Ohio Heroes X-Points

The Tournament

As I’ve been stumbling back onto the “live” gentleman’s format MtG scene a bit more recently, I wanted to highlight an outstanding OS event that I attended 10/26/25. The Ohio Heroes hosted an X-point 93/94 event (2nd “annual”) in Brookdale Ohio at the Sharon University Club – a cozy venue secluded in the woods near the OH/PA border.

Personally I have a foot in so many pools playing Magic that taking on another meta seemed like a daunting task, but the Heroes have been fantastic allies to our Cleveland local scene and FE40, and Xpt was quite interesting to me, so I couldn’t pass this one up!

Xpt is a variation of 93/94 OS that has a point limitation to builds. It has gained traction in the past few years, and I honestly felt a bit “late to the party”, but just dove in. I began brewing on merfolk (surprise) but drifted from the idea quickly with the limitations on the 10 point inclusion. At the Elks Lodge OS event at eternal weekend ’25 I brewed around Fallen Angel, and this seemed like a great opportunity to build on that further. My final decklist landed as such:

Fellow FE40+Roc Craig Snook and I coordinated to arrive together and, as usual, I got hung up and was rushing in the door. It was great to see (many) familiar faces, and I wish I had a bit more time to just catch up, but it was time for the tournament! 20ish OS players squared off for 5 rounds. Warm/home-made food, quick A40 and FE40 side matches, cool prizes to pursue, door prize drawings, and just a gorgeous fall day spent in the woods made for an exceptionally positive and comfortable event! My B/G “Angel Food” ended up 4-1 and placing second overall!

Those that stayed for the whole tournament!

Tournament

Here’s a brief report of my day. I’m not going to get into the gritty details, and I apologize if anything is misattributed (writing from memory only). I’ll mention highlights and my sideboard decisions (possibly for a good laugh).

Round 1: R/G Zoo 2-0 The tournament unfortunately began with a tough mulligan for my opponent. Ernie’s were abundant and I had the edge in the “Forestwalk mirror” with GG+Berserk. Game two was much closer, but my large fliers were able to make decently quick work of the apes. No sideboard was used.

Round 2: WRB Tempo 0-2 My opponent ended up placing first! I would consider myself an Xpt novice, but it’s easy to spot a tough opponent. I lost game 1 to a well timed LOA. I was able to see enough of the deck to already be worried for game two. Serra Angels, Trikes and Derelor(!!) ultimately did me in, despite a couple futile tricks from me. Good games! – this is going to be a chronically tough archetype for my deck. Sideboard: +2 Ashes to Ashes, +1 Elvish Scout, +1 Bog Wraith, -4 Ernham Djinn.

Round 3: WRU 2-0 My first blue opponent, and I’m immediately wary of psionic blast plus the other removal suites. I’m in untested waters with Voltron. Despite giving my opponent the additional 2 colors to complete the spectrum, and dancing around Triskeleon, I was able cleanly win these matches with steady pressure, flying, and dodging some removal. Sideboard: +2 Avoid fate, -1 elf, -1 wil-o-the-wisp

Round 4: R/G Relic Barrier aggro 2-0 This was definitely the wildest matchup of the day. The details on game one are a bit hazy, but in the GvG matchup, my giant growth and berserks felt strong. Game two came down to a …unique board state. A fast start by my opponent and then Ashes to Ashes from me brought me to a quick 6 life and left us both exhausted. I leaned on maze of ith, and a sylvan library to frantically dig, while my opponent landed a winter orb and built up 3 (!) howling mines. After looking at what felt like nearly half my deck to find a second black source (I never found one btw), I was able to cast a dark ritual into an Angel and luckily land the winning blow as my deck was designed. Sideboard: +2 ashes to ashes, +1 elvish scout, -2 Ernham Djinn

Round 5: Disco Troll 2-1 This figured to be a difficult matchup for me, but game 1 I led with an unanswered Scavenger folk, and then some big combat tricks to count to 20. Winning game one here felt critical. Game 2 took about 40 minutes. I started off confident but quickly ran into multiple maze of Iths. Fallen Angel couldn’t quite get there, and a mid-game misplay on my end left me 4 life more vulnerable to a giant fireball. Fireball eventually got me as I hid behind my own mazes. Game 3 started with 2 minutes left and I’m really unsure how it may have ended. Despite a strong start on my end, another Maze from the disco-trolls forced turns, and a subsequent Orb-Flip off! With the very man whom I lost my last “high stakes” Flip-off to (Adam Mumford) as audience, I was able to land 3 successful flips, and my opponent only 2. Great games! Sideboard: +2 Ashes to Ashes, +1 Bog Wraith +1 Elvish Scout, -2 Ernham Djinn, -1 llanowar elf.

Ornithopter

There was also a sub-game throughout the tournament involving ornithopter. This was a sort of “capture the flag” – if an unblocked ornithopter made it through combat, that player received the “flag” for the turn (like the Monarch mechanic). At the end of the tournament whoever ended games with the most flags won a super-cool Amy Weber painted proof! A very fun and subtle inclusion in the tournament!

Thanks again to the Ohio Heroes for throwing this event! Until next time.

Post Mortem

Xpt is great and I can certainly see why it’s so popular. Maze x4 with a limit of 1 strip mine is a potential issue IMO. I feel like EC rules with strips at 1pt a pop would be safe.

With more experience, I think I may have leaned on my sideboard a bit more. Ashes to Ashes was really the only card I reached for. Hypnotic specter was an unsung hero. My opponents got to discard 0 cards all day, but he took all that removal like a champ.