Flying Van Cup 2026

The Flying Van Cup is organized in Krefeld, in Germany by the Flying Van Crew. Miguel is the main organizer. I went there last year and it was absolutely wonderful. Wonderful people, great place in the woods, good (and plenty) food and great games. I got to play to the very end of the day, playing up until the finals. That is why at the beginning of the year, I messaged Miguel to ask him if there was space for me to come. Fortunately, there was, since he had nog given out the public invitations, so I was happy and looking forward to going there again. 

A couple of weeks ago, I also got an invitation for a birthday celebration, so I needed to make sure I would not get into the top 8. I decided to give the second iteration of my fallen angel deck a go, of which I was pretty sure that would have no chance of getting into the top 8, which meant I would be able to go to both the event and the birthday. I also asked Miguel if he knew anyone that might have some FBB cards for my offline FBB mono green project, and he said he would ask Ben to bring some cards. Fortunately for me, Ben has still some of his pile of FBB cards left, and I was able to get 4 kudzu's from him, which I had been searching for ever since I started this project some years ago. But if the challenge is to not buy them from the internet, only in live meetings, it is actually harder to find FBB Kudzu's then beta or unlimited ones. So getting a playset all at once was something I was really happy with. Thanks a lot to Ben, also for the 2 italian mazes of ith, and the last of the timber wolves, of which I can now play a playset in the project. By the time I am writing this, I have rebuilt my FBB mono green deck to try them out in games. Ben wanted to see the deck of course, and pointed out I had no crumbles in the deck. That is mainly because I have only one FBB crumble, and mostly the scavenger folk in the deck seem to be enough, but I get his point, so I will be looking for those as well. 

Thanks again Ben, awesome! 

After the welcome, it was time for round one. And the start was.... well... ehm.. if you play a pretty slow deck, it was kind of nasty to be looking this in the face. Franky was off to a lot of damage in the first couple of turns. 

I was at 14 before I could do anything. And a bit lower on turn 2, but I was able to do this to try and race damage for the win. 

My opponent destroyed my mox jet after that, slowing me down, which kept me from playing more cards that might win me the game. So I kept getting more damage from the Djinn, which was blocked by a lions, and more blockers showed up afterwards, which meant my one icy was not enough to get me through before I died. Even a desperate ancestral recall did not give my enough to kill my opponent before I would die from the vises and other creatures.  

So, on to game 2 then, let's see if that would start better. Well, actually, after I took a mulligan, played a tropical island, this is what happened. It also occurred to me that I had actually forgotten to add the library of Alexandria to this deck, since the last time I played it it was on a gentlemen's tournament. 

Fortunately, I had not forgotten to put mind twist in the deck, so I was able to turn off the library after he had drawn 2 extra cards, then played my own ancestral recall, which gave me a strip mine. Balance restored. Well, accept that I had no creatures and he had a lion. But I was confident that with jalum tome and sylvan library, that would fix itself soon enough. 

Well, not right away, but an Icy manipulator would at least give me some time. 

I got a hypnotic specter (boarded in to make my deck quicker) on the next turn thanks to the jalum tome, but that was quickly bolted. Turn after that, a fallen angel entered the board. 

With the jalum tome working overtime every turn, I was able to quickly add a llanowar elf and a Juzam Djinn to the board, so things were looking up. 

My opponent played a Serra Angel and blocked the Juzam with the lions. I sort of expected the juzam to then be bolted, but that did not happen and I added another Fallen Angel. I figured only a balance or a wrath of god could keep me from taking this game. And even with balance, the Serra would not be blocking itself to death due to the icy, so I would still keep one creature. 

That game worked out as expected, so it was 1-1. I had to take a mulligan and then was stuck with this. I put one angel on the bottom and kept the hand, figuring going to 5 was going to be even worse than this. 

The elf was quickly bolted. Not good. But there were still birds. 

I got the sylvan library on the board, got a tutor into ancestral recall, then played a fallen angel. Even though my opponent had done some damage already with a vise, there was a pretty good chance for me now. Then he added another vise, and bolted me, then played timetwister on his turn, with 3 lands in play. He had hoped for another vise or bolt. I was at ten, the vises would take me to 4 if I did not do something. Turns out, there was something I could do. 

