The Hill Giant cup Hilversum april 7th 2019

These days there are so many nice oldschool toernaments in our country, hardly a month had passed since the last one I was in. In this first weekend of april it was time for the Hill Giant cup, which is hosted by Joep in the Vendetta game store in Hilversum. I have been to 2 giant cups last year, and they were great, so I was looking forward to it. For those of you that want to see deck lists, there are some scattered around this article.

Like always, I playtested some decks with Peter, then thought about what I would play for a couple of days, and then decide to play something pretty much untested. I just couldn't make up my mind though. Would I play a titania's song deck, or would I play a deck with the UL personal incarnation which has been staring me in the face ever since I won it, ehhh… two years ago I think. In the end, I just could not decide, so I modified the deck I played in the Camel Trophy. It had gotten me to the finals there and it was still sleeved in it's box, so it wouldn't take long. And I do like playing with my pixies. They're old and worn, but they've been with me for a long time and they always bring back memories of 25 years of playing magic. Plus, since the deck had performed so well in the Camel Trophy, I thought a Top 8 place would be a real possibility. If I could make that, it would be 3 in a row after Top 8 in the Palladins of the North and finals in the Camel Trophy. Spoiler alert: even though the deck worked just fine, a top 8 was not meant to be this day. 

I picked something oldschool to wear that day,  my Vampire shirt with an illustration by Tim Bradstreet for the Vampire card game. Although it's much less known than MTG, it has been alround for a long time (since 1994) and it still has a following to this day. I started playing in januari 1995 and still play it with friends a couple of time a year. I think I read a blogpost by Magnus on oldschoolmtg.com where some guys pull out a box of Jyhad (as the game was called before it was renamed to Vampire: the Eternal Struggle later) but they can't really figure out how to play the game because there are too many rules. So Magnus, if you're looking for some guys who can explain to you how it works: there's plenty of decks waiting for you over here and we would love to teach how it works :) If you take me up on the offer, I'll buy you some Dutch beers. I hear they're really good. 

Anyway, I'm degressing. Tim Bradstreet has done some of the artwork for Vampire cards and books (there's also a tabletop roleplaying game with the same theme) and if you've never seen them, check out some of his illustrations: Tim Brandstreet images. Love them or hate them, you've got to admit they're a lot better than the generic artwork we see on cardboard these days. I fall in the love them category, but it could be that's because I've been looking at them for 25 years now. The shirt I have is from '95 I think and I only wear it on special gaming occasions. The Hill Giant Cup counts as such a special occasion. I would run into more oldschool gaming accessories during the day, but I'll get back to that later. 

I picked up Thijs and Peter in Arnhem and we were off to Hilversum. It's only an hour's drive and since we were talking all the way, we were there before we knew it. I parked at a place that is supposed to be free parking on a sunday, so I'm hoping I won't get a ticket sent after me. We arrived at the gaming store about 20 minutes before the tournament would start. The weather was good, so there were some guys at the table in front of the store enjoying the sun. Or the binders of old cards on the table. On second thought, I think they were paying more attention to the binders full of cards than the sun. After we registered I greeted a lot of familiar faces who were all happy to be here to flop some old cardboard. I picked up some cards we had ordered from Robbie so Peter could play his 4th Su-Chi without having to borrow it, we finished the decks and by them it was time to play! 

I scribbled down some short notes between the rounds, I will try to make sense of them here:

Round 1 (damn, I forgot to put down a name)

He was playing UWR and it was a close match. What I remember is him destroying some of my efreets and cities with City in a Bottle (damn, that card is good) and he disintegrated my Preacher. The preacher was not very lucky the entire day by the way, he did not get to convert even one creature to my side. I got the advantage in both games with early speedy creatures, and won the match 2-0.

Round 2 (Bob, with a deck I would call Trolls & Trikes :))

Bob had two very good openings. This was his first turn play:

He put on the pressure quickly and destroyed one of my lands, and since I wasn't drawing that many lands I could not keep up. This left me with the option I went for: to tutor for a balance and cast it a turn later. I could not even play it the same turn. By then I was down to so few life I figures the game would be over. He had a lot more mana, and I had much less life. And he was playing red. But somehow, his luck had run out by then. I cast a Serra Angel, pretty much expecting to be bolted out of existence, but somehow he didn't draw a burn card for 5 turns and Serra went all the way to win me the game! It was amazing how that went. 

