Wandering without Wander – n00bcon 2024 report by Alex

It is quiet around here these days. So it is my pleasure to again offer this void to Alex Rutten to break the silence for a spell. Enjoy! /Mg out

 

After the last monstrosity, which almost killed the blag, I will try to keep this tournament report more comprehensive…

For me, n00bcon has always been connected to my dear friend Wander. He joined me for n00bcon 9 in 2017 as a travel companion and spectator. During the pandemic that followed, we were both collecting cards for Swedish legal decks. We were dreaming of revisiting a future n00bcon as a small team of 2 players. Thus, from the get-go, n00bcon always felt like a shared project. He is also the only other ‘non-flying Dutchman’ crazy enough to get in the 17 to 24 hour train ride with me to an obscure Swedish pub. On our last journey home, we played The Deck mirrors for hours to find out what the correct number of Serra Angels was.

In 2024, however, Wander skipped n00bcon # 15, so I had to travel solo. For that reason, I was afraid that the grindy train trajectory, which I know well by now, would become a bit boring and weary. I decided to take enough time for resting and travelling this year. Thus, I was hoping to make a more interesting journey of it than merely traveling from A to B. I left the Netherlands on Monday morning, reading all day, and made my final stop of that day in Malmö. I was taking it more easy, reserving more time for travelling and resting, in an attempt to avoid getting hit by the common post-tournament health drawbacks.

Good Reads

I’ve found long train rides perfect for reading. During the train ride, I read an academic article that Svante wrote. It was an interesting exploration of two Swedish authors that stayed in and wrote about America during the civil rights movement. It was nice to discuss the topic with him through messenger during the train ride. While rapidly moving forward on the carbon steel tracks, I spent more time delving into American suburban life, because I also finished a novel I was reading: ‘Revolutionary Road’ (1961) by Richard Yates. I’ve seen the movie by Sam Mendes a long time ago and always wanted to read the novel. I thought it was really good, crisp and nicely paced. It raised concerns about the complexity of human relationships and fundamental loneliness. It showcased the existential tension between an adventurous, artistic life on the one hand, and the common, civilized life on the other hand, with mundanity and mediocrity looming in the dark. This theme has always greatly interested me.

Travel literature (cover of the first edition).

When I showed the novel later to Olle, it turned out that he was a big Yates fan himself, shelving almost all his works, which was a nice coincidence and surprise. I met with Olle on Tuesday, when I arrived in Gothenburg from Malmö. That first day was already great. I first caught up with Kalle in his studio to talk about art, alters and other stuff. It was great to see him (in action) again and share some beers. Afterwards, I went out to dinner at a place called Hagabion with Olle and a few of his Swedish friends. Arriving there, I suddenly remembered having been to this place before with Wander during our first visit to Gothenburg in 2017. Apparently, as Wander told me later, a girl we met in Sweden recommended Hagabion to us back then. In this cinema-restaurant the must-try dish was a vegetarian meat loaf, so I had to order that one. It was great and I got to combine it with some local brews, going up the ladder with a single, double and triple IPA. Man, it was good to be back in Sweden again – and this was only the beginning!

Giant Whale

On Wednesday, Olle and I took it easy. We played a Vintage cube draft online and had a long walk in the Slottsskogen park. There, we casually spotted reindeers and a few moose. We visited the Natural History Museum that was located in the park. The highlight was a taxidermized giant blue whale from 1865, apparently the only one in the world. In the past, the inside of the whale was actually open for public. Nowadays, you can only enter it on national election day (‘whale’ and ‘election’ have the same word in Swedish: ‘val’). Since we are scouting for new venues for n00bcon: how awesome would it be to play the top 8 inside the whale! I guess Brother Jonas has to get a special invite in that case.

Cosy gathering inside the giant whale.

Later on Wednesday evening, we had some bao buns and went to the movie theatre to see ‘Poor Things’ at Capitol theatre, right at the foot of the hill of Skansen Kronan. Some friends of Olle thought it was a masterpiece, one of the best movies they’ve ever seen, so we were keen on checking it out. We didn’t know what to expect at all, which added to the experience. It was an entertaining movie about a surgically fabricated woman with a nice, dark humor and great esthetics. At the same time, we were not incredibly moved by it. It did intrigue me though. Funny enough, I actually almost brought Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’ to Gothenburg to read in the train instead of the Yates novel. It would have been a good match! On Thursday, I went to an English book store and bought the novel the movie was based on. At first glance, it looked more intriguing and layered then the movie, so it would be nice to start reading it on the way back home to the Netherlands.

