n00bcon, the big finale and the beginning of something great. Part 1.
This last weekend we held n00bcon and it was bigger then my wildest fantasies could ever imagine. 34 people attended, almost twice the size of the proxy vintage tournament down at the main convention. More people found it more rewarding to play a format that does not allow proxies, that does not allow budget alternatives in revised, 4th edition, Italian legends etc then to play in a cheap format where you could proxy all the expensive parts of your deck.
It makes me happy. Vintage to me share many similarities with 93/94 in that its mostly a social experience. I play vintage and 93/94 cause I can play with cards that I sought after and struggled to obtain when I started playing magic around 17 years ago. I play with people that whatever the prize they still play in a very casual manner. Yes, vintage does broken things, but the people playing vintage are amongst the most laid back people I know. Just like the 93/94 community are and should be. 93/94 are mainly a format that allow adults with a mortgage to pay, a family to focus on and a job to do well in, to take some time off, hang out with people that they have grown up with in the magic community, drink some beer and chat. The actual playing of the cards are secondary, or rather a third or forth priority. Its also a format that caters to the collectors in the overall magic community.
Champ down at Gothcon gave n00bcon a very good description. Its our Annual meeting in our mutual admiration society, and yea, it kinda is.
Per Olofson might be the role model for how a member of our community are supposed to be. Casual, happy, with a suitable taste for subtle pimpin.
Before the tournament started people have been at the site for several hours. Chatting about strategy, the overall development of our format, playing different casual formats, drinking or just hanging out with people they haven't seen for more then a year. Martin Berlin also brought his 93/94 cube, and they had a cube draft with it during the day (that I missed when I where down at Gothcon scorekeeping).
Seeing the first everybody was eager to win, and everybody still believed that they had a fighting chance to win the Trophy and the Giant Shark that comes with it at our major tournaments. Every real winner should obviously also play their Giant Sharks somewhere in the 75. To prove their worth and show their opponent what they have to win over. A champion.
Oldschool proving his worth with the signed Giant Shark from one of the earlier tournaments he won, and with the great taste to actually ply it in his deck.
During the tournament I got to battle lots of different decks, with lots of different techs. My sweetest match was when I got to play Stasis mirror vs Berlins stasis. We both started of with a similar mono-U build, realized that it sucked and evolved it in different ways. I went for the UBW build playing black for Demonic Tutor and Mindtwist. White for Kismet, Swords to Plowshares, Moat, Island Sanctuary and Land Tax (probably the worst card in my deck) and he went for a RUG build.
His build where probably better then mine. Playing REB as a sweet main deck tech for when you face "the Deck", that also destroy your own stasis in your opponents EOT when needed. I won game one when I mana drained his Mirror Universe, and he let me. In my turn I tap up, pay UU and the 6 colorless from Mirror Universe to Braingeyser him for 6 and winning a counterspell duel, with about 6 counterspells of different sorts on the stack. My geyser put him way beyond me in our Howling Mine race, and he could not utilize the extra 6 cards in his hand in this match up.
Game two he won with an early mana short into a stasis lock (I answered with a quick scoop so we could have 20+ minutes for the last game)
Game three I won on my back up plan vs his back up plan. I got a Serra Angel to stick while he diminished my library with a millstone. When I later played Stasis as a 2 turn Time Walk the deal was sealed. It did not matter that his deck was better then mine, in magic, the greater player always win.
Somewhere around round 3 we also had to drop a player since he where not able to keep on playing in the tournament. He had fallen to sleep drunk and happy in one of the sofas.
There will come a later post on the blog with standings and the decks who made the top 8. But the eventual winner of the tournament was Pefken. One of the more notable vintage players in Sweden, who opted to play a parfait deck during n00bcon.
Pefkens winning deck.
It makes me happy. Vintage to me share many similarities with 93/94 in that its mostly a social experience. I play vintage and 93/94 cause I can play with cards that I sought after and struggled to obtain when I started playing magic around 17 years ago. I play with people that whatever the prize they still play in a very casual manner. Yes, vintage does broken things, but the people playing vintage are amongst the most laid back people I know. Just like the 93/94 community are and should be. 93/94 are mainly a format that allow adults with a mortgage to pay, a family to focus on and a job to do well in, to take some time off, hang out with people that they have grown up with in the magic community, drink some beer and chat. The actual playing of the cards are secondary, or rather a third or forth priority. Its also a format that caters to the collectors in the overall magic community.
Champ down at Gothcon gave n00bcon a very good description. Its our Annual meeting in our mutual admiration society, and yea, it kinda is.
During the tournament I got to battle lots of different decks, with lots of different techs. My sweetest match was when I got to play Stasis mirror vs Berlins stasis. We both started of with a similar mono-U build, realized that it sucked and evolved it in different ways. I went for the UBW build playing black for Demonic Tutor and Mindtwist. White for Kismet, Swords to Plowshares, Moat, Island Sanctuary and Land Tax (probably the worst card in my deck) and he went for a RUG build.
Game two he won with an early mana short into a stasis lock (I answered with a quick scoop so we could have 20+ minutes for the last game)
Game three I won on my back up plan vs his back up plan. I got a Serra Angel to stick while he diminished my library with a millstone. When I later played Stasis as a 2 turn Time Walk the deal was sealed. It did not matter that his deck was better then mine, in magic, the greater player always win.
Somewhere around round 3 we also had to drop a player since he where not able to keep on playing in the tournament. He had fallen to sleep drunk and happy in one of the sofas.
There will come a later post on the blog with standings and the decks who made the top 8. But the eventual winner of the tournament was Pefken. One of the more notable vintage players in Sweden, who opted to play a parfait deck during n00bcon.
Here you see the two finalist battling it out. Pefken on the left with his Parfait, and Schram on the right with his "the Deck". With some luck Ill try to get them to write their stories from the tournament so I can publish it on the blog.
Pefkens winning deck.
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