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

NightmareWhale in Premodern

I recently participated in a Premodern league put on by the Philadelphia Old School Discord. I managed to win first place with my NightmareWhale list. I went 6-1 in matches over the league and playoffs. The league only had 10 12 players so it doesn't mean this deck is now a deck to beat, but I do think it means its worth exploring further. Here I want to talk a bit about how this deck came to be.

This deck has evolved somewhat slowly for a variety of reasons. One, I don't spend as much time thinking about Magic as I used to. Two, in Texas the preferred format is Middle School, not Premodern, and I think there are way better ways to do this kind of thing, particularly Worldgorger Dragon. 

A Not-So-Brief History

My origin with this idea started in September of 2020 when the Romancing the Stones leagues started up. I made a quick list of deck ideas I wanted to explore and the NightmareWhale list was at the top. I didn't make a list at the time, but I did save some links to some historic decks for reference. These historic decks came from the golden age of combo decks, the late 1990s. 

The truest source of the deck is probably the HorseCraft deck played by Randy Buehler at the 1998 World Championships. It is a block constructed deck that uses Earthcraft, Workhorse, and Recurring Nightmare to create infinite mana. 

Something like this is playable in Middle School with Earthcraft, Deranged Hermit, and Recurring Nightmare. 

Later in 1998 after the release of Urza's Sage, Dave Humphreys finished in 9th place at PT Rome with a dedicated NightmareWhale list. 

The power of Great Whale was subsequently nerfed by errata requiring it to be played from your hand. This was the end of the deck's competitive history, as Palinchron and other future cards also received the power level errata. At some point in the next 20 years (I think it was 2005?), power level errata was removed from all cards and this combo became possible again, but no longer had a format home.

The basic combo has shown up in Premodern and Middle School before, mainly as a way to combo kill with a value Survival deck. In a recent league, David Gleicher managed to combo off on camera with his list: 

The first list I actually built wasn't in Premodern or Middle School, but for a Set Roulette tournament in December 2020. This showed me the power of Cloud of Faeries and Frantic Search in the list while having the extremely elegant Crypt Ghast win condition.

 

I'm ready to defend my title for @Mythic_Society Set Roulette. I really wanted to play this deck, but it required too much clicking on MTGO :( pic.twitter.com/YLt8c8g7TE

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) December 20, 2020

My love of Frantic Search + Sol land + Intuition led me to spend time on the aforementioned Worldgorger Dragon deck as well as the Pandemonium Replenish deck I played in the RTS leagues. The Whale set on the back burner through several leagues because I didn't think it would hold up in the MS meta of Force of Will. The nature of discarding so many cards made playing your own FoW much more difficult. But it was still appealing because it had so many copies of the combo cards. 

My Decklist

Here is my decklist:

4 Cloud of Faeries

4 Palinchron

4 Great Whale

3 Merfolk Traders

3 Voldalian Merchant

1 Highway Robber

2 Raven Familiar

4 Recurring Nightmare

4 Frantic Search

4 Intuition

4 Cabal Therapy

4 City of Traitors

4 Polluted Delta

2 Swamp

2 Island

3 Mishra's Factory

4 Salt Marsh

4 Darkwater Catacombs

Sideboard

2 Duress

4 Phyrexian Negator

3 Null Rod

3 Defense Grid

3 engineered plague

How does the deck work? To start, you need to get a creature in play, a Palinchron or Great Whale in the graveyard, a Recurring Nightmare to bring back the big creature, and access to enough mana from lands untapping to repeat this process while generating additional mana. You can do this with four lands and two of Whale/Palinchron, three lands with City of Traitors and those creatures or a Cloud of Faeries, or five lands with Cloud of Faeries and one big creature. Once you have an unlimited amount of black mana, you can switch to casting the Recurring Nightmare for value, usually bringing back a looting merfolk to dig through the deck until you find Highway Robber, which will then be looped back and forth until the opponent is dead.

The manabase may look odd at first glance, but it is this way for important reasons. When comboing off, you need lands to tap for black mana repeatedly without doing damage to you. This is why there are no Underground River or City of Brass. Darkwater Catacombs does a great job turning the colorless from City of Traitors and Mishra's Factory into useful mana in the combo. It is also worth noting here that if you are only making extra blue mana in the loop but have Palinchron, you can use the Palinchron ability to turn that mana into black as well, allowing you to continue the combo. Mishra's Factory lets you start the combo without a creature in play, as well as being an alternative win condition by animating and pumping itself an unlimited number of times.

