NEOS 14 & XPt 2025

INTRODUCTION

2025 was another fulfilling year for me personally and Magic-wise: I extended my NEOS Webcam League winning streak to three years, finished 4th in X-Point, had a blast at Lobstercon (6-3 main event and won Team Trios), and reached the Summer Derby finals during the Summer of SwedishTM. All told, a very successful year slinging spells. Even so, the time I dedicated towards Old School decreased. I didn't put in nearly as many hours jamming games in the practice room as I did prior.

There's several factors I attribute this to. First, my teaching schedule ramped up this year, going "All A.P., All the time." Teaching three sections of writing-intensive Advanced Placement U.S. Government (Grade 10) and two sections Advanced Placement U.S. History (Grade 11) has cut into much of my free time for daydreaming about cardboard Angels and Dragons. Second, my deckbuilding and playtesting has stagnated somewhat. I've whittled and sanded my Old School gauntlet for five years now, and deviate less from what's worked for me before. Third (and most importantly), I've been spending more time with my family. My daughter's a little older, staying up a bit later, and has graduated out of the preschool/kindergartener stuff to a higher threshold of reading, watching, and gaming. Our favorites this year were:

Board games: Carcassonne, Clue, Shadow Ninjas, Battle of Hoth
Switch 2: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Mario Kart World
Movies & TV: Indiana Jones, School of Rock, WWE
Book series: Harry Potter, Redwall

We had wonderful family vacations to Arizona in April, New York City in August, and Philadelphia in December. After a mini-break from Magic at the end of the year, I feel re-energized. I love Old School and its community, and plan to keep at it in 2026.

PART I: X-POINT 2025 LEAGUE (*4th Place*)

🔴⚪ "Tax-Edge Aggro" Tournament #48 (5-2, *Top 16*)

Deck theme: The Taxman Cometh

I started the year playing a reliable X-Point staple: RW Tax-Edge. This deck functions well, though people are adapting to it more. The weakness - ands it's a problematic one - is decks that are packing Disenchant are able to disrupt this deck's Tax-Winds of Change draw engine, then proceed to cast bigger and badder creatures. For this reason I fully endorse playing four copies of Land Tax, because (a) I mulligan extremely aggressively to find one, and (b) you need backup in case the first one gets 'Chanted. Disenchants abound these days, and aggressive weenie strategies that can operate off a low curve were popular - making Ankh/Vise a less effective theme to center around.

I had a solid record this month, going 5-1 in the group stage but then losing in the first round of the playoffs to Viktor Osterberg. Viktor had a great 2025, mostly playing Lion-Dib-Bolt. In our Top 16 match Viktor had the timely Disenchants, as well as a sideboarded Black Vise package that cancelled out my Ivory Towers. He was a step ahead of me throughout the games and it highlighted some of the weak points Tax-Edge has in this meta.

I did also run this deck back in NEOS' August X-Point. I went 4-2 missing the playoffs, with losses to Jeff Grasso on Pink Weenie (non-Tax version) and Eric Cripps' aggressive Mono Red deck. My loss to Jeff was similar to what I'd encountered with Viktor: low curve creatures and burn backed by timely Disenchants, allowing Jeff's stronger creatures to outclass my Orcs. I really don't think these matchups are that bad, but you need to be on the right side of things like the Javelineer race or getting a Tax to stick. For sure it is harder to exploit your engine when you have quality opponents who know how to effectively play around it, as these fellows did.

⚫ "Mono-Black" Tournaments #49 (4-2), #51 (4-1, *Top 16*) & #53 (5-2, *Top 4*)

Deck theme: Marmo

In 2024 I took on the assignment of playing Mono Black and Mono White, and definitely came away from it preferring the Black deck. Hymn is a very powerful card, probably overcosted at 2 Points, but we haven't yet crossed the bridge to half-pointed cards. I think that's the future; if the goal was to calibrate things precisely, I submit that Hymn and Factory should be 1.5, and Swords, Disenchant, and Bolt would be .5 apiece. Things being what they are, I get why the X-Point mods have stuck with 2 on Hymn.

I previously tried to play 3 Hymn 4 Factory, but the power of Mox Jet shows in this build. I like the 4 Hymn/Jet configuration better. I don't own Juzam Djinn, so take that into consideration. I still think you can't go wrong with this more budget-friendly creature suite, and not playing Juzam does open up things like sideboard City in a Bottle. City in a Bottle and Blood Moon are both hosers that I feel have a lesser impact in X-Point compared to run-of-the-mill Old School. It might have to do with the current trends in deckbuilding, or maybe the fact that not everyone is splashing for Black and Blue for high-powered restricted cards as you would in Atlantic or Swedish - but I don't see many X-Point decks that get crippled by these traditional sideboard staples.

