Only four months into January 2026, it was already time. Time for that very special Saturday. That glorious day which heralds the spr… well, the second four months of January. But at least we are right around halfway through now!
It was time for shenanigans. It was time for making our names eternal. It was time for community Shandalar. It was even time for prizes that will echo through the ages.
It was time for Geysermeister 2025!
Team MetaGeysers annual club tournament. And of course: our majestic celebration of ourselves.
Getting ready
Just as the previous years, we had decided to convene around the middle of the longest, most dreaded month of the year: January. This year, the Saturday in question was the 17th. A day to be remembered.
Just like last year, the tournament setting was to be Tappers Lodge (aka Peter Ws house). And just like always, the menu was to consist of friendly rivalry, bonkers plays, food, beer, the traditional midnight bobbles and of course our prizes for the most special achievements of the Wednesday Wizards through 2025.
I had spent most of my Christmas holidays preparing and buying different prizes for different themes. This year we wanted to celebrate:
- The winner of GeyserMeister 2025
- The most sloppy battlefield order
- The worst Orb Flip
- The worst or most unnecessary proxy
- The best play
- And the most beat up card in the 75 (or more) cards played on the day
In other words, it was on!
And I had packed for every eventuality…
Who and how
This year, nine team MetaGeyser members had seen fit to show up (that means, they had been lucky enough to be able to escape everyday chores and responsibilities). Furthermore, Allan Nondisclosed, an old friend of W and Lando had asked to join. Of course, he was more than welcome, especially since he had spent most of his holiday drinking cognac and shopping spreeing for Moxen. He had to get out of his house to try some of them!
Anyway, besides Allan – our guest – we were the impressive band of Yours truly, W, Lando, Teis, Per, EndBoss, Robin, Rasmus and Mikkel. A truly powerful gathering of Wizards.
So, officially we were there to fight for the trophies, but really, we were there to celebrate. Ourselves in general, but Teis in particular. Teis had the good fortune of being born exactly a number of years prior to this January 17th, and of course it would not go down nor by without a proper celebration.
There was some singing. There was Teis’ known and celebrated homemade coffee liqueur. We had even found a nice present (a bottle of Rum…). And Teis had seen it fit to bring a cake. What a king among men!
The business part
Exactly! We can’t go about introducing greatness forever, we have to tell about it.
I had chosen to play my Animating Balls deck. Ball Lightning, Unsummon, Animate Dead, Triskelion, Power, Lightning Bolts and then Psionic Blasts instead of the boring Su-Chis and something else instead of Black Vise. I had stuck a Safe Haven in there for more Ball Lightning Shenanigans and I played a single Icy Manipulator for the heck of it, and because it has the most impressive beaten up look (and I was gunning for that prize in particular apparently).
The other wizards had also sleeved up greatness in different forms.
After having arranged chairs and tables, eating some cake, administering some birthday presents (it was also Landos birthday – apparently it is Landos birthday every day!) and drinking a whole lot of “coffee,” we were about to embark on the epic journey that was the four rounds we had decided to play.
And I was up against W himself!
Peter had sleeved up what I believe was mono green. Unfortunately he never really got off and my Trisks were great at keeping his board manageable. After board The Abyss was brutal. Also fucking Ball Lightnings! Yeah! Actually Unsummon was rather relevant in this match as a tempo play. Finally!
Anyway, I won 2-0 and when the other matches were done, it was time for some prize-out-handing.
Much shouting, several arguments, chaos ensue, long and violently energetic, albeit rather nonsensical, reasoning and the winner for most beat up card in the 75 of the day was found. It was not me. And I actually cannot remember who ended up winning it. I think Lando presented a very beat up and bent Berserk, which was also a worthy winner.
For the worst Battlefield order, we simply had to hand it to Allan. Some lands were at his left. IN THE FRONT! Some were at their correct location, his creatures were all over the place, and other permanents seemed to simply land on the table at random locations when he played them. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture, but trust me, it was a worthy winner mos’ def’!