The creatures do warrant some discussion. Great Whale and Palinchron get the nod over Peregrine Drake because they can win games by just being reanimated on turn 3 against some matchups. Cloud of Faeries lets you combo with City of Traitors, is a free creature to start the combo earlier, can generate explosive mana turn with City and Frantic Search allowing you to play both Intuition and Recurring Nightmare on turn three, as well as cycling in a pinch. I don't think you need any more untap creatures, but there is always Drake if you decide that.

The looting creatures are vital to get the big creatures in the graveyard while sacrificing for Recurring Nightmare. They help dig both before and during the combo. With Frantic Search and Intuition, I don't think you need the full eight copies and I've been happy with six. They also block surprisingly well against some creatures in the format like Goblin Lackey. Raven Familiar digs deeper, and can let you draw additional cards while comboing to set up backup plans against possible removal on Highway Robber. I think Familiar is good to have, but not entirely necessary. Highway Robber is better than Triskelion for a win condition because it lets you avoid losing to Seal of Cleansing and allows you to play Null Rod in the sideboard if you want. You can also cast Highway Robber sometimes, unlike Ghitu Slinger.

Recurring Nightmare and Intuition are must haves at four copies each. Intuition is the best card in the deck and Nightmare makes the deck work. Frantic Search is incredibly powerful and I like playing four copies before any copies of Careful Study or even the looting creatures. They do get sided out when you expect more attrition.

The Cabal Therapy is the weakest card in the deck. It lets you protect your combo but extra black mana can be hard to come by. It could be Force of Will in a Middle School but with all the discarding you likely won't have extra blue card in hand. It could also just be main deck Defense Grid. 

The sideboard I played isn't optimal. In Middle School, I would prefer Sea Drake to Phyrexian Negator. I don't think Negator is good enough to keep the sideboard slot, but I would still play Sea Drake. Duress is good at nabbing opposing hate cards before they can be deployed. Null Rod stops Tormod's Crypt, Defense Grid stops instant speed interaction. I think playing more Grid and Duress as well as some ways to deal with permanents like Meddling Mage or Planar Void might be the better way. You don't really need a backup aggro plan when you can sometimes get out early fatty without combo. Perhaps something like Grim Monolith to power out an early Whale or Palinchron could work?

Strengths and Weaknesses

The main strength of the deck is the redundancy of a powerful game winning combo as well as a solid backup reanimation plan. The combo is resilient to enchantment removal, and the size of the creatures makes it somewhat robust against burn spells. The biggest weakness is the overall speed of the deck as well as interaction with opposing permanents. This is not the fastest combo by any means, it requires at least three actual lands in play and usually more. It also struggles to deal with disruptive permanents or creatures attacking when the plan isn't coming together immediately. I don't think it can be a tier 1 deck in either Premodern or Middle School, but could be a solid tier 2 choice for people who enjoy combo decks like this.

-Ty

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?

NecroZombies in Middle School

 I recently played in the Romancing the Stones Home School Middle School League. I went 1-5 with NecroZombies and finished in not-last place. Here are some thoughts about my deck.

The Deck

4 Carnophage

4 Sarcomancy

3 Carrion Feeder

4 Withered Wretch

2 Rotlung Reanimator

4 Lord of the Undead

1 Plaguebearer

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Hymn to Tourach

3 Bad Moon

1 Contagion

4 Necropotence

18 Swamp

4 Lotus Petal

Sideboard

3 Duress

1 Plague Bearer

4 Mishra's Factory

2 Engineered Plague

1 Diabolic Edict

2 Rotlung Reanimator

1 Vicious Hunger

1 Planar Void

The idea behind the deck is pretty straightforward. Aggro with disruption and Necropotence to refuel. Unfortunately, the aggro clock is just too slow in the current iteration to clock the opponents fast enough. I played Necropotence on 18+ life vs no board from opponent six times and lost five of those games. The 3cc threats were not great given my opponents. I was heavily skewed towards trying to beat Landstill, which ended up with three copies in the top eight anyway, so maybe this would have done better with better pairings. 

The best draws were playing three one-drops in first two turns followed by Bad Moon or Lord. I think that is the direction to take zombies and play Shepherd of Rot. You can't play Shepherd and Necropotence at the same time. If you wanted to try Necropotence again, I would consider playing some amount of Zombie Infestation. This can be a much faster clock and lets you leverage dead discard spells in the mid to late game. 

