Pictures from Arvika Festival 3

Arvika Festival 3. In the world I see, this is how Magic should be played.

It started with 16 players two years ago, expanded to 34 last year, and hit 47 this time. It is not unlikely that this was the largest Magic tournament in Arvika ever, regardless of format. The word is spreading and people travel from far to be a part of the festivities.

Train people.

The Train People -this time consisting of Hardy, Øyann and myself - arrived in Arvika Friday evening and stayed with KungMarkus and his family for the full weekend. Had our traditional fight with their dog and got filled up on good beer and good food.

Last year I wrote an in-depth report of my experience from the tournament. This time I'll take an easier route and approach it the way I did the first one. We had guests in our apartment this week and I didn't find the time to go deep nerd and write a lot. What I will say is that the difference between having your fiancée in South Sudan in the middle of a tribal war and her being in Arvika playing the tournament with you is a world. The latter option was far better for the nerves.

Markus Lundqvist casually (*cough*) hosted an 11-hour stream of the entire main tournament from London. There are some sweet decks and interviews, I recommend scrolling through it if you missed it last weekend. You can find the full stream at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/124654483. And as alway, Markus and the Skype players will do a Super Sunday this weekend as well, check out https://www.twitch.tv/oldschoolmtg for more info.

But now, lets look at some pictures from the weekend in Arvika.

Starting Friday night with some HaupsCube shenanigans at KungMarkus place. Hardy fails to properly sneak in his Sneakyface and the end is night.

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad // So I had one more for dessert. Ever so slightly hungover a gang of scoundrels gather at noon to play "påsdraft". Randomized packs from between Stronghold and Shadowmoor picked from a plastic bag, courtesy of Mällroth.

Polers and Øyann finished 1st and 2nd in the påsdraft after a 2-0-1 record (unintentional draw against each other). They were both on BR btw, Øyann with a very low curve with a bunch of goblins, burn and an Ensnaring Bridge from the Stronghold pack, Polers with a higher curve and a lot of more high-impact cards.

KungMarkus watching over Björn watching over the bar.

The price structure. Unlike most other tournaments, Arvika Festival actually have some fairly high-value prizes to the top finishers. Me: "Are you giving an oversized Shivan Dragon to the 2nd place, and a Portal Three Kingdoms booster to the third?!" Markus: "It should hurt coming second."

Players starts to roll in. Kenneth Mossberg from Gothenburg discuss his EurekaLegends deck with Gordon Andersson from Stockholm.

Berntsson from Arvika resurrected his Aisling Leprechaun deck for the occasion. He was searching for more Lifelaces before the tournament. Still, with only one copy of lace in his deck, he managed to take it to a highly respectable 3-3 finish. Impressive!

William "Timecode" Ljugberg came from Gothenburg to set up a temporary shop at the tournament. Lots of sweet old cards up for grabs to get the last fine-tuning of the decks in place. Including four copies of Black Lotus, but unfortunately not that many Lifelaces along for the ride ;)

Looking through Kalle's tech binder. Yeah, all those cards are Summer Magic.

Gathering the Magic.

I face off against Kalle game one. Three broken games as we both draw far too much power and stupid spells. I did it one game, he did it two.

At the table next to us, real Magic is being played.

Gentleman's agreement. After the broken game one with Kalle, I ask my following opponents to board out LoA and Mind Twist in our games. Aspiring Rookie of the Year Max Weltz gladly agree. 

Facing off against great guy Paddan at 3-1. We keep the gentleman's agreement going. Nobody said anything about the raw power of Mahamothi and Sol'Kanar though!

Round five. I'm starting to take it for granted that pretty much nobody drops in these tournaments. Players gonna play.

Magic's original Art Director and the father of the look and feel of early Magic joins the stream! Legendary Jesper Myrfors checking out the Arvika Festival mofos! Step one, hold the high fives and ask him what was going on with Word of Command ;)

Harsh tiebreakers put Jonas Rebenius just out of contention at 9th place. As tradition holds, he was awarded with a Quagmire. (So I guess that the real first loser was yours truly at 10th place ;)).

Top8! Elof "The Mighty" Gottfridsson face off against Kalle "Egget" Nord in the quarterfinals. Familiar faces in the elimination rounds.

Apart from Kalle and Elof, no player has won more than one Giant Shark. Between them, they hold five. Elof hopes to win his 4th today. If he gets the playset, we as a community have agreed that he may exchange the four Sharks in his deck for a single Leviathan. It would make his future deckbuidling slightly easier.

After ruthless elimination rounds, Andreas Cermak's UWGb Zoo takes down Elof's ErhnamGeddon in the final to claim the Shark and the Festival. Congrats man, and well played! 

Cermak's winning deck from Arvika Festival 3.

I'll post the rest of the decklists from the top8 in the not too distant future. Thanks again for a great tournament, already looking forward to next time!