Pictures from WSK 2015

Last weekend the annual Wexio gaming convention took place in Växjö, Sweden. After having spent the first week of my vacation walking in mountains, horseback riding and attending a country wedding, I felt that it was time to collect some old school nerd points. I got back to Oslo around midnight last Friday, and jumped on the train to Växjö at 7 in the morning.

The Oslo crew consisted of myself, Hardy and Thomas; the guy who recently won Joy Pad Open. We were to meet up with Honka during a ten minute pit stop in Gothenburg. It's been a while since Honka played 93/94, or Magic at all for that matter. Apart from a few games with our drinking cube, this might be the first time in over a year. When he plays, he is usually seen swinging formats like Tribelander, HaupsCube, RRC, Reject Rare Draft or 93/94. He has a fierce dislike for sanctioned formats, and expresses some distress over the fact that he once had to use a personal DCI-number. For this tournament, he had prepared with another players number in case he would have to state one to play.

Rather than writing a coherent report, I'll do it like last year and show some pictures from the WSK weekend.

Playtesting on the train. Hardy unlocks the achievement of Forking my Mind Twist. Magic!

When Honka joined the train in Gothenburg, we got the chance to playtest some Tribelander. After almost two hours, the Thrulls emerged victorious.

The Tribelander tournament started 10 PM in the evening, and attracted an impressive 16 players. That's more than the Standard and Modern tournaments at the convention, second only to Legacy in size. Växjö really attracts some casual mages :) After gruelling eliminations, the final table consisted of Giants, Snakes, Plants and Sphinxes. In the end, my Snakes got to be the last tribe standing, and I'm immensely proud to call myself the first WSK Tribelander champion.

Day 2. Preparing my game face for the 93/94 tournament.

Facing Åland and The Deck in round one. We lamented the fact that the Library is an unfair card before the game started. As a gentlemen's agreement, we opted to play the game without them, and put our libraries aside before the game started. It worked great. From now on, if anyone wants to board them out when playing, I'll be sure to accept the offer.

Tax Edge vs Lestree Zoo. Honka stopped counting his life total once he hit 300. Kind of though matchup for aggro decks.

Enchantress vs Trick Deck.

Enchantress vs Zoo. Turn one.

Stasis/Zak Dolan control vs BRw Aggro Control.

Tax Edge shows how to handle Factory beatdown.

Project M shows how to handle non-land permanents.

Trick Deck vs Control. Underworld Dreams carries a lot of weight.

Facing Eneas with Deadguy in the last round of the swiss. I manage to beat him for a 4-0 record with Project M, while Eneas ends up at 5th place before the top4. He had a similar story at BSK, where he ended up at 9th place. Tiebreakers don't seem to like him.

Living the dream with turn one Sol'Kanar in the semis, but my opponent responds with turn 1 Unsummon. Bad beats. I narrowly avoid a Channel Fireball and manages to take down the match in spite of the untimely bounce.

The Finals! Facing of against former Pro Tour player Thomas, just like at Joypad Open a few weeks ago. This time I come with Project M though, and my hangover is less palpable. Time to get my revenge.

Crazy beats!

After three very tight rounds, Project M emerges victorious! I got a sweet Timetwister into Mind Twist game one, and managed to win round three of the back of a missed Chaos Orb flip on my Maze of Ith.

Into the Växjö night. The trophy is a conversation piece if I ever saw one. Intoxicated ladies wants to know about it and bartenders serves me beer in my new spoils.

The winning deck.

Thanks for a great convention and sweet Magic! I'll be sure to come back next year to defend my new titles ;)