We are delighted to welcome Johan as a guest blogger on Edge-Man.com. Johan, along with his co-organizers Fulco and Wouter, recently organized the Elvish Archers Grand Prix, an old school Magic: The Gathering tournament. Held on June 1st, this event served as a great alternative for those unable to attend the invite-only Raging Bull tournament in Amsterdam, which adhered to a strict Swedish Legal reprint policy.
The Elvish Archers Grand Prix, with its inclusive environment and relaxed reprint policy, turned out to be a big success. Without a dedicated website for the tournament, Johan reached out to share the highlights and insights of this memorable event with our readers. We are pleased to provide him with a platform to do so. Continue reading to discover the excitement and camaraderie that made the Elvish Archers Grand Prix an unforgettable experience for all who participated.
Elvish Archers Grand Prix – Tournament Report
Unpowered deck), Eric (2nd)
An introduction
Whereas the Dutch tournament calendar is usually an embarrassment in riches, the three of us (Wouter, Johan and Fulco) noticed some massive gaps across the upcoming months. Since our beloved format is non-sanctioned, it is organised by the community, for the community. We all felt the urgency to take the bull by the horns and make sure we hosted a tournament that we would love to participate ourselves. So, we took a gamble and dove into the deep end. A bit scary and exciting, but in the end, it truly paid off! If you are reading this and eager to organise your own tournament, we are more than happy to give you a few pointers.
The Format of the Tournament
As most European tournaments tend to do, we quickly agreed upon the so-calledSwedish format. To ensure the games to be exciting and casual, we set the following conditions, constraints and requirements:
- A rather flexible reprint policy: same art, same frame, every language. So yes, your French Fourth Edition ‘Ange de Serra’ would be perfectly fine.
- An additional ban of Library of Alexandria and Mind Twist. These cards are sometimes too deterministic for the outcome of the game. We accept that these cards belong to Old School Magic, but it is not what we envisioned for our tournament.
Performing unsleeved flips with Chaos Orb and Falling Star can be challenging. We understand the need for triple-sleeving to protect valuable cards in most decks. However, the additional weight from triple sleeving can sometimes make gravity more influential during Orb flips than desired. Therefore, we created a proxy ‘Crisis Orb’, handed out to all players, so the flips would be closer to Richard Garfield’s wishes.
Tournament
As one of the organisers, we agreed not to ‘spike’ during our own tournament. My WBU Fogless ‘Fog You’ was definitely not spikey, but a logistical pain in the arse. It wins at a glacial pace, if it can win at all! Many of my matches went to time and were decided by the clock. My sincere apologies to my co-organisers; next time I will pick something more straight-forward!
Anyway, after five rounds of Swiss with 20 participants, the winner was Frank! With 15 points out of 15, no-one would argue his victory was undeserved.
Not too many unexpected cards, although I can imagine he wishes to complete his P9. Just a solid deck.
If one uses Word of Command (with beautiful black borders) and Priest
of Yawgmoth, that deserves lots of respect. Definitely some great combo’s with Priest, Animate Dead and Drain Life. I appreciate the transformational sideboard; makes it definitely hard to guess for the opponent how much artifact hate is needed. Spicy play: Word of Command was used to Sinkhole one of the opponent’s lands!
Not a green mage, so I am perhaps not the right person to address
individual card choices haha. I am surprised to see Scryb Sprites (leaning towards aggro) and Jayemdae (more of a control card, if you ask me) in one deck. But hey, Justin shows us that green unpowered decks with surprising choices is the way to go!
I will include David’s accompanying description to fully appreciate his efforts: “Super Mario starts off tiny, but after eating a mushroom he gains Giant Strength. After eating a flaming flower he can throw Fireballs, in this case at a Giant Tortoise (Koopa Troopa) before it can present any danger. To proceed Mario Jumps over a Fissure and dodges a Phantom Monster (Boo) as well as two Brothers of Fire and their well- aimed Lightning Bolts. Having landed, Mario Shatters a brick by bumping his head into it, killing one of the Fire Brothers by doing so. Finally, he gets up onto a Wall of Stone, the last hurdle before reaching Nicol Bowser’s Castle, where the villain is keeping Princess Lucretia prisoner.
The other deck pictures are shown alphabetically – and please do not mind my questionable deck names:
(prime contender for spize price, can you guess the combo?)
(this legend turn 2’d his opponent for 20 damage with Elvish Archers, respect!)
Final Thoughts
Thank you, Johan, for bringing your passion and dedication to our community and for sharing this wonderful experience with us. Your meticulous organization and heartfelt enthusiasm truly brought the Elvish Archers Grand Prix to life, creating a memorable and inclusive event that resonated with all participants. By providing a platform for players of all levels to come together and enjoy the game they love, you’ve enriched our community and fostered a spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship. We look forward to next years Elvish Archers Grand Prix!
The Edge-Man 
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