Let’s start by saying that this post probably won’t do justice to how great Dadbodcon is. It was a fantastic event, and any comments I make about the deck I was playing should definitely not be read as negative towards the event. There are a few moments where I reflect on the deck and mention that I might have won a particular situation with something as simple as a Goblin Balloon Brigade. That’s not meant as criticism of the event — quite the opposite. It’s simply how things felt while I was playing the games, and I’m sharing those thoughts because I found them interesting afterwards.
So, if some of the deck commentary sounds a bit critical at times, please don’t take badly. These are just my thoughts and observations from playing the deck, and part of the fun for me is looking back at the games and wondering what might have worked differently. Most importantly, Dadbodcon itself was absolutely fantastic! :)
Anyway, back to the event. Dadbodcon is really a cool tournament, and you should definitely go some time if you can. Situated in the center of the Netherlands, it is held in an actual intellectual sports center where also bridge and chess tournaments are held. It is thus very well equipped for playing cards and very well organized by David. I had registered some time before, but since there are a lot of tournaments these days, I had not thought of a deck until about a week or 2 before. I was thinking about going for a spice build, which I had thought of as something of an '80s adventure movie. Ali from Cairo and the Enchantress go looking for the copper tablets in the weird land of Arboria. I thought trying to kill someone with copper tablets while staying alive with living artifacts and Ali from Cairo, and copying the tablets with copy artifact might actually win a game or 2. Which is what it did in the 30-40 testing games i played with it in the weeks before. It won 3 games total.
Just a board state of a random game below. The problem was, even if it won, it had to win with the fireball. I won with the copper tablets once. Once in 30+ games.
I tried another deck I wanted to try, a stone calender/weakstone artifact deck. This was a lot better in the testing, meaning it would probably actually win some games. Some pretty convincingly.
The problem was, by the time I had figured out the above, it was wednesday evening already, and I had only 2 days to make a deck. Turns out is was a very busy week, and I had sort of a "builders block" so I could not think of anything to make. That is when Johan suggested I play candleflare. By friday evening 20.30 I still had no clue, so I just slammed together a candleflare deck from my binder. After the tournament Johan mentioned it looks like another candleflare deck he had seen online somewhere, which is very possible. I read some oldschool articles every now and then, and it is very possible that I built something which resembles something I have seen somewhere before. I decided to go for an aggressive version with blood moons and earthquakes.
The third game I ended with 3 blood moons in play, playing a fireball for 18 and forking it just for good measure in case something would happen. And I also had red elemental blast as cover for a counter.
This meant the deck again did what it had to do, but again, objectively, it might have been any other win condition. A black vise would have done it sooner. Less spectacular though, but quicker. But I won, so I was not complaining. It did feel a bit underwhelming though, as if the deck was stuck somehow. Round 4 was less spectacular for me, with an opponent playing plenty of artifact destruction. I played a blood moon just to me rid of some Mishra's factories mostly.
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| One of the more succesful games |
Just a board state of a random game below. The problem was, even if it won, it had to win with the fireball. I won with the copper tablets once. Once in 30+ games.
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| one of the very rare wins with this deck |
Going 0-7 on a long Saturday being crushed time and time again is not my idea of fun. I don't mind ending somewhere in the middle with a spicy deck, not even in the bottom half. Going 3-4 was something I would find acceptable with a spice deck, but I do want to win some games. It was abundantly clear this deck was not going to do that. Even though the several different builds look cute on paper, 0-7 was the most probable outcome.
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| Cute, but very bad |
I tried another deck I wanted to try, a stone calender/weakstone artifact deck. This was a lot better in the testing, meaning it would probably actually win some games. Some pretty convincingly.
And although it was fun to play with, I was not feeling like boring my opponents to death with a deck in which nothing would happen, and they would just die in one turn.
The problem was, by the time I had figured out the above, it was wednesday evening already, and I had only 2 days to make a deck. Turns out is was a very busy week, and I had sort of a "builders block" so I could not think of anything to make. That is when Johan suggested I play candleflare. By friday evening 20.30 I still had no clue, so I just slammed together a candleflare deck from my binder. After the tournament Johan mentioned it looks like another candleflare deck he had seen online somewhere, which is very possible. I read some oldschool articles every now and then, and it is very possible that I built something which resembles something I have seen somewhere before. I decided to go for an aggressive version with blood moons and earthquakes.
On the day of the tournament, I picked up Remko, and we went to Utrecht. It was a nice ride talking together, and it was nice to see a lot of familiar face when we got there. The pairings were up after some minor complications, and I was playing Wouter. He was playing an aggressive URW deck with flying men, serendib efreets and Serra Angels. And unstable mutations, which can be very nasty and quick.
The blood moons did some work, but not enough. We were in the third game when a fireball would have won me the game, instead I was stuck with 2 earthquakes in my hand, which I had to use to either end the game in a draw or lose to a Serra Angel. I went for the draw with an earthquake for 8.
That felt underwhelming, a draw at the start. The next match I was paired against Tum, who always plays the same deck, a very agressive Armageddon deck with 4 armageddons. Not a great matchup for a deck that wants to use a lot of lands, but since I had counterspells, there was hope. What also helped a lot was the blood moons. Tums deck has a very greedy manabase with lots of duals and very little basics.
The Blood Moons were ultimately what allowed me to win the match. After quite a few draw-go turns from both sides, I eventually managed to land a fairly large Fireball with the help of Candelabra, which got the job done. Still, it felt a little underwhelming as a showcase of what the deck was supposed to do.
