Dear Oldschoolers

This weekend was under the premise of mutiny, feasting and playing Oldschool pirate style. I am talking about the „Appetite for Destruction“ tournament in Hannover. 32 pirates did meet within the Black Pearl Erlebnisgastronomie in Hannover to play for three tickets to N00bcon 2019. I was also one of those silly pirates – and i battled hard 😉

As usual in Germany, one can earn „Hero Points“ (and the one with the most Hero points is the actual victor of the tournament, not the one which wins Top8/4). This time, all was in view of „pirate Arrrr“ or „damn pirates“ (no pirates mentioned):

I choose to walk the „damn Pirates“-route and did not include black, blue nor any reference to pirates. Additional, i spiced my Deck up with six cards which contain „inappropriate artwork“ – S*x and Violence (Blood Lust, Pyrotechnics, Personal Incarnation, Fire Elemental, Serra Angel, Inferno):

With this build i started into the tournament and faced as first match a (greedy) 5 color good stuff deck. We both had not such a strong start hand but mine contained a Lion which did lead to an aggressive start. Also a Serra Angel did hit the table but got burned away. I saw an Ehrnam Djinn on the other side paired with Fireballs, Bolts and a Silvan Library. I drew lots and lots of Mana Sources (including the Mana Vaults) – good thing i play Fireball and did seal the first game with a Fireball for 7. I sideboarded in the 3 blood moon for Blood Lust, Preacher, Inferno as i did not see any basic Land and started the second game. My opponent had to mulligan to six and played Land, Mox, Mox go. I started with a Lion and did again attack aggressively. I slammed down a third turn blood moon and disenchanted his white Mox to cut him off white. Unfortunately, i did not find my second basic plains until turn 6 or 7. But on the other side of the table, the Lotus or Chaos Orb was the only out and after the Lotus did saw playing, the game was to much in my favour and i closed the Deal. The Fire Elemental did 10 Damage during two games 🙂

Second match i played a true pirate – seven basic islands and 8 creatures with Island Walk. First time ever i saw Segovian Leviathan in play at a tournament – nice 🙂 We battled through and again my Lions did hit the table. Also a Serra Angel made it but was sealed within a Coffin (of Tawnos) for quite a time. One disenchant later the Angel still could not attack due to a Maze of Ith. A Thunder Spirit for support was needed to win the first game. I sideboarded my Red Blasts and more Artifact removal for the CiaB, Blood Lust, Inferno, Incarnation and Fire Elemental. Second game was quite the same story – Lions into Thunder Spirit into Serra Angel. Opponent had a book of Rath in play which took his live in addition to my attacks. Also this time, a Leviathan did see the battlefield but without any Islands on my side no Islandwalk. The Serra/Thunder spirit combo sealed the deal for the second win.

Third match was against the organizer of the event – Florian von Bredow. We battled 3 days ago within the Winter Derby and he managed to win 2-1. I hope this would not be repeated 🙂 His Robots.dec is incredibly fast and can bring threads in turn one and two which i have to handle. As usual, i started with the Lions first turn 🙂 But they got bolted away from Flo. We managed to battle each other with various threads, but Flo unfortunately drew to much land and my Serra Angel (again Serra – best.creature.ever) did attack for the win in the first game. Nothing crazy to report here. I sideboarded all my artifact solutions and two Red Blast. Incarnation, Blood Lust, CiaB, Fire Elemental and Inferno had to go. Second game i had to mulligan to six and still had not such a good hand. Flo started as he should with Robots – first Turn Su-Chi, second Turn Trike. I managed to get rid of both but had no threads on my own on the battlefield. I casted a Wheel of Fortune which sealed my downfall as Flo managed to cast Vault, Time Walk, Mind Twist (my hand) and still had a Su-Chi. This japanese delicacy brought me to zero very quick. Third game was quite the same story – mulligan to six and not a real good hand to keep. Got Twisted for two and lost one Disenchant. Also a Balance did not safe me as Flo managed to draw a Sage of Lat Nam and Timetwister to refill our hands. But the game was to advanced that this additional draw could safe me and he won 2-1. Nice games – and i lost against the second of the tournament, so no shame at all.

The fourth match we had to play outside of the tables as it was to crowded. We did choose a nice spot near the fireplace to battle.

