A guest write-up by Fearthainne
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in the Summer Classic III cEDH tournament in Minneapolis July 18th and 19th. I finished 127th out of 206 with a record of 1-4-1, running Obeka, Brute Chronologist as my commander.
For my personal Magic history, I began dabbling in Magic in the mid 2000s. In rural MN, there were no card stores or “official” places to play, so everything was 60-card non-standard done at friends’ houses or at lunch at school. I was in college when the idea of Elder Dragon Highlander came out, and the bulk of my experience since has been in casual Commander with a healthy helping of limited via pre-releases. While the interest in true competitive Magic has always been there, it’s only in recent years that it’s actualized into an active attempt at growth in the forms of cEDH and Modern.
I had grand ambitions and a only vague notion of what was in store at the tournament. I had heard of the original Summer Classic about the time that I was first venturing into cEDH. At that time, the appeal was in traveling with friends and playing my high-power Kozelik, the Great Distortion deck, of which I was very proud and determined to count as cEDH. It had infinite combos, after all, and could win on turn 1 with the perfect hand! …It would not have gone well for me.
For better or worse, it would take 2 more years before I could dedicate the time and money into actually organizing a trip. During that time, local events at Level Up in Superior, Elite Sports and Collectibles and Collector’s Connection in Duluth, and Treasure Chest Games in Cloquet as well as informal gatherings gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of the format. Nevertheless, having only competed in a couple of local tournaments with borrowed decks, the tournament ahead was both daunting and exciting.
Coming in, I certainly felt the amateur for a variety of reasons:
- I lacked “Big” tournament experience or experience with anything outside of the local meta (see what I did there?).
- My deck consisted entirely of print-at-home proxies. While legal for the tournament and functional, ultimately my deck was proxied because it had to be. I only owned about 70% of the cards in the deck. Of course, not everyone has piles of dual lands and LEDs lying around, there are a number of competitive staples that I simply don’t own, and acquiring the kind of high-quality proxies that are indistinguishable when sleeved wasn’t in the budget or timeframe. I feel it is important to note here – there is NOTHING wrong with proxy decks, especially at cEDH levels. Magic isn’t and shouldn’t be a pay-to-win game where your budget determines your win ratio. However, it is tough to not feel like the “we got cEDH at home” side of the meme when the three others in your pod have $10k decks and limited edition signed foils while you’re sitting there with cardstock you cut out the day before.
- My brain is not a 30+k card encyclopedia. I love magic. I’ve been playing and collecting for almost 20 years, and invested who knows how many hours into deck tinkering, organizing my collection, drooling over cards, etc. If you’re reading this, you know. But I don’t know every card, and even the ones I DO know can get crossed in my brain. Tainted Pact and Demonic Consultation are in my deck, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get their names or mana costs mixed up. I couldn’t tell you what colors Taiga taps for. It can feel alienating being in group conversations where people rattle off combo lines or names of cards that you don’t recognize, and funnily enough, cards are a frequent topic of conversation at card tournaments.
Insecurities and pragmatic temperance be damned, I was still excited to be there. I was excited to play my deck. I was even more excited to WIN with my deck. Heck, I was even excited to lose with my deck, because that’s how I get better. I was excited to be a part of a community of people who shared my passion.
And hey, winning a Time Twister would be pretty freakin’ sweet, too.
