LOBSTERCON 2023

 

As some of you know, I am an Old School player living in Chile. Chile is the bottom of the world, so everything related to OS is a pain here, from getting cards to finding people to play with, but especially traveling to events is tough. To get to Boston from Chile, we need to travel overnight and then usually take a second domestic flight, for a total of 14 hours or so. It also costs a bunch of money. Having said all of that, Old School is our hobby and our passion, so last year we made the trip to LobsterCon 2022 with Thomas Sutherland, president of the Earthquake League, our Old School group in Chile, which has around 2 active members (to be fair, it has a great group of inactive players as well). We wrote a report that you can find HERE. Beating my wildest expectations, I took third place last year, going 7-1. The deck that I played was a wonderful 4 Colors black deck that Thomas and I had tested and prepared.

 

Going forward to this year, Thomas and I had been working a lot and we had no tickets until a couple of weeks before the event. The good news is that Emilio, an old friend from the golden years of magic and the only new member of Earthquake League in two years or so, had decided to join us! Emilio is well known for paying tournament registration fees and then not attending, so there was some uncertainty on that point though. About a week before the tournament, Thomas hit me with the tough news: he would not be attending this year. A man has to do what a man has to do, but my heart is shattered. At this point I am feeling that missing workdays is going to be tough, and my wife wants me to stay at home (to take care of the baby!) so I am wondering if traveling half of the world to play Magic is just total madness. The key point supporting my decision was that Emilio was going (he was already in NY at this point AND he had invested in a full CE set for his deck!). With only a week to go I sustain a tough negotiation with my wife and get greenlighted to go.

 

I now must decide what to play. During the last months I have been buying ante cards like a madman (you guys might have seen me in discord or facebook asking for beat-up unlimited cards), so I have two Ante 40k decks prepared, a RG and a GW. Because Chile is the bottom of the world, I cannot get enough birbs for both, but the gods of magic will provide. I get few mail days here, but the ones I get are epic. Below, my Ante mail day.

I was super confused on what to play for Premodern. I love the format, but I have not played much. I wanted to play something I knew, so I had considered Recurring Survival. My other option was Landstill, which seemed to have all the right answers for the top decks, but I did not love the version with tides, because using Cunning Wish weakens your sideboard a lot. When I saw that my friend Brian Selden had top 8’d the Spring Fling with traditional Landstill I knew that was my deck. Brian kindly shared all of his insights with me, and I prepared a beautiful version with japanese cards sprinkled with some arena/apac hotness. The deck was lovely, but I played zero games with it before the tournament and it showed.

Finally, I really did not have time to come up with an original deck for Old School. I decided to go with my old and trusty Juzam deck from the previous LobsterCon. I do not play it often but it has always been excellent to me. I also think black decks are not firmly considered to be on the tier 1 of the format, so it was a good opportunity to fight for their recognition. Brian was also playing a similar deck, so we had the opportunity to discuss but we ended up not convincing each other about the optimal build. He shamelessly tried to talk to me into not using 4 Juzams! Come on, I’m not losing style points like that! The only real improvement from last year is that I now have a few sweet alters and I was happy to have a place for them in my deck.

Another aesthetic change for my deck is that I was trying to convince Selden to use Juzams on his deck, so I lent him my Juzams, and I got to play with these absolute beauties my friend Mario lent me. The one in front is obviously the leader of the pack.

The day of the flight I forgot my passport at home, so my wife had to send it in an Uber and I spent some 40 minutes at the airport wondering if this was going to work or not. Everything ended up going well, until I got to the US. I lost a passport with a Visa around 10 years ago, and I am still stopped for an immigration secondary check every time I go to the US. They make me go into a special office with no internet allowed. This time was no exception. I go into the room and the officer asks:

  • Why are you going to Boston?
  • Going to a collectible card game convention
  • What game?
  • Mtg.
  • How is that convention called?
  • “Lobstercon”
  • Lobstercon? I have never heard of that one
  • Do you still play?
  • I used to. I now play in Arena (shows his phone)
  • We play with the old cards, like 93/94
  • Oh I never had any alpha or beta, but I do have an entire revised collection, all the duals and stuff. Also some Legends, The Dark, and Antiquities.
  • Sir, you should definitely check “Old School mtg” online.
  • You are good to go, mr Hojman

Needless to say, I had never been treated so nicely in the damned immigration office!

