8 Wizards gathered for the first time at the Underground Lounge to battle Middle School magic in a Swiss+1 tournament. The venue was amazing! Great hospitality and great food at the Underground Lounge.

Entry fee was $10 donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank. At the end of the night, the bar matched our donation! We donated $160 to the Food Bank. Huge thanks to Brandon and the Underground Crew.

Big Up to Underground Lounge for the match!

Check out the text decklists on MTGMelee or keep scrolling for deck pics.

Notably only one Blue deck in the field! Just all-day midrange slap fights, where the wizard with the biggest dudesweats won. Not only did Twan win on points/breakers, he also won the player voted “Underground Brewmaster” award! Since you don’t get to win everything, Twan nominated Kyle Well’s Colorless Prison deck as the next best spicy deck. Congrats to Kyle Wells, who will receive a Recurring Nightmare altered card from Dan Anschutz! Honorable mentions go to Steven McGrew’s Threshold and Eric Caffrey’s Beasts.

Bob F – The Rock

Eric C – Beastageddon

Jerry – RDW

Kyle W – Colorless Prison

Rajah – Brian Hockey’s “Best Deck in Middle School”

Steven M – GW Threshold

Troy M – Madness

Twan C – Natural Rebirth

We didn’t get to take many pictures, since we were all living in the moment. One scene that did get capture was this story of “Kyle Learns About Haunting Echoes” in 3 parts:

I did get us together for a group picture!

8 Handsome Wizards

Full on Flyer. Seinfeld The Fallen

Tournament Write up is over on themanadrain.com.

My Tournament Report (from looking at my notepad)

Round 1 – Dredge – WW
2-0, 1-0

G1: I’m on the play for G1. Looks like he attacked with an Ichorid and Narcomeba twice and forced something before I tinkered for Citadel. I cast 5 spells off top looks like. Win.
G2: He’s on the play. On 7 cards, he powders away some stuff. Mulligans his powder hand and starts with 6 cards. This game was weird, I brought in my sideboard hate artifacts. The last turn before I would die, he Creeping Chilled me and then brought back 2 Amalgams plus having 2-3 Ichorids ready to roll for next turn.

On my turn, I did a lot of shenanigans, using Teferi x2 to bounce the Amalgams, ending with a Sphinx of the Steelwind in play. We played one more turn, where I gained a bunch of life from Sphinx, then cast DT for Lantern. He scooped when I exiled his graveyard. Win.

Round 2 – Tinker Breach – LWL
3-2, 1-1

Max loves his Grixis piles! Something with Tinker I’m sure.

G1: I won the die roll. Tinker / Breach / Urza list was pretty strong. He won G1 via Brainfreeze / Breach after some battles. His maindeck Pyroblasts pulled their weight here; my Ancestral got blasted! Loss.
G2: Tinker for Citadel on my side actually netted real cards. I did have to pass a turn or maybe two with Citadel in play but I was able to bury him with cards. Win.
G3: His opener was the stone cold nuts. He leads with Land, Jet, Sapphire, pass. I Probe him and see: Vampiric Tutor, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, and Tinker. I pass it back and Vamps for Ancestral on my end step, then casts it on his upkeep. Then casts Tinker for Citadel and GG. Loss.

Round 3 – Infect – LL
3-4, 1-2

Jon getting really 1000 percent with Infect!

G1: He has Blighted Agent on the play. I take a hit from Poison and then make Mentor plus a token on my turn, thinking I’m covered. On his turn he casts Scale Up and attacks for 7 poison, putting me at 9 Poison counters. I don’t have enough action to make my guy’s big enough to win. Loss.
G2: My only action is Citadel. I need him to use his Nexus and go all in on pumping so I can Hurkly’s it. He instead gets a Blighted Agent down (which is still unblockable BTW). He forces my Citadel. Vines of Vastwood -> Berserk kills me. Loss.

Round 4 – Metalworker Prison – WLW
5-5, 2-2

Trogdon doing Workshop things, of course. Loved having him try to read my cards through the signatures. My sideboard cards did their jobs.

G1: He’s on the play. Don’t recall exactly how it went but IIRC he kind of flooded out. His threats weren’t super threatening. I took 1 or 2 at at a time. Finally I break through with some creature and his Crypt kills him. Win
G2: He’s on the play again. I bring in my shops package, including Mystical Tutor and Blightsteel. He is using Expedition Map to find Wasteland, then Sphere’s / Strips me out. Revokers turning off various Moxes. Loss.
G3: I’m on the play and have to mulligan to 6. I have an opener of Land, Mox, Mox, Mentor, Mox Opal. His Turn one, he casts Revoker on Jet and Sapphire. I have several Hurkly’s in hand but just need to navigate through. Looks like I went to 12 life in the process, but ended the game via a Hurkyl’s of his board, and attacking with a bunch of monks. Win

Round 5 – Ravager Shops – WW
7-5, 3-2

Dave found us via the Internet, then came and smashed everyone. We play swiss plus one, and he was 4-0 at that point so he had to “prove it” against me. I think he was locked for first either way based on how things had played out, but my win bumped me up to a final placing of 3rd overall.

G1: He was on the play and came out fast. I had to mulligan but my six had the one of MD Hurkly’s and also Snapcaster Mage. Using these I was able to navigate through his onslaught, and finally was able to stabilize via Karn turn off his activated abilities. With an active Sensei’s Divining Top, I was able to animate it with Karn, block and then flip the Top onto my library; I had an infinite blocker! Next turn, Karn got Revoker’ed but with a Snapcaster flashback on Hurkly’s to clear the way, I PO’ed my way to many, many Monk tokens. Win.
G2: He’s on the play again, coming out fast. My hand is slowish but I have Merchant Scroll and 2x Hurkyl’s. I’m looking for a quick Tinker -> Bot line. Using Hurkyl’s to buy time, I take 8 damage before I Scroll for Tinker and pass. He scoops, showing his hand of some potential blockers, but no way to make enough power to survive and attack me. Win.

Deck Notes
Since we are playing full proxy, this gives me an opportunity to flex some cards that won’t otherwise see play, like artist proof paintings.