MY DECK was one that started off as a joke. It was called, “This Is a Really Bad Idea,” crammed with as many weird, niche ways to make an opponent lose (which is different than me winning) as I could fit in there, and was mostly played for chaos and laughs. While it Definitely wasn’t cEDH, it was also too mean to run in any lower brackets. Turning it into something competitive took a great deal of time and thought. I knew it Could be done, and for reasons I’ll get into in the next section I believed it was worth doing, but How was the key. Fortunately, I was able to reach out to trusted friends/mentors in the community who offered advice while making sure that the decisions I made were my own. To me, cutting cards is always the hardest part of building a deck. Removing the cards that were fun but unhelpful was the easy part, but that left me with cards that were Good, but other options may be Better. Ultimately, I had to choose whether to go with a turbo or control build. I chose control since it fits my playstyle and I perceive control as more consistent than turbo. Removing haste enablers in favor of flash enablers freed up a few slots, and slower, expensive pieces like Smokestack or Jace went out for interaction/card advantage pieces like Opposition Agent, Dauthi Voidwalker, and Notion Thief. Overall, the number sorceries went down, the number of instants and creatures with flash went up, and the average expected cost of cards in the deck went down. The most daring element was leaning into artifacts; as part of this, both Necropotence and Ad Nauseum were cut for Bolas’s Citadel with the plan of using Goblin Welder to fish it out of my graveyard rather than paying its mana cost. Goblin Engineer being able to grab either Isochron Scepter or Grinding Station also made it a worthwhile addition.
Obeka, Brute Chronologist costs 1UBR, and is a 3/4 ogre wizard with the tap ability of, “The player whose turn it is may end the turn.” The benefit of ending your turn is that it exiles all spells and abilities the stack. This includes “at the beginning of your next end step” triggers if timed right. In addition to having a unique win line, she also makes a potent bargaining chip – having her on the table untapped means that none of my opponents need to worry about someone comboing off on their turn, and she doesn’t pose a threat by herself. She doesn’t even have haste, so she doesn’t draw hate. To me, these factors are what made her a viable cEDH commander. The win line unique to Obeka is combining Isochron Scepter and Final Fortune to take infinite turns without the annoying drawback of losing the game. Other win lines were Thassa’s Oracle + Tainted Pact or Demonic Consultation, and Underworld Breach + Brain Freeze or Grinding Station.
TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE – The tournament was broken into 2 days. Day one, check-in began at 9am. Location wise, we were in one large hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center. The bulk of the room was taken up by reasonably comfortable chairs and felt-draped tables, with the periphery occupied by vendors, media tables for streaming, and officials’ tables with tvs displaying timers. There was a player meeting at 9:45 with assigned seating to take stock of who was missing. One player I spoke to came from Florida for the tournament, and there was a group of 8 that had driven up from Missouri. This ticked both my excitement and nerves up a notch. Of 206 registered, only 2 didn’t show meaning day one had 204 players – the largest cEDH tournament in Minnesota history. Judges were introduced, ground rules covered. People were excited, calling out hello to the judges and asking clarification on certain ground rules. Most were plain – 80-minute rounds, 20 minutes max overtime, how to ask for a judge, how to appeal a ruling, etc. There were 6 rounds of Swiss day one, then a cut to the top 40. Day two was single elimination, with the top 8 getting a bye in the first round. Winning your round won you 5 points, regardless of which seat you were in. 0 points for losing, and 1 point for everyone at the table in the event of a draw, INCLUDING anyone who had already lost. That got the crowd murmuring, but it wasn’t a debate so the complaints died down and we were ready to start!
THE TOURNAMENT
Round 1, LOST – Seat 1, Me, mull to 5. Seat 2, Rog/Si, mull to 4. Seat 3, Grenzo, Dungeon Warden, mull to 4. Seat 4, Ral, kept starting 7.
I was able to stop a turn 2 push from Ral with Chain of Vapor in response to a Ral trigger before he could draw or be flipped. Turn 3 Rog/Sai played Vexing Bauble and tapped out for Necropotence, paying 30 life. Ral, however, was able to replay his commander, dig out, Hexing Squelcher, and play right through the Vexing Bauble to win with Bonus Round + Jeska’s Will for infinite mana, then Reiterate (with buyback) + Lava Dart. I had Force of Will and Mental Misstep in hand but was tapped out and couldn’t cast them with Vexing Bauble in play. I’d considered using Misstep on the bauble, but we were all hoping the bauble would stop Ral’s ult from going off. Grenzo got as far as casting Grenzo but had no other interaction at the table.
