Happy Holidays from the Beasts of the Bay

Today we have a small guest post from the amazing folk over in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hope you guys enjoy it and if you have something you want to say to the old school community, we are more than happy to do more guest posts. /Wak-Wak

The San Francisco Bay Area Old School Club would like to wish all old school players around the world, and their loved ones, joyful holidays and a triumphant new year.

Old school is a format for the winter holidays. This season is a time when we reflect on tradition. Before embarking on a new year, with its new challenges, we take time to entertain the timeless. The holidays are a time of joy, in which we recall the sights and sounds and smells and feelings of our wonderstuck childhoods, and share those experiences with a new generation. 

Our club in the Bay Area is just over a year old now, and it has been a good year. We built a great group of dedicated players--guys with a fun sense of humor and a love of the old cards. In 2017, we had over twenty fantastic meetups, with almost every deck imaginable represented. We are looking forward as a club to a new year with bigger blowouts, sillier decks and spicier new tech.

The Beasts of the Bay had over 20 meetups in 2017.

We are very fortunate to have our game and its community. This year, the Beasts decided to share some of that good fortune and collect toy donations for the season's less-fortunate children. Chicago's Lords of the Pit set a good example in 2016 by running a holiday toy drive and we wanted to follow that example. Charity, camaraderie and good will should be central to the old school ethos.

Beast of the Bay toy donations this season.


We hope we get a chance to sit down and flip orbs with as many of you as we can in 2018.

Peace, love and goodwill toward all,
The Guardian Beasts

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Going to the library

Sylvan Library is a card that many players love, one of them is fellow Flippin’ Orbs host Grant Casleton. So i decided to write a couple of words about my thoughts about the card.

First of all I’m going to say that I’m not a big fan of just putting in Sylvan in every deck that has green mana. Because if you don’t have a specific plan for it, I actually don’t think it’s good enough. Let’s start by breaking down what the card actually does.

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Card breakdown

It costs you two mana and it doesn’t do anything when you cast it, you first need to wait a whole turn until it does something. If it survives though, it will let you see two more cards that turn and it lets you choose the best out of three cards. That’s pretty good, but is it worth going down a card to do so? Also, Natural Selection does the same thing except it cost one mana less, you can cast it at instant speed and it also lets you reshuffle if you don’t like the top three cards.

After the first draw however, Sylvan Library let’s you see one new card every turn and choose that one instead of the two remaining cards so it effectively can remove two bad draws which absolutely can be nice. So both cards have upsides compared to the other.

But back to Sylvan Library. After the first turn you only see one new card every turn, so if you didn’t like the other two it’s exactly as drawing one card every turn and the Library doesn’t actually do anything anymore. So to recap, it lets you rearrange three cards and negate two bad draws for two mana. I’m not sure that is actually worth spending a card on most of the time.

So when could that effect be good enough to spend a card on? I would say it’s good in a combo deck, as those decks usually just want to find a couple of specific cards and do not care about card advantage as much. This is why the ability to “dig” two cards deeper is good in a deck like that.

And then one last thing, the card is horrible in multiples so a deck can’t contain too many of them.

Life as a resource

But Sylvan has one more ability that we haven't touched on yet and that is that you can pay 4 life to draw a card. So for 4 life the card replaces itself and you get the other effects for "free". Now we’re talking! But 4 life can be a lot in some matchups so it’s not always a choice you can make. Against some decks though, you can draw even more cards and that’s when Sylvan Library really shines. The question is if it's worth a slot in every green deck just because it can be good sometimes against some decks?

After reviewing the card like this I do not think of it as a card good enough to be worth a slot in most decks. If you are looking for a specific card or want to use it in the sideboard against control to outdraw them for the win, then maybe.

Every day I’m shuffling, shuffling...

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There are of course a couple of other situations where Sylvan Library can be good and that is in combination with other cards. In other formats like Legacy and Vintage Sylvan Library is a lot better than in old school and the reason for that is the fetch lands which lets you shuffle your library. Because if you can shuffle your library you can see three new cards after you’ve drawn the best out of three the turn before. Of course this principle is also true in old school, we just need to find other ways of shuffling the library. A few examples are Demonic Tutor, Timetwister, Transmute Artifact, Land Tax and Untamed Wilds. If you play a couple of them than Sylvan can absolutely be a good card.

Another cool combo is to pair it with Millstone. That way you can take the best card out of three, mill away the other two and then see three new cards next turn. So for two mana each turn you can dig through your library quite quick to look for the cards you need.

