CHARITY ROCKS- a 2026 Lobstercon Report by Tim Kincaid
Sept. ‘26
I'm going to try and tell the story of how I became the king for a time. At Lobstercon in New England Sept 17th, 2026 I arrived off my flight, took the shuttle downtown. It was a beautiful 78 degree sunny afternoon in Boston. Low and behold at Franklin Square, I bumped into the defending X-point champ, My friend Jason Kovacic who bested me in the finals of last month's Tolaria Old School X-points #67 online. He had his kitten with him to drop off the Cat-Sitter and as we hunted for the address I texted Michael Parler back. Mike was on his way to meet us at the 'Equinox' pub. We ended up crossing paths with Michael a couple blocks down. As we walked toward the Equinox we encountered the poor.
Jason Kovacic and Tim Kincaid at the Equinox Pub pre-tourney
We have them in every city, bums on every street where I come from too. I decided to help him, afterall, I was feeling charitable, pumped about what money the convention might raise for “Room to Grow”. 'How much did you give him"?, Jason asked. "I'm just trying to improve my karma a bit for tomorrow., I responded. “You get out what you put in".
Equinox's was pretty chill, we played some round-robin style playtest games, taking turns, gulping down some yummy New England local beers. It was cool to be together in person with 'acquaintances' you had only met over the webcam. Perhaps we would truly become friends, I hoped. (this is my yearning). The gathering here was magically fun. It was as if we had all been together multiple times before, but we hadn't. Our server was friendly, yet we complained these aren't 16 oz beers, only 12 oz! Who knows, it was still good though overpriced. An old man came up to the side of our table during me and Michael's test games while Jason was taking a bio break. "Are you down with our friend Amigo, the Devil?" he asked.
Huh, what? we asked, perplexed.
"You down with our Amigo, the Devil"?
"I don't know what you're talking about", I gruffly responded, and he wisped away. Jason returned and we continued our games. Michael was whupping my ass, and by the time 5pm rolled around we were discussing side board changes yet again for my deck, as we went to search for a train to meet up with more 'acquaintances' for a dinner invitation.
Michael Parlor, me, Maxime, and Olivier (french Canadians)
Dinner was to be at Rob Hackney's house and his delightful companions, Mr. Bliss, the twins, and a couple others. We had some more drinks, ate Chinese, and played some A2A here thanks to Mr. Hackney's invitation. This was quite fun! So much that I will try this again sometime, I thought as my phone buzzed my thigh. It was My 'brother' Ian Roncoroni, finally in town! He and the NYC Sisters Baquero crew were beckoning- Come to the house, boy, Come to the fair!
Breakfast with Ian Roncoroni
As I hopped in my Uber, let me take a minute to explain how me being at Lobstercon came to be. This whole damn thing is all Ian Roncoroni's fault. He was the 1st guy I met in my 1st Winter Derby webcam tournament, hosted by NEOS about 3 years ago, circa '23 or '24. I had secretly been following Old school magic on youtube in years prior, had a lot of the cards,and had finally started to play. Me and Ian hit it off immediately in that winter derby. We were like 2 peas in a pod. We became playtest partners, sometimes multiple times a week for the past 3 years. He called me at work when He had great success at Lobstercon a couple years ago making Top 16 with his B/r Troll Ponza list. I was damn proud of him, but secretly a bit envious. I wanted to put on a good showing like Ian too- always in the playoffs or finals of most of the 40 or so tournaments we have played together. So we both bought tickets for Lobstercon '26 this past April, but sadly found out I wouldn't be able to attend. It interfered with a religious holiday for me and my family, or so I thought.
Flashback forward to last week, here in September '26. Ian hits me up and says he wants to test for LC next weekend and asks if I'd build an ATL deck and play with him. I said, 'Next weekend?, isn't it this weekend'? He replied, "If it is, I've bought the wrong plane ticket and I have to get that changed!" LOL, he said I scared the crap out of him! Turns out LC was not that weekend, (the weekend I thought it was and had wrongly marked on my calendar back in April) it was the following weekend! Ian had the correct flight, My dates were off. I talked it over with my wife, Heather, and we did not come to a clear consensus on whether or not I should go. But I remember thinking, Wow! How weird it was that we somehow confused the dates! It was then that I considered maybe attending after all, but still though I am not the type of guy that likes to 'change plans'. I had a Florida trip planned with my family for a week near the end of September, some busy work stuff to tend to in days following LC, I dunno if I’ll go was my thought.
Ian was very persistant. 1st it was- "I got a room for ya, you can have the bed I'll take the couch" "C'mon man, it'll be fun, I'd love to see ya".
But I tried to put it off, I'm a bit afraid of big crowds and meeting new people. I asked Ian who he was staying with, he said the Sisters NYC crew and Andy Baquero. I had met Andy in discord and at his sweet "double X-Points" Event back in March in Atlanta for my birthday. That was my 1st time meeting Ian too in person. Andy seemed fun, chill, smart and nice enough. Hmm...I paused, not sure what I should do.
Roomates Abe, Andy Baquero, Colby and Stoomie
I love magic, and I'm a bit afraid of failure here too...I thought, what if I play Lobstercon and do poorly? I'd never been to Lobstercon before, or any big Old School tournaments for that matter, and no big magic tournaments of any kind since like 2007!
