final day was the Atlantic Cup, using the Atlantic rules popular in the eastern United States.

A Note on Magic Tournaments

I've heard a lot of things to the effect of "Forget about the Magic tournament, it's just an excuse to hang out with your friends and do all the fun surrounding activities". I cannot disagree more. I love Magic tournaments, and the tournament parts specifically. I enjoy all of the rest of the trappings of tournaments as well, but the tournament itself brings me a particular joy. Magic games are more enjoyable when something (even if it's "nothing") is on the line. Preparing for a tournament is one my favorite things to do. I don't think the extra-curricular activities would be nearly as fun without the tournament to give them some context. Maybe I will elaborate in a future post, but I wanted to mention it because I rarely hear contradicting opinions when people talk about "doing away with tournaments".

Top 8 playoffs are awesome, swiss + 1 is horrible. Props to Winc0n organizers for the commitment to real finishes. 

Friday Evening - Scryings

Here is the deck I played on Friday: 

RUG Burn

4 River Boa

2 Uktabi Orangutan

2 Goblin Vandal

1 Man-O-War

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

1 Mana Drain

4 Psionic Blast

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Chaos Orb

1 Mind Twist

1 Balance

1 Regrowth

1 Braingeyser

1 Stormbind

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Volcanic Island

4 Taiga

1 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 City of Brass

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Tropical Island

Sideboard

1 Man-O-War

3 Wildfire Emissary

3 Blue Elemental Blast

3 Tormod's Crypt

1 Forsaken Wastes

1 Pillage

1 Dwarven Miner

1 Uktabi Orangutan

1 Hammer of Bogardan

My biggest complaint about Scryings as a format is how much it feels like regular Old School. This deck is basically a 12-Bolt / Lion-Dib-Bolt with some small upgrades. Granted, I played 17 Scryings cards, definitely in the top few of players in the event. I cast all but the Forsaken Wastes. The rest were vital to my wins except for the Dwarven Miner. 

Orangutan and Vandal are obviously strong against artifacts and everyone has Moxen around. Man-O-War was not exciting to me until I realized it's effectively the 3rd Orangutan because you can bounce a monkey to your hand and replay it. Not being a dead card against creatureless decks was important to me. Stormbind was the card that drew me to this archetype even more than River Boa. Wildfire Emissary in the sideboard was a hedge against Blood Moon while also having utility against Kjeldoran Outpost and Sacred Mesa.

This deck performed well up until the top 8 where it didn't deliver in what was probably a favorable matchup. My biggest takeaway from the deck was how strong Regrowth is and I may look to play that card more in the future.

Round 1 - Chris Albrecht on Mono Red Atog with Blood Moon and Orgg
Game one he lands an early Su Chi and an Orgg but I end up killing his creatures and then reducing his mana down to just two mountains with Goblin Vandal. I'm two points short of being able to burn him out when he draws the lethal Lightning Bolt, so maybe I should have not blown up two of his Moxen, but then maybe he could cast some more creatures. Game two I win easily after I draw two Blue Elemental Blast and I think I win the game by discarding five cards to Stormbind when he's at 10 life thanks to Library and Braingeyser. Game three he has turn one Blood Moon but I have Emerald and can cast River Boa. He answers it with Chain lightning a turn later, but he only has three mana. I then draw three consecutive Wildfire Emissary to keep the pressure on and finish him off.

1-0

Round 2 - Peter Schnidrig on some MaskNaught variant.

Game one I time walk turn one and then play Vandal and Boa on turn two. I follow up with Demonic Tutor for Mind Twist and easily win. Game two I Orangutan and Man-o-War my Orangutan for enough value that I still easily win after he Mind Twist for four.

2-0

Round 3 - Messina Julien on RWB Sedge Troll Spirit Link

Game one I'm losing to a Spirit Link Troll and I have to make awkward play of chump attacking with River Boa but failing to regenerate to set up Balance. It works somehow but he draws Serra Angel of the top to finish me off. Game two he has turn one Serra Angel and I don't have an immediate answer but I find Chaos Orb at the right time and then use Regrowth on it to take control and eventually win. Game three I start with Library and Mind Twist. He has the Orb to stop the Library from taking over but I only get him to 9 life vs my 7 life with two City of Brass in play when he casts Wheel of Fortune. I manage to draw three Lightning Bolt and he only drew two and I didn't have to tap my Cities.