The last couple of cards that interacts with Sylvan in a really good way are Sindbad and Petra Sphinx. These cards let you draw additional cards each turn as long as you are lucky and just happens to have the right card on top of your library. But if you pair them with Sylvan Library you can skip the luck part as you will always know what's on top of your library. It will probably be a land if you have Sindbad in play.

Edit: No actually, one more thing. I did forget that Sylvan Library also of course combos very well with Mirror Universe as you can get back all the life. It's so good it even has it's own deck. Also other life gain cards like Ivory Tower and Diamond Valley is quite good with Sylvan as it then lets you convert the life into card draw.

Conclusion

That was some random thoughts from me and I probably missed something or said something  stupid, hehe. My meaning of this blog post wasn't to say Sylvan Library is bad and you should stop playing it, I just want you to think twice before putting it in a deck. What do you think about Sylvan Library and in what decks do you think it's great in? Use the comments below to share your decks and thought.

And to wrap this up, here are a couple of decks I've built that utilises Sylvan Library in different ways. One new Guardian Beast combo deck that I haven't published before.

Ivory Cup 2

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Game on!

So, this is a report that I should have written many many moons ago but as we say here in Sweden, “den som väntar på något gott väntar aldrig för länge”. And for you international readers the literal translation reads “one who waits for something good never waits to long”. Therefore, I now give you a short report on organising and playing the Ivory Cup 2017 in Stockholm earlier this summer.

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Let’s start with a short throwback and backstory. 93/94 may have originated in Sweden, but that was on the west coast, while Stockholm is on the east coast of the country. Historically Stockholm haven’t had as big of an old school community as the west of the country so last year’s Ivory Cup was actually the first dedicated 93/94 tournament being held in the capital. Then we had 29 players and considered it a big success, so of course we organised another Cup this year.

This year the tournament was held in the suburbs of Gubbängen in Stockholm as I was able to get an empty venue for free there. The “for free” part gave us an opportunity to give away some more expensive prices than we otherwise could have which was really nice. Other than that, we did as we usually do, buy a lot of nice beer and set up our own bar where they players could get anything from a simple lager to oak aged sour beer. One new thing was that we also invited the store Mindstage to come and set up a popup store with only old school cards.

The tournament got 35 players from all around the country and some special guests from Norway. That meant that we played six rounds of magic and then cut to top 8. As we are not much for giving out expensive prices to the winners we had a special price structure set up for giving away all the cool stuff we had. First of all, every player that had pre-paid the tournament got to pick a random card from a Legends lottery with only playable cards. The big prices where a Mirror Universe, Land’s Edge and a Sol’kanar the Swamp King. The fixed prices were an altered Alpha Ivory Cup for the winner and a green Duelist Abacus Life Counter still in the blister for second place. We also awarded 9th place with a signed Abomination on which Mark Tedin has written “9th place isn’t that bad”.

Then we did two different lotteries, one for all the players who didn’t top 8 and one for the ones who did. Kalle Nord donated the price for those who didn’t top 8 and that was a one of a kind test print of this year’s n00bcon playmat. The price in the top 8 lottery was a rare Black Lotus playmat with the original Black Lotus art.

And now to the top 8!

First of all, here are the decks and players who made it through the swiss:

 

When the dust settled after the though quarterfinals Jonas Lefvert, Paddan, Micke Thai and Kalle Nord where the ones left standing. I’m sorry that I didn’t have the time to keep track of the matches very well so I can’t give you any details of how they played out. But I can at least tell you the ones who made it to the finals which was Kalle Nord on “restricted cards+four drops” against Paddan with his 4c Deadguy Ale, two strange, but amazing brews. It really was the battle of the four drops but after quite a quick final Kalle Nord stood as this year’s champion. He was actually so happy that he took a bite of his own Black Lotus(!). Ok, maybe not a bite, but almost! He is one crazy dude.

This isn’t the most comprehensive of tournament reports but it was mostly written to have a reason to show you guys the nice decks people brought to this tournament. So, I hope you can forgive me for that.

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But at least I have one more thing to say about the tournament and that is the amazing match for last place! We always give out a price (a Rag Man) to the player who comes in last but as we had two people with the same points we let them battle it out. In the pot was the Rag Man for the looser and an invite to next year’s World Championship of 93/94, n00bcon. Now that is a match with high stakes! The match was between the Norton Fantenberg and Joakim Askenbäck and we are happy to say that Norton now is one of the amazing Stockholm Rag Men and Joakim Askenbäck will be able to compete with players from all around the world next year.