I made excuses so I might justify turning Ian down on his proposition. I text him back for now with, 'I'll check the available flights in the next day or two when I have time'. A day or two passed, I hadn't checked the flights. But I had contacted DFB and asked, if I ended up being able to go, could I still have my spot? (Even though previously I had told him I wouldn't be able to attend). He replied quickly to me with a friendly, energetic, "Absolutely, you still have your spot!" And then again later, It'd be "Awesome" if you could come. Ian contacted me again,
"How're the flights looking?" I sighed and realized I must check these flights, he's my friend and I said I would. There were some great flights available, and I would be able to get the round trip for free. Now how could Heather be able to tell me no!? Hmm, Maybe I can actually swing this afterall!! The rest is history, Thanks a ton brother. Ian Roncoroni.
Now, back to where we were, (oh yeah, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) I... rolled... up to the Sisters house around 7 or 8 and yelled at Uber driver, "Go Home, Smell ya later!" Looked at my Kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne, as the Prince of Bel-Air! I had arrived at the house on 92 Glen St. It was nice. Ian had invited me there, Andy and the NY guys were kind enough to accommodate me. They insisted I take a bed,
Sisters of the Flame NYC roomates
sharing a room with Dr. Baquero and Andy Baquero (JR.). Ian planned to just sleep on the couch. What a guy, what a friend.
Most the guys were playing test games at the house. I wasted no time, greeted everyone, introduced myself and delved right in. We tested until about 1am, mostly me, Parker, and Ian. Even after everyone was going to bed, we were still going strong. Parker was on Lion/Dib/Bolt, Ian on Erhnam 'Geddon. We tried to help finalize eachother's decklists. I had a lot of processing to do from my testing with Michael and Jason earlier that afternoon as well. Before going to bed, I emailed Parker the deck photo I had taken 2 days ago so he could digitally swap 2 cards (saves an hour from me having to lay it all out and photo it again). It was late, and I think we were all tired. We decided to all try and get some sleep, it wasn't great. I was up the day before at 5am for my 7am flight out of Nashville, and had been operating on about 4.5 hrs of sleep.
Roomates Parker, Brent, Chris, and Colby
This night didn't fare much better. I lay in bed mostly restless. I thought I had things finalized with my deck and that I'd rest soundly enough, but I couldn't. My list wasn't winning enough this evening with these guys. I knew something was missing.
I needed another mana source, it couldn't just be a Scrubland or another Underground Sea. It had to be the 3rd City of Brass, damage or not, I needed to be able to cast my power. Also, I realized whenever I boarded in COP red against Mike or Parker I either only had mana available for Counterspell or just an untapped City after playing stuff, so COP just seemed to suck. I didn't really have the mana for it- my games didn't usually go super-long with tons of mana sources in play! All of this stuff swirled through my mind knowing there were only just a few hours before I'd have to submit the deck and play my 1st round- you've all been there.
Championship deck _Rob Hackney Fan Club_
Finally, I passed out. Only to be abruptly awakened at 3 am with a severe leg cramp in my left calf. What the hell!?, I thought. I tried to muzzle my face with the pillow so I wouldn't cry out and awake Dr. Baquero or his son. The last thing I wanted to do was make a ruckus and piss off the Sister's of the Flame guys the night before Lobstercon. Boy, so much for first impressions!
I spent nearly the next 30 mins stretching my calf and groaning in bed, trying to chug water, and make it comfortable enough to get up and walk around the kitchen some to relieve the Charlie Horse. It was bearable at this point. I lay back down and may have been able to crash again for an hour.
It was 7am Friday. 1st day of my 1st Lobstercon! The guys were up, the sun was bright. Stretched the leg a bit, threw on my 'Cheers' lucky green Ireland T-shirt and stepped out the room to see Parker Boab outside having a breakfast smoke. I joined him outside and discussed side board choices with him once more and he kindly agreed to make 1 more change to my deck photo on his laptop. I emailed it to him again. The COP red was out of the SB for a 2nd BEB. The main deck Disk was moved as a 2nd disk to the SB and replaced with the 3rd City of Brass. Lastly, the 4th Counterspell was removed from the SB and list altogether. I believed this was as close to perfect as I could muster.
I then went into the living room where most of the Sisters crew were. Up and at'em. I played some test games against Abe's goblins. It was as if we were re-hearsing a 'real' match, 2 of 3 sb, all the house was watching. He got game 1 but I managed to take down games 2 and 3 showcasing my psychic purges. The guys were impressed, I was boosted and feeling good about my deck. Next followed a breakfast with Ian at Dunkin Donuts. Then an Uber ride after and we were at the venue.
Beautiful day at the Venue in Boston, Cambridge
We were here! And, it was a perfectly beautiful morning to boot! This was exciting! Immediately I recognized the friendly face of Tim Atwood, then Lucas Glavin, Dave Bard, and a whole other host of guys. I felt nervous... 'Great, I'm gonna have to go up and say hello and introduce myself to all these people!’, I said to myself. To my surprise a whole host of players said hello and good morning and introduced themselves to me! Beginning with Andy Rossmeissl and his buddy Jan first, and then too many others to list. I got my tags, badge, saw the artists, booths, and the bar, bought the awesome Rasputin playmat and Lobstercon T-shirt before they all sold out, and looked around the great Hall- It was surreal.
Dave Bard _DFB_ hosting!
I was in Valhalla.
Some big, magical things were about to happen- I could feel it. The air was super-charged. I did the meet and greet thing for awhile, used the bathroom twice, once before, once after. I think it was nerves. Finally, up came round 1. “Pairings”! Boomed the voice of Dave Bard! LET'S GO!