Aggro-Atog was my opponents Deck – hard nut to crack. I started with Mox Pearl and Land Tax. My opponent had (unfortunately) also a Mox (red), bolted me and gave mne the turn. So no searching on my side. I played Lions and go. On his side, Land, Black Vise, go. What a mess – i can look for Lands but get in pain one turn later. I decided to look up for two Lands, played a mana Vault and go. With Black Vise my opponent played lands and threads (Atog, Bolts, Ank) and brought me down to less than 10 lands. In the meantime i had a Serra Angel in play but was down to 3. A wheel of fortune Sealed the deal as i could Sword my Angel and Disenchant my tapped vault but still was on 3 life. A full Hand on the side of an Aggro player with red means most of the time „game“ – and a Bolt/Chain combo killed me then. Second game was really tight and intense. We managed to bring each other down to 9 (me) resp. 4 (him). I had a Circle of Protection: Red in play very early which automatically re-routed every burn to my creature(s). A lot of „Draw-Go“ later i casted a Winds of Change which brought me nothing but two Lands and a Balance. The Balance was useful to get rid of his creatures but from the top of the Library a Chaos Orb did hit the table and got rid of the Circle. From now on, it will be even harder for me to win… After other unsuccesful draws we had to go to extra time – still his life was on 4. I would need a Serra, Pyrotechnics or Fireball and can close it. But none of those came and the second game ended in a draw. 1-1-0 and i was 2-2. Cool games but unfortunate for me not to draw more burn…

I kept my spot near the fireplace, ordered two beers because i played Richard Lessmann and his Troll Disco (one beer was for him obviously). I was really afraid of the Disco as i need to get rid of a Disk fast – otherwise i lose to much. On the same page i need to get him under pressure fast which means to „overextend“ the board. Tricky. First game was all about the burn spells. I did draw multiple bolts, he did draw multiple bolts and a Fireball (to get rid of my Serra Angel). But finally a Thunder Spirit survived the Boltfest and managed to fly to victory. But not without active support of a strip mine which got rid of the Maze of ith. I boarded my 3 Red Blast and 3 additional artifact removal and got rid of Blood Lust, Preacher, CiaB, Incarnation, Inferno, Fire Elemental. We started the second game and Richard dropped down Land, Mox, Mox, Lotus, Braingeyser for 4. I put a Land and „go“. With additional Troll and other action, he managed to build up a quite impressing board, before Mind Twisting my hand for all Cards 🙂 This game was not winnable and i got beaten down by a Troll and a Factory Worker. We moved to game 3. Fast start on my side with Lion, Lion. Both got Fireballed away (overextending for the win -haha). But still i could manage to bring other threads on the table and a Serra Angel made its appearance on the Battlefield. Richard did put a Disk on the table with 4 open blue Mana. I had to try – and disenchanted the Disk. What then happened you see on the picture:

Counter war‘s for the win 🙂 Unfortunately for him i had a third Blast on my Hand and countered also his Ancestral. This brought me in pole position and i sealed the deal after a very nice match. I finished with a 3-2 record with my „burning Lion and Angel“-Deck 🙂

We from Legion Urborg made 12. 16. and 26. – the SiaB guys made 21. and 24 – therefore victory is ours for this time our fellow rivals – haha.

After the regular rounds, the winner of the „Hero“-points got crowned. I had quite a bunch of points and a good match record – but finally this fine gentlemen won with his zero-power-7-islands-islandwalk-inappropriate Art.dec – congratulations my friend 🙂 I got in second and received this beautiful wooden painting for my collection. Thank you very much Florian and Marc.

After the tournament the Top 4 got played and Wilfred managed to win this tournament, Florian went in second- congratulations. As the first and second already had a N00bcon invite, the ticket was for the winner of the „small final“. Daniele Brunazzo managed to defeat Koos Cramer and therefore got the invite – congratulations my friend 🙂

We also played some Alpha40 action – my Deck was very succesful and i managed to defeat Erwin Demmer, Johnny Myrbacka and Alex Pick. Nice games mates 🙂

We celebrated the whole event, the winners and organizers during the pirate feast dinner in the evening. We ate, drank, laughed, had fun and drank even more. The event was a blast, cool people, nice location, lots of beer and meat and playing Magic – what does one want more?

Thank you again very much Florian von Bredow and Marc Lanigra. Count me in for next time in Hann(g)over – it was a blast. Also thanks to Erwin and the dutch-crew, Johnny and Nick for the many laughters we had. And Nick – its called „Kinderens“ haha

Best regards and stay Oldschool

Christian aka Lord M from Legion Urborg