The Factory

n00bcon # 15 was all about trying out restricting Mishra’s Factory. I did not test much or put a lot of thoughts into it. I did play the Online Dutch Old School League (ODOL) in March and went 3-1 with Counterburn. It is my go-to deck nowadays and I decided to play it in Sweden as well, even though I expected The Deck to play more The Abyss now, which is an annoying card for me. I simply started deck building by removed 3 Factory’s from the stock URb list. I added another creature and figured we could play with 24 mana sources instead of 25, without hurting the colored mana consistency. This gave room to add a Counterspell as well. Nothing fancy there.

My assumption was that restricting Factory would mainly make combo decks like TwiddleVault and Power Monolith a bit better. It would weaken aggro decks a bit, but also The Deck I would say, contrary to what I have heard. But I think The Deck can adapt more to it than aggro decks. In general though, I don’t think it changes the metagame or format that much. It will likely be a bit less complex or interesting I would say, since Factory’s lead to interesting game play. Their absence will likely stimulate more prison-style versions of The Deck with The Abyss and Mirror Universe.

Head and heart

I’ve played The Deck in the past, but I keep being drawn back to blue-red Counterburn. There are multiple reasons for this. Playing UW is nice, but also a bit boring or (very) lopsided at times, especially when you are playing against spicy decks. You have all the efficient answers, so any opponent trying to jam out cool Legends, Juzams or whatever, will likely be punished. When you play only blue and red, you don’t have access to all the obvious answers, so a turn one Juzam Djinn is a real problem. This limitation stimulates more interesting game play. Whether you are playing against spicy brew or a tier 1 deck, it always feels you have some close calls to make. Usually both the Counterburn deck and the opponent’s deck have a spot in the limelight and an equal or at least real chance to win. Another thing I like about blue-red is that it can offer a fast clock, which means I don’t have to worry too much about going to time.

While listening to Mark Rosewater’s podcast ‘Drive to Work’, I realized there might be a deeper reason for why I am drawn to the Counterburn deck. Rosewater’s podcasts have helped me realize how well thought-out the color wheel of Magic is and understand that there is a whole philosophy behind the game. For instance, the philosophy or goal of blue is ‘perfection through knowledge’. It’s an serious attempt to become the best version of yourself through the deliberate use of tools, experience and learning. Red, on the other hand, strives for ‘freedom through action’. You try to tap into the internal self, your intuition, and you seize the moment. If you want to laugh, laugh. If you want to fight, fight. Emotions guide you; you follow your gut feeling.

There certainly can also be conflict between blue and red, which can be summarized as the dilemma between listening to your head or heart. Intellect or emotion? Thought or action? You want to make the right decision, but what will you do? Blue, for instance, would think things through, never tapping out to avoid losing to a fatal Mind Twist, unless it is a calculated risk. Red, on the contrary, would put all their mana in a massive Fireball and slam it on the table, following their gut feeling that the opponent doesn’t have a Counterspell for it. And if he has, you did something meaningful anyway and you didn’t let fear get the upper hand.

The shared color of blue and red is black, which, according to Rosewater, is focused on selfishness, which I find pretty funny when you look at the cards you splash for that color (in Counterburn): Demonic Tutor and Mind Twist. It all makes perfect sense. What is this, the best game in the world?

Thinking about these deeper layers of the color wheel has been a fruitful exercise for me. I saw a connection between the blue-red combination and what I want old school Magic to mean for me. For instance, I try to challenge myself to put my best effort in playing the game, while reminding myself that winning is not the (end) goal. So this means you can allow yourself to make mistakes, to play something for the heck if it, even though your blue brain knows that it isn’t the optimal play.

These days, a lot of people are moving towards UWx. This is understandable, since these colors have all the answers. Just the mere fact of playing these colors will probably increase your chances of winning. The white and blue base feels great, but also too ‘safe’, like a too well-polished mix of intellect and reason. I play a lot of UWx myself, but I am not too sure about it. Is it not too careful? I am not the kind of person who gets in a shovel fight, but I do tend to challenge my own hunger for comfort and control. Playing blue-white feeds that hunger, whereas playing more red reminds me to get out there, seek adventure, follow the heart and just slam that Fireball on the table.

