Black Lotus Cup 2026

The Black Lotus Cup is an invite only tournament which is held in a garden in Eindhoven, hosted by Wouter and Fulco, with help from some other people. The format is chosen by the organizer, so it can differ every time the tournament is held. Although the garden is pretty large by Dutch standards, the tournament is for a small crowd only, which adds a lot to the charm. I was fortunate enough to be one of the last ones to be invited, and when I was asked if I wanted to come, I said yes before I knew what kind of deck I would need to build. The format would be oldschool brawl, with library, ancestral recall, braingeyser and mind twist banned. 

Although I play a lot of oldschool in some different formats, I play mostly Swedish since I have not managed to play all the different kinds of decks one could play in that format, so branching out is mostly unnecessary for me, I can play lots of different decks in that format and since I have only limited time, I tend to not play a lot of other formats. Brawl is something I played once before I think, some years back. Someone suggested playing it with a small group, after which we decided we should ban Rubinia and Tetsuo as commanders in this format if we were to ever play it again. Fortunately, that has been the standard for a while now, so we would see a lot of other different commanders. When I asked Wouter, I initially was told it would be without Fallen Empires. I had 2 weeks or so to build a deck, and ended up with Gwendlyn di Corci as commander, adding mostly the stuff you would expect to find in this deck, with Guardian Beast combined with Chaos orb as the most dangerous together. 

On the Thursday before the tournament, I got 2 new pieces of information. One: FE would be legal in the format. Two: not making the most hardcore decks would be appreciated. Okay then. Out the window my Gwendlyn idea went. I then went through the binder of golden legends, and unsurprisingly ended up with Angus McAnzie, since I love GWU decks. I thought about what I wanted to do and decided I wanted to do something with some FE cards and chose the "saving up" lands from FE to make a deck with. The idea would be to stall until I could play a large hurricane, which i would be able to survive due to the fact I would take some of my opponents' creatures with old man of the sea, preacher, Rubinia, Willow Satyr and, due to FE being legal, Seasinger and sacrifice them to diamond valley. Even though the seasinger is by far the worst, I thought it would be worth a shot. 

I added Rasputin Dreamweaver, stream of life and rocket launcher to fit with the theme. To make sure I would not be burned to a crisp or drain lifed I added greater realm of preservation just in case. The picture above was actually changed last minute while I was already on the tournament when I took out the recall and disrupting scepter and added archivian archeologist and chaos orb to the deck, just in case I would need to get rid of some permanents or get back the rocket launcher in case one shot was not enough. 

It was also the first time I would be playing with the beautiful handmade dice crafted by Buddy Jonkers, which Fulco kindly had taken with him after I ordered them. 

The first match I was up against Kobus, who was playing red/black with Boris Devilboon as commander. I drew an early seasinger, but that was not going to be doing much. I played an early divine offering on a Su-Chi, and was able to play out a tome while Kobus was playing Boris Devilboon. 

Later on he played breeding pit, which meant my preacher would not be doing much. He also had city of shadows in play, which meant gaining life later on from Rubinia would not be doing much. Fortunately, I did have greater realm and was able to get Angus in play, which meant it would not be easy for Kobus to kill me. I did some blocking with Thrull tokens and was able to sacrifice those to diamond valley, but at 1 life at a time that was not doing that much. 

Even with Time Elemental in play, it was still hard to stay on top of things, since a large batch of minor demons would still be able to kill me if Kobus were to, oh, i don't know, bolt or terror my Angus. It was going to be a really long and grindy game. 

I was able to save up some counters on my sand silos though, and played a stream of life that got me back up to 20, which was one of the goals of the day. That kept me pretty safely out of range of dying quickly, but I still needed a way to win. This would have to be either rocket launcher or regrowth for my hurricane, which I had played earlier on. Or, in this case, Serra Angel. Which almost did not work since Kobus was also playing the hive.. it was a lot of hard work for my Rubinia, Preacher and time elemental to make sure she was able to get through but in the end, she did manage to win the game. Just barely. But hey, I was not complaining. I had used Sand Silos for a large stream of life which made me able to safely go on with my game plan, so I was already happy with that. 

The second round was against Angelique, where I opened with an early Sand Silos. I made good use of that, since she was playing Xira as commander, there would be a lot of options for bolts, chain lightnings and terrors, so I wanted to keep 2 blue mana open when I played Rubinia. And I was able to do so a little later on.  

After I got diamond valley, I thought this would be quite an easy game, especially since Angelique was not getting a great draw, and I had preacher as well. And sea singer in my hand, but that was not going to be doing much. 

It took a lot longer though, including me using my mirror universe for a minor difference in life (I had to, since there was a scavenger folk on the board, played after all my creatures had been wiped away with earthquake. Johan joked that that was a very expensive lightning bolt. Effectively, it was). I kept using maze of ith and greater realm to not die and was able to take a hypnotic specter away with control magic. All the while, my sand silos were amassing counters. 