Round 1- Parker Boab ("Cause") on lion/dib/bolt 0-2
Parker was the only player in the room who had seen my deck photo and knew my deck. As much as I love the guy, I was discouraged to be playing him. I didn't know what was in his sb, but I had discussed my sb plans against his deck. I dropped game 1 quickly with him drawing nearly all his power in the 1st 15 cards, minus Mox Ruby and Timetwister. "Power begets Power". Then he wheeled and even had LoA. Parker is also a very good player, and the mental edge felt so great after losing this game. Trying to sb against him was very heavy, knowing he had so much info about my deck.
I did not think I could win.
-3 dib
-3 psi blast
-1 city of brass
+1 spirit Link
+2 beb
+2 city in a bottle
+2 psychic purge
I'm pretty sure this is how I boarded against him. I do think my sideboarding plan improved each round as I went along. Simple things like if there are no enchantments to worry about, 2 Disenchant auto boarded out for 2 Divine Offering, so that I might gain 1 or 2 life off a sol ring or chaos orb. Also, against really aggressive decks playing 2 draw 7s, I may have boarded out Timetwister in later rounds, or even LoA possibly if I knew they were on Black Vise and I was boarding in Bottles.
Anyhow, I lost this match 0-2. Initially I thought to myself, why did I come all the way up here? Fly all this way just to play the only guy who had my deck photo. I was frustrated and down on myself. All this negativity that began to bloom inside of me reminded me of one simple truth. There are many devils to overcome, the biggest one being yourself. I text my daughter Serra, (and family) I needed some Divine Intervention. I told them I wasn’t feeling very good and asked them to say a quick prayer for me. Within a few minutes of walking around, getting a drink, going to the bathroom, stepping outside- I had a change of heart.
I thought, OK, I can get upset about my bad luck round 1, or I can just forget about it- focus on the relationships, the people, and… who cares!? Just have a good time! So that became my focus and decision. Many thanks to Parker beCAUSE he brought out a very good, relaxed, no-pressure frame of mind in me that was both positive, wanted to win, but didn't care as much. He CAUSEd this to happen. What had he done!?
This feeling inside of me actually changed and heightened a little more each round as I won games, gained confidence, which then led to more mental clarity and then more concentration each round. Win after win, kind of like a snowball effect.
Round 2- Eric Cripps from upstate NY (Rochester?) 2-1
R/U/B blood moon- similar to Lucas Glavin's list that just won the Summer Derby. Class act guy, we had a very interesting, edge of our seat kind of match, 3 games, trading back and forth. Eric was kind enough to respond to my discord message for anyone to share details with me that might jog my memory and help in my report. Game 1 was grindy with the countering of key spells. I tried to keep him off draw 7s, but at one point he did resolve a wheel as his last card in hand or a topdeck and ended up with just enough to push through for the victory. My sb plan against burn decks with Dibs was pretty much the same: bring out Dibs, bring in bottles. (this is the reason I only played 3 Dib MD).
Also against burn take out psi blasts, unless they are running Serra, then maybe I’d leave 1 or 2 blasts in or whatever i could fit.
In this match I went:
-3 Dib
-3 psi blast
-1 Mox Ruby
I may have taken a city of brass or actually I think mox ruby to make way for a disk or 2 since I saw a blood moon. I remember being able to deal with it game 1, but it seemed to lock me out for a few turns until I eventually drew 1 of my 2 basic plains, pearl, lotus or orb to get out from his blood moons. He only had 2 in the deck and I had a lot of answers. But still, if I don't answer the Moon I am probably just losing the game unless I'm really lucky drawing basic isl/plains or on color moxen. So ya, I want to say I boarded in at least 1 disk as a definite additional answer to Moon and also in case I was just in a losing board state.
+2 disk
+2 beb
+1 link
+2 bottles
No divine offerings here since I need disenchant for moons. I actually had a tough time game 2, it also went long and grindy, answering threats. I had so many ways to deal with his creatures- BeB for Orc or his Dragon Whelp/Blood Moon. He brought in 2 terrors. So he ended up with a ton of removal as well- Bolts for my Factories, Chains for Lions, Psi Blasts for Derelor/Serra, heck he even played a Falling Star against me so he brought 1 of those in, knowing he could possibly get a 2 for 1 if I happened to have two lions down, or I have 1 lion, animate/block with a factory and he can star then. He did end up trading 1 for 1 falling star on a lion, and 1 for 1 nearly the whole game, terror this, bolt that, psi blast that. In the end I remember popping a disk, to his surprise. I was worried he'd have more removal than I had threats after his wheel and my timetwister in the graveyard. I wondered if he might deck me! But I was able to win with an unterrorable Derelor with counter backup for psi blast in the end.
Game 3, he had seen Bottle game 2, and I watched him reach for sb again and was pretty sure he was taking out his Dibs, so I brought mine back in, and I ended up having quite a bit more threats and the right mix of cards to overwhelm him and take it down a lot easier, but still a very close and suspenseful matchup. Eric played very well.
Mark Tedin Booth
Round 3- Mark LePine from Philly on W/g/r/b rainbow vale, tax, tower, sylvan, blood moon Lands edge. 2-1
I remember being able to take his life down fairly low game 1 to like 6, with some combination of dib/lion, but he removed them and my psi blast wouldn't reach. He smoked me with DE on my pearl, strip mine on my basic plains, then he dropped the Blood Moon.... I had already destroyed 1 tower, but he had Sylvan and Tax and ended up with another Tower. I knew when he dropped the Moon and passed me his Rainbow Vale I was prolly screwed with Sylvan in play and then him drawing into another Tower. I got locked out, couldn't cast anything. I did manage to muster a Lotus into a Mind Twist to put him down to like 2 cards, but he Sylvaned for 8 life, refilled his hand and proceeded to regain his life back to 20+. At one point I drew a Chaos Orb and thought I’d wait for him to tap some mana and cast something then maybe try to Orb, but he Winds of Changed it away. I scooped, said I dont have the patience for it (I really just wanted to finish the match in time, it was a long game 1). That was a nasty win and I hadn’t expected to play against this type of deck today, nor had I tested against it. I asked him if he'd mind sharing with me what his win-con was since I scooped for times sake- he competitively and rightly said 'after the match'.
