[Redacted] gathering at [redacted]

So, it's finally time, the last real event of the year. The travel fatigue is real and I'm aiming to take a break until Arvika in February. Also, going to try to stay away as much as possible from alcohol. It's for sure been a great year and I'm already started planning what tournaments I'm gonna visit next year. I'm most definitely going back to Uthden Troll Cup!

As I have implied there is going to be more of these [Redacted] events coming up as the popularity of Old School really has boomed during covid and the years before that. There are of course going to be big tournaments like n00bcon, Arvika Festival, Lobstercon and Winc0n but these smaller gatherings certainly have their charm. This time we ended up with 14 wizards located in a house somewhere (the house had everything, so some people never even left the house during the whole weekend). The only thing that was scheduled was the tournament that (almost) no one cared about on Saturday. Other than that, there was nothing planned and people could do whatever they want.

Some food after a long days travel

I was welcomed by getting a nice bro-hug from everyone and immediately got my room and a plate of chili with an aged Orval. Even though this chili obviously was wrong it was very tasteful and it set me up for the beer drinking and some games of Magic. I brought a zerkatog deck with me and a backup deck if that didn't work. I managed to pump my Atog up to 78 power with artifacts, Berserk and Fork.

The zerkatog deck, cards in lower left corner are factories obv

Peter seems very happy!

The deck wasn't great, and I repeatedly got crushed by a Guardian Beast deck using Jayemdae Tome but still fun when it actually gets to berserk. The rest of the evening was just spent playing a couple of games, chatting a bit, and drinking way too many beers and staying up until 4AM.

Stebbo having a great time!

Friday was the long day with nothing planned. Some people went to play disc golf, others played an ALICE tournament, there were also some very intense board gaming going on. And most importantly drinking, laughs and chats. I got to play Colonel Twitchen's Jam Kitchen for the first time, and it was a very fun game. I got inspired to try to make Courgette Chutney from the game, it's going to be awful of course.

The ALICE deck I borrowed for the tournament

The ALICE deck I played was somewhat fun, but I struggled to get out any finishers. Needs more threats for sure. I ended up going 1-2 and my complaining earned me probably the best prize card I've ever gotten. I will fore sure try this archetype again in maybe a year when I play ALICE the next time!

Don't know if it tasted awful or salty

The house had some interesting interior design choices

3AM Jam Kitchen

It's hard to give this kind of events justice in text as the joy of these smaller gatherings must be experienced. I went to bed "early" on Friday around 3AM. I had to build and finetune my deck for the upcoming tournament and I wanted six solid hours of sleep so I could stay up late the last day. I threw out the zerkatog deck and played what I call "Slow CopyTog". Instead of going the Black Vise and Chain Lightning route I played white removal, Relic Barriers, and Armageddon.

I love to play Atog in several different shells

I ended up going 3-1 in the Swiss and played against interesting decks. I first beat a discard deck which easily could have wrecked me if I couldn't remove the Spectres and Scepters. Then I played one of the best Magic games I've ever played against Peter. I played against a RUG aggro and lost the first game, the second game I thought I was dead, but I could survive by STPing my own Mishra's Factory. I had and Atog and my opponent was at 19 life and had a Maze of Ith. It ended up with some weird shenanigans with Time Walk, a Fireball for 3 and bolting my opponent with the City of Brass trigger on the stack for lethal. I then managed to beat Stebbo, it's always nice to beat the current world champion! In the last round I lost to a "standard" Atog deck with t1 Black Vise that destroyed my hand of Library, Ancestral and two draw sevens...

Some cool coasters I brought home with me! Somehow I took three instead of one

In the semi final I lost against Marc and his MirrorBall deck. Then Stebbo managed to win this tournament as well as the ALICE tournament. I guess someone cared about the tournaments! Late night we ended up doing a Chaos Orb trick shot contest and finishing all the 10% beers that were left. I think this contest was the single most fun thing in the whole evening. Among other things, it featured me hitting the roof with the Orb, haven't dared look at the condition of it. We then did an ordinary six man orb flip-off I lost to Malte after missing my 25th flip or something.

A couple of the best guys around

Force of Nature getting a well deserved rest

Sunday was mostly a day to say farewell to everyone. We went for some sightseeing and then I had brunch with the Brothers of Fire before leaving to the airport.  Overall great weekend with lots of fun moments. It just proves that you don't really have to organize other than have a great guestlist, a place to stay and some food and beer. If you have all that the rest will just sort itself out.

Can't say no to a Full English Breakfast when hanging out with The Brothers of Fire

My loot for the weekend. I love this playmat! And Boba Fett hanging out in the Sarlacc pit is always nice.

It's all for now, don't know how much Magic I will play before Arvika but I will surely post something the upcoming weeks and months anyway. Take care everyone and enjoy your Magic and non-Magic adventures. Also remember to register for the Arvika Festival in Tolaria.