Shark week!
During the summer of 2010, 93/94 expanded outside the original playgroups from Team 0-2 Drop and the Gothenburg casual scene. Players from Lindköping, Varberg and Stockholm started playing, and you got to see actual new faces at the tournaments. The first tournament where this was evident was GP Rotary 2010, hosted at Rotary Pub during the weekend of a Wizards held Grand Prix in Gothenburg. This was the first time I met people like Robert Schram and Dan Holm, and the first time I played against Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson in a tournament.
Viktor had fixed a lot of things in preparation for the tournament (not including slimming his deck below 70 cards). In particular he had made a glorious trophy that hosted a cut-out of a Giant Shark. During the upcoming tournaments at BSK and n00bcon, this tradition carried over, and we found it very sweet to give the winners something more for their decks if they won a larger tournament. The trophy is obviously nice, but playing with a sub-par card in your deck as a permanent sign of your victory will show off bragging rights in all future tournaments in a whole other way. It's also kind of fun that you only get to win a $0.10 card while competing with $5000 decks, and that you then need to play that card in said deck.
The old Shark-winners and their decks can be an interesting study on both the players and the meta during the last 3 years. I'll start with looking at the winners from GP Rotary, BSK 2010, and n00bcon 3. As a side note, since BSK 2011 players have started to give out prices to other competitors for their sweet play, sweet decks, or contributions to the community. These prices are usually worth far more than a Giant Shark, so if you want to play for value, play a cool deck ;)
The first guy to win a Giant Shark tournament was Kalle Nord at GP Rotary 2010. Kalle is one of the founders of the 93/94 community, and apart from being one of the first two players in the format he started the first web forum dedicated to 93/94 Magic. He also topped the pimpwalker standings last season; showing both skill and dedication to the format. Not the least, he is a good friend and a great guy.
Kalle wrote a tournament report about his tournament at GP Rotary 2010. I'll probably translate it and post it here in the near future, and hence won't get in to further details about the tournament at the moment. Kalle played a fairly standard version of The Deck, but with the full set of 4 Serra Angels and no Mishra's Factories. Here's the decklist:
The next Shark tournament was BSK 2010. This was the first 93/94 tournament at BSK, and even though we had booked some hotel rooms (as we've done since 2005), we hadn't booked any suites suitable for playing in. We ended up having the tournament in the hotel bar, which made the seatings kind of amusing, but on the other hand made us able to order beers from our tables. The tournament was won by Dan Holm; a true old school player and later one of the moderators of the Swedish Old School Mtg forum at svenskamagic.com.
Due to engagements with his family during easter, Dan has been unable to make it to any n00bcon during the last years. On the other hand, he has top8'd every one of the last three BSK tournaments, in addition to winning the one in 2010. His winning list was a Moat Control deck with huge fliers and Spirit links, which he used to beat Pefken's Zoo deck in the finals. This is what he had sleeved up:
Next up was n00bcon III, a really sweet tournament. Apart from alcohol and atmosphere, I got to play against a lot of amazing decks and players. This was also the first tournament for players like Hjalmar Backlund and the first tournament when I played with a power card (Mox Pearl). The winning deck was totally outside the box, a Colossus of Sardia Control deck that used All Hallow's Eve to reanimate multiple Colossi at once. The winner was of course Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson, one of the main innovators that moved 93/94 outside the Gothenburg area, and the guy that introduced Giant Shark as a price in tournaments. This is his Colossus Control list:
I'll follow up with the next three shark winners next week (Robert Schram, Pefken, and Elof x3). Already starting to look forward to next BSK :)
Viktor had fixed a lot of things in preparation for the tournament (not including slimming his deck below 70 cards). In particular he had made a glorious trophy that hosted a cut-out of a Giant Shark. During the upcoming tournaments at BSK and n00bcon, this tradition carried over, and we found it very sweet to give the winners something more for their decks if they won a larger tournament. The trophy is obviously nice, but playing with a sub-par card in your deck as a permanent sign of your victory will show off bragging rights in all future tournaments in a whole other way. It's also kind of fun that you only get to win a $0.10 card while competing with $5000 decks, and that you then need to play that card in said deck.
 |
| 93/94 for dummies. |
The first guy to win a Giant Shark tournament was Kalle Nord at GP Rotary 2010. Kalle is one of the founders of the 93/94 community, and apart from being one of the first two players in the format he started the first web forum dedicated to 93/94 Magic. He also topped the pimpwalker standings last season; showing both skill and dedication to the format. Not the least, he is a good friend and a great guy.
