Goblin Hero 2025: 1st Place Report

I touched down on the gritty soil of Dirty Jerz in April 2024—fresh off two years in the Bay, sharpening my play against four-armed Beasts, and seven years before that grinding through Philly’s concrete crucible. My new dwelling was barebones: an air mattress, a week's worth of clothes, and my prized Atog Old School deck. Soon after I was added to the Sisters of the Flame Discord I saw the call to action…

“1st Annual GOBLIN HERO CUP 2024 – Brought to you by Jonathan Lai of the Sisters of the Flame.”

I rolled into Time Warp Games early and was immediately greeted by a familiar face—Farb, aka Domino. A fixture of the Philly Old School scene and a player whose presence always feels like a good omen. The early rounds clicked. I found myself threading tight lines in back-and-forth games that often came down to drawing a timely burn spell off the top. In the 12-Bolt mirrors, winning the die roll gave me that slight but crucial edge—just enough tempo to force the issue before my opponent could stabilize. I rode through the Swiss rounds, finishing 1st overall heading into Top 4. I faced off against Lion-Dib, a matchup I hadn’t played a lot of at the time. My opponent navigated well, and I couldn’t close it out—I lost the match and ended the day in 3rd place. Driving home, I was already thinking what would the next year hold…

To the best of my recollection (a week after the event), here’s how my matches played out. Luckily, my final two rounds were captured on cam and should be uploaded soon—[links will be added here once available].

Match 1 vs. UR Eel with 4x Blood Moon (W 2-0):

Game 1:

My opponent lands an early Electric Eel, which I promptly Swords to Plowshares. They resolve a Blood Moon soon after, locking down my hand while I sit with an empty board. We end up in a draw-go standoff as they flood out, drawing land after land. I eventually find a window to drop Mox Sapphire and immediately follow with Copy Artifact. On my next turn, a big Braingeyser overloads my hand, and I cruise to victory with Su-Chi beats in subsequent turns.

Game 2:

The opposite unfolds—after I Strip Mine their only land on Turn 2, they stall out and fail to find another for several turns.

A solid 2-0 to kick things off, though not the most telling course of events for gauging my deck's full strength.

Matches 2-4 vs 2 copies of Lion-Dib and Robots (W 2-0? for all matches):

As I write this up, the exact match sequence of Rounds 2–4 is a bit hazy. I faced two Lion-Dib decks piloted by Colby and Parker, and a Robots build piloted by Mikey. Later in the day, Parker mentioned that he and Colby were on the same 74/75. In playtesting with Nick, I went 4-0 in games against a similar Lion-Dib build—and at the event, the matches played out similarly.

Against Robots, I became hyper-aware mid-Game 1 of a scary late-game inevitability: Animate Dead on Triskelion. Post-board, I expected a grindfest—tons of spot removal on both sides leading to a Factory vs Factory war. I drew nutty hands and closed it out.

Match 5 vs Effective Mirror (W 2-1):

The actual, factual Don of the highly allocated Dons Goblin Raiders OS team was in attendance, flanked by fellow teammates Ben and Ian. Before the event kicked off, Don and I exchanged deck pics, so by the time we squared up for the man dance, we both knew what was coming. Having faced Robots in an earlier round gave me a rough blueprint for the matchup. 

[WATCH MATCH LINK HERE]

Match 6 vs Lion-Dib (W 2-1)

My final opponent, Jason, is a core member of the Old Order Old School crew - a solid player I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with at several PA-based events. Having already taken down two Lion-Dib matches earlier in the day, I felt more confident navigating the matchup. I had a clearer sense of my role in the dance and which decision trees to follow. That said, this was still Magic against a strong and seasoned opponent - nothing was guaranteed. 

[WATCH MATCH LINK HERE]

Throughout the day, I kept my player group chat updated with my record—each win lighting up the thread with more and more reaction emojis. It was a steady stream of hype, support, and inside jokes that helped keep me grounded between rounds. At 4-0, the possibility of improving on last year’s finish became real, and I started feeling the shift from just jamming games to being in contention. Every draw step started to matter a little more.

At 5-0, knowing I’d be on cam again for the final round, I felt a mix of pressure and excitement. More than anything, I wanted to make the final games fun to watch for the homies—clean lines, tight play, maybe a few blowouts if the draws lined up right.

When my final Serra Angel swung in for the win and locked in the 6-0, I was hit by a wave of relief and satisfaction. I’d done it—I took this deck list that I was given into a 40-person field with lessons learned in testing with Nick, adapted on the fly in new matches, and kept my cool. And even more than the result, I felt proud of how I represented the crew across NJ/NY/PA/Bay Area.

From left to right: The community card I picked seemed fitting as a memento to overcoming last year’s loss to Lion-Dib-Bolt. A Tedin donated altered Goblin Hero that accompanied an insanely cool Goblin-fied Craw Wurm alter donning ‘1st Place’ text.

Before the event even kicked off, I noticed something strange near the registration table—a neat 3x2 grid of Order of Leitburs and Icatian Javelineers, with a lone Falling Star card off to the side. My curiosity was immediately piqued. That’s when Jonathan clued me in: The Falling Star Challenge.

The rules were simple:

• Each player in the tournament gets 3 Falling Star flips on the 3x2 grid.
  
  

• Highest total score across the flips wins.
  
  

• The prize? A Merhans altered Atog donated by Jon G

Prize or not, there's something almost spiritual about executing a clean flip. In a game full of variance and hidden information, it's one of the few elements where variance isn’t a factor. That said, I’ve never been great at flipping—I’m average on a good day. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve hit two creatures with Falling Star in an actual game. I even famously flopped in a Falling Star faceoff with Nate (aka Donnie’s Partner) back in Philadelphia years ago.

Still, I stepped up to the table. First flip—hands steady… 6 points!
Reset. Deep breath. Flip… 6 again!
One last chance. Flip… 4!

I couldn’t believe it—16 out of 18 possible points. That put me at the top of the leaderboard. As rounds progressed, I kept sneaking peeks at the score sheet to see if anyone had overtaken me.

After winning the main event, I went to check one more time… and saw I was now tied for first. To break it, the other finalist and I had to do a single, sudden-death flip.

Adrenaline still buzzing from my last match, I steadied my hand, hovered over the grid, and let it fly… 5!
My opponent followed up with a 4—just shy.

And with that, I walked away not only with the main event first place prize, but also the altered Atog—a perfect throwback to the deck I piloted in the very first Goblin Hero Cup. A full-circle moment sealed by a clean flip.

Major props to Jonathan for running a stellar event from top to bottom. The IKEA venue was a perfect fit for the SWE format. Between rounds, the table buzz was constant, with killer raffle prizes floating around and some truly hot altered cards up for grabs as prize support. You could tell the event was built with love and intention, not just thrown together.

Beyond the cards, the vibe was everything you hope for at an Old School event. I got to reconnect with familiar faces from past events and even make some new NJ/NY connections.

Can’t wait to see what the Goblin Hero Cup becomes in future years—this one set a high bar!