I carried a winning record all three of the months I played Mono-Black, and also won a February NEOS title. Some of my losses were to a tough-luck mirror against Travis Turning in #49 who was running 4x Juzams, a Top 16 knockout by Jesus Mansilla in #51 with a speedier version of Mono-Black including Stone Throwing Devils, and two close losses to Ian Roncoroni in #53 on a Blue Robots deck. Ian's build was hard to handle with multiple copies Brass Men to hold down the ground against my Knights, as well as some very timely topdecks of Chaos Orb and Control Magic to turn the tables in some games where I was ahead. Great matches all around.

Greed was very useful in several matches I had against midrange and control decks and might try to find space for a second copy. Gloom is currently occupying 4 spaces in the sideboard - these could be diversified, but there's a few things suggesting against that. First, there's not a ton of wiggle room as to cards I actively want to side out in each matchup, so there's no sense loading up on excess sideboard options you don't need. Always think about the mapping, even if just in round/approximate numbers. Second there are still Mono White decks out there - likely to be more in 2026 since Wrath of God got freed in the new points announcement. Ritual/Gloom has big upside against these decks. Finally, Gloom in multiples is really what seals the deal, making it nigh-impossible to cast a Serra or Wrath of God. If better options came along I'd consider them, but right now there's nothing really burning to gain a slot in my current sideboard scheme.

🟢⚪🔵 "Bant-Geddon" Tournaments #50 (4-3, *Top 16*) & #54 (5-4, *Top 4*)

Deck theme: Cape Cod, Massachusetts

My only real branch-out deck this year was Bant-Geddon, which I played partly because I like to make the rounds on the color wheel and use as many of my duals as I can. Good friend and Lobstercon teammate Rich Arevalo and I took to calling this the "Top 16 Deck" in a half-joking manner. This began when I went 3-3 one month and unexpectedly made the playoffs. The deck's strong but always feels like a coin-flip to me. Joe Becica said very aptly after we played: "X-Point is a reasonably fair format...Erhnam-Geddon maybe feels a little too fair, though." I agree with that assessment, but nonetheless I did have engaging matches both months I ran it and got to see what it was made of. A lot of matches went to three games and were generally competitve.

I think what opened the door a crack for this list was Wrath going to 1 point in 2024. But now that that's off the table, it's going to get tougher for Bant-Geddon once again. The more recurrent problem is that Icatian Javelineers was, for my money, the X-Point Card of the Year in 2025. A deck that relies on 1-toughness mana dorks is walking into strong headwinds. I tried to adjust for this by adding my own Javelineers to the main and side, I liked the split approach because there are plenty of matchups where they are a non-factor. 'Geddon is still a heck of a card against the half of the format that isn't trying to speed-racer you. I tried doing multiple Spirit Links in my first iteration of the deck, found them a little too high-risk/high-reward, but maybe that's a good sideboard option for narrower circumstances like opposing Dibs. The overperformers were Erhnam, the utility Ice Storms, and Control Magic, Karma, and Icy Manipulators out of the board. I've routinely run Icy's as a curve-topping option in a lot of X-Point decks. Here they double to put more pressure on mana with Geddon/Ice Storm as well as tapping Mazes/blockers to get damage across. The sideboard aspect comes down to the fact that many decks containing Disenchant decks will shave some against creature-heavy strategies like this or Lion-Dib. In Old School an unchecked Icy can do tremendous damage.

The two months playing Bant-Geddon were rollicking good times. In #50 I went 4-3 overall, losing twice to the winner of the month: Michael Parler. Michael won the month with a Pink Weenie deck. He beat me in the Swiss and eliminated me in the Top 16 using an effective combination of Javelineers, Blood Moons, and burn. This was before I switched to Javelineers instead of Spirit Links. I never felt out of either of these matches, and I recall them being pretty close - just a key card here or there making the difference. That's how it always felt with this deck. In #54 I ended up a motley 5-4, earning a rare playoff slot at 3-3, then going on a solid run to make Top 4. There I was eliminated by Viktor once again on his customary Lion-Dib-Bolt deck.

2026 is seeing Sol Ring come down to 2 and Ancestral go up to 6, among other things. I think this may be the time to drop Ancestral from this deck in favor of Sol Ring and other goodies - maybe some combination of Time Walk, Mana Drain, Braingeyser, another Mox...a third Geddon is also a consideration if midrange/control decks make a real comeback. I haven't thought ahead enough about which configuration to go with, it's very much going to be metagame dependent. I'll surely return to this at some point in 2026, with moderate expectations for Ye Olde Top 16 Deck.

