Midsommar and Maypoles
The grind lately has been…especially grindy.
- Derek
The summer has been tough for almost everyone and for a wide variety of reasons. Life happens at the pace it demands and with no care for what we think about it or how prepared we are. But if we try, we can quiet the demands of life and instead enjoy a small respite. And so on the hottest weekend of the hottest year, 19 of us retreated into Scarwood...
This marks the fourth annual Music City Old School Sylvan Showdown, a weekend full of Magic, VHS tapes, punk music, and meals cooked on flattops. This year a few of the crew weren't able to attend, and we missed them greatly. Old-head and MCOS founder Derek was able to join us for his first long weekend in the woods. That turned out to be a very special return and it was a blast having him there. An entire herd of Burgoas attended.
I decided it was time to bring Titania's Song out of retirement. In no way am I sick of playing Arabian RUG, but I definitely wanted to copy Icy Manipulators. I've developed a very bad habit of playing more than 61 cards main--64 here, if my count is right. That's definitely too many. Still, I love all of them. It was time to see how she ran...
Hasta La Vista, Barista
I hear there will be bourbon and Juzams...
- Alan
Two official tournaments were held during this year's Sylvan Showdown. On Friday we played four rounds of Middle School and on Saturday we had our premier Old School tournament of the year in five rounds of Eternal Central. I'll go into those more in a minute, but I want to spend some times focusing on the other anciliary formats we've also picked up in the last little bit. Because it isn't an MCOS event without introducing some new offshoot format no one has ever heard of.
First is Old Frame EDH. This takes normal Commander and limits the legal cards only to ones printed in the old frame. That includes newer cards printed for modern or Commander itself. This allows access to things like Niv Mizzet, Firemind, The First Sliver, Urza Lord High Artificer, and big stupid spells like Cyclonic Rift and the like. I built an Elves list with Eladamri Korvecdal, which functions as a Future Sight for Elves and a 5 color deck with Garth, One Eye to make Black Lotuses.
My approach for Old Frame EDH is not to be the most competitive deck at the table or to win the game as quickly as possible. I started because I wanted to play all the slivers, so I built Slivers. I have a Riptide Replicator in that deck that I've always loved the art for. I built Garth in part because making Black Lotuses is cool, but mostly because I wanted a 5 color shell that I could play garbage that's been in my binder for 25 years. I picked up a copy of Last Stand at some point and this format is the perfect home for it. For Elves, there are so many elves that don't get played in Premodern/Middle School that I wanted to cast. Voice of the Woods is a Lord that makes Thorn Elementals. Elvish Vanguard is a Quirion Dryad for elves. And, of course, Skullclamp has an old frame printing, so I had to play that.
The brews can get very wild. Sonny has an insane Zombie deck running off some new card that makes zombies every time a card goes to the graveyard. Naturally, he runs Necropotence. Quentin built a mono blue Taniwha phasing deck that is incredibly cool and you never know when it can turn into a massive problem. Dan built UR Niv Mizzet and made us all fear Sigil of Sleep again. During one of our games we had a discussion over the relative annoyance behind Rhystic Study. Dan and Q don't enjoy it but I don't mind it (I will never pay the 1). I definitely play one in Slivers because I am The Bad Guy. What the conversation really revealed was that we are all approaching the format from the same place: we want to do fun things and use cards that don't get used elsewhere. Having the obvious powerful EDH staples is maybe not necessary when you're trying to cast cards like Blatant Thievery and Recycle. A Biorhythm made an appearance. I Demonic Tutored for a Coalition Victory. And we all got blown out by a Cyclonic Rift. This is part of it and it's all good fun. There's no "competitive" in our EDH and that's the way I want it.
But by far the best new thing that's happened is Alan developing what we have dubbed "the Red Stack." If the words "Red Stack" were said aloud at any point, a chorus of "RED STACK?!?" echoed through the house from interested parties. I'm going to do my best to explain Red Stack, but it simply has to be experienced to understand the appeal.
Red Stack is played similar to Forgetful Fish. There is one library of cards that multiple players share. The graveyard is shared. Life totals are individual and everyone starts at 20. The deck has no set number of cards and is in constant flux as the build has evolved. As the name suggests, it is mono red and includes symmetrical cost reducers such as Mana Flare and Memory Crystal. Mogg Fanatic, Jackal Pup, and Fireslinger are obvious inclusions. There are also several Ruby Medallions. As Memory Crystal suggests, there are spells with Buyback such as Searing Touch and Fanning the Flames. Obviously, Bolt, Seal of Fire, and Fireblast are included.
The biggest draw, however, is the assortment of atypical creatures that the deck includes. Blood Hound can become a massive problem in no time. Crag Saurion has become the focus of the deck. This bulk rare from Masques is a minigame in itself, where Fireslingers, bought-back Searing Touches, and Seal of Fire create hellish Stacks vying for control of the big red lizard. He who controls the Crag Saurion is the real winner, no matter the life totals. Throw in a Furnace of Rath and you might wind up zapping the lizard to death, and then everyone is sad.
It all sounds like casual bullshit fun, but there's a real art to playing the games. Most everything is instant speed and there are triggered abilities that happen after damage--which is why Crag Saurion and Blood Hound are so intersting here. What this means is that with 4-5 players, you have to do a round of passing priority every time someone Bolts a Jackal Pup or Touches a Lizard to see if anyone else can derail the plan for their own game. Playing this deck has actually taught me more about playing on the stack than any blue deck I've ever piloted before.
It's what Red should be: massive chaotic fun. Alan is a very powerful wizard for coming up with this.
Outside of actually playing Magic, more trading cards appeared from other collectible series. Years ago we discovered Desert Storm trading cards. They provided endless entertainment and spurred us on to looking for other weird ephemera. Frazetta art trading cards, Ross Perot trading cards, Dinosaur Attack trading cards... they all paled in comparison this year's find: "Terror Attack" trading cards. Apparently in the 1980s if you were a crank with a little bit of up front capital, you could invent a fake candy company as a front and get cards printed up depicting Muammar Qaddafi, IRA car bombs, airplane hijackings, and other heinous expressions of right wing boogeymen. I dare not reproduce any photos of the cards available in these packs. Suffice it to say, were waves of shocked laughter reverberated through the cabin with every new pack being cracked.
A Beautiful Tapestry of Events
I ate a lot of pork, drank a lot of bourbon, and opened some war criminal trading cards.
- Sonny
First up, we had a 4 rounds of Middle School. The decks here are nothing short of some of the best mad science deckbuilding I have ever seen. I am proud of this crew for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is that we are overall very experimental when it comes to Middle School. Some of the experiments don't work out. Some decks just exist better at a casual meetup than in a best-of-3 event. But they're cool nevertheless.
Here's the Middle School results:
1st - Quentin - Sligh
2nd - Knerr - Ghoul Reanimator
3rd - Snyder - Stasis
4th - Josh - Terra-Oath
5th - Derek - 10 Land Stompy
6th - Sonny - Tron
7th - Joe - Tropical Enchantress
8th - JJ - Trix with Transcendence
9th - John - Aluren (with Stroke of Genius kill)
10th - Cayce - Sneak Attack
11th - Dan - BR Discard
12th - Pratt - Survival Elves
13th - Alan - Combo Goblins
15th - Charles - Madness
16th - Chris - Elves with Squirrels
There are some obvious picks here that are expected, even if their placement is not. But I will note there were no repeats in decklists. We had 2 Elves lists, but they were doing such wildly different things, they can't be considered the same 75 ported over from Premodern. Sligh, Stasis, and Terra-Oath are what you'd expect. But let's go over the coolest stuff from the event...
Reanimator sutured together some Ghouls and spit out saprolings with the Best Fatty Ever Printed. Aluren made infinite mana and killed with a foil Stroke of Genius. Tron kicked an Urza's Rage for lethal and the win in response to lethal damage pointed at Tron. Sneak Attack cast and swung with a Dragon Tyrant and won with firebreathing double strike. Transcendence made people read a bulk rare multiple times before the light ultimately left their eyes.
Lately I've experienced a lot of malaise around Premodern's skyrocketing popularity and the widespread optimization that comes with. So many decks are tuned to a Perfect 75 that people forget to add fun to the experience. The format that was once at home in the chill confines of bars and side events among old and new friend now inhabits the World Wide Web. There's nary a real life opponent to be found--but there are plenty of content creators. That's fine, though. You can pay a guy $5 for access to an AI-generated deck primer guaranteed to help you take down your local 8-man tournament at the LGS (if there's a table free of Commander players).
Middle School isn't Premodern for a lot of reasons I won't rehash here. It may not be widely adopted or "comeptitive" but it's certainly the type of Magic I want to be playing. The creativity on display here was a real shot in the arm for my interest in playing the cards I love and not caring about whether it'll be good vs. Stiflenought.
Overall, congrats to Quentin on winning his first MCOS event and thus being awarded a Titania patch!
What Do You Know, It's Another Fucking Atog
In Old School you sit down across from somebody, you shake their hand. You say “good luck” and you mean it.
- Lion
Saturday we went back to our roots for 5 rounds of Eternal Central Old School. Overall, there was a ton of red. I mean, WAY more than I expected. But there was still a whole lot of personal style added to "red deck" from everyone. Ydwen Efreet, Troll Disco, Stnd Atog, Juggernaut, Copper Tablet, and Su-Chi all showed up, representing a diversity of taste.
Old School Results:
1st - Derek - Evil Eye Control
2nd - Alan - Atog (ft. Ydwen Efreet)
3rd - Disco Rukh (ft. Atog) | (Sideboard)
4th - JJ - RW "Burgoa Beater" Atog
5th - Snyder - Atog Normal Style
6th - Sonny - UWG Aggro
7th - Brandon - Atog (ft. Su-Chi)
8th - Joe - UR Burn
9th - John - Counterburn
10th - Quentin - Counterburn
11th - Mike - (No clue what Mike played. Probably Atog.)
12th - Ryan - Mono Black
13th - Cayce - Titania's Song
14th - Dan - RWU Aggro
15th - Chris - Frazetta Aggro
16th - Pratt - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
17th - Josh - UW Skies
18th - Knerr - Ponza
First, a note about Titania's Song: After a nice 2-0 start, Song lost the last 3 matches to Atog after Atog. It put up a good fight and the games were all really good, but in a dfferent environment, this would have been the recipe for a salty end to the day. Alan helpfully pointed out that I had left out Ivory Towers from my sideboard--critical for the red matchup. Maybe there's some kind of metaphor here about me not retreating into my ivory tower... probably not. My "board Serra Angel in every time" plan worked well. I was never sad to see them both because they were a house and because I appreciate the inked up versions I have. I'll run this back with some changes but even though I ended up towards the bottom, I had a wonderful time.
The best thing though was seeing a slobberknocker of a final match between Derek and Alan. Derek was back in fine form piloting a UB Evil Eye control deck. Alan was piloting his expertly constructed 4C Atog list. Alan is a Very Powerful Wizard and I always love working out the decisions he makes with deckbuilding. Two Dibs, split between main and side and Immolation (for the mirror match, of course) were the standouts for me. Unfortunately for Alan, Derek grinded him out and emerged victorious. Alan's Evil Eye Talisman Sol Ring offered him no protection from the 3/6 staring into his soul. Here's a photo of the crowd watching the master wizards in battle.
It gets old saying "the Gathering is what it's about" but I really do believe that. The nostalgia Magic holds for me isn't going to a GP or Top 8-ing at FNMs. Those are cool and I love hearing the stories from others that made memories in those places. I grew up playing at the lunch table or at someone's house late on a Saturday night. What I love about Old School is that it is rooted in the casual atmosphere of just playing in a group of friends. I feel bad when a buddy's deck isn't doing the thing. I felt great seeing Derek take down an MCOS event after he returned to the scene. And don't let anyone tell you that having a casual attitude about a made-up format means you can't be competitive and serious about the game.
On the Path of Return
Sometimes we didn’t play Magic at all. We’d just all get dinner or sit outside talking about life.
- Lion
My respite lately has been Nostalgia. Long-time readers of the blog may note the headers for each subsection of this post are titles of older posts from MCOS members with "flavor text" quotes from the same blogs. After returning from the Sylvan Showdown I enjoyed going back and reading these posts to remember the times we'd had before.
I love the idea of this blog documenting the journey we take as we move through life. To me it's similar to sitting around on the deck of a rented cabin and swapping stories of times past. Ostensibly, we convened to play two tournaments, but the real draw was catching up with everyone and picking up where we left off last. This venue, this Gathering (puke) was what I want to keep going. And I want it for everyone in the OS scene.
The best parts of life are getting together and hanging out with your friends. Hearing about old trips to scuzzy GPs, reminiscing about "That Guy" that everyone can't get out of their minds, commiserating about the ups and downs of life over beers, watching Repo Man on VHS, and staring at a gorgeous sunset before firing up the grill. If you're in OS or Premodern or Magic in general to just enjoy a hobby, that's cool and I'm glad you have something like that. But I hope anyone reading this is encouraged by this here recollection of a weekend and that you can make the rest of this happen for yourselves.
Props to everyone here. You guys are what make MCOS what it is and you're the reason I've still got the fire in me.
No slops detected.
