Decks to beat and Arvika preparations

I'm not currently in possession of the best of internet connections.

This weekend, we'll go to Arvika. About a year ago KungMarkus said that the Arvika Festival would soon become the third largest 93/94 event in Sweden, beating gatherings like Warcon, Sehlskapsspelen, Frippan Open, L.I.G.G. and Wexio in awesomeness and attendance. And it looks like they've already done it. 33 players have signed up so far to battle in the small city; a hair's breath from the number of players at last year's national Vintage championships. We're looking at six rounds before the top8, and as awesomess goes, the ambience at Arvika last year made it one of my favorite Magic events of 2015. Casual gaming, sweet decks, and lots of cheap beer. Arvika is a haven for the #mtgunderground in ways few gatherings are.

I once lost a game against the Safe Have / Preacher combo btw. Good Magic was had.

I will per chance defend my title from last year with a vengeance. I have a monstrosity of a deck I've wanted to try in a tournament for a long time. It's not perfected, both due to a lack of cards and a lack of testing, but I still think it's a machine. It's not a deck I will be sleeving up often as it's a little too linear for my taste, but this weekend I want to see what the current version can do in a pit fight. I've already started writing my victory report. Let the trash talk commence ;)

I'll keep it reasonably short today, but we have a few more decks to beat from the last few months.

Gothenburg Invitational 93/94 Top4
8 participants, photos of 4/4 decks. Kenneth Mossberg hosted a tournament inviting Swedish Pro Tour players from the mid nineties and a handful of the top rated 93/94 profiles in the country. Free Imperial Stouts and an abundance of liquor was provided, as well as the first 93/94 twitch stream. The eternal luck-sack Kalle ended up on top with one of the most pimped decks I've ever seen in the format, snubbing The Deck, Troll Disco and Undead Party Crasher Porter from glory in the top4.

Karlstad 93/94 FNM top4
9 participants, photos of 4/4 decks. Yeah, you don't have to sleeve up Type2 and sit in a game store to play FNM anymore. Mikael Mällroth gathered a rag-tag crew of delinquents to battle for foils with the oldest of cards in The Leprechaun Pub in Karlstad. Lestree Zoo, Ponza, Toolbox Murderers and MonoBlue Artifacts battled it out in the top4, eventually leaving Artelas and his artifacts at the top of the heap.

Sehskapsspelen 2015 top4
12 participants, photos of 4/4 decks. Erik "Sehl" Larsson hosted his second yearly tournament in Åsa during the Christmas holidays. Some savage tech in the top4, with surprisingly few blue cards and instead a slew of Erhnam Djinns, Atogs and Avoid Fates. JummJumm's Time Vault Burn and Elof's Artifact Smash faced off in the finals, after stopping Erhnamgeddon and Erhnam Burn'em cold in the semis. 

In other parts of the world, there was recently a gathering of wizards in Chicago. You should check out Dominic Dotterer's excellent tournament report at Danny Friedman's blog and Jason Jaco's photo report at Eternal Central. A few of the larger tournament circuits have also showed more interest in the format. GP Houston has a 93/94 side event planned for February 28th. On the other side of the ocean, the Bazaar of Moxen organizers announced a few days ago that they will host Old School gatherings as part of their schedule. The BoM rules differs somewhat to those recommended e.g. here, at Eternal Central or in Ravenna, but hopefully the ambience will be sweet. That is something to be said for the Chicago Mages btw; with Fallen Empires, house rules, and un-restricted Strip Mines and Workshops, they still really embrace the the spirit of the format. The prices in the tournaments are usually whatever the players bring to the table, beer and good times are aplenty, and judging from the reports players aren't afraid to sleeve up sub-optimal decks and just enjoy themselves. I hope to visit them sometime in not to far future.