Warcon 2013, aka Kingvitational 0.5

The initial plan was to take an early train to Varberg to get to the convention around 11 am. My weekend began with a trip from Oslo to Gothenburg, and as my girlfriend was leaving Gothenburg for Stockholm early Saturday morning, the idea was to get to the central station early with her and get to Warcon in time for their legacy tournament. A few weeks ago, we learned that Warcon would not host a 93/94 tournament like last year however, so the timing restrictions were suddenly off. As a community, we are not adverse to finding our own solutions for these kind of things, and Kingen took the initiative to host Kingvitational 0.5 in it's place.

Erling, aka Icelander, initiated this years road trip from Gothenburg, and around lunch the car consisting of him, me and Åland were on the road. This is what I had sleeved up:

Double Sol'Kanar!

 We arrived at the convention site at 3 pm to meet up with some old faces. Elof and a few more were playing the legacy tournament, and Pefken had travelled down to Varberg for vacation with his fiancée and would join us tonight as well. After some friendly greetings and light trash talk, I, Åland and Erling took the car down to the central station to meet up with Rafiki and Honka who'd come from Skåne and Halmstad respectively. Freespace from Gothenburg decided to join up as well, which meant good times and a few more hours of nerd-slacking while waiting him in.

Gathering magic and beer.

Our dinner included a very coincidental meeting with Kingen and the others, as it turned out that he lived right next to the place where we ate. Kingen's home was a nice apartment where, for some reason, the windows could not be opened. As 12 guys inside a not-huge apartment during a very hot summer day may get a little dank, Kingen had placed fans throughout the place. These fans turned out to be sneaky.

Game one I faced Rafiki, who was the bartender at last n00bcon and now played in his first old school tournament. Game one I take a mulligan to 6, and get to learn why power cards are called power cards. I've never cast either my lotus nor my ancestral before, but get to break that streak by casting ancestral at the end of Rafiki's first turn, and then play Land, Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, Lotus, Guardian Beast on turn two.

Magic!

I later transmute my stone into a Chaos Orb to get the Orb/Beast combo going and close out the game. What I did not consider was however the moving fan right next to our table, and my Orb blows away and misses it's target completely. This gives Rafiki enough mana to fireball my Guardian Beast, and suddenly the game isn't a lock anymore. As luck would have it though, I draw a Recall and can pick up Ancestral, Guardian Beast and the Orb, and get to close the game. During the game, I also managed to resolve both Mirror Universe and Mind Twist, so it felt slightly unfair.

Second one is unfair for our hero though, as I mull to three, and never come back. Third one is even more anticlimactic, when I mull once again and manage to resolve about one Su-chi as the total number of spells in the match, and most of my other cards were lands. Rafiki had a very good start in the third game anyway, but mana problems are still annoying. Guess I'll just win my next three matches for top4.

Second match is against Honka who plays No-win. How much no-win you ask? He plays two Feldon's Cane. Not even Millstone.

Three dudes playing Howling Mines.

 Me and Honka are terribly good friends and old sports. We do go way back, and initially got to know each other by working in the same pub; playing magic together actually came far later. One of his first decks when we started playing casual together had no wincons whatsoever, and only aimed to make the opponent scoop in disgust. He succeeds with this during our first game as well; after exiling pretty much all my relevant spells, a Wheel of Fortune gives me both Juzam and Doppelganger. Honka is at about 50 life, but I slam them both as they should be able to take the game and they are among the coolest cards ever at the same time. When Honka laughs and casts Balance, my scoop is inevitable. Turns out the rounds are untimed however, and I manage to beat him in the next two rounds. This time Kingen helped me by blocking the room's fan before my Chaos Orb flips btw. Still alive for top4.

Elof does the sideway face palm.

 In match three, I face the host himself, Kingen. At n00bcon he was sporting a Power Artifact deck, but I'm not sure what to expect this time. I keep a sketchy two-land hand (with a stone though), and Kingen proceeds to cast Relic Barrier followed by Ice Storm. Land destruction it is. I turn out to be a very skilled magic player, and draw lands for three rounds to keep the game alive. After a few tight rounds, I manage to let my second Sol'Kanar stick and take the game. The next game is completely skill based. Kingen starts with Library of Alexandria, but I have black mox, mishra, lotus and Mind Twist to pull four cards from him, shutting down his library. The cards turned out to be two city of brass, island and relic barrier. Not only did I manage to get all his blue sources, that was all his lands, and he had a hand with ancestral which would make his library even more reliable. Those cards never see play though, as I turn two tutor for Sol Ring, cast Su-chi turn three, and follow up with another Su-chi turn four.

