Hanover, Germany
Saturday 28.09.2024
Oldschool Brawl

written by Meddling_Maxe

This is the fourth time that Martin has hosted his annual event at his home. A cozy event with beer, chili, axe throwing and magic is coming up. Even before the event starts, I’m super happy to be part of the Shield Wall Cup again.

Shild Wall Cup IV – 2024 (and shame on me I forgot my swag-vest)

Due to last year’s winner, the format this time was set to oldschool-brawl with gentleman rules. The unofficial-official rules are linked here: https://sentineloldschoolmtg.com/old-school-brawl-a-93-94-commander-variant/
To sum the ruleset up: 59 Cards +1 Commander, singleton, gentleman bannings, mana burn and for absolutely good reasons Rubinia Soulsinger and Tetsu Umezawa are banned as being a commander.

I started my deckbuilding journey quite a while ago before the event, as I was already hooked on the oldschool 7pt singleton.
At first I was interested in Sol Kanar the Swamp King, because his 5-5 stats are huge and he offers access to the best colors of the game. With red and black bringing very good removal. However there were way too many good cards in three colors available for the deck and I was far away from 59 cards. I was also put off by the multicolored manabase without any great fixing and only one dual-land each.

Due to the above Sentinel Brawl rules, there is at least one option for a commander for each mono color. So Sindbad was also available, although he is not legendary by nature.

I found the restriction to only one color to be a very positive effect. I can play most of the signed memory cards from previous events, because I chose blue mainly blue cards for them. The color screwing is already excluded, you only have to find the best cards and synergies in one color when building a deck. Over a total of six test matches against various other commanders, I came to the conclusion that Sindbad’s land draw ability generates an enormous advantage (as long as he fulfills his hit quota…), big mana spells are definitely possible to play, Black Lotus is overrated and I prefer to have a lot of mana every two turns with Mana Vault and Basalt Monolith. During Deckbuilding I also switched on and off from Jade Statue, Unsommon, Brass Man, Steal Artifact, Amnesia, Nevinyrral’s Disk, Mishras Workshop, Arena, Diamond Valley, Island of Wak-Wak, but 59 cards are hard to achive.

Now after the event I would definitely cut the Flood. I see the Pirate Ship and the Su-Chi as shaky candidates when played with Manaburn. Instead, I would now favor Force Spike, Juggernaut and Boomerang.

And so begins the journey of the young sailor Sindbad and his seven voyages.

1.Voyage: The journey to the diamond mountain

In our games, Sven ramps up with Birds of Paradise and we put a lot of creatures in front of us. Usually, however, mine were a little better individually and above all – flying. Against late X spells, however, “counterspell or bust” applies in this format, too. In game three, I invited his Falconer to experience adventures on my side and seek for the Diamond Valley. Sven didn’t like that idea much and preferred to disintegrate him. That was probably the right thing to do, but then my crew went for killing him instead of finding any treasure. Sindbad was really bursting with energy in the first game and got off to a great start. In the two subsequent games, he was apparently seasick for the first time and so the first of his statistics looked pretty bad with 5-7, 1-7 and 2-7 hits against him.
1-0
– DECKFOTO TBA –

2.Voyage: The journey to the island of giants

Couple of scary monsters saw the light of day during these games. But the true giant of the island was the big fat scary Sol Kanar. Pascal sent him to trample on me, while Sindbad was constantly shot at in all matches. He only had two activations in three games. But he indeed hit and sank both of them 0-0 ,2-0, 0-0. Nothing more about the match is written down in the books, as there is already a illustrated film version of the whole thing:
– YOUTUBE TBA –
as long its still on Twitch its here starting at 1h:04min
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2262398187
2-0

3.Voyage: The adventure with the big bird Roc

Sebastian was one of the players I was able to test the brawl format in general and especially my deck against. Previously with Angus Mackenzie, he was also with Sindbad today. Probably the lack of fog-ing power and thanks to our match inspiration led to this decision. In both matches, my Sindbad’s training hours on the big bird Roc were noticeable. With 3-3 and 5-2 hits, he gave me a clear card advantage. With Air Elemental, cloned Air Elemental and further counter backup, folends was able to live up to this adventure.
3-0

