Brothers of Fire - London Old School MtG: Event Report - UK Old School Nationals, 18 August 2018

Brother Ben meets up with some friendly faces in competition at this evergreen UK gathering...

18th August saw Old School being recognised as a headline event at the UK magic nationals at Watford. (about an hour from central London). Event organisers Elizabeth Kolb-Barnetson and Francois Huchard kindly arranged for us to have a secure area close to the bar. An undisclosed prize was at stake, and everyone brought their A-game.

The event attracted a selection of Old School regulars as well as some old faces from back in the day, including legendary Chad Valentine. In particular it was great to see amiable magic veteran Graham Baker, famous for his love of white cards.

I anticipated a field of counter-burn decks, which are currently popular in the UK. I aimed to play around this, loading my sideboard with blue blasts, COP: Blue, COP: Red, Sleight of Mind, Ivory Tower, etc.

Special mention goes out to Jason Savage who had brewed a sweet powerhouse of a deck, leaning heavily on Mana Vaults, Juggernauts, Su-Chis, and Copy Artifact to power out big fatties early, backed up with an array of restricted cards. He went 5-0 in the Swiss.

Chris Cooper needs no introduction and brought a fresh brew too. While Jason’s creation generated exciting games loaded with power plays and great escapes, Chris took the opposite approach and made a version of Randy’s tax code deck, cutting the Land’s Edge. As far as I could see, this made his wincon getting to 100 life and boring all opponents into submission by looping Timetwisters and Tawnos’ Crypt. Somehow only one of his matches went to time!

So my UW deck squeaked into the top 4 after going 3-1-1 in the swiss. I wasn’t departing much from Alban’s decklist from N00bcon 10. I met Jason in the semis and I was thankful for the advice of Josh Knight from Barcelona to play main-deck Divine Offering. It was intended to help me against Atog decks, of which I saw none, but it came in handy against Jason’s turn 1, 2, and 3 fatties. We even had time for a game of Brothers' Highlander while waiting for the other semi-final to finish. All hope was lost in game 3 of the final, but I managed a great escape. My opponent was a great competitor and I hope we can play again one day.

The mystery prize was a Thunder Spirit. Thanks go to Elizabeth and Francois for a great day.

With the UK Nationals complete, I'm now looking forward to COPcon VII - the next Brothers Of Fire event - on 15th September in London. And after that, I'll be at Fishliver Oil in October.

Thanks everyone, Ben.