Artist Proof Paintings
5 Moxes – Dan Frazier Mox Proofs painted on Ice Age Cards of matching color. Sapphire is Mesmeric Trance, Jet is Fire Covenant.
Time Walk – Amy Weber proof painting on a Crystal Rod.
Ancestral Recall – Dan Frazier – A nice take by Dan on this classic. Very nice colors! This is on a Yavimaya Gnats.

Non-Sanctioned Signed Cards
Blacker Lotus – Christopher Rush – A new addition to my collection. Will see play usually as my Lotus in the Crackin’ Boosties (Booster Tutor) format.

Artist Alters
Balance – Mark Poole – Revised
Sol Ring – Mark Tedin – UNL
Mana Crypt – Mark Tedin – Book Promo – New Pickup from a signed card collector friend!
Mox Opals – Volkan Baga – Original Printing artist alters. New ones for me!

Not Artist Alters
Signed Then Altered, Revelen’s Light (Zack Cart):
Force of Will – ALL
Hurky’s Recall – 5ED
Tolarian Academy – USG
Flooded Strand – ONS
Misty Rainforest – ZEN
Polluted Delta – ONS
Scalding Tarn – ZEN
Tundra – (Kate Cart) – 3ED
Underground Sea – 3ED

Signed Then Altered, MTGAlterGirl/StumpProject
Ponder

Altered, Then Signed, IzzetStar:
Paradoxical Outcome – Nils Hamm

Notably NOT SIGNED!
Dress Down – 🙁
Teferi, Time Raveler – ACCOUNTED FOR: He’s a hot commodity. I’ve been back and forth on sending him in, but then we got the SLD Teferi. That one is out being signed now, so this will be resolved. I was able to pick up one of the WAR versions from the signed group before my event; I’m sad to say that I did have to cast the unsigned one at least once.
Yawgmoth’s Will – ACOUNTED FOR: I tried not to cast this one also but the game state required that I do so. This one is with Ron for a few years. Someday it will be back and altered. I’ve considered picking up a signed copy to use until then.

Vintage Paradoxical Outcome

The playoffs are structured as a bracket system, with the 1st seed playing the 4th seed, and the 2nd seed playing the 3rd seed, and then the winner of each advancing to the finals with the same structure. All playoff pairings are best 3 out of 5 matches where each player brings 3 decks, playing them in a preset order, and then choosing whichever deck they prefer for match 4 and match 5 (if necessary). The higher seed gets to choose play/draw in the first match, and then the loser of the previous match gets the choice in subsequent matches.

2 vs. 3

In the middle seed semi, only four matches were played. Michael’s decks lined up very well against mine and his best deck was better than my best deck. Michael advances, winning 3-1.

1 vs. 4

In the top seed semi, it went all the way to the wire. Andrew’s Devourer came through with top decks in the end to take him across the line. Andrew advances 3-2, winning 3 times with the same deck!

The finals featured some of the same decks we had seen previously, but they matched up in an interesting way. Mono Red showed its power across both the Semis and the Finals. Michael Arnold came away as the Champion of the MS Discord League, winning in 4 matches. Congrats to Michael!

Jesse had to drop after Batch 1. Michael was able to step in and complete the remaining matches.

At the end of Batch play, 3 players were tied with a 5-4 record. Lorien beat both Rob and Eric head-to-head, so took the top play-in seed. The winner of Eric v. Rob would face Lorien in the play-in final. The rules required everyone to play their batch 3 deck but Rob went rogue, so we have a few bonus lists from the play-in. Lorien defeated Rob in two games to make the top 4.

Top seed plays bottom seed in the semis, with the Number 2 seed facing off against the Number 3 seed. Higher seed goes first in game 1.

Booty is treasure — money, jewels, and the like — obtained by criminal means, especially plundering or pillaging. I wanted to go to Kumite and pillage some treasure for sure; I don’t really care about ‘spiking’ sooo much, but in this case, there was a title belt on the line. I was all set to run back my previous Kumite deck, ELM Deck (Eureka Lich Mirror) but got down on my self about being setup to win games vs. setup to maaaybbee win games (albeit with panache). Flashbacks to my Kumite II match with the illustrious host Paul Fiero (@DreadPirateTime) left me shell shocked. I wanted to bring a more powerful weapon to the fight for Booty. But I knew, regardless of the outcome, everyone wins at Kumite because EVERYONE goes home with a baller altered card to commemorate the event. So really, we all got BOOTY.

Check out the official organizer’s report here over at Music City Old School Blog.

Flipping through decks and my own idea pad, I came to Trick Deck. But with Fork! (and the Fork of Kher Ridges since, apparently I never actually sleeved up Fork before. This has since been rectified.) The unsigned cards are Chains of Mephistopheles, Fork, Twister, Regrowth and REB (12/75). The German REBs are to honor my middle school play mate Brian Ward, who lent me cards when I was first getting into Old School. Someday I hope to get to play OS in person with him. The original artist alters are the Balance, Wheel of Fortune, Ancestral Recall and Strip Mine.

Roll Out

I hooked up with Mr. Craig Winzer to drive out since I couldn’t spare the time for an overnight trip. I pulled into Cleveland around 8AM and Craig hopped in the car and we got on the way. We arrived at Grand River about half an hour before the event and promptly I put in an order for their fish sandwich, which came with a egg on top. Like a Royale or something. This came right before Round 1 and got scarfed like a Ninja Turtle on pizza.

Saw some Lords right by the entrance who were throwing down Middle School and, after dapping them up, we went to check in and pay up on our entry fees. The prize table had some crazy alters and a fully altered deck that was on the auction block for charity, just an incredible atmosphere. I looked good, I felt good and I was ready to throw down.

Please note, these match descriptions are all from my spotty notebook notes and the scorepad recollections so call me out if I mess up a description opponents.

Round One I faced off against new member of the Ebon Hand, who as far as I had know I had not met, a cool AF dude named Stephen Moore.

So we got off to the races in the opening round, I didn’t keep track of my exact opening hands throughout the tournament but I did try to keep track of who went first and 2nd.

Baller Worms of the Earth Deck

G2: Fast loss is a loss and really demonstrated I think the power of Berserk plus Giant Growth. 20 -> 19 -> 9 -> 3 -> dead.

G3: A real nail biter, highlighting the extreme synergy for Sylvan Library and Howling Mine, making me really miss it in my deck. At one point Stephen was looking at 4!! cards and putting two back based on my active howling mine.