The second game I had sideboarded in COP read and greater realm of preservation. I got the greater realm early on in the game and kept stalling him with the Icy Manipulator I had also boarded in. He had a Rukh Egg and a diamond vally which made a tough blocker for my Serendib Efreets, so I kept both of the ones I had drawn in my hand, waiting for something to happen. Than Library of Alexandria happened, and I figured I would draw something to win with quickly. That took quite a long time though, and he kept attacking me, forcing me to keep mana free for the greater realm. And since I needed a city of brass for white mana (I had not drawn tundras and just one savannah), that still took some of my life. After a long time, an Erhnam Djinn showed up, but I needed to make sure he would not block it to death or block it with his Mishra's factory and then bolt it. So I waited for a disenchant for the factory he did not attack with, attacked, disenchanted the factory and played regrowth on my time walk which I had cast really early in the game. That sealed the deal. 2-0. Wow. After him opening twice with moxen and sol ring. This just goes to show you just have to keep playing till the end, something good might happen along the way.

In the meantime: Peters deck was doing what it was good at. Copying stuff. His opponent played a Su-Chi, and this was Peters awnser next turn:

Turns out he had been waiting for something to copy for quite some turns then, and he took full advantage of it :) He won this game.

Match 3 (Jimmy, the deck)

Jimmy is a frequent top 8/top 4 player and probably the best "the deck" player in the Dutch oldschool community. I expected a very hard match.

In game 1, I was happy with the decision to keep playing a lot of disenchants main deck. I disenchanted early, drawing out counters and then played Erhnam Djinn, Serra Angel and then armageddon. As I had expected, he plowshared one of my two creatures (the Serra) but I was able to keep the Djinn in play. 1-0.

In game 2 I sided my 4th disechant, dust to dust en red elemental blast. That last one usually comes unexpected as I don't play any red cards main deck. I played an early Serra Angel again, which Jimmy countered using up his Black Lotus. We exchanged blows with mishra's factories while I was waiting for him to play something bigger. I think this was somewhere around turn 9 or 10. I had drawn my power sink on turn 3 and wanted to use it for all it was worth. Jimmy cast recall for 2 (with one of the cards he took back being an ancestral recall), which I power sinked. He countered my power sink, but was out of mana after that. I would have decide the game now, but I was confident that would work out since I had a time walk and fireball in my hand. I attacked, cast time walk, attacked again and played fireball for the win. 2-0. I was really happy with this win. It took agressive but cautious play to win and before the match I expected Jimmy to have the advantage. But I made it!

Match 4 (Jeff BWU with landdestruction, dreams, disenchants and power. Oh, and Cuombajj witches)

In game 1 I kept an opening hand with Mishra's factory, sol ring, ancestral recall, time walk, 2 Erhnam Djinn and 1 Argothian Pixies. I figured I would either draw blue mana of green mana within a couple of turns since more than 1 in 3 cards left in my deck was a blue or green mana source. This was not meant to be though. After 3 turns, I still had not drawn any mana at all, and on turn 4 Jeff disenchanted my sol ring. I lost the game without having drawn any blue mana and only one green. Shit happens, I suppose. The fact I kept this hand kept bugging me the rest of the day, even though some of the other players I asked about it told me they would have kept it too. 

Game 2 I opened with no land, two moxen, black lotus and Serra Angel. And an Erhnam. Again, not the best hand, but although maybe a gamble, I decided to go for it and dropped the Serra on the table on turn one. Jeff opened with a Library of Alexandria and went frantically looking for something to take care of the angel. And he got it just in time, when he was at 4 life :( He took out my Serra and took full advantage of the Library. In the meantime, I had drawn an Whirling Dervish, but he destroyed my green mana source one turn before I got my second, so the Dervish stayed in my hand. The card advantage was just too much. I could not keep op, so he won 2-0.

Since this match had not taken long, I had some time looking around and spotted Martens awesome lifecounter:

This is a modified 1995 reaper life counter. Apparently, somewhere around that time, a Magic chess set was also made, and Maarten got these parts from the inventory of a game store gone bust some years ago. It looks awesome, and feels very heavy as it's all metal. Then Marten pulled out some more original 1994 life counters, still in their packaging:

Wow. I was impressed. He had kept them a long time, but figured oldschool players might enjoy these, so he was selling them off. And then.. he had a surprise for me. Because he appreciates the tournaments I have been organizing and this website so much, he gifted me one! I didn't know what to say :) I always hope people enjoy the tournaments and this site, but I never figured someone liked it that much. So I picked the one with the female (I think Elf) warrior on it because it fits the theme of the deck I was playing. Thanks so much Marten! I really, really appreciate it! The life counter is now in my home where it is displayed together with the other two classic life counters I have.

Again, thanks! I enjoy looking at it every day and look forward to using it in future events.

And then it was time for Match 5 (Evert, troll disco/beast).