Even with if another vise had come, I would have made it. I had gotten 2 berserks, together with a time walk and hypnotic specter and 2 moxen. He was tapped out, and I asked my opponent if he was in for a puzzle. I asked him, look at the board state. How am I going to kill you? He was at 20 and admitted he had no idea. I went to 4, played the hippy, sacrificed the birds and the hippy, giving the angel 8 extra power, and cast berserk. 22 damage in one go. I did not even need the other berserk or the time walk. Incredibly lucky, but also something that the deck sometimes just does. My opponent did not believe his eyes and showed my the chain lightning, lightning bolt and psionic blast he had in hand. This had been really, really close, but the fallen angel had prevailed. 

There was some time left in the round, so I had some time to take a picture of Ben playing his mono blue artifact deck. 

The second match played Peter. It started with Peter playing land, mox, sol ring. That was not looking great as a start.. I played land, elf of deep shadow, and passed the turn. 

He then played a Serra Angel, I played a pendelhaven and attacked, to see if he would take the bluff, and he did, he let the elf pass. I played a sol ring and was then attacked by the angel. I played an underground sea, then attacked, was let through, and he attacked me again, then played serendib efreet and stripped my underground sea. Even if I had drawn into a Fallen Angel, that would not have worked. 

Adding some more insult to injury, I kept drawing land, and my opponent played braingeyser. Okay then, sometimes your draws are just not good enough. 

There was not much I could do, after a tutor was played and psionic blast, I had already lost on the next turn. I had to mulligan, then kept a hand with gloom in it, hoping for a quick creature to get in damage. 

But you know, no. My opponent played Ancestral recall on his next turn. 

He played Serendib Efreet on the next turn. I played fallen Angel after that. That was swords to plowshared right away. 

I continued to draw more lands and a berserk. If only I had something like a Juzam or so.. 

But no such luck. Another Serendib was played, and I was beaten in the 2 following turns, drawing only more lands. So, 1-1 in matches. We had a copious lunch after that, which was great food. On game 1 of the third round against Kalle, I was shown a familiar sight, with a vise which meant I had to take damage before I could do something. 

I played the elf, passed turn, the elf was bolted, and he played another vise. Somethings you just get that "fuck this" feeling, and I must admit this was one of those times. 

To prevent myself from dying off the vises, I played my time walk which had no real value, except taking more damage and getting a card out of my hand. I played an Icy manipulator after that, and a Fallen Angel after that. By that time I was already at 8 because of vises, mishra's factory and goblins. 

With some careful playing and some luck, I kept the creatures at bay and my hand at 5 or 4 cards. I then dared play ancestral recall, and braingeyser for 0 when that did not do much except giving me one berserk, which was not going to be enough. He played a dragon whelp. I played triskelion on the next turn, and had mana left to tap his whelp. That stalled the game somewhat, which gave me time to draw into the second berserk I needed. I attacked with the trike and the angel after tapping the gargoyle on my turn. I shot the counters of the trike when it was blocked, then sacrificed it to the angel, making it 5/4 and berserked it twice, making it 20/4 and squeezed out a win. Cool, that was really, really close. 

On the next game, I was again greeted by a black vise on turn one, and an ironclaw orc on turn 2. Fortunately, I drew a mox on my second turn, which gave me an option to not keep dying from the vise, although I would be taking more and more damage. 

as it turned out, that hand was just too slow. The vise, mishra's factory and ironclaw orc got in too much damage before I could so something. So on to game 3 it was. I started game 3 with a reasonable but not spectacular hand, which included a lotus. I decided not to use it before it was really needed. Playing a fallen angel with the lotus only to have it bolted would not be great. The game developed with me playing sol ring, birds and an elf, and I kept the onslaught on the other side at bay with a terror, a power sink and a chaos orb. There was still substantial risk though, but I could attack with the angel a couple of times, before another whelp (I used terror on the first one) came into play. I was on 7, he was on 8 and he decided to attack with everything. Rather than losing all my creatures, I chose to block the whelp on the birds and sacrificed it to the angel, which blocked the ironclaw orc. This left us both with 2 creatures. The whelp could win the game just by itself, so I could not attack. 

Drawing into more land, I just had to block the whelp with the angel, which sucked, but was the only choice. 

After I got demonic tutor, I was hoping for a breakthrough, but decided on ancestral recall since he stil had one 1/1 creature left, and I would probably get something bigger. Tutoring for just one creature felt like it would not be enough. I cast ancestral recall, and got: land... land.... hypnotic specter. Okay, not great, but it would still have a chance to win the damage race, and I would not be stuck drawing those 2 more lands in the next turns. 

