I’ve been at it again. A week ago, when writing this. And I am still hurting.
Saturday 8 November 2025 was the day for this year’s iteration of LIC. The Seventh version of the now legendary tournament series in the Aarhus area.
It was my third time attending the madness in Aarhus (Link and Link). And conventional wisdom would probably have kept me away this year. Not because it has not been great times the last to LICs, but because I am old. And LIC is normally rather wild.
I knew at once that I did not want to attend the Friday night Revised40 tournament. I simply don’t have it in me to play Magic and drink alcohol two days in a row.
The main tournament was called LICasino and had a Casino theme. That one, I did want to attend.
So, just like last year, this was to be a one-day hit-and-run. We all know the greatest tournaments begin with a roadtrip…
Deck of choice
I started brewing something spicy a couple of months ago. I wanted to explore the Fungusaur-Pestilence synergy, and have been playing it in different forms since summer. The most recent versions were either Green-Black-Blue with Wall of Ice as a way to buy time. And a very slow kill condition in only Fungusaur (and some Drain Life); the other one, I tried added red for Rukh Eggs and Wall of Earth. A single Fireball and some Lightning Bolts in the sideboard.
Even though four colors are a stretch, I enjoyed playing the red version the most. Besides power, restricted cards and the above mentioned, the core of the deck consisted of another synergy I wanted to explore in Greed/Sylvan Library and Ivory Tower.
I ended up playing this:
I had had some decent amount of success in our play group in the months I had been testing the pile. It is obviously not Tier1 in any shape or form, but it does have some tricks. There are a lot of restricted cards, and sometimes you just win games by amassing enough card advantage or time.
But the Thursday before the event was on, the deck simply did not want to do anything. No matter what I played against, it just folded like a paperhat under water. That annoyed me a bit. But I wanted to try a truly spicy deck at a tournament, so I decided to play the deck anyway. But I also decided to go all out and shred the last bit of spikyness in my mind and make a transformational sideboard. Naturally into combo:
Yeah! Now we are talking. Fungusaur-Pestilence-Ruck main deck. Lich transformational sideboard. I was aiming more for the spice price than for wins, that is for sure…
As always I had set up some goals for the day to keep sane, and to make sure, I had fun even though I was not going to win a lot of games with my pile.
For this event, the goals were as follows:
- Win at least one of seven rounds
- Crack som Rukhs!
- LICH!
- A Fungusaur at least at 6/6
- The Spice Price
With all of this out of the way, let’s get to the rounds…
Round 1: Rasmus
I start out by getting paired against one of my team mates. And even the one who actually plays full power. Sad.
What is more, he had just won the Orb flip badge and was full of confidence going into the frey.
Anyway, it was a quick couple of games, where I was smacked dead by a Juzam in game one and died to Rasmus’ one-off Shatter in game two. He shattered my Mirror Universe just before I had the chance to Lich him. Even more so sadder. How epic it would have been to start out with a Lich kill!
Alas…
0-1
0-2
Round 2: Morten
It seems to be almost a tradition at this point. I am paired against Morten (Hald) every tournament I attend. Definitely a tradition I cannot complain about. It is always an enormous joy to experience what kind of epic shenanigans he has been up to in his Magic cave since last time.
And I was not disappointed.
In line with the casino theme, Morten had designed a deck with as many coin flip effects as possible. There was a special price for the player with the most coin flip effects.
Mortens Deck was simply great. It was a Goblin/Burnish deck with all these coin flip effects, and it was very difficult to exactly figure out what was going on. But it was a lot of fun. Game one was rather long, and I felt quite under the shoe, when Morten tried to burn me out with a Land’s Edge, but I could kill him in response!
The next two games were very similar. I had boarded my Lich plan just for the heck of it, and in game three I was actually really close to winning with a Mirror Universe into Lightning Bolt. But alas, Morten had a Chaos Orb ready, and did not miss.
Both games two and three ended with Morten playing and Forking a Mana Clash. Great, great times!
0-2
1-4
Round 3: Allan
I have never met Allan before – and this was also his first tournament. He is, however, one of teammates Lando’s and Peter’s old friends.
Allan played a cool black white deck with Underworld Dreams, Hypnotic Specter and white removal. In game one he is on the play, and makes the beautiful, very boss move of playing Swamp-Ritual-Hypno-Go.
Well played Allan!
I lost.
In games two and three, I dare say there was more to the experience than a turn one Boss play.
