Uthden Troll cup III
Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Friday 05.11. to Sunday 07.11.2021
visited, played, enjoyed and written by Meddling_Maxe
Prologue:
As part of the introduction I want to say, that I was still extremely hyped to play paper face-to-face Magic. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview on playing events again with a 12 people “Shield Wall Cup” near Hannover (GER), as well as a 25 people “Hanseatic Oldschool” in Hamburg (GER) last month. Both events held with the Atlantic rule set which meant no Swedish deck-list testing. But tapping cards, drinking and meeting new&old friends once again made it to memorable events with desire for more.
Now lets talk about the “Uthden Troll Cup III”, which I marked as early in my calendar as it got announced. My weekend planning was: Friday work half-day, take a 6h train, meet people, watch Legen – wait for it – dary Draft, drink much, watch the city. Saturday play Swedish OS main event, play cubes, meet more people, and continue all day drinking. Sunday play PM main event, keep connections rolling and finally ride a 5h train back home late night.
From there on my mind always tinkered what deck to play on each event.
In old school I find myself in my loved disco trolls easily. I took a route with maximum count of Blood Moon main deck to be “this guy” and give some support to the event-special Uthden Trolls in the 60.
In Premodern it was inconceivable harder for me to pick up a final deck choice. For me more fun and competitive decks lurking in the shelf wanted to get played again. On Friday I spontaneously ditched the close candidates the Rock, angry elves and UW control and decided to give an old friend some playtime again; Stasis it was.
Disclaimer:
Now couple days has gone by and my memories of game details vanished even more. Also typing a report I tend to be write in a “one sided” way of my perspective. Hopefully I still hit the game vibe and be closely to the truth without any notes taken.
Saturday – old school (65 people) with Moon Trolls
Round 1 vs Henk Willemse with uwb Robtos
For last minute personal reason Henk couldn’t come to the event in person, but the great Troll community made a Whereby room table to enable play. As the round started, we recognized that the laptop wasn’t set up yet so we all decided to go a *bye* for both and take time to set things up for further rounds.
1-0
Round 2 vs Jorgo Vanhees with rw Atog G1:
He was stuck on a low land count and just Ankhs, Vise and Bolts. That made me to want finish this game quickly. I perfectly hit every land drop, play bolt prove double Sedge and swing with Mishras. On his last turn he completely reversed this game with a Balance getting rid of my Trolls, made me discard five cards and destroy four of my lands. During that I made the decision to get rid of double Mishra and keep double Swamp to cast my left over card, a Sengir Vampire, if I draw a land next turn and still catch a win. I miss my land drop and face some Mishra and Atog beats now. At the time I can cast Sengir I am forced to chump and burned out via Earthquakes. 0:1
G2: We both follow our game plan of doing artifacts and burning face vs laying lands, playing answers till Sedge starts beating. Turn by turn I take the upper hand. Unexpectedly a blue mana source besides a Sapphire comes by and allows him to Timewalk + Timetwister. Followed up with a Ancestral, more board and burn of Chain, Bolt and Psionic. I am allowed to take my turn now but the game and match vs rwU Atog is gone. 0:2
1-1
Round 3 vs Arthur Am Organa with rw Diamond Egg Disco
G1: I got Stone Rained out of the game and lose my two-colored source. A single City of Brass lets me illusory keep playing this game. Bolts and a Fireball vs Preachers, King Suleiman and Mishras are solid, but my three later four Mishras do nothing against a single Rukh Egg. He manages to transform his egg and fly over me. 0:1
G2: Mirror-like we traded some resources until I reveal that I do have some stuff to do with my black mana. First Hypnotic gets a bolt, Sengir Vampire a Fireball, Blood Moon shuts down Diamond Valley for his Eggs and a second Hypnotic survive till the end. 1:1
G3: A good hand of mine gets creamed with drawing Library as 8th card. He couldn’t find Stone Rain, Strip or Orb for it. Ground gets stalled with Eggs vs Trolls, my fliers do stuff, library each turn, game ends. 2:1
2-1
Round 4 vs Hen Willemsee with uwb Robots