Eventually, the specter turned out to be enough. We exchanged damage, but I got there first and won the third game in this really close match. 2-1 in matches. The round was not over yet, which gave me the option of taking a picture of this beautiful boardstate.

A beautiful red efreet and an elemental. Cool! To bad they were looking at a moat..

Anyway, on to round 4, where I was greeted by a familiar sight, again by Janis. Pffff... another vise. 

Well, at least I got to start playing the forest, which at least would be less damage. Then, after playing the vise on turn one, my opponent played ancestral recall. Well, just as I thought this was going badly :)

I think I tried playing an Icy on my turn 4, after my opponent had played underworld dreams on his turn 3. 

I was then greeted by another underworld dreams, and wheel of fortune. Well, sometimes it does not matter what you do, and this was one of those times. 

The second game I was in less trouble, although a vise turned up I got to start, and played a mox and an Elf, so the vise that turned up on turn one (of course it did) did less damage. Also, I was able to get out a fallen Angel on turn 3, and with the lotus I had kept in hand, a triskelion on turn 4. You would think this was a easy match, but my opponent had played 2 mazes of ith by then. Damn, but at least the elf was doing damage one point at a time.. This was one of those moments where I was so hoping for a living plane to make use of the Triskelion, but it just never showed. 

I am not sure how my opponent destroyed the triskelion, but he did, and I played a second fallen Angel, which was looking unhappily at the mazes. A mana drain on my hypnotic specter was disappointing, but fortunately I got a strip mine to get rid of one of the mazes. This meant more damage every turn. 

I kept doing damage and eventually sacrificed the Angel that was stuck in the maze to the other one, and the elf, doing 7 damage and taking the second game. It took a long time, but this felt more like an actual game instead of being annihilated :) For the third game, I kept this hand, figuring I would be looking at vises again, and getting lots of mana out seemed like a good idea. This way, if I got a Juzam or a Fallen Angel, I would be able to get it out on turn 3 or so. 

Then, my opponent opened with lotus, underworld dreams. Of course he did. 

I played my first turn birds, then second turn birds and elf, after my opponent played sylvan library. On his turn 3, he played balance... 

I played hypnotic specter, hoping to get something going, but he then played timetwister, which meant I had to take 7 damage, and I was already at 10. 

He then continued to play another underword dreams, and I played another specter. I was at 8 after which he played ancestral recall on my, putting me on 2, so I had lost. I really had no clue what I should have done differently, there was just no chance, none at all. 

well played, indeed. No chance here for me.

He was playing a very nice playmat, by the way. I love the feel of this picture. 

Okay then, 2-2 in matches. That "don't get into the top8" was feeling secured by now, but I was hoping for some more tense matches in the coming to rounds. On to round 5 we went, against Micha. I fortunately was not greeted by another black vise, but my first turn Elves where bolted. Okay, my plan to squeeze in some damage with the pendelhaven quickly was not going to work. I played birds and another elf on turn 2, and was attacked by a flying goblin. I played Fallen Angel on turn 3, and he played dragon whelp. Sometimes you never see them, and then you see them twice in a deck in one day. 

I managed to get out a trike and shoot the whelp so I could get in an attack with the fallen Angel. 

Then I was fortunate enough to get 3 extra cards, and played yawgmoth demon for the first time this day. Cool, I was hoping to get this out at least once. My opponent had played another whelp on his turn, but the demon I played on my turn was a lot bigger, and had first strike, which was going to be needed against the whelp. 

The dragon whelp was followed by a blood moon. Ouch. But fortunately, I was ahead, so would be able to keep going. I attacked with the Angel and the demon. He chose not to block the Angel, opting for the demon after asking if it had trample. The awnser was no, at that point in time. After declaring blockers though, it would have trample, doing 11 trample damage together with the Angels 5 damage from my sacrificing and Elf, that was enough for this game. 

Although I was one game ahead, mono red is quicker than you want against my deck, so I was not happy to have to mulligan to 6, conclude that was not going to work either, so I mulligan-ed to 5. Only to be greeted by another vise again on turn one from my opponent. Well, thank god for small favors I suppose. At least I would not be dying to that as quick as in other games.  

My opponent shot my first bird that I wanted to use for my tutor. Well, I suppose that was supposed to be expected. I was just hoping for another land to show up, so I could actually play the tutor after I had been hit by ball lightning on turn 3. I was just attacking by bits with my elf, taking damage from the vise every turn. 

