Manaleak.com Birmingham Spring MTG Old School Challenge Top 8 Decklists & Photos
Old School Magic has really taken off in recent years. This unique format requires you to not only stick to a limited number of sets, but to not play ANY reprints in your deck, requiring you to only play cards that were printed in the original sets, as printed in the years 1993 and 1994. Given that Standard uses the most recent 2 years of sets, Old School is the exact opposite, using the oldest 2 years of sets available to Magic players. The result is a format that plays out exactly how Richard Garfield intended the game to be played when he first designed the game in the early nineties.
The Old School community is incredible and whilst they don’t like to share decklists (because the internet wasn’t even readily available to do such things back in 93/94), they agreed to allow us to share their decklists from our event this weekend, along with the traditional deck photos that show off all of their gorgeous cards.
The event itself yielded some interesting results. Early talk around the tables was that a lot of players turned up with Zoo, the classic Red/White/Green aggro deck that combines cheap, efficient creatures with powerful burn spells. That being said, only one unpowered copy (that is to mean, it didn’t feature any of the Power 9 cards) made it to the Top 8. The overall winner was Sebastion Davidson with his “budget” Mono Black deck, the joke being that there a number of budget versions of cards in his list, but he was rocking a gorgeous Beta Black Lotus. The classic combo of Dark Ritual into Hypnotic Specter is still viable in some form or another and in this case managed to win Sebastion the top prize of a personalised card alteration by none other than James Griffin.
Here are the top 8 decks for this incredible format:
WINNER – Sebastion Davidson, Mono Black Aggro
| Summons: (16) 4 Black Knight 4 Hypnotic Specter 2 Juggernaut 2 Sengir Vampire 4 Su-Chi Spells: (23) 1 Black Lotus 1 Black Vise 1 Chaos Orb 1 City in a Bottle 4 Dark Ritual 1 Demonic Tutor 2 Drain Life 1 Mana Vault 1 Mind Twist 1 Mox Jet 4 Sinkhole 1 Sol Ring 4 Underworld Dreams | Lands: (21) 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Strip Mine 15 Swamp 1 Urborg Sideboard: (15) 4 Gloom 2 Nevinyrral’s Disk 1 Oubliette 3 Paralyze 2 Royal Assassin 3 Terror |
Finalist – Gordon Andersson, “Parfait”
Top 4 – Bryan Connolly, Flying Men
| Summons: (8) 1 Electic Eel 3 Flying Men 4 Serendib Efreet Spells: (32) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Black Vise 1 Braingeyser 4 Chain Lightning 1 Chaos Orb 4 Counterspell 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Fireball 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mana Drain 1 Mind Twist 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 3 Psionic Blast 1 Shatter 1 Sol Ring 1 Time Walk 1 Timetwister 1 Wheel of Fortune | Lands: (20) 1 Badlands 3 City of Brass 5 Island 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Strip Mine 1 Underground Sea 4 Volcanic Island Sideboard: (15) 2 Blood Moon 3 Blue Elemental Blast 1 Control Magic 1 Earthquake 3 Energy Flux 3 Red Elemental Blast 2 Shatter |
Top 8 – Rod Smith, Juzam Midrange
| Summons: (8) 4 Juzam Djinn 4 Sedge Troll Spells: (29) 1 Black Lotus 1 Chaos Orb 1 Demonic Tutor 4 Disenchant 1 Disintegrate 1 Divine Offering 1 Fireball 2 Fork 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mind Twist 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Peral 1 Mox Ruby 1 Nevinyrral’s Disk 1 Sol Ring 2 Stone Rain 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Wheel of Fortune | Lands: (23) 4 Badlands 4 City of Brass 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Plains 4 Plateau 4 Scrubland 1 Strip Mine Sideboard: (15) 1 Balance 1 Black Vise 2 City in a Bottle 1 Circle of Protection: Black 1 Circle of Protection: Blue 2 Circle of Protection: Red 1 Divine Offering 4 Red Elemental Blast 2 Terror |
Top 8 – Jim Corwood, 5 Colour Control
Top 8 – Alastair Kennedy, U/W Control
| Creatures: (2) 2 Serra Angel Spells: (37) 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Braingeyser 1 Chaos Orb 4 Counterspell 4 Disenchant 1 Fellwar Stone 1 Forcefield 1 Jalum Tome 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Mana Drain 1 Mana Vault 2 Moat 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Power Sink 1 Recall 1 Sol Ring 1 Spell Blast 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 The Hive 1 Time Walk 2 Transmute Artifact | Lands: (21) 5 Island 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Maze of Ith 4 Mishra’s Factory 5 Plains 1 Strip Mine 4 Tundra Sideboard: (15) 1 Amnesia 1 Balance 1 Circle of Protection: Blue 1 Circle of Protection: Green 1 Circle of Protection: Red 2 City in a Bottle 1 Control Magic 2 Divine Offering 1 Dust to Dust 1 Flash Counter 1 Mirror Universe 1 Power Sink 1 Preacher |
Top 8 – Freddie Barber, Zoo
| Summons: (19) 2 Argothian Pixies 2 Elvish Archers 2 Granite Gargoyle 4 Kird Ape 1 Orcish Artillery 4 Savannah Lions 4 Scryb Sprites Spells: (19) 2 Blood Lust 4 Chain Lightning 2 Disenchant 1 Fireball 1 Hurricane 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Sol Ring 2 Storm Seeker 1 Sylvan Library 1 Wheel of Fortune | Lands: (22) 4 City of Brass 4 Mishra’s Factory 1 Mountain 4 Plateau 4 Savannah 1 Strip Mine 4 Taiga Sideboard: (15) 2 Artifact Blast 2 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Disenchant 2 Hurricane 1 Ifh-Biff Efreet 4 Red Elemental Blast 2 Tranquility |
Top 8 – David Wall, 4-Colour Control
| Summons: (3) 3 Serendib Efreet Spells: (40) 1 Amnesia 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Black Lotus 1 Boomerang 1 Braingeyser 2 Chain Lightning 1 Chaos Orb 3 Counterspell 1 Demonic Tutor 2 Disenchant 2 Fellwar Stone 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mana Drain 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mind Twist 2 Power Sink 3 Psionic Blast 1 Recall 1 Sol Ring 1 Spell Blast 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 The Abyss 1 Time Walk 1 Timetwister | Lands: (16) 3 City of Brass 4 Mishra’s Factory 3 Tundra 3 Underground Sea 3 Volcanic Island Sideboard: (15) 1 Boomerang 2 Disenchant 1 Dust to Duse 1 Earthquake 1 Moat 1 Power Sink 3 Red Elemental Blast 1 Serendib Efreet 1 Spell Blast 1 The Hive 2 Wrath of God |