As we sideboarded, I was feeling somewhat concerned about this one, but I remember the disks were huge here in game 2.
+2 BeB
+2 Divine Offering
+2 Disk
I had a rather nutty draw and once he started to setup with some tower/enchantments, down came the disk, pop! And then a big dude meeting a swords, another big dude with counter backup and just got there.
Game 3 was just unfair. Mark was on the play. Poor guy, I got one of the nuttiest hands all day! He played a Ruins of Trokair and passed. I went Winter Factory, (best one in my deck), Lotus, 3x moxen, pop Lotus for WWW, use colorless from factory, cast Balance with 2 cards in hand and WW floating. Mark discards down to 2 cards. I played double Lion with the mana and said Go. He did manage to sac his land and get a Serra down a few turns later but on my 2nd turn I drew and played a 3rd Lions! It was some Boogie-Man shit! I knew If I continued to run Hot like this, I’d have a chance.
Round 4- William Kirkwood from ATL on Shops 2-0
I had met William back in March when I played in Andy Baquero's 'Double X-points' event in Atlanta for my birthday with friend Ian Roncoroni. William’s a great guy, I remember he gave me a Lord of Atlantis full art proxy that he had made up for the players there. I was happy to play him as I remembered him being both friendly, likeable and fun.
I got some busted draws against Will invloving Mind Twist. Hard to fight back with no cards in hand. After board I think this matchup gets really bad for Shops.
Round 5- Matt Weaver from ATL? on Ernham geddon 2-1
Game one was a good back and forth game, but Matt got a Sylvan Library and eventually LoA. My Swords allowed him to draw more from Sylvan and fill hand back to 7 quicker. I tried to save my Counterspells for the ‘Geddon, but I couldn’t afford to let an Erhnam resolve, he had run me out of answers and cards. He ended up with a Serra and a ‘Geddon resolved. GG
SB
-1 Mox Ruby
- 3 Dib
+2 City in a Bottle
+2 Control Magic
I assume here my opponent will sb out some number of Disenchant since my only main deck target they may know of is Orb or a Factory. The goal here is to use Bottle to cap his Dibs and Erhnams, and save Control Magic for his Serra. It worked out nearly identically both games 2 and 3. Bottle is so good when it’s in your deck against 8 arabian dudes and 4 City of Brass. (especially when I’m only running 3 city or 2 if i board one out in the matchup) Plus you can control whoever may get an early LoA advantage as well. We barely managed to finish game 3 and went to turns. But I had a Serra in play, and a factory. He dropped a Serra on turn zero with only 1 card left in hand at 15 life. I untapped played Control Magic and a Lion, and swung for 4 with my Serra. He drew and played a factory, I swung in with 2 Serras, lion, factory and it was lethal when I DE’d his factory before blocks.
Bar drink menu
Round 6- John Knerr from Indianapolis on g/r/u arabian aggro with 12 bolts. 2-1
Nice guy. He ended up coming to the dinner feast after the tourney hosted by Bjorn with most of my Sisters of the Flame roommates, and sat across from Will Parshall, right at my right hand. There were 13 of us present so we called it the ‘last supper’. I really enjoyed his company and meeting John. He played well too, went 3 games.
Game 1 He barely had just enough dmg to lethal me with a Scavenger Folk, Atog, Pixie (that I couldn't block) and Serra of his own.
SB
I want to say I brought in 11 cards in this Matchup. He was on both Draw 7s
-Timetwister
-Mox Ruby
-3 Dib
-2 Psi Blast
-4 DE
+2 Divine Offering
+2 Psychic Purge
+2 City in a Bottle
+2 BeB
+1 Spirit Link
+2 Control Magic
The Bottles were just too strong here in game 2 and 3. And though we both drew some number of Ancestral, I eventually drew into LoA midgame to get ahead game 2 and didn’t drop the Bottle until he had more threats than I wanted to swords or psi blast. I did see a vice in game 2 so I changed my SB for game 3.
-1 more Psi blast
-1 City of Brass
+2 DE
This worked nicely for me game 3 as he had Vice and I actually had LoA opener, and I went ahead and necro’d a bit more extra life to the LoA. I was down to 10 but had early Lion, DO for the vise, then purge on early pixie, then down came a 2nd vise, into DE. Then came the Dib and then my Bottle. I had nearly a full grip, but I think John had a couple Erhnam in hand and tried to cast a draw 7, which I snap Countered. He had ReB, but I had the BeB leaving him nearly out of cards and got in there eventually with some number of my guys. I also felt fairly lucky enough to have 3 blue sources in play here, but I had drawn a good number of extra cards. (burn decks can only psi blast so many Serra/Derelor.)
Vendor Booth
Round 7- got paired against Thomas Sutherland from Chile, but they paired me up this round- only me! I went to table 1 to play the top seed 'Keach' due to his opponent being an improper pairing.
My hand against Thomas was absolute nuts with multiple mox, sol ring, ancestral, tutor. Just looking at it I knew I’d win game 1.
