Shark week 2

There's yet something akin to summer in the Nordic countries, so the spirit is still high up here. Finding some of the last decklists required some digging btw, but I think they are all correct.

Next one on the list was BSK 2011. Here we saw an influx of some old collectors showing up to play; guys that exclusively play 93/94 magic and are mostly unaware of the modern formats. It was really sweet to see guys like Per Olofson and Gunnar for the first time. This was also the first time we had a suite to play in at BSK, and our dedicated scorekeeper Kiddas made the tournament flow well; considering the circumstances. At this point of the format, we didn't have any timing restrictions on the rounds, and the quarter-finals between Robert Schram and Dan Holm took over two and a half hours ;)

BSK 2011 Shark. Signed by the 20-25 players.

Schram eventually won the tournament after beating Kalle in the finals, getting his redemption after losing to him in the finals at GP Rotary. He played The Deck, with Serras and Factories as wincons. It's a really though matchup for any creature-based deck:

CREATURES (3) 3 Serra Angel ENCHANTMENTS (3) 1 Moat 2 Sylvan Library SORCERIES (10) 1 Time Walk 1 Timetwister 1 Braingeyser 1 Recall 1 Balance 2 Wrath of God 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Mind Twist 1 Regrowth INSTANTS (15) 1 Ancestral Recall 4 Mana Drain 4 Counterspell 2 Disenchant 4 Swords to Plowshares ARTIFACTS (8) 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Sol Ring 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby

LANDS (21) 1 Island 2 Plains 2 City of Brass 1 Savannah 2 Underground Sea 2 Tropical Island 4 Tundra 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Strip Mine 1 Maze of Ith 4 Mishra’s Factory SIDEBOARD 1 Black Vise 1 Disrupting Scepter 2 Control Magic 2 Old Man of the Sea 2 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Disenchant 2 Wrath of God 3 Circle of Protection: Red

Easy winnings.

The next shark tournament after BSK was was n00bcon 4, the largest 93/94 tournament so far with 34 participants. Due to pretty intensive drinking and a long tournament (it ended around 4-5 in the morning), my focus wasn't really on top for viewing the top8 (i also missed it myself, ending up in 10th place or so). I know that Pefken won this tournament after beating Schram in the finals however.

Fairly blurry tournament with blurry cards

 Pefken played the first incarnation of Parfait we had seen thus far; this was the first deck that abused Relic Barrier in 93/94 tournaments. It's also pretty sweet that the deck only plays a single Mana Drain, and it's still legal in 93/94:

ENCHANTMENTS (2) 1 Underworld Dreams 1 The Abyss SORCERIES (6) 1 Braingeyser 1 Time Walk 1 Recall 1 Balance 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Mind Twist INSTANTS (10) 2 Divine Offering 1 Ancestral Recall 2 Disenchant 1 Mana Drain 4 Swords to Plowshares ARTIFACTS (24) 4 Howling Mine 4 Relic Barrier 3 Icy Manipulator 1 Jade Statue 2 Winter Orb 3 Fellwar Stone 1 Black Lotus 1 Sol Ring 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Pearl

LANDS (19) 1 Strip Mine 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Mishra’s Workshop 4 Scrubland 2 Tundra 3 City of Brass 2 Underground Sea 1 Maze of Ith 1 Library of Alexandria SIDEBOARD 1 Power Sink 1 Disrupting Scepter 2 Disenchant 2 Underworld Dreams 3 Wrath of God 2 Circle of Protection: Red 1 Jayemdae Tome 3 Blue Elemental Blast

Pefken and Schram battling it out at n00bcon 4

During 2012, there were quite a few local tournaments with around 10 players hosted in Sweden. The prizes for these tournaments included a Strip Mine, a Deep Water, a Moss Monster, and a Chaos Orb. When we got the chance to play at Warcon for the first (and so far only) time, we though that that tournament was sweet enough to warrant a Giant Shark. It was the first tournament at a convention since the format had grown out of the Gothenburg area, and it needed some celebration. This was when Elof entered the scene and started winning all the non-local tournaments. The list he played at Warcon differ quite a bit from the Book Decks he played at BSK 2012 and n00bcon 5. This deck lacks one Mox and Lotus, and plays 8 direct damage spells (including 3 lightning bolts). It also has a much higher density of Sceptres compared to Books. It is affectionately called "The Burn Deck":

INSTANTS(22) 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Disenchant 2 Divine Offering 4 Mana Drain 4 Counterspell 1 Ancestral Recall 2 Psionic Blast 3 Lightning Bolt SORCERIES(7) 1 Balance 1 Recall 1 Time Walk 1 Braingeyser 3 Fireball ARTIFACTS(9) 3 Disruptive Scepter 1 Jayemade Tome 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Emerald 1 Sol Ring

LANDS(22) 4 Tundra 4 Volcanic Island 2 Island 2 Plateau 3 City of Brass 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Strip Mine 4 Mishra's Factory 1 Maze of Ith SIDEBOARD 4 Red Elemental Blast 4 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Divine Offering 2 Control Magic 1 Equinox 2 Stone Rain 1 Greater Realm of Preservation

"I shall get used to this..."

Next up was BSK 2012. We were back in the hotel suites, and we now had timed rounds. The suits were now almost a convention in it's own, as we had two 93/94 tournaments and no less than two 93/94 cubes present for drafting (along with a pre-modern cube, with cards up to the early 2000s). The main tournament started fairly late though, and was again drawn out, so the two finalists (Kalle and Elof) opted to meet up in Gothenburg and play the finals a few weeks later. Once again a sweet tournament with rad dudes, but I think that the intoxication level was once again pretty high during the actual rounds (better to go all in after the tournaments over), and it started very late in the evening. Elof's and Kalle's lists can both be found (with pictures) in Kalle's report of the finals (a post in the blog from December 2012).

Kalle vs. Field of Dreams

And lastly we come to n00bcon 5. n00bcon 5 was one of the only major tournaments where we managed to start fairly early, and we had some sweet pins (and smaller trophies for top4). Elof's winning list can be viewed in the DTB-section of this page, and his future lists now includes these three cards:

If he wins two more, he's allowed to play Giant Shark as a 5-off :)

 I feel that this post is getting pretty long, and that I've already talked quite a bit about last n00bcon, so I think we'll leave it here. It's fun to play old school magic, and the fact that the biggest prize you can win pretty much forces you to play a sub-optimal card is very much in the spirit of the format. Winning is a far second from playing, chatting, building nostalgic decks and meeting good people :)