#emajti

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the Vintage competition in the morning, but I was excited to finally play my very first Oldschool tournament!

I've been playing Magic since I was a kid, a little before the Tempest block came out, so it was a surreal feeling to compete with cards from the earliest formats. When I was a kid, I owned some of those cards but always tried to slam the biggest creatures I owned in green and red. Needless to say my Erhnamgeddon deck is a little more fine tuned.

(TBU: decklist )

I had been collecting Oldschool cards for a while now and I own two battle decks to face each other: Mono blue and Mono black. They contain some Fallen Empire cards and so are not legal for this competition. I was excited to finally play with my Erhnamgeddon deck which can also be built on a "budget".

As a player who doesn't use any Power, I knew it would be a challenge to compete with some of the most powerful cards in the game. If my opponent does not have a crazy start, I have a chance to compete.

The Oldschool scene is very laidback and very different from the competitive MTG scene. It was a refreshing experience!!

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Su-Chi Control

My first match was agains Su-Chi 4C control. I was pretty quickly taken by surprise as you can clone artifact the 4/4 and it becomes real treats on the cheap. Second game I had the upper hand with an early Sylvan Library and an Armageddon but I really had to crawl for a win as my opponent resolved The Abyss for which I just couldn't draw a disenchant. I tried a few times to cast 2 creatures only for him to draw a plow and force me to re-build all over again. At the end, I managed to win and it was almost time: 1-1.

Bye

After that I had a bye but played against a lurker that was also on the same kind of control deck. I went 0-2 in 50 min. These were really interesting games.

GB Aggro

My next opponnent was on a very cool green-black deck with elves, ernham djinns and hippies. Game 1 goes quite long but he manages to put a few Black Knights on the battlefield and I did not find enough answers for his threaths. Game 2 I manage to perfectly execute my gameplan and destroy his lands with a Serra Angel on the battlefield. It was really fun :). Game 3, he has a Gloom and I have a mostly white hand so I was kinda screwed. He managed to put a Hippie on the board who ran away with the game while I was staring down all the white cards I couldn't cast. It was only a one-of but that's the game sometimes: 1-2.

RG Aggro

After that I faced a pretty cool gruul deck with Kird Ape, burn and Elves of LLanowar. Game 1 was in his favour. Game 2 I managed to stick a circle of protection and my Maze of Ith protected me from his threats. Then I managed to stick 2 angels for the win. On Game 3 our draws where anemic but he pecked at me with an elf and a sprite. I made a missplay with maze of ith removing a creature before he pumped it with pendlehaven. This cut down his clock by 2, had I know that before, I could maybe have found an answer and come back into the game: 1-2.

Canadian Highlander

My final match was against a funky guy that decided to sleeve a Canadian Highlander deck, only one-ofs! The cards were cool but I could just execute my game plane twice in a row for a thrilling 2-0 victory!

Takeways

I finished with a 2-2-1 record which - as I like to say -

is not too Shabby...

... but I made many missplays, like the maze of ith interaction or some iffy keeps. I'm really not aware of the metagame and the sideboard plans.

For instance Derwish is a very good plan against The Abyss but I did not side them in in my first match. I had a Karma that I brought in my second match but it was very slow. I brought it in versus creatures and its probably more of a control card. Gloom also shuts my control plan and there are a lot of other anti-white cards I should be careful of.

I noticed that cards like Balance and Land tax should really be removed if you are on the play as you less benefit from it (you are 1 land up your opponent for instance) but Balance is still good against creatures or to discard your opponent if you have a fast start. Poeple also skip their land drop if land tax is in play so that you do not trigger it. Control matchups can use the moxen and fellwar stones instead. Serra was sometimes difficult to cast at 5 mana and I've seen some decks playing 2-3 with another 4 drop. I like the idea as well.

Tome was really good in control matchups but maybe I only need 1.

I never sided in Disk as it hits my enchantments as well.

I think __dust to dust_ is almost must have.

I was considering if I should play maze of ith but it was probably the MVP of the games.

I will probably dare splashing next time I sleeve this deck, either for blue or for black:

+1 tundra +2 trops +1 island +1 braingayser +1 recall +4 serendeep Efreet +1 psionic blast -2 serra angel -1 disenchant -1 tome -2 pixies -1 hurricane

The idea is that you have earlier pressure with the Efreets and a little more card draw and answers in the sideboard like Energy Flux and Hydroblast.