For the second year, the Tundra Wolves held a 93/94 tournament. Five of the Geocitizens of Brass (Jason, Tristaan, Joel (myself), J, and Morgan) decided to head upcountry to accept the Tundra Wolves Challenge!
After considering our transportation options, we settled on doing a road trip to the tournament. Thanks to Jason for donating his dad-van, and also for driving it. We stopped for food on the way up. We all really enjoyed our meals, except since we didn’t eat any meat, we were hungry again 20 minutes later!
We also stopped at Wizards Tower near Ottawa along the way to see if they had any deals on old cardboard. Unfortunately they didn’t have a showcase, which made it very difficult to browse.
When we arrived upcountry, it took us a couple of trips around the block to spot our AirBnB. It was on the second floor above an Air Conditioning shop, and had a distinct street address than the shop under it, which is confusing at first. The AirBnB had a bit of an odd layout, but it worked great for our group. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, a living room, a large patio, and a big kitchen table we could use for games.
We went to the local Couche Tard to purchase some upcountry necessities like BBQ chips, 36 beers, a couple pepperonis, a pack of darts, and 3 Liters of Pamplemousse Wine. It was snowing, so it was still super slippery and dangerous on the sidewalks. Luckily, nobody was injured too badly.
Once we were settled in, we did some testing, finalized our decks, and took pictures to send in to the Tundra Wolves.
Jason played a very on theme Wolf Tribal deck.
Tristoon played a semi-powered Atog Burn deck. He says “Next time I would not play Recall or Mind Twist. Timetwister and Black Lotus would be way better, but I am Too Proud to Proxy.”.
I played a Lich Switch deck. The idea was to play 12 Djinns and Efreets in the first game, and then swap them all out and transform into a Lich combo deck with Fastbond, Dark Heart of the Wood, and Mirror Universe. Troll-less Troll, basically. My goal was to get it to work at least once during the day.
J played Re-animator. He’s glad it was a proxy tournament and he didn’t have to buy anything for the deck.
Morgan played Black with Red splash. He says “Adding the red splash makes this deck miles better than the mono Black version.”.
After we registered our decks, we all made sure to brush our teeth. It’s really important.
Saturday Morning
Saturday morning we decided to go out, pick up some famous Montreal bagels, and check out a brunch restaurant that Jason wanted to try. After brunch we went back to the AirBnB to try Jason’s newly constructed Old School Cube.
The cube contains cards from Beta through Ice Age, and has lots of cool archetypes and interactions. I drafted a GW ramp deck with moxes, elves, birds, Serra Angel, Seraph, and Arcades Sabboth, and was able to go 3-0.
As soon as the draft ended, we headed off to the tournament. We knew it was on Rue St. Catherines, but due to some dueling GPS action and our extremely poor French skills, we weren’t entirely sure if we were headed Est or Ouest. We eventually figured it out and made it there with plenty of time to spare.
The venue L’Adversaire was very well suited for the event. There was plenty of beer to choose from, it was clean, and the staff was super friendly and accommodating. Apparently the back of the menu had a lot of excellent food options, if you knew about it.
The Tournament
Round 1
It didn’t take long for my deck to go off after all. After winning game 2 in Djinn form, I was able to combo out with Lich / Mirror Universe, accomplishing my main goal for the day. Jason got machine gunned by a Triskelion, a sign of things to come.
Morgan: 1-0
Jason: 0-1
Tristaan: 1-0
Joel:1-0
J: 1-0
Round 2
J got into a mirror match against another reanimator deck. Unfortunately he ended up getting taken out by his own copy of Nicol Bolas. Jason taught someone how banding worked, and then got Triked out again. I won my second game with Lich, and Triston defeated a RG aggro deck on the back of a well timed City in a Bottle.
Morgan: 2-0
Jason: 0-2
Triston:2-0
Joel:2-0
J: 1-1
Round 3
It was time for the inevitable Geocitizen on Geocitizen violence as Joel’s Djinns got taken out by Tristoon’s Togs. Morgan played against another Lich deck. He was victorious against that one after many confusing Mirror activations.
Morgan: 3-0
Jason: 1-2
Tristaan: 3-0
Joel: 2-1
J: 1-2
Orb Flip Contest
Myself and Jason entered the orb flipping contest, which was a little different than Toronto. You needed to buy in each round for $5, and you would get a total score out of 5 flips. You could buy into as many rounds as you liked, and the highest cumulative score would win the playmat.
I blew it and missed on my first flip, which was apparently sudden death! Jason went on for 5 rounds and ended up coming in second overall, with 23 hits total.
Round 4
Heading into the round, Morgan and Tristaan were the only remaining undefeated members of our group. Morgan lost his first game after getting eaten by Lions, but was able to sideboard into Blood Moon and shut his opponent out of the next two games. Triston ran up against a tough mono Black deck, and his streak came to an end.
Jason’s intended opponent didn’t show up. It would have been nice if they let someone know that they were dropping. Luckily Jason found some folks with Alpha decks, so they played them while awaiting round 5.
Morgan: 4-0
Jason: 2-2
Triston: 3-1
Joel: 2-2
J: 1-3
Round 5
Jason got to play in the main tournament again, but unfortunately his deck’s mana denial plan was not effective due to Moxes and Birds of Paradise from his opponent. Morgan’s opponent defeated him with the help of some Juzam Djinns, ending Morgan’s impressive victory streak.
Morgan: 4-1
Jason: 2-3
Joel: 2-3
Tristaan: 3-2
J: 1-4
Round 6
The final round was memorable for all of us. Tristaan beat Troll Disco for the 4-2 finish by Wheeling into 3 copies of Black Vice for 9 damage. Jason played against an incredibly interactive Sleight of Mind deck. He won the round 2-1, but was also treated to a Sharazad sub game, which he lost. J won his round by resolving a Turn 3 All Hallow’s Eve, reanimating three copies of Deep Spawn and a Bolas! Morgan played Greg Titcomb, the champion of the tournament! Greg was running a Machine deck with Copy Artifact, Juggernaut, and Lightning Bolt.
Morgan: 4-2
Joel: 2-4
Jason: 3-3
Triston: 4-2
J: 2-4
Final Standings
Overall we were very satisfied with our results. Triston came in 7thand won a Wolf Hymn to Tourach, as well as an Unlimited Demonic Tutor from the raffle. Morgan came in 5th, won a Hymn to Tourach, as well as a Meekstone and an oversize Black Lotus for the highest finishing unpowered deck!
After the prizes were awarded, we headed across the street to grab a sub for dinner. They either came in 7” or 14” options, and so will be henceforth known as a Quatorze Sandwich.
The Magic Sugar Shack
We eventually woke up and headed even further upcountry to the Magic Sugar Shack. They had a traditional sugar shack meal, which included maple syrup, pea soup, ham and eggs, hot dogs, baked beans, buns, beets, pickles, fried dough, and sugar pie. The shack was BYOB, so we finished up the rest of the beer and wine we bought Friday night while we played 3 rounds of Jason’s Old School cube with the people who were able to stick around.
The shack itself was really cool. It had goats, and we bought 8 Liters of maple syrup. After the draft was over, we headed outside for some hot syrup poured over snow. We said goodbye and began the journey home, during which we put this report together. Morgan drew this emoose at the shack.
A huge thank you from all of us to Francois and Pascal Benjamin for organizing! We can’t wait for next year, and we hope you will come downcountry for our next event.