🔴🔵🟢 "RUG Aggro" Tournaments #52 (9-1, *2nd Place*) & #57 (4-2)

Deck theme: Yacht Rock

It's funny I said that Bottle and Blood Moon are both underperformers in X-Point, then proceeded to my best finish of the year with this deck that is soft to both. I like to think I at least show respect to Blood Moon by having 5 basics, and can try to play around it with potential Counterspell and Blue Blast. Bottle is just f**king miserable and there's not much way around it. I used to have Artifact Blast - that one's OK, but this deck is also very interested in blowing up opposing Factories to get through attackers, so Shatter gets the nod. At least Bottle is generally underrepresented in the field, owing partially to its financial cost and fnarrow functionality.

This deck has been in my X-Point gauntlet for a few years now, it's highly dependable. I was still in my Utility Ice Storm Era between this and Bant-Geddon. Again, I liked what I saw. This was partially motivated by Library of Alexandria coming down to 3, but also the problems presented by opposing Factories and Mazes. It's a solid tempo play in a deck with multiple 1- and 2-drops to stave off huskier blockers for a turn and bridge to my own Erhnams. I have never been in love with the sideboard Vise plan - perhaps it was more effective in times when Land Tax was prevalent, or if Ivory Towers continue their recent surge in 2026. Without the Draw 7's (which I am confident this deck should not play) Vise just feels too swingy, and I hate the potential of drawing a complete brick at any point outside of the first few turns. Even the defensive decks can usually dump enough cards between Swords, Bolts, and mana rocks to get under Vise. Maybe it could be something hyper-aggressive like Manabarbs for such matchups.

In my best X-Point month of 2025 I put together a great 9-1 run in #52, defeating Viktor in the Top 4 but losing to Brandon Equils in the finals. Against Viktor I mustered some quick Apes and Erhnams that overwhelmed his smaller White creature army, and felt less vulnerable to Javelineers than when I was on Bant or Tax-Edge. Brandon, however, had a very versatile midrange UWR Skies deck, exploiting the raw power of both Ancestral and Library of Alexandria. We had a very close match; I won game 1 by outrunning his active Library, but I couldn't overcome his Ancestrals in both games 2 and 3. He definitely sideboarded craftily and kept me off-balance; seeing Lions game 1 and Ivory Tower game 2 made it unclear to me what tack to take. He told me after the game that he took Towers out for Game 3. Brandon's deck is what I see unfolding to be the direction of the format in 2026. More on that later.

⚪🔵🔴 "Lion-Dib-Bolt" Tournament #56 (6-2, *Top 8*)

Deck theme: Guard of the Citadel

I was back within striking distance for the League point chase, so I attempted to keep up the pressure by playing what's been my most successful deck of the last few years: Lion-Dib-Bolt. I turned in a representative month, advancing through the group stage at 5-1 and finally getting knocked off in the Top 8 by Jon Dittert. Jon was playing a creature-heavy WRb deck. It was Red-White aggro splashing Derelors, no Swords to Plowshares, opting for burn instead. It was a good deck that I wasn't quite sure how to approach in sideboarding. I was anticipating Sedge Trolls - which also weren't in it - and didn't sideboard optimally. Jon got me but succumbed in the semis, paving the way for an all-Lion-Dib-Bolt finals. LDB accounted for five of the Top 8 decks this month. It's felt like the class of the format for a long while, and will continue to be in the mix of premier aggro decks in 2026. The only hit it took from the new points changes was seeing Ancestral rise a point; I'd just settle for Ancestral and 4x Factory and move on. Some (including Viktor) have been opting for White Knight over Order, the logic being mainly to counteract Javelineers and Desert. I tried out a single Knight in place of one of those slots, I don't think it ever made much difference either way in the games I played but is worth examining.