I eventually never got there, i just got hosed by getting no lands, and died to vise, chain lightning and the like. So it was on to game 3, which I could start with a bird again, willing to risk it due to the other cards I had in hand, and was greeted by first turn vise again. This time it was my turn to get the better draw. I took damage from the vise, played a mox, a sol ring, an Elves of deep shadow, cast ancestral recall, then played regrowth and ancestral recall again, then played a lotus. It was an obscene spectacle, making up for the abysmal draw I had in the previous game. 

My opponent played a goblin. I played fallen Angel and Sylvan Library, he skipped his third land drop, so no ball lightning in my face, lucky for me. I attacked with the angel and played Juzam Djinn. 

My opponent played another creature, which I could terror on the next turn and play forcefield. I attackedn with the Djinn and the Angel, the djinn was blocked. Next turn I attacked with the Angel again, and the Juzam Djinn. My opponent was still low on land, I played berserk on the Juzam and that was it. 

Had my opponent come up to 3 and 4 mana, I would have been for a much harder game, but this time it was not meant to be. Too bad, the last 2 games in this match were onesided. I was now 3-2, so 3-3 was guaranteed, maybe a 4-2 with some luck. I was already happy with the deck its performance. 

I was on table 8 for the last round against Mario. If that was correct and I won, would I...? Well, we would see. I would have to skip if I went into top 8 anyway. Talking of ridiculous openings, my opponent got to go first, played a mox, a lotus, and played Serendib Efreet and Ancestral Recall on turn 1. Wow, okay, that was going to be hard. 

Fortunately, I had some stuff of my own on turn one, playing tropical island, sol ring, mox jet, chaos orb, and flipped it correctly on the Efreet, getting back into business. My opponent disenchanted my sol ring, showing he was serious about this game, so I went for an attack on him, and played mind twist for 2. This game was 2 turns old, and already very intense and spiky. 

I did nothing on my turn but play a land, neither did my opponent. In keeping with the spike theme, I played regrowth on the mind twist, and played it again for 2. He disenchanted my mox in response. From there, he played a Savannah lions, and I did nothing for a couple of turns, but play lands and was then mind twisted. Then I played Sylvan Library. That helped with the choices, and eventually I got a trike on the board, which took care of the lions, and started doing some damage. 

The lions were quite quickly replaced, and I shot it again with the trike, doing a couple of more damage, and then played Fallen Angel after my opponent played swords to plowshares on my trike. 

Turns out, the Angel was enough to finish off this game and I was ahead, 1-0. My second opening hand was promising, because I could play 2 birds on turn one, then mind twist on turn 2, with strip mine to follow up. No damage pressure, but it still looked solid against a lions/Serra/control deck. I kept it. 

I went for the plan, and it worked pretty well. I did not have a lot of follow-up with an Elf, and just started attacking with that. It was followed by a chaos orb and an Icy. I decided not to use the chaos orb, since there would be certainly something showing up sooner or later, so destroying a land did not feel like a good option. 

The Elf was eventually removed, as was the Fallen Angel that finally decided to show up. But not before Mario tried to psionic blast it, and I sacrificed 2 birds to make sure it would hit for 6 and survive the damage. The turn after that it was removed anyway. 

A Serra showed up, and I flipped the orb on it, but it bounced and landed next to the Serra, which was crap of course. I will just keep hoping we ban this card sooner than later. Although my deck was providing a lot of mana, it also provided a Juzam Djinn. That meant I would be able to do something, and that meant tapping the Serra on his turn, then tapping the factory on my turn, and just go in there for 5 damage, which would be enough. Thank god I had not forgotten to attack with the Elves over and over again in the beginning of the game. 

So, I ended up 4-2, against a super spiky deck in the last round. Not thanks to my spicy cards to be sure, but it felt good anyway. Just spice would not have cut it against a deck like this. But, now for the question, where would I have ended up? Fortunately, I was 9th, which normally kinda sucks, but now I was happy, since that meant I would not have to skip anything and go to the birthday after all. But not before we went outside and took pictures with everyone.

this is what a group of great guys look like :)

the top 8, congrats guys

So, it was another great day in Krefeld. The whole atmosphere was great, the people and the food was great, it was very, very nice and I look forward to coming again the next time. Thanks to all for the organisation, especially Miguel, and thanks to all the guys that showed up. Seeing you guys and playing oldschool magic with you is all I need to have a great day. You are the best. See you all next time!