Looking back, I could probably have achieved the same result with something as simple as an Ironclaw Orc. Once the Blood Moons were doing their job, almost any reasonable win condition would have been enough to finish the game. So while I was happy to get the win, it felt like the Blood Moons were really the stars of the match. The deck itself never quite got to show off the way I had hoped it would — but a win is a win, and I’ll happily take it! :)
When I looked at the pairings, that seemed like bad news, I was playing Johan. Even though I love playing against Johan, I'd rather not play someone I discuss decks with all the time at a tournament, while playing a deck he recommended. If I win, it feels somewhat bad, if I lose, it feels somewhat bad :) But the pairings were what they were, and we started off. That is, Johan started off. With fastbond, 5 lands, and a Timetwister. Wow. That is about the best start a deck like his could have.
I have played 4 or 5 variants of Lich/Dark Heart decks, and they always seem to somehow run into a well placed disenchant or counterspell at the wrong time, so I've never managed a convincing run on a tournament. So I loved how Johan his deck was running on speed, showing that is possible to get a deck like this running, and get it running fast with the right hand. Johan did not manage to get it running completely from there, so I got another turn. I played blood moon. Johan played disenchant with white mana floating. I had to pass the turn, and never got another turn after that.
It was amazing to see it work so well. Even though it took a long time for the game to finish, it was fascinating to watch. Johan won the first game very convincingly. The second game did not take off as well as the first. I kept a hand with ancestral recall, counterspell, some red spells including a red elemental blast and a candelabra.
The ancestral recall did not provide any red lands though, so I just had to wait for the right time to counter something. Eventually, I got blood moon into play, which slowed things down, which gave me time to win, which again, I could have done with an Ironclaw Orc or goblin balloon brigade.
The third game I ended with 3 blood moons in play, playing a fireball for 18 and forking it just for good measure in case something would happen. And I also had red elemental blast as cover for a counter.
This meant the deck again did what it had to do, but again, objectively, it might have been any other win condition. A black vise would have done it sooner. Less spectacular though, but quicker. But I won, so I was not complaining. It did feel a bit underwhelming though, as if the deck was stuck somehow. Round 4 was less spectacular for me, with an opponent playing plenty of artifact destruction. I played a blood moon just to me rid of some Mishra's factories mostly.
Also, the deck does not do that much with very little lands in play, even with a mana flare :)
Eventually, we went 1-1, my losing mainly to underworld dreams.
This was probably the most frustrating moment of the day, although mostly because of my own hindsight. When I went to bed the night before, I had been thinking that Mahamoti Djinn would actually be a better sideboard choice than Shivan Dragon for this matchup. Unfortunately, I was simply too tired to get out of bed and make the change. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that one small decision would have won me the match. My opponent had COP: Red in play, but no creature removal available. That meant I eventually lost to Underworld Dreams. I also had a chance to deal with the COP: Red using Boomerang, but for some reason I didn’t manage to make that play, and I honestly can’t remember exactly why.
I even had a Control Magic sitting in my hand, but by that point there were no more creatures left for me to steal, so this one was definitely a case of “if only I had made that one small change the night before.” A good reminder that sometimes the most painful losses are the ones where you can see exactly what you could have done differently — usually after it is too late :)
I would be able to take the Su-Chi but that was already to late. Damn. Should have just trusted my instincts, but I didn't :( too bad. Something to think about for next time.
Match number 5 was probably not one for the photo album! I was paired against Thijs, who was playing Mono White, with Disenchants and multiple Dust to Dusts — pretty much the perfect set of answers to my deck. It was also the match that ended up being on stream, even though I had warned David beforehand that it probably wouldn’t make for the most exciting viewing. Unfortunately, the match went pretty much exactly as expected. I struggled to get anything meaningful going, as my Moxen were dealt with before I could really get my deck working. Game 2 followed much the same pattern.
If this match is ever published, feel free to skip these 10 minutes if you’re looking for the most exciting Old School action of your life! :) There wasn’t much happening from my side, but Thijs played his matchup very well and deserved the win. His deck had exactly the right tools for dealing with mine, and he used them effectively. When your deck is heavily dependent on artifacts and enchantments, facing Disenchant, Dust to Dust, and Divine Offering makes life pretty difficult. There was unfortunately very little I could do about it — sometimes you simply run into the perfect counter deck, and this was definitely one of those matches. ;)
The next match I was paired against a lot of black vises and burn. Since my deck is not the quickest, I did not get out from under the vise fast enough, and that means chain lightnings and bolts finish me off before I can do something, twice.
The last match of the day my deck was more forthcoming, meaning I actually use the removal effectively before I could cast a couple of large fireballs. It showed the deck could work, but you have to get the cards together in the right order, just as with any combo deck. I ended up 30th out of 67, so not great, but fortunately also not the worst of spots. Since the match was over quick enough, I had some time to watch the guys that were still playing for the higher spots.
Wilco made my day by making into the top 4 with a Lich deck. It was absolutely awesome to see this working. I have tried several Lich builds in the past, but none of them were ever close to a top 8, let alone a top 4. It was a dark heart/lich combo and I watched Wilco win a match against Tristan. Just seeing a Lich in play in this way just makes you want to try it. It made me want to try Lich some more, even though this day made me think I may want to stay away from combo decks for a while. I suppose I am just a sucker for old cardboard combo's :)
After this exciting watch I congratulated Wilco on his wonderful deck and high finish. For me, he was the winner of the tournament :)
As always, it was a great day of playing cards, even though my deck did not exactly do what I had expected it to do. Fortunately, the atmosphere and all the people that were playing were so nice that that more than made up for that :) I enjoyed the entire day very much and look forward to the next one. Thanks again to all who came, and especially thanks to David who organized the whole thing. Hope to see you all soon!