I was actually very disappointed when DFB told us, “wait”- he's repairing us! (lol) So, I played at table 1 the undefeated 'Keach" on Shops. I Lost to some brokenness game 1 that involved fast powered mana, Ancestral, Twist, then Shop out some fatties.
-4 Savannah Lions
-1 Mox Ruby
-1 Spirit Link
+2 Energy Flux
+2 Control Magic
+2 Divine Offering
I looked at my hand after sb, and had to throw it back twice. Lucas Glavin was playing next to me on my right, and I remember thinking he probably thinks I'm done for. At this point I was feeling like it might all be falling apart here as I had to mull to 5 (Keach told me the next day when I played him in top 8 he was shocked I won that 2nd game on mull to 5.) Lucas's game ended rather quickly and he got to see my surprise comeback. It involved a Control Magic on Keach's Clockwork Avian after I refused to cast it on any of the prior 2 Trikes he played. Instead I opted to D.I. and Psi Blast even though I knew I wouldn't gain any life and I would still have to take 5 dmg to kill a '1/1'. This is the way, stay the course, be patient and hold out for the Control Magic on something with substance I told myself. (Serra says this was “so Mandalorian of me”). It ended up being Avian for the win after Keach ran out of gas. Game 3 it was a beating with just me drawing tons of removal/flux and Keach not getting a very good mana draw.
Round 8- Lucas Glavin (Josh Langdon who was on Blue/white similar SSS mirror match is what the Pairings in Tolaria says, but since my pairings had been switched the round before, I now was paired to play Lucas Glavin).
Geoff Walker and Lucas Glavin
Lucas was on nearly the same amazing deck he built and won the Summer Derby with, a R/U/b kind of 'counter-burn' with a couple blood moons maindeck. His black splash for Tutor/Twist of course, was also for 2 Derelor SB. He beat me 2-1 in the Derby, and I felt like I knew his deck well after testing against it extensively with 'Alters by Kronos'
(Jason Picciano) on Wednesday several hours until I felt comfortable with the matchup. Thank you Jason!
I remember being on a LoA/factory hand that I kept game 1 on the draw and managed to get colored sources. I had nearly stabilized against a fairly aggressive hand here from Lucas. I drew multiple swords, DE for his factorys, and at one point I remember having to discard and chose my psi blast after a Braingeyeser, having too many cards in hand EOT. This mistake proved fatal as Lucas, not having many cards left in hand, mustered one more Dib and it ended up doing 12 damage to me. After, I told Lucas I shouldn't have discarded the psi blast! At the time I had plenty of removal in my hand and thought I didnt need to take dmg from psi blast for more removal.
I blamed my mistake on Lucas' intimidation. He's such a good player and I'd never beaten him before. In that game he also ended up baiting my counterspell with a burn spell, which I felt I had to say NO to with my life total being precariously low. I was holding multiple counters, but could only cast 1 per turn with only 2 or 3 blue sources available in total. He baited me with a Bolt, holding only 1 card in hand and me at 4 life. I Counterspelled, and then he had the Wheel. After all the Dib dmg he just needed 1 or 2 burn spells that turn to take game 1 and he had them both.
SB
-3 dib
-2 psi blast
-1 mox ruby or -1 city of brass
+2 Bottle
+2 BeB
+1 Spirit Link
+1 Disk (extra blood moon help)
Games 2 and 3 were just clockwork though, as it showed in my test games and I felt confident after board. (Heck, I told myself I should've won game 1 but needed to forgive myself.)
I wanna say at the end of game 3 Bottle swallowed up Lucas's Dib and a City of Brass, and also took my own LoA from me- I was so far ahead I just needed to remove Lucas's stuff with it and push my guys through with counterspell backup. Some spectators behind me were like, "I've never seen anyone Bottle their own LoA before!". I responded, "I didn't need it anymore, I had enough to win at that point".
some of the top 16
Day 1 ends.
At this point in the evening, realizing I was "IN" at 8-1 was a real rush! Everyone around me kept buying me drinks saying "Dude, you could win this!" I found Michael Parler, my test partner from earlier Thursday, and found he also had made top 16. Cheers, pal! We had a drink together then grabbed some of the now-cold pizza. It was still quite tasty but the crust had gotten so hard! I heard someone even cracked a tooth on it! (It'd been sitting for several hours...Mike and I had decided earlier to stay the course with our short fast and stop eating/drinking earlier in the afternoon so we might have better mental clarity. IDK if this helped, but one thing I will say I hit every one of my Orb flips this day. (Even though I had lost my match round 1 and had several beers around lunchtime with Matthew Cutbirth. -That sandwich shop was the shit!) I don't remember how many flips I had done on the day but I'd guess at least 6 or more.
Top8
Before I could leave the venue that night, several people were so pumped that I had made top 16! I wanna say I had at least 3 or 4 drinks bought for me. Cheers all around! I actually left the venue a bit early though and reluctantly turned down a few invitations to go out and hang/party. The whole place was just teeming with fun and friendly people. As much as I wanted to spend time with others and have more fun, I knew I needed to rest and sleep to play at a high level in the morning. Afterall, I was running on about 6 hours total sleep from the past 2 nights. So after what seemed like a small eternity for me, Parker, Ian, and I went to get Parker's car out of the parking garage without getting charged $65. (It was supposed to be validated and only be $10!)