Easy game. Slightly lucky.

Match four then, facing Åland's The Deck for a win and in. If nothing else, it would be nice to win just to have another game to report on. Åland came second at Warcon last year, and went top8 at n00bcon, so he's not an easy opponent. I take home game one by having the control magic for his Serra Angel, and he wins game two off two fireballs and some damage from tapping my city with his Icy. Game three is very tight, but I resolve a Disrupting Sceptre and can Transmute a Fellwar Stone into a Jayemdae Tome for a lot of card advantage (pretty nice against The Deck). Eventually I find an answer to his Moat, and my Mishras and a big guy (I want to say Sol'Kanar) manage to beat past his Maze. I'm off to top4 :)

Eyes on the prize!

Top4 does surprisingly not contain a single The Deck, nor Elof. It also just missed Viktor "Oldschool" Petersson new Smoke/Winter Orb/Icy Manipulator deck with triple Millstone. It does however contain Erling (monoblue), Brorsan (ww), and Pefken. I can't remember a tournament since Pefken started playing 93/94 in 2010 when he hasn't been in the top4 btw. Pefken was the only player to 4-0 the swiss, and his deck is just beautiful. It's a 4-colour Juzam/Sengir/Detonate/AvoidFate deck. (Kingen took pictures of the decks again btw, and I'll post them here later.)

Half the top 4; Erling and Pefken.

The other half; Mg and Brorsan.

 I face off against Erling's mono blue in game one. His Floods are highly good, as they keep "turning off" my Guardian Beasts. He manage to Mana Drain a big artifact from me, and then cast double Serendib Efreet to close the first game. I start the second game with a Library, but still have some problems after running into Force Spike, and the fact that Erling had a Boomerang for my Guardian Beast in response to Disk. I gain some life of my Sol'Kanar though, and resolve two Terror to seal the game in my favour. Last game is very tight, but I manage to resolve Mirror Universe to keep it drawn out. At the point I got to activate my Mirror, I was at four and would've lost to a Psionic Blast. He didn't have the Psiblast though, and the insanely good Mirror makes me able to beat him down with my Mishras.

Brorsan's white weenie (without Land Tax!) managed to beat Pefken in the other semi, and we face off in the finals. An interesting note is also that Brorsan actually owns full power, but didn't play any in his deck. Here's the list:

No Land Tax, and Balance isn't even in the sideboard. Very next level.

Game one, Brorsan puts on pressure with two Lions, Tundra Wolves, Crusade and Thunder Spirit. I have a Su-Chi and a Doppelganger to keep the fort, but as the Doppelganger wont copy the colour of creatures, his Thunder Spirit is larger than a copied one would be due to Crusade. He does have the Disenchant for my Disk, but I manage to active my Mirror to keep the game going. He eventually finds Armageddon and his second Crusade before I can do something even more unfair, and the weenies takes down game one. Game two is very tight. I manage to cheat Armageddon with my Fellwar Stones, and resolve an Abyss. It is still ridiculously tight, and I just manage to Transmute my book to a Mirror Universe, with me at 4 life and Brorsan with one plains, thunder spirit, lion and crusade in play. Maybe I should have gone for the forcefield, as he could very well have a Crusade in hand and draw a plains for the win. He doesn't however, and I get to activate my Mirror and beat down with Su-chi.

Last game, for all the marbles (or at least a signed Relic Barrier). I manage to create some early board presence, and have at least one relevant terror. Brorsan is blisteringly fast however, and it looks very tough, even though I get both Old Man and Ancestral early. The weenies laugh in the face of my Jovial Evil, and Brorsan deservingly takes the title of Kingvitational 0.5 Champion!

"Sure, Jovial Evil resolve, I take 8. May I attack for 14?"

Very sweet tournament, and we sit around in Kingen's apartement and chat for an hour, when the clock strikes 4 am. As our host is slightly tired; I, Elof, Honka and Rafiki walks the Varberg night to Elofs apartment where we get to borrow beds and mattresses.

Varberg Night Nerd Thugz!

I have to get up early in the morning to travel back to Gothenburg to catch my bus to Oslo, and I leave Honka and Rafiki at Elof's. It's a calm ride home, and I really appreciate these tournaments. It's a great excuse to hang out with sweet people, and I'm already looking forward to see you again at BSK in the autumn!