Thrash Bash 4

The Houses

22 wizards from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Nashville all joined together in a single rental which turned out to be 2 houses next to one-another in South Bend Indiana for the LA Massacre that is THRASH BASH 4. I drove JBrns, Stoomie, Chad, and Kevin from Cleveland and we arrived at the house at exactly 4:20pm. We got settled, got ready, and headed to CJ’s pub like we do every year.

CJ’s Pub

Dave hosted and won the annual daggers spike event alongside the Ebon Hand sleeveless ante draft. I lost 0-7 in the 7 point singleton tournament with my Goonies tribal deck (a nod to Josh Brolin’s best movie and to the free Slum alter I won at Thrash Bash 3). I ordered the Four Horsemen burger mostly for its topical relevance, and it was excellent.

Breakfast

We had breakfast at Yellow Cat diner, just like last year, and enjoyed the hot sauce bar and unlimited coffee. Event check-in was at 11 and we wrapped up just in time to head to the Studebaker Mansion. We headed upstairs, checked in, dropped our prizes on the table, and we were off to the race.

My Tournament Report

I built a mono blue deck for this year. I played red for Thrash Bash 1, then mono black and last year mono green. Next year will be White. I don’t know much about Swedish but I figured counterspell could be ok without strip mines floating around. Too bad I forgot that I already had Mana Drain in the list when I added Mana Drain to the list.

Round 1 vs LoTP Shane 0-2 triple S erhnamgeddon?

Game 1 I played a tangle kelp on his Serra but it wasn’t enough. He used balance to kill my one creature and discard 3 of his own cards but had library so he was ok. Game 2 sided in my power and cast control magic on his Serra but got beat by erhnamgeddon. Did not see that coming at all. GGs Shane, a really cool guy.

Round 2 vs Haden 0-2 Black White

Game 1 he dropped too many lions and white knights and su chi and serras. I cloned a su chi and he disenchanted it. Game 2 I sided in all my power and was able to clone a Serra but he eventually played Armageddon with one lion in play and beat me down with the lion. Hello from St Louis.

Round 3 vs Kevin B 1-2 Candleflare

I knew Kevin’s entire list because I loaned him the cards. It didn’t matter. His candleflare insanity was too overwhelming for my limited number of counterspells and too much creature interaction for a nearly creatureless deck.

I won game 1 with a factory chipping in while he tried to assemble a lethal candle flare fireball. Luckily he missed an orb flip on that factory. Lost game 2 to a balance into a pair of fireballs and some factory damage. Lost game 3 when he played his entire hand turn one to timetwister and then was able to chip in with atog and land 3 mana flares on a single turn to fireball me for the win

Round 4 vs (Thrash Bash 3 Champion) Eric W 2-1 Enchantress Tax Edge (so cool)

Game 1 he used balance to balance us out and killed me with tax edge. I stole his Serra but had to sac her to the diamond valley Game 2 he landed a wood elemental with an audience but I was able to unsummon it immediately and win using his own land’s edge and boomeranging my own land to my hand for the final 2 damage.

Game 3 went to orb flips with us both at 3 life and I got lucky

Round 5 vs scotsworth 0-2 black red

Game 1 I unsummoned and boomeranged his hippie 4 times but he still ripped enough cards from me to win with hippie and fireball

Game 2 he had trolls and I had factories and a dib and we went back and forth. I had him down to 4 and tried to timetwister into a psi blast but missed then I cast ancestral recall and in response he double bolted me for the win.

Swag

Thanks Spencer for making me an honorary Kobold for the day.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off this dragon print so I gave a measly $20 to Tom and stole it from Susan. She even signed it in gold for me.

The prize table was amazing, with a lot of support from the community of amateur artists like Rom Wells (most likely my cousin) and Tony from Columbus.

Chad’s costume of course was great. Congrats to the kid in the helmet for going undefeated and for landing an orb flip with an arm cast he got just before the big downhill.

I also enjoyed dread pirate Tim’s pirate playmat turned into a skateboard.

And big congratulations to Jon Revell for winning the battle of the Jons and the grand prize and joining the order of the dagger along with fellow inductee Mike.

The event raised nearly $3k for charity.

Saturday Night

After the tournament we went to Crooked Ewe as we have done for every previous Thrash Bash and got hush puppies, IPA, and bibimbop with brisket. We also had some pork rinds with pimento cheese. Their food is always top-tier.

Back at the thrashin mansion, there was old school magic, precon battles, story draft, EDH, Sorcery, Vintage Cube, Rheingeist beer, unnatural green moonshine, and a screening of Thrashin’ all before I went to bed. I can’t say what happened after that. I think at one point Spencer called Joe Singer and Doug on Discord and Joe was in the middle of crossing an 11 lane highway in Mexico City as he answered the call. But that’s just a rumor I heard. I believed it after tasting his moonshine.

Swedish

I’m not sure I had ever played Swedish before this tournament. I didn’t mind being able to cast my double blue spells though. There was a lot of hate for the format but I thought it was alright, Su-Chis notwithstanding. Unfortunately my deck accidentally contained 2 copies of Mana Drain so I might be biased. Next year I’ll play a legal deck and try to win the big race to make Sam Flood and Thrashin Dave proud. I’m gonna skate for these guys.