It was finally again that time of year. The Saturday where all worldly worries are set aside, and the mind as well as the GPS is set for one thing and one thing only. It was time to rumble, to tumble, to spice and to fight At The Mountains of Madness VII!
Now, as avid readers of this blog will know, I have been an enormous fan of the At The Mountains of Madness tournament series ever since I first attended it back in 2020. These tournaments just have it all: Great people, friendly atmosphere, welcome drinks, nice prizes, food prepared by all, a great host/tournament organizer in Jonas Brincher, road trip there and back, ante cards and just all around wall-to-wall great times to be had. I would not let a chance to attend this year’s iteration of the tournament pass me.
And luckily I was one of the 40 blessed people being very ready to buy a ticket when they were released (and sold out in ten minutes or so). So was my fellow team Metageyser Wizards Rasmus, Lando, Per and Peter. In other words: A road trip and one hell of a day was about to commence.
The Deck and the goals
Led on by the fantastic success of having won a single match against Per at a late hour in a bar after a whole day of celebrating, drinking, playing Magic, darting and Bowling, of course I wanted to play the Fork combo deck! What could possibly go wrong? Brincher had even made a series of special rules one could play by, in order to win specific prizes – one, The Weird Science, was to play completely without creatures and Mishra’s Factories in the 75. Easy choice!
After some tweaking and finetuning and removal of the fun-off Lich, I ended up with this rather insane pile of broken cards:
It is really a rather standard Fork Recursion deck, except I eschew Dark Heart of the Wood and some of the often-played green cards for more raw power and oomph. There are quite a few ways to build this deck, but the core of restricted cards and a set of Fork are rather firm. I would also never play less than four Howling Mines. I am very aware of the dangers of playing Howling Mine (dangers being things like Disenchant, Shatter, Divine Offering, Crumble etc.), but I feel that restricted cards and Sylvan Libraries are not enough to gain that crucial mass of broken cards to go off. And Greed is too expensive in both mana and life.
My protection package of Red Elemental Blast and Mana Short may not be optimal (even though I think Red Elemental Blast is a correct choice – maybe the Mana Short should be replaced for the second REB?), but I wanted to try both of them out. Finally, the three mainboard Lightning Bolt may look a bit odd, but I chose to play them, because they are so great at shoring up some of the really fast aggro decks, and they can target enemy dice if you are about to play a draw7 anyway. They were MVP all day.
Okay, so that is the deck. The sideboard was a bit of a throw-together. If you are not building a complete transformational sideboard (into something with creatures, that I could not because of the Weird Science rule I was abiding by), I think it is difficult to actually find 15 relevant cards. You can tinker with a Blood Moon sideboard, but I am not sure what it would really achieve. I ended up with this:
I basically only ever sided in Red Elemental Blast, the single Lightning Bolt and Mirror Universe. The Bolt should probably just have been in the mainboard.
Right, those were the 75 chosen for the day. Not particularly spicy (or what? An article on what spicy actually is, is coming up once I prioritize finishing it…), but a fun deck with an unconventional game plan and a promise to do some really great, restricted niceness. I was ready.
And as always, I also wanted to play for more than just winning. I had set myself the following goals:
- Play at least two important Forks in every round
- Fork Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Regrowth, Demonic Tutor
- Use Fork to copy one of the opponents important/broken restricted spells
- Lightning Bolt should be relevant for at least one win
- Win using Mirror Universe
- Channel – something…
- Win at least three rounds out of seven
- And as a team, our goal was to not form the bottom five of the final standings (as we usually do…)
When the tournament began, I was also informed that there would be a prize for most Fireball kills throughout the day. And Channel-Fireball kills, of course, counted double.
The games
As always, I will try to keep things short, and keep to the important, cool, extravagant or odd plays. Or, maybe sometimes, just the results really.
Also as always, I will probably not succeed in this, so bear with me, and brace for a long one (or skip to the round where you played against me, to experience the game from my point of view).
Round one: Jimmy
I am up against Jimmy who was just fresh out of a Final – I think he even won the tournament just before this one.
He is on a fiercely fast and relentless LionDib deck. Fast critters, Black Vise, Ankh, Burn. Ouch!
Game one is great and comes to a point where I play three Time Walks (Fork!), and I end up shooting Jimmy down to just one life! But it was not enough, and he manages to kill me with all the life he needs (one…).
Game two was another, more boring story. Jimmy’s deck is violently aggressive, and I simply never really do anything, before it is way too late.