This was not much of a match-up for me. In game one, I felt good about my hand since I had disenchant and 1 small and 2 big creatures in my hand, but I never got to playing most of that since an early Mind twist took them away and the advantage was too much to overcome. In game 2 he opened with a Library of Alexandria, and it was pretty much the same story :) And it did not help that this was my opening hand in game two:

So I just missed the top 8. Had I managed to pull out a win or a draw in one of the two last games, I would have been in, now I was out. But not to worry, there was still the Revised only side event, and I had brought a deck to play in that as well. But there were still people playing, and Roy and Marten were in an intense game in the final turns. The time has been called, Marten is in his supposedly last turn, after which Roy will get the last turn of the 5. Roy has just played wheel of fortune and Su-Chi t keep Marten off his back in the last turn. This is Martens hand after the wheel:

This is one of those magic puzzles. You have one turn left, no go and win even though your opponent is at over 10 life. 

After Marten won with this puzzle, the Revised only event started. My first match-up was against white weenie. After game one, we both were amazed about how statistics work. I mean, really, what are the odds of him drawing 4 savannah lions and me 4 dark rituals. These are literally all the cards we drew during the game:

In case you were wondering, the earthquake was the game winner together with the Sengir Vampire. In the second game I even managed a rare sight:

I managed to get a counter on my vampire without it being destroyed or removed from the game. I got to attack for 5! That almost never happens, at least not to me. 

My deck was working pretty good in this match-up, but I got crushed by Joep with his white deck with main deck meekstones and a lot of disenchants, so I did not get to disk away his meekstones. Oh, and the balance that took 3 of my creatures out also wasn't helping :)

This gave me some time to watch the last parts of the tournament. Here Evert has his Guardian Beast/Chaos Orb combo working, which is just brutal. Jeff is not amused:

After taking out several of Jeffs lands (starting with the maze) Evert easily won that game and was on to the finals. The finals were between Everts Troll Disco and our Belgian regular Antoine who was playing the Savannah Lions/Serra/counter deck which has been very successful at a lot of tournaments around the world. In the end, Evert won out, proving that Troll Disco with beast really is a T1 deck in old school mtg.

Thanks to Joep for organizing this event, thanks to Vendetta for hosting this day, thanks again to Marten for giving me that awesome lifecounter and of course, thanks to all of you for showing up. I've loved playing with old magic cardboard for almost 15 years now, and it warms my heart to see so may enthusiasts of old school/ancient magic. May we play this format in good spirits for a long time to come!

And for those of you that like decklists, here are some that were published:

Camel Trophy I - a report by Carl

Another tournament at our northern neighbours of the Netherlands. Antoine and I
left at 8:30 for the two-hour drive to Arnhem to attend the first Camel Trophy,
organised by Bjorn. This location is a bit further for us than the one in
Eindhoven (where the Draconian Cylix events are held), more time to chat...
Twenty-five players showed up, a nice turnout. Swedish rules, but reprints
allowed. I took the same deck as two days before in Brugge: Good stuff played by
Kalle Nord at n00bcon X. With 20 restricted cards, this choice cannot be wrong.
Five Swiss rounds followed by top 8 single elimination.

Round 1: Edo Hoksbergen - R/W Atog
Edo keeps a somewhat ketchy hand, attacks turn two with a Factory that gets
Shattered, and is stuck at two lands, another Factory and a Mountain. I don't
help him with a Strip Mine on the second Factory after he has played an Atog. I
then plop an Erhnam and a Su-Chi. I counter his Balance (cast from a Lotus),
then Power Sink his Chaos Orb, and he is soon dead.
Game 2 is more interesting, as he plays turn 1 Mana Vault, turn 2 Su-Chi and
manages to hit me twice before I can Disenchant it (my only change from Kalle's
deck: replaced Tranquility from the sideboard; well, I also took out the two
Sharks for 2 extra Black Vise). Edo forces me to counter another thread, then
casts Wheel of Fortune and the dreaded Blood Moon hits. Luckily, I received a
sweet seven and cast Lotus, Erhnam Djinn, Su-Chi, Mox Sapphire, Time Walk. Hit
Edo for 8 down to 9 (he took some City of Brass damage). He plays a Juggernaut
to trade, then a second one. I have a Psionic Blast to finish him off.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Peter Bondhuis - The Deck
Peter opens with Mishra's Factory, Mox Emerald, Mox Ruby, Ivory Tower. I Mana
Drain his Jayemdae Tome, use the mana to play Sylvan Library, and Regrowth on
the Mana Drain. He plows a Factory of mine, then I play Erhnam Djinn which goes
all the way.
Game 2, Peter plays a Tundra, then Ancestral in my upkeep. He Mind Twists my
hand away and plays a Tome, but I topdeck Chaos Orb to get rid of it.
Unfortunately, Peter has a Tome #2, then he plays The Hive and starts the
beating. I try to mount an offense with 2 Su-Chi and Wheel of Fortune, but it
doesn't save me. I die with Peter at 3 life.
These games have taken some time (backbiters would say I play slowly), so we
have no time to play the third game.
1-1, 4 points.