My mulligan to 6 was something bonkers but I don’t recall exactly. I think the picture shows something like, Land, Sol Ring -> Howling Mine, with his turn 1 being Land, Mox -> Sylvan Library. My turn 2 was something like Wheel -> DT -> Lotus -> Dreams. To his credit, Stephen showed no fear and I just had to try to hang on. Like a boss playa, he ripped into his deck every turn for 4 cards, taking 4 damage, trying to find the next creature and pump spell. Every turn, I expected to die to a flurry of Giant Mice on Ketamine (I love the flavor the Giant Growth / Berserk combo).

In the end, Trick Deck did the thing that so many combo decks do: kill the opponent on the literal turn before they die. Stephen took me to 2 and I was facing down a lethal board state. My howling mine rips provided a second Underworld Dreams along with a Braingeyser to kill on the spot.

2-1 Games, 1-0 Matches

In America, First You Get Worms, Then You Get the Djinns…

Round Two was another pairing vs. The Ebon Hand. I love these guys. Brian and Eric have SWOLLEN their crew due to their tireless evangelism, playing pickup games out and about and spreading the good word about old cardboard.

Jason Burchett was on a deck that was, from what I saw, a Junk colors deck, with White Knights and Whirling Dervish deck, so double white double green. Afterward, he showed me the trick of the deck is Takklemaggot. 🙂

takklemaggot takklemaggot takklemaggot

G1: After my mulligan to six, Jason started off. He did good standard work against me in game one, but was slow game one and I was able to take over and win on about turn five or six if I recall. Another game where I got to do some silly things, I was able to win on the back of casting a double Forked Time Walk with an active Howling Mine, into a Regrowth Timewalk, stacking up four turns, taking him from 13 to dead across those turns. So really cool game one, but his deck didn’t really get to do what it was supposed to do.

G2: After another mulligan to six, Jason started off again. What I saw a game two, looking again at small back and forth, it looks like he was able to get down a 1/1 and bashed, with me taking one point of damage per turn. I had a turn one Underworld Dreams but not much other action. On Turn 5 or so, I killed him in one turn with Wheel of Fortune into Winds of Change, going 15->8->1->pass the turn to win.

His deck just didn’t get to do what it was supposed to do, while mine did a lot of the things I came to do. The Disenchants that he needed never showed up. Another awesome opponent!

4-1 Games, 2-0 Matches

G1: Round Three was against Music City homie Adam Love on Ehrnam Geddon, a good player who’s playing a good deck, one I fear because of the Armageddon. Rock, Paper, Scissors went my way here, so lead off. While I wasn’t sure exactly what he was playing, I put him on Armageddon kind of based on the cards I saw: Birds, Llanowar Elf, Savannahs. I didn’t know if he was powered or not, or if he had Counterspells or blue or what, but looks like he was not doing too much in game one. I was able to set up pretty quickly while keeping him off mana to cast Geddon. I was able to kill him across several turns, and he was never able to line up a good Disenchant. I did Wheel away the Armageddon at some point when he was one land off.

G2: He went first and I never touched him. His deck played exactly to script, disenchanting and destroying my plans, he just smashed me and continued to smash me.

Dodge The Geddon

G3: I got to go first again. Looks like he was chipping away and played some good power onto the board, ended up taking me to 11. Looks like I took him from 19 to dead in one turn. I don’t recall exactly how the combo went but that’s just the power of this deck, it’s comes out of nowhere and will kill you.

One of the things about this deck, and probably this was part of the line, is that after draw sevens, your ability to draw Winds of Change plus Red Source is increased with playing all four copies. Second of all, your mana base is much more heavily red, so you’re leaning red and you have 12 lands sources, plus Lotus and Mox, a total 14 sources for red. The number of times where I cracked Lotus for triple red in order to cast a Forked Winds of Change was not insignificant and I suspect that is how this game ended. I really like that aspect of this deck, if you have a land drop still and you’re going to cast a draw seven, you just hold up your land drop and you’re going to Wheel into red source plus the Winds of Change, you are gonna kill them.

6-2 Games, 3-0 Matches

Round Four is where things went off the rails a bit. I was paired against Knight TAPlar Rob Matthews and as soon as I sniffed out what he was on I knew it was going to be a bad time for me (Goblin Voice: Something Baaad Happened).

Welcome to your Fluffy Doom. Get Wreckt.

G2: My ability to close things out in game two was just not good enough even though this game resulted in my “Best Combo Turn” prize.

Prize for ‘Best Combo Turn’

I definitely got to do what I went there to do so sure though! Some people’s idea of fun might not be casting Ancestral Recall five times in one game (who are these people??) but that’s definitely my idea of fun!

7-3 Games, 3-1 Matches

Round 4 was played at Table 2 next to Pez and Jason at Table 1; I suspected I would face the loser of that matchup, which did come to pass. Round five was Jason Schwartz and from my eye corner glimpses, I knew this was gonna be another beat down, and not for the Good Guys.

Green Beat Down on Film

G2. It could have been mono green, it wouldn’t have mattered except he actually did cast Nether Void in Game Two and that just destroyed me, totally shutting the door. He did it in a methodical, maniacal way, casting the cards he drew through Nether Void and building a board. I was not able to do anything.

Tha Nuttttssss

7-5 Games, 3-2 Matches

My recent nemesis, dating back I would say to Lord’s Haus last year, extending through some killer middle school leagues hosted by LoTP, where I was able to steal some epic wins off of the format master. So my streak had to end eventually but the always fun games we played made me want to take this one down. For me, this was the championship against a very worthy opponent.

FireBALLED

G1: I had not really scouted any of my friends, but also usually was done later than most. So I had no idea what this mastermind was on. Unfortunately for my foe, he had to start on 6 cards while I started with a full grip on the play. The game went super long. Notes look like Lorien led with lands that included a Factory that got in for 2 and was able to bash once on turn 3 or 4, putting me to 18.

I think Lorien did know what I was on but kind of forgot how to battle Trick Deck in the moment. So he tapped out on turn 4 or 5 for a Serra Angel, going to 19 off City of Brass. On my turn, I went bonkers. At one point, he quipped something like ‘Should I be counting Storm?’ as my spell count on that turn approached 10. From my notes, I cast Timetwister -> Something, Something, Regrowth Timetwister, cast Timetwister, play a bunch of fast mana, then Balance the Serra, finally cast Ancestral Recall on myself. Between shuffling for one of the Twisters, Lorien bolted my dome, putting me to 15.