When we finally got back home everyone at the Sisters air bnb house was pumped and were like, "Yeah! we got a top 16 staying in our house!" It was pretty cool. We just chilled, drank, and talked some about who else was in the playoffs or how everyone’s day went until about midnight. Again I ended the night early, first one to say goodnight. To my surprise I slept so soundly until about 7am. No calf cramps! I awoke feeling pretty good. Some of the guys wanted to go to breakfast again, so I said gimme just a few minutes. I decided for some reason to put on a nice white collared shirt, and went into the bathroom to brush my hair. The guys were waiting behind in the room to go eat, but Geoff Walker starts yelling, "He's putting on a nice collared shirt, that's a power move!”. “Wow! He's even brushing his hair! That shirt is a power move, he's gonna win this!" Wow, did that ever encourage me. I started to believe I could win this and that what He and Ian had been saying was true.
I don't remember much about breakfast except that Andy and some others were discussing my matchup and SB strategy since it was open decklist now and we knew I’d be facing Shops. Afterwards, several of us decided to Uber back to the venue rather than ride in Parker's car and risk getting stuck in the parking garage again! Haha!
PLAYOFFS
Round 9- Bryan Mueller from London on shops (Top 16) 2-0
Bryan was a really nice guy. American who had moved to the U.K. maybe close to a decade ago. He might be associated with the 'Brothers of Fire' group there now.
He didn't have great hands, had to mulligan it seemed. I had broken stuff going on, I remember also having a couple friends watching and it's quite encouraging to see a familiar face nearby rooting for you. I also felt very confident after our morning SB strategy talk and the “Power Move” Jeff told me I’d made. I also remembered feeling great because I had beaten 2 shops decks in day 1. (including the #1 standing) The guys at the house had also asked me earlier, "How do you feel about your 1st matchup?". "I feel good about it", I said, "I want to play against Shops all day". And I got what I wished for. My 1st two matches that day in top 16 and in the Quarterfinals were against Shops.
-4 Savannah Lions (I dont want to lose them to Trikes and with workshop/mox they play 4/4s on turn 1)
-1 Mox Ruby
-1 Spirit Link
+2 Energy Flux
+2 Control Magic
+2 Divine Offering
Round 10- (Top 8) Keach again (D.C. area) on shops 2-1
I was OK being across the table from Keach again. He's a cool dude. I had also dealt him his only loss in the swiss and I again had the Shops matchup I had wanted.
Game 1 Keach had his singleton maindeck Bottle for my LoA on turn 2. My hand wasn't great, I kept on LoA, but losing it after only 1 draw hurt. I needed to draw a couple more mana of color. However, it seemed he also had Chaos Orb or strip mine to set me back, in addition to drawing 'the nuts', dumping his hand full of power, fast mana, Ancestral, mind twist just like he did against me in game 1 of our Swiss rounds match. Strangely, I didn't feel negatively moved though. I still thought it would play out like it did last time, and I made sure to vocalize this multiple times in front of the spectators. I even acted a bit flabbergasted as to what to board and then said, "Screw it, I'm just gonna board the same way, it worked before, I think it'll work again". Keach heard me. I don't exactly remember how I won game 2, I do remember missing my orb flip on his Tundra trying to attack his white source. Even though I missed, I still ended up winning. This was the only flip I missed the whole tournament. Game 3, Against Shops I have alot of removal in my deck after sideboard. Keach drops an early Sage of Lat-Nam. Properly respecting my elders, I have a Control Magic for the Sage. I can't have him 2-for-1'ing me. Later in the game I ended up with double Energy Flux in play. Even though Keach had quite a bit of land in play (I think 6 mana and a shop), having to pay 4 mana each upkeep for 1 permanent made it hard for him to play another threat until I destroyed the current one in play, always waiting for him to pay upkeep Flux costs. I had plenty of time to setup my board while he was struggling to do anything with his. GG's Keach! I enjoyed playing and meeting you, as well as your company at the "last supper" afterparty.
Semi-Finals me vs. Andy H
Round 11- (semi-finals) Andy Heiszler on u/w/b/g good stuff with ghost ships, meekstones, icy, and a time elemental. 2-1
Game one was epic history with Andy killing me with Serra and of all things, and a Time Elemental in play, locking things down. I loved it. Props to Andy. I told him before the match that it's a win-win for me either way. Either we see a deck with Time Elemental winning Lobstercon or I win.
SB: I had died game 1 and remembered having Derelor with his Meekstone out and thought these aren’t good here, so I boarded them out
-2 Derelor
-1 Mox Ruby
-1 Spirit Link
+2 Control Magic
+2 Disk (even though he had regenerating ghost ships, I thought the disk would be good if he did book, meekstone, icy stuff)
Game two was a broken start for me with land, mox, sol ring Timetwister stuff on the play. I won this game pretty handily.
While sideboarding I tell him the story about how I named my daughter "Serra" nearly 19 years ago. He had killed me game 1 with Serra, I killed him game 2 with Serra.
I say to Andy, "It's all about Serra". Andy looks me in the eyes and responds, "It's all about Serra". I won game 3 with Serra. (I was in the bathroom stall with tears in my eyes after this one... It was almost too much and I told myself, get your shit together man! Stop crying, you gotta win this for Serra! (my daughter). I was also texting her and the rest of my family about all this after this game.
