Fellow Oldschoolers

A marvelous and excellent weekend of Magic, Beer and new friends came to an end today. The legendary „Viennageddon“ took place in (obviously) Vienna, Austria (no, not Australia 😉 ) The new community, founded by Mitja Held and named „Lions of Austria“ opened their doors for this famous festival of Magic. As i am a huge fan of two-day-events, i booked the flight already last year. My preparation was kind of unhealthy, as i visited a huge carnival-party the evening before my flight… I went home at 3am and had to leave at 6.30am to catch my flight. Well done bro…

But finally i arrived in Vienna and took an Uber to go to the location. After a 30 minute ride i arrived. The Lions of Austria have been already there and first thing Mitja does is ordering me a „Konterbier“ 😉 as we had 1 hour left until the tournament started, everybody was excited an played some pre-matches.

I tried to bring an experimential Time Vault Deck with white (for disenchants). Retrospectively, i think its not a good choice compared what red has to offer with Bolts, Shatters and Red Blasts:

I did exactly zero times untap the Vault but used Twiddel for various situations – including untapping a mana vault. I fell totally in love with this card 🙂

At 1pm, the tournament started and i faced my first opponent which played Lauter.dec (Lions, Serendibs, Counter, Removal). After three close games he managed to win due the fact that he drew about 8000 Disenchant/Divine Offering and even countered an off-color mox emerald – haha. Ah yes, and below you see game one, turn one – that’s magic 😉 So i started the tournament with a loss in my books.

Second match was against Roman Pulker and his Erniegeddon – short story even shorter – i lost 2-0 in about 15 minutes. He Ernied-Geddoned and Disenchanted my whole gameplan and i had no chance. Not much to see here, bro. 0-2

As i lost so horribly, the mtg-god gave me a bye and (for now) the first win of this event – i enjoyed the freed up time to drink more beer and take some photos and some rest:

Next round i faced the winner of last year‘s Viennageddon. Rolf and his 5 Color Rukh-Egg-Diamond-Valley-Serra Angel-Sengir Vampire-S‘ol Kanar-Control Magic and many more ultra cool cards-build. Also this time, luck was not on my side (or is it the pilot? Haha) and i lost 2-0. Awesome what one can do with Diamond Valley, Rukh Egg and Animate Dead 🙂

I was thinking that i must be the worst pilot in this tournament but for round five, i was paired against an equaly (bad? Haha) unlucky player 😉 The mighty Magnus was sitting opposite to me at the table and we shuffled our cards. He played mono Black distress. We both agreed, that our decks are strong and that out of some unlucky constellations we ended up here. Never would we blame the cans of beer we drank or (at least on my side) the missing sleeptime. Actually this match was one the most interesting and interactive on my side – my Deck finally did what it should do: 1. win 2. be fast 3. Twiddle!!!!! We agreed that both do post something on our Blog – maybe (hopefully 😉 ) Magnus‘ view and writedown of the events is completely different to mine- haha.

After the match we did send our regards to Arvika and their tournament 🙂

The tournament winner was finally Oliver Polak and his ATOG-Smash! List. He won against Olof Robersson and his „The Deck“. As Oliver cannot join the N00bcon, the slot goes to Gothenburg local Olof – congratulations mate!

After some more beer and „Stamperl“ i decided at 10pm to call it a day and went to the Hotel Schild – knowingly that at 9am (Sunday) there will be a „Frühschoppen-City-Tour“ with the guys – hell yeah! At 9.30 we hitted the city and first thing was – everyone gets a beer and a „Käsekracher“ (saussage with cheese). Cool start in the day 🙂

We went sightseeing with famous architect Roman Pulker, talked about Hank Scorpio and other Simpsons characters, laughed and had a great time. Again at 1pm the second tournament started and we prepared accordingly. I decided to change my deck and tried this pile:

Jap, no black splash.

The tournament started and i had to fight Gabriele Magliano, himself part of the organizational committee of the famous fishliveroil cup in Genova. Its so cool that there have been 6 different communites which battled for the second N00bcon slot. We had a nice fight but finally i managed to overcome his GRUW aggro-burn deck – especially my Circle of Protection: Red was awesome 🙂 I won the first round and had to face the organiser himself – Mitja Held.

