Canadian Old School communities’ organizers will be hosting the very first Boreal Community Cup: a one-day webcam event on February 6. Canadian Old School communities (including Capital Chaos) will be competing with others to win the Cup. An entire community, and not a person, wins the Cup and communities get points for their performance in the Swiss, spice and their use of their Community card (see below). Also, the winning community picks the charity.
There are prize cards for all participants, bounty prizes for eliminating the most enemy club members, and a giveaway for those who want to donate extra for the winning community’s cause.
These are the cards that community members can use to boost their community’s score:
With 15 participants from across Canada (and Philadelphia!), our first ever brawl league, the Capital Chaos Dragon Brawl, has wrapped-up. The caveat on this brawl event was that your commander had to be one of the five elder dragon legends.
About
The Dragon Brawl was an Old School Brawl league double-elimination league with a 16-player cap. What is OS Brawl? A 60-card singleton, commander format with OS93/94-legal cards (Alpha through Fallen Empires) only. In the Dragon Brawl, your commander must be one one of the give elder dragon legends.
Each card in your Brawl deck must only use mana symbols that also appear on your commander. (Colourless cards are allowed in any deck.)
Ring of Ma’rûf is legal, but you may only use it to get a card that is legal and that you do not already have a copy of in your deck. (If you are playing a UGW deck, you can get a copy of Lightning Bolt and cast it from your Black Lotus.)
Ban List
all ante cards
Karakas
Ancestral Recall
Library of Alexandria
Braingeyser
Mind Twist
City in a Bottle
Ivory Tower
Prizes
Prizes were awarded for:
Champion
Runner-up
3rd Place
4th Place
Beautiful Deckpic
Most dragons cast per game
Bonus: Those who agreed to have their random chosen randomly
Results
Jason K both cast the most dragons (10 total) and had the most casts per game (1.25).
Patrick B wins the beautiful deckpic award for his Nicol Bolas pile.
Laurence Bootlegger, Joel B, and myself(Kevin V) had our dragons assigned randomly (Vaevictus, Vaevictus, and Arcades, respectively).
Will M narrowly falls into fourth place after being defeated by LGE who settled with third.
The Capital Chaos legend himself, Patrick B holds the runner-up.
Finally, our champion, Abu Dragon, Lorenzo F! Congratulations!
Statistics
Clubs Represented
Dragons Represented
Deckpics
Ben S
Bryant G
Eric Do
Geoff
Jason S
Jason K
Joel B
Kevin Vanier
Laurence Bootlegger
Lorenzo F
LGE
Patrick Burt
Raymond M
Thomas A
Will M
Looking Ahead
I had a wonderful time playing in the event and running it was a blast. We had a great group of people participating and I received much positive feedback. I also received a substantial amount of feedback on how to improve the format going forward. (Eg, different commanders, p9 banned, 7 point system, multiples of some cards allowed, and so on.) None of the feedback was unified and there was thrice as many opposing suggestions as there were people in the event. I believe there isn’t enough data to make any strong conclusions so when the Dragon Brawl returns, likely in February or March of 2021, it will be run back with the same rules. Nothing will be banned or unbanned. There is a Watch List and it contains the following: Time Walk and Control Magic.
We did it! We hosted 33 Old School magicians for a one-day, 6-round webcam tournament. We sent $350 to the Ottawa Food Bank, earmarked for COVID-19 relief.
We really appreciate those who took the time to play in the event as we adjust to our new normal.
I can’t say the event went without hiccups. We were planning on using Wizards’ event software and it turns out some features were locked, so we scrambled to find a solution before the tournament started. Between that, and a few technical difficulties as people got used to their setups, we had a late start. Thank you for not giving us too much of a hard time about it.
Deck representation
Some note-worthy observations:
Atog was the most represented deck (4), with all decks in the top half of standings, including 2 in Top 8.
BR Dreams Combo and Reanimator were the second-most represented, with 3 players each.
There were 2 copies in Reanimator in Top 8.
Dreams decks didn’t perform well, with all of them in the bottom 25%.
The Deck, UR Counterburn and Mono Black, Old School usual suspects, were not represented.
Prizes
We had prize cards for most creative and first through fourth. In addition, the person in first place could choose between an altered Unlimited Icy Manipulator or $33 in store credit at Multizone.ca. Second place would get the other. In addition, the best performing unpowered deck would get a set of Capital Chaos Power 9 proxies. Our prize recipients are:
Most Creative – Yannick B with Poisonous Lands
Best Unpowered – Pascal P with Mono U Aggro (21st in Swiss)
1st Place – Mark E with Esper Reanimator (Unlimited Icy Manipulator)
2nd Place – Eric DC with Initiates of the Juzam Hand ($33 at Multizone)
3rd Place – Drew L with Bant Midrange
4th Place – Will M with UWR CopyAtog
Drew and Mark faced off in the final round as the sole 5-0s, but despite that, Eric edged ahead on breakers by 0.05% on the third tie-breaker (opponent game percentage?).
Thank yous
There are lot of people to thank:
Everyone who played in the event and told their friends about it.
The folks from the Pestilence Open, who gave us tips on running a webcam tournament.
