Choices.
We all make them every day: little ones, big ones. Hard ones, easy ones.
For example. Four magicians from Toronto chose to fly to Ottawa (boy are our arms tired!*), when we could have drove instead.
Another choice? Esteemed Atog pilot Joel Bowers choosing not to play Psychic Purge, a critical tool for shoring up his aggro matches in a city known for its aggro.
Yet another choice? Encouraging a friend to put the powerful combination of Carrion Ants and Channel into his deck.
Indeed—our choices are all around us, waiting to teach us lessons if only we are willing to listen. Some of them turn out well (like ordering a litre of beer in an enormous clay stein), and others (like flapping your arms with Air Canada instead of Porter and getting a 3.5 hour flight delay)…not so much.
My best choice on the weekend? Playing a sick UBR discard/troll deck at Chaos Con 4 and having some great matches against some great humans, ultimately finishing in 4th place with a final record of 5-1.
This is the story of that choice.
But before we get to the event itself, here are a few of the other choices that got me to the finish line.
* This was Tristan’s ultimate bit on the trip—while you might not think so now, this is an extremely funny joke (once you hear it enough times) and he will be slaying with it on a standup tour at some point in the future, I am sure.
1 Good Choice – Not playing a greedy green splash
What pushes a man to add an unnecessary 4th colour to his manabase?
Pride? Hubris? An unholy desire for novelty? I’m not sure, but for some reason I thought my deck would be better with a Regrowth and a Sylvan Library. The logic was sound enough—I found myself in a lot of stalled boards during testing and was looking for an easy way to break them—but the juice here is probably not worth the squeeze.
Shout outs to Brian Bogdon for convincing me not to do it—he correctly identified Ottawa as hub of Blood Moon aficionados. I didn’t get Blood Mooned personally, but it was going around. And I felt good with three basics to help me push through any lunar disruptions that might pop up.
2 Bad Choice – Ordering a standard Uber from the airport
We all want value. We all know you can fit 4 passengers in any car. And how bad could it be, crammed into the back of a Carolla, if you’re only in there for 25 minutes?
I don’t believe in regrets. But I also don’t believe in small Ubers when you’ve got a full sorcerer contingent in the back seat. Not anymore.
I won’t share the contents of our conversations—we and the Uber driver will take them to our graves—but rest assured any casual listener would be a combination of lost, confused, and horrified. I hope they understood enough to know that we were nerds and shouldn’t be taken seriously anyways.
3 Good Choice – Getting a beer and some games in for Round 0
We were there early. Like before the organizers early, on account of us flying to the venue (which had, of course, left our arms extremely tired).
So we helped ourselves to the beer, wings, pretzels and pickles that were available, and got to thinking about what the day might hold. After we ate we decided to jam a couple warmup games. I beat Joel up pretty good, which bode well for the day ahead (and was payback for the pre-games we played in Montreal where he smoked me with a top deck bolt in a close game 5).
Prost! Let the games begin!
The Event
This deck is the brainchild of myself and Brian Bogdon who were trying to figure out how to make Power Surge good.
Only 1 vestigial copy remains (and even this was on the chopping block if the green splash ever came in), but at its heart this deck was designed to clear out people’s hands and stick an unbeatable Power Surge.
This deck was also built for Atlantic, and would normally run 2 Sinkholes over Strip Mines 2 and 3. It’s a bit weird just replacing the spells with lands, as it takes us up to 28 (!) mana sources, but it’s hard to overstate how much better Strip Mine is.
Sinkhole is like Pizza Pizza to Strip Mine’s Descendants (fantastic Detroit-style deep dish). It’s like going into the office vs working from a jacuzzi in the Swiss Alps. It’s like basic Forest to basic Island: there’s just no comparison.
One of the other real strong points here is The Rack. Non-creature damage is such an asset, and I can’t say enough good things about this deck’s ability to close out close games as a result.
After playing the day, I don’t think I would change a single card.
R1 – Pascal on Mono Red (W 2-0)
Had some nice chats about my first-round opponent, who hails from Montreal. I discover that the poor fellow missed TWC this year, despite living there, because of work. Blech.
A major topic of discussion in this match: is it pronounced “id-win” or “why-den”? We may never know for sure, but I do know that having enough hard removal to deal with this 3/6 menace is a blessing. Post-board I had extra bolts and blue blasts, in addition to the Mazes and a terror, to make this match feel pretty good.
I did take a Ball lightning on the chin, and was down around 5 in G1 before stabilizing, but this one felt like a promising start to the day.
R2 – Sam on Dib Atog (L 1-2)
Ahhh, here we are again. I swear Atogs follow me around like notifications for Windows updates. I know I’m going to see them. I know they’re a problem. And yet I never really do anything about it.
So anyways. Maze of Ith shenanigans get me a win in G1, but black vises and burn and Efreets beat me up in games 2 and 3.
R3 – Jay on Dib Atog (W 2-0)
I know Jay from Toronto and he is lugging a positively gargantuan backpack full of magic cards around with him today. Like he is going out into the wilderness for a week sort of backpack. Like he is a turtle, who plans on living inside the actual backpack at some point. I suspect Jay is actually in pretty good shape, and tell him so, being that he is carrying (what appears to be) his own body weight in cardboard.
Game 2 is hecking close as I race a Dib with a Swamp King and a factory. I win the race, and Jay reveals and Earthquake that was a single mana short of killing me on the previous turn. GGs!
R4 – Matt on Green Atog (W 2-0)
I end up having a derpy conversation with Joel for the first 5 minutes of this round (probably giving him the gears about those Purges he didn’t play) and apologize profusely to my opponent on arrival. I’ve always said, it’s OK to show up late, or drunk, but not both. On this occasion I was clearly in the wrong.
Matt helps us settle an earlier debate, about whether or not people who live in Ottawa are from Ottawa. His case is an interesting one—having not been born there, but having lived there from a young age. He swears many of the children he went to school with were born within the city limits of Ottawa, and did not move there for work. I work in HR, and am aware that school age children make terrible employees. Still—like anyone who has convinced themselves something is true without actually fact checking it—I can’t help but feel something isn’t adding up.
G1 I see Togs and Pixies and am thoroughly confused. I later learn this is an actual thing, and that the Kird Apes I was worried about were never going to show up. I don’t remember much about the actual games, but the usual mix of Hymns, creatures, and Racks were evidently enough to get this one done.
R5 – Paul on RG (W 2-0)
Paul’s another Ottawa player and a real pleasure to play some games with. We start the round off with some beers and some chats and have a great time.
Details of this one are fuzzy—I remember more about skateboarding than the games—but I do know this is a pet deck of his and that it contains the regular cast of R/G burn and creatures: Apes, Erhnams, Bolts of Lightning.
We play a third one for fun and I lose that one handily.
R6 – Kostas on Mono W (W 2-0)
We start out with a nice chat about the tournament magic of yesterday and how sweet it was playing OP Delver decks, and how Deathrite Shaman got done dirty by that ban.
He comes out of the gate fast, playing a T1 Lion and a White Knight and some other things. Eventually the board stalls out and I stabilize with a pile of Sedge Trolls, Factories and Maze of Ith. I break the stalemate with a Hippy and a copy of The Rack which go the distance (I think).
I stick a Gloom on him in G2, which slows him enough for me to connect with 2 Hymns before stabilizing against his pair of Javelineers. He eventually Chaos Orbs my Gloom, but after Strip Mining me he is left with a single Plains. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he draws a Copper Tablet which he is unable to cast. After he misses a few top decks my ragtag army makes the race against tablet favourable, and this one ends in 2.
Post Event Coverage
Before the event ended, I placed two late bids on a pair of artist’s prints and take them both home for a steal of a price in the silent auction (good choice). Another nice keepsake from a terrific event.
Then it’s time for the top 8 announcement and I’m excited. Being seated at table 4 in the previous round means I have a real shot at T4, and I just hope my breakers and/or other people’s records land in my favour.
Joel is the first player announced, snagging a very respectable 8th with his fucking Atog deck (fucking Atogs).
I dodge the 5th place name call and finish in 4th. I’m over the moon (and not just about dodging Blood Moon), and get a sweet Mishra’s Factory to commemorate the finish.
After draining our mugs and saying our goodbyes we head out into the night in a (much larger) Uber. It takes us to our downtown rental where we reflect on the day’s events, bemoan our lousy choices, and eat some pretty reasonable subs.
All in all a fantastic trip to Ottawa for a wonderful event. This was my first Chaos Con and I can’t wait for the next one.
Cheers to the staff of Braumeister Bierhalle who showed us a great time. And cheers to Patrick and crew for putting on this banger of an event and for raising some big $$$ for a deserving charity!