So, to summarize, when you’re playing Counterburn there is this constant tension that you feel between heart and head: tap out or keep mana open? Either way, you have to make a choice. Sometimes you pass the turn, keep Counterspell mana up, and then nothing happens, and you regret not playing anything. In such a case you get worst of both worlds. This reminds me of the motto of Revolutionary road: ‘Alas, when passion is both meek and wild!’ Blue can be dull or meek if it is just the gathering of knowledge without passion. Red can be too wild or reckless. The challenge is how the combine them harmoniously. Ideally, as Rosewater explains, blue and red enhance each other: you internalize new knowledge, live more intuitive, attuned to your emotions, driven by the combined goal of blue and red: trying out and learning new things. 

My deck for n00bcon 2024.

Danes invade the fortress

Thursday was the day of the warm-up tournament in Skansen Kronan. In the morning, I left Olle’s place to check in at hotel Poseidon, home of the Dutchies and a few Norwegians. From there, I walked to the fortress. Rather than writing a match-to-match report, I want to try something different this time by focusing on some highlights and notes about sideboarding. In my opinion, sideboards and sideboarding are overlooked and less discussed topics in old school Magic. I’ve noticed some (content) fatigue about the format here and there. A sense of ‘nothing new’ to talk about. But with regard to sideboarding, I think there is a real limited amount of content or discussion. I guess because it is perhaps seen as a more narrow, specialist’s or spike topic, but I think it is interesting and fun. Juice’s win in Arvika in 2024 with a transformational sideboard strategy showcased the importance of a good sideboard (plan).

In the fortress, I faced robots two times. This matchup can be quite rough for the Counterburn player. It was extra challenging, because I had to play against none other than Leo and Svante. Thankfully, Olle recommended me to play at least 2 Shatterstorm in my sideboard. I did just that and boy, did they shine! In this matchup, I brought in 2 REB, 2 Shatter, 2 Shatterstorm and 1 Psionic Blast. The Blast is better than a Bolt versus all those 4/4’s, and the REB’s are good against Copy Artifact (on the stack), BEB’s and blue power. I removed all Flying Men, because they are weak to Triskelion and City in a Bottle. Chain Lightning is a bit weak as well, but you do want to keep enough burn, so I removed only 2 of those. Apart from that, I cut Wheel of Fortune and Blood Moon. I managed to win both matches. Drawing restricted cards helped, but the sideboard strategy really played a big role in the matches as well. Shatterstorm was an excellent X-for-1 that you can time and build up to perfectly.

In round 4, I faced ‘The Warden’ with an aggressive deck that featured Ankh of Mishra, Black Vise, Atog and Sedge Troll. Those creatures are hard for me to get rid of and his deck was really fast. My sideboard plan here was to remove expensive and self-damaging cards: 2 Dibs and 3 Psionic Blasts. I removed the Twister, Wheel and Braingeyser as well, because they are not good against Vises. I also boarded out the slow Fireball. I put reactive cards in to try to stop the early pressure and threats: 2 REB, 2 BEB, 1 Terror, 2 Shatter, 2 Shatterstorm. It worked!

In round 6, I was standing 4-0-1 and got to play my ‘win and in’ against Jeppe on TwiddleVault. I managed to win the first game when he had to mulligan a lot. In this matchup, I also boarded out the slower cards like Wheel, Fireball, Serendibs, Braingeyser and 1 Psionic Blast. I kept the Timetwister, because it can be a tool against Recall. I brought in 2 Copper Tablet, 2 Shatter, 2 REB and a Blood Moon. It didn’t help, because he won the second game on turn 2 and the third game on turn 3, even though I had disruption. What a deck!

It was a clean cut of 8 players with 5-1 making it in. I came in 9th place, which net me 2 sweet cards from Reindeer for my mono black reinvitational deck. A lot of players went to the Rotary Pub to play ante, but I stayed to watch the top 8 play out. Jeppe had the advantage of having the entire Drain Life Crew from Copenhagen behind him as support. Ironically, the fortress was once build to protect from Danish intruders, but now, after centuries, they finally occupied it. They are a force to be reckoned with in old school Magic. As you can see, Åland had to fight a wall of Danes to win his semifinal match, and failed to do so. 

Åland versus the Danes.