At the very end of this sequence, I put an Underworld Dreams down via Dark Ritual mana that was floated between Timetwisters, but was unable to capitalize on it that turn and had to pass; the Dreams was dispatched during Lorien’s upkeep.

We draw cards and pass back and forth for a few turns. Finally, he smoothly lays down another Serra Angel and passes.

Nothing of note happened on my turn, but I was setting up for a big next turn. I passed, figuring I have two turns and expecting to kill him on my turn. Lorien attacked and took me down to 9 and then grinned. Post combat, he tapped out his mana and Fireballed my face to win Game 1.

G2: So we go to work in Game 2 after that super long first game, and of course I was on the play. No mulligans on either side. I don’t remember exactly but my notes and the life totals tell me that Lorien had mana and not much else going on. Attacking for 2 means he was swinging with his Factory for 6 turns. My notes say also “Forked Timewalk”; now I’m recalling I was setting up a lot and maybe this game I had two or three mines in play when I started going off. I remember forking a Mana Drain on an Underworld Dreams. So then, Forked Timewalk, draw a bunch of cards, and Lorien goes from 20->6 -> (I assume) dead all in one turn.

G3: Back to Lorien’s serve in the final game and we are running quite low on time. I’m ready to lose in flips again but Lorien is an efficient player who knows we are low on clock. So we shuffle up quickly and both like our 7. He opens on something like Land, Mox, Mox, Dib. I open on something like Dark Ritual, Land, Underworld Dreams. So I’m just gonna hang on and try to not die, hoping he doesn’t draw disenchants.

Score pad says he’s taking two damage per turn (Dreams plus Dib), while I’m taking 3. 17->14, he goes 18->16->13 as I land a Howling Mine in there finally. Next turn is turn 1 of Time. He takes 3 during his upkeep and draw steps, going to 10, and then attacks me to 11. Finally, he powers up a Fireball for 7, taking me to 4, and tapping out. I untap, rip two cards, asking for Timetwister…and flip it. Shuffle up and draw 7, taking Lorien to 3. My 7 has red source, Winds of Change, and that locks it up!

Probably the best match of the day, taking it all the way down to the wire and squeaking it out at the last possible second against a worthy foe/friend. What an amazing event!

9-6 Games, 4-2 Matches

The event wrapped up with a flourish after 6 baller rounds of Knights TAPlar Old School. At Kumite, if you didn’t win the belt, then no one cares about your record or your placing. I did care though, if only because my kids were gonna ask me if I won, and I wanted to tell them I did well. They still think I’m awesome for now heh. So for those that might also care, I ended up 5th.

After the drive home from Kumite, I rested and chilled with Craig for a few minutes, I challenged him to duel with our Kumite decks. I actually didn’t know what he was on beyond Berserk, so we started to jam. Glad we didn’t get paired at the event because he would have rocked my world. Juggernaut -> 2x Berserk is GG. Basically he did that twice and I died in two games.

Hecatomb

After that, we jammed some of his ice age sealed decks. This is just like, he opened some sealed decks 6 years ago and then just kept them together. So fun. I’m glad to have so many of these friends to share The Gathering with. Big ups to Ian Blank, Robert Vincent and anyone else I stole pictures from.

Until next year, may your Forked spells always resolve. -rajah

The Romancing the Stones group out of Austin, Texas has been running online leagues throughout 2020-2021. For their latest installment, they hosted the Middle School Dance Party.

Event Poster – Middle School Dance Party

This is my tournament report from the six rounds of swiss; I didn’t make the cut to top 8. If you are interested, I have a complete Deck Tech written up here on the deck I played. Maybe my notes will be helpful, I hope to take better notes next time I play the deck. My recollection of the few combo victories is hazy.

I stole the deck pics from RtS website and Stu. A big thank you to them for organizing and all of my opponents for playing!

After having workshopped and tested the deck a bunch, I had a fair idea of the types of decks I didn’t want to see. Ok so of course, here’s comes my opponent opening on something like Mox Diamond and a Wasteland, which put me on to an Armageddon deck. Woo.

Duress and then a very early Entomb for Nether Spirit allowed me to block all day. Removal got rid of some guys, I probably cast more than one Innocent Blood. Cursed Scroll closed out the game.

Game 2 I got smashed by an early Enlightened Tutor into Compost. I got buried by cards. In Game 3, I recall I lost mainly to sequencing. With an opener including Unmask, Animate, Scroll and Therapy, I held the Animate to cast Therapy first, naming Armageddon. He showed Armageddon, but ALSO 2x Swords. So I really needed to Unmask first and not value the combo so highly. He kept the Swords because of how I won in Game one with Nether Spirit, he REALLY wanted to remove it!

0-2 Games, 0-1 Matches

Round 1 – David Craig – Bant Armageddon

This one was bad for me. His games really went to plan while my deck didn’t deliver the goods. Game 1 was to his script, if I recall something like, T1 Duress, T2 Hymn, T3 Gerard’s Verdict, T4 Nantuko Shade. I just couldn’t recover. Game 2 was basically the same story, with him attacking my hand early, removing my removal spells and then playing dudes.

1-4 Games, 0-2 Matches

Round 2 – Luke Tooker – Deadguy Ale

Another Duress deck but I was able to battle through it. His deck did do some nice things for him, but I was able to play the one-for-one game mostly. This was the first matchup where I was able to profitably use Animate Dead on something of my opponents. Blastoderm is still very big. It might be a little counter-intuitive but Animate Dead targets the creature card in the graveyard, and then attaches to it once it enters the battlefield. So it can and does allow you to target things with shroud.

Games 1 and 2 were similar-ish IIRC in terms of ‘normal rack plan’ coupled with ‘removal’. I *think* I combo’ed in this game, but I don’t recall. I only combo’d twice, so it must have been this match and the next one.

3-4 Games, 1-2 Matches

Round 3 – Chris George – The Rock

I don’t recall how exactly this one went. Maybe I combo’ed in Game 1? I think I recall in Game 2 he had a Dreadnought hand and I was able to Duress and Unmask.

Wish I could recall more but basically his deck didn’t do what it was supposed to do.