Round 3: Thomas Meddens - R/W Tron prison
I already had the occasion to play Thomas (with another Tron variation), I am
glad to play him again, he is a very friendly fellow. I open hand with Strip
Mine and Mishra's Factory (no coloured mana), but good spells (Walk, Regrowth),
so I keep it and have a slow start. Thomas cannot put pressure on either. I hit
him once with a Djinn before City in a Bottle hits. I am able to get rid of it
thanks to a timely Chaos Orb. I twister once, then a second time, taking some
extra turns in the process, then burn Thomas to death.
I am lucky to have Library of Alexandria in my opening hand of the next game,
Thomas has Howling Mine and Relic Barrier to make it even. I kill his Relic
Barrier so that Thomas would be kind enough to let me benefit from the Mine, but
he has another Barrier. I play an Erhnam, he drops a Su-Chi which soon becomes
forestwalk, so Thomas attacks with it, but I can block it since I don't have any
Forest in play. The blocking Djinn is sent farming. I play a second Djinn,
Thomas attacks, I block, the Su-Chi dies, then Thomas plays a Triskelion to kill
the Djinn, I Drain it, Thomas REBs it, but I have the BEB to make sure Erhnam
doesn't die. I hit him for 6 (Factory), then he plays a Su-Chi. I cast Hurkyl's
Recall on him, and hit him for 8 (a second Factory joined the team), then
Psionic Blast + Lightning Bolt to finish the job.
2-0, 7 points.

Round 4: Robbie Van Bakel - G/W/u
Robbie has a strong start with Lotus, land, Erhnam Dijnn. I also play a Djinn.
Robbie hits me once, then I hit back, Time Walk, Regrowth the Time Walk. I play
a Sylvan Library. Robbie has 3 Elves into play, but he can't chump block as my
Djinn has Forestwalk. Robbie Disenchants the Sylvan Library, but I had the
occasion to put Fireball on the top, so the Djinn hits once more and a 4-point
Fireball does the trick.
Robbie has another good start with Tropical Island, Mox Sapphire, Sylvan
Library. I play land, Mox, Mox, Fellwar Stone, meaning I am able to counter his
second turn Ice Storm (Robbie took 8 to get two extra cards from the Library). I
play Erhnam Djinn in my second turn, then another one turn 3. Despite a Time
Walk, Robbie can't find removal and concedes.
2-0, 10 points.

Round 5: Antoine Rottiers - U/W/b Cermak attack
Antoine is the only one with 4-0, we should both reach the top 8, so this game
is rather laid-back.
He has a great start with turn 1 Ancestral, turn 2 LoA. Fortunately, I am able
to Mind Twist him for 3 (Timetwister, Serendib Efreet and Su-Chi), so his
Library is useless. He plays Savannah Lions and Mishra's Factory. I play a Djinn
but it meets Chaos Orb. Antoine plays a Su-Chi which is kind enough to come to
play on my side thanks to Control Magic. I play a Su-Chi on my own, Strip his
Maze of Ith and both Su-Chi go to town.
There is not much action in the early second game, I Shatter a Sol Ring. When I
hit 6 mana, I Time Walk, then Tutor for Mind Twist for 5, getting 3 Su-Chi,
Disenchant and Braingeyser, Antoine keeps two cards in hand. He then Mind Twists
me back for 4, I keep two cards. I Control Magic his Serra, hit him before he
Disenchants the CM. We trade his Serra vs my Su-Chi, but my 3 Factories to his
one are enough to kill him.
2-0, 13 pointes.

I am seeded first in the Top 8, Antoine is second.