⚪🔵🔴 "UWR Midrange" Tournaments #55 (6-2, *Top 8*) & #58 (4-2)

Deck theme: New England Old School (NEOS)

Something like this is where I see the format shifting in 2026. It fared well last year, winning #52 and Rich Shay also won August X-Point NEOS and X-Point #58 using a variant of it. Rich and I were theorycrafting it a bit while watching WWE Summerslam this August. With Lion-Dib-Bolt running rampant, moving in a more midrange direction seemed like a good metagame choice. Gaining Wrath for 0 points is likely going to push this in more of a control (and possibly creatureless) direction. I tried it with "some Lions" and "no Lions" and preferred no Lions. This was my #55 list which admittedly was more about splashing around to see what worked and what didn't. Javelineer plays more of a "speed bump" role in this deck, which is useful, but if Wrath comes back in Jav's will get pushed aside. I could see potentially siding in Javelineers against hyper-aggressive decks, it's also a good way to dump early drops against a Vise if need be. Ivory Tower and Fountain of Youth may be preferable for that on a WoG plan, however.

I'm a little sad that a deck with Ancestral and Library seems to be on the rise as "the solution" in X Point. Old School gets very reductive very fast when someone creates an overwhelming advantage with Ancestral or a runaway Library. While Ancestral did rise to 6, the core of Ancestral/Recall/LoA is still available for 10 points. Wrath coming off the pointed list will greatly complement these strategies. It is conceivable that Ancestral could be chopped down into Sol Ring, Braingeyser, and 2 other points; I gave that configuration a spin in #60 and ended up 4-2. Layer on top of that 4x Swords, 4x Counterspell, 4x Disenchant, and 4x Lightning Bolt and I'd say we could be in for a long 2026. And so the pendulum swings.

CONCLUSION

As the dust settled, I finished in the Top 4. I skipped the final month because it looked like Viktor, Brandon, and Felix were far enough ahead of me that I couldn't catch up. I also had been looking for a bit of a break as both the Winter Derby and Christmas vacation were approaching. Spiritually, I was ready to shed the 2025 X-Point list and embrace 2026. I look forward to exploring the contours of the new metagame and am very excited for the Hartford Hydra Tilt in April, which is X-Point this time. XX-Point has been announced for Atlanta and NEOS in March, which involves having two unified X-Point decks and no sideboards. We'll see what the future holds!

PART II: NEW ENGLAND OLD SCHOOL SEASON 14 (*1st Place*) 🏆

🔴⚪ "Tax-Edge Aggro" August NEOS: X-Point (4-2)

Deck theme: The Taxman Cometh

My streak as NEOS Champion stretches back to January, 2023. I've now won 7 of the last 8 5-month league seasons. I didn't go "as hard" this year prepping for the monthlies, but a big part of that was having a solid foundation of previously successful decks to draw upon when Jared Doucette announced the formats.

For NEOS' August X-Point I went with the same deck I ran in XP #48, to a similar result (more details are back at the top of the X-Point section). I approach each month with the mentality of aiming for a winning record, I'm not disappointed going 4-2. That keeps you in the hunt, and I'd just have to try to break through another month.

⚪🔵⚫ "Guardian++" September NEOS: 7-Point Singleton (7-1, *Top 4*)

Deck theme: Zelda ~ Breath of the Wild

I hadn't played much 7-Point Singleton in 2025, so I went looking for a good list that spoke to me. I settled on this deck by Alberto Núñez. It appealed to my affinity for control decks - which I played less of in 2025 - and gave me a reason to use the Guardian Beast and Power Artifact I picked up last year. Proxy-friendly affords me the chance to play with Mishra's Workshop, which otherwise I wouldn't get to do. I really enjoyed this deck - I swapped out a Dust to Dust from Alberto's list, a card that can be very explosive but also is narrow. I went with Juggernaut instead. Juggernaut played great here, though you still might want to find a spot for Dust to Dust depending on where you see the metagame going. The Abyss was brutally oppressive on many decks I faced, and I Tutored for it quite often. Balance at 1 felt like a real bargain. I think for this archetype, this list is close to optimal. My deck photo was inspired by what's now become my favorite video game of all-time: Zelda Breath of the Wild. I played a lot of that and Tears of the Kingdom over the last couple of years.

I posted a strong month, going 6-0 in the group and making it to the semifinals against NEOS Commissioner Jared. I'd won my match against Jared in the group stage, finding Abyss in time against his RG deck. We played a great rematch on Xanadude's porch (Xanacon '25). On a brisk late-September night in New England we dueled for the Semifinals. Game 2, I gained infinite life by Swords'ing my own Power-Monolithed Dragon Engine. But games 1 and 3, Jared was able to rush and burn me out before I could stabilize or find The Abyss. He finished me off with double X spells in the decisive Game 3. Red-Green'll do that. Still, a fun match and a great month overall.

I ran this exact deck again in an online Guildhouse Games tournament, making Top 8 but losing to recent Lobstercon Champion Pez Vnholy on Mono Black. I felt pretty decent there, but again was light on Abyss draws, and finally fell to a Pestilence I couldn't remove in time.