In round two, I was up against Mikkel. He was on his mono red Urzatron X-spells deck which is sometimes really nasty. Not so much this time though.
In the second game I manage to play and attack with a Ball Lightning and stuff it into a Safe Haven. Next turn I attack with it again and Unsummon it. Nice.
After round two more prizes were on the line. This time for the worst Orb Flip. It was a difficult category, as it can be difficult to remember, but Rasmus had made a rather ugly one in round two, so that was easy, and he was so close to winning it, that he could almost touch it. Then Per cleared his throat, lifted his head up high, with a hint of a tear in his right eye, and told one of the saddest, most depressing and downright humiliating stories any of us had ever heard: at a tournament there had been some kind of Orb Flip Nationals. Denmark was up against Norway in the finals. Every other Dane had managed to flip like a boss, and then Per was up. With the weight of an entire nation and more than four hundred years of historic Danish rule over Norway, Pers fingers trembled. He lifted his hand, aimed, dropped the Orb… And missed… Shame, shame, shame. But now he has a beer glass to show for it, I guess.
No picture of the shameful prize, but I have this one…
In round three I battled against Robins Erhnie on Ice deck. In the first game I was trampled by so many lions, I felt like the roles had been switched in the big Wildebeasts scene in Lion King. And I was the lone Wildebeast. Tears are in order.
I pulled together and managed to squeeze out wins in the next two games. But it was dramatically close. Even though I can’t remember any details at this point.
And then it was time for some more prizes. Worst or most unnecessary proxy. Again I felt like this should be mine. I had once torn a piece of paper and written “Wall of Ice” on it, to playtest one of my enormously successful dinosaur decks earlier in 2025. I could feel it. The glory. But then someone mentioned, that Mikkel often just put a piece of torn paper into one of his sleeves – WITHOUT WRITING ANYTHING ON IT! – and then just casually – during a game – mentions that “Oh, this is a Fork.” Of course he was the winner.
In the prize for best play, I shamelessly pointed at myself again, stating that it was quite a great play to throw and host an entire tournament. “Naah,” people said. And then someone else ventured on to win it. But it was completely fair. The very deserved winner was Rasmus for playing like a true champ the entire day at LIC and actually qualifying for top8, but then dropping so that he could drive the rest of us home. That won. Hearts and mindst. Just like it should. Truest of champs, in all meanings of the word.
And then it was time for the fourth and final round. I stood undefeated against an equally undefeated Lando on RG beats. A deck he has actually been training with and tweaking and twerking etc. for months. So it was rather cool that I had actually worked. That is something very new in team Metageyser.
In our first game we throw punches at each other, until he is at one life and then attacks into my Chaos Orb with something with Giant Growth and Berserk. I qualify for next years iteration of worst Orb flip, when my Orb lands and stays around 1½ mm away from Landos creature. I die.
In game two I beat Lando to a pulp with loads of Ball Lightning and Lightning Bolts, and then it is on to the interesting and rather pivotal third game.
I mull to six but keep some great cards (moxen, twister). I am able to throw some Lightning at Lando, but he accelerates out an Erhnam Djinn in his third turn. In my turn I have the opportunity to play either Timetwister or Time Walk or Ball Lightning. I Ball Lightning him in the hopes of getting to both Twister and Walk in my next turn.
I am at 18 life, Lando is at four, and I feel rather certain that I will have another turn, and will be able to kill him. He only has a factory and his Erhnie. But no such luck. Lando was simply undefeatable this night. He attacks with his Djinn, plays a Giant Growth and then follows up with no less than two Berserks. Ouch.
A much deserved GeyserMeister 2025 was born:
After this, normal, friendly chaos ensued throughout the evening and the wee hours. Another GeyserMeister well in the books, and I am already looking forward to the next one – even though it is in January…
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