Here the plan was to have a small report on how I did and some words about my deck but I'll leave that deck tech for later.

Here are some more pictures from the event:

/Gordon

Brewing the CandleFactroy

I promised you guys a small post about my brew CandleFactory so here it is. I’ll go through the idea I had, my testing and what I found works and not.

(You can find the tournament report and introduction to the deck here.)

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So many fun interactions

The Idea

So, the idea for the deck is quite simple and it started with me liking Candelabra of Tawnos and buying a second one. The plan was to build something with Mana Flare but I began having fun with a stupid Lands deck instead. That didn’t work out and I put aside the Candelabras and instead focused on re-brewing my Field of Dreams deck (Kevin Costner.dec) and while brewing on that one I dug up my seldom used Copy Artifacts. That’s when it hit me, one of my favorite things to do with Copy Artifact is to copy an activated Mishra’s Factory (you then end up with an UN-activated Mishra’s Factory that is an Land Enchantment) and as Factory is good with Candle that might be something worth playing.

version 0.1

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The idea struck me about an hour before my friend Johan Råberg was going to come over for a couple of games so I just put together something rough to test against him in that hour. As Factories, Copy Artifacts and Candelabras is far from a complete deck I quickly decided to also put in my absolut favorite combo in the format Guardian Beast + Chaos Orb. And if you want that combo you should probably have some Transmute Artifact to be able to find the restricted Orb. And if you have Transmute and Guardian Beast you should also play some fun artifacts to get and protect so I added Icy Manipulator, Jayemdae Tome, Su-Chi, Triskelion and some junk I don’t remember. Of course I also added a couple of Maze of Ith as they are amazing with Candelabra. Add a bunch of mana and restricted cards and you have my first version.

After some goldfishing though I felt it was a little boring to use the Candelabra for only Factory and Library of Alexandria (now, that’s a thing of beauty!) so I actually added 2 Fireball and 1 Mana Flare just for the sake of it.

After Johan came and we played some magic the deck actually worked better than expected and I got to win against Johan both with Mana Flare, Candle+Factory, copying Su-Chi/Triskelions and Beast combo. The problem was however that it was super vulnerable to Armageddon so I wanted counterspells. That’s how the red package went out. It was mostly just cute anyway.

The week after

I didn’t think much about the deck after that until Johan once again came over for some games the day before the tournament Alphaspelen 3. Then I actually tried some new builds and decided to play it at the tournament. The reason however, was mostly because when he went home I went to sleep so I didn’t have the time to build a new deck. I actually didn’t even build a sideboard and just took 15 good cards right before leaving for the tournament.

But let’s rewind to the day before the tournament. As said before I had removed the red Mana Flare package for Couterspells and that was what I tried this evening to much success. The last thing I changed was to remove red completely and instead put in white. The reason I still had red was to have Red Elemental Blast against Energy Flux. But I decided white was better because of being able to also Disenchant Underworld Dreams, this is a slow deck after all.

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Which one should I choose?

tournament findings

As I’ve already done a tournament report that is not what I’m going to do here. Instead I’m going to write about a couple of findings from playing the deck.

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  1. Copying one of my three threats was something I did more than I expected and it was great having that choice to be able to win quickly when needed. This also protected the Guardian Beasts for a late game combo, as the opponent used removal on my other threats. Don’t know what the right number of threats are though.
  2. The Reconstruction is nice but sometimes it just get stuck in your hand. Don’t know if I should cut it or not (I probably should, but I love it!).
  3. Having more than one Candle in play can be amazing but the deck becomes real mana hungry when you want to activate a couple of Factories and also untap them a couple of times. I now own a third one but I think two is the right number with Transmute and Copy Artifact.
  4. Copying Icy Manipulator was fun and I quite often did it and won by using Icy as mana denial. I would love to play more Icy Manipulators to actually have this is one of the main plans.
  5. Two Guardian Beast seemed like the right number, sometimes they block small critters, sometimes they allow you to combo and sometimes they just protect stuff as they were designed to do.
  6. It’s always nice with a counterspell in hand to protect the combo or against Armageddon but as the deck mostly plays out like a tap out control deck I think three is enough.
  7. The split between Mana Vault and Fellwar Stone is something I’m not sure about. Mana Vault is amazing as we play a lot of 4-drops and with Transmute you can get rid of it as well. Therefore, I would like more. But as Factory and Candle is so mana intensive we also need a steady source of mana, like Fellwar. I’ll probably continue to play a split.