Round 2, LOST – Seat 1, Sissay, kept 7. Seat 2, Rog/Tymna, mulled to 4. Seat 3, Aang, At The Crossroads, mulled to 4. Seat 4, me, mull to 6.
This one I misplayed hard and should have won. I put Gemstone Caverns in as a pre-game, then play Underground Sea and Lotus Petal to get Rhystic Study out on turn 1. Turn 2 Rog/Tymna topdeck Ad Nauseum and go down to 4 life but aren’t able to push for the win that turn. From Rhystic I now have Thassa’s Oracle and Demonic Consultation in hand, and draw Cavern of Souls for turn. I play Cavern of Souls, naming Wizards. I know I have the win line in hand, but I worry about Demonic Consultation being countered. I have Final Fortune in hand, and decide I want to take an extra turn for the sake of getting an extra draw and playing a land so I can interact if needed. I tap the Underground Sea to play Sol Ring. I then realize that Final Fortune is RR, and I only have one red available. And, now that Underground Sea is tapped, I don’t have the colors I need to play both parts of the combo. I swear and try to set myself up for next turn, but none of us were able to stop Rog/Tymna from winning on turn 3. I was kicking myself hard for that one, but felt better upon hearing how many other experienced players were making misplays of their own. I’ll touch on that more later.
Round 3, LOST – Seat 1, Kinnan. Seat 2, Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Seat 3, me. Seat 4 Rog/Si.
At this point in the day, my documentation of mulligans and turn numbers broke down as my mind was swimming with the events of previous games and everything going on around me. Despite that, this round was fun. The first one to push for a win was Atraxa (maybe turn 3?) as he uses the Wishclaw Talisman to tutor for a card, giving the talisman to Rog/Si, then casts Thassa’s Oracle. I Pyroblast Thoracle, and he ends his turn. I’m out of interaction and just try to advance my board state. Rog/Si uses the talisman, giving it to me, and casts his own Thoracle, holding priority on the cast trigger to cast Tainted Pact. Tainted Pact resolves, and Rog/Si goes down to two cards in their library. Thoracle still hasn’t resolved, but neither Kinnan nor I have interaction to stop it. Atraxa casts Demonic Consultation, naming Pact of Negation to stop the win. He finds it 6th from the bottom and counters Thoracle. Rog/Si has two cards left in his library, Atraxa has 5. Kinnan advances board state, and I’m looking at Wishclaw under my control and my own Thoracle in hand. I’m excited, right until Atraxa overloads Cyclonic Rift. The next few turns are Kinnan and I trying to rebuild our boards while Rog/Si decks themselves and Atraxa starts punching Kinnan with Atraxa, which I appreciated. I DID have a fun play in there that we later found out was illegal – with Goblin Engineer in play, I cast Mox Diamond. The card text says “When Mox Diamond comes into play, choose and discard a land card or sacrifice Mox Diamond.” I (and the table) interpret this as Mox Diamond enters the battlefield and creates a trigger. In response to the trigger, I used Goblin Engineer to sacrifice Mox Diamond and pull a different artifact from my graveyard. The table was impressed, play goes on. It comes down to Kinnan having board state but 7 life and one card in hand. Atraxa is technically still in the game but top decking with one card left in his library and no board state. I have Orcish Bowmasters in play, 4 mana available, and Reanimate and Wheel of Fortune in hand. I contemplate using Reanimate on Atraxa’s Thoracle to try and draw out a counterspell but decide to keep the mana available in case of mana tithe/similar. I cast Wheel, Kinnan casts Flusterstorm. I’m 1 mana short of being able to pay for the copy. It’s at this point I call a judge over. The thought was to use Goblin Engineer to pull Mox Diamond from the graveyard, tap it in response to the entry trigger before it sacrifices itself, and use that mana to pay for Flusterstorm, but the judge found the ruling that states, “If you don’t discard a land card, Mox Diamond never enters. It won’t trigger abilities that look for something entering, and you won’t get the opportunity to tap it for mana.” Oops! Reading the card does NOT always explain the card, at least when there’s errata and oracle text. Kinnan combos off on his turn for the win. Rog/Si has me sign his Mox Diamond and has Atraxa sign his Demonic Consultation (proxies), which I thought was a really neat idea. Everyone at the table was cool, and that helped me to calm down a bit as well.