We had a smaller contingent this week of 11 people as colds and flu ravaged players and even our original venue.
Jeskai Skies vs. 5c good stuff
We played at a different Royal Oak location commonly used by Commander players so we were in good company of other Magic brothers and sisters.
The Deck vs. Grixis Dreams
Local rookie Matt G secured his first ever win with Dreams combo versus local legend, Dazed and Fused-Con winner, and Winter Blast 2020 winner, Jimmy D.
Grixis Troll Disco vs. Mono U
We had a sole mono-colored player, with most players going at least 3 colors.
5c Good stuff vs. Mono U
That meant we got to see a lot of Control Magic…
…including this board state, topped off with Lorenzo F using their sweater as a playmat. Apparently, a later game included a Serendib Efreet passed around 6 times.
Erhnamgeddon vs. Grixis Troll Disco
Going into the 3rd round, there were 3 2-0s.
Grixis Rack vs. The Deck
But alas, only one was 3-0 going into the 4th round.
February 2020 Monthly Winner: Patrick
Patrick won vs. the pair down (Mono U) with a Turn 1 Juzam Djinn and wins the February Monthly with a 4-0 record. Congratulations!
Final standings
There will be no Challonge link this time because of drops in the last round. (Challonge doesn’t handle drops at all.)
We will be playing in the basement of The Clocktower Brew Pub Glebe, 575 Bank Street, Ottawa. The area will only be used by the event and we will have a dedicated server.
There will be two organized events this year: Old School and Premodern. Proceeds will go to the Ottawa Food Bank.
If Premodern isn’t your bag, there will be plenty of space to continue playing whatever format you want.
Raffle
This year, we’ll be hosting a raffle where all proceeds go to charity. It will include Magic oddities, prints, gift cards and more. Tickets are expected to cost $2 each or 3 for $5.
Raffle time: Before Premodern event
Chaos Orb flip-off
We will running this event again this year. Pay $5 and flip a Chaos Orb successfully as many times in a row as you can. Whoever does it longest gets the prize (TBD).
Flip-off time: Before Premodern event
Registration
To help give us an idea of numbers, please say that you’re attending on the Facebook event.
We had 12 people join us so close to Christmas holidays.
UR Counter-Jug vs. BUG Trans-Beast
We saw some spice come to play this month with a few typically mono-color players including a second color.
Frozen Ernie vs. Spice Rack
We also saw people switching off normally tier decks to have a little fun.
Mono B Tabernac de Void vs. UWR Gargoyles
There were a lot of close games being won by very small margins.
Black Weenie vs. 4c Atog
That could have been helped by multiple copies of City of Brass whittling down the life totals of 3+ color decks.
UWR Gargoyles vs. Mono G Midrange
The finals pit Kevin’s vises vs. Pat’s racks.
Kevin beat Pat 2-0 and wins the Capital Chaos December Monthly as the lone 4-0! Congrats!
Final standings
1st: Kevin – 4c Atog 2nd: Pat – Spice Rack 3rd: Patrick – 5c Good Cards 4th: Lorenzo – UWR Gargoyles 5th: Drew – Frozen Ernie 6th: Joe – Mono G Midrange 7th: Brian – Mono B Tabernac de Void! 8th: Louis – BUG Trans-Beast 9th: Seb – Mono G Weenie 10th: Jason – Mono B Weenie 11th: Chelsea – Mono W Weenie 12th: Laura – UR Counter-Jug
We set another record with 20 players joining us for this monthly.
Our 20 person turnout – Courtesy: Jason
We had 3 new players which really emphasized how Old School is a format where you can enjoy Magic with your friends and family.
Settling into a game or just finishing one – Courtesy: Chelsea
We had a really nice deck variety this month, with a lot of people switching up from their usual.
Caseygeddon vs. Frozen Ernie (Bant vs. Bant?) – Courtesy: Chelsea
Black continues to be well-represented which may signal sideboard changes for some before next month’s event.
RB Stranger Dreams vs. Mono R Midrange
Because we had 20 players and 4 rounds, we had 3 3-0s going into the last round.
Mono B vs. Mono G
Our Mono G player enjoyed his Whirling Dervishes as he faced off versus 3 Black decks and our resident The Deck expert didn’t drop a game. Jimmy and Joe both finished 4-0.
Jimmy takes home the prize on tie-breakers. Congratulations Jimmy!
Final standings
1st: Jimmy – The Deck (4-0) 2nd: Joe – Mono G Aggro (also 4-0) 3rd: Pat M – Spice Rack 4th: Lorenzo – Troll Disco 5th: Brian – Mono B Neither Void 6th: Kevin – Caseygeddon 7th: Jason – Mono B Aggro 8th: Michael – RB Dreams 9th: Patrick – Mono B Midrange 10th: Drew – Frozen Ernie 11th: Matt – Pink Weenie 12th: Riccardo – RB Stranger Dreams 13th: Chelsea – Mono W Aggro 14th: Seb – Mono B Aggro 15th: Louis – Sultai Beast 16th: Laura – Mono R Midrange 17th: Andy – BW Deadguy 18th: Dylan – BW Deadguy 19th: Matt – Mono U Bounceroni 20th: Becca – Kansas City Hot Steppers