Dice City Games is proud to host the big North American Old School Magic event of the Winter: a two-day paper Old School extravaganza in the Washington, D.C. Metro area on Saturday, February 2nd + Sunday February 3rd, 2018.



Pre-registration (Required)

– Tournament entry for Saturday is $27. This fee will be used to cover compensation for special guests and staff, unique Old School prizes, and give-aways. We are considering expanding to a larger venue, and in the case that we do, this fee will also go to venue reservation costs. A portion of funds will go to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, a 400 acre non-profit refuge in Montgomery County, MD that offers care, rehabilitation, and permanent sanctuary for neglected, abused or abandoned farm animals, as well as a protected habitat for wildlife. The entry fee is non-refundable.

Tournament Details

OS Winter Ball - Constructed 93/94 Magic (Day 1 - Saturday):

– Tournament start time is 1 PM. (Venue opens at Noon; please arrive by 12:30 PM to sign prizes, purchase any last minute cards, and help us get started promptly, as we will have several announcements to make).

– Tournament format is Swiss. We expect 5+ rounds. We may add a cut to Top 4 or Top 8, depending on size of event.

– Deck Construction Rules and Legal Sets can be found at Eternal Central...Yes, gold-bordered cards from Collector's Edition, International Edition, and Pro Tour decks are legal, as are reprints with the original frame and art featured in a 1993 or 1994 set. Proxies, counterfeits, and playtest cards are not allowed.

Special Guests, Bazaar of Singles, Decklists, Pairings, and Social Media

– We are inviting a couple of special guests that shaped the early days of Magic. First up is legendary original magic artist, Jeff Menges of Skaircrow Graphics! Jeff will be on-site to sign cards, commence alters, sell art reproductions and proofs, and generally be the cool guy that he is. Jeff is famous for powerful OS cards like Bazzar of Baghdad, Moat, Zombie Master, and Swords to plowshares, as well as more common staples like Grizzly Bears, Mon's Goblin Raiders, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Dwarven Lieutenant, and Bog Wraith. And, we will have a special playmat available for purchase that commemorates both days of the Old School Winter Ball -- a wintry take on StP that is an esclusive for this event!

– Next up is the un-sung hero of early Magic, in his first ever public event appearance related to Magic in 25 years, Barry Reich, the original Alpha play-tester, and designer of the unreleased set, Spectral Chaos -- which laid the foundations for Invasion / Planeshift / Apocalypse and Time Spiral block! Talk about the Oldest School of Old School players worldwide, Barry played the very first game of Magic ever, with Dr. Garfield when they were school buddies. Barry has the rare gift of Dr. Garfield's approval to alter the rules text of the Jeff Menges-penned card, Sea Serpent, due to Barry's eponymous use of the blue fattie in his early Blue/Red control decks. We will be honoring this all weekend. You may have seen Barry before in the recent Enter the Battlefield documentary, on the Alpha playtesters, here.

– Ancient Cardboard will be available to purchase on-site during both days from Dice City Games. The vaults are being cracked open for this event, so expect a virtual bazaar of Old School singles from dual lands and Power 9 to hard-to-find sideboard tech like Aeolipile.

– Decklists are required for Saturday's event, and by decklists we mean a clear photo of your deck + sideboard. Please send all decklist photos to manager@dicecity.games BEFORE the event begins.

– Pairings will be posted on the announcment pillar in-store.

– We will be filming and taking photos on the day. By attending you consent to having your deck, and/or your likeness photographed, videoed, and possibly presented on-line (though you can let us know if you don't consent to be tagged in social media as that is perfectly fine). We are working on having either a live stream of featured matches for this event, and/or YouTube videos shared of featured matches. The official event write-up will posted later in North American Old School Magic on facebook and beyond. Please use the hashtag #OSwinterball on social media.



Saturday (Constructed) Prizes

– With this event we aim to give out a large number of sweet prizes, and to incentivize creative builds.

Prizes will be awarded from Dice City Games and may include singles from any Old School set, as well as rare collectibles from Magic's heyday. For example, one prize will be a "clipped/damaged" Collector's Edition Mox Sapphire! Prizes will be given out based on the following criteria:

Top Prizes by Finishing Record will be awarded to the Top 8. Most Creative deck prizes will be awarded to four or more players, for deck builds that focus on fun and creative deck-building and under-utilized cards. Best Budget deck prize for the highest-placing deck that does not feature any of the following cards: Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, The five Moxes, Library of Alexandria, Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra's Workshop, and the ten ABUR dual lands. The Dark Falls deck prize for the deck featuring the hightest amount of cards from The Dark with a winning record. Sarpadia Rises deck prize for the deck featuring the highest amount of cards from Fallen Empires with a winning record Community Prizes will be awarded to each player in attendance to support the "everybody wins" notion of Old School. Please bring an Old School legal card to throw in to the prize pool. These Prizes will be stamped, and signed by each player. Commemorative Prizes will include a limited patch or pin that we are currently working on and look forward to announcing soon. Everyone who registers will get one as a memento of this event.

Tournament Site Logistics

– This event is a private tournament hosted at a one-of-a-kind LGS owned by Old School mainstay, Jimmy Cooney. If event pre-registration reaches more than 48, we may announce a change of location to another larger hall that we have tentaively reserved, two blocks from Dice City Games. For those traveling and making nearby reservations -- fear not, the larger back up locale is only a stone's throw away and shouldn't effect your travel plans.

– Dice City offers the ambiance of time-travel -- it's part part 90's game shop and part Old School Magic Gallery, featuring the world's largest Magic mosaic along with other art & effects from our favorite era.

– We promote inclusivity and an accessible environment where everyone can play. There will be people at this event who are new to Old School, and/or who are different from you in some way. Let's be mindful and build everyone up!

– DCG is is located twenty minutes from the nation's capitol, and is 2 blocks from the Wheaton Metro. It's accessible by Marc Train to Union Station D.C. or Silver Spring, with a transfer. Visit WMATA for public transportation travel planning. We are wheelchair friendly.

– Parking is free on-site in the busy main lot (out front and behind, with entrances on both Georgia Avenue and Grandview Road). Ample meters are available on Grandview, Blueridge, and other neighborhood streets, and are free on Sunday.

– DCG will have beverages for sale, including hot locally-roasted coffee. Thus we ask you to refrain from bringing outside drinks in. The same policy will be in effect from our hosts if we move to the larger location. We will have some snacks available as well, but welcome out side food and have some great neighboring restaurants, including Methi (Indian), Wong Gee (Chinese), Limerick Pub (Irish), Saigonese (Pho & Bahn Mi), El Pollo Rico (Peruvian), and Moby Dick (Sushi), among others.

– Sunday's Limited Tournament will be held on-site at DCG and will feature a unique hybrid Sealed/Draft format featuring hard-to-find sealed product from sets like Ice Age, 4th Edition, Chronicles, Fallen Empires, and Homelands. See here for further details and to reserve your seat - seating for Sunday's event is extremely limited!