One of our players sent me a nice tournament report of the last Draconian Cylix of the year, here it is! Cheers, Bjorn
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While playing casually at home for a while, I finally got to play a real Old School tournament after a side event at GP Brussels earlier this year where I played UR counterburn to a 2-1 record, but it really felt too short. So on this Sunday morning, Carl,my friend and teammate since 1995, came early to my house so we could hit the road and head to Eindhoven to cast a few spells in the Draconian Cylix IV tournament, Carl played the third one and had a very good time so I had great hopes.
With no time to playtest together this week, we both opted to play the same deck, Temple of Sped, slightly modified to comply with the French restricted list. It meant only one strip mine: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1445957#paper
Carl already played this list in Paris to finish 9th (ouch) of the EU championship.
14 people showed up and it was decided to have 4 rounds with cut to top 4, so 3-1 might not be enough in theory.Sorry if names are misspelled or missing.
R1 Hero playing RG with bop, ball lightning, dragon whelp, berserk (I know he won another round on the back of Channel fireball combo twice vs the Land Tax Land's Edge deck, but I didn't see any of those)...
Won the die roll
G1 I bolted 2 Dragon Whelps and power sinked one Erhnam Djinn and he was out of gas, a large Braingeyser refuelled me and critters killed him.
G2 My opponent mulled to 5, I opened with a land and a lotus which I cracked to power sink his blood moon, then he flooded and the game was pretty uneventful.
1-0, 2-0
R2 Peter playing UW with Su-Chi, Juggernaut, Serra Angel, Dance of many...
Won the die roll
G1 I mulled to 6 and my opponent plays a 1st turn Library of Alexandria. I get 2 lions out and push some damage to drop him to 14 while he's getting some Library of Alexandria action but then he proceeds to pop Juggernaut after Juggernaut, a Dancy of many make it three 3 and my lions are harmless kittens in front of them and I succumb.
G2 I get a quick start with a turn 2 Serendib Efreet followed by a turn 3 mind twist for half his hand (3 cards), he tries to stabilize with a Serra but a control magic is the nail in his coffin.
G3 was an epic game, probably the best of the day, with each player seeming to take the lead in turn. Energy flux wipes his board and especially his freshly cast Jayemdae Tome, then Braingeyser for 8 turns the tide for me as from there I can answer each of his treat while dropping his life total closer and closer to zero, then on his last possible draw, from the top of his library, he managed to pull a card that didn't help him and died (sorry I wanted to include some drama in my report).
2-0, 4-1
R3 Arno playing GW around Ifh-Biff Efreet, full support from main deck Circle of Protection: Green, green Ward, backed with all special lands: Karakas, Maze of Ith, Island of Wak-Wak...
Lost the die roll
G1 He opens with a Library of Alexandria on the play, so I play a land, my Black Lotus and mind twist him for 3 making sure his Library remains ineffective, he skips a land drop, actually keeping it in hand faking the mana death and trying to go back to 7, but I get some aggression going so the plan is off the table, he plays regrowth on the balance I twisted and we start a new game with 4 lands and 1 card in hand, but the card I kept is a Braingeyser and it allows me to refill shortly after, my lions come after his life total, he plays a pair of Ifh-Biff Efreets to try and stabilize but they're too late, I was too far ahead. I even get to activate on to kill the Efreet who blocked a lion off a City of Brass after disenchanting his Circle of Protection: Green, sweet.
G2 He gets a slow hand, I patiently lay lands as his special lands prevent me from damaging him and I am afraid of his wraths (he played 2) until I can mind twist him of all his cards, then proceed to draw 7 or 8 and win easily from there.
3-0, 6-1
I'm the only 3-0 left so top 4 seems in the bag.
R4 Carl so an exact 75 mirror
Won the die roll
G1 I go land sol ring Carl has Library, I DT for strip mine, he thought I'd go for mind twist so he disenchanted my Sol Ring, I get critters out while he's mana screwed, easy win.
We do the sideboard dance
G2 he short on mana once again, an early ferret from him is met by a red blast, I have a knight attacking and I even let my factories die in combat (and he failed a chaos orb flip) pushing as much damage as possible, he mind twists my Serra and control magic, we trade knights, I too deck one, he earthquakes for 1 leaving him at one and I find an earthquake of my own to win 2-0.
We sideboarded a bit differently, so we discussed our choices, he left only one power sink optint to keep 2 disenchants, while I kept mine.
4-0, 8-1, 1st seed to the semis, #feelsgood, too bad it is at the expense of a friend.
Semi final
While we thought that Carl was eliminated, it turned out that because of the number of unintentional draws he got to squeeze in 4th with his 2-1-1 record and the best tiebreakers, cool! But we are 1st and 4th seed, this means we have to play together once again in the semis, bummer.
Unfortunately this time Carl wins the die roll and it goes downhill from there as it is my turn to be on the receiving end of the beating in this mirror match to lose 0-2. After mulliganing into a weak hand, I made a small mistake game one using a swords on a mishra eot instead of waiting with a disenchant, as a consequence he got to attack a few times with a pump knight before I could answer it, putting him in the driver's seat. He did the job consciensiously and won the first easily.
He changed his sideboard approach and left 2 power sinks which he drew and used well to make sure I wouldn't make a comeback in game 2.
4-1, 8-3
Lesson: never go undefeated in the swiss, you'll always lose your 1st elimination round. #feelsbadman
Match for 3rd place vs a turbo stasis deck Someone won the die roll and I think he did.
G1 He mulls to 5, I play a turn one Serendib Efreet and disenchant his first howling mine. Sorry if the report for this game is short.
G2 I keep a hand with lotus a Tundra as my only land but a pair of pump knights look confident that they can do the job in time for me, so I keep and play them both on turn one, I get to draw a mox of his howling mine and disenchant it, I draw another mox and play energy flux to ruin his board of howling mine and winter orb while the knights keep putting a lot of pressure, he tried a stasis with two mana open but a power sink for 2 foiled his plan, he play a boomerand on a knight in response to buy some time, the rest was pretty academic.
5-1, 10-3
3rd place it is. #feelsgood
Carl went on to win the finals after losing game one and being in a really bad position game 2 with his opponent abusing his LoA, great job!
We took 1st and 3rd, deece :)
Props and slops (a tribute to old tournament reports) Props
+ The Temple of Sped deck is pure gas, So 5-1 for me 4-1-1 for Carl, if we don't count our mirror matches we went undefeated for a combined 7-0-1 record.
+ The organisation and the venue, bought myself some treats: a beta fireball and power sink and a second unlimited control magic for the tournaments with Swedish restrictions.
+ Carl for bringing me to Old School format, feels so good to play magic as we did in the beginning and slinging those beautiful cards.
+ No "The Deck" player
+ Me for being 100% in chaos orb flips on the day Got to play 6 rounds
+ of old school
Slops
-Bad timing to get my only loss of the day, should have lost in the swiss -Traffic jams in Antwerp area on a late Sunday afternoon
Until next time, can't wait to play in a third one!
Antoine
PS: I know a link to MTG goldfish isn't exactly Old School (especially with the wrong Lightning Bolt illustration) but I have no pictures yet and I thought people might find it handy.