Jeppe had to face Leo in the finals. Leo won the fortress event in 2023 and has been putting up impressive result after result with his pet deck. Leo came prepared, because he had 4 slots in his sideboard especially for his bad matchup against TwiddleVault: 2 Tormod’s Crypt and 2 Chains of Mephistopheles. During the finals, upbeat eighties music filled the fortress. When they started playing the song ‘Push it to the limit’ from the movie ‘Scarface’, the game was turning around in Jeppe’s favor, who started to play at a quicker pace, tapping and untapping his Vault on the beat. Leo noticed the change of pace and mentioned that this was probably a bad sign for his changes of winning this match. He was right. His extra sideboard tools were not enough and Jeppe won the event. TwiddleVault is a tough deck to play with and against. Jeppe had solid plays and a great performance, keeping up a very smooth pace of play as well during the event. Congrats!

Drinking Jägerbombs in the fortress with Jens Jäger and Anton Glans.

Giant Shark

Because the gymnasium part of the infamous Rotary Pub couldn’t be used, we switched to another venue up north in an industrial area. We walked there from the hotel in about 50 minutes. The totally remote location was intriguing. We were not to sure about the area itself, but from the inside, the venue turned out to be a pretty nice spot!

During the first two rounds of the day, I faced The Deck. No real surprise there, because this is n00bcon. My sideboard plan was: - 2 Chain Lightning, – 3 Serendibs, + 1 REB + 2 Copper Tablet + 1 Psionic Blast + 1 Blood Moon. In this matchup, I am not sure about what to board out. Recently, I experimented with boarding out a few Serendibs. They can be a bit slow and in this matchup, it is really nice to land a quicker, cheaper threat (Flying Men, Orc or Tablet) and then hold up Counterspells and slowly burn them at the end of their turn. Or punish them with a Blood Moon when they tap out.

I won the first round against The Deck quite convincible. The second round was a real nailbiter. I had three close, amazing games against Shark-owner Stebbo. During the first game, I got him all the way to a mere one life, but I lost to Mirror Universe. I won the second game and was able to Counterspell a Reverse Damage on my Fireball, which felt kind of bad, because it was cool that he played that card. Stebbo won the third game with his Mirror again, standing on 3 life this time. Against Stebbo, I boarded out the 3 Flying Men instead of the 3 Serendibs, because I saw he played Desert! I also brought in 1 extra Shatter to deal with Mirror (or Tome, or potentially Ivory Tower if he played that). In the end, it turned out he only played 1 Desert in the space opened up by the restriction of Factory.

What it looks like if you play against a Shark on The Deck and you can’t do the last 1 damage point.

In round 5, my score was 3-1 and I faced my nemesis again: champion Jeppe, who beat me out of contention yesterday. In game 1, he was on the play. I got a turn 1 Chaos Orb out, which is really strong against him. He played a Sylvan Library on turn 2. In my turn, I played Ancestral and kept 1 mana up to activate the Orb. It looked good for me and I felt quite confident. On his turn 3, he played Time Vault and then attempted to Twiddle it… Well, sure, if you want to two-for-one yourself! Obviously, I flipped the Orb and killed the Vault in response. Of course, Jeppe knew this was coming and apparently wasn’t done that turn... He played Black Lotus and Time Walk and somehow still managed to win from there! How is this possible after ‘throwing away’ a Vault and a Twiddle? Man, I just can’t beat these kind of draws.

During the second game, I had a very reactive hand with Counterspell, a REB and Mind Twist. He had a Sylvan Library out and didn’t play much. I just played the waiting game. The blue player in me didn’t want to tap out for Mind Twist, because that seemed too risky if he had a Counterspell. It didn’t seem insanely strong anyway to let him discard the 3 cards in his hand anyway, because he could just immediately draw 3 cards with the Sylvan again and potentially go of that turn. When he finally tapped out for a small Braingeyser, I saw a good opportunity to play my Mind Twist. On my turn, however, I drew Blood Moon. Now I had an interesting decision: I could either tap out for Mind Twist to discard 4 of his 5 cards, or do nothing and keep REB and Counterspell up, or play Blood Moon with REB backup, but without Counterspell backup, because I only had one basic Island. Since he had 2 City of Brass and 3 dual lands in play, Blood Moon seemed really strong. It would totally lock him out of the game, especially because I had the REB as well for a potential BEB. This would mean he could only escape with a Chaos Orb. It felt like a stronger play to go with the Blood Moon here, so I went for it. He untapped, drew his card and played land, Shivan Dragon. Wow, I didn’t see that one coming! It looked like I was a strong favorite, but now I had to race this giant beast. Unfortunately, I could not find 2 burn spells to finish the Shivan, so I had to try and race him. It was a really close game. I won some time with chump blocking, but the turn before I could kill him, he tapped my Flying Men on defense with a Twiddle and got the final damage through. Pretty epic.