5-4 Games, 2-2 Matches

Round 4 – Joe Kington – Full English Breakfast

This deck was awesome. I had a very difficult time navigating the games and they were a ton of fun. If I recall correctly I held him off in Game 1 by chipping away and blocking with Nether Spirit.

Game 2 I’m pretty sure was mainly me getting smashed by early disruption into Call of the Herd tokens smashing my face.

Game 3 Andrew got land screwed. I think I remember him Entombing Deep Analysis to draw 2 on his next turn and then still not drawing any lands, and going to discard Gigapede and a Naturalize. On my side I didn’t have much going on, but I had seen his hand and got his last Naturalize via Duress. At that point, I was able to cast the previously useless Animate Dead in my hand on his Gigapede! After that, I was able to beat down with Gigapede and eventually close things out.

7-5 Games, 3-2 Matches

Round 5 – Andrew Webb – BUG Control

This match was a hoot. Game 1 he was able to stick a Rootwater Thief and was swinging and extracting things. So he immediately removed the Dragon combo. Then he removed all my Cursed Scroll.

I was using removal and hand control to keep any of his Lords off the table. I was able to use my Animate Dead spells to keep up blockers for his non-Rootwater Thief attackers and my Nether Spirit and Factories were bigger than his dudes.

In Game 2 it was basically the same story. I brought in more removal and took out combo stuff and maybe a Therapy. In this game I was able to race by bringing back his Lord of Atlantis and attacking for a few turns with 2 other Island walking zombie Merfolk. This time, Cursed Scroll closed it out.

9-5 Games, 4-2 Matches

Round 6 – Tim Everett – Merfolk

Losing the first two rounds put me in the bottom tier of the points each round, so I didn’t have a great chance to make the cut. After having workshopped the deck a lot, I’m super happy with the positive overall result in the league. I think I learned a lot about some of the nuances of sequencing with the deck and now I have some thoughts on how to iterate.

This deck is very fun to play with some great options and I look forward to seeing other folks takes on the deck. Check out the full deck tech here.

So this was recorded a few months back, but I never had a chance to hype it. But it is hype!! #middleschoolmtg

Check out my friends Jake (@TuringTested) and Steve (@m_steve_m) talking with Angelo (@MtgCleveland) about Middle School Magic!

I won’t pretend to know everything about Dragon, but since I learned what it was, I have been fascinated by Dragon combo.

I will share this anecdote about my ride. Whilst discussing Vintage and metagame with Team Serious, someone mentioned Dragon, I guess in hindsight as an inside joke. Up to that point I had not really played much Vintage, so I nodded and agreed but I’ll admit in my mind, I assumed they were talking about Dragon Breath. And since it was Vintage, I figured it would go on something like, Emrakul, this was the only Dragon I knew of. I later learned that that deck was called Golden Gun Oath; what they were talking about was Worldgorger Dragon.

Once I figured it out, I was pretty hooked. Here’s a one minute video that explains the combo:

Automatic Transcript of Video:

“On this episode we’re talking about animate dead and world gorgeous dragon. for this to work we need world gordadragon in our graveyard and animate dead in our hand. we cast the enemy dead targeting the world gorge dragon. when the dragon enters the battlefield it’ll exile all other permanents that we control. importantly this includes the animate dead. when it drops off, animate deads leave the battlefield effect triggers which means the world caller dragon goes back to the graveyard. all of your exile permits will then come back into play, including the animate dead. when the enemy dead comes in, you can then target the world gorda dragon again and repeat this process infinitely. your lands will also then come into play untapped, so you can tap them again in response to the animate dead targeting the world gorge dragon. with this combo you’ll generate infinite mana with all the lands coming in and out of play and we also get infinite end to the battlefield effects. so if you have something like an impact tremors and another creature in play when you start this you’ll shoot all of your opponents to death animate dead can also be replaced with dance of the dead or necromancy. i would only cast this combo if you have a way of winning the game on the spot as if you don’t and if you don’t have another creature in your graveyard you can’t stop the loop meaning the game will end in a draw. thank you very much”

In Vintage, we can rely on tutors to find our Dragons and Animation spells, while using very efficient digging spells and lands. The deck was very powerful at one time but not so much in today’s Vintage metagame. For an excellent review of what the deck looked like in days of yore, check out Team Serious member JR’s article on EC, Chasing the Dragon.

A modern-ish (circa 2019) Vintage Dragon Deck – My Build

So how does this relate to Middle School? Here’s my take on Monoblack Rack Deck a la Ian Blank of Lords of the Pit.

Middle School Monoblack Rack – My Build

My original build for Dragon in Middle school looked closer to the Vintage list. Standard blue suite of draw spells and dig; AK, Impulse, Intuition. From playing through the deck in testing, the deck wanted some orthogonal attack vector. Doing a lot of setup just to have your Animate Dead countered, or digging a lot only to have them find Crypt / Furnace / Swords / Disenchant / Funeral Pyre / Coffin Purge etc., it didn’t feel great.

Even when I could counter the first hate piece, often I had exhausted too many cards to counter the second, with such varied classes of answers to the combo. Additionally, resetting after a failed attempt was near impossible. Enter Black Dragon.

From the shell of Monoblack Rack, which was already playing Entomb / Nether Spirit value engine to support Cabal Therapy flashbacks and Contamination locks, I started brewing how to jam in the Dragon combo. My initial builds were good at executing the orthogonal Rack / chip damage plan, but weren’t great in aggro / burn matches. Since I had based my build so much on Ian’s black build (which I’m pretty sure is based on the Pox build by Alan Finney from MusicCity), I shared the deck with them. Ian rocked it during the LotP March Radness webcam event, going 1-3.

Black Dragon – Ian Blank SB Build

Further tweaks and testing led to a few changes for the current build, but things are still in flux and for sure can but adjusted for your local meta to get best results.

Scroll Drack – Romancing the Stones Middle School Dance Party – March 2021

Essentially this is a creature-less deck, but it does lean hard on Nether Spirit. We are, of course, using creatures in the combo plan, as covered below in the combo section. Nether Spirit does a great job of blanking all sorts of damage based removal and keeps coming back unless it is exiled. Having access to a second is often a good plan when using Contamination as a win condition. If recurring Nether Spirit isn’t absolutely necessary, a nice sideboard option for graveyard hate is always Withered Wretch, a body that also helps to hose the graveyard.

