the columbus retromancers hosted the first buckeye brawl today at the warp gate in columbus, drawing a massive 98 players, with more on the waitlist. leaving my place at 8:30am, i passed no less than seven cops in the two hour drive, and registered a fashionable ten minutes before the first round. the talented tonywok greeted me at registration, and spencer introduced me to the rest of the retromancers just in time for the first rounds pairings. in typical manner, i failed to really prepare, and played something i found on the internet. moneyball black uses lots of swamps and i like dark ritual and hypnotic specter. four wastelands is like four strip mines!

the deck

https://moxfield.com/decks/7zXSF3tHo0GXRwTzsU3JcQ

the tournament

round 1: collin, groatog, 2-0 win

https://moxfield.com/decks/sMLI-hiwR0-5eIIOYLfnIw

in game one collin kept a single land hand, and never recovered after losing his underground river to a first turn wasteland. in game two dr. teeth made an appearance, but pressure from a sticky masticore being fed with a phyrexian arena kept him from getting out of hand, and i got it in two. this match felt favored, as so many of my removal options simply blank his win condition.

round 2: max, tireless tribe combo, 2-1 win

https://moxfield.com/decks/0oCuTMsKt0i9VDlqNR4FvQ

this was a very close match, the combination of having all the right removal and discard effects put me up a game fairly quick. in game two i had max within lethal range, but a resolved arrogant wurm was bigger than most of my removal could handle and he quickly turned the game around when he stuck an armadillo cloak from his sideboard, taking us to game three. after a tough back and forth that took us all the way to the buzzer, i had a clutch snuff out in response to a wild mongrel activation that put me over the finish line. this match-up also felt favored, as while my opponent has a lot of cards with madness, it seems to be critical that they get to choose when they discard them for their strategy to work.

round 3: josh, landstill, 1-2 loss

https://moxfield.com/decks/ux8OZCXOFke6akmgFZRQ8g

impulse was very strong for josh, and the huge number of cards he was able to see with those, fact or fiction, and standstill made it very hard to fight through his answers. i picked up a game a pair of withered wretches and hypnotic specter, but a morphed exalted angel to sidestep my gloom was far too large for a powder keg to answer, and we went to game three. after being forced to break three standstills, the card advantage finally got him there, and i took my first match loss.

round 4: troy, striflenought, 2-0 win

https://moxfield.com/decks/48Jxds5OCkSBt3UoXS5Fbw

strong early discard kept troy from being able to assemble both shrimp and a stifle effect, but my favorite play of the day was his dominate to steal my factory. reminded me of how good control magic feels in old school! i think this match is also probably favored, since most of my removal smashes shrimp with ease. wow, there is a lot of card dig in this format!

round 5: brian, devourer combo, 0-2 loss

https://moxfield.com/decks/kgRt08MbtEGChSIth4QmcQ

easily my fastest match of the day, brian very handily assembled the pieces he needed to kill me with alter of dementia and phyrexian devourer. without any real ability to interact with devourer once resolved, again my only hope was to attack his hand as fast as possible, and we just didnt get there. i really liked this list, and its multiple paths to victory.

round 6: cameron, oath ponza, 1-2 loss

https://moxfield.com/decks/R_nPHFOX-0Slm2r99wByuA

game one felt like i was playing against prison, and at one point cameron had resolved two spheres of resistance and had me tapping down two swamps on my upkeep every turn. an uncontested factory got us to a game three, but turns out oath into terravore is super good.

having taken my third loss and being out of the running for top eight, i dropped and started the drive back home. the retromancers also held a charity raffle and bake sale benefitting the mid-ohio food collective (https://mofc.org/), and i was lucky enough to win an authentic columbus retromancers shirt, and a sealed 1998 world champs deck.

props:

spencer, tony and the rest of the retromancers for putting on a great event troy from team serious for being rad and going to grab a sandwich with me between rounds awesome time seeing so many familiar faces, and meeting so many new guys great judges, good atmosphere, and everybody was having an excellent time

slops:

the warp gate; clean the bathroom you filthy slobs