Cool that we somehow got a second chance to meet and play each other. R1: Turn two on the play playing Blood Moon, yea that’s why I am here! My follow up are two Uthden Trolls while he just does some off-color Mox and Fellwar Stones. These are able to produce black mana for The Abyss, which cleans the board and make an Mexican standoff for many turns. During that I summon a disk and wonder why no robots get hard casted. Whatsoever I do finish the game after Demonic and Twist his hand away. I could now blew up my Moon and swing with Mishras and new Troll. 1:0
G2: After both kept our hand, he said the classic “good luck, have fun”. My eyebrow instantly jumps up because the way he said “fun” and dropping a Library together. I took my turn, smiling, replied with “ye, fun” and played a Blood Moon. The fun train kept (t)rolling for me after that by Twisting his remaining hand of Trike, Su-Chi, Disenchant, The Abyss. Game finishes in a race between Su-Chi vs Hypnotic + Bolt + Fireball. 2:0
3-1
Round 5 vs Koos Cramer with 4c Titanias
G1: I see a Tundra and was happy with the decision to build up Badlands> Mana Vault> Mox Ruby> Mox Jet> Demonic> Blood Moon on my first turn. He only replied with “this Moon has no power here.” I get steamrolled from Fellwar Stones, Howling Mine + Relic Barrier and an Icy Manipulator. Together his Mishras and my Mana Vault are ticking me down. I am forced to blew up a Disc trading horrible as I lose my Moxen on still a low land count, vs him on many lands and already a lot of hand cards again. Right after the world explodes, he simple plays the exact cards again and finish me of with Mishras. 0:1
G2: First and important decision against his t1 Library what I want to tutor up turn two with Demonic. I already have lands, Hypnotic, Shatter, Shatterstorm and Blood Moon in hand, which led to options of Mind Twist, Strip Mine, Stone Rain or even a second Blood Moon. I chose the last because not enough mana for an effective Twist, Mine and Rain gets denied of Regrowth and he showed me so many colors that I am still sure a sticked Moon together with artifact hate have to be good. He drew his cards with Library, disenchants my first Moon, but folds this time to the second one. A Troll is happy to go the distance. 1:1
G3: OldSchool and its finest blue power appeared to happen in this game. He started with land, Mox Sapphire, Mox Pearl, Ancestral, Timewalk passing to himself. Next land, Black Lotus, Fellwar Stone, Mox Emerald, Howling Mine, Relic Barrier. During my first turn I do Swamp into Sol Ring and get caught hard of a MindTwist for three afterwards. He hits my Factory, City of Brass and Hypnotic. Now I am stranded with Blood Moon, Shatter, no more land and no more thread. In hindsight I should have played City instead of Swamp. Game not going much longer as I am not drew lands, then once I did they get tapped of an Icy Manipulator and my Disc gets disenchanted. With this much time some Mishra attacks and a big Titania’s Song kills me. 1:2
3-2
Round 6 vs Henk de Groot with Disco Trolls featuring green
G1: Quick game pace of Land Bird, Land Bolt, Land go, Land Sinkhole isn’t going on forever. I choose to tutor up a Sol Ring and cast t4 and t5 Sengir Vampire. Sadly, he is not a so far expected Ernham Burn’em. He now shows me that he is a Disc player and blew up everything. That means the Sengir brothers failed to bring him down enough into bolt range I had. I did not recover from this big resource loss so some Sedge and Uthen Trolls plus double Lightning Bolt finish me off. 0:1
G2: Still feeling it. Bolt the Bird is always great start. Trolls left and right in multiple numbers staring at each other’s lovely faces. While remaining things get destroyed of disked, bolted or terrored. He keeps not getting happy with what Sylvan Library is showing until he finds a Wheel of Fortune. The fortune isn’t even for both of us afterwards, as on top of the fresh seven cards for both of us, my long time lurking around Library of Alexandria is now running. I switch gears to the flying mode and summon Hyppies, Sengirs and first time appearing Shivan Dragon (nearly forgotten I have it in my deck) while staying on library. Bolts, Disintegrate, Regrowth Disintegrate is not enough anymore. 1:1
G3: We do a bingo and begin with the same start for the third time. Afterwards similar stuff of previous games happened, but once again I get the upper hand with flying creatures vs the stalled ground. This third match went unexcitingly quick. 2:1
4-2
After round six dinner was served, an awesome big Troll raffle was held and “free time” began. It got used to do even more social things with all the awesome people around, do some more oldschool fun games, do a premodern cube draft, watch OS top8 games and head bang to live rock music! Congratz to the winner Anne Joldersma (Reanimator) and runnerup Wilfred van Doornik (RWu Atog goodStuff).