Quarter finals: Jeff Nijs - B/W
It is the first time I meet Jeff, very kind person and good sport. There is not
much action in the first turns besides two Bolts on his Mishra's Factory and
Hypnotic Specter. Two of my Erhams get plowed. I play Time Walk and Timetwister
after a Library of Alexandria. I Tutor for Mind Twist and Jeff dumps his hand in
the graveyard, somewhat frustrated since he had his own Mind Twist. He concedes
when I Control Magic his Sengir Vampire.
Game 2, I Psi blast away his Vampire, then Jeff casts Balance with two cards in
hand (I keep Control Magic and Mishra's Factory). His second Vampire comes on my
side, soon joined by a Djinn. Jeff cannot cope with that.
2-0

Semi-finals: Bjorn Stemerdink - G/W/U
When I play a second turn Fellwar Stone, Bjorn Drains it, leaving me with only a
Volcanic Island untapped. He then casts Mind Twist for 5, the number of cards I
was holding... I rip Wheel of Fortune from the top of my library to attempt a
comeback, but Bjorn plays Armageddon (getting rid of my Strip Mine), then plays
his LoA. I cannot beat the card advantage despite a triple bolt (off a Lotus) on
his Erhnam and Lions.
Game 2 sees Bjorn on the offense with an aggressive Balance with two cards in
hand (I have to discard my Balance), followed by an Erhnam Djinn (answered by my
Su-Chi) and Serendib Efreet. I am holding a Demonic Tutor that I hold rather
than going for the obvious Ancestral Recall. After a second Dib hit, Bjorn casts
Braingeyser for 4. I finally get my sixth mana. I attack with Forestwalking
Su-Chi but since Bjorn has no Forest, he blocks it happily. I am then able to
Tutor for Regrowth to get Balance back, getting rid of his two creatures and his
hand in the process (we both have 3 lands, one of mine being a Factory). Bjorn
topdecks a Serendib Efreet, followed by Plowshares for my Factory. Both of us
don't draw much in the following turns, and I die to the Efreet. I am midly
disappointed after this devastating Balance, but this is Magic.
0-2

So I finish at the third place and watch Antoine beat Bjorn to take the first
Camel Trophy.
Congrats to Antoine, thanks to Bjorn for another successful tournament, and to
my opponents for an enjoyable day.

Cheers,

--
Carl

The Camel Trophy I

After a long series of Ancient, French Oldschool and a couple of Swedish Oldschool events in Eindhoven, I really wanted to go back to our Oldschool Magic hometown, Arnhem. Our first larger Oldschool event was in may 2009 was held in Arnhem. We had some smaller events before that, but it was really just some friends who all came to the same game store. It was my first Oldschool kind tournament that was organised with a little bigger crowd in mind, as such it was announced in more places and quite a nice group of people showed up. I was still figuring out where the format was about to go. I was sure I wanted reprints to be allowed, it was all about the playing like the old days. As such, no one cared about the art, so some people used all kinds of basic lands. Even then, there were some guys who were already into the original art thing, so they played only basics with pictures from the original sets. We had great fun. There would be no repeating it there though, because the shop changed hands and the new owner wanted to focus more on events that would draw a bigger crowd or would be better for the shop's standing in Wizards eyes, so it was either larger groups or sanctioned events. Preferably both. So we moved our tournament series to Eindhoven, and we've been playing there ever since. The feeling of wanting to organize something in Arnhem never went away though, because of the good memories and because that's where it all started. 

Fast forward to 9 years later, to the Frost Giant Cup 2018 in Hilversum. This splendid event was hosted by the Vendetta game store there. It was there the Vendetta store in Arnhem was mentioned. I had heard there was another store in Arnhem, but I never really got around to going there. These days, if you want to play an Oldschool kind of game, you have a way better change of finding a player through a chat group than in a game store. But, since the idea of restarting Arnhem never went away, I decided to give it a try and contacted the owner of the store, Richard. He wasn't as much into the Oldschool scene as his colleague from Hilversum, but he was willing to give it a try. 

I wanted to draw as many people as I could for this first time, so I decided it would be a Swedish rules event because most Dutch players seem to enjoy that format the most. Because the Swedish events I've done so far had no name yet and the Draconian Cylix series was for French Oldschool, I had to come up with a new name with an old ring. Because most oldschool events are named after cards in our country, Arno came up with the brilliant name "Camel Trophy" after a couple of other names had been suggested. No new suggestions were needed, this was brilliant. I had to pick a date somewhere in between the other events and we decided on March 10th, because February 10th had already been taken by the Palladins of the North in Groningen. 

At first there weren't that many enthousiasts, so I was wondering if perhaps there were enough Oldschool Magic events in our country. But as time passed, more and more were added to the list, and in the end we had 26 players, which would pretty much take all the space in the store :) On the day of the event, one of the players had fallen ill, so we played with 25 players, some of whom had won other events. There were winners of the Knights of Thorn, Hill giant and Frost giant cups and winners of the Draconian Cylix. The competition would be fierce :)

As has become custom for these I events, I built a deck and playtested against Peter. Who crushed the deck I had built with UW Lions Agro. Not suprising, since this is probably the best possible Oldschool deck, but as people who've read some of my writings before, I don't mind losing, but I do want to feel like I'm actually participating. This was the deck I almost played, a homage to the Monkey May I deck.  

