The Bootleggers Ball weekend passed by in the blink of an eye. It was a great two days full of cards and maximum friendship and I can’t thank everyone enough for coming and the local Music City guys for helping out along the way. It would not have happened otherwise. I don’t like to single anyone out, but I do have to give a shout-out to brother Alan Finney for all his hard work he put into the BLB-BBQ the day before. It was insanely awesome and I think it will be a tradition moving forward. It was a great way to get everyone together before a whirlwind of a tournament to hang out and get know one another and see old pals. I’d also like to give a gigantic thank you to Carlos Irizarry for being our TO. He manned the ship with total precision and got us through 7 rounds much, much faster than I got us through 6 last year.

I’ll do my best not to ramble here. The event could not have gone better. We had new comers and seasoned warriors in attendance. After a peak of 66 players, drops rolled in over the last few weeks and we ended up at our original capacity of 56 players. This year we raised money for the charity No Child Wet Behind. I’ll do another short write up on my experience soon, but for now, I’ll cut it off and present to you the deck pics and standings for Bootleggers Ball 2019. Starting from first place down. Most creative, highest unpowered, etc. will be noted next to the player’s name. Feast.

*NOTE*-I made some mistakes announcing rewards at the tourney and want to correct them here! I forgot to give honorable mentions to James Easteppe and local sweetheart Chris Hukill for most creative. While John Sexton took 1st for most creative, James played an insanely cool and spicy 4c TurboLands deck and Chris Hukill played a 101 card un-sleeved monstrosity including a double signed (Garfield and Frazier) UL Ruby, a Moat, Abyss, and other ridiculous cards because fucking fuck it. Also, I mistakenly gave highest placing unpowered to the second highest placing unpowered player. SO, I made it top 2 highest unpowered. Congrats to Winston Wood for taking it and to Evan Smith for only being 2 spots behind. Winston-cool shit is on its way to your domicile. Carry on.

1st/21 pts.-Brian Urbano: Shops

2nd/18 pts.-Mike Murtrey: Black Rack

3rd/18 pts.-Derek Walker: Stompy

4th/15 pts.-Alan Finney: 4c Hate

5th/15 pts.-Charlie Hahn: Gauntlet of Bullshit

6th/15 pts.-Pez Unholy: Everything Went Black

7th/15 pts.-Chris DiRico: UG Artifact Control

8th/15 pts.-Sonny Tennille: Mono Red Atog

9th/15 pts.-Steve McGrew: Infinite Monolith Combo

10th/15 pts.-Jimmy Cooney: Dwarves and Derelors

11th/15 pts.-Josh Burgoa: bRUGzerker

12th/15 pts.-Jason Jaco: Naya Bazaar Zoo

13th/15 pts.-Ryan Keach: Black Battery Drain

14th/12 pts.-Zach Zurawski: Hive.dec

15th/12 pts.-Winston Wood: Flippin’ Orggs (1st Highest Unpowered)

16th/12 pts.-Stephen Maldonado: 5C Moti

17th/12 pts.-Evan Smith: Fish and Chips (2nd Highest Unpowered)

18th/12 pts.-Carter Petray: Stone Cold Green

19th/12 pts.-Park Cofield: Pink Weenie

20th/12 pts.-Jeremy Pratt: Black Rack

21st/12 pts.-George Boone: American Air Power

22nd/12 pts.-Michael Barger: White Weenie

23rd/12 pts.-The Lion: De Mysteriis Dom Titania

24th/12 pts.-Matt Moss: MossaTog

25th/12 pts.-Daniel Lemoine: UWB Tax/Tower Control

26th/12 pts.-Jeff Watkins: Rasputins Robots

27th/12 pts.-Eliot Wood: BantamGeddon

28th/12pts.-Adam Richardson: Post Disco/Troll Punk

29th/9 pts.-James Easteppe: 4c Turbo Lands (Honorable Mention for Most Creative)

30th/9pts.-Cayce Grissom: Arabian Aggro

31st/9 pts.-Larry Miller: Black Rack

32nd/9 pts.-Jose Gonzalez: Ehrnam Burn ‘Em

33rd/9 pts.-Brandon Burgoa: White Weenie

34th/9 pts.-Matthew Isaac: UG Living Plane

35th/9 pts.-Andy Witsell: Black Rack

36th/9 pts.-Darrell Childress: UWG Midrange

37th/9 pts.-Kyle Larson: Pixie Beats

38th/9 pts.-Joy Gonzalez: Mono Red Atog

39th/9pts.-John Sexton: Nashville Hot Chicken (1st Most Creative: Hot chicken inspired accessories, including red and white checkered playmat, white sleeves for white bread, and a Mox Emerald to represent the pickle as card 61)

40th/9 pts.-Abraham Clayman: Living Plane

41st/9 pts.-Jeramy Snyder: PIC COMING

42nd/9 pts.-John Burr: Naya Zoo

43rd/9 pts.-Cam Wall: Machine Gun

44th/6 pts.-Jesse Fish: UG Beats

45th/6 pts.-John Gibson: Mono Red Atog

46th/6 pts.-Charles Kloss: UB Mana Vise

47th/6 Pts-Anthony Carasone: RWG Story Time

48th/6 pts.-Mark Brothers: Nashville Mild Chicken

49th/6 pts.-Chris Ward: UWG Midrange

50th/6 pts.-Shane Mott: Mono Blue Artifacts

51st/6 pts.-Robert Floflygen: Unsleeved Alpha Green

52nd/6 pts.-Chip Reed: ErhnaGeddon

53rd/3 pts.-Andrew McLennan: UR Counterburn

54th/3 pts.-Amanda Miller: Mono Red Goblins

55th/3 pts.-Chris Hukill: The Deck 2.0 (Honerable Mention for Most Creative)

56th/3 pts.-John Knerr: 4c Underworld Dreams Combo

It’s nearly impossible to describe the incredible amount of fun I had this past weekend, so I’m not even going to try. I hope everyone had a blast. Action shots below. See y’all next year!

-D

PRE-Tourney BBQ hangs. Maximum Friendship.

Chris gets some stories read to him by Anthony at the BBQ. 3 Shahrazad sub games deep.

The Battleground

Christening the Loot

Foghorn Leghorn would be proud

Falling Star about to do some work.

Raw doggin’ some roundies…

…and some gemstones too. #FTC.

Chris Hukill’s unsleeved 101 card monstrosity. Frozen Shade with Flight flying over a Moat.

The long game

Brian Urbano with 1st place loot

Last, not least. Still takes home some booze.

Post tourney BBQ…lots of BBQ