Fireball kills: 0
Games: 0-2
Score: 0-1
Round two: Nikolaj
I have played against Nikolaj at least once before At The Mountains of Madness, and it has always been a joy. Nikolaj is one of the newer players in the Danish Old School community and he is still gathering cards, but he is keeping to one deck – TaxEdge – which he plays very well!
Game one is one of those. I go turn one: Howling Mine. Turn two: Howling Mine. Turn three: Howling Mine. Unfortunately I don’t really draw anything worthwhile off of all of those mines, while Nikolaj on the other hand draws both Land Tax, Land’s Edge and a shitton of lands. I am burned to a crisp.
In game two I get to both Fork my Ancestral Recall and my Time Walk and my Fireball! Nikolaj was dead in my turn four! Fastbond and restricted cards are just such a bomb, when all the stars line up!
In game three I play another load of Mines, but I brick drawing only lands and Moxen. Nikolaj never plays Land’s Edge, so I can’t even burn him with all my lands. He does play a couple of Vises, some Land Tax and an Ivory Tower or two. I simply never do anything relevant.
Fireball kills: 1
Games: 1-4
Score: 0-2
Round three: Morten
Morten played an ErhnamGeddon variant. He said he hated it. I did not do anything to help him get a better perception of his deck.
In game one I went off violently a couple of turns in. Forking my Time Walk. Even playing a Mirror Universe with both of us on 20 life, so to no avail. I end the game playing Channel to throw a Fireball x=25 that I am able to Fork.
Now, some Fireball kill math was in order here. Luckily Jonas – the tournament organizer was sitting right next to Morten and me, and he ruled that this counted as three Fireball Kills: two for the Channel Fireball, one extra for the Fork (that was also lethal in itself). Right.
With that out of the way, it was definitely time for some rum! I had brought a bottle of Round Rum, and seeing as I was not the designated driver (THANK YOU RASMUS!) I could drink all the rum I wanted. Sitting at a table with Morten (Hald), Jonas and Martin Skovsgaard it was just meant to be! So we started drinking. Quite a lot to be frank.
But we also had another game to play. This one was over even faster. I played turn one Sol Ring, Sapphire, Sylvan Library. Turn two I Fork my Time Walk and venture on to a fireball kill. In my turn two! What a time to be alive! And also: Sorry Morten. Again. I did something similar back in September 2023 I am afraid. As always you were a real champ to play against, even though I was mostly just doing calculus…
Fireball kills: 5
Games: 3-4
Score: 1-2
Great! A win! And even four Fireball kills in one round!
Round four: Jesper
See, even though you may not think so, round rum can actually have the dreaded side effect, that it can become increasingly difficult to remember what happened. And I have to admit that I am not entirely sure what I was actually playing against in this round.
Luckily I took a picture, but it may not help much:
It was a cool mono black deck with some spicy choices, not least Haunting Wind. Luckily it hit the table a tad too late.
In my notes for game one I can see that I kept a no-land five card hand and played turn one Ruby, Sapphire, Mine. Another Mine in round two and then on to win by twice forking my own Bolts and ending it with a Fireball.
In game two I also lead with a Mine. I Fork my own Ancestral Recall in round three, which fuels me into what in my notes is just stated as “GIANT COMBO!” Importantly I use the Mirror Universe at some point and Fork a lethal Fireball.
Fireball kills: 8
Games: 5-4
Score: 2-2
Okay, now my deck, me, and myself was on to something. 2-2 and a lot of Fireball kills. And A LOT of Forking around. So much fun. For me at least. Maybe not exactly as much fun for my opponents, because the deck really demands that you make some calculations on what to play when.
Anyway, on to…
Round five: Jonas
Brincher himself! What a treat. I love playing against Jonas – he is great company, but he has also always built something cool to play with. And so also this day – he played more or less the same deck as he had done at my birthday tournament a month prior: a cool Enchantress deck with basically every artifact creature worth playing (and a couple more) as one offs. Such a cool and fun deck!
In game one I play a Sylvan Library. Later I play a Mine and at some point I manage to kill Jonas’ only real threat in the game, a Jade Statue, by Bolt-Forking it. This gives me exactly enough time to play and activate Mirror Universe to exchange my four life for Jonas’ 16. From there it is a rather trivial win. Forking a lethal Fireball…
Game two is about Library of Alexandria which we both play in turn one. I also land a couple of Mines and at some point I manage to do the combo thingy. It was a long string of restricted jazz and Forks. My notes says: “WOOOOH! Restricted cards and FORK!” Which kind of sums it up. I ended the game with two lethal Fireballs.
