Battle for Ohio

Originally published here

This past weekend I attended the first annual Battle for Ohio. The event was planned by the Ebon Hand Old School group out of Cincinnati, and was held in West Lafayette, OH. Like all Old School events, it was a great excuse to get together with old and new friends and cast some spells with some like-minded wizards, and I had a blast!

The main event on Saturday was a 3 man, team unified Old School event and began at noon. The night before, there was a St. Patrick’s themed event (more about this below) and a couple other pop up 8 man tournaments. Throughout the weekend, players from different clubs could battle for 5 points a match for their respective club. The winner of an 8 man event would win 60 points, 2nd place would win 30 points for their club, and the main event would award 100 points (300 for the team) for first place, 50 (150 for the team) for second. All events would use EC rules for Old School.

I happened to be off on that Friday, but would not be able to participate in the main event on Saturday due to prior obligations, so I decided to head down for the start of open gaming on Friday to make some new friends and maybe get some points for the Cleveland Rocs on the board.

When I rolled up, I arrived just a little before 5:00, the official start time. I met the Ebon Hand crew, who were not only wonderful hosts, but incredibly welcoming gentlemen as well. They handed me my SWAG pile and we got right down to gaming.

Real nice swag piles!

At this point I should mention that I only own one Old School deck and simply did not have time to brew anything else up, so I went in with that being my only cudgel for the weekend. I might have missed the spirit of the event without some janky brews of my own on tap, but hey, I like my aggro decks.

My only Old School deck, based on Charles’ Kird Ape Deck (the top left cards are Grizzly bears or Barbary Apes)

I sat down with Brian for the first match of the event and slung some Old School – he was playing a very interesting red/white walls deck that relied on Diamond Valley to gain insane amounts of life off some cheap red walls that would later get animated to thump in once he’d stabilized. Spice level 1000. I ended up 2-1 vs. him in a real squeaker of a match, with game three going very long but no Diamond Valleys in sight to bail him out. First blood was had, the Cleveland Rocs were up 5-0

I got to put 5 points on this bad boy and ring the gong. Yes there was a gong. Yes it was legit.

Next up, I sat down with Jason from the Ebon Hand to play some Premodern with my Middle School Tax/Rack deck. Jason was on Goblins and I was scared, but I knew if I mulliganed to my pro-red guys I might have a chance. After getting stomped game 1 by the goblins, I vowed to mull to the answers and boy did the deck deliver. I want to be super clear – I got extremely lucky vs. Jason! I drew bolts and swords when I needed them and had pro-red shadow guys each game that I had to mull to find. Jason adeptly played around the land taxes and made me earn the wins, but a few games later, I got to update the scoreboard again 10-0 Rocs.

An old shot of the deck – it hasn’t changed At this point, the Ebon Hand guys were convinced I was some kind of ringer because I was winning and I knew Rajah. I didn’t mind the reputation, but I also knew there were many games ahead of me and that I would be found out sooner or later.

Brian requested the rematch (he switched decks) and I obliged. This time around Brian handily defeated me in 2 games, at one point swinging for 20+ damage with 3 Clockwork Beasts and a Vesuvan Doppelganger… it was brutal! The Ebon Hand had drawn their first blood and was eager for more.

This is one of three pictures I have of the scoreboard

It was around this time Ben showed up and we got to eight players. Brian busted out the Mirage Cube and we drafted. I’ve always loved draft, especially weird formats like this so I was excited to check out the cube. As the cards were being passed, I could tell Brian spared no expense on the cube (I picked a Vampiric Tutor at some point!) but it was also well crafted with some clear strategies in the colors. Too bad I didn’t see them until too late- I focused on drafting playable creatures and removal and ended up mono-black aggro. I managed to outlast Brandon round one and Ben round two. For the finals I was playing Brian again for 60 points. I ended up taking it down and earning 60 more for the Rocs. I was feeling good and on a streak!

At this point in the evening we added Rajah, our 9th man for the Green themed Tournament. The Ebon Hand dudes cooked up a wild format – for sake of ease, here’s the “emblem” we played with. Think commander rules, but for a leprechaun.

PLAY GREEN!

As I mentioned above, I only had one OS deck, but lucky for me, it was mostly green and I felt like I could work around the negative side. As a side note, I don’t drink these days, so I had to get creative with the “take a drink” handicap, but I feel like most Old School players don’t need to be told to drink…

First round I was paired up with Jonathan. He had a real sweet green-artifact deck brewed up and chose to not sleeve his deck, which I really appreciated. The emblem added a very interesting dynamic to the game, where the Leprechaun could be used as a green dark ritual or life gain in a pinch if your opponent was on non-green cards. Jonathan had played just enough artifacts to get me the mana for enough damage through his lifegain to squeak out the win in game three!

Second round I played Eric. I absolutely loved Eric’s chaotic energy (the man was eating a cold steak with bacon on it sans utensils and drinking “Viking blood” out of a skull) and he brought that same energy to the match with a mono green deck that was tough to beat. While I don’t remember losing game 1 at all, I managed to get there in game two around his lifegain and beaters. Game three I had the luck of the Irish on my side and was able to get ahead on damage and get in for the Channel-Fireball win. on turn three.

Round three I had the pleasure of facing Brian again for the points and prestige. Brian’s deck was well tuned for the format with a plethora of green beats and some Green Wards as backup. I don’t remember the exact details, but I feel like his deck failed him and he sputtered out on mana game three, allowing me to take it down. 60 more points on the board for the Rocs. At this point I’m afraid I’m not making any friends anymore!

Prizes and SWAG from the weekend

We finished the night off with one final event, the 1996 top 8 World Championship Decks. I proposed we take the same decks as our placement in the St. Patty’s event, because I know how hard the Michael Loconto deck can be to play with (and that it’s not really the best deck in that box set!). Round 1 I played Steve on the Bertrand Lestree deck and somehow pulled together the win. Round 2 I played Rajah on Shawn Hammer Reginer’s deck and won 2-0, and that set me up for Brian yet again, this time on Leon Lindback’s Necropotence deck. Once again, I drew exactly what I needed to take the match and earn 60 more points for the Cleveland Rocs.

I had no idea I was going to roll into this thing and rack up the score for the team. I think we all get those weekends or events where we just catch fire and the decks provide and I am certainly lucky to have had that this past Friday! More importantly, I got to meet and play cards with a bunch of great guys from across the state. It was truly a pleasure to sit down with Brian, Jason, Steve, Brandon, Eric, and Jonathan and see the wild decks they all brought. Say what you want about the Ebon Hand, they brew some wild decks and I saw a lot of cool card interactions from those guys.

I had to peace out the next morning, so I can’t report on the events that occurred on Saturday, but I will show you this picture of the final scoreboard and my fellow Rocs, Rajah, Kyle, and Steven. So proud of the boys for taking it all down for the land!

Final scores!

Most importantly, I want to say thanks to Brandon, Brian, and anyone else from the Ebon Hand who came up with the idea and made it all possible. We are looking forward to next year and any and all challengers that can make it (Dayton, where you at!?)

Kyle, Rajah, (with upside down trophy) and Steven

Until next time!