The deck I didn't play :)

So I built another deck on the evening of the event and played that. I've always been a fan of Argothian Pixies, so I started with 4 of those and kind of went from there, adding some of the usual suspects, but not in the amounts people would expect and called the deck pixie dust because of the Dust to dust. I changed it during the tournament to Pixie Tricks, because I didn't use the dust to dust one single time. 

There is something special about playing in a gamestore, isn't there?

I didn't note every round I played, as organizing an event like this keeps you running with snacks and talking to Richard, who was very helpful by doing all the input in the computer. But what I do remember from the games I've put in this post. There are also other posts from other players, I will put those up as well. 

In the first round, I played against a mono green deck. I love mono green. Do you ever have those moments when the broken stuff in your deck makes you feel kind of bad? Because I didn't know what would come, I mind twisted him early in the game with a Lotus, and that pretty much broke the game. I apologized when I played StP on his killer bees. It's also a card I love very much. I won 2-0. 

I was then paired against Joep, who's a really good player. He goes top 8 a lot and was the winner of the Frost Giant Cup. Hard match against a nice guy, but I managed to beat him none the less. 

Next up was Maarten, also winner of multiple tournaments who goes top 8 pretty much every tournament he plays. He had some surprising tricks up his sleeve. Some stuff I really did not expect. As he is testing the deck to compete in other tournaments I won't go into all the details, but I will share one awesome moment:

Well, I didn't see that one coming :) It took care of my creatures though! Note the playmat I borrowed from Richard as I had forgotten to take mine when I packed up my cards and the snacks for the tournament. I love cats. So I bought the mat from him at the end of the day. Maarten had some other nice stuff up his sleeve. Also note the two classic life counters Maarten and I use from Scrye and the Duelist :)

There was a lot of fire in Maarten's deck

I played cautiously because I was expecting other tricks, and I won the first game. The second game was much harder. We both agreed to side out Library of Alexandria and Mind Twist. I'm so much happier knowing I won't be mind twisted. I don't mind the libary as much, but I do agree it's very broken. Maarten would have won that game by all probability, but time had run out a couple of turns before he could so I won 1-0. 

Round 4 was against Antoine, a self proclaimed Spike-player, so I knew he would be playing a very good deck for all he's worth. This would be a hard match. I had pretty good opening hand where I would have dropped two creatures on turn one, had Antoine not gone into land-mox-timewalk, take second turn, timetwister. I was at two mana sources when he was already at 5, and a mind twist that followed pretty quickly sealed game one. I was not a happy bunny and sideboarded in some of my anti-creature stuff and REBs which I thought he wouldn't expect as I didn't play any red main deck. It was not enough though, he kept pushing while I just didn't draw enough to counter the onslaught of his U/W agro deck. So I was 3-1 after this match. 

Round 5 was against Robbie, the winner of the last Knights of Thorn, so I would have played tournament winners and frequent top 8 players 4 out of my 5 matches. I was confident my deck was pretty good though and I had gotten used to how it played through my games this day, so I sat down knowing it would be hard, but possible to beat his deck. Which I did :) The games weren't easy, but I won the match, so I was 4-1, enough to put me in the top 8. My second top 8 this year, I had landed a top 8 spot in the Palladins of the North last month as well, so I'm pretty satisfied with my last 2 decks performance. 

In quarterfinales I played Bastiaan. We got into a damage race which I thought I might win because although he had 1 creature more than me, I still had 3 more creatures in my hand (2 serendibs and an Erhnam) so I thought I might win that one. After his attack, he played a timetwister though, which cost me my creatures, but also gained me a time walk and a control magic. So I took one of his creatures and timewalked into victory. 

In the semi-finals I met Carl, also a fierce player who's a frequent top 8 player from Belgium. I managed to pull of an early mana drain and mind twist him, which I thought would be the winning play, but he topdecked a wheel of fortune right the next turn. An exiting match followed after that,but in the end I managed to pull of a win after I blocked his su-chi with my Erhnam because Carl hadn't noticed I had kept all of my forest dual lands in my hand ( played the djinn with a city of brass) so the su-chi forest walking did not do much. His decklist (no picture) can be found here.