Also, during the games, something sad happened. After a long turn of fiddling and playing restricted cards, Jonas had ten mana ready for his next turn along with a Colossus of Sardia and an Instill Energy in hand. Unknowingly (even though I knew something was up, because he had shown his hand to some innocent bystanders) I Timetwister it all away! I was at eight life! I robbed Jonas of the ultimate sweet kill. His response:
Fireball kills: 12
Games: 7-4
Score: 3-2
YES! Even though I felt really bad about the whole Colossus incident, it was a sweet win. I even remember that both of us made some really cool plays – I guess the round rum was kinda cooling off – even though not to an extent where I actually recall the great plays. Except for that Colossus thing.
Oh! Did I mention the cock-blocking of Jonas’ Colossus? …
Round six: Lasse
Okay. This was a fast one.
Lasse was also playing some very dramatically violent red white blue Lion Dib burn thing. In game one he mulls into turn one Ankh + Lion! Turn two, another Lion. I did not get back into this game.
Game two is a bit longer. Lasse leads with another turn one Ankh. At some point I Fork his Pisonic blast and in the end it all comes down to me playing a Timetwister and drawing a Lightning Bolt with Lasse at one life. He Drains it. I play Ancestral Recall in response, but alas, no Fork for the win!
Fireball kills: 12
Games: 7-5
Score: 3-3
On to the last one against…
Round seven: Christian
I am not sure I have actually played against Christian before. I have talked to him several times, and he has always struck me as a great guy, so I was happy to finally get a chance to play against him. I was not disappointed.
Game one is somewhat slow. Christian is on a black, white, green deck with lots of cool stuff. I am not sure he played blue. I have a slow hand, but at some point Christian plays his Demonic Tutor which I am able to Fork. Right into an Ancestral Recall that gets me both Time Walk and another Fork. What a treat! I manage to Fireball-Fork kill Christian after a lot of restricted shenanigans.
In game two Christian goes turn one Library. So do I, but mine is a Sylvan, his is of Alexandria. Different priorities, I guess… Anyway, a couple of turns in, Christian makes the insanely baller move to play Channel into Mind Twist my hand and play a Su-Chi! Ouch. Earlier I had landed a Howling Mine and I somehow manage to get back into the game. Time Walk – Fork is badass! At three life, I am able to Fireball-Fork kill Christian a second time.
Fireball kills: 16
Games: 9-5
Score: 4-3
After the match, Christian and I had one of those conversations, that is the real reason why I really, truly enjoy this format. An actual, interesting conversation about life, politics, personal stuff and all in-between. I really enjoy it, when I have an opponent (or another participant at the tournament) that dares to indulge in an actual talk about things that matter. And I think it is important. So thank you (again) Christian for that.
Summing all of it up
It had been another true blast of a day and Old School tournament in the hills of the Jutland Ridge. What an experience! This year’s iteration of At the Mountains of Madness did not disappoint in any way: awesome atmosphere, friendly opponents, round rum, a deck with enough shenanigans to go around, great food (grilled burgers – it just works!), I even had time to go get an ice cream at the nearby tourist spot. There was simply nothing not to like.
My deck performed much as I had expected. Fastbond did more work than I had anticipated. The second Mana Flare was probably not correct. The sideboard was a strange mess, where I, as mentioned, basically only ever used the Lightning Bolt and the Mirror Universe. Speaking of Mirror Universe: what a complete banger of a card! It is a lot of fun to play with – especially together with Sylvan Library. Expect some brews coming up from my hand.
With my positive winning record, I ended up 16th. Rasmus was 12th and even though Peter was somewhere at the bottom of the scale, both Per and Lando had moved some places up, before it was too late.
I was even – without any doubt – the one with the most Fireball kills in the day. But seeing as it was Peter who administered the prize, it became a somewhat messy affair, and we were four Fireball-afficianados who shared the prize, and each got one of these:
I never got to Fork my Regrowth or my own Demonic Tutor (Christians in round seven had to suffice). But other than that, I think I completed all of my goals. Yay! Unfortunately I was not the best placed player playing in that Weird Science category. I think the second best placed player was also on no creatures and Mishra’s Factories: Huge shoutout to Esben (if I remember correctly) for that achievement!
Also a bit of a shoutout to Phillip who sold me my third copy of Beta Fork. Now the deck looks even worse on a picture because of the three-to-one-split between Unlimited and Beta, but one has to start somewhere. The fourth one will soon be found to make up for that eye-sore.
And finally the hugest of shoutest outs to Jonas Brincher for hosting another insanely awesome tournament and making it all look easy and cosy. Such a joy, it was to attend!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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