Overall, 7 Point Singleton is a hard format to pin down. It's surely got a handful of best decks - like the Green-Red focussed aggro decks, Black and Black-Red decks, and some kind of Control situation like this or UW Skies. The rest feels like a pile of midrange strategies which are all probably just OK. It's an enjoyable, casual format, more casual even than your usual Old School. I have a long-term project of trying to build two-color decks for all 10 of the two-color combos, and to just keep fidgeting with them as points shift. With a fairly busy MTG schedule in place already, and with the aforementioned downshift in MTG playing overall, I haven't gotten too far with this Magic resolution - but it's still in the back of my mind.

🔵🔴⚫ "Counter-Burn" October NEOS: Atlantic (5-2)

Deck theme: Space

Counterburn is a deck I keep coming back to in both Atlantic and Swedish. It gets overlooked because it is very traditional, but nonetheless effective. I feel pretty solid about my list, I brought a single Flying Man back in to gain some curviture without sacrificing too much to opposing Bottle. I definitely prefer Dwarven Soldier over Ironclaw Orcs when it is available in Fallen Empires formats. The ability to block an opposing Factory seems much more relevant to me than the quality loss of 1 toughness. There's far fewer Javelineers in regular Old School than in X Point, and Triskelion is going to really suck anyways if it resolves. You also legitimately want to be able to chump block in a race situation where you could be flying over with Serendibs.

The rest is all pretty self-explanatory, I do like the Derelors out of the board anytime I am facing a Workshop deck or siding out Blood Moons in general. The off-color Mox Emerald is a flex slot that could be another Shatter or Counterspell. I probably overcompensated for Hymn decks with three Psychic Purge in the board, but my thinking was that after the Summer of Swedish, people might want to dust off their Hymns. I don't think Purge ever came into play, though. I have seen players getting crafty lately and siding in Purges against The Deck and in other unusual spots - something to keep an eye out for.

I got off to a blazing 5-0 start, but lost an important match to Matt Messa with his Twiddle Vault deck. It's a match I feel pretty good about. Having a fast clock backed by disruption, and some pesky enchantments like Blood Moon and Energy Flux is where you want to be. Still, he powered through with some stronger draws and crucial backup Red Blasts when needed. While I was still advancing to the playoffs at 5-1, this loss gave Matt the group win on tiebreakers and put me in a wildcard slot. I ended up getting bounced by Brannon Ozark in the wildcard bracket, he was on The Deck. It really came down to him having the play as a higher seed. I had him on the ropes game 3, but there was a crucial turn where he had just played Tome and I cast a lethal Fireball against his one card remaining in hand. His last card was a Blue Blast, then Book took over. Close match; both Matt and Brannon owed me some payback from last season.

Paul Calder put up a strong showing running basically the same Counterburn deck as me, but Corey Farach took down the month with The Deck. Corey had previously beaten me earlier in 2025 at the Granite Clash in New Hampshire and clearly knows his way around the matchup. News flash: The Deck is still good in Atlantic. As for the season totals, another good month gave me a 3 point lead over the closest challengers, Rich Arevalo and Xanadude.

⚪🔵🔴⚫ "Lion-Dib-Bolt" November NEOS: Yeticon (9-0, *1st Place*) 🏆

Deck theme: New England Old School

November NEOS was a rerun of this year's Yeticon format. Yeticon was base Atlantic, but with the twist of allowing up to 4 Strips. For each Strip you add beyond the first you need to sacrifice LoA, Ancestral, or Mind Twist. LoA made sense to drop since you were conceivably going to face more Strips, and I don't love it with the mana in Lion Dib Bolt, anyways. I considered dropping Mind Twist, but the realization I came to was that I'd still want Tutor, so it seemed pointless to abandon Twist when it wouldn't really make the mana any better.

The experiment was going with a Javelineers plan, I settled on 2 main and 2 side. The logic was that this format emphasized/benefitted beatdown strategies. Opening up 4 Strips at the expense of LoA and blue/black splashes indicated that Green, Red, Green-Red, and Red-White would be more widely played. Javelineers should be good in this context. Good versus DFB Green, good versus Goblins, good versus opposing Lions, good to give a little edge to your Serendibs versus opposing Dibs. Altogether they proved so-so. I faced Phillip Collier in the Top 8 where he had some Birds of Paradise, obviously Javs felt good there. I played a version of this in the previous 4-Strip Summer Derby and went 5-3, losing to Green twice. This also motivated my Javelineers choice.

