For my 5th ever Swedish Old School Magic tournament, The Edge-Man 2025 Championship, I created my deck the evening before.

My strategy was to play a four-colored deck, but without City of Brass.
I’ve experienced in previous tournaments that City of Brass can be great, but carries lots of risk and damage. Especially when playing against burn.
In hindsight, I’ve faced quite a few of those fast burn decks this tournament, so it was a lucky and good choice.

An opportunity that arose ditching City of Brass, was to play City in a Bottle main deck. To me, that’s such a strong anti-card. It gave me the opportunity to destroy active LOA’s, and also to take the sting out of many Djinn decks.
Plus it had nice play next to Armageddon. I noticed I was able to destroy many lands during this tournament.

Another strategy I had for this tournament was not to do mulligans.
I would let my opponents start whenever I knew they had slow decks, and I was constantly hoping for my 8th or 9th card to be the missing card.

My deck’s highlights:

• 28 mana sources
• 4 Tundra
• 5 unique duals to cast 4 colors of mana
• 4 Fellwar stone to cast 4 colors of mana
• 4 plows to take care of creature removal
• 4 disenchant to take care of Tomes, Blood moons, Factories & Suchi’s.
• 2 Tomes for card draw,
• 2 Copy Artifact to copy Tomes,
• 2 City in a Bottle
• 8 Strong creatures
• All the important restricted cards, only minus Time Walk & Timetwister. Sideboard:
  • I did not think it through completely. Next time, I’ll change a few things: include cop Red, an extra red elemental blast & dust to dust. • elemental blast & dust to dust.

Round 1

I’m playing against a white/red deck, I’ve played against this opponent before,
I remember he played a quite fast deck with small creatures and burn spells,

Notice the Savannah Lions, Ironclaw Ors, & Gargoyles, & Serra’s.
He always has his Blood Moon to mess up the game, so I was going to hope I for Disenchant, Moxen or Fellwar Stones.

Game I
My opening hand was the following and my opponent was going to start:

Almost impossible to keep a hand without a land, but considering my -screw the mulligan- strategy: I figured when drawing 8 cards, card nr 8 should almost always be a land, & luckily the odds added up.

Next to that I had a side strategy with this hand.
Card nr 8 no land -> Lotus into white, cast Felwar Stone and plow anything he puts on the board. Card nr 8 being a land -> Lotus into black, Demonic Tutor into Ancestral Recall.

The first round ends up in my favour, I manage to remove all of my opponent threats, and play my larger creatures.

Game II
I sideboard in: 1 red elemental blasts, 1 earthquake, and 0 Maze of Ith, considering the creature fight was mine the first game.

My opening hand had enough removal (plow/disenchant) white/blue mana and a fellwar stone to have a strong start.
My opponent had a stronger game this round, but it came down to which player had a Serra in the air the longest.
My Serra survived longer, and I had an active LOA so my cards replenished quicker. I finished the game off with an earthquake.

Round 2

My first round facing a burn deck. Let’s hope my deck is fast enough.

Game I
As expected, I ate lots of damage in the beginning.
But my City in a Bottle came in strong early game stopping the ramp of my opponent.
I managed to get rid of most of my opponent’s threat, and my deck ultimately won the long-term battle.

I sideboard in my single Red Elemental Blast, and 2 Maze of Ith’s.

Game II
My opponent starts with a very strong first turn and I again get burnt hard.
I got wheeled into a Time Walk and scene. Up to game 3. Fantastic play by my opponent. Nothing to do against something strong like this.

Game III
This time, I get to start again, and that is very important against decks like this.
I’m lucky with a strong opening hand with 1 Mox, a Land, and an Ancestral Recall. I manage to successfully remove anything my opponent puts on the board and, eventually, own the battlefield with my creatures. He gives it one last shot by wheeling, a scary moment, but it’s not enough for him to win the game.

Round 3

Absolutely awesome to play against last year’s winner, legendary player Henk.

Game I
All I remember of my opening hand was a disenchant & plow and that I had a single white mana source. My hand was able to take care of some early game threat, which made me start the game a little too comfortable.
That led to a vital mistake in turn 3: I had 3 potential mana, only one of which was white, which I use to activate my Factory, leaving me vulnerable, unable to cast plow or disenchant… Henk casts a Choas Orb, targets my tapped white mana land. And boom, this game is played.

I’ve lost confidence, don’t draw a new white mana source, and after taking 4 factory swings, some bolts, and pixy damage, I concede. The only good thing about this game was that Henk had not seen much of my deck yet. So he did not know what to sideboard. I sideboard in 2 Maze of Ith.

Game II
Second game goes really well from my perspective. I draw some nice cards, Mind Twist Henk for 3 in my second turn, tackling some of his early game threats, and win the game with my Serra’s & Suchi’s.

Game III
Possibly the most fun game this tournament! Henk gets to start.
I boarded in 2 Ivory Towers to hopefully cope with some of his damage.
Henk starts strong, casting small creatures, bolts and chain lightnings to the face. But luckily, I have an Ivory tower in my opening hand.
First turn, I only play one land and the Ivory tower, leaving 6 cards on hand -> 2 life gain in the next turn. Second turn, going up to 7 cards, not playing anything -> 3 life gain in the next turn.
Third turn, playing a land, copy artifact on my tower, 6 cards on hand again. -> 4 life gain in the next turn. Fourth turn, my god he does not shatter my towers, this is a turning point! -> 6 life gain in the next turn. Fifth turn, 6 life gain, and my first plows arrive on one of his damage dealing creatures.
Sixth turn, 6 life gain, and I slowly start to play my first cards.
By this time Henk has already dealt me lots of damage but he’s not able to destroy my towers, so he can’t take care of my 6 life gain per turn.
This continues for a few turns, until I cast a Wrath of God, and start casting my creatures. Game over. Even though Henk did me well over 60 to 80 damage at this point.