 

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sideboard findings

  1. I liked being able to board in more Beasts, maybe I even would want one more. Mostly against creature decks with Swords to Plowshares. Against those decks my creature plan is so much worse than theirs so it’s really good to be able to combo in the late game. It also gives us two more good blockers.

  2. The Disrupting Scepter was just there because I had no idea what to put in the sideboard.

  3. The Ivory Towers should probably be cut as we are a tap out control deck and want to play our cards instead of keeping them i our hand as you can do with Swords and Counterspell.

  4. A COP: Red should be a good inclusion because sometimes you can get in control but still have a long way to go before you can kill the opponent. If he or she plays burn that is a big problem with only three counterspells.

  5. Against control decks, and maybe also combo decks, one more counterspell would be nice to have access to in the sideboard.

  6. Sure, we play Guardian Beast but one City in a Bottle could be nice as a Transmute target against Arabian aggro and more.

 

 

Brewing

Actually I haven’t played much more with the deck so I don’t have many more findings to write about. I have however brewed and thought about it a bit to see what different directions you could go with the deck.

I’ve narrowed my ideas down to four main builds but keep in mind these are all just rough sketches.

CandleBeast

This is the version I played at the tournament. Skipping the red, skipping going aggro, and playing the Guardian Beast combo. There is however a couple of ways to build this as well. I’ve looked into playing the beast in the sideboard and The Abyss main, or the other way around. Mostly to have different game plans depending on the matchup. But I haven’t gotten this to work yet. But sure, with The Abyss main you become really good against creature decks and against control I think the combo is the best.

The Abyss Aggro

This build skips the beats and instead plays The Abyss, as it is amazing with Maze of Ith. It also adds a couple of more artifact creatures to go with the Abyss and it’s probably the best version. It is however also the most boring build as you more often than not loose track of the main idea, copying factories and using Candelabra. And you also loose the beast combo. In this build I've also decided to cut Counterspell and Transmute Artifact as there is no combo to tutor for or protect. Lastly I also switched to playing 4 Mana Vault instead of a split between Fellwars and Vaults as this deck wants to ramp out a creature quick and copy it.

The Abyss Control

You can do the same as in the above build but instead of more creatures add more Icy Manipulator to become more of a tap out control. In this build the copy factory plan is still valid and good. I like this quite a bit as it does everything I want, except comboing with Guardian Beast. I also added more books and cut a Transmute Artifact as I don’t need to find the combo.

Light the Candle 

This is the first version I tried, the one that splashes red for Mana Flare and a couple of Fireballs. I don’t think this will be even close to as good as the other builds but it’s absolutely the version that will give you the most varied game play, as you have so many different game plans in the same deck. It makes the Candles even better but without a Fireball in hand you don’t want to play Mana Flare so it’s a bit clunky. That’s why I only play one. The cards to cut is harder though. You want Counterspell to protect one of your two combos but there isn’t much else to cut. Maybe the artifact creatures, but then you really need to draw a factory for your Copy Artifacts to do anything.

That’s all my thoughts for now. I will continue to brew on this for a while and test different things, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts about the deck. I lean towards playing either the Icy control with The Abyss or a more opted version of what I played last time. The Abyss version is probably the one which is most true to my initial idea of copying Factory and hitting hard with Candelabra of Tawnos. But then again, the beast combo is just so fun.

/Gordon

White Weenie Weekend

Below is Grant Casleton's story about going to Eternal Weekend with the Lords of the Pit to play Old School with 117 other players. If you want to read more about the tournament and check out all the other decks you can find Eternal Central's Report here. /Gordon

Let me preface by saying my expectations for Eternal Weekend were non-existent. I have never been to Eternal Weekend, nor have I ever been to Pittsburgh. I am someone who doesn’t get excited for things until I have arrived at my destination. Even more so when there is a 7 ½ hour drive through cornfields and cow crap. Only until I saw “Welcome to Pittsburgh” is when I started to realized this was going to be a great weekend. 

The trip and preparations

The drive was long but good conversation was had. The Burger King we stopped at in rural Ohio was a sight to be seen and we were only asked for change once. Luckily for us, they only lost one of our orders so it was a quick stop and then back on the highway. Driving through the hills of Western Pennsylvania while it’s dark was a little intimidating, but we eventually got there in one piece.