The only other curious sideboard cards are Shivan/Jade, which are there as anti-Blood Moon tech. Parker Bowab recently had 3(!) Jade Statues in his sideboard for the Winter Derby. I had Mana Drain - more of a "Why not?" for slow matchups. I ran Geddons but Geyser could also be good there. I have trouble mixing them though, since they are so antisynergistic. I didn't overthink the month or playtest much at all, Lion-Dib-Bolt is just that good. Having an extra Strip felt great to demolish Factories so as to get my little ground attackers through. I ended up prevailing and taking down the month, notching a perfect 9-0 record. In the final analysis, Javelineers felt underpowered in a format still definied by cards like Ancestral and Mind Twist, despite the Yeti rules trying to disincentivize them. Yeti played more like Atlantic than it did Boreal.

🔴🟢🔵⚫ "Fae'Tog" December NEOS: Boreal (4-2)

Deck theme: Lobsterfest

Entering the last month, all I had to do was put up a half-decent showing and the league championship would be mine again. With 4x Strip/Boreal Winter Derby coming, and with the winter's work starting to pile up in December, I just copied over the Fae'Tog deck I'd used to win the last three consecutive NEOS Boreal months (May 2022, 2024, and 2025).

I went 4-2, with losses to Luke Feder, who Channel-Fireballed for the win (awesome!), and Xanadude on Sedge Troll Burn. Not good enough to advance to the playoffs, but good enough to secure my sixth consecutive NEOS league title.

As I write this, I continued running hot with Fae'Tog deck and am 8-2 in the Winter Derby so far. I am in the Top 4 awaiting my next opponent (Pez or Parker). I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the sideboard Erhnam Djinn, who flourishes in a burn-heavy format. The sketchy manabase continues to hold up, we'll see where it takes us in the semifinals (and hopefully beyond!).

Here's a few more decks from a handful of other events I participated in over the past six months.

⚪🔵🔴⚫ "Lion-Dib-Bolt-Counter" Summer Derby: Swedish (11-1, *2nd Place*)

Deck theme: Summer Derby

This deck is proof positive that cruising the practice room for games can pay off. I was feeling uninspired as the Summer Derby approached, and was planning on running the Counterburn deck I'd put some time into. One day, I ran into Michael Parler who was also readying for the Derby. I was testing Counterburn and Michael always seemed to have the answers to everything I was doing - even to my Blood Moons. Every time he pulled out another card - Bolt, Swords, Counterspell, Su Chi - I wondered, "How did he fit that card in there, too?!" Michael shared his decklist and it looked like the Lauter/Triple S build, but squeezing in Lightning Bolt. His rationale was that this also opened up Red Blast from the board to help level up the mirror match.

I began crunching the sideboard mapping numbers, and what I started to notice was there were enough slots to do something unexpected: transform into Lion-Dib-Bolt. I reverse-engineered what a typical LDB deck would look like after sideboarding versus The Deck, which is why Wheel of Fortune and a single Chain Lightning are in the board, along with 4 Psionic Blast. You can take out the slower/reactive cards like Su Chi and Swords to Plowshares to open up the requisite slots. You can also use this as a play/draw strategy after game one or two, as the Draw 7's get a lot more attractive when you know you're going first. On the other side, in some matchups you could opt into a more slow, controlling style of Triple S deck by adding in Serra, the fourth Swords, and Recall.

The experiment worked exceedingly well, as I went undefeated (11-0) all the way to the finals. I did sideboard into the Burn package a lot - so much so that by the end of the event I believed it's probably better to just play LDB. If I were keeping this configuration from above, I'd at least swap in a Psi Blast for a maindeck Swords, as I don't like the counterproductive Swords/Dib dynamic. I faced a lot of traditional Triple S builds, I liked being able to keep them off-balance with my swervy sideboard plan. I did feel at a disadvantage when they went on Books and I wasn't Burning - another reason I found myself doing the Burn plan more frequently. I didn't use the Recall often, I probably would cut it and something else to find space for 2 Tomes.

Joe Singer of The Orb fame recorded and narrated most of my playoff games, including a rapid-fire Top 16 versus Will "Wheel" Magrann, and a slugfest against Richard "Stebbo" Stebbing in the semifinals. In the end I lost to Noah Steinbaum in the finals, but I had beaten him in the Swiss. I think the fact that decklists weren't published until the knockout round helped, particularly when you're doing something transformational. 11-1 is an impressive feat and I was super-glad to get some positive results from my collaboration with Michael P.

