Nordic Warrior Cup 2
On the 30th October, 29 players gathered in Drammen for the biggest old school event in Norway ever. The format was swedish and reprints were legal. The site was Sjenkestua, a small pub with an oldschool feeling, the same location as the first Nordic Warrior Cup. A big thank you to Erland, the local warrior that made the event happen along with Mitja Held, organizer, scorekeeper, trader, seller, you name it. Mitja even brought his companion, Alban, to the event this time, and the two of them brought most of their oldschool inventory for selling and trading.
After a five-hour trainride I arrived in Drammen at noon, and went to the hotel to check in. As the sliding doors of the hotel opened, a familiar smell came to me. Old cardboard and beer. The smell of oldschool magic. At a long table by the entrance, people were already halfway through a beer, and were wheeling and dealing with Mitja and Alban. I had no cards for trade though, so after saying hello, I sat down at a different table with two other NOSMTG members, and watched them play a few games as we did some catching up.
When the site opened, people were already waiting at the door, and my first stop was at the bar to grab a beer. It was really great to meet the crew again, some I hadn’t seen in over a year, others I had just talked to via Tolaria or Whereby. A lot of new faces were seen as well, all very nice and friendly people.
I was pretty excited to play live again, but didn’t have much hope for a high placing with my deck. I was just there to have fun, talk to people and drink beer. If I could get a few gamewins or atleast interesting games, the results didn’t matter(this time). The deck I played was a creation I called Troll Control, it recieved the most votes from the readers of my latest blog. For reference, here’s the deck I played:
I could probably have borrowed some cards to make my deck better, but I kinda like the «play what you own» style, and wouldn’t really feel comfortable playing other peoples expensive cards while drinking. The Armageddons probably seem out of place here, but I wanted some answers to Library of Alexandria and Maze of Ith, which I saw as real problemcards, in addition to the blue powercards of course. In hindsight I should have gone the less fancy route and just played Stone Rain instead.
After registration and getting my 2nd beer, it was time for round 1. I was paired against Odd Anders, the founder of the Farmstead tournament that origins in the south of Norway. He also has a really nice youtube channel, Farmstead tv. Here’s a link to to the round 1 match which he recorded and added commentary to
https://youtu.be/wNQHm-zUFUo%3Cbr%3E
Please check out his other videos as well.
Odd played the Blue Bots deck, with the usual black splash. Not going into detail about every match(things are kinda blurry lol), but I can say that my draws were better than his, and I won 2-0.
In round 2 I met a familiar face. Ole is a fellow NOSMTG member, a regular at my Elfvalley Cups, and we have played a number of times on webcam. He also streams a lot of his matches, so check out his twitch, Baldrickus. Ole played a sweet Black, Red and Blue brew, and our match was pretty close and interesting. His deck was too good for mine though, and he won the match 2-1.
On to match 3 against Johan from Sweden. He also had dropped by the Elfvalley Cup once, where he handed me my only loss in that specific tournament. Johan played a sweet black aggro deck with Vampire Bats and Stone Throwing Devils. The match was recorded, and hopefully will be put out on youtube later. Our games where really great, and after splitting the first two, we ran out of time before we could finish the third, and the draw was a fact. His army of weenies were a real problem for my deck, since I mostly rely on 1 for 1 removal. I sided in Earthquakes, but never drew them.
The match was recorded by Odd Anders and can be found here:
Match 4 was against Amund and his version of Cloaked Ali. He packed a lot of burn in addition to Copper Tablets and Black Vises which made the games quite a race. Thankfully my draws were better again, and I managed to control my lifetotal pretty well until I could finish him off with my own burnspells. The Trolls also did some work in this match, since he didn’t have many answers for them. 2-0 and 2-1-1 so far.
Then it was time for the 5th and last round, the large amount of beer vs the small amount of food was starting to get to me, but I still felt ok. My opponent was Erland, local hero and yet another who had played in the Elfvalley Cup. His deck of choice was Blue Bots as well, but he had more colors than Odd did. I recall seeing a Regrowth and CoP: Red after board I think. Game 1 went to me after some serious manaflood by us both, but I guess drawing shitloads of lands is ok when I can cast a huge Disintegrate ftw. The next two games were just what I was afraid of before the tournament. The power of Library of Alexandria and Ancestral Recall was too hot to handle, and he got the best of me.
My final score was 2-1-2(7-5), and I think this was just about the best my deck could do. It was really fun to play though, and I might pick it up at some later tournaments if I can get some upgrades. All matches were great, opponents were really nice, and I just had a blast playing live again.
After losing the win & in, I had time to chat with people, drink beer and watch the top8 matches. Probably equally awesome to actually playing myself.
The Nordic Warrior Cup is problably going to be an annual thing, since the date for the next one already is set. I really hope so, because everything about this tournament was great. Congrats to Thorbjørn, the winner, and everyone else I talked to for making this one of the best weekends this year. Until next time, cheers!
Alban was busy laying out their cards for sale/trade, while Mitja was probably grabbing a beer.
Semifinal grudge-match between two good friends, Audun and Ole.
The final match, surrounded by darkness(and empty beer glasses)
Thorbjørn putting his trophy to good use.
Thorbjørn's winning deck