Round 4, DRAW – Seat 1, Tayam. Seat 2, Blue Farm (Tymna/Crom). Seat 3, me. Seat 4, Kinnan.
This table had an interesting dynamic. The Tayam player said when we sat down that we shouldn’t start drawing/resolving mulligans until after the timer had started. Both Blue Farm and I pushed back on this point, as it had been explicitly permitted in previous rounds. He simply repeated his assertion, and we chose to ignore him and do it anyway. The timer started about 5 seconds later which made it all moot, but it set the tone. Tayam directed the table, pointing out combos and making direct statements like, “If you can counter this, you need to.” While he was rarely wrong in his assessments, his directions also served his own purposes. And, notably, his justifications took time.
I had one chance in here to win; I had Underworld Breach in play and cast Entomb to put Brain Freeze in the graveyard. Blue Farm cast silence, I cast Mental Misstep, he casts Pyroblast, I cast Flusterstorm. The table asked to put the cards in a stack in order of the stack and talked, then had me pick targets. I counted the amount of mana Blue Farm had available and put “1 targeting Pyroblast, the rest targeting Entomb.” What I MEANT was the thing STOPPING Entomb (Silence), but the table held me to what I said and I did not push back. It was pointed out to me by a friend after the match that a judge may have ruled in my favor (intent vs wording), and if I’m ever in that position again I will, but it WAS my mistake and I hope to never make that one again. A draw earned me my first point in the tournament, and the circulating rumor was that 11 points put you in the bubble to potentially make top 40.
Round 5, WIN – Seat 1, Heliod, the Radiant Dawn (a.k.a. Wheeliod). Seat 2, me. Seat 3, Tymna/Thrasios. Seat 4, Etali, Primal Conqueror.
This one felt GREAT. Turn 1, mana rocks into Goblin Engineer, putting the Isochron Scepter in the graveyard. More ramp on turn 2, with Sensei’s Divining Top showing me Final Fortune in the top three cards. I keep it in my library and draw interaction pieces instead until I’m ready to combo. Turn 3 I play Obeka. Etali comes out on their turn 3, I tap Sensei’s top to draw Final Fortune and lose the top instead of my win con. Wheeliod is policing the table and building a terrifying board state but hasn’t won yet and is low on cards in hand. Turn 4 I use Goblin Engineer to pull Isochron Scepter from the grave, imprinting Final Fortune. I tap the scepter and cast the copy of Final Fortune. Wheeliod casts Commandeer on Final Fortune, exiling two cards from his hand. I don’t have a direct counter for Commandeer, so I cast Mystical Tutor, hold priority, cast Mental Misstep targeting the tutor, hold priority, and cast Redirect Lightning changing the target of Commandeer to Mental Misstep. Before that resolves, Wheeliod flashes in Phyrexian Metamorph as a copy of Etali. The only relevant thing he hits is his own Gilded Drake, which he casts targeting Obeka. I choose to let that resolve. The stack resolves in order, he gets Obeka, I get Final Fortune, and he no longer has cards in hand. I go to my extra turn and cast Sundial of the Infinite from my hand and take a continuous stream of turns until I Pyroblast Heliod and win with an uncounterable Thoracle combo.