3-0

Round 4 - Danny Friedman on TwiddleVault

Game one he says was close but I just have to believe him. I only got him to 12 life before he easily combos off. Game two I mulligan to five cards and turn one play land Jet Demonic Tutor for Sapphire to cast Ancestral Recall. This may have been a mistake. After the match, he said I should have just went for Tormod's Crypt, as it would take him a long time to be able to beat that card. This is where my experience with future Magic formats maybe hurt me, as a single Crypt is probably not enough in Modern or Vintage, but maybe it is that good in Old School. Anyway, I thought I needed more gas and went for Ancestral, but didn't draw anything relevant enough to stop him from comboing easily.

3-1

Round 5 - Reindeer (Christian Reinhard) on RUG

He's on similar cards to me but still has stuff like Serendib Efreet. Game one I'm on the play and have turn two Timetwister and then later on Wheel of Fortune with just enough resource advantage and River Boa beats to win the race. Game two he has turn one Black Vise and turn two River Boa and I draw two City of Brass and lose this race. Game three turn one I play Sapphire, Ancestral plus two more Mox and Lotus. Turn two I Braingeyser for six. He doesn't have anything that can compete with this start and I win having seen 22 cards to his 11. 

4-1

I'm 3rd place after the swiss and will get to play first for the top eight.

Quarterfinals - Leo Bruder on Robots/BB8 with zero scryings cards (boo!)

Game one I have early River Boa beats and undo his Mana Vault into Su-Chi with a Man-o'-War. He takes too much damage before he can redeploy and I win easily. Game two he gets down an early Blood Moon and I'm completely unprepared. On the play for game three I don't make any changes since I don't expect him to even keep the Blood Moon in. I mulligan to six and keep a mana light hand. I have turn one River Boa which forces him to Fireball for one. I then have Orangutan which he Psionic Blasts. I then play Dwarven Miner but he has Terror and then Animate Dead on my Orangutan to set me back to two mana. He plays a Sage of Lat Nam and starts the tiny beats. I'm still stuck on two mana with nothing to play. I eventually get third mana for Stormbind which is looking to take over the game. He uses this turn to play a Copy Artifact from his hand on Mana Vault, taps it for mana, then sacrifices it to Sage for a draw. He finds Triskelion and his last card in hand after that is another Copy Artifact, so I'm basically dead on board. I fail to draw anything that can get me out of this and die.

4-2

8th-ish place

Saturday - Swedish World Championship

Here is the deck I played on Saturday:

4 Savannah Lions

2 Serendib Efreet

2 Serra Angel

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Chain Lightning

4 Psionic Blast

3 Disenchant

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Red Elemental Blast

1 Timetwister

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Mana Drain

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Mind Twist

1 Chaos Orb

1 Balance

1 Sol Ring

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Jet

1 Library of Alexandria

4 Mishra's Factory

1 Strip Mine

4 City of Brass

3 Tundra

3 Plateau

1 Scrubland

3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard

1 Blue Elemental Blast

2 Swords to Plowshares

4 Su-Chi

2 Divine Offering

1 Disenchant    

1 Braingeyser

1 Fireball

2 Armageddon

1 Control Magic

Here I basically copied Simon Christie's 12Bolt list from the Summer Derby. He recommended the REB in the main to keep people on their toes so I cut Counterspell for it. I played Control Magic over Serra Angel in the sideboard because it's a personal favorite and I like having different cards that do similar things. I fit in the second Armageddon because the REB was now in the maindeck. 

I knew I would play this list even before Simon won the Derby. I'm not super familiar with the Swedish metagame and I mostly trusted him when he told me to play it. I was happy with how it worked and I don't think I would change anything currently without getting more reps with it. I'm not sure this is the deck I want to be playing in Swedish if I was to play it a lot, but it is obviously a tier 1 list.

Round 1 - Resti Gonzalez  on Arabian Aggro

Game one my Lions and Factory are racing his Erhnam. He plays a second one and I have to try to double block with two Factories. This trade works and I draw Time Walk to pull ahead in the race. He has a hand full of lands at the end. Game two I have turn one Library on the draw and he doesn't draw anything to challenge it.