 

Got to Boston and met with Emilio at the Hotel. We grabbed a quick meal and ran to DFB’s house, who had kindly prepared a get together for the international travelers. I played my first ante games ever and got crushed by Mase and Svante. I enjoyed my games, only lost some smalls, and felt fine about losing the cards. The format is interesting and super friendly. Doodling the cards is fun and playing for a small (or big, if you are unlucky) bet makes it exciting. I recovered some of my losses beating Simon Christie after he had contracted. As usual, Mind Twist did all the hard work. I think I finished the night 2-4 in games or so. I was super hyped about playing Ante and it did not disappoint.

On Saturday I played premodern. I felt happy to grab my pretty Landstill deck for the day. I am not going to go in detail here, but I played against an enchantress, a Goblins, three Sligh, a UG control, a Ghoul/Nought, and something else. The deck felt great, except against Sligh which is a bit too fast for us sometimes. The hate against Sligh works great. Warmth is a total killer and whenever I had it, I won. I ended up 4-4, had super friendly opponents, and really enjoyed my time playing the deck. It was a great opportunity to play premodern. As usual, the pizzas were delicious and abundant. I had not eaten anything since breakfast, so they really felt heavenly. Of note, Emilio did play the tournament, a big step towards improving his reputation of registering and not attending. The big news of the day is that Brian made the top 8 and, as you know, ended up winning the whole thing! I am obviously rooting for him, so I was really excited to watch the final live and see him take it with tight play and despite so-many-meddling-mages-for-swords-to-plowshares!

At the end of the day, I had the chance of playing some more Ante, with my small RG creatures facing the scary Atogs of Mike Frantz. We ended up 1-1, on some hard-fought games. I also faced Jason with my GWb deck. We played a long, long game where he was about to kill me several times. I ended up winning and getting a Manabarbs. I now must find a home for it now! Might add it to the RG deck. We were dead tired at that point, and after some chatting with Neil and Miguel, the other international, Spanish-speaking travelers, went back to the hotel to get some rest before the big day.

Day 2 of LobsterCon started with a big breakfast next to the venue. The egg sandwiches on muffin bread of Mamaleh’s Delicatessen are incredible!

 

Round 1: Nick Bliss

Nick is playing a Land Tax/Heart of Darkness deck with dorks and Erhnams. In game 1 I play Lotus Order Hymn, and in game 2 Lotus two orders. I do not love these Lotus+creatures Hands with my deck, but if I have the lotus and no Mind Twist or Demonic Tutor I do use it for the creatures. Orders are hard to handle for his deck. His best answers are his Erhnams, and he did not get to play them because I strip and chaos orb his lands, and did not play more lands than he had, to keep his Land Tax inactive. The orders win both games.

1-0

MVP: Order of the Ebon Hand

 

Round 2: David Third

David is a Derby Champion, so I knew this was going to be tough. He was playing Arabian Aggro with Apes, Pixies and Dibs. Game 1 he had an important chaos orb. I thought he had failed it (not rotating 360) and he thought he had got it right. We chose to repeat it, which was a pretty gentlemanly way to solve things IMO, and he got it right. After some time, it was my turn of flipping the orb over one of his dibs, I failed it! And was killed by it. I am a decent flipper, but I guess the nerves got me.

 

Game 2 he drew three cities of brass and no other lands. We trade resources and at some point, we both had 2 cards in hand, and he cast a wheel. Wheels are usually good against my deck, but if the opponent is constrained in mana when casting it, I am often able to discard him back. This time I had the biggest of the discard spells: after wheeling, he passes me the turn and I Mind Twist most of his hand away. He kept or drew a Time Twister, which could have undone all the advantage of the Twist, but after the twister, when I see my hand, I see Mind Twist there once more! I twist him for 6 and that’s game.

 

For the final game I had the advantage most of the game, but his burn spells directed to my head and my City of Brass were quickly eating my life total. After some time, I had Juzam, Factory, Falling Star and Disenchant in hand, and two factories (one just played), with total 6 lands. He had Dib, Ape, and a factory, and no cards in hand. He was on three life, I was at 7. I calculated that if I was able to Flip the Star over both of his creatures, Ape died, Dib was tapped, and I would be able to swing with a 3/3 factory and a Juzam, with one of them hitting for lethal. However, being very nervous, and having failed an orb flip, I was very hesitant to have the game hinge on a two-creatures Star flip! The other alternative was to attack with the Juzam and the factory and disenchant the other factory, but he could have blocked the factory with the dib and the Juzam with the Ape, and on his turn, he could have attacked me for one, draw a bolt, and kill me with the damage off my Juju. I decided to be brave and try the Star. I got a very nice shot and hit the two fuckers! Damn, that was stressful.