We checked into our AirBnB around 11pm and cracked a cold one. Once we figured out where the rest of the crew was, we hit the road. We pull up to the bar and it was a dingy little dive bar with neons in the windows and graffiti all over the doors. This was my kind of bar. One thing I didn’t know about Pittsburgh was that smoking inside was OK. A friend of mine lit up a smoke in the bar and I about smacked it out of his mouth.

Before I knew it we had pitchers of Yuengling and shots of Jameson were being given out like candy. After great conversation and a few sloppy games of Ping-Pong, we called it a night. I contemplated making my final deck check that night but realized I may have drank a little too much.

Thursday Morning was a little hazy and worse than expected. Luckily I had a Pedialyte in the fridge ready for me, which was probably the best play of my weekend. Carter was kind enough to buy some groceries for breakfast and cooked up some fantastic eggs and potatoes. We all agreed a good breakfast was needed with an anticipated long day of drinking. 

After breakfast we prepared our final deck lists and headed over to the Omni William Penn Hotel. Although, our first Uber driver we called sideswiped a parked car, drove off and cancelled the ride, which got a chuckle from us standing in disbelief with what we just saw. Luckily the second Uber driver arrived in one piece and we loaded in.

Getting into the hall was a scene I will never forget. The drinking had already started and everyone was chatting and getting to know each other. After checking in it was time for Malort to be passed around to those who wanted to try the liqueur. The bottle I brought was finished before the second round even started and the fancy Swedish malort was finished shortly after.

I was playing a straightforward White Weenie deck. I figured I’d rather play something easy for 8 rounds than a deck that would make me think and make hard decisions. With Eternal Central rules, 4 Strip Mines are a must and I get access to the hottest tech from Fallen Empires. Order of Leitbur and Icatian Javelineers are two of the best cars in the deck.

I didn’t see a single Birds of Paradise through the whole day though, which was a bit surprising. Regardless, Icatian Javelineers still did work on some Savannah Lions throughout the day. Nothing feels better to T1 Javelineer with your opponent playing anything with 1 toughness and knowing it was about to get REKT.

White Weenie is straightforward enough where all you want to do is play your dudes and smash face. My deck is unpowered, although a Chaos Orb is always ready to flip in dire need. Playing this deck is nice because the only dead draw is going to be a basic Plains. Strip Mine will get your opponent off colored mana, Factory is a creature but also can cast your Serra Angel, and a creature or spell will make the game move forward.

I wish I had more Preachers to main deck but unfortunately only have 1 at the moment. Playing Thunder Spirit felt fine though because the damage I got over the top in a few games got me closer to victory. It felt like Thunder Spirit can be the backbreaker in mirror matches and having a Swords to Plowshares in hand to plow their fliers ended up the correct play.

I’ve done my best to recollect my 8 matches and the games that were played. I made it a point to get the names spelled correctly, but that’s as good as it gets. I’ve been drinking since 9am, Keg and Eggs was a necessity to starting Thursday off right.

Tournament time!

Rd 1 - Jonathan Sparks Loss

Jon was on Grixis Control, a deck I’d love to build in the future. Game 1 was mine at hand with Strip Mines and Jon not able to find any land. Game 2 was a little more back and forth but Serendib Efreets + me not finding removal = me catching the beats. Game 3 was just as quick with Jon finding two Glooms and putting me way out of reach to casting my one drops.

Rd 2 - Phil Jankiewicz Win

This was probably my favorite round of the day. Phil was on R/W Weenie and all three games were grindy. A lot of back and forth with Crusade helping both parties make their dudes bigger. We had a lot of fun trading creatures, but in the end Thunder Spirit was the creature that put me over the edge. I got there in 3 games.

Rd 3 - Dair Grant Loss

Dair was on Turbo Stasis that I needed to be quick to beat. Unfortunately I was not and had my shit pushed in. I’ll be the first to admit I did not have a fun time playing against this deck. But I had a blast talking with Dair and getting to know him. We went to 3 games in this round but only because Strip Mine was the All-Star for me game 2.

Rd 4 - Winston Wood Win

This is the part of the day where my notes start dwindling as the beer kept flowing. This was another prison deck and I wasn’t very happy to see that again after the last round. G1 I was able to get in fast damage and get there before the lock actually happened. I remember Land Tax filling my hand G2 and getting annihilated. (photo of the lands) G3 was a bit more grindy but I was able to overwhelm with creatures and finish Winston off.