1-0

Round 2 - Gwenn De Schampelare on 12Bolt

He's also within three cards of Simon's list. Game one he has three Mox Sol Ring Timetwister turn one. I manage to sort of make a game of it but he eventually plays Armageddon with four Mox to my zero and I lose. Game two he has Library and I'm forced to Balance. He gets aggressive with Strip Mine on my only red source and I never draw another and lose with three red cards in hand.

1-1

Round 3 - David Maimone on MonoBlack Dreams

Game one he has turn one Underworld Dreams. I try to race but he answers my threats easily and then plays Warp Artifact on a Mox to kill me as I flood out. Game two I keep an iffy hand with turn one Lotus Land Su-Chi but no second land. He plays turn one Gloom off of Dark Ritual. I attack him to 16 and pass. He plays a Sol Ring with no second land either. I attack him to 12 and he spends his turn on Demonic Tutor. I attack him to 8 and then he plays the card he tutored for: Paralyze. I still haven't found a second land, and eventually he Sinkhole my only land and plays another Warp Artifact and I lose without casting another spell.

1-2

Round 4 - Andi Gerber on MonoGreen Berserk

Game one I kill all of his early creatures while killing him with three Lions and two Factories. Game two is similar but I tap out for Serra Angel and he kills me with Giant Growth and double Berserk. Game three I have turn one Sapphire Jet Sol Ring Timetwister. Turn three I have Ancestral and Lotus to play three Bolts on his creatures and he has no board. Eventually I find Mind Twist to take his Giant Growth and Berserk and I'm in no danger of losing. I believe I win with a Scryb Sprites I stole with Control Magic.

2-2

Round 5 - Peter Schnidrig on UW LionDib

Game one he has turn one Mind Twist for four. I recover somewhat with Balance. He then topdecks Braingeyser for six. I then topdeck Wheel of Fortune. I'm back in the game and find Time Walk and Timetwister but my City of Brass catch up with me and he's able to Psionic Blast me in response to my final burn spell. Game two I have early aggression with Lions and get him to 5 life before he stabilizes. I empty both of our hands with Balance and I manage to draw two Lightning Bolt before he finds a way to recover. Game three I have turn one Library on the draw. He manages to find Chaos Orb but not before I draw three cards. I have Mind Twist but no black mana and only one blue mana. I decide instead of Twist I'll hold up Lotus for the Mana Drain in my hand. I manage to win the game without casting either but it was an interesting spot. I had three Plateau so the last minute swap of 4th Tundra for 3rd Plateau maybe mattered but didn't effect the game result.

3-2

Round 6 - Francesco Bilotto on DFB Green

Game one he has too many creatures and my one for one removal doesn't keep up. Game two I have a turn two Su-Chi and turn three Serra Angel that he can't deal with. I follow up with Armageddon and win. Game three he only has one land and I set him back by killing his Llanowar Elves with Bolts and a Chao Orb. Eventually I do enough damage that I can burn him out when he finally draws land to cast his spells.

4-2

Round 7 - Ivan Hernandez Chiva on DiscoTroll

His deck is a lot of reactive cards but not that many counterspells. Game one he has Library going for most of the game. Eventually I Mana Drain his Recall for two and then use the mana to play Mind Twist for seven and it resolves?! We're both in topdeck mode but he finds a Troll and then has a counter for my final burn spell. Game two I have early pressure and then Demonic Tutor for Ancestral and then Mind Twist for his hand. Game three he once again has Library since turn one. I have Swords for two of his Trolls so he doesn't have a good clock. Eventually he tries for a Recall for two for Braingesyer and Time Walk. When he casts the Time Walk I use REB and now he's tapped out. I Time Walk and attack with two Factories twice and finish him off with Fireball before he can untap.

5-2

I end up in 19th place, towards the bottom of the 15 point players. I think I got lucky to win round 7 but probably got unluck to lose round 3 so it probably evened out. Solid showing.