Plaguebearer was a good find, it kills Mishra's Factory. I think more removal like Diabolic Edict would be good but I'm not sure it is good enough. Factory was good in the sideboard for when I was cutting Lotus Petals. There was probably still too much mana in general but Necropotence really wants you to hit the third mana on time (or early) I think. 

A third option is to splash red to add Lightning Bolt and Terminate to the Shepherd of Rot build. You get about 12 dual lands with Tainted Peak. 

The Games

R1 vs RectorPattern

I got early necro and him empty handed, but I drew a bunch of lands and my clock wasn't fast enough to force him to block with his mana birds (plus he had Wall of Blossoms). He drew Symbiotic Wurm with enough mana to cast and I couldn't overpower it and was Necro locked. Game two I win with early Hymn and pressure. Game three he has turn three Akroma after he takes my discard spell with Therapy on turn two.

0-1

R2 vs StifleNaught

I win game one with multiple Hymns and he can't assemble a combo. Game two he has turn two Dreadnaught Stifle with Unmask protection. Game three he draws a Stifle the turn after I take one with Therapy and I then Unmasks my edict.

0-2

R3 vs Tinker

I get destroyed by Masticore and Upheaval. Stroke of Genius let him recover from Hymn.

0-3

R4 vs Sneak Attack

Split first two games, game three he draws Gamble last turn with one card in hand and I lose the coinflip. 

0-4

R5 vs 5 color Zombie Infestation Squee

Game one I cast necro on 18 and when I was down to 5 life, he hard cast gush into gush island to firestorm me for 5 from 2 cards in hand. Game two I flood out and don't find Necro.

0-5

R6 vs Sneak Attack

Game one I double Hymn him and take both Sneak Attack and he can't find another. Game two he mulligans to five and plays Petal Petal Land Spirit Guide Sylvan Library turn one turning off all my discard. He finds a Sneak Attack shortly and hits me with Nicol Bolas then Dragon Tyrant. Game three I play Sarcomancy Carnophage Carnophage Bad Moon, and he is one mana short of Sneak Attack + Havok Demon so I finally win a match.

1-5

TurboLand Oath in Middle School

Very late report from second Romancing the Stones Middle School league. 

4 Oath of Druids

1 Spike Weaver

1 Spike Feeder

1 Morphling

4 Horn of Greed

4 Exploration

2 Time Warp

2 Gaea's Blessing

1 Scroll Rack

4 Impulse

4 Counterspell

4 Force of Will

3 Thawing Glaciers

4 Yavimaya Coast

3 Treva's Ruins

1 Treetop Village

4 Forest

9 Island

Sideboard

4 Gainsay

4 Chill

1 Annul

1 Emerald Charm

1 Capsize

2 Spike Weaver

2 Spike Feeder

Maindeck needs more Time Warp and Scroll Rack. Morphling is bad. Sideboard is very bad. Need more answers to Deed I think. 

R1 - Jason Gaudard - Blue storm

He is on what is basically a High Tide deck without any High Tides (since it's not legal) and instead plays Sapphire Medallion and Helm of Awakening. Game one he couldn't kill me through Gaea's Blessing. Game two I had enough Gainsay, Counterspell, and Force of Will to prevent him from going off and his Helm of Awakening made my combo even easier to perform.

1-0

R2 Robert Connolly - Necro Rock

I think I steal a game when he uses his Deeds to fight over my Oaths letting me win with Horn of Green plus Exploration shenanigans. The other games the Deed was too difficult to fight through and I lost.

1-1

R3 Travis Brown - Elves

Game one I have Oath and am racing with Morphling but an Armageddon makes it hard to activate Spike Weaver. I have something like six turns in a row where if I draw a blue source to give Morphling flying I win the game but I can't find one. He also sets me back with Plow Under. Eventually he finds a second copy of Biorhythm after I had Forced the first one and it puts him out of range. Game two he has Tormod's Crypt to slow down my combo and Naturalize for my Oath so I get run over. 

1-2

R4 Will Miertschin - Grixis Control

I don't remember much besides Horn of Green, Thawing Glaciers, and Gush putting me so far ahead, and his creature removal being completely blank.

2-2

R5 Nate Golia - RW Land Tax / Devastating Dreams

He just doesn't have the tools to beat my deck.

3-2

9th place