Emerald City Trolls: Seattle Old School MtG

Ragnarok Tournament Organizer's Report

By Shawn

July 5, 2023

On Friday and Saturday, June 23-24, wizards gathered once more in Seattle, WA to play some Old School Magic. As with other major events I run, this one too featured a special theme: Ragnarok. The Twilight of the Gods. The End of Days. The climax of Norse mythology, when the gods face their final, fatal challenge, battling enemies including the Jotun, a race of giants led by Surtr; Jormungundr, the Midgard Serpent; and Fenrir, the great wolf. One of the greatest tales of all time, whose influence permeates human storytelling traditions.

If you are curious about Norse mythology, I can recommend two great sources. Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, while a modern retelling, is extremely compelling thanks to his outstanding way with words. For more classic telling, along with great illustrations that draw in kids and parents alike, I recommend the illustrated D'Aulaire's Norse Mythology. I've read both multiple times.

Anyways, back to the Magic. Friday night featured a special event, called the Twilight of the Gods, featuring two major special mechanics. Saturday was a normal Swedish-rules, US-reprints tournament, with 8 (EIGHT!) original Magic artists in attendance.

Below, I'll discuss both days, share some photos, and finally share results and decklist photos. But first, I want to announce we have thus far raised $3,125.65 for Mary's Place. That total may go up as we continue to sell of the extra playmats and Gods cards, and this page will be updated if and when that happens.

Friday: Twilight of the Gods

The special, one-time-only format for Friday night was Twilight of the Gods. Two major special rules are used in TotG. The full rules are here, but I'll summarize the key bits below.

First, players had to choose at least one of the Norse gods for their deck. Each god includes a unique mechanic that allows players to make increasingly large sacrifices to them, in return for increasingly powerful effects that culminate with the god being summoned to the battlefield. The gods all have at least one keyword ability, powerful enters-the-battlefield text, a tap ability, abilities that protect them from weaker magic, and beefy stats. Getting them into play was intended to be a big focus of the format that often provides a path to victory.

Second, whenever a non-token creature you control and own dies, if you aren't responsible for it dying, you may send it to Valhalla. Valhalla has two effects. The first effect allows you to exile a creature card from Valhalla and pay its mana cost to put a copy of that creature into play. Flavor-wise, this represents the valiant dead returning to Midgard to finish some task or influence the world in some way, which happens multiple times in Norse mythology. For the second effect, players could place a copy of any creatures that they did not return from Valhalla into play before the first turn of game 3. Flavor-wise, this represents the Einherjar, the valiant dead, returning from Valhalla with Odin for the final battle of Ragnarok. In terms of the effect on gameplay, Valhalla was intended to reward creature-based strategies, and create interesting decisions where players have to decide whether to push it and get more creatures down right now, or save them up for later in case they need them in game 3.

The event was held at Rooftop Brewing, a local brewery, except for the final match. When the brewery closed at 10PM, we had only completed 5 rounds of Swiss, so the two finalists, Danny Friedman (Heimdall combo) and Brian Bogdan (UB reanimator) went to one of my favorite local dives, the Lamplighter Pub, to play the championship match. Danny ended up taking it down, winning Mjolnir as a trophy in the process. Incidentally, Mjolnir has a special in-game ability: from now on, at any tournament I run, if Danny would flip a Chaos Orb, he may instead say "For Asgard!" and hit the chosen card with Mjolnir instead. He has to use the actual (foam rubber) Mjolnir trophy he was presented to do this, so if you see him carrying around a huge hammer at my next event, that's what it's about.

Overall, I was pleased with how this format played out. Many of the goals I had when designing the rules and cards seemed to play out, and there were a broad variety of strategies employed. In no small part, this was due to the efforts of a small but dedicated group of playtesters, especially Claudia and Kevin, who hammered out many of the kinks along the way. I think this format is a lot of fun, and would fully recommend printing out the gods and giving it a whirl.

That said, there did appear to be two combo decks that could be dominant strategies. The first deck, which was played by Mike VanDyke, Geoff Willard, and others from Beasts of the Bay, uses Freyr's tap ability to copy permanents in conjunction with Instill Energy and/or Maze of Ith. With Instill Energy on him, Freyr, can tap (without haste) to create a copy of Instill Energy and attach it to himself. Using the new Instill Energy, he can repeat this process an arbitrary number of times. Then, during the player's next turn, they can use him to create an arbitrary number of copies of any permanents the player wishes. Fill in your favorite win con. With Maze of Ith, you can instead attack with Freyr, use Maze to untap him, then tap him to copy Maze of Ith, then untap him with the new Maze, and repeat. The end result is you have an arbitrary number of Mazes of Ith and, after you untap them, you'll never take combat damage again (unless your opponent uses Freyr to make an even larger number of copies of some creature). If you manage to get Freyr and either of these cards -- which can happen as early as turn 4 or 5 -- you are virtually guaranteed to win.