Being out of contention, again by the hand of Jeppe, I could enjoy a great dinner break. In round 6, I was glad to be paired against Emily, a fellow alter enthusiast. I got her altered Ancestral Recall in a trade recently, and now got to play it against her in our match. Since we were both on burn decks, the games went quick. When we were told we would be on stream, we actually finished our first game already. So you can only watch game 2, in which Shatterstorm again played a decisive role. Getting asked for the stream is usually an honor and fun experience, but this time it was estranging. The feature match area was apart from the cozy player’s area, in a cold, white tiled space, like some kind of deserted bathroom. On top of that, the ‘table’ was made out of fabric, which was really odd. (I think that was the reason they didn’t flip Orbs in the finals that day.) After this strange experience, Megu totally made our day because we got a very nice Easter Egg from the Fishliver crew.

 In the last round, I faced another Danish player: Kristian. Next to me, fellow Dutchie Henk was also up against a Dane. Kristian played Deadguy Ale. We both laughed when we started in style with a turn 1 ‘Juzam mirror’. I won a game where I basically drew all the restricted cards. I boarded out 2 Shatters and boarded in 1 Blood Moon and 1 Control Magic. I lost the other 2 games because of big creatures that kept on coming, like Juzams and Sengirs. Henk lost as well. The Danes are getting too strong! Well, at least I got a sweet beer coupon from Kristian (which I used at UTC in November to summon his brother to get me a drink!). I love the dedication of the Danish crew and their love for the game. It was their weekend, because after Jeppe’s win in the fortress, another Dane took down n00bcon: Jens-Ole.

Juzam mirror.

Rotary, after all

On Sunday morning, I had breakfast at the hotel. The television screen showed the Swedish news channel. I glanced quickly at the screen and then was shocked to see moving images of Ede, a small city in the Netherlands where I used to live. What was going on here? Apparently, there was a hostage situation and it was global news!

The day after n00bcon is usually a very chill day. The last years, we’ve spent the day on the roof top of John Scott’s. It was always a pleasure being there, especially after sitting inside dark rooms without natural light for so long. But this year we found a better venue: the Rotary Pub! It was really nice to be able to pay a small homage to the pub. I played just 2 rounds and dropped, because I had to catch my bus and train to Malmö. Being told not to spike, I played a deck with Howling Mine, Relic Barrier and Priest of Yawgmoth. The goal was to sacrifice Su-Chi’s for massive Fireballs. In the First game, against Jordan Boyle, my deck plan actually worked out nicely and I got to do my trick! Even though it was all downhill from there, Priest of Yawgmoth felt like a pretty strong card that could be looked into more. The Howling Mines, however, were just bad.

Der Wanderer

I already wrote that I wanted to travel a bit more easy and relaxed this year. After spending the night in Malmö again, I only traveled to Hamburg on Monday. This way, I had enough time left that day to see the Caspar David Friedrich exhibition in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. When I arrived in Hamburg, I saw a small woman walking around with – I kid you not – a plush giant shark. It magically put a smile on my face. Hamburg didn’t though. I really had to get used to this big city. Compared to Gothenburg, it felt so crowded and noisy, with a lot of trash and traffic.

At the Kunsthalle, I got to see many Caspar David Friedrich paintings that I never saw before. I also had the chance to see the famous ‘Der Wanderer’ again. The anonymous ‘Rückenfigur’ (‘back-figure’) in the painting makes it easy to identify with the wanderer. For me, it made me feel connected with Wander. In a way, he was wandering with me through the museum halls. 

Der Wanderer.

On Tuesday, it was finally time to finish my journey home. Another n00bcon adventure was in the books! It was an amazing journey once again. In the final train ride, I saw another person with a plush giant shark! I was totally puzzled and had to ask him what was going on here. There was nothing special, he said. It must have been a coincidence. Well, I am not so sure about that. I think the sharks are taking over Easter. We’re gonna need a bigger pub. 

The loot.