Editor's Note 2: On a related note, the Beasts of the Bay are holding an online spice-brewing contest on Youtube: the Brewmaster's Challenge. We warmly advise you to check it out on their channel.
N00bcon this year felt like a festival of Magic, taking place over several days. Accordingly, there were notices put up for a variety of events that were to be taking place on Saturday, the day after the World Championships. Although there were at least two structured tournaments planned, the one that really caught my eye was the Brothers of Fire's Venarian Gold Social.
I had just spent the last two days playing structured Magic, and the thought of joining this roving party, travelling around the city drinking beers and playing casually seemed exactly where I wanted to be. I wasn’t entirely sure what Brother’s Highlander was, and I didn’t have a deck, but there were going to be extras available, so problem solved!
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| The three prizes for the day - Venarian Gold, Venarian Silver, and Venarian Bronze - to be awarded to the players most representing the Spirit of Old School and Brothers' Highlander |
I turned up at the Hard Rock a little after noon, a little worse for wear after the past few days, just in
time for lunch. After tucking in to burgers, nachos, wings and in the case of Brother Jonas a massive
plate with ribs and lord knows what else (along with the obligatory several pints of obscure local beer) we cleared off the tables and it was time to play some Brother’s Highlander!
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| Highlandering away in an American family restaurant, in Sweden... |
The format itself is interesting. We have a similar format here in the States called Brawl, which is more like 60-card commander, but it’s not quite like this. One of the things that jumped out at me was the Controlled List that the Brothers have in place. Rather than wholesale ban-or-include the most powerful cards, you have a certain number of points that you can spend on them (7 points for a Lotus, 3 for a Mox and so on) so that people can still play with their power, but within reason.
I think it’s a nice way to let people play with what they want, but still keeps the fun because there is a natural check on just how broken you can be. I’ve found one of the biggest challenges with playing these older formats is that it’s really hard to balance people into getting to play their favorite cards, while also encouraging them to get off the beaten track, but this struck a very nice balance.
The 100 card decks combined with the limited 93/94 card pool means you’re still going to have to go deep and start playing some truly wonky cards, and the overall result is that the play experience most closely mirrors the one I remember when I first started playing in 1994, which for many is the elusive goal of playing Old School in the first place.
The matches themselves were a ton of fun, played in a very fluid way. People were just swapping decks around and trading opponents left and right. I didn’t keep notes of the games, although there were a lot of memorable plays, including:
- Multiple attacks with the Legends bandy-lands
- Vesuvan Doppelganger copying a Colossus of Sardia which was being untapped through the power of Jandor’s Saddlebags
- Illusionary Mask shenanigans
- Safe Haven actually saving things
- An Unholy Strength’d Vampire Bats smashing face,
- And - last but certainly not least - the play that took home the coveted Venarian Gold: using Sunastian Falconer to generate the last critical mana needed to put down Marhault Elsdragon, Floral Spuzzem, activate a Factory with cast Giant Growth, so that the entire team could be sacrificed to Sword of the Ages, dealing a lethal 24 points of damage to Brother Jonas, who to that point was firmly in control of the game and was chipping away each turn with (the rather more boring) Flying Men and Prodigal Sorcerer.
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| Florian earned Venarian Silver by using Ramses Overdark to destroy a Paralyzed Nalathni Dragon - we are pretty sure this move hasn't been accomplished before |
After this action, we wrapped up at the Hard Rock and then wandered over to Flygarns Haga. I don’t recall if this was intended, or if we just picked it at random, but the original plan was to go in for a drink or two and prepare to keep on moving. We played a few more games, which caught the eye of the bar staff, who came over and asked if they could take some pictures for Facebook, and we obliged. We talked about the game itself a bit, and explained to her how all of us had come from around the world to Gothenburg this weekend. They seemed understandably confused! I also learned that Flygarn was a police officer, and that haga means area, so the name of the bar is a reference to the fact that at some point a gentleman named Flygarn was responsible for policing this spot. I later found that there is a whole haga district that we had stumbled into, so a little history lesson along with all of the socializing.
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| DFB repping Chromium |
Eventually, the 'main tournament' at Kalle’s finished, and more and more people made their way over. By mid-evening the bar was largely full with n00bcon participants playing games all over the place, and catching up. I’m always grateful for moments like this, because our community is spread across the globe and it’s always a treat to get to catch up with everyone in person outside of the structure of the event itself.
I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but at some point the karaoke started up and the night was firmly kicked into high gear. The cards got put away, the drink flowed heavier, and I (along with quite a few others) did their first karaoke performances. Things became a bit of a blur here, but some of the moments that stand out the clearest to me:
- Brother Jonas bringing the smooth indie on Edwyn Collins’ “Girl Like You”
- Gordon Andersson performing a range of classics with great power, among them Britney Spears “Piece of Me”
- A rousing rendition of “God Bless the USA” that was more shouted than sung by those present
- Mano performing “Die Young” by Ke$ha
- A local girl who did “Killing in the Name Of”, resulting in an incredibly raucous performance from everyone there, during which she somehow managed to cut Gordon’s hand open
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| Some BoF Weezer karaoke |
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| Gordon Andersson being a superstar! |
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| The most dedicated players continued clashing Tier1 decks throughout the mayhem... |
I’m not sure if there are any recordings, and I’m not sure that if there were I would want to watch! Some things are best left remembered, where they will always be perfect.
We shut the bar down with “Bohemian Rhapsody”, having never left despite the original plan of “just a drink or two”. As great as n00bcon was, it was the Venarian Social that reinforced a lesson I’ve learned at almost every tournament I have ever been to: that no matter how well or poorly you played, the best part of any event is getting together with your friends afterward for dinner and drinks, or as Gordon put it “playing is at most 25% of the game.”
I’d really like to thank the Brothers for putting this together, and for being so welcoming. It was truly exceptional to spend the day as part of this roving party; the opportunity to connect with such fine folks was remarkable, and is my most lasting and treasured memory from this trip. While we certainly all played a lot of cards over the course of our stay in Gothenburg, the real magic was the way in which so many people from around the world, quite a few of whom had never even met each other prior to this event, were able to connect so strongly through our shared love of the game. It is my great hope that I will be able to make it out to London for a Brothers of Fire event; if you ever have the opportunity to attend one, TAKE IT!
Cheers, mates! Until next time,
-Hunter
Final Editor's Note - Hunter modestly failed to mention his own award of Venarian GOLD, awarded for his insane Sunastian Falconer -wrangling and his model participation in the Social. Well done mate!
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