I was able to play a huge hurricane for the finish, keeping open some mana for the greater realm just in case there was a lightning bolt in my opponent's hand. Again, a win with the help of the FE land. My day was already good at this point from my deck its purpose point of view. 

It gave me some time to look at this impressive board state in the game of Rob against Koen. 

For round 3 I was paired against Koen, who I had seen playing Adun Oakenshield to great effect against Rob. I was a bit worried against that deck since it looked pretty fast and the reusing of creatures would also make my creature stealing with the diamond valley less useful. I was lucky enough to get out an early old man of the sea after I had been hit for a couple times. This, paired with the greater realm again, slowed Koen down a lot. 

Eventually I got Rubinia as well. No diamond valley yet, and Koen was throwing smaller creatures in front of the vampire I took with it. Which lead to a rare sight, a vampire with +1/+1 counters on it. 

Eventually the vampire had grown to an impressive 8/8 when I got... Willow Satyr. No diamond valley yet, but this would have to do the trick, right?

The vampire had grown to an impressive 9/9 when I took Adun from Koen in a complete unfair boardstate. I had started attacking with the cockatrice I had taken from him as well, and the 9/9 vampire eventually broke through for a massive amount of damage. This must have been the largest vampire I have had in play for as long as I play OS. I can't even remember when I had a vampire in play with more than 1 +1/+1 counter on it. That must have been somewhere in the 90's. 

The enormous vampire and the stealing of all of the relevant creatures Koen had was enough for the win, after which we played a game with Gwendolyn, since I had taken that brawl deck with me as well. 

I was able to get out an early royal assassin and Gwendolyn, which made for a pretty unfair game as well after I drew into Icy Manipulator. 

When I got a copy artifact also, it felt like it was completely unfair to Koen his deck which did not contain a lot of removal spells since he wanted to go all in on the removal with the creatures that he would recycle. 

After going 3-0 and apologizing to Koen for my very unfriendly Gwendolyn deck I was paired against Johan, who was playing mono blue with lots of creatures. I had seen his deck and he had seen mine. Fortunately, if I would draw sea singer this time, it would do something. If Johan did not draw his old man earlier than I would. I had an interesting opening hand, which was not an obvious keep, but also not that bad. I thought about it, and kept it, thinking Johan had only one steal artifact and one copy. Statistics should work in my favor. 

Johan played an early phantasmal forces. I was hit and played mirror universe. Gambling a bit I let him hit me again, knowing that switching life totals too early would not do that much and rocket launcher would take a really long time, since I had not drawn a mana saving FE land yet. I got one a little later and started saving counters and traded life totals with Johan, who was now on 8 while I was holding off with Angus and preacher. 

Saving up counters with the hollow trees, I was in the meantime playing Rasputin Dreamweaver. Together with the counters on the trees, that would do the trick next turn, and it did! Another achievement unlocked. I used Rasputin counters for the win, and rocket launcher in combination with a FE land. Would this have worked without the counters? Yes, probably eventually, but I was still happy my deck did what it had to do in the first 3 games. 

Round 5 however, was to be the demise of my deck against David. This game was over so quickly that I did not even take pictures, since I was out of the game in 5 minutes against his mono black deck, which was very aggressive while I was mana screwed. I had hoped for a 3rd land in the 3 turns I would have (I was on the draw) to play basalt monolith, which would have allowed me to play Serra Angel and mirror universe. I never got the third land, also not in 6 turns, so I was run over in less than 10 minutes. 

Round 6 i was paired against Rob with as he called it "his big dick midget" which someone apparently had sent him when he ordered some cards. It was a Sir Shandlar of Eberyn which was altered with a dwarf in the background with it's dick out. As Rob said: I did not ask for this, I just got it so I decided to play with it to use it at least once. He was also the first one playing against me using FE mana saving lands. Being a very good player, Rob gave me a hard time while I was looking for a win condition. Although it was not technically a win, I was able to get out the infinite power-monolith combo, I just needed something to do with it. Which I got in time when I got to play stream of life for 1000. That seemed enough to win eventually, especially with sylvan library out. I ended the game with a life total in upper 900. Another achievement unlocked! 

It had been a great day with great people with great weather again. It turned out that David had lost one game also, so the top 4 looked like this. 