Mitja played a really decent and cool Lands-Deck. As Mitja is also part of Legion Urborg, we talked about our Decks beforehand and therefore we both knew what we have to expect. In addition Mitja did drink some (hahaha) wine at saturday and was kind of dizzy at the match. Nevertheless, he did beat me in first game and i did beat him in second game as he did sideboard out his disenchants. And my Circle of Protection: Red paired with an active Icy and a City of Brass on his side brought him down slowly but steady. The we moved into the third game – that one was awesome. I had to go down to 5 with a crappy hand and in turn 4 he Twisted me even to 0 cards. Still i was able to recover and we battled for about 40 minutes and had kind of a „mexican standoff“ as i had tons of mana and he had only Power Sinks to counter my counterspells for his Fireball. Drew, did things, waited, checked and finally, i had no counterspells left and he launched the deadly fireball. Wow – what a game 🙂

1-1 and the next opponent was Jason and his Underworld-Winds combo Deck. It was like the fifth time in both tournament that i got twisted to 0 in turn 2 or 3… Also, Jason managed to play 2 Maze of Ith and i thought i will lose for sure. The god of luck gave me 3 Mishras and i managed to bring 4 Damage each turn to Jason and after 5 additional tursn, i really won game 1 🙂

Second game was in his favour as i did board out my creature removal and he boarded in his Atogs… such a mean trick Jason 🙂 (by the way third game they went back to sideboard and my boarded CoP: Red and Swords are useless again). Just as we thought this match cannot be more iconic, the following happened in game 3. I was at 6 life and we had kind of a mexican standoff. Jason was on 4 cards, i was on 6. He played Winds of Change and i thought, that he will have one or two flash counter to protect. I decided to counter, he countered and that gave him the two new cards (5 for me) with the intention: what can possibly go wrong? He drew Black Vise and Timetwister… Oh my god… This is Oldschool. Unfortunately for him i drew a lot of instants and other solutions (including a fireball which targeted directly his face) and finally won 2-1. wow – what a game.

Next game was against yesterday‘s N00bcon slot winner Olof and his UWArtifact aggro. We played before the tournament so we knew our Decks and also what possibly can happen. The first game we played for about 40 Minutes and finally i managed to beat him down. Lucky me. Unfortunately, we were not able to finish the second game and i even took away his first extra turn with a time walk on my side. Therefore i won 1-0.

Final match against Oliver, the winner of yesterday‘s tournament and his Atog Smash. First game i played Land, Mox, Sol Ring, Lotus, Serendib. He had no answer to this fast start and we moved very fast to second game. In the second one he stole away my pretty Angels twice and i got beaten up by my mind controlled beauties – harsh judgement. In the third game i got (again -haha) Mind Twisted in turn 2 to 0 cards. Lucky draws kept me in the games but finally i did a greedy turn and then a veeeeeery aggressive Atog closed the deal for Oliver. Oliver was also this time successful but had to leave early and did not play for Top 4. Therefore i was „lucky loser“ on 5th place and was in Top 4.

I played against a very similar Deck but without red. I won first game with a first turn serendib and counter backup from second turn onwards jand we moved quickly to second game. Second game readers – one of the most crazy games i ever had (and possible never will have again)… We battled for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, drank various beers during the course of the day. In this match 3 balances resolved, 2 Timetwister, 2 Braingeyser for 7 each, all Serra Angels on both sides have been removed and/or killed for good, playsets of Mishra‘s factories have been spotted, 10+ counterspells resolved. I managed to balance two times 6 cards away from my opponent… And after those 80 minutes I GOT DECKED…

no cards left in the Library… hahaha. Good game Martin! Third game was quick and dirty, i got stripped, disenchanted and cutted of from the mana completely. Zero Chances of winning there. Good thing is that Martin is the one who won the tournament and the N00bcon slot 🙂 nice (the nice gentlemen with the crown).

So it was sunday evening and a fine weekend of Magic was over. Thank you very much, Lions of Austria, Mitja Held and Team and all participants to this great event. Urborg approves 🙂 I did also not go back with empty hands and received a price for my rankings – an Encyclopedia which has to be signed by everybody at the tournament. niiiiceeeee! Now i hope to welcome you guys at the Urborg Boat tour at June 8. in Switzerland.

As always – stay Oldschool and may the first turn Library be with you.

Christian aka Lord M of Legion Urborg