Game 3 was close but Andy had mulliganed and his mana wasn't great. After I saw him Tutor and then lay a Tundra and pass and still not cast anything, my radar was on high alert, and I thought he possibly got the Tundra so I decided to strip his city of brass. Glad I chose that, because I almost went for the Tundra. The temptation is always there to choose it since the city will do damage to your opponent, but I remember thinking he could have Regrowth, so taking out the City keeps him off that at least. Good thing I made the right choice, because we discussed the board state after the game and he was holding Regrowth, and couldn't cast it. If only I hadn’t stripped the City, he would’ve regrowthed and cast the Balance in his graveyard. My draw ended up being nutty this game even though I agonized over a possible mulligan to 5. My 6 cards were 3 Underground Sea, time walk, Serra, Control Magic and a counterspell. I didn't even have a white source. How bad would keeping that Serra in hand be? That felt wrong. But also I knew, if I put that Serra on the bottom of my deck there's only 1 left to draw, and what are the chances of getting her back, save a Timetwister? So then the thought of keeping Walk, 3 Underground sea, and a Counterspell didn't even seem like an aggressive enough hand since I was the beatdown in this matchup, he was the control player. Tough keep for me there, real tough, but the Time Walk yielded some good stuff, into a couple white sources and even a mana drain, which allowed me to cast Serra with Counterspell back up and go the distance.
Round 12- (Finals) Stephen Hines on lion/dib/bolt 2-1
This match should be posted on "The Orb" (thanks Joe Singer), but I do want to let you all in on a few things that were going on behind the scenes. Game 1 was a bit of a suckout for me, or was it?? I had at least set up a board state to give myself outs to win the last turn on life totals when I drew the Time Walk. (Psi Blasts or other cards would've done it as well). Early in the game, I had successfully bluffed my very-skilled opponent Stephen on turn 3 when I activated my factory, swung in, and he bolted the factory. I sighed loudly and said, "I shouldn't have activated that factory, now my Balance is ruined." "It would've been a lot better there if I'd only lost my lion to your bolt and kept my factory". (I knew he would likely have a bolt and play it there, but I chose to lose the factory anyway to set this up, and get in some damage with my Lion). I never had a Balance in hand. Later in the game the life totals really started to matter. Stephen was taking 2 dmg a turn from his Dibs, and I had lions in play. He swung in with all and I took it all, so I could swing back with my lions. (I don't think he should've swung with his lion here, but perhaps he thought I would take the trade...to his surprise I took the dmg)
I was at a high life total after a Swords, drew Serra, but didn't cast because he had cards in hand and I had no backup for Serra. I assumed if I cast her then I'd lose her and die to his Dibs.
I thought it best to wait another turn and see what I draw- maybe some help. Up comes a Dib, so I run it out- Counterspell of course, just as I thought. (Steph had 2 cards). But I swing back with my Lions and I'm still ahead on the life total. He bashed me again with 2 Dibs and passed, this time wisely, no attack with Lions. Respect Stephen.
Apologies for taking so much time this next turn, but a ton of stuff was going on in my mind. 1st off, I visualized and imaged an Ancestral Recall in my mind before I drew the card, and there it was- I looked up at the camera, it was magic. Now for the hard part. I had gotten what I asked for, but was it really what I actually needed?? Upon closer inspection, I realized if I play the Ancestral with exactly only 5 mana, there's a chance I may not hit mana and Serra ends up stranded in my hand. Or, there are a couple other issues at hand here. If he has mana drain, he will cast it on the Ancestral, and I'll only have 4 mana left, unable to cast Serra, and I die. If I cast Serra, and he has Mana Drain, He likely mana burns for 5 with no Factory in play and he dies to dib dmg, so I realize he cannot mana drain Serra. If he has Psi Blast in play, I calculated I still had a good chance to win because he still takes 4 dmg by his next upkeep and he's fairly low on life. He did end up Psi blasting my Serra, and then Mind Twisting away my ancestral the next turn. I was totally fine and felt at ease with this outcome. In fact, I felt reassurance that I had made the correct line of plays. Meanwhile, all of this thought on which card to play, and I still had to consider each aspect of what was the most important combat step for me of the entire tournament. So, I realized if his remaining 2 cards (or the card he draws next turn) produce 'Psi Blast and Lightning Bolt' that I am dead next turn on his attack if I swing both my Lions and he does not block or trade. If he does block one of my Lions, (which likely he would've since he doesn't know if I'm holding a psi blast) then it's fine, he can't kill me next turn with burn. But I chose to finally just swing 1 lion, knowing that, A. I can't lose this way next turn. B. He will remember the Balance implanted earlier into his mind. So when I attacked with only one, he whinily blurted out 'One Lion!??' In his mind he surely thought the Balance was coming and told me after the match.
I have no idea at this point if any of this line of thinking concerning the Balance was even correct, or he was even still thinking about it at that moment, but, as it turned out, it's where our heads both were. He feared losing a Dib to Balance before he could kill me. On another note, I still have one lion back on defense so his lion can't dmg me. So, He took 2 dmg from my lion. This too proved fatal. A trade was the play there I suppose. He takes 2 from his Dibs, falls to 5, I untap, draw the Time Walk, swing for 2 (he's on 3), Walk, attack, he's on 1 then he dies to his 2 Dibs on upkeep. Without the Walk there I wasn't necessarily dead game 1. I had other outs since I had gotten his life total so low.
There is something else worth mentioning here that may not have been noticed in this sequence. Had I played the ancestral (drawing the Time Walk) and then been able to cast Serra, Stephen would've twisted the Time Walk out of my hand and I would've likely lost that game. If I played the ancestral, then Time Walked and on the next turn played Serra into his psi blast, I likely would've lost the game in this scenario as well. The Time Walk had to be on top of my deck to dodge the mind twist and gain me an extra attack step with his creatures tapped.
