Dwarven Warriors 5

This summer, I finally had the time to go to a magic-related trip abroad. And what a weekend it was! I had an invite for Dwarven Warriors 4, but my wife was due with our second(my third) kid around that time, so I had to pass. This year though, the timing was perfect, and Erwin, the host, was kind enough to let me join. For those of you who don’t know, Erwin is the godfather of AB4k, and these gatherings of his are just about the only AB-only tournaments you can attend.

After booking hotel and flights, the time had come to decide what deck to play? Through the 12 Elfvalley Cups I’ve organized I’ve played 9 or 10 different decks with various performance, haha. For this special event I wanted to bring something fun, yet also competative, since I know a lot of the guys going had really great decks. A deck I’ve been played a few homegames with a very good record, turned out to be my choice. Here’s the 75 I brought to Voorthuizen:

The deck is packed with great cards, but the bad part is the manabase. Missing half the duals that fit in these colors is pretty rough, but if I can get lucky enough, it would probably work out fine. Thanks to a fellow norwegian AB4k player, I made a last minute change by taking out a Disintegrate for a Howl from Beyond. This adds both more spice and a surprising way to win as you can read all about a bit further down this report. Now, some more about my trip before I talk about the matches. 

I arrived at Schipol around 11pm on Friday, then took the train to Barneveld where Erwin and his friend Roy was kind enough to pick my up by car. When we arrived at Erwins place, there were already lots of people there, chatting, having beers and playing Magic. I was met with hello’s, handshakes and hugs, and someone(I belive it was Nick Cramer), got me a beer. What a welcome! Many of these guys were familiar faces from webcam games, some I knew only by name, but the joy of finally meeting these guys face-to-face was amazing. The only person that I’ve met before was fellow norwegian, Øyvind, whom arrived at the scene some hours before me. 
The ‘4000’ crew was very welcoming, easy to talk to, and a really funny group of people. The rest of the evening is a bit blurry, as the beers were plenty and Inwas tired from a long trip, but lots of chatting, drinking and listening to horrible music(sorry Erwin, Richard and Henk, haha), was done. To be fair, I think they had a worse time listening to the two songs I put on, than I had listening to theirs.
One funny thing I do remember though was that Henk(the Odol organizer), and Richard(the Raging Bull organizer), was staying at the same hotel/camping as I was. When they asked me which cabin I was in, I said 5, and they were like «hmm, that’s where we’re staying». Richard made some phonecalls to the hotel management, and it turned out they’d messed up and given Henk and Richard my room, while they were actually staying in cabin 7. What’s the chance of mixing up two separate bookings within the DW5 crew, haha. Was pretty nice for me though, having someone who speaks dutch contacting management and sorting it all out.

Nice to finally meet Henk and Richard

After a short nights sleep, I think I went to bed around 5am, I woke up at 9.30 with a massive headache. Shower didn’t get rid of it, lot’s of water a Red Bull and some chocholate bars didn’t either, so I just had to see if the beers did the thing. Eventually they did the trick, but it took several hours.
When I got to Erwins house around 10 o’clock, many of the players were already there. Erwins wife and some friends of hers had made sandwiches for breakfast, which was free for anyone to enjoy. What a luxury! More players were starting to come in, and around 11 we were ready to start. 

In round 1 I was playing Dyan, 3-time champion of the Dwarven Warriors Cup, and he also had won one of my Elfvalley Cups. Dyan is a fantastic player and a really nice guy and his deck was really strong. It was very similar to what he won last years DW with, and also my Elfvalley Cup. I had a really good draw in game 1, managed to deal with his threats and won with a huge Nightmare powered by a Howl from Beyond, epic start! Games 2&3 were pretty lopsided though, as his deck did what it’s supposed to. Deal with everything I play, protect it’s few threats, and win through cardadvantage made by the Jayemdae Tomes and blue power. Awesome start though, losing to a better deck with a strong pilot. 

Match 2 was against Florian and his Troll-Disco deck. Another great player with a great deck, my first time meeting him. I was beaten to oblivion here, and the match was over in 10 minutes. We played a third game, which I also lost, but the good part was that I had time for a couple of beers before my next round. Slowly the headache from last night had started to be less of a nuisanse.
 
Match 3 was against Martin from the Rhineland Avengers. Very cool guy indeed, and the matchup was good for me. He didn’t have a ton of AB cards, so his BW deck was less powerful than than the first two I met, also my deck fired on all cylinders here so it was a pretty unfair match. One of the sweetest plays of the day happened here, as I managed to deal 16 damage with a Will-o-the-Wisp thanks to Howl from Beyond. 2 of 3 gamewins so far was thanks to that card. 

Lunch time! 

In round 4 I met Alexander and his stunning RG all-Alpha deck. It was a beauty to behold, and after winning game 1, I lost the next two in spectacular fashion. Game 2 ended quickly with a Channel/Fireball win for him, he even mulliganed to 5 in this one. Game three ended with an attack for 20 from a double Berserked Dragon Whelp, after an Orb-flip miss by a half-drunk Lord of the Elfvalley. Epic stuff.

So, time for the final round. Out of top8 contention, but still having lots of fun and lots of beers. Peter was my opponent this round, and for the first time playing AB4k, I finally met someone who played with the legendary Birds of Paradise, beautiful. Our decks seemed pretty evenly matched, and I managed to eek out a 2-1 win. Can’t remember that much from the match other than having 2 Nightmares on the board, just to see them both get burned by a huge Fireball. Another cool guy with a beatiful deck, which, not surprisingly, seemed to be a theme at this tournament.

I don’t really remember when we had the dinner buffet, but I remember it was awesome and I overate, as usual. Just look at all this great stuff:

The rest of the evening I spent drinking beer, chatting and watching the top8 matches. What sticks to mind is the epic 2.5 hour match between Dyan and Ron, Erwin winning the semis and making sure that Dyan wouldn’t become a four-time champion(yet), and the great finals between Erwin and Albert which Albert took down. I also oversaw a huge trade for my friend Øyvind, who traded away a bunch of alphas for his first beta powerpiece, the best of them all, Ancestral Recall. 

Dyan taking control against Ron

Trolls having a stare contest.

Øyvind and his newly aquired Ancestral!

Tense semifinal between Dyan and Erwin

The last men standing!

The beer-case podium!

1. Albert

2. Erwin

3. Edo

I don’t know what time it was, but somewhere around 2 o’clock it was time for me to go to bed. After saying goodbye to the crew I went to find my room, but got lost in the camping which seemed like a Maze of Ith to me that night. Around 2 hours later I finally stumbled onto the right path and crashed on the bed. What an epic day it had been, and a weekend I'll remember for the rest of my life. Thanks to all the great guys who were there, and especially to Erwin and his wife for opening their home to us, and keeping me fed and drunk the entire weekend. Until next time, cheers!

The legendary crew of Dwarven Warriors 2022