The Rack is classic companion to Hymn to Tourach and the rest of the included discard suite. Cabal Therapy, Duress, Hymn to Tourach and Unmask all fuel the Rack damage. Deciding what combination of discard spells to play will depend on your meta. Mishra’s Factory can usually be on the offensive, with lots of removal spells clearing the way. Additionally, Cursed Scroll is a lynch-pin of the chip damage/control angle of attack. It keeps opposing weenies at bay and helps win a damage race vs. aggro. Many, many opening hands are made serviceable by the presence of this repeatable damage source, and if you are at rough parity, it is not a horrible top deck. Nether Spirit has already been mentioned for its utility, but a very early Nether Spirit can also usually be counted on for a passable Grizzly Bear impersonation, swinging for between 2 and 6 damage. Just remember: It doesn’t fly!

Trees? I sit on that. Flying? I don do that. Still not a rapper.

There are two Worldgorger Dragon combos in this deck. The first one is fairly known and has been used in classic Worldgorger combos of yore. Ambassador Laquatus is a non-damage based kill that mills the opponent’s entire library; after generating infinite mana with the Dragon loop, end the loop by animating Ambassador in the graveyard and activate his ability a lot, then passing the turn. The opponent then loses by decking, drawing from an empty library. This kill is great in situations where you can safely pass the turn AND they don’t have some way to put cards into their library. For example, beware of an active Scroll Rack. The opponent’s library becomes their hand size after milling, since the Scroll Rack ability doesn’t draw the cards and they can put any number back, so you will need to survive that many turns. As another example, milling over a Gaea’s Blessing generally means you should scoop it up and concede.

The second combo is with Cursed Scroll. Since all permanents re-enter the battlefield untapped, you can execute the Worldgorger Dragon loop starting with only two lands, and then simply activate Cursed Scroll on any iteration you have enough mana, to shoot them to death.

In terms of Animation package, Animate Dead is probably ideal to max out on, with 2-3 more spells. Dance of the Dead is probably next best due to CMC, while Necromancy is likely the last place animation enchantment due to CMC. Not having to pay to untap the creature it enchants may be worth the extra initial investment.

This deck doesn’t have a great way to get card advantage beyond Nether Spirit. The rest of the deck relies on trading cards one-for-one while amassing board presence of The Rack and Cursed Scroll and/or building towards a combo turn. Virtual CA is found also through the use of 2-for-1 cards like Hymn to Tourach or Contagion.

Cards to explore in this area might be Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence and Graveborn Muse. Any creature that provides an “Enter the Battlefield” (ETB) trigger needs to be considered carefully, since they might be in play when you combo. For example, Phyrexian Rager might seem great on paper, but if you try to combo with it in play…did I do that???

Straight monoblack allows to overload on removal if necessary. At sorcery speed, Innocent Blood provides an amazing rate for removal, especially when you don’t plan to have any creatures in play! Still at sorcery speed, Vicious Hunger is great at gaining life, but doesn’t do much against opposing Factories or PersonLands. For this we call on Spinning Darkness, an all-star for surprise factor. Being able to cast it while tapped out usually isn’t a line opponents are considering when they are firing up a Treetop Village, for example. Smother is another good targeted, instant speed removal, also prime to deal with animated lands. Ghastly Demise rounds out the removal package, a 1 CMC, situational, instant targeted removal. The mix here is based on testing and definitely is not settled.

Other cards in consideration are sweepers like Infest, Mutilate, Massacre and Nausea. Of these, Infest is probably the best pseudo-Pyroclasm, as it is non-situational and hits everything. The original Monoblack deck played some number of Diabolic Edict to deal with untargetable creatures at instant speed, which might be prudent depending on your meta. Also, consider cards like Contagion because of the 2-for-1 possibility coupled with alternate casting cost.

Swamps! Of course in a Monoblack deck, you need ways to produce that black mana. The deck doesn’t really need acceleration, so lands like Peat Bog, Cabal Coffers or Phyrexian Tower aren’t a thought in this particular combo. Additionally, most of the deck action casts on a low cmc, so Sol lands don’t help much either.

Mana denial lands like Dust Bowl, Wasteland and Rishadan Port might fit in a Contamination based build but likely not here. For creature lands, Mishra’s Factory comes immediately to mind, since the rack plan requires dealing some additional damage, and the Factory fits the bill. The activated ability cost to P/T ratio make Spawning Pool somewhat unplayable, but it could be good against some midrange strats for blocking.

The sideboard options should look to address holes in the deck’s main plans. One of the central tenets of monoblack Dragon is that you don’t need to combo to win. So in designing the sideboard, you should look to pivot away from the use of the graveyard, depending on how you win in Game 1.

Creature removal is blanked in most combo matchups, so having extra hand control to swap in makes sense. An extra Duress or extra Unmask can be great to shore up those applicable matchups. Necropotence can be killer in combo or control matchups where you need to keep up to win.

One of the great weakness of the deck is being overrun by creatures. Additional creature removal with built in life gain helps with this, so an extra Spinning Darkness and an extra Vicious Hunger seem good. Engineered Plague can help against a lot of aggro decks and even against Enchantress!

As we live by the sword, we die by the sword. Graveyard strategies abound in Middle School magic, so Phyrexian Furnace is a reasonable sideboard card, as well as Coffin Purge which is tutorable via Entomb. Other cards to consider for fighting graveyard strategies are Tormod’s Crypt and Planar Void.

The sideboard can be tweaked to be more transformational where necessary. If there are not a lot of Mox Diamond or Monoblack decks in your meta, perhaps the Contamination lockdown plan can work. If the decks you face are more combo and control in nature, consider more discard effects, like additional Hymn to Tourach or Bottomless Pit or Pox.

Use early hand control to control the game and plan your turns. Use cheap and efficient removal to play one-for-one, leaning on Nether Spirit to grind out incremental advantage. When possible, look for opportunities to pull off the Dragon combo and end the game. Otherwise, try to keep parity, control their hand and clear the board to win via incremental damage.