Sunday - Atlantic Cup

Here is the deck I played on Sunday:

4 Savannah Lions

4 Icatian Javelineers

4 Tundra Wolves

4 Order of Lietbur

4 White Knight

4 Thunder Spirit

1 Preacher

4 Crusade

3 Disenchant

3 Swords to Plowshares

1 Chaos Orb

1 Armageddon

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Pearl

1 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

15 Plains

1 Karakas

Sideboard

3 City in a Bottle

3 Dust to Dust

1 Serra Angel

1 Disenchant

2 Armageddon

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Spirit Link

1 Divine Offering

1 Aeolipile

1 Preacher

I sleeved up this deck for some casual Atlantic games a few months ago and I was surprised at how well it did. I mainly copied the list that Matt Marmorato played at LobsterCon. I was drawn to the 12 one-drops and 4 Crusade and they overperform in the fun games. I decided to play this on Sunday to mix it up and play something different than the previous two days. Also this would let me get a better idea about what is strong in this deck and what is not. I'd say its still a work in progress but I have a lot more ideas on what to improve.

Going forward, I would not play Preacher at all. This card has not impressed me. I also think one more pump effect would be nice. 5th Crusade ideally, but maybe Army of Allah or Angelic Voices. For additional removal, I would play at least one Maze of Ith in the main. I'm not a huge fan of the card in general, but when I start seriously contemplating Holy Day in the main deck, I know that Maze would be better almost always. I would play Sol Ring in the sideboard as a hedge against Gloom. Library and Balance should also probably be in the sideboard. Spirit Link did not do enough and should be more Aeolipile. I'm not sure about Serra Angel or how many Armageddon to play. Armageddon is strong but the deck does not have a lot of artifact mana to take advantage of it. If you don't win in the next few turns you would recover much slower than opponents with full power.

Round 1 - Claudio Gori on MonoBlack

Game one I play three one-drops and he Hymns me then plays Dark Ritual into Nevinyrral's Disk. I attack him to 13 and force him to use disk. He has follow up Order and Black Knight. I have follow up Order and White Knight, but also Crusade and I win the race. Game two he has a turn three Gloom. I'm stuck on land but draw Chaos Orb to get me out of it... but I miss the flip. Only flip I missed all weekend. I can't really recover after that. Game three he plays turn one Ritual Ritual Ritual Sengir Black Knight. I'm on the play though and have Order plus three one-drops and a Crusade and I win the race! The deck continues to impress me!

1-0

Round 2 - Ivan Hernandez Chiva on DiscoTroll (Round 7 yesterday)

He manages to have turn one Library in all three games. I have enough pressure in game one to steal a win as he didn't draw enough mana, but the other two games Maze and Troll and Disk keep me from ever doing damage. I resolve an Armageddon game two but it was mostly at parity and he recovered faster.

1-1

Round 3 - Valerio Gregori on FourColor Black

Game one his Hymn hits my spells not my redundant lands. His Order holds off my team until he draws a second and I find no way to break through. Maze would have been good. Game two I have turn one Lions and he has turn one Gloom. I play two Factory and manage to win as he never casts another spell. Game three I put Spirit Link on an Order but he has Lightning Bolt and I'm out of pressure. I'm in a tough spot against his Order and he attacks me down to 4 life. I topdeck Factory to block and try to race with my creatures. He has Orb for Factory, but I have Disenchant. His draw is Lightning Bolt though and his Order finishes me off.

1-2

Round 4 - James Burton on Grixis

Game one my turn one Lions trades with his turn two Factory. I follow up with more two-drops and a Factory of my own. A Disenchant on his Sol Ring and he can't play any spells to stop me. Game two he plays turn two Sinkhole after I didn't  have a turn one play (I should have mulligan) and then plays a Troll and two Serendib and I die. Game three I have two one-drops but he's holding me off with a Troll (Maze would be good once again). He Mind Twist my hand. I draw Crusade and a few more creatures. He has a Dib to race while leaving Troll back. I draw Swords for Troll and he's dead in two attacks thanks to Crusade.

2-2

Round 5 - Julien Messina on RWB Spirit Link

Game one I have some protection from black creatures and he has two Juzam Djinn which kill him. Game two he has turn one Gloom. Eventually I draw enough lands to play my hand. He then has Balance and I'm down to five mana. I draw back to back Thunder Spirit I can't cast and he finishes me off with Troll. Game three he kills my first three creatures then plays a Troll. I'm forced to Spirit Link it to not take too much damage (my Spirit Link was not good all day). He then draws Hypnotic Specter and Serra Angel and I can't race because of his Troll (Maze would have been good).