I won both. After long lines of thinking and difficult decisions. My deck after board, really likes to play against creatures, even though Disenchants and to some extent Underworld Dreams can be quite a nuisance.
It may also have been a factor that Allan was very tired – Lando had kept him up all night with talking and Magic playing. Thank you Lando! Great teamwork.
1-2 (YES! One round down!)
3-5
Round 4: Jakob
I have never played against Jakob before. We joked a bit about sitting at table 30-odd-something and that this was where the fun, spicy stuff happened.
He then proceeded to kill me with Lions, Dibs and Blood Moons in two very short games. I was never close to doing anything, and I didn’t even get to take a picture – I was so stressed out by all the beatdown and lockdown of my mana…
But of course, it was a good time anyway. I still can’t really get over the fact that even though I got my ass handed to me from an opponent that never was anywhere close to breaking a sweat, it was still a joy.
1-3
3-7
Round 5: Anders
I also played against Anders at last years LIC. It was much fun. This time not less so. Anders was in a very good mood at this point in the tournament. So was I. There may not have been a lot of very tight playing from either of us, but we played. And cheered. And talked. And cheered again. It was a lot of fun.
Anders was playing robots of some sort. In game one I manage to crack no less than three Rukh Eggs! (YES!)
They cannot be blocked by Su-Chis. And seeing as Su-Chis can’t get by Walls of Earth, I won! It was a very long game and Diamond Valley-Rukh was really mvp.
I did not do the complete 15 card switcheroo this time, I think, but I have to admit that this round may have been a bit more about talking and cheering than about playing Magic. I know that I almost managed to kill Anders with Lich Mirror in game two, but somehow botched it and time is called.
I win the round 1-0!
2-3
4-7
Round 6: Bye
Unfortunately my opponent for round 6 had dropped, but it hadn’t been registered. So instead of playing, watched the neighboring tables matches.
2 (3)-3
4 (6)-7
Round 7: Kristian
In the final round I was up against Kristian. I believe I have played against Kristian maybe a couple of times before, but it is always a treat. He also builds cool decks, and this day was no different. Kristian had built a sweet version of a troll deck. I believe it was Disco Troll, but I never saw any Disks.
I did see Chains of Mephistopheles though. Very annoying card, if you want to win with Greed…
Anyway, I lost game one. I had a Pestilence but not enough life to remove Kristians creatures. In game two I once again manage to crack no less than three Rukh Eggs and they are exactly enough to win me the race.
Game three is just one of those. Kristian plays turn one Chains, turn two Sengir. I am almost able to win with Mirror into Lightning Bolt, but stall on five mana… And so…
2 (3)-4
5 (7)-9
Finishing thoughts and rounding things up
Okay. As always: HUGE shoutouts to the organizers. Unfortunately I was not at the top of my game, feeling a wee bit ill, but the tournament was hugely enjoyable and all the kinds of craziness, I would hope for and expect when the guys at LIC fires up the cottage in Aarhus. Thank you, thank you, thank you! A great pleasure!
Also a ginormous shoutout to Team Metageyser friend Rasmus, who actually managed to end in seventh place! Very impressive for his fourth or so tournament! He conceded his place in the top8, because we had to go home at that point, but Rasmus had been playing like a beast all day – very impressive!
My deck was not up to much in a sea of very powered opponents. This was not really a surprise. As mentioned above, the deck was not in any way shape or form a tier1 deck. It was a fun deck, capable of doing some very cool things. And it actually won some games – more than I would have imagined.
It also resparked my interest for Mirror Universe. Now I REALLY want to make some insane Mirror Universe combo pile. It is such a cool card, and I really don’t think it has been fully explored yet. Together with Greed and Sylvan Library, Mirror Universe is all the jazz.
I was nominated for the spice price. Another very cool deck was also nominated. It was another Rasmus playing mono blue with Control Magic and Control Artifact. The Kicker was, that he Ashnod’s Transmogranted people’s creatures to steal them. And Copy Artifact them. Also a very true contender for the spice price.
It was decided that Rasmus and I had to figure out between us, who should win. I was not up for another game at that point, and simply conceded the price to Rasmus. As the true gentleman he is, he would not accept it, and suggested we threw dice for the price.
Epic. In the first instance, we both got a 1. In the second dice-throwing for fame and glory, my die landed on a 4 – Rasmus’ on a 2! The spice price was mine.
No Responses