Sample Hand 1

Mishra’s Factory, Animate Dead, Swamp, Entomb, Innocent Blood, Innocent Blood, Duress

Sample Hand 2

The Rack,Animate Dead, Cabal Therapy, Duress, The Rack, Mishra’s Factory, Unmask

Sample Hand 3

Unmask, Mishra’s Factory, Swamp, Swamp, Entomb, Swamp, Worldgorger Dragon

Sample Hand 4

Entomb, The Rack, Swamp, Dance of the Dead, Entomb, Swamp, Swamp

Sample Hand 5

Spinning Darkness, Buried Alive, Mishra’s Factory, Cursed Scroll, Swamp, Smother, The Rack

Sample Hand 6

The Rack, Swamp, Cursed Scroll, Innocent Blood, Swamp, Entomb, Swamp

Sample Hand 7

Cabal Therapy, Animate Dead, Swamp, Mishra’s Factory, Cursed Scroll, Innocent Blood, Swamp

Sample Hand 8

Entomb, Unmask, Ambassador Laquatas, Swamp, Swamp, Smother, Animate Dead

Sample Hand 9

Mishra’s Factory, Cabal Therapy, Swamp, Swamp, The Rack, Cursed Scroll, Dance of the Dead

Sample Hand 10

The Rack, Swamp, Swamp, Entomb, Duress, Innocent Blood, Cabal Therapy

Sample Hand 11

Unmask, Swamp, Dance of the Dead, Spinning Darkness, Swamp, Cabal Therapy, Animate Dead

Sample Hand 12

Mishra’s Factory, Cabal Pit, Dance of the Dead, Spinning Darkness, Swamp, Cabal Therapy, Animate Dead

Sample Hand 13

Swamp, Swamp, Mishra’s Factory, Duress, Nether Spirit, Cabal Therapy, Mishra’s Factory

With roots in a fairly established archetype, Black Dragon was a blast to design and fun to play. Though the general game plan stays the same game to game, the variety of reactive and interactive spells means the lines develop differently each game and based upon draws. I look forward to seeing where others take this archetype and the Dragon combo in Middle School.

Had fun playing in the #oldschoolmtg Summer Derby!

Wrapped up tonight at 5-3 with “The Trap ’94”. I don’t always play with 1 strip mine, but when I do I try to make opponents wish there was 4! Thanks as always to
@dfirthbard and crew, all my opponents and friends!

So for those that are into history, my deck of course is not my original idea (though my build is best obv). I was inspired to play this by @kevincron at EW16. Check out coverage here: eternalcentral.com/oldschoolew2016. I won’t spoil it but his picture is great…OH! (IO!)

The deck name comes from discussions with Seriousos about this type of deck and what a better term for this type of lock deck could be. Abe told me the following about this deck. “That nature’s revolt/pendrell mists deck was called ‘The Trap'”

“An in color diamond or a mind stone or whatever. It was a type 2 deck. A quirk of 5th edition era rules was that if your permanent had some upkeep cost (a phase cost), you had to pay that cost before you were allowed to use any of that permanent’s abilities. So once your upkeep began, you had to sacrifice all your lands. You couldn’t even cast a disenchant.

Or tap them all to pay for themselves.

And any new land would have summoning sickness so your opponent couldn’t drop a land and cast 1-drops.
You needed one rock to pay for one land. And then use that land to beatdown with.”

In the end, I wound up with the honor of being highlighted on the Spice Files! Check it out below.

Wrap Up

Phil takes home the top honors in the very first Team Serious League! He defeated Jason in the finals with his powerful RUG deck featuring 3 Wrenn and Six! He earned this excellent prize trophy to sport in his deck:

We had some really amazing door prizes from excellent community artists. By way of random drawing, Sam took home this excellent two card panorama of the Cleveland skyline by Anschutz Alterations:

Keeping with the Cleveland theme, we pulled Rob’s name for this sick alter “Wild Thing” on an original Force of Will! Check out Bobby Lupo on twitter for more good stuff.

Read on for decklists.

Quarter Final

DredgOath - Eric Caffrey

Maindeck (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 1 Black Lotus 3 Bloodghast 1 Brainstorm 4 Bridge from Below 4 Cabal Therapy 2 Dakmor Salvage 4 Darkblast 2 Dread Return 1 Forbidden Orchard 2 Force of Vigor 1 Golgari Grave-Troll 1 Ichorid 4 Life from the Loam 1 Lotus Petal 2 Mana Confluence 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 3 Narcomoeba 4 Serum Powder 3 Stinkweed Imp 1 Terastodon 1 Time Walk 4 Undiscovered Paradise 4 Unmask

Sideboard (15) 3 Chain of Vapor 3 Forbidden Orchard 1 Griselbrand 4 Oath of Druids 4 Veil of Summer

[Vintage]-[Eric Caffrey]-[2020.1.QF]-[DredgOath]

RUG - Steve McGrew

Maindeck (60) 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Collector Ouphe 3 Dreadhorde Arcanist 1 Klothys, God of Destiny 1 Snapcaster Mage 3 Sprite Dragon 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Brainstorm 1 Daze 1 Dig Through Time 1 Flusterstorm 2 Force of Negation 4 Force of Will 1 Gush 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mental Misstep 2 Pyroblast 1 Flooded Strand 1 Island 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Mystic Sanctuary 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Strip Mine 3 Tropical Island 3 Volcanic Island 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Dack Fayden 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Oko, Thief of Crowns 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Ponder 4 Preordain 1 Time Walk 1 Treasure Cruise Sideboad (15) 1 Mountain 2 Nature’s Claim 1 Null Rod 2 Pyroblast 1 Ravenous Trap 1 Shattering Spree 1 Surgical Extraction 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 2 Tormod’s Crypt 1 Veil of Summer 1 Wasteland 1 Wrenn and Six

[Vintage]-[Steve McGrew]-[2020.1.SF]-[Oath]

Ravagerless Shops- Josh McCurley

Maindeck (61) 4 Ancient Tomb 1 Black Lotus 1 Chalice of the Void 1 Crucible of Worlds 4 Foundry Inspector 3 Golos, Tireless Pilgrim 1 Inventors’ Fair 1 Karakas 1 Karn, Scion of Urza 1 Karn, the Great Creator 1 Lodestone Golem 1 Mana Crypt 4 Mishra’s Factory 4 Mishra’s Workshop 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mystic Forge 1 Null Rod 4 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Sol Ring 1 Sorcerous Spyglass 4 Sphere of Resistance 4 Stonecoil Serpent 1 Strip Mine 1 Thorn of Amethyst 1 Tolarian Academy 1 Trinisphere 4 Walking Ballista 4 Wasteland