Sunday – premodern (40? People )with Stasis
Round 1 vs Ruud Kok with burn
G1: Each of us played a single land the whole game. He gave me a lot of time with his plays of Mogg Fanatics and Jackal Pups, but I could do anything. Needless to say, my hand of Counterspell, two Impulse, Gush, Chain of Vapor and Black Vise doesn’t do anything (classic Null Rod quote: No – it does nothing). 0:1
G2: On an empty board, crossing my fingers for no Red-Blast, I play and stick a Chill. He gets so hard delayed that I can chill myself and wait for the perfect moment. Some small creatures attacked, a Sulfuring Vortex gets Blue blasted and I seal the deal with stasis and 6 counters in hand left.
G3: No creature beside Grim Lavamancer start from him again, but three Mishras Bauble to dodge my Black Vise. Life points used as a resource long enough until it’s time to stop playing magic via Stasis. He refused to die couple of turns as he stays low on cards. An attempt of Red Blast the Stasis nor the try of double Fireblast, Bolt move worked vs my sculpted counter-heavy hand. 2:1
1-0
Round 2 vs Jan S ub StifleNought
G1: Nearly complete game went draw-go of both players. He attempted two times a Nought+Stifle over which we found with couple cards. Afterwards each drew up to seven again both time. I then finally find a Black Vise and done my one-mana-win-the-game-trick. Wired and fun game. 1:0
G2: Game went like we finished the first one. Playing lands, attempting Nought+Stifle, counterwars, draw cards. Difference this time two Duress reveal a hand with mono counters and bounce spells. A Nought was able to bit me from 20 down to 8, before Stasis comes out and locks everything up. 2:0
2-0
Round 3 vs Frank Roelofs with angry elves
I had the advantage to smell his deck choice from a mile away against the wind. But knowing I have to fight elves made me chuckle in fear and focus all energy to gave my best. (This match-up belongs to the worst match-ups as Quirion Ranger single handily counters my whole deck principle.)
G1: The “gave my best” part went really well… until turn once on the draw when the Nemesis in form of Quirion already hits the battlefield. Game done – next! Whatsoever I played out the game, in case one two miracle happens. While I struggle a bit to build up lands, he also does some unimpressive elves stuff, Survival and Tanglewire gets countered, Deranged Hermit brings Squirrels. Stasis comes down. Hey, look, I found myself in a nice position if there wasn’t this Quirion, haha. Beatdowns keep coming of a Yavimaya Granger and in a final swung of the four squirrels. 0:1
G2: Island go – Forest Quirion Ranger. As I value this card incredible high counter it with a Foil, discarding two cards for its alternative cost. Having low resources vs elves is bad, but facing a Ranger is even worse. He has a second Ranger next turn and builds up a board state of manadorks, Squee and a morph. This morph is 100% a Nantuko Vigilante who can take care of a potential Stasis. I do have Stasis and Chain of Vapor to bounce his Vigilante, but missing a counter to protect Stasis from him coming back or a Naturalize. While waiting and digging I get the beatz, which continue after the above plan worked for me and he gets locked under Stasis. But Quirion still there doing everything. 0:2
2-1
Round 4 vs Roelf Geert Gronewold
G1: Within the first couple turns I drew all four Daze and countering a spell (e.a. Scroll Rack, Werebear) with each of them. On top of that I dodged an Armageddon with Gush on my ONLY two Islands. While returning the same lands that often, I got hit from a single Nimble Mongoose from 20 to 9 for 1 per turn, then three more times as he finally reaches threshold. 0:1
G2: Never had a game like this before, but Island-> Black Vise plus single left in Daze for his Land Tax seals the deal. 1:1
