Enter the Dragon, a report from Pimpvitational

Today I have the pleasure of posting Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson's report from the Pimpvitational tournament. Enjoy! /mg

After 15 years, my oldest friend Munchhausen finally got his Magic-relapse. Together we were, as far as I know, the first in the metropolis Rolfstorp who began playing Magic in 1995. Now, 19 years later, we sat with his saved old common cards and talked about old times over a beer. Munchhausen had prepared an old favourite that killed all my huge Scaled Wurm with Mana Flared Fireballs.

During a sleepless night later in the week the inspiration kicked in and "The Dragon" was born as a seed of thought. Pimpvitational 12/13 drew near and the last cards to the deck landed the same week. The foundation of "The Dragon" was the same as in Munchausen's 95-deck with Mana Flare, but as always I prefer to win with cooler cards, so I topped "The Dragon" with its beating heart, Shivan Dragon! The coolest card in mine and Munchausen’s old decks from 1995.

The Swedish term "Shivan is a house" got a whole new meaning in this deck, when his first attack in the first tournament duel easily pumped up to 22/5. Gajols Birds of Paradise, who blocked this monster and saved Gajols skins only made a burned, black cracking sound before he fell lifeless from the sky. However, "The Dragon" breathes fire through many sources, and the next round Gajol got two Fireballs for 24 in the head! Overkill with fire is beautiful! :)

Pictured: Overkill.

To unlock this huge source of mana I used Mana Flare combined with Candelabra of Tawnos . The latter was also used to efficiently abuse Maze of Ith and the Library of Alexandria. To further strangle the opponent’s access to mana, Winter Orb landed as a delightful paradox in "The Dragon" since it does not stab my own combo significantly. To get further use of Winter Orb I played Power Sink before Counterspell and an Icy Manipulator on top.

For the win as well as for the defense, in addition to Shivan Dragon, 4 Fireballs and 3 Eathquakes easily cleared the road. A little splash of a white Balance and a Circle of Protection: Red defended both against Earthquake and other "The Deck" Fireballs. If you are one of those who don’t hold Circles in high regard, ask for Elof the Mighty’s opinion who lost to "The Dragon" due to Juzam Djinn against Circle of Protection: Black.

The "restricted list keep" against Kalle.

Everything above is a bunch of cool cards with a lovely touch of nostalgia and a fantastic wincon, but the card that really made "The Dragon" brutal on both the offensive and the defensive and would become the true engine of the deck was Hurkyl's Recall. This stunning card made ​​all other cards in the deck better. A few obvious examples might be Candelabra of Tawnos, well... I take 14 mana to the pool, again... Or Winter Orb, well, let’s untap all my lands... or the killer combo Nevinyrral’s Disk, well ... I pump all my mana to the pool, draw a card with Tome, kill EVERYTHING on the table, play out all my artefacts again including disk, pump all my mana again, draws another card with the Tome and laughs merrily aloud! Muahahaha!

Hurkyl's Recall was also a fantastic card on the defensive against the big guys and heavy artefacts like Juggernaught and Su-Shi. Or why not play it on the opponent just before casting a balance or a Wheel of Fortune!

Since this event was not only the first Pimpvitational ever to be seen, it was also was premiered test with Fallen Empire in the card pool, I knew that many would play black and certainly some red. "The Dragon" also saw a threat in the classic “The Deck” and Mishra’s Factory and therefore played many Blood Moon together with Red Elemental Blast in the sideboards to defend the huge Fireballs. Lots of Circle of Protection also caused several opponents to raise their brows and wrinkle their foreheads.

Stalin blasts a Dragon, but the Giant Shark is still looking strong :)

To summarize the Pimpvitational spectacle and "The Dragon", it was seven of the sharpest minds and most thoroughly tested decks ever to be seen in the game. To measure up this was Oldschool’s "The Dragon" which in turn was just a thought in Oldschools mind never to have seen any actual play before the tournament. Despite this "The Dragon" won duels against all opponents except Honka’s Guardian Beast - Chaos Orb - top decking - deck... This was the last game in the tournament and not to win a duel here stung extra in the heart. Honka got to play his entire combo to the table and started grinning tirelessly, just to see "The Dragon" blow it all away in a violent breath of recalled fire.”The Dragon” went in for the kill with a last inhalation but Honka managed to top deck his Demonic Tutor for a really, really, really lengthy win...

Circle of Protection in hand when Mg combos out with Land's Edge.

Anyway, "The Dragon" was a delight to play and surprisingly hot. "The Dragon" crushed poor Gajol who didn’t had much more than a Birds of Paradise to put up against the full might of “The Dragon” in force. It won 2-0 against Elof the Mighty who have won the most sharks in the world. "The Dragon" picked points against Egget who has been involved in most shark finals in the world. "The Dragon" also scored a point against the legend and founder of this blog Cjva. "The Dragon" picked points against Jocke who went 7-0 in this Pimpvitational and won the final. Finally "The Dragon" scored points against the man, the myth, the legend himself, Mg. Despite a Circle of Protection: Red he managed to win breathlessly just before "The Dragon" was to release his final breath for one last barbecue.

Now "The Dragon" crawls back into his cave to rest and grow even stronger... and who knows... maybe it will be you who gets to behold the horrific potential of the fully grown Dragon just before the white flames consumes you...

/Viktor "Oldschool" Peterson