2-3

22nd place

Results

Before the weekend, my goal was to top 8 each event. I want to have goals that challenge me. If you are always meeting your goals, you are probably setting the bar too low. I'm not afraid of failure at this point in my Magic career. Overall I only met 33% of my goal. However I am happy with my performance in the main event. I managed to play some pretty great games and find enough success to where I don't feel like I underperformed. It would have been nicer to be in contention near the end instead of the backdoor X-2 finish. I was disappointed in my performance in the Atlantic cup, but I certainly didn't bring the A-game with deck selection, deck tuning, or metagame prediction (who knew people played so many Gloom?)

The Extracurriculars

My first four days in Italy were great. The tournaments were lots of fun. I met so many new people and they were all extremely welcoming. I think this is the one of the strongest aspects of the Old School community is how quickly people will take you in as a part of the group. Going out Sunday night for dinner and beers after the last event was the highlight of the non-Magic portion of my trip. The group was almost a dozen people by the end, and of those people, I only knew two prior to the weekend.

Unfortunately, my wife got Covid shortly after arriving in Italy. I spent the Monday and Tuesday doing some sight-seeing on my own while she had her own hotel. It was still a good time but not nearly as amazing as I was hoping for. We will have to get back to Italy again in the future.

Props / Slops

Props:

Simon Christie, Matt Marmorato, and Michael Scheffenacker for the lists I copied

Seth Roncoroni, Simon Christie, Will Lowry, and Collin Rountree for input on decklist updates

Andy, Emily, and Paul for representing the Sisters of the Flame

Paul for top 8 with Serendib Djinn on Saturday

Emily for 9th on Saturday

Andy for top 8 with unpowered Jacques le Vert on Sunday

Every person I met for the first time (way too many to name)

The hosts of the event for everything (and then some)

Foccacia

Pesto

Slops:

Layovers

Covid

Gloom

AtogShops at the Tournament for Balance

 Hi. I could say "I'm Back", but I'm not sure I went anywhere. Well, besides moving across the country to New Jersey. Anyway, I've got some posts lined up covering the small amount of Magic I've played in the last six months or so. I'm also hopeful to be playing more in the coming months, so maybe more posts in the future. And there's always the PWP history I need to complete...

Last weekend, I made the short drive down I-95 to Philadelphia to play in the Tournament for Balance, presented by the Philadelphia Old School group. It was a great time. I had not been to Philly in ten years and I was reminded of what a great city it is. I also was reminded of how much fun playing in a real life Magic tournament can be, even if it is one just for charity and bragging rights.

Friday night there was a get together at a local brewery. I got to meet a lot of the local people as well as a few out of towners. There was maybe a dozen people, but that is more than enough to have a good time. I played a few games with my OS deck, but mainly worked on getting reps in with my Premodern list. Premodern still a bit new to me. I played a lot of Middle School while in Texas, but the formats seem very different. The list I've put together is not even close to playable in MS, but seems like it could find a home in PM with a bit more tuning and SB help. Here is my deck:

In Middle School, you are probably better off playing Dragon or Earthcraft Nightmare, but those cards are banned in Premodern. I won some games and lost some games, maybe I'll write more about this deck in the future.

For the Old School main event on Saturday, I played AtogShops. This was mainly because I had just acquired a set of Mishra's Workshops and wanted to try them out. I played the Atog version because I think it is the best level 0 deck in Atlantic. It plays all the powerful restricted cards, almost every card is proactive and flexible, and explosive. Many games are won by a draw seven fueling an Atog after the initial onslaught of SuChi and Trikes are dealt with. It doesn't need the right answers to line up vs the right threats like The Deck, and it doesn't need to draw a critical mass of burn spells like the various LionDibBolt decks do. I consider normal Atog lists to be poor in Atlantic because Black Vise is much weaker without access to four Strip Mine. There might be better metagame calls and better choices to suit a particular play style, but I think this is the best baseline deck. It also helps that in the lower stakes events, you are much less likely to play against The Deck, which is the worst matchup. Here is my take:

My pet card Jalum Tome shows up here again, but this time I don't think it is very good. It's not really in line with the Armageddon plan, and you aren't trying to dig for the last burn spell to finish someone off like in my usual Atog build. It should probably be another Armageddon or Relic Barrier. I did not find the Swords to Plowshares in the sideboard to be that effective. I could see maybe making two of them The Abyss for when you need to be the controlling deck, but that may tax the mana more. I would play another City in a Bottle or two if I owned them. 