G3: Two early Nimble Mongoose appeared and got slowed down of Propaganda. I couldn’t handle a Sylvan Library but nothing impressive popped out of it. Countering his Enlightened Tutor targets of Scroll Rack and Land Tax. A second Scroll Rack could be activated once before Stasis introduced the beginning of the end. He tries do stay alive with Abolish attempts and sacrificing Lands to Zuran Orb, but nothing worked out anymore at this stage. 2:1
3-1
Round 5 vs Selene Bergers with Full English Breakfast
G1: Keeping a solid hand against mull 5 is great. Countering the front half of Cabal Therapy, then losing Stasis to it is bad. Getting poked to death of a Llanowar Elves and a Psychatog is the worst. I couldn’t find a second copy of Stasis in my top 45 cards. 0:1
G2: Island, Impulse, Gush, Foil, Annul, Counterspell and an irrelevant Vise. Not the best, but I keep this now and as a solid six if u subtract the Vise. A Duress of her takes my Annul, the second one makes sure the way is clear and she plays Survival of the Fittest without any counterforce. Tutoring up a Xantid Swarm forces me to counter that one instead working towards a plan of Vapor Snag the Survival and counter it on the next attempt. While I drew my second land to play a Curse Totem the game is already done. She searched herself for a Volrath’s Shapeshifter and killed me with Akroma, Angel of Wrath + Phage the Untouchable combination. 0:2
3-2
Round 6 vs Yannick Nelemann with Phantom Oath
G1: An early turn two Oath of druids never ever get triggered of me, nor a late funeral Pyre. He beats me with many Mishras Factories to low life. A Stasis was waiting in my hand to a right moment and stops all the work they made. My kill condition is waiting to show up, so I needed to bounce my Stasis couple times, countering my own Impulse with Thwart to unlock three Islands. Until the game ends, I successfully watched out for his on board and potential upcoming Wastelands and Rishadan Ports lurking for a perfect spot to let me stumble. 1:0
G2: Double Mox Diamond, double Rishadan Port made my hand me look bad, as I couldn’t done anything with my Annuls if he would have done anything meaningful to the board. Constantly hit my land drops, let a Decree of Justice (4 & 5) and Mishra attacks happen before I end of turn use Mana Short. This tapped all his lands including a Wasteland, two ports. Stasis and Black Vise going to lock him, but the kill took much longer as he plays a high number of lands and Mox Diamonds to get rid two cards.
4-2
As planned, there is no top8 on Sunday so the best Swiss player is crowned as the winner. We had a 4-0-1 vs 5-0 pairing in the last round, which counted as a final for sure. Congratz to the winner Jens Jäger (angry elves) and runner-up Flippi Böhm (uw Tempo)
Wrap-up:
I hope everybody faced me during the main event had fun meeting and playing against me too, even I was mean to them with Blood Moons and Stasis sleeved up. Beside my good results I am really happy that I was able to participate and hang around with all of u in such a great venue within this beautiful city. A bit of a bummer I missed the great events on Friday do to work, over-read the bring a Troll raffle, couldn’t talk and toast with everyone. Looking forward to meet all of u again as soon as possible, it was a blast. OI, OI, OI and thank you all! Extra thanks and credits goes to: Ron Dijkstra, organizer; Henk de Groot & Richard Boonstra, organizers left and right hand; Thomas van den Berg, great photographer; @Timmy and @Richard, coverage; “German guys” to share hotel, breakfast and daytime; Location service for filling up my glass when empty; Icky Pack, rock band; Christian Reinhard, in advance discotroll talk.Highly recommended u should check out the Facebook group “Uthden Troll Cup” > “Uthden Troll Cup III” for great people, more reports, event- and deckpics!
Uthendroll Cup III: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1011773076248725
