Rocky Mountain Yetis

It’s been a long time coming. Despite living in Colorado, I hadn’t been able to make either of the two previous Yeticons. I had family stuff both good and bad that lined up with the dates, so I had always been on the outside looking in. I’ve got a young kid at home so I can’t travel as much these days, but I love reading everyone else’s reports and seeing all the great hangs you have. This time was my turn.

I want to send a heartfelt thank you to Jared and Sarah for organizing this amazing event. The fact that you put on an event of this scale for the love of community and the love of the game is truly astounding. Jared was as personable as ever helping me out while he’s managing 50+ other people. I am beyond thankful that you do this. It truly takes this game that we love and takes it to the next level of special.

Additionally, I got my brother to come to his first Old School even for this Yeticon. We grew up playing Magic together. I’ve brought over old school decks and cubes to play with him, but he had yet to come out to an event. He also has young kids at home so getting away for a full day is hard for him too. And yet he made it happen. Kudos to you.

I had to leave early but the fact that I got to hang and soak it all in just filled my heart. I’d cherish more hangs and more games, but in this busy phase of life even getting to come see the scene is a treat.

The hangs really are what it’s all about

I got to meet so many people in person that I’d only chatted with online. Several of you I’d exchanged cards through the mail many times, and here we are meeting face to face for the first time. It really does feel like coming back to an old group of friends, albeit ones that I’d never met before.

The Yeti crew is fantastic as usual. I’ve fortunately been able to see this crowd more often with our semi-regular meetups for cubing. It’s fun to see them too in this new, big event. 

And I got to hang with my brother. We both have a love of games and have gamed a lot over the years, so I was thrilled to share this experience with him, and to give him a peak into all the fun I’ve been having.

When my brother arrived, I happened to be chatting with Will Magrann, one of the many people whom I’ve never met in person. So I introduced my brother, and he has the good fortune to be paired up against Will in round 1. I wish him lots of luck.

The event is fantastic and Dan Frazier was there. I casually look over and see a stack of cardboard he’s signing. It’s of course a pile of unsleeved moxen that he is making his way through. Too cool. Jared went all out here.

The decks

I’d been on the hunt for a spicier, but still fun deck. I love playing TwiddleVault, but it can be a bit cutthroat for some crowds. I do love combo decks though. I think they are the most fun to play and to play against. So I’ve been searching and brewing as one does for the next thing. I’d tinkered in the Lich space many many times. It is such a cool and flavorful card, and playing it definitely earns you the underdog badge. Playing with a card that has “you lose the game” on it is not for the faint of heart. I’d tried several iterations, like the eureka version that is an enormous glass cannon, but it just loses to itself most games. I’ve also put together strong black control shells, but lich is just an afterthought after you’ve already stabilized. So after much tinkering, I arrived at this.

I got so much inspiration from a deck that Greg K. has played. It has tax, tower, moats, and abyss. It’s a beast for any creature deck to battle against. He played it to a 5-1 top 16. Sure, it has weaknesses for some non-creature decks, but we’re playing combo here, sometimes you have to cross your fingers and hope.

I played a version of this for an OS6 NEOS monthly, and it worked well going 5-1. But, it is incredibly boring to play and play against. The amount of turns that go by with draw-go on both sides is mind-numbing. But, this deck does many things I wanted, which is it plays a combo, it doesn’t rely on blue power, and it wins sometimes. I’d also had some good conversations with Sam Black on his beliefs in the strength of Tax/Tower/Sylvan. I kept mulling over ways to make this deck more fun and close out games faster once you establish control. Like many decks, I considered adding the Lich combo. This time it actually clicked. Fastbond works great with land tax and tower so you can keep lands in hand until you need them. Dark Heart turns on Land Tax, and converts the extra lands into life. And Land Tax lets you find the BBBB to actually cast the lich, which is usually a big hurdle to overcome. Then adding Sylvan Library works great with life gain from towers and heart and the shuffle effect from Land Tax. That took me to a clunky 85 card stack that I goldfished a bit. I cut the red to go BWG, and everything fell into place. The deck now had a nice controlling angle, but could also win quickly. Sounds like a fun deck to me. Then, I needed the right event. I had over a year to the next Yeticon, but I knew that’s where I would unleash this thing.

Since my brother came, I got to outfit him with a deck too. I strongly considered giving him Arabian Aggro, since there is almost no overlap in power (Mox emerald is it). He’d get a proxy for the Yeticon event, and RUG even eschews library most of the time. I could give him an almost fully powered competitive deck and give him a chance to have some fun steamrolling folks. In the end, I decided it would be less stressful to him and me to hand over a stack of revised cards, and these were the nostalgic cards he had played back in the day anyway. I offered him White Weenie, Goblins with Blood Moon and Mountain Yeti, and Monoblack. He played a very similar black deck growing up, so he opted for this classic.