 |
| Viktor, Kalle and me after GP Rotary. Shark at the top of the trophy! |
| CREATURES (4) 4 Serra Angel ENCHANTMENTS (2) 2 Moat SORCERIES (8) 1 Fireball 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Mind Twist 1 Balance 1 Braingeyser 1 Timetwister 1 Time Walk 1 Recall INSTANTS (16) 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Disenchant 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Power Sink 2 Counterspell 4 Mana Drain ARTIFACTS (12) 2 Jayemdae Tome 2 Disrupting Scepter 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby 1 Black Lotus 1 Mana Vault 1 Sol Ring | LANDS (18) 4 City of Brass 4 Tundra 2 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 1 Plateau 2 Plains 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Maze of Ith 1 Strip Mine SIDEBOARD 1 Earthquake 3 Red Elemental Blast 1 Control Magic 3 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Greater Realm of Preservation 2 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Dust to Dust 2 Wrath of God |
The next Shark tournament was BSK 2010. This was the first 93/94 tournament at BSK, and even though we had booked some hotel rooms (as we've done since 2005), we hadn't booked any suites suitable for playing in. We ended up having the tournament in the hotel bar, which made the seatings kind of amusing, but on the other hand made us able to order beers from our tables. The tournament was won by Dan Holm; a true old school player and later one of the moderators of the Swedish Old School Mtg forum at svenskamagic.com.
 |
| Serra with Spirit Link; the original Baneslayer. |
| CREATURES (12)
4 Serendib Efreet 3 Hypnotic Specter 4 Serra Angel 1 Mahamoti Djinn ENCHANTMENTS (3) 2 Control Magic 1 Moat SORCERIES (7) 2 Wrath of God 1 Balance 1 Time Walk 1 Mind Twist 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Recall INSTANTS (10) 4 Swords to Plowshares 3 Disenchant 2 Psionic Blast 1 Ancestral Recall ARTIFACTS (8) 1 Black Lotus 1 Sol Ring 1 Mana Vault 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Pearl | LANDS (20) 1 Maze of Ith 1 Strip Mine 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Mishra’s Factory 4 City of Brass 4 Tundra 3 Underground Sea 2 Scrubland SIDEBOARD 2 Armageddon 3 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Disenchant 2 Divine Offering 2 Disrupting Scepter 3 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Spirit Link |
Next up was n00bcon III, a really sweet tournament. Apart from alcohol and atmosphere, I got to play against a lot of amazing decks and players. This was also the first tournament for players like Hjalmar Backlund and the first tournament when I played with a power card (Mox Pearl). The winning deck was totally outside the box, a Colossus of Sardia Control deck that used All Hallow's Eve to reanimate multiple Colossi at once. The winner was of course Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson, one of the main innovators that moved 93/94 outside the Gothenburg area, and the guy that introduced Giant Shark as a price in tournaments. This is his Colossus Control list:
| CREATURES (3)
3 Colossus of Sardia ENCHANTMENTS (6) 4 Sylvan Library 2 The Abyss SORCERIES (7) 1 Regrowth 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Mind Twist 2 All Hallow’s Eve 1 Balance 1 Wrath of God INSTANTS (13) 1 Ancestral Recall 4 Disenchant 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Mana Drain ARTIFACTS (9) 1 Sol Ring 1 Black Lotus 1 Disrupting Scepter 2 Jalum Tome 2 Millstone 2 Tormod’s Crypt |
LANDS (22)
1 Scrubland 1 Swamp 1 Plains 1 Tundra 4 City of Brass 2 Tropical Island 2 Savannah 3 Underground Sea 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Strip Mine 1 Maze of Ith SIDEBOARD 3 Tundra 4 Counterspell 2 Control Magic 2 Serra Angel 1 The Abyss 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Circle of Protection: Red 1 Braingeyser |
 |
| "Screw the throphy filled with a mix of Gonzo and Bigfoot, look at this friggin' Shark!" |
Actually, I showed up during your first tournament at Gothcon and I took notes and parings during a Rotary events. Also, I belived I played some with a borrowed deck during BSK 2010, rememberd that the deck I played (some Blue-Black Juzam, Serendib, Aggro-thing) could not ever beat Dan, I think I gave up at 0-8 or something :)
SvaraRadera/
elof
Ha, that's obviously true. You even wrote a report of one of my games at n00bcon 2, and of course we hung out at Gothcon 2008 as well. It must have been flashbacks of the creep-dance at n00bcon 3 that made me misremember ;) I'll update the post.
SvaraRadera