Sharp dressed man at Pimpvitational, part 1

Without further ado, I'll leave the word to swinger of fine cards and wearer of fine beards Johan "FreeSpace" Andersson. Enjoy! /Mg

"If we’re not supposed to dress up then why the fuck is it called the pimpvitational? (Profiling and shit)"

With the contestants arriving this is exactly what went through my head. There were lots of casual clothing and me. Me, who looked like the fourth lost member of the ZZ Top. I held out for three hours before succumbing to the incredible warmth provided by my awesome outfit.

Sharp dressed man with a solid hand!

This is my first attempt at writing about old school magic and I hope I can live up to the standards of ‘mg’ and Shaman Ben, my two favorite writers. For long time readers of the blog I’m probably not unknown as my 17 year old l33t-name FreeSpace. And I kinda enjoy the books of H.S. Thompson.
But enough about that, let’s get down to brass tacks. My Pimpvitational started Friday evening when Felipe Garcia’s flight arrived in Gothenburg. I came to know Felipe about a year ago when he still was fairly new in Sweden. He moved here with his wife and children from Seville in Spain and we came in contact with him when he was looking for other magic-players. I invited him over for some beers and magic with me, ‘mg’ and Kalle, the latest noobcon winner. We didn’t know what to expect but other than being an awesome dude Felipe showed up with a complete collection of Beta, AN, AQ, Legends and so on.

Felipe, a true Atog bro!

He came up with several impressive strategies and the first tournament we went to together in Malmö I played my latest creation, the Atog Smash, a deck that I kept under wraps until the tournament. Felipe actually played Atog too, but with a different approach and focusing on control and silver bullets. Fate is a cruel mistress and I ended up playing Felipe in the finals and losing. The next weekend I played an updated version of Atog Smash at the Mindstage tournament. Another final, another opponent, another second place. Atog’ll be back!

ATOG’LL BE BACK!

After the tournament we ended up creating a new team called the Atog Bros and ‘mg’ and Kalle was included. Since then the Atog Bros has been constantly putting up impressive results in both the old school scene and the Vintage scene in Sweden.

Back to the evening before the pimpvitational. Since Felipe has an awesome collection and he’s been playing Highlander-style decks already I expected an awesome list. We cracked open a couple of beers and put some Sleep on the turntable. I am a firm believer that magic should be played accompanied by the tones of sludge and doom metal. Early Sabbath through Sleep to fantastic new acts like our local heroes Monolord and Yuri Gagarin.

Atog against Atog. Huge pile of artifacts in the bin and a Berserk to seal the deal.

The format 93/94 Highlander yields pretty insane games and huge swings in the gamestates and loads of fun were had. Riven Turnbull, a key card in many internal jokes and who happen to look like ‘mg’ were assaulted by Control Magic. Tawnos Coffin. Clone. Everything involving Riven Turnbull must be awesome. Green mana and crazy boardstates were abundant. Felipes deck was amazing. Until that day I never thought I’d see Goblin Artisans see play but I’ll be damned if I say that I wasn’t happy to see it!

Rookie of the Year, Jenny / Moxin naturally joined our magic night since she’s so sweet living with me.  When I taught Jenny to play magic 18 months ago I would never have expected that she would buy her own power cards in the future. She started out at noobcon last year with a classic zoo deck. Berserked Kird Apes and shit. After that she moved on to play monoblack achieving a striking performance taking the deck to the semifinals of the third biggest tournament of the last season, Frippan Open, with 27 players. Of course this deck contained her first purchased card, an unlimited Black Lotus.

Jenny / Moxin quickly picked up all the Sol Rings for the photoshoot. Arguably the best card in the format and she knew it!

She continued to evolve the monoblack deck with different splashes but since she acquired the complete ‘power 9’ blue is a preferred color of choice. Her magic skills are evolving every day and there is no doubt that the Korean gaming gene truly exists. It’s only a matter of time before she beats me every game.

Jennys deck was a blue and black deck with lots of strong cards and powerful artifacts. Riven Turnbull made many appearances. Keep an eye out for Hell’s Caretaker when the big artifacts hits the bin, without removal you’ll soon be done. Lots of synergy between cards and playing only two colors, mana screw is of lesser concern.

Excellent preparation is the key to success as taught by the great Shaman Ben. The night went on and much magic was played until the small hours. Saturday morning came and we had well needed breakfast at a local American style brunch place. Some quick magic games before we headed to the venue of the great battalion. Forest, BoP, go! Second breakfast consisted of a bottle of 8 year old Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. Fantastic brew that aged well.

Magic, old brew and the next person of interest, Hagelpump!

Other than the first three of us, the first one to show up was last seasons BSK Shark-winner and top 8 at noobcon the same season, none other than Robin ‘Hagelpump’ Lundberg. Robin is usually playing his fantastic UR Burn and was probably the reason for popularizing the archetype a year ago with his strong finishes. Robin hadn’t had any practice with the 93/94 Highlander format so we played some games while waiting for the others to arrive.

Hagelpump picked up the last remaining cards from the analysis of the restricted choices. Still a fucking powerful hand!

Beautiful cards were covering the table and then time slowed down for a couple of seconds. Robin played a Giant Shark, his trophy for conquering the grand 40 player tournament of BSK. We then knew that it was gonna be an awesome tournament. I don’t know Robin that well but he’s a good guy and I’m looking forward to playing more magic with him! Also, Robin smacked me out of the quarter finals at noobcon last season being the only one other than Mikael Magnusson to beat my Juzam Smash deck that day. Robin fought his way to the finals but was cast down by the aggressive mirror played but none other than the legendary Stalin. But more about him next week!

And last but not least, since you need a decent soundtrack to your old school magic evenings, here’s something for everybody!

Frippans Magic Music Tips
For the beginner: Black Sabbath – Electric Funeral
For the metal dude: Sleep – The Clarity
Preaching to the choir: Sunn O))) – Aghartha

If you made it this far, thanks! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it :)

Stay tuned for next part…