Round 6, LOST* – Seat 1, Vivi. Seat 2, Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Seat 3, me. Seat 4, Rog/Thras
Another memorable round. Vivi was presenting the largest threat on the board, right up until Atraxa cast Necropotence. I will say, we lost a LOT of time with that spell. Which I get it, it’s complicated. There was also Silence in effect. We called a judge over, who gave a ruling about Silence. The table appealed that ruling, and the head judge came over and overruled the previous ruling. Then there were a LOT of questions and discussion about Necropotence. I think the judges came over three or four times on that turn, and eventually just sat by our table. We got an 11 minute time extension, and most if not all of that was taken up by Atraxa deciding how to resolve Necropotence. Adrenaline was high by this point and I put in some noise-cancelling earbuds to help bring my heartrate down, which was legal as long as I didn’t have any music playing. The other two at the table were also calm and polite during all of this. Eventually Atraxa realized he’d made an error and ended his turn without reacting to any of the exile triggers. Play passes through turns back to Vivi, who finishes off Atraxa and plays Warrior’s Oath. I’m able to counter a piece of his combo, and he loses at his end step after bouncing Rog/Thras’ Seedborn Muse. I advance my board state and draw more interaction but have no win line in hand. On Rog’s turn, I’m able to flash in Opposition Agent to stop him from grabbing Talon Gates of Madara with Crop Rotation, which shuts off his win line. He starts to say, “If I were to buy you a collector pack-“ before the judge warns him to not finish that thought. He passes the turn back to me, and time in the round is called.
At this point in the tournament, I am sitting at 6 points. Talk around mid-day had been that 11 points puts you in the bubble of possibly making the cut. A win in this round could get me into the top 40. I’m able to go through about 20 cards in my library with a combination of methods, but the only combo I had any part of was Final Fortune/Isochron Scepter, and infinite turns can’t win in overtime. Even with Intuition, I’m not able to get both pieces of a combo to win. Someone pointed out to me that had I shown him the combo, he may have conceded, but I didn’t think of it at the time, only that the combo itself wouldn’t win that turn. As we’re approaching the end of our overtime limit, I choose to use Bolas’ Citadel to spend my last 2 life casting Brainfreeze, giving him the win rather than drawing. He was a good guy, and I had the choice to have him advance or neither of us advance, so I chose him. The genuine shock on his face was worth it to me, as was his excitement and gratitude when he realized he had just made the top 40 at #38.
TOURNAMENT CONCLUSION – That was the end of the tournament for me. The next day I cheered on friends and former competitors as they either played in the final rounds or in the many other smaller events that were taking place that day. Friends and family ask, “How did it go?” and that’s a harder question to answer simply. I didn’t WIN, but in a format where you can lose the game before you ever play a card, is that so bad? Sometimes I made the right plays, sometimes I made mistakes, but I wasn’t alone in that and I (hopefully) have learned from them. By the end of the day I was starving, shaking from adrenaline and utterly spent, but I gained experience and grew as a player. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. Also, the grand winner of the tournament was a 16 year old, whose pronouns were marked in TopDeck as “Ask me,” which is pretty darn cool for a number of reasons.
DECK LOOKBACKS – I’m really happy with how the deck played. In the six games I played, I saw three people play Necropotence and none of them won. Notably in the last game, if we’d had more time I would’ve been able to combo off with the Isochron Scepter and Final Fortune. While that’s not entirely on how long it took to resolve Necro, it’s mostly because of how long it took to resolve Necro. Worth noting, my alternative of Bolas’s Citadel didn’t win me the game even with Sensei’s Divining Top in play, but seeing Necro whiff 3 times made me feel better about not running it. I’m pleased with the control build I have, as I was able to respond and pose a threat in each game. The biggest change I’d make would be to swap in Wishclaw Talisman for something, but I haven’t decided what yet. Even in 6 games, there are a number of cards that never saw play. I was highly impressed by Submerge, as I think I played it in 5 games and never once paid any mana for it. I’ll be playing this deck again this weekend, and look forward to seeing how it performs in the local meta.