Since I had lost to David though, he was declared the winner. An understandable decision by the tournament organization. It did mean I still haven't broken my streak of coming close to winning tournaments but never actually making it. It did not matter however, since I had a great time playing cool cards against even cooler people in great weather outside. What more could one want? Well, maybe some cardboard crack to take home. Which I also did, I got my playset of evil eyes complete, which means I am going to build a deck with that, and also could not resist these clockwork avians, which I am also going to build a deck with, memorating a deck my Friend Rene and I once played on a Type 1 tournament somewhere in the 90's. Maybe I will take that to a tournament one day and also write something about that. Or I will just play it in kitchen table events. Who knows? I will be playing them against great people though and enjoying it greatly as I always do with oldschool.

Thanks to all who came to the black lotus cup, thanks to Wouter for inviting me, and thanks to the entire oldschool community. As always, hope to see you soon and looking forward to it!

Guardian Beast Cup 2026

The guardian beast cup is a tournament organized by Edo, Chris and Edwin, in which there are fully Swedish rules in effect, meaning you can only play Swedish legal cards. I played in last years' edition and it was great fun, so I decided to ask if I could join in, and fortunately, I could! There were still some spots available. Since I had played a more serious deck for Weinfest, I wanted to do something a bit more fun this time, and since it had been quite a long time since I played golden legends in a tournament, I decided to go for a variant of my Legends of Magic deck, which I first played to celebrate the fact I had a full playset of UL birds of paradise. I know Shivan Dragon and Prodigal sorcerer are not exactly legends technically, but the Shivan Dragon was a legendary creature when I started playing in 1994, and Timmy the sorcerer, our Dutch oldschool youtube representative, is now pretty much legendary as well, so I decided to add him as well. There is also one icy in there, since this was also a card that was pretty legendary in the gamestore where I started. Since the golden legends are not exactly the top of competitiveness, I added a package of good stuff and some elves to ramp up to early legends, and ended up with this deck here:

 

 

Unfortunately, it was a bit too long ago to remember all of my opponents, my first opponent who is in the pairings as undead horde, was playing a red/green deck and started off with some weenies, of which I took the first 2 off the board with a fireball, with the help of my early sol ring. 

I was able to follow that up with one of the big legends, Sol'kanar in this instance. 

Sol'kanar was eventually blocked to death by a bunch of weenies, while I was looking for an alternative. Some of my lands were destroyed, but that did not prevent me from getting Jayemdae tome and prodigal sorcerer on the table, which is very handy against weenies. He was eventually joined by Jerrard of the closed fist. 

I was able to add Rubinia to the board a couple turns later, but she was not adding much to the hard hitting Jerrard, and game one was over in my advantage. 

The second game, I got to play a turn 4 mind twist, after playing time walk and swords to plowsharing one of the weenies. 

This was followed up by strip mine, ancestral recall, another swords to plowshares, Bartel Runeaxe and Sol'Kanar again. 

My opponent played an icy, which is pretty effective against decks with just a couple of big creatures. Fortunately for me, I was able to add Jerrard to the board, to keep going. 

Even though there were all kinds of small blockers, the hard hitting legends were too much and we ended the game 2-0. 

Since the game was over pretty quickly, this was good time to hand over the card Johan had lended me to try out. Maybe, if I have time somewhere, I will write about this. I was happy to be able to scratch "play several chains of mephistopholes decks" from my oldschool bucket list. 

The second match was against Tim, I think. He destroyed the icy I played, and I mind twisted him to thank him for that. 

 

After which he topdecked mind twist and I was left with no hand. Only fair I guess, but we might as well have played without that card in our decks, it would have been more interesting. 

I played a tome, which he disenchanted after he topdecked it. 

  

I was drawing nothing but lands after that, so I thought I might was well surprise my opponent with armageddon, and see where it would lead from there. 

I was able to get a tome and draw a card with that a turn later, while I was attacked by a Sage of Lat-nam. 

my opponent recovered while I was not drawing that much interesting things, so I was attacked by a Su-Chi, before I could play Bartel Runeaxe a turn later. 

We landed in a standoff, with my opponent playing an ancestral and a copy artifact to copy my tome. That did not look good. 

After Bartel was removed, things were looking grim. I tried to take one of his creatures, but that did not last long. 

I was able to stall a bit by blocking his Su-Chi with weenies. 

I was able to take out one Sage with a swords to plowshares, and landed Shivan Dragon on the board. 

I then did something I had not expected to do. I was holding black lotus for a surprise extra damage from the dragon. When my opponent played another copy artifact, copying Su-Chi, I was looking at his life total. I could do 14 damage with the mana on the board and the lotus together. So I played the lotus, made 3 red mana, then played regrowth, and did that again. I then attacked with the dragon for 17. 

Unfortunately for me, my opponent had just drawn divine offering, after already destroying my tome with a disenchant. He played that on his own Su-Chi, leaving him at 2 life. Damn, that would have been such a cool win. 

I played prodigal sorcerer afterwards, just to maximize my chances. I was attacked by Su-Chi after all, so I was not exactly safe if my opponent would draw another swords to plowshares. 