Jared pointed out that in the new Mountain Format, 2 strip mines are legal, so I swapped a drain life for a second strip mine. I wasn’t playing any strip mines, so no need to make changes there. On to the games.

Round 1 – Jdubs versus Jared L. (Jared #4)

My deck actually worked and I got to do my thing. I got to play out moat, land tax, and get the combo going and win. I pull it off again in Game 2 and am feeling pretty good starting the tourney 2-0 in games. My goal coming into this was to go 1-1 so I’m in good shape already. Everything worked as expected. That’s not normal.

Round 1 – Bdubs versus Will Magrann

I warned my bro that he was in for a tough one against Will. Will asked if I had any advice for him, and I’d told him previously, just hope that a turn 1 hippie goes the distance. My brother does give him a run for his money one game by stripping a land and sinkholing his other, leaving him landless for a few turns before he draws out of it. My brother had a blast and appreciated seeing Will’s beautifully altered deck. He has quite the card collection. I asked my brother afterward what deck Will was on. He stared at me blankly; then I asked what cards he played and my brother replied “a lot of bolts”. That checks out. To end the match, with my brother at 2 life, Will casts a timetwister altered by Richard Garfield that says “Draw 30 cards”. So my brother chuckles and says he should, so Will does (his winning bolt was in his first 7). Welcome to Old School bro!

Round 2 – Jdubs versus Justin W (Justin #3)

Justin was also on a sweet Land Tax deck, and the Land Tax mirror is not a fun one. He starts with mox pearl into land tax, and I struggle with what to do. I play into it, thinking I have the faster combo with Lich. Maybe I should have played draw go for a zillion turns to craft the perfect hand, but one doesn’t play Lich combo and try to eeek out every ounce of value. He hits me for some life, plays land’s edge, and gets me down to 10. I don’t draw my life gain which would have been clutch here. I draw some extras with Sylvan to dig deeper, going down to 2 against his empty hand, but don’t draw any. He topdecks a Library of Alexandria and pitches it to Land’s Edge to finish me off. What a way to win in style with Library. Game 2 I get to do my thing and Justin has a good laugh. I get to check my bucket list for the event by using Ivory Tower to draw cards with Lich. I draw 5 cards and do busted things.

Game 3 he gets out Serendib Djinn, which also does mean things to my Land Tax plan. It’s a super cool deck. I balance away the first one, but he plays another which gets me. I could have saved my regrowth for the balance here, but I used it on my dead Sylvan instead. It definitely doesn’t feel like I play this deck very tight, but that seems just fine.

Round 2 – Bdubs versus Denni P

My brother gets a great opponent that’s also a bit new to Old School, so they play out their cards in a very friendly fashion. My brother gets demonic hordes going, but it is facing down a horde of robots. This is a really tough matchup for monoblack and part of the reasons that I don’t play the deck more often. The best sideboard plan I have here is 4 disks and 4 golgathian sylexes which evens the playing field. This interaction felt too niche to expect my brother to sideboard into, so I left the sylexes at home. Afterward, as I described that there’s a card that kills all antiquities cards, he’s like “Oh yeah, Golgathian Sylex”. He’s on it.

Round 3 – Jdubs versus Ben K

My brother has to head out but I stick around for another match. I get to play Ben who I know from online but have never met in person. He’s a great dude and I’m thrilled I got to meet him. He is doing sweet things with Ball Lightning, Animate Dead, and Shivan Dragon.

I’ve got my life gain going. He drops a Shivan, so I play the Abyss I’ve been holding to take her out. That’s exactly how my deck is supposed to work. He does get this one however with some animated ball lightnings. I win game 2 with a flurry of dark magic. Onto Game 3. I get some stuff going, but can’t find a Dark Heart to close the deal. He lands a Shivan I can’t stop, but can live another turn. But then he adds a ball lightning and it hits me for the 12 lethal damage that he needed to close out the game. Great games!

Until we meet again

It was such an amazing event, and I had a blast to meet so many fine folks. It definitely left me wanting more, but I think it will always be like that. The deck went 1-2 (4-4 in games) which seems about right. It feels like a solid .500 deck with a chance to go 5-1, especially if I get lucky and dodge disenchants. For changes, I’ll probably lose the hymns, put in cards that actually help me win, and cross my fingers.

I’m so appreciative to Jared and Sarah, and everyone that came out that I got to meet. This community is the best! I can’t wait to do it again soon, or see you all online.