The other combo strategy involved Heimdall's level 2 Favor ability, meaning you didn't need to go as far as summoning Heimdall to use it. His level 2 Favor ability allows you to draw a card any time your opponent draws a card until your next upkeep. This is very powerful, but requires building around. I had thought about draw 7's and Howling Mine with this ability, and decided they were fine. There are only 2 draw 7's, and if you want to use Heimdall to break symmetry on Howling Mine, that seems great. However, I forgot about Winds of Change. While it's more situational because your opponent might not have many cards, it's only 1 mana, and you can play 4 of them. Combined with 2 draw 7's, that's an opportunity for a lot of cards. Tying the room together is Fastbond, allowing you to deploy a huge amount of mana from all those cards you draw, and get yourself into a finishing blow from a Fireball or similar effect. Quinn came up with this, and shared it with Danny, who helped dial everything in. While extremely powerful and capable of a turn 1 kill (well, technically turn 2, but the line to do this involves Time Walk on turn 1), this combo can fizzle, and opponents can strategically mulligan down low to effectively stop the deck from functioning (unless you have a draw 7).

In hindsight, I would also suggest trying out a few pieces of errata (in order) to help take the edge off these decks. For the Freyr deck, firstly, his level 2 Favor ability to search your library for a Forest should also include shuffling after searching (not including this was an oversight). Second, for power level I'd suggest trying the following ideas:

Change his tap ability to only be usable once per turn
Change his tap ability only able to target creatures (and possibly artifacts)
Change his Reach ability to Shroud (which might cause other problems by making him harder to remove than other gods)

For the Heimdall deck, I'd suggest trying the following:

Swap the basic land restriction of Heimdall (Swamps) and Baldur (Mountains)
Ban Winds of Change
Change his level 2 ability to "the next time your opponent would draw a card, draw that many cards." This restricts his ability to draw extra cards to a single time, which still combos with Winds of Change and the draw 7's, but not Howling Mine

Finally, it's possible that if you nerf these archetypes too much, UB Reanimator would become the clear best thing to do, and might necessitate further changes. At that point, it might not be worth trying to perfect things further, and the gods and rules as written would probably be best.

Like I said, though, I was extremely pleased with the event overall. A few people found broken things. Finding broken things in these one-off formats is fun in and of itself, and is part of the reason I like running them. Kudos to people who found them on being rewarded for investing time into thinking about the format. Most people didn't play the broken decks. They summoned Gods, sent creatures to Valhalla, and hung out.

Results and deck photos are further below, but here are a few pics from Twilight of the Gods.

Players for Twilight of the Gods gather before the event.

Gods cards, my drinking horn, and Mjolnir, the only prize for TotG.

Rounds are underway.

Cam blows his horn, scaring Paul.

Two excellent people, Mike and Claudia, prepare to seek glory and the favor of the gods.

Gods and dragons do battle.

Intense action on Table 1.

More Table 1 spellcasting.

Table 2 also representing.

The Top 2, Brian (left) and Danny (right).

Brian gets some early pressure down game 1...

But Danny has a lot of cards thanks to Heimdall. This play also included Ancestral'ing Brian into Winds, netting Danny 6 cards instead of 3 if he'd Ancestral'd himself.

An early Bazaar in game 2 gives Brian action and a way to go down cards, but Danny has Wheel...

Into Winds, with another Winds, bringing him up to 21 extra cards drawn off Heimdall. ggs

The Champ with Mjolnir.

But at this point pizza was more interesting.

Saturday: Ragnarok Main Event

Saturday's main event was held at the Swedish Club in Seattle. Owing to a large Scandinavian immigrant population, the Swedish Club is a large facility with on-site catering and a great view of Lake Union. The event itself was just a straight Swiss tournament with no cut to Top 8, using Swedish rules but with the typical US reprints allowed (original art, original frame: 4th Edition, Chronicles, Timeshifted, ICE/CE, Champs decks, etc., all OK).

The tournament itself ran smoothly, despite the late arrivals of both coffee and lunch, and the final match came down to Quinn Maurmann (The Deck) against, in his second championship match of the weekend, Brian Bodgon (Mono-R-Except-U-Power Atogs). Quinn once more showed his prowess with control and took it down, winning the first-place Ragnar card for his troubles. Brian, meanwhile, finished the weekend with an outstanding overall record, having made the championship match both days. Congrats to you both!