Game 2 I felt great thinking I had masterfully played game 1, had some luck, drew the card I imagined, mind tricked my opponent, everything seemed to be going my way. I believe I played this 2nd game masterfully, and had Twisted his hand, but I shouldn’t’ve spoken the word to Stephen when he was in the pits and I could tell he was. "You could still hit a draw 7", I said. I should've never spoken this possibility into existence, but rather ignored it. Or maybe I just thought it would be fun and interesting for the viewers. He has no cards. He draws LoA, then next turn he hits the draw 7- Timetwister into lotus, mind twist. Wow...just wow, really!? What just happened? I had a Serra in play and was wishing now I would've cast the spirit link onto her with my last mana open (city) before that Twist. I snickered... extremely lucky there for Stephen, I thought. Going from me having a full grip with Serra and him with no cards in hand or threats in play, to now me having no hand and he having LoA and a full grip.
So yeah, Stephen got a nasty game 2 win. Brutal.
Game 3 was just dirty. People told me later this was a decapitation, a flawless victory, a fatality, winning the tournament with my last opponent having nearly nothing in play. It did feel a bit awkward with Stephen having to mull and then Ancestralling and still not hitting mana sources. But I also smelt blood in the water at this point, and realized now it was my turn to be the "SHARK". I had the strip and the Orb, but I for sure put him on disenchant so I didn't use the Orb at his EOT with him having city of brass and Volcanic Island in play. I also didn't want to use the strip there to resolve my Tutor. I knew I didn't need the tutor to win. I just wanted to keep him off
white mana sources as much as possible.
Looking at my hand, I believed I had enough to win. Stephen unluckily did not. So, I decided if I attack his white mana he can't remove Serra. Also, if I just strip his city there, then he draws another white, and I'm not able to activate orb on it (because he Disenchants orb in response) then I have no way to destroy that white mana. So I chose to let him tap out to counter Tutor, then orb his white source, and still have an uncounterable strip on the table in case he draws another white source. Congrats Stephen on being the runner-up at Lobstercon '26! Things just fell into place for me here game 3 and I played the Serra and finished the game rather quickly. As soon as I realized I was actually going to win the tournament things began to feel really strange…
Everything stood still for a moment. Things got quiet, very quiet. My head began to swim, I closed my eyes. Took a few deep breaths and could only hear my heart beating, calmly and triumphantly, as if I were a Shark or Lobster, down in the depths, shrouded in glory. I slowly re-opened my eyes.
TMich, MG alters, Tim and Michael Parler
I was in Valhalla.
A crown lay upon my Head. There was a thick stench in the air. Blood and bodies littered the floor. I was the last man standing. I was the lonely king of North American Magic. Time was at a standstill for me. Soon thereafter I was taken away from the battlefield, and I dwelt in Serra’s Sanctum. After what seemed like nearly a 1,000 year reign, I returned and resurrected all my companions. They cheered for me, they had no recollection of the Timetwister that had swept through their midst! I hoisted the Lobster Scepter over my head and rejoiced! "Many thanks to all of you my brethren!"
"I couldn't have done it without each one of you!". "That was fun", I said.
“Skål för fan!” I shouted in a bellowing war cry. "Drink beer, Have a Feast and Be Merry!" was the king's proclamation. "Then let's do this all over again, ...again, ...and again." (Forever).
The End.
Tim Kincaid heading home from Boston
CHARITY ROCKS!
I think it was announced that this Lobstercon helped raise nearly $120k for “Room to Grow”, a charity that helps impoverished families with young children. We all had a blast while helping out these families and kids!
Thank you List: All you old school magicians. The artists that drew our cards and Mr. Garfield for creating the game we all love.
The Boston "NEOS" Lobstercon Crew (these are the real kings!) - Dave Bard, Tim Atwood, Jared Burrell and many others. (and their families! Thanks for the help Mrs. Bard!) Joe Singer "The Orb".
Sisters of the Flame NYC- Dr. Baquero, Ian, Chris Grennelle, ‘Cause’ (Parker Boab), Abe, Geoff Walker, Colby, Stoomie, Brent, Steve.
Playtest pals: Rob Hackney (I named my deck in honor of you, “Rob Hackney Fan Club”. Thanks for the tech on 1 Spirit Link MD and Recall not making your initial cut.
Xanadude, Ian, Jason Kovacic, Michael Parlor, Parker, Terry Hutchings (“OLDMTG”) and last but not least, Jason Picciano (‘Alters by Kronos’), who had 3 test sessions with me a couple hours each a few days the week prior.
Fun quotes of the weekend:
Parker Boab "I would've shown you my SB if you said "Can I see your sideboard?"!"
Ian Roncoroni after every round after about round 5. "You could win this!"
Geoff Walker the morning of the playoffs at the air bnb speaking of me in the bathroom "He's putting on a nice collared shirt, that's a power move!
Wow! He's even brushing his hair! That shirt is a power move, he's gonna win this!"
Andy Baquero at the afterparty, "I knew I saw something in you when I met you in Atlanta!"
Bjorn at the last supper "I quit my job in Sweden to come here since they wouldn't give me the time off. I had to see who the new king would be!”
Joe Singer and Michael Parler and multiple others: "You're the king. You can do whatever you want!"
Ian Roncoroni and Bjorn and others at the afterparty: "The king pays for nothing!"
Peter Soletesz for leaving me on Thursday because “There was something there. I felt it and knew I had to walk on and let you do your thing if it was going to happen.”
Cheers everyone, I hope to see you all at the next Lobstercon!
~Tim K