Rd 5 - Jimmy McCarthy Loss

Jimmy and I talked more shit to each other than actually played Magic. I would have prefered to just talk and share a beer instead of lose to this man. The deck I have him on is “Green White Bullshit” and I lost in 2. So Jimmy if you’re reading this, go screw yourself.

Rd 6 - Nam Trann Loss

This was probably the quickest round of the day for me. Nam was on “The Deck” and we didn’t play much Magic. The Abyss was brutal and I couldn’t find a Disenchant. After a T2 Abyss game 2, I scooped em up and went to go have another beer. And Nam I want to apologize again if I came off salty, because I was. But, nonetheless, you beat me fair and square and it was still good to meet a new face and I hope your weekend was a good one.

Rd 7 - Matt Haan Win

I’ve played Matt at the last three events I’ve attended. He’s soft spoken, a great player, and an even nicer person. He was playing, at least what I called, B/R Orgg. It was a spicy brew that seemed like a blast to play. If I remember correctly we went to 3 games and I eventually got there. Next time we play I want you to raise your voice and yell at me. You’re too nice.

RD 8 - Ryan Crouch Win

Ryan was playing Mono-Red Goblins and that deck has been becoming super popular. Goblin Grenade has always been a favorite of mine since I last played it in standard (Scars of Mirrodin.) Although only playing 2 games they were a bunch of fun. Game 2 I boarded in a Wall of Swords because who can actually beat that card. After the game ended, he told me he maindecks Goblin Digging Team and it was the next card up. I wish I would have known because I would have allowed him to make that play.

I was 68th place which I believe means 4-4 but a lot of alcohol was consumed so who knows. All that matter is that I had a good time meeting new people and slinging some cards. I want to thank everyone I met that weekend because I couldn’t imagined it been any better of a party.

Meatballs!

After the hectic exit of the hotel, a few LotP and I headed back home to drop our stuff. The crew were all pretty hungry and we ended up at Emporio at Sienna Mercato. The whole premiss of this place was meatballs and the sauce they put on them. I walked in and Dom was drinking scotch with about $300 worth of meatballs at the table. After dinner we headed to Sharp Edge for a nightcap and then hit the hay.

Pamela’s was on the menu for breakfast that Friday morning. It was down in the Strip District where Tyler and I met Dom for a little breakfast. I got the Hash and Eggs and it was everything I needed that morning to soak up the day before. 

After breakfast we headed to the convention center and I got a whole bunch of cards signed, sold my Legacy deck and picked up an UNL Ruby. It was a long few hours of cutting deals and even getting in a game or two on the hallway floor. 

We had a scheduled Contract from Below meetup that night and we needed a little time to relax. After “relaxing” and putting back a few, we packed up our Contract decks and headed to Peppis sub shop. This was your classic Italian Sub shop and it hit the spot for an early dinner. 

The meetup ended up taking place at the Southern Tier Brew Pub with a great outdoor seating area. The weather was perfect and with no breeze, we played outside.

And for those of you who haven’t been explained how we play Contract From Below in Chicago, let me explain. When casting Contract, instead of the Ante card, the caster must buy a beer or shot for their opponent. The card is powerful when it comes to playing it, but also when it comes to drinking. Matt was able to Fork a Contract right before I arrived, but luckily this photo exists.

Prizes were given out to every participant and if you and anyone else wanted the same prize, you flipped for it. I’ve come to realize Chaos Orb flipping should become a national sport and is the best way to settle any grievances you may have with someone. If I remember correctly we were flipping at 2 feet heights as well.

After drinking way too much our Saturday got crazier and the night went on. Those details I’m leaving out but it was a night that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It seemed like everyone was in rare form. And if someone gives you money, you put it in your damn mouth!

At the end of this weekend I want to give a huge shoutout to all the Lords and friendly new faces I met. I wouldn’t be playing this game if it weren’t for the crew we have in Chicago. Please see below for some more photos and thanks for reading.

All in all, it was a weekend that I will never forget. I have never had this much fun playing MtG and I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t get into this format. Below are some other photos that I and others took of the weekend, This will be my yearly trip to sling cards, drink booze and have a good time.

FOR THE LORDS

/Grant Casleton

PS. I also want to give a big thank you to Jaco for putting this together. This wouldn’t have been possible without him putting in the work to find a venue and run in the event. This was the biggest tournament I’ve ever participated in and Jaco made it a breeze with how well he ran it.

 

 

Here are some more pictures from the trip: