Untap, Upkeep...
Through the five years (!!) of Music City Old School's existence, we've developed several traditions surrounding Our two major events. We have Bootleggers Ball in the early summer, and we have our Christmas event at the beginning of December. Bootleggers Ball is 93/94, Christmas is Alpha to Alliances. There's a cookout or pre-event event somewhere the night before Bootleggers. The Christmas event features a charity raffle, for which Dustin Brossard graciously provides an alter prize.
After a two year pandemic-induced hiatus, Bootleggers needed to come back. Every other event on the planet was too, and soon calendars filled. Our Christmas event went off without a hitch back in 2021, so we felt the best decision was to combo off and run the third Bootleggers Ball at the beginning of December, complete with all our Christmas trimmings. The main event would be Alpha to Alliances, in keeping with our winter tradition. An event the night before would be held for the folks in town to warm up and hang out. That would center around Middle School. Thirty five wizards gathered on December 2nd and December 3rd to celebrate.
Draw...
As with our Christmas event and every Bootleggers, we determined a charity to support. The cost of entry to our event was a donation to the charity and raffle tickets were likewise available in exchange for donations to the same.
This year we donated to One Generation Away, a surplus food distribution and disaster aid network here in the Southeast. They distribute literal tons of food to people in need and do great work for people in need. Across the weekend, and with raffle tickets and entry fees, we raised a total of over $1,500 for their general fund.
I am continually blown away at how generous my friends can be and how much good we can do together. And it's always a surprise tallying up the raffle ticket proceeds to see just how seriously we take the opportunity to win an alter card.
Which, speaking of... this was the big prize:
Unfortunately we were foiled by the mailman and it wound up in our mailbox some time during Round 3 of the event... we'll get this to the winner eventually!
First Main
A cookout wasn't in the cards this year, but we do have a secondary hangout spot. Bearded Iris Brewing just north of downtown was the location for our Friday night showdown, the Middle School Meltdown. People streamed in steadily and roundabout 6pm, we kicked off the rounds with 18 players.
Below are the standings. We ran 4 rounds and I was a dingus and didn't program that into the thing. So with 18, that automatically gave us 5 rounds, which I just clicked through to get the final standings. That gave everyone an extra point, and I'm pretty sure that's all it did.
At the end of the day, Steven came out on top vs. Mith in a deathmatch that ended in a tie with the champion decided on breakers. The photos for this portion are a bit scarce since we were all having a great time seeing each other after what seemed like forever.
Middle School Meltdown - The Decklists:
Middle School Meltdown - Event Photos:
Second Main
Saturday dawned and 33 people gathered at Yazoo Brewing, a beautiful venue high on a river bluff far away from downtown. It was nice and chill, and when folks arrived, we had a spread of food waiting. Pratt and Finney took it upon themselves to smoke a bunch of pork and arrange for sides. We all feasted. Josh did his best Santa impression and walked the room handing out prizes to all attendees. The prize table for signed cards and raffle winnings kept expanding as more people joined in. It shaped up to be a mighty start.
Six rounds commenced a bit after noon. Once again (a new Christmas tradition!) I got the first round bye. This time it was random; last year I intended it. But I was soon slinging cards with the rest by round 2. The day was thoroughly documented below with snapshots from the day's action, the album of deck lists, and the overall results. But here are some of the highlights of the day's action and unique decks:
- My Hymn was Forked back at me.
- Stephen and Sonny played a Bazaar Zoo mirror that went to time.
- Tom took his decklist pic on his hotel toilet and didn't realize until Round 4 (when he was being Millstoned a bit too quickly) that he had left 10 cards in the bathroom. He had already Merchant Scrolled for a card that wasn't Ancestral and didn't notice then. As TO I thought this was too funny to penalize (and Tom was unpowered at this point), so I let it ride. Tom then went 4-2.
- Living Plane gets a Top 8 off the back of some of the sickest additions from Alliances.
- JJ assembled the Primal Order/Blood Moon lock.
- Snyder on Faerie Tribal.
- Sonny got his Ancestral group signed.
- Michael Phillips wins the raffle for the Stormbind Alter
- Stephen Bush goes the distance and wins on breakers, with 4 players ending the day 5-1.
Bootleggers Ball - Alpha to Alliances Decklists:
Bootleggers Ball Event Photos:
End Step/Cleanup
In all, it was a legendary time. Thank you to everyone that came out to partake. We sincerely appreciated everyone who provided prizes and alters, including Shaman Ben, Dustin Brossard, JJ, Chris Martin, Sonny, Nick Viau, Josh B, Brandon B, Zevon, and many more I'm forgetting. Thank you to Pratt and Alan for providing food, for Yazoo and Iris for their space. And thanks to all the new and returning friends for making this community what it is.
As always, keep preaching the gospel of Alpha to Alliances. We've barely scratched the surface on this yet. The event was a massive success, and we can't wait to do it again.
See you next time...