⚪🔵⚫🔴🟢 "The Deck" Lobstercon Main Event: Swedish (6-3)

Deck theme: In the Court of the Crimson King

Heading into Lobstercon, though I was tempted to play LDBC from the Derby, I defaulted to playing Keeper. Not a whole lot to see here; I ran back the same maindeck 60 and most of the sideboard from my last two Lobstercons. Rich Shay suggested trying out Spirit Link from the board, I had them but they didn't make much of an impact. In fact I did stumble a bit off one; in a match versus Rich Arevalo in the 6-1 bracket, a Spirit Link got Disenchanted and I was unable to stop his attacker.

In the time leading up to Lobstercon I'd experimented with another one of Rich Shay's ideas: putting 4 Su Chi's in the sideboard instead of Serra Angel. Some of the positives are: (1) getting on the scene faster to address attacking ground creatures, (2) being able to cast it with easier mana requirements, (3) being able to play it alongside The Abyss, and (4) being able to cast it while under a Blood Moon. The big downside is that as an artifact, it's walking into strong headwins post-board when other decks are maximizing their Disenchant effects to attack your Books and mana rocks. Even that argument is mitigated a bit by the reality that you can try to overload their Disenchants that way. But this problem is more pronounced in the mirror, for example, because in that context part of the traditional Angel sideboard plan is to force them to be somewhat honest in leaving in an amount of Swords. The Deck can ignore that if they don't have to cover Angels and instead can just lean on/maximize Disenchant effects that will also tag Su Chi. In anticipation to that, I'd just not bring in creatures at all and play a Tormod's-Twister plan. That might be OK, but it's less appealing in a timed event like Lobstercon. In the end, I stuck with the more traditional Angel approach for Lobstercon.

I went 6-3 in the main event, good but not good enough. It started off gangbusters, 5-0 in matches/10-0 in games. I had some engaging games including having to hold priority post-combat, cast a huge Mind Twist and Mana Drain it, Time Walk into next turn, and Geyser them out with no cards remaining in my library. Unfortunately my 3 losses showed it just wasn't my day. First match loss: I had a 3 permanents to 0 Turn 1 Timetwister, and lost. Second loss: Mana Drain/Braingeyser for 5 cards, whiff on all 5 draws. Third loss: against Jeff Liu, another Turn 1 Twister on the play, and another loss. I think winning any one of these rounds might have been enough to get me into the playoffs. You need to get lucky to win Magic tournaments - especially of this size - and this was proof that the cards just weren't with me that day.

I also have to say competitive tournaments are a young man's game. 9 rounds was mentally and physically grueling for me. Perhaps I've gotten too accustomed to "9PM-relax-with-a-beverage-from-the-comfort-of-my-own-home-with-yacht-rock-on-in-the-background" Webcam games, and I'm just out of the stamina required for one-day Grand Prix-style events.

But seriously, how incredible is Lobstercon? Seeing all the familiar faces and some new ones is a blast, a surreal reunion we get to do every year and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

🔴🔵⚫ "Counter-Burn" Lobstercon Team Trios: Alpha to Alliances (5-0, *1st Place*) 🏆

Deck theme: The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge

For day 2 of Lobstercon, I teamed with Chris "Mase" Mason and Rich Arevalo. This team came together when I saw Mase back at the 2025 Hydra Tilt and he asked if I wanted to squad up for Lobstercon Trios. The three formats were non-unified Atlantic, Alpha to Alliances, and 7-Point Singleton. Rich is well-versed in the 7-Point meta and had of late been doing very well in the online monthlies with Mono Black and Black-Red. Viktor Österberg prevailed in the 7-Point Worlds in Spain with Black-Red, so we saw no reason to abandon that plan for Lobstercon.

Mase played the sentimental deck: a 75-card copy of Jens Jaeger's second-place Lobstercon ATL deck from last year. It was a potent Workshops list - an archetype Mase is accustomed to playing. As Rich acquired four Mishra's Workshops this year, the stars were aligning for us. We borrowed the missing two Chains of Mephistopheles for the sideboard from Andy Baquero - it's good to have friends in high places. After the event we appeared on Andy and Jared S' The Bottomless Vault podcast to discuss our victory.

For my part, I was very comfortable sitting in the A2A seat. This version of A2A is Music City Old School/Bootlegger's Ball B&R list. It's 4 Strips, and also allows 4 Necropotence and 4 Force of Will, most notably. Then, of course, all the other goodies from Ice Age, Homelands, and Alliances such as the ubiquitous Mox Monkey (Gorilla Shaman), Incinerate, and Merchant Scroll. You lose nothing from typical '93/'94 Old School, so what you're looking at is really souped-up '96-era Vintage. I liked it quite a bit.