4.Voyage: The journey to the island of the grave

Oh, let me tell you, this journey led straight to the grave without being allowed to pass Go. On the play, Tobi put down a Black Vise, which does full damage to me twice. A mana stone and a Timewalk on my part give me some more damage, but also an Air Eemental and a Mahamoti Djinn. He has a perfect removal for both with Ashes to Ashes. I die from a Lightning Bolt before the stolen Sengir Vampire gets it going. In the second game, however, the renewed Vise is not as effective, but the Underworld Dreams is even more so. Sindbad’s attempts to attack are just as bad as the lack of a potential search for lands that could cause double damage. He finishes his yourney with a record of 0-0, 0-0 treasures found. Dreams ticks faster than I can do damage, as more followers are cleared away with Ashes to Ashes and a Detonate on Su-Chi. Ouch, Manaburn hurts!
Note: The picture of Tobi above is from a different round.
3-1

5.Voyage: The adventure with the demons

The second game Peer showed what tricks Adun has up its sleeve. The stories range from T1 Birds of Paradise – T2 Mana Vault, Chaos Orb, Regrowth – T3 Chaos Orb again on my islands. Right up to the recurring Scavager Folks, Juggernauts and Triskelions. Together with Diamond Valley, this allowed for some really good Magic against me. Peer you own yourself a big thumbs up! Games one and three I was able to keep your demons well in check. However my counterspells deal with your threats and you must surrender to my crew. Either I was under pressure or Sindbad got shot a couple of times, he only made it to 1-1, 0-0 and 0-1 in our games.
4-1

6.Voyage: The journey to the island of the monkeys

Greetings to all my previous opponents, but this match was the best of the day. Game 1 saw a certain amount of back and forth until I put an Aladdin’s Ring on the table with ramp and constant Sindbad hits, as I had already done couple times that day. It simply knocks everything down, including three Xira. Together with a Prodigal Sorcerer, even 5 toughness creatures were no longer on the field and even some of my small creatures attacked. Game 2 I got hit by a Sinkhole and I basically died with two lands and a Mana Vault. When the third Island comes back again, the stabilization attempts fail. Game 3 takes a really long time again. The good removal holds up my crew. His increasingly small army and Sengir Vampire are held off for a long time with Icy Manipulator and Maze of Ith. Unfortunately, Sind-BAD lives up to his name in the last game and literally makes a fool of himself. With his hit rate of 5-7, 0-0, 2-9, he doesn’t give me any lands in the decisive third game. So his friend’s Alladin’s Ring comes a few turns late. This was enough to see an revealed X-spell from his Sylvan Library on the very last turn. Otherwise, Marco’s eight life points would have been eaten banana-like away in a flash.
4-2

7.Voyage: The return to Baghdad

It’s not time to go home yet. The fairy tale has some more pages left to tell.
Everyone still had some of the prizes to collect, picking from a shared pool of cards everyone brought with them. Picking was allowed in order of standings. Since random pairings were made every round for social reasons, the standings were decided according to the “match win” >”own game win” > “own game loss” > “head to head” principle. Congratulations to Thomas for this years win! The honor to choose a old school format for next year is now your burden.

I decided to take the pile with a Braingeyser as well as an altered Swamp and stamped Urborg.
Sadly my picture does not show the complete pool as it was shot before everything laid out. Two places are empty and the gifted altered cards from Kugelblitze guys are missing.

Axe throwing has also become a tradition at the event during the lunch break. The winner receives an aged Uncle Istvan. Congratulations to J.P. on this year’s trophy!
One of my many failed attempts at the in the meantime demolished hittingboard is viewable below:

I’ll close the storybook now with a few shared impressions and all the deck pictures that haven’t been posted yet.

A big thank you to everyone who was there on that great day!

Special thanks go to Martin for inviting us over once again and for treating us to such a delicious beer and chili.
Thank you!!!

Guys have a good one, bye bye.
“Always have a safe journey and always a hand’s breadth of water under the keel”
-Meddling_Maxe