Sideboard (15) 1 Crucible of Worlds 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 4 Leyline of the Void 3 Null Rod 1 Pithing Needle 1 Precursor Golem 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 1 Witchbane Orb 1 Wurmcoil Engine

TurboDredge - Jason Pare

Maindeck (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Bolas’s Citadel 1 Brainstorm 1 Dack Fayden 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Dig Through Time 1 Flooded Strand 4 Force of Will 1 Hurkyl’s Recall 2 Island 1 Karakas 1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Manifold Key 1 Mental Misstep 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Monastery Mentor 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 3 Mox Opal 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Night’s Whisper 4 Paradoxical Outcome 1 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 1 Preordain 1 Pyroblast 1 Repeal 1 Scalding Tarn 2 Sensei’s Divining Top 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Sol Ring 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Time Vault 1 Time Walk 1 Tinker 1 Tolarian Academy 2 Tundra 2 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard (15) 1 Balance 2 Flusterstorm 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Pyroblast 1 Ravenous Trap 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Tormod’s Crypt

[Vintage]-[Jason Pare]-[2020.1.QF]-[TurboDredge]

Semi Final

Jeskai Breach - Phil Thorson

Maindeck (60) 2 Abrade 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Baral, Chief of Compliance 1 Black Lotus 2 Brain Freeze 1 Brainstorm 2 Dack Fayden 1 Dig Through Time 2 Flooded Strand 1 Flusterstorm 4 Force of Will 2 Gifts Ungiven 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Gush 2 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade 1 Lotus Petal 1 Mental Misstep 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Monastery Mentor 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mystic Sanctuary 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 3 Preordain 2 Pyroblast 2 Scalding Tarn 1 Sevinne’s Reclamation 1 Snapcaster Mage 2 Snow-Covered Island 1 Spell Pierce 1 Strip Mine 2 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Time Walk 1 Treasure Cruise 2 Tundra 1 Underworld Breach 3 Volcanic Island

Sideboard (15) 2 Abrade 1 Flusterstorm 1 Hurkyl’s Recall 1 Mindbreak Trap 2 Peacekeeper 2 Pithing Needle 1 Pyroblast 1 Serenity 2 Sprite Dragon 2 Surgical Extraction

Oath - Steve McGrew

Maindeck (60) 2 Abrade 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Brainstorm 1 Dig Through Time 2 Flooded Strand 1 Flusterstorm 4 Forbidden Orchard 2 Force of Negation 4 Force of Will 1 Gaea’s Blessing 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Griselbrand 1 Island 1 Mental Misstep 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun 4 Oath of Druids 4 Oko, Thief of Crowns 1 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 4 Preordain 4 Pyroblast 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Spell Pierce 1 Sylvan Library 1 Time Walk 3 Tropical Island 1 Veil of Summer 2 Volcanic Island

Sideboard (15) 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Mindbreak Trap 4 Nature’s Claim 3 Ravenous Trap 3 Soul-Guide Lantern 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Veil of Summer

PO - Jason Pare

Main (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Bolas’s Citadel 1 Brainstorm 1 Dack Fayden 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Dig Through Time 1 Flooded Strand 4 Force of Will 1 Hurkyl’s Recall 2 Island 1 Karakas 1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Manifold Key 1 Mental Misstep 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Monastery Mentor 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 3 Mox Opal 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Night’s Whisper 4 Paradoxical Outcome 1 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 1 Preordain 1 Pyroblast 1 Repeal 1 Scalding Tarn 2 Sensei’s Divining Top 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Sol Ring 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Time Vault 1 Time Walk 1 Tinker 1 Tolarian Academy 2 Tundra 2 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard (15) 1 Balance 2 Flusterstorm 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Pyroblast 1 Ravenous Trap 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Tormod’s Crypt

CrabBond - Rajah James

Main (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Brainstorm 2 Crop Rotation 3 Daze 1 Demonic Tutor 4 Fastbond 1 Flooded Strand 4 Force of Will 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Gush 4 Hedron Crab 1 Mental Misstep 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 4 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds 2 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 2 Preordain 2 Retreat to Hagra 2 Scalding Tarn 2 Simic Growth Chamber 1 Strip Mine 1 Timetwister 1 Treasure Cruise 4 Tropical Island 2 Underground Sea 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard (15) 1 Crucible of Worlds 3 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 1 Karakas 2 Mindbreak Trap 1 Pithing Needle 2 Ravenous Trap 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 2 Veil of Summer

Final

PO - Jason Pare

Main (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Bolas’s Citadel 1 Brainstorm 1 Dack Fayden 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Dig Through Time 1 Flooded Strand 4 Force of Will 1 Hurkyl’s Recall 2 Island 1 Karakas 1 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade 1 Mana Crypt 1 Mana Vault 1 Manifold Key 1 Mental Misstep 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Monastery Mentor 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 3 Mox Opal 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Night’s Whisper 4 Paradoxical Outcome 1 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 1 Preordain 1 Pyroblast 1 Repeal 1 Scalding Tarn 2 Sensei’s Divining Top 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Sol Ring 1 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Time Vault 1 Time Walk 1 Tinker 1 Tolarian Academy 2 Tundra 2 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard (15) 1 Balance 2 Flusterstorm 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Pyroblast 1 Ravenous Trap 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Tormod’s Crypt

Companionless RUG - Phil Thorson

Main (60) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Brainstorm 3 Dack Fayden 1 Dig Through Time 3 Dreadhorde Arcanist 2 Flooded Strand 1 Force of Negation 4 Force of Will 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Gush 2 Lightning Bolt 1 Mental Misstep 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mystic Sanctuary 1 Narset, Parter of Veils 2 Polluted Delta 1 Ponder 4 Preordain 4 Pyroblast 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Shattering Spree 1 Strip Mine 2 Tarmogoyf 1 Time Walk 1 Treasure Cruise 2 Tropical Island 3 Volcanic Island 2 Wasteland 3 Wrenn and Six

Sideboard (15) 1 Energy Flux 3 Leyline of the Void 1 Mindbreak Trap 1 Mountain 3 Shattering Spree 4 Surgical Extraction 2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale