Travel to Venue
Since the tournament fell on the Sunday of Halloween weekend and the venue was only an hour and a half away, we decided to make a one-day trip of it rather than hunting around for lodgings. We rose super early (from my perspective) and began to carpool towards the border with Jason at the helm.
The weather had our back and was definitely on theme. We drove through patches of dense fog which occasionally gave way to bright sunshine and extremely colourful foliage due to the above average leaf season Ontario has been enjoying this fall.
There was almost no traffic. We made great time, and arrived at the venue (Resurgence Brewing Company) well before it opened. We decided to retreat and grab a fast-food breakfast so we could finalize our respective deck and sleeve choices.
For pre-tournament tuning, typically Raymond enjoys Burger King due to the universal availability, plentiful table space, and of course their traditional Croissan’wiches. However, when we arrived at their local outpost, another would-be customer in the parking lot informed us the dining room was closed. This unfortunate turn of events briefly shattered Raymond’s dreams of not having to triple sleeve his deck in the van.
We pivoted to the McDonalds across the parking lot, naively not realizing our dreams were about to be crushed once again. Raymond grabbed a table and sat down to triple sleeve while the rest of us waited in line to attempt to order some food.
I am not exactly sure what was going down, but this was potentially the slowest McDonalds in the world. Both self-serve robots were out of order, and the staff was in the back working on pickup and drive through. We stood in line for a good 15 minutes with nobody taking orders at the counter.
During the wait we were subjected to the ramblings of another customer addressing the crowd regarding various topics including whether it was better to be Muslim or Christian, immigrants taking our jobs, him “not having that shit”, and who should or should not “get that ass out of here”.
The line did not actually move at all the entire time we were there. Ray had finished sleeving his deck, so we bailed and headed back to the venue. “If you ain’t gonna say it right, don’t say it.”
Tournament Venue & Beers
Overall, the venue was fantastic. I am not a big sports guy, but it was fun to see everyone wearing the Bills colours along with the occasional Green Bay fan in attendance. This was a charity tournament: all proceeds from this event after expenses were split between the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund and the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund. Learn more about these charitable efforts here: https://www.buffalotogetherfund.org/
The beers at Resurgence were on point. There were lots to choose from, and the majority were quite delicious. Apologies for the condition of the below menu picture, which is clearly an HP copy.
Instead of the typical tournament report in which the author explains how they won via drawing nuts hands and / or lost vs. opponents drawing nuts hands, I will feature some brief highlights from each player in the van.
Brian – 4-2
Brian began his afternoon playing against all the other players he drove down with, which I assume DFB did on purpose, but can’t prove.
Brian’s deck was as on theme as the weather and he was able to pull off the feat of having a Halloween resolve emptying 38 mana & 38 power worth of creatures onto the board. Quite the bargain.
Brian would like to remind our readers that when you are casting a Copy Artifact or activating a Chaos Orb, you do not need to name a target until the effect resolves.
Raymond 3-3
Raymond decided to amp up his aggression in this event and put together a Lion Dib Bolt deck with 4x Shahrazad. As any reasonable person would, he did bring an excessive pile of playmats to roll over the existing board state whenever it was time for a sub-game.
Most times he was able to successfully match sub game playmats with each of his opponents decks with choices such as Dark Ritual, All Hallow’s Eve, and Chaos Orb. Due to the intense coloured mana requirements, Ray decided he could only make room for 2 strip mines.
Jason 3-3
Jason went full spice as per usual, and nobody knew what any of his cards did. Clockwork Avian, Angelic Voices, Yotian Soldiers, Tawnos Coffin and more were combined to earn the spice prize.
The highlight was beating an opponent with an 11/11 Tetravus. Angelic Voices was in play, Jason’s opponent tried to swords the Tetravus twice, but both times the Tetravus managed to escape to the Coffin to become an 11/11 and swing in for the win. While playing against Brian, Jason managed to get Diamond Valley, Trike, Argivian Archaeologist engine going with double Angelic Voices to just shoot Trike arms over and over for lethal while gaining 3 life per iteration.
Joel – 4-2
I was on Atog as usual and had planned to win the tournament. A harsh beating from Raymond in Round 2 put an end to that plan, I had to settle for only beating all the U.S. players I faced.
During game 2 vs. Ray I had a library on the draw and I must have drawn 10 extra cards, but completely whiffed on everything and died. After getting beat by Ray I was immediately paired with and defeated by Brian. That’s the way she goes. Although I was dead for winning the tournament after getting beat by Brian, in the end I was still able to accomplish my revised goal of beating all the U.S. players I faced.
Prizes Were Lit
DFB truly did an exceptional job putting together an extremely generous prize selection. It was full of cards that will absolutely see play in people’s decks. I had 6th pick and was thrilled to snag the Psychic Purge, which I immediately shoved into its rightful place in my sideboard. The tournament was expertly run and we somehow finished the 6 rounds by 5:45 PM. Truly great work.
Goan Home
We stopped off for some Indian food on the way out of town. I had to switch gears because the restaurant was super quiet, and I was on maximum swearing after the 12 beers during the tournament. After a gentle reminder from my van mates that the tournament was over, I was able to pivot back into a semi-respectful human and finish off the meal without getting kicked out.
At the time of writing, the game has just wrapped up and the Bills emerged victorious over the Packers 27-17. Go team!
Overall an amazing day, and already looking forward to next time. See you upcountry!