The event also featured Spice prizes, as well as three prizes for my favorite three decks called "Odin's Chosen." These were simply the decks I liked best, which is a combination of a spicy but well-performing deck, aesthetics choices for cards and especially alters, and simply arranging your deck photo in a pleasing way. I intend to continue doing something like this at all my events moving forward.

To prevent them from being buried below, here are the top 8 Spice decks:

Colin Crook
Jeremy Chien
James Onions
Joe Fairbanks
Stephen Hines
Park Cofield
Mark Brothers
D00g

And Odin's Chosen:

John Waclawski
Cam Wall
Brian Vegso

The other big feature on Saturday was, of course, the lineup of artists we had in attendance. Because Magic originated from the Seattle area, many of the original artists were local art students or otherwise plugged into the Seattle art scene, and we are blessed with a large number of them who still live nearby. The artist who attended was:

Julie Baroh
Nicola Beeson (Leonard)
Daniel Gelon
Heather Hudson
Jesper & Spoops Myrfors
Margaret Organ-Kean
Mark Tedin
Anthony S. Waters

I don't know how to say it other than it's stunning to be able to get such a group of artists together. It was almost like a GP, except with much much shorter lines. We are very lucky here. (Also, learning from our last event Fire Walk With Me, new policies on how much work you could request per trip through the line helped more people get more of what they wanted done.)

The tournament also included a raffle for a wide variety of prizes donated from the community, as well as several pieces donated by the artists. Finally, we auctioned off an original piece by Jesper, original Mjolnir necklace made by Nicola, and the original art for the event playmat from Mark Tedin. All of these helped make major contributions to the charity pot for Mary's Place.

Folks went their various ways after the tournament. Personally, I went with a few folks to get some dinner and then have a few drinks. The post-event relief for a TO is very real. It feels great to have the event over, to finally be able to unwind a bit, and then to go to sleep. But I do love it, and am already planning for my themed event next year: The Satanic Panic, based on the fears of parents in the 80's and 90's that games like Magic were corrupting our youth and drawing us to evil. To be fair, they didn't not do that at all, but it was mostly just about being a nerd and having fun with your friends. Anyways, stay tuned for more details late this year!

Here are a few more pictures from Saturday. Everything below those is event results and deck pics.

Players begin sitting down for Round 1.

Main event swag: 2 kinds of stickers, a patch, and a stamped bolt.

Prizes!

Raffle...

And raffle...

And raffle.

Imprison on Holy Strength'd Savannah Lion. Seen it a million times.

Meekstone also holding it down.

The first victim of Mjolnir (open in new tab for sound).

Mid-tournament table 1.

The last two undefeateds in the last round. Quinn (left) and once again, Brian (right).

What it's actually all about.

Say it with me (open in new tab for sound).

Good job, y'all (open in new tab for sound).

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you in Seattle for some demon summoning next year!

Shawn

Twilight of the Gods: Final Results

Place	Player	Points	OMW%	GW%	OGW%
1	Danny Friedman	18	63.6	100	55.74
2	Brian Bogdon	15	62	90.91	55.44
3	Quinn Maurmann	12	66	75	58.65
4	Ken Fritz	12	64	72.73	62.86
5	Kevin Johnson	12	60	61.54	62.55
6	Drew Harris	12	55.2	66.67	51.51
7	Aaron Rehfield	12	51.2	66.67	45.75
8	Claudia du Lac	9	66	53.85	63.52
9	John DeLustro	9	64	61.54	59.17
10	John Waclawski	9	64	44.44	62.49
11	Geoff Willard	9	62.5	66.67	58.96
12	Eric Martin	9	57.2	54.55	50.64
13	Scott Ferguson	9	54.6	61.54	50.89
14	Paul DeSilva	9	54.6	58.33	50.54
15	Nathaniel Curley	9	51.6	58.33	46.67
16	James Mitchell	9	49.2	50	42.54
17	Andy Heiszler	9	45.2	60	46.65
18	D. Scott Brauner	9	42.6	50	45.05
19	Nicholas Aiello	6	68.25	50	57.45
20	Colin Crook	6	60	50	52.11
21	Mike VanDyke	6	58.25	50	53.8
22	Jeremy Chien	6	56.25	37.5	53.75
23	Cliff Mathieson	6	55.75	44.44	55.55
24	d00g (Doug)	6	54.6	46.67	51.28
25	Jacob Brotherton	6	54.2	40	44.47
26	Max Clendenning	6	53.2	45.45	48.85
27	Adam P	6	49.2	37.5	37.33
28	James Onions	6	48.6	50	47.8
29	Nick Fox	6	46.5	50	44.64
30	Kevin Roeske !	6	41.5	45.45	36.25
31	Clenet Verdi-Rose	6	39	50	35.82
32	Mark Root dropped	6	37.25	50	31.59
33	Stephen Hines	3	58.25	33.33	50
34	Park Cofield	3	53.25	33.33	48.47
35	Dan North	3	53.25	25	51.89
36	Ross Villiger	3	53.25	22.22	48.61
37	Joe Fairbanks	3	52.6	30.77	48.22
38	Mark brothers	3	52.6	20	50.83
39	Cam Wall	3	48.6	36.36	43.67
40	James Portello	3	48.25	28.57	37.5
41	Brian Vegso	0	41	25	42.07
42	Ben DiMiero	0	35.8	0	35.15

