There is no two ways around it. This weekend, January 13-14 2024 saw quite a unique event in Danish history. It was something that had never before happened. It was a moving couple of hours with a lot of feelings, and it seems like the world – or at least Denmark – has changed in some fundamental way.
Oh, and we also had a new king after our queen for 52 years abdicated. But that it is not what this is about, oh no. This, my dear reader, is of course some short words and pictures of tremendous appreciation for what was an epic showdown. A monumental gathering. A royal feast! It was the first yearly…
GEYSERMEISTER 2023 TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP!
That’s right. It was time to once and for all decide exactly how cool and great Team Metageyser had been in 2023 – in our own words. It was time for getting dirty.
The plan
Yes, of course there was a plan. Around August we had decided on Saturday January 13 2024 to settle who had been the best representative for Team Metageyser throughout the year. Who had had the most crazy additions to their card collections. Who had designed and played the most decks without (or with very few) win cons and several more prices.
Besides, of course, we had to fight it out amongst ourselves. When we attend tournaments, most of us usually end up in the very low brackets, but we figured, that if we did not invite anyone from the outside, at least one of us would almost assured win at least a couple of matches.
We convened in my house around noon. Lined up the bags of crisps and put the beer on ice (meaning outside…). Teis had even made his own Kahlua which meant ample White Russians from around two-o-clock until bedtime (around the other two-o-clock).
The plan – besides having a great time and administering a wide range of important prices – was to play a seven-round tournament of Old School Magic. We were seven participants after all, so why not?
The meistering of 2023
It went on…
I played a semi-powered version of my chickens and robots deck. It went well, but I do not want to write a complete tournament report here – not least because I did not take a lot of notes.
Casper played his signature RG aggro. Robin played ErhnamGeddon with a blue splash. Teis had sleeved up his merfolks. Peter was also on a RG aggro deck. Thomas had brought his 25th iteration of a black-red-white deck with aggro, burn and Underworld Dreams. And Rasmus had misunderstood how to qualify for the spice price, so he had brought a Basalt Monolith Power Artifact deck with Mana Clash, Ornithopters, Clones and a lot of other spicy stuff. The price for most spicy Metageyser went to the guy who had played the most spicy decks throughout 2023. But Rasmus made a strong headstart for the spice price at Geysermeister 2024 in January 2025.
Anyway. We went on to play a lot of friendly Old School Magic. Between each round we chose a winner for one of the prices we had.
After the first round, we cheered at Rasmus for having made the most crazy additions to his cardboard collection of us all. He had acquired it all through 2023. He won a nice playmat. He also got the oddly specific price for being the best new guy who did not drink tequila but a lot of Underberg.
As you may notice he also holds a great alter of a Fireball that was the price for the biggest Fireball in the tournament (2.147.000.000 damage – I had hoped for that price, but my biggest ball of fire throughout the day was 14 damage. Close, but not quite there…).
After round two it was time for another insane price. The trophy for most decks with few or no real win cons played throughout 2023. With the inscription: A real winner needs no wincons. Peter was by all means very difficult to reach here, even though I tried to argue that some of my Lich decks should also count for something. Alas.
If I remember correctly it was then, after round three, that the spice price was administered. This was one of the more difficult to find a winner for. As one would imagine when one sees what the price was. A magnificent Hama beads plate with the words “Sleightly Spiced” on it, made by yours truly (I cannot recommend pixel-beads.net enough, it lets you upload pictures and then it can convert said picture to a Hama beads pattern! Finally someone has found some relevant use for this Internet thing!).
Anyway. Peter, once again, had quite a shot here. I was also mentioned as a spicy type – and especially the fact that even though I own the cards to build good decks, I insist on joining tournaments with suboptimal, spicy brews only to lose a lot, was underlined several times. Thanks guys.
In the end it was Teis who took it home. It just goes to show, that it is really difficult to combat “The toughness deck” in a spice award fest. A deck with Whippoorwill and Veteran Bodyguard was more than we mere mortals could best…
When round four had come to an end, it was time to choose our champion for the highest overall mood of the year. This was also something, that a lot of us wanted to win, and to be honest it was a tie between us all – we are all always in a rather great mood when playing Old School. Except, maybe, for Robin. Old School really isn’t Robins format. It is not that he is not able to play it – he is a great player – it is just that the format, it really… how should I put this delicately… it really hates him!
And so he hates it back somewhat. But still, he is the one who attends most of our gatherings, so naturally he was the winner of the cool, altered Island and the snazzy dark green Unlimited Power t-shirt!
And then we were hungry! Peter had arranged pork chops in dish for us, so when we had played round five, we dug into that.
And then it was on again!
But after round six it was yet again time to hand out a price. This time for the best representative of team Metageyser out in the open. Again discussions went high, as we were a couple of candidates for such an awesome title. And there was also yet another really sweet altered Unlimited Basic by Thomas on the line.
In the end I drew the longer straw and ran with both a new basic Swamp and a nice long sleeve in an undefinable color…
Thus we played the last round.
A great day of awesomeness was coming to an end, but before we could let loose and drop our most competitive game faces, we had to find our winner.
And of course it had to be Casper. He is without a doubt the most stable player we have, and also a player who has played the same deck a lot of times, and knows when to cast his Lightning Bolts or Giant Growths and when not to. It was by all means deserved!
He won a playmat, something beautiful to hang on the wall (great, patient wife…) and a t-shirt with just the Metageyser logo on the front and a simple “1” on the back. A t-shirt to mock all the rest of us all through 2024.
The runner up was Thomas, who also won something to put on his wall…
And then it was time for shenanigans. Discussions on proxies. Beer. More White Russians. And as tradition now will have it, the ever-so-important midnight champagne in my garage.
Before saying how much I cannot wait until Geysermeister 2024, let me just say one more thing. I really can’t stress this enough: it is such a great plan to make sure that there is always enough white russians to go around. That drink! I mean! I don’t know how many I ended up drinking, but it is a king of a cocktail.
And then we get to it…
I really cannot wait until Geysermeister 2024!