The Semifinals

So, up to the finals! At one point I had Antoine down to no permanents and at one life, but I just did not follow up with any threats. My Ancestral Recall gained me three lands, and my one lion met with a maze of ith. Antoine balanced away my Serra and Serendib, braingeysered for 4, played a Ancestral recall which made his library running, quickly followed by a timewalk. I lost the finals in good Oldschool fashion to an array of broken stuff from someone who's already a good player :) All in all, the atmosphere was great, I gave away some cards for most vague deck, the guy who showed up after not having played any magic for years, and to the deck who had not one a single match. It's so much more fun to just give out some prizes to people for other things than winning if you ask me. But, in the end, Antoine won the first Camel Trophy fair and square! 

If you want to relive the finals, it was streamed and then put on youtube by Timmy:

Richard also made an impression of the tournament which ends with a picture of the winner:

I would also like to give some tips to people complaining about Library of Alexandria. I've seen more libraries destroyed this day than libraries actually breaking games:

I also had a couple of orb flips which destroyed libraries, but they were to blurry to actually put up here. My library worked in 2 games, but was quickly destroyed in both of these games and it never really got out of hand. Oldschool is broken. Library is broken. Just like a lot of other cards, and you play this format for fun. If you hate it that much, just put some form of destruction in your deck :)

Some of the other old school moments of the day and some decklists:

I would like, no you don't, yes I do, no, you don't!

Peter's deck working at top speed

Some of the decklists:

Robbie, Top 8

Carl, Top 8

Roy, Top 8

The Force

Thanks to all who attended! And thanks especially to Richard from Vendetta Arnhem! We could not have done it without you. Till next year!!

A little late: Knights of Thorn report

It's been two weeks already, and I've finally got some time to write this report after a couple of busy weeks at work and coming down with the flue. Fortunately I made some notes at the wonderful knights of thorn gathering, which made it easier for me to remember the games. Without the notes, I would have remembered mainly three things: I suck at shuffling, the atmosphere was amazing and I really suck at shuffling. 

The reason I think I must really suck at shuffling is I've had some really weird games in which I drew so badly it must be my shuffling technique. I think I hit a personal record when I drew 9 mana (8 lands and a mox) in a row. Anyway, you did't come here to get a rant about mana screws, so on with the report.  

I played a black/white deck with hippies, sengirs, juzams, underworlds dreams and disenchants and swords, with a splash of blue for ancestral and time walk. This deck hadn't done bad in some other tournaments so I figured it would do okay here as well. I mainly went for this deck because the other deck I meant to play (Land tax/Lands edge) had been so severely trashed by my fellow oldschooler Peter a couple of days before I didn't feel confident it was good enough. He beat it with three different decks about 80% of the time and while I don't mind losing in oldschool, I do like to feel that I'm actually participating in the games. This was the deck I was thinking about playing:

Looking back on my matches, I might have had a better chance with this deck :)

Because the Knights of Thorn is about mostly Swedish legal decks, I had to lend Peter some cards because he was playing one of my favorite decks, U/G agro. Because his Serendib efreets don't speak english and you can only play 10 English reprints, he had to use mine and I added some other cards to make it a bit more competitive.

 
Match 1

In the first game my opponent opened with Library of Alexandria. That's always bad, but I managed to get through an unspectacular mind twist for 3 to at least give myself some turns to get the pressure on before he would fill his hand again. I did had to draw one black mana though, but since there were plenty of those in the deck, I felt confident I would draw one within one or two turns. This turned out to be a misconception, as I proceeded to draw my plains and mox pearl within the next 3 turns, and then just didn't draw any black mana for 3 turns or so. I tried to get a hippy out, but my opponent countered it, then played braingeyser a couple of turns later, got the library running again and I just went under against overwhelming cards. 

Game 2 I faced another turn 1 library again, but I managed to get out a hippy quickly. This was fireballed after taking only one card, but hey, it was something. My opponent was stuck with only one blue mana, so I went for it, played sengir vampire with dark ritual and that managed to do him in before he drew something to get rid of it. 

Game 3, I had an opening hand with three hypnotic specters while my opponent opened with another Library of Alexandria. This is the first time this day I was seriously questioning my cutting skills :) I played the three hippies, but they were either countered or killed by fire. I stalled while the library was working it's magic, so that was that. 

I know there are a lot of people that don't like the library, some even advocating banning it. I don't think we should. It's just as much part of magic history as any other unbalanced card, so if you want to go that way, you either have to ban them all, or none of them and just take it as it comes. I've said it before and I've said it again: in this format you will lose to broken plays, so when that happens you just have to take it as it comes and smile. This game just wasn't that balanced back then :) I mean, take a look at this turn 2. How do you think this game ended? It's just part of the game.