R1 vs Mano on Rasputin
Game one I play a turn two Triskelion and then Copy Artifact twice on turn three. He's forced to Hurkyll's Recall and takes 9 in the process. Replaying them finishes the game quickly. Game two involves an early Armageddon and I'm in control for most of the game. He casts a Shatterstorm that hurts him as much as me. I think I win by tapping his City of Brass a few times with Icy Manipulator.

1-0

R2 vs Paul DeSilva on something

I'm not exactly sure what he was playing. I think I Armageddon game one to win. Game two I Mind Twist for five on turn one and he does not recover.

2-0

R3 vs Will Magrann on The Deck

Game one he gets Library active, but I manage to resolve Timetwister to stay somewhat at parity. He draws four Mishra's Factory and I draw zero though, so I'm unable to make any progress on his life and concede shortly after. Game two is similar except I don't have the Twister to help out. I draw a pair of Icy Manipulators but they weren't as good as I hoped. I definitely made mistakes in sideboarding. 

2-1

After round three there was a break for lunch. I had mediocre Guatemalan food near the church where the event was taking place. Lunch may not have been the best, but I did get to enjoy one more game of Premodern where I barely beat Dom's Paralax Tide / Tangle Wire / Umbilicus / Propaganda / Mana Breach deck by eventually attacking with Great Whale three separate times when the shields were down. 

R4 vs Pez Unholy on UW Fliers

Game one I flood out a bit after he answers my early threats which lets him resolve a Serra Angel and the Counterspell my follow up plays when I draw out of the flood. Serra does a good job of ending the game quickly. Games two and three are the opposite. I have early pressure and he can't afford to hold up counter magic. He is forced to tap out for Serra and I get the window to resolve Icy and neutralize it. Both games go similarly and I'm never in any significant danger.

3-1

R5 vs Stephen on RG Blood Moon Aggro

He's fairly low to the ground but doesn't draw Blood Moon game one. A Triskelion kills his team and then I Copy it to seal the game. Game two is similar but this time I get to make a play I hadn't done in Old School before. After he cast Wheel of Fortune, I Demonic Tutor for Time Walk, which lets me attack him to 8 life on the additional turn. I'm two mana short from playing Trike+Copy (plus one already in play) to ping him out, but instead I can cast Atog and sacrifice my SuChi to get the additional mana I need to win the game that turn. Neat!

4-1

There were 29 players and we were doing Swiss +1. Going into the final round, there was one 5-0, four people on 4-1, and a bunch on 3-2. I'm paired vs fellow Falling Star Simon is also 4-1, so depending on what happens in the two matches with pairdowns (the 5-0 vs 4-1 and the 4-1 vs 3-2), this match could be for a possible tie for 1st place. We presume Simon has better tiebreakers due to his one loss being to Seth who is 5-0, so he probably has the better shot. 

R6 vs Simon Christie on Atog

Game one is interesting. We trade some early threats and I resolve Wheel of Fortune. I end up with four Icy Manipulator and two Relic Barrier in play, but I can't find a threat. Simon draws only Savannah Lions, Atogs, and Factories to eventually outnumber my tappers and start chipping in damage. Eventually he gets me low enough to burn me out and I never find a threat. Game two I'm once again threat light but have answers for his first creatures. We play draw go for a while. I attempt a Wheel of Fortune again, and once again I draw blanks while he draws not blanks and I die. I should be boarding out the draw sevens in the matchup but forgot. 

4-2

Seth wins to go 6-0 and lock up first place. Will Magrann the other 4-1 loses when he's paired down to Mano so that leaves Simon as the only 5-1 for second place. My breakers are somehow the best of the 4-2s and I end up in 3rd. 

After the event, I was invited to cube draft at Will's house. We also had cheesesteaks. The cheesesteak was pretty good and cube drafting was obviously fun. 

Overall it was a fun weekend. I got to meet a lot of new faces that I'll hopefully see more often. I really missed playing in an actual tournament where the results mean something (even if they don't). Even though I don't find the game play of Old School to be that compelling, I had a blast during my games. The action is the juice.

Props:

Dan for putting on the event.

First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia for hosting

All the people that showed up

Slops:

The A/C in the church basement

Parking in Philadelphia - wtf is this?