2-0

MVP: Mind Twist

Round 3: Svante Landgraf

Second Derby Champion in my first three matches! Svante is playing Lion-Dib-Bolt. It is a tough matchup, and he got better draws than me. In both games he has Lions Turn 1 and I take a while in answering them. In the second game I was going first, and my initial hand had Hymn, Hymn, Twist! I thought it was impossible to lose with that hand, but he had Lions Turn 1, Lions Turn 2, Ancestral and Twist of his own, which took my twist. I almost escape by Spirit Linking a Juzam, but he had other plans and attacked me and killed me with a bolt before I could gain life off the Spirit Link trigger. I am not playing against a rookie here.

2-1

MVP: Svante I guess?

On LobsterCon 2022 I had been Svante’s only loss, so it seemed fair that he took his revenge here. We go together to have Lobster Rolls, and given how quickly he beat me, we have a lot of time to discuss our RG ante decks and chill out.

 

Round 4: Joe Singer

Joe is playing Disco Troll with counters. These games are a bit blurry on my mind. I think on the first game I got some pretty massive advantage, probably with Joe being seriously mana screwed. In the second game things were also clearly going my way, but at some point, he disks an order and a Juzam. I hit back with a Troll, but he plays my biggest nemesis: a Blood Moon! Got me totally off guard. I have plans against Moon, with two basic Plains on the sideboard, but I was surprised by his 3-colors deck using it. Very scary but I kept hitting him with a 2/2 troll, draw another and ended up taking the game and the match.

3-1

MVP: Sedge Troll AKA Hill Giant

 

Round 5: Paul de Silva

Paul is playing UW with knights. Paul is a tough opponent, and this was probably my best match in the tournament. In game 1 he beat me easily with an Order of Leitbur. I am supposed to have a bunch of answers for them, but they did not show up.

 

In game 2 I think I mulled to 5. I had a relatively quick start and managed to take a lot of his life with an Order of the Ebon Hand and maybe a Factory that ended up dying. He might have even cast Ancestral at some point. He starts dominating the game and attacking me with two factories and takes me down to 7. At this point, I find myself with one Order of the Ebon Hand and zero cards in hand against two factories, one dib and something like 6 cards in hand. He had a few other lands and I had around 9 lands, all of them producing black, but one or two are cities of Brass. He was at 4 life though, so if I hit him with my order, he dies. Paul passes me the turn and I draw a Sedge Troll. Nice rip! Or not? I had seen power sink last game. If I play the troll and he had power sink, I would be forced to tap at least one of my Cities of Brass and take 1 damage. That would mean that -if none of us do anything else- two attacks from the Dib would be enough to kill me, and he has two factories to chumpblock. I decide not to play the troll and just attack. Instead of blocking with the whole army and losing two of his guys he decides to chumpblock with a factory, probably hoping to draw something to deal with the knight or another chumpblocker. Factory dies. On his turn he goes down to 3, attacks with the dib putting me at 4, but leaves the factory blocking. On my turn I draw the Fireball that would kill him! but again I cannot play it because I fear power sink. I just attack, kill factory and pass the turn. He does not draw any way to deal with the knight and dies two turns later. He shows me his hand and the Power Sink that would have killed me is right there!

 

We have 8 minutes left in the clock for game three and agree to play really fast. This game went quickly on my favor even though he balanced away three of my creatures. After that I drew an ancestral that made my position much better. I made an ugly mistake at the end because of playing too fast, but the game was very decidedly on my favor at that time and I am able to take the match on time.

4-1

MVP: Order of the Ebon Hand

 

Round 6: Ty Thomason

I was looking to play against shops because my deck is very prepared against them, with around 15 solid removal spells after sideboard. Game 1 I have a fantastic hand with Demonic Tutor, Mox and Mind Twist. I consider Ancestral as a safer option but decide to go for the lotus. On his turn he Plays Shops, Mox, Mox, Fellwar Stone, and in my turn, I twist him for 4 or 5. He was able to play Tetravus a turn or two later, but my hand is stacked and I have Swords and a Troll For the Win. In Game 2, Ty had to mull to 5 and I have Hymn on my turn to make things even more unfair.

5-1

MVP: Mind Twist again but sharing the award with Lotus.

 

Round 7: Marc Flore

I knew Marc was a pseudo mirror, but it ended up being a little different because he has Bayous for pixies instead of factories, and less Juzams.

On the first game I have two Juzams and a Sol Ring in my hand. I play both of them, just to have them answered by Swords to Plowshares. Marc is drawing gas all the time (I think he cast Regrowth on an Ancestral) and I am being punished by Pixies, Factory and Troll. I rip another Juzam, which he might have answered with a Chaos Orb. And he asks me “Are you gonna rip another juzam now? How many do you play in that deck?” We go to my turn and I draw the fourth Juzam and play it right away! We both laugh and snap a loud high five. The horned djinn stops his guys for a moment, but I am too far behind at that point and he kills me anyway.