 
Peter had beaten his opponent in round one in about 10 minutes, so that was going fine. Go U/G agro :)

Round 2: bye

In round two, I couldn't find my name in the pairings, and according to Mari I was the only one who asked, so I probably had the bye. This did gave an opportunity to take a look in the large box of unsorted cards Wijnand had brought, so I took the time looking throught that and bought a couple unlimited evil presences which I didn't have yet. I was also hoping to find a Hyperion Blacksmith in his box of low priced cards because I really want to try that card in my sideboard some time, but no such luck. Edo would have a couple of signed ones for me later on in the day though :) I also took the time to look around to see some nice decks, including a really cool eureka deck :)

I also ran into another Peter, who is also a regular in the Draconian Cylex Series:

Looking at the selfie now, the hall seems kind of deserted, but there were more than 50 players in the room.

My companion Peter had again won 2-0 with the UG deck. The deck seems to fit him :)

On round 3 my opponent was Hero, who I've played a lot against in Oldschool and Ancient tournaments. He was playing a deck similar to mine, so that promised to be an interesting match. On game one, we both opened with this:

Mine was first on my first turn, so if nothing else happened, I would win :) we traded off some creatures, then I got a second dreams before he did, and the first game was mine.The second game I was thinking I was doing okay, building up in the first turns to use both my tutor and my balance, but Hero got to me first, by balancing both of them out of my hand with the use of moxen. I never recovered from that, so that game was his. It would be up to the third game. I had sided in 2 COP black and a paralize. If I would get a COP out, I should be able to win this one. I was pretty pleased with my opening hand which had both a scrublands and a COP black next to some swamps and creatures, so was pretty confident I had a good chance when Hero opened with underground sea, dark ritual, sol ring, Juzam Djinn. I played a swamp, thinking he might sinkhole my first land and I would need the scrublands later. He then hit me with the Juzam Djinn, played time walk, than hit me again and played chaos orb. Nice :) I played my scrublands and tapped out for the COP black, as I did not have anything better to do. Hero hit me with the djinn again, so all I could hope for was that he would miss the orb flip on my COP, which he didn't. I played a blocker, which the Juzam Djinn ate, and one turn later that was it. 

When I asked Peter, he was smiling because the U/G deck was still performing just fine. Berserk for the win, he was 3-0 by now. 

On round 4, I played against a mono black deck with Jade statues and mishra's factories, combined with pestilence. He would activate the factories after using the pestilence, keeping it in play. Certainly an interesting deck and pestilence is quite bad against my smaller critters. He wiped two off them of the board because I didn't see the pestilence coming in game one. I did manage to get to my white mana and disenchants and swords to plowshares though, so I could get rid of the pestilence and statues that way. When we both were stalling, I drew my braingeyser. This was a last minute addition which was kind of a gamble with only six permanent blue mana sources in the deck next to the lotus, but I wanted to try it anyway, thinking late game I should have the mana available. In this case, this turned out to be true, I drew 6 cards and the advantage it gave me won me the game. The second game I sided in dust to dust, my 4th disenchant, divine offering and COP black, all of which was enought to win me the game. 

Peters luck had run out in round 4, he had gone for a quick double giant growth-berserk doing 16 damage with a pixie while his opponent was tapped out, but never got past his opponents swords to plowshares and counters after that.

On round 5, I played someone I had also played against in Hilversum in the Frost Giant Cup and we both played pretty much the same deck as then. I beat him then, so I was feeling good about my chances. I then proceeded to get two pretty bad mana screws in a row, the second of which was the most interesting. I drew the two cities of brass in my deck, and he played a city in a bottle. I then drew no lands at all for 5 turns, and I never got to my second land in play because I was already beaten. This was also one of those moments I really started questioning what's wrong with my shuffling :) I mean really, in 4 matches I had 3 mana screws and 2 mana flows, so I must be doing something wrong. I got some advice from Marten how he shuffled his deck, and decided to use his way of shuffling next time. 

I played some nice games while the top 8 was playing out and bought some more cards while Peter was making smug comments about me being a card addict :) I suppose I am, but I try to keep it in check. Some pictures of the top 8:

There were some really cool decks in the top 8, so we decided to stay until the final match to see it all happen. We went home after the last match, enjoying the decks and the plays greatly. I must say I was kind of disappointed with my deck's performance. I even briefly considered selling off my deck, because a black deck just did not seem to favor me this day. 

Fortunately I didn't, because I wouldn't want to miss the magic of these gatherings. There is something really cool about oldschool/ancient gatherings because it's all about the atmosphere, the old cards and the good natured players. After this glorious day, I decided to go ahead with an idea we've had for some time to add a Swedish style event to our tournament agenda, so we now support French oldschool, Ancient and Swedish oldschool. You can find it in the events section if you're interested.