Brews, casualties, and scanners

This escalated quickly. International tournaments in Italy with 30 players, multiple facebook groups about the format, and a lot of opinions about what people like or dislike about the format. It's often the about same things; the legal sets, how we approach reprints, and the B&R are cause of a lot of discussions.

It is fun to see that people share the passion. The guys who are organizing the facebook groups are doing a great job to help players in the community connect. It is more fun to build decks if you actually have someone to play against, and a tournament is usually more fun if you are twelve players than if you are four.

Kind of like that a board state is more fun with three Triskelions than one.

For me, it's important to keep it on a casual level though. I'll of course keep updating this blog as I've done for the last three years, and I'll keep hosting n00bcon Championships and smaller tournaments as I've done the last seven. But I wont go too deep and try to organize the format in other locations in a more structured way. Partly because I don't have the time, and partly because I don't really feel the need to play #mtgunderground in a more structured setting (thanks for the hashtag, DrSuperstition). One thing that I think is worth mentioning though is that allowing proxies will make the experience of the format quite different from what we've been doing here. I think it's important to ask yourselves what you are looking for in the format when deciding on local variations of 93/94. Is it Vintage style tournaments with a smaller card pool, or is it an excuse to hang out with good people and enjoy old beautiful cards and beer? I guess both are viable options, but the choice is easy for me. Proxy tournaments where I can use any cards I want and actually get something valuable out of winning doesn't really do it for me in this format. If I'm playing a tournament with mostly new players, like a month back in Oslo, I'd rather leave my Project M and power at home and play my less powerful monogreen to get more interactive matches. And if there would be "real" prices at stage, I would be much more inclined to add my Lotus and Library to the deck, maybe even a set of Tropicals to get access to blue power. The ambience is different when you are playing for a Mana Drain or Juzam compared to when you are playing for a Relic Barrier autographed by the players.

Can't deny the great ambience caused by playing monogreen :) Black Vise into Ice Storm into Erhnam is bound to make some friends.

If I want to play against opted decks with power, I play Vintage. My goal here is to block Juzam Djinn with Riven Turnbull and turn Factories into Swamps with a Cyclopean Tomb, preferably one without the casting cost printed on it. Maybe transmute a Fellwar Stone into Primal Clay or Channel out a Mirror Universe.

Speaking of Mirror Universe, a few readers have asked how we decide how to change our B&R. Basically we have a smaller Swedish forum at svenskamagic.com where we invite anyone who has organized a 93/94-tournament and a few of the more prolific players in Scandinavia. We also ask around quite a lot, and look at tournament results (both from Scandinavia and other groups). Eventually we reach some sort of consensus, though everyone don't necessarily agree on everything. If I were to roam completely free, I would probably legalize Rebirth. You don't have to ante if you don't want to with that card after all ;)

It is sorcery speed life gain at a cost of six mana (and potentially hundreds of dollars). How can this not be ok?

So anyway, I've spent the last three weekends in London, then in Montenegro, and last weekend celebrating the Norwegian national holidays with friends staying over. I hence haven't had that much time to write something well researched or though out. Being the master planner I am though, I did prepare a post three weeks ago. When I read it again today I felt uncomfortable posting it. It was about me trying to understand how to scan boosters, sorting defects of Legends boxes, and how to find out what's in sealed product from before 4th Edition. I found it fairly entertaining as an historical curiosity about how lousy the packaging and sorting processes used to be, and I did manage to tear a Legends booster in the process (along with seriously wrinkling a The Dark booster), but in the end I don't want to spread the word on how to properly do it. Judging by the emails I've received after my posts on fake cards, booster scanning could be a very touchy subject.

Though I did open a sweet Willow Satyr in the process.

So, instead I started to write a post about which beer you should pair with which deck, and how to metagame by looking at what your opponents are drinking. Did not manage tie the bow on that one yet though. I can tell you that a player drinking something non-alcoholic has high probability of playing The Deck and that a player drinking Double Dog or an American barley wine have pretty good odds of being on some black Bazaar combo (like Colossus Skull or The Machine). It's all very scientific.

Ah, yes, Yeti imperial stout. Clearly Underworld Dreams and/or Juzams ahead.

Let's end today's rant with a couple of decklists from n00bcon 7. Enjoy Ehrnamgeddon and The Burning Abyss.

Macensi's Erhnamgeddon

Axelsson's Burning Abyss