Twilight of the Gods: Deck Pics

Danny Friedman - First Place

Brian Bogdon - Second Place

Quinn Maurmann - Third Place

Ken Fritz - Fourth Place

Kevin Johnson - Fifth Place

Drew Harris - Sixth Place

Aaron Rehfield - Seventh Place

Claudia du Lac - Eighth Place

Adam Pazan

Andy Heizler

Ben DiMiero

Brian Vegso

Cam Wall

Cliff Matheison

Colin Crook

d00g

Dan North

Eric Martin

Geoff Willard

Jacob Brotherton

James Mitchell

James Onions

John DeLustro

John Waclawski

Mark Brothers

Max Clendenning

Mike VanDyke

Mox Emerald Scott

Nick Fox

Park Cofield

Paul DeSilva

Ross Villager

Scott Ferguson

Ragnarok Main Event: Final Results

Place	Player	Points	OMW%	GW%	OGW%
1	Quinn Maurmann	18	70.56	91.67	63.12
2	David Jennings	15	63.89	62.5	62.81
3	Kevin Johnson	15	63.89	62.5	58.3
4	Mike VanDyke	15	58.28	76.92	55.17
5	Brian Bogdon	15	58.28	73.33	49.4
6	Aharon Curtis	15	51.11	62.5	54.53
7	Danny Friedman	12	72.22	64.29	63.46
8	Nicholas Aiello	12	61.11	69.23	55.89
9	D. Scott Brauner	12	61.06	64.29	58
10	Andy Heiszler	12	59.44	61.54	58.26
11	tempotimmy (David Lee)	12	58.33	66.67	53.73
12	Dan North	12	55.56	56.25	53.9
13	Chao Cox	12	52.72	60	54.17
14	Brian Vegso	12	52.72	58.82	48.09
15	Aaron Rehfield	12	51.06	60	51.93
16	Scott Ferguson	12	47.22	64.29	46.39
17	James Mitchell	12	47.17	66.67	48.1
18	Jeremy Chien	12	39.89	69.23	37.9
19	Erik Pedersen	9	63.89	46.15	61.03
20	Paul DeSilva	9	61.11	53.33	53.69
21	d00g (Doug)	9	58.28	57.14	53.47
22	Eric Martin	9	58.28	53.85	48.54
23	James Portello	9	55.56	47.06	54.04
24	Justin Pinette	9	53.89	53.33	52.2
25	Geoff Willard	9	53.83	50	49.05
26	Nick Fox	9	52.72	46.15	47.57
27	Kyra Sacdalan	9	52.72	42.86	52.2
28	Max Clendenning	9	49.94	50	49.34
29	John DeLustro	9	47.17	50	47.53
30	Mark brothers	9	47.11	41.67	39.99
31	Drew Harris	9	44.33	53.33	37.53
32	James Onions	9	41.5	41.67	39.17
33	Kevin Moorehead	9	39.83	42.86	37
34	Clenét Verdi-Rose	6	63.33	53.85	56.92
35	Ken Fritz	6	59.44	35.71	54.93
36	Kaden Jennings	6	58.28	38.46	50.7
37	John Waclawski	6	56.67	41.67	55.95
38	Cliff Mathieson	6	55.56	43.75	54.88
39	Park Cofield	6	47.17	46.67	45.7
40	Nathaniel Curley	6	47.11	30.77	46.27
41	Cam Wall	6	44.39	46.67	42.51
42	Joe Fairbanks	6	43.27	33.33	43.65
43	Shane Mccandlish	6	41.56	35.71	44.91
44	Ross Villiger	6	37.06	37.5	39.38
45	Colin Crook	3	49.93	16.67	46.51
46	Mark Root	3	47.17	40	44.09
47	Adam P	3	47.11	31.25	44.22
48	Ben DiMiero	3	46.6	25	46.43
49	Kevin Roeske	3	44.28	33.33	37.73
50	Jacob Brotherton	3	41.61	28.57	41.56
51	Claudia du Lac	0	58.33	0	55.55
52	Stephen Hines	0	39.87	8.33	36.26