I previously practiced A2A in the Cyclops Smash I ran over the summer. I played Quinn Maurmann's Mirror-Ball list (went 3-3), won the best In-person match photo contest with Rich Arevalo (Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, NY doing our Men In Black impression), and took away that Burn was the way to go. Necro is also a great choice; still I like Draw 7's and Mox Monkey because I'd rather be eating Ivory Towers than relying on them. The 3x sideboard Black Vise was an attempt to offset the Tower/Necro engine. At Lobstercon I played against a wide spectrum of decks, from Storm Cauldron to Necro to UR - both Atog and non-Atog. The day before, I was still deliberating the black splash. Should I just run Blood Moon instead, and not take on the liability of opposing Moons and Strips attacking my black mana, or Mox Monkeys eating my Jet? Swap out Tutor for another Merchant Scroll, which can also pitch to Force of Will? I decided to stay the course with the black spells and was happy I did. At least, that's to say, I didn't get punished for it this time.

There was lots of "Wanna Jug?" proffered throughout the day, which I am very appreciative of Christian, Will P, and other contributors for. Coincidentally (commensurately?), I became more communicative with my teammates as Sunday went on. I loved being able to signal, debate, grunt, and collaborate with Rich and Mase. It increased my enjoyment of the event. Teams are da' bomb.

In the Magic-related highlight of my Lobstercon, we squared off against the OG NEOS squad of DFB, Scott, and Jared in the de facto Final (we were the last two 4-0 teams in round 5 of this straght Swiss event). I got mine quickly against Jared who mulliganed a lot. DFB vanquished Rich with his classic White Weenie 7-Point Singleton deck. It all fell to game 3 of Scott's Counter-Troll against Mase's Shops, where Mase made some aggressive mulligan calls that paid off, and cast a definitive Wheel to eek out the last few points of damage before Scott's Book took over. To me it was a fitting way to close a weekend filled with tributes to Jens, reminding me of the friend we all lost who I'd only just met a year ago.

🔵 "Aggro-Tempo" Mono Blue in the Pool: SWE 40 (*1st Place*) 🏆

This was a fun one. I attended a bunkhouse brawl/Old School summer cabin event, which was primarily Swedish (I played The Deck and finished third). NEOS' Noah Shanning had the creative idea to sponsor a side event dubbed "Mono Blue in the Pool." The rules included: (1) Swedish B&R, (2) 40-card minimum, (3) blue cards, artifacts, and lands only, and (4) must complete all games in the pool, hot tub, or lake. Games would be played on a boogeyboard. Chatter ensued about how Dan-Dan should be Ban-banned, Millstone was good, and Urzatron was tempting. How to approach deck construction - both from a strategic and a physical perspective?

Some Real Men sacrificed their cards to Poseidon and played unsleeved. I, a coward, looked for advice on the internet about playing Magic in aquatic environments. I ran some experiments. I scoured my stockpile of gaming and card storage accessories. I ended up with: Perfect Fit Inner-> Ultra Pro (G.I. Joe//Snake Eyes) Outer-> Vintage Size ('52-56) Card Penny Sleeve-> Card Saver I-> Graded Card Slab Sleeve, alternating up and down as I went through each layer. Shout out to my man Goochie who gave me the Snake Eyes Ultra Pro's 15 years ago...Yo Joe!!! I still wasn't going to run anything I didn't mind losing to water damage. I had a Braingeyser, Strip Mine, and Sol Ring laying around. The only cards I needed to buy were Revised Serendibs and Fourth Edition Factories, but I figured it wasn't such a bad idea to own those, anyways. I goldfished this deck a lot to get the mana ratio and draws nice and smooth. I liked the random assortment of interactive spells (Counterspell, Unsummon, Boomerang, and Control Magic). In the end none of my cards were damaged and I was crowned King of the Pool. Thanks again to Noah for putting this together.

CONCLUSION

That concludes another year playing Old School Magic: The Gathering - my fifth year as a member of the OS community. I won a lot of games, kept up with a lot of friends, and had a great time. I don't have any special Magic-related projects or New Year's resolutions on the docket, but I'll surely be competing again in X-Point, NEOS, Summer and Winter Derbies, Hydra Tilt, Lobstercon, and hopefully some other small gatherings in the Northeast. Please feel free to drop a comment on my Facebook/Discord post if you want to chat about any of the decks featured in this article, and say Hi! if you're at any of these events. Until next time!

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