 

On the second game I Hymn him and get some advantage in life, but he starts drawing more action than me and starts reversing the game. He is at 9 and starts attacking me with a couple of Trolls. At some point I draw a Fireball, but I only have 9 mana! I am at 6. I also have chaos orb and a Falling Star. None of them are so great against Trolls. However… he has some Cities of Brass. On my turn I cast falling star on his two trolls and hit both, so he had to regenerate and use his City of Brass, putting him at 8. He is also left with no more mana to regenerate. I play my Chaos Orb and successfully flip it on one of the trolls, taking it away and gaining the turn I need. He plays, attacks and leaves me at 3 life, but he does not have Hymn and in my turn I fireball him for 8 and win the match. So much flipping in crucial moments today!

 

We played the third game pretty fast. I got the advantage, attacking with a couple of Trolls. At some point he casts Armageddon to make the trolls 2/2, but it is not enough to stop them and I take the match.

6-1

MVP: Fireball

 

Ronda 8: Duncan Purves

Duncan was on a Green Weenie deck with Bottles. Bottle is very scary for my deck, and he beat me very convincingly in the first game using it. I am not sure on how to sideboard for game two, so I put my two Falling Stars but do not change the deck much more than that. The god of Magic loved me on this one, and I am blessed with an Ancestral Recall Turn one and on Turn two I have 3xMox and Mind Twist for 4 cards. Even better: three of the four cards discarded were Mazes of Ith! Maze is very hard to deal with for me, so I am super happy these are gone. I beat him easily after that. For game three I decide I do not want Juzams in my deck against him, which could be 2×1’d or 3×1’d with Bottle, or Mazed to Oblivion. If I do not lose fast and I am not bottled I should win, as my creatures are much stronger than his, so I decide to transform into a control deck and pack all of my three Spirit Links and my Plains. My hand in the third game is really excellent and, in a few turns, Twist him for 4, Falling Star him for 3 and Falling star him for 2. He has a whirling Dervish, which is nice, but it cannot handle a Sol Kanar plus a Sedge Troll.

7-1

MVP: Mind Twist for the third time in the tournament

 

I cannot believe it! I had zero expectations of doing as well as last year, but it happened. This time it felt harder, as I lost my first games against David Third, Svante, Paul, Marc and Duncan. All of them were super tough, nerve-wrecking matches. Seems like my breakers were bad because I was the last of the 7-1s, but I was very happy to see that the prize is a Disenchant, which I can pair with the Disenchant from the previous year and they will look really strong together! Back-to-back top 8’s at LC is something I would have never dream of, and I feel really lucky about it. Moreover, DFB was kind enough to have Beta Wonderlusts stamped for all the international travelers that had covered long distances. Emilio and I got prizes, along with some of the European crew.

Regarding my deck, I absolutely love it and I do not think I would change anything. Several people have told me they do not like 4 Juzams, as they are mana-heavy and dangerous. All of that is true, but they have been pretty good to me, and they make the deck so cool! I think they are solid against everything (except that they have an irrational fear of Bottles!).

 

After the tournament I really want to play more ante, but I am really destroyed, and people are going to different places. I try to follow our leader and after walking for a long time we end up getting pizzas. Then we move on to a bar where we hang out with Brian Selden, Ryan, Andi Baquero, and Emilio, while several hardcore old schoolers sling ante games. The bar is super noisy and crowded and I am dead tired, so we just spread some hugs and kisses and go back to the hotel and then to Chile.

It was an incredible weekend, surrounded by lovely people and a lot of fun. It was great to see people I had only known online before, and to hang out with the old school crew I feel are my friends now. We have a wonderful community and I really appreciate being part of it.

 

Props:

  •  D F B is THE MAN!!
  • Jared, Scott, Brooks, and everyone else that worked so hard to make this possible
  • Mase and Simon, my shark loaners of Birbs to fuel my gambling, and great opponents.
  • Emilio, who played his first Old School match ever 8000 kilometers away from home, and who really got fast into the spirit of our community. He got some alters, made friends, and is decided to come back next year!
  • Brian, who kindly shared with me all his Landstill tech and was great to have around throughout the weeks leading to the event, and on the weekend.
  • Thomas, who could not make it but will surely get his deserved fix next year
  • Drew Tucker for being the nicest guy in the planet and finishing a bunch of cool alters on time
  • All of my opponents, good sports winning or losing

 

Slops:

  • Nah