 

He also played Serra Angel, which he used to block my Dragon. I was able to play time walk though, and after a looooong grindy match, I took the first game. 

The second game was more as one would expect from TripleS, with a first turn sage, second turn Mishra's factory, while in the meantime my Sylvan Library and Mox emerald were destroyed. I had started with 2 birds of paradise though, so I had some mana left. 

The situation quickly got worse after he copied his factory twice. Even though I had a maze of ith, that was not enough to keep the onslaught away from me. By this time, time was called, but I was playing quickly to give my opponent a chance and not to stall. 

Even with a second maze and after played two of my huge creatures, which were both quickly removed, it was not enough. Every time you maze a factory, it ends up pumping another, so I lost game 2 very soon. It would have been interesting if either Jerrard or the Shivan Dragon would have lasted, unfortunately however, they did not. We did not have time for a third game, so we ended in a draw. 

My third game was against Henk, who almost always plays tier 1 decks or something close to that in powerlevel, which meant I was expecting a lot of power and good cards. I had this as an opening hand. That should work even though it was slow, right?

Unfortunately, my first draw was another city of brass, which was not exactly what I was hoping for. 

I was left guessing a bit what kind of deck Henk was playing, but he was already doing damage with the factories. 

I decided to slow Henk down by swords to plowsharing one factory and strip mining another, hoping to get something in play without hurting myself too much with the cities of brass, and with some help from the birds of paradise. 

Henk however, played a city in a bottle, destroying both my library and 2 of my cities, all the while I still had not played that much. Henk was already playing a workshop, so I could see where that was going. 

Soon after, 2 trikes showed up in the form of a trike and a copy. 

Although I had a tome, I had not much to play and had to use balance to get rid of the trikes, or I would be dead in no-time. 

That was not enough though, they were just followed up with more artifacts, and the balance had not hurt Henk his manabase that much, due to the workshop. So I lost that game. The second Henk opened with a factory and 2 moxen, then volcanic island and ancestral recall. Ouch. 

I tried to slow down Henk a bit, while he as playing another factory, mox and an workshop, but I was not drawing much lands and had to make due with the birds and played a tome after I was able to get rid of 2 Su-Chi's with swords to plowshares and disenchant. Not bad, but the lack of land would be a problem.  

Henk then played the Abyss, and mind twisted me. 

I lost swords to plowshares, tropical island, control magic, regrowth and balance. That was enough to destroy me utterly, so it was over and lost 0-2. As expected against a tier 1 deck with a good player behind it. 

Round number 4, I was on the draw and I had this hand against Sjoerd. I thought it was good enough to keep, even though there was no pressure in it, the card advantage should give me a chance, right?

However, I was quickly given 3 damage before I could do anything, so all I could do is empty my hand as fast as I could. 

Then my opponent played ancestral recall, followed by a library of Alexandria. 

This was followed up by a Serendib Efreet and a time walk, all the while drawing extra cards with the library. I could not keep up, since my deck is not fast enough to handle something like this. 

The second game, he opened with a lotus, Serendib efreet. Second turn Ironclaw orcs. So it was just too fast again. 

I tried to keep the damage away with COP red, but he played 2 Serendib efreets in short order. 

Although I was able to take one with control magic, he just played another. Which I could have handled, had I had any red mana. I might even have won that game if I had, but as it turned out, I did not, and lost with 2 red elemental blasts in my hand. 

I was feeling a bit depressed after that game, having the right cards but not the mana is always tough to swallow. Fortunately, I played another game after that, in which I did manage to get out the legends and drew lots of power, which was just too much too handle for my opponent. I managed to forget to take more  pictures of my last match though, so the last match that I at least won is not covered in pictures. 

the only picture I took of the last match. It is on camera though, so maybe it will show up on Timmy talks. Who knows? 

I ended up 2-2-1, which is okay I guess, but I thought the deck would do a bit better when I started the day. It is not top 8 material by a longshot, I know, but I did manage to get into a final with a deck like it, so i was hoping for a bit better than 50/50, but hey, I also won a game against Triple S, which is kind of a miracle by itself. 

I did take a look at the top 8 before I played some games with my low budget deck and took some more pictures to capture the atmosphere, which was great, as always with these events. 

Playing the low budget reprints deck is always okay, especially if you play against full powered decks. If you win, it's great. If you lose, it's okay. I managed to give a fully powered Robots deck a hard time with this deck though. 

I even managed to win 2 games, showing that not playing power does not mean your deck has no chance of winning against a powered deck. 

I stayed until most of the people had left, taking a picture of the fortress venue before I went home. Another day of Oldschool, with great people, great food, great atmosphere. Thanks to the organizers for making this great day possible, and thanks to all that came to play. I hope to see you all soon!