Round 4

From facing legend Henk, to facing another legend, one I did not know yet: Gwen from Gent. Gwen starts with very organized play, putting his lands on the front of the board. This showcase of pro-play style immediately reminds me of Brian Weissman’s YouTube video’s, the founder of “The Deck”. Another threatening and not to be missed detail, is that all of his duals are Alpha.

The first thing I think, is that these will be some tough games. It’s scary to see someone only play with Alpha and so much elegance.

Game I
The game progresses pretty much equal and not much is happening in the beginning. It’s a typical game in where it matters who gets the most cards, who gets the first Mind Twist, or who Ancestrals the most. In my case that can only happen once. Unless he’s going to play an alpha Timetwister, but I have not seen him do that. Gwen wins the first game, he’s good on the draw of cards, I do nag him with my City in a Bottle, blowing up his LOA and City of Brass. But he’s cleverly stacking and timing his counters, making sure he wins the game.
I board in 2 Prodigal Sorcerers and 1 Red elemental blast, to spice it up a little bit.

Game II
Gwen obviously did not see my Timmy coming. At first, he’s laughing about me casting it, but then I tell him he needs to get his plow ready cause the Timmy is going to eat him alive. Gwen ends up taking 4 Timmy damage after which he ultimately decides to plow it. I’m guessing he really did not want to waste a plow on a Timmy, especially because he has seen the 8 strong creatures I play with in the previous game. Again, the game lasts quite long. This time, Gwen does not manage to outcard me.

He’s digging deep with his double Recall, but I’m removing his LOA game with my City in a Bottle, and I am disenchanting his card drawing ability book.
I brought 2 Tomes to my deck and I’m very happy with that in games like this.
I win this game, and I obviously thank my Prodigal Sorcerer for it ; )

Game III
We decide it’s a draw, as there are just a few more minutes left

Round 5

Im playing Lorenzo.

Game I
I get to start, with a LOA.
He also opens with a LOA, then I draw card nr 8 and it’s a strip mine. My LOA game continues and his ends. This was a true LOA game and the Magic luck was on my side. His only removal of my LOA is a Chaos Orb, and a single strip mine, but he did not draw it. I have 4 options to get out of an active LOA, Stip mine, Choas Orb and 2 City’s. I’m very happy I finally have an answer against LOA’s.

Game II
Lorenzo starts. He Mulligans once, twice, and to my surprise trice.
His 4 card hand opens with Black Lotus into Blood moon.
Interesting start, but my hand has an Island and a white mox, so I can just easily start this game. It was not very much of a game after I disenchant his blood moon, and my card advantage is already overwhelming, considering he mulled 3 times and used a lotus into a disenchanted blood moon.

Round 6

Baptiste happily greets me and tells me we are already top 8 considering the current standings. That takes some edge off and we just go for a nice relaxed game.

Baptiste is playing a strong 4 plow, 4 disenchant, 4 counter, 4 su-chi, 3 Serra deck. Also interesting is that just like Gwen he also plays 1 City in a Bottle main deck. Where I play 2.

I win this game 2-1
Since I’m not able to counter much with my deck, I just play, It’s a lot of no brainer kinda moves, play the sushi, play the copy artifact, play my tomes, and then hopefully win. Also, my deck has a single ancestral recall, balance, tutor and mind twist. They always decide games.

Because there was nothing at stake at this point, I don’t remember many details of this match. By now things are getting foggy because of the many hours of play and I’ve never been this far in a tournament. I still somehow win this match!

Quarter Finale

Here we go again, I have to play Gwen, Gwen was the most difficult opponent to beat today. In fact I did not beat him at all, it was a draw.

Game I
Gwen plays a really strong counter game on me. And he keeps his Serra Angel in the air. He wins the first game with ease.

Game II
Gwen plays a very strong game again, removing my threats, countering at crucial moments, and it looks like he has got the upper hand. At some point Gwen is drawing a lot of cards, recalling, time walking, just digging through his library. I’m in my turns I’m constantly disenchanting and plowing away his creatures. Hoping not to face counters.

At some point, I’m constantly top decking, I know it’s not going well, and Gwen is playing his cards out very relaxed. He manages to get me to 5 life.
I thought at 5 life I had lost the game, but I also noticed that Gwen had already played 2/3 of his deck.
I’ve been very lucky this game so far playing topdeck, and at 5 lifes, I draw my 4th and final plow, and plow his active Serra angel. This is a key moment; he had no counter. And I was at 5. “Ruben, Ruben,Ruben” “you manage to draw the right topdeck cards” “Ruben, Ruben, Ruben” The mood starts to shift.
My next turn I draw into a fireball, and I go all in by casting it for 12. It was not of lethal damage, but I had to do something. But he mana drains.

Then the craziest turn of the tournament starts. Gwen knows I’ve been top decking for a while, so he gets greedy and casts a full on braingeyser on himself, leaving 0 mana open for any potential counters next turn. He draws into a terrifyingly large hand, discards to 7 cards, shoots me a very confident look and passes the turn.

I know this is my final draw!, and the magic gods reward me with a Demonic Tutor, it goes into balance, and the balance resolves. Gwen is going bananas at this moment. “He left the front door open” “and how could he be so greedy” “ and you’ve been top decking forever” “this was not supposed to happen with my experience” “Ruben, Ruben, Ruben” Everybody in the room felt Gwen’s pain. But also could only concur he’d played this one to greedy.
After the Balance I’m still at 5, there is not a single plow anymore in my deck, Gwen has used 3/4th of his deck by now. After a couple of land, I draw a braingeyser and set the clock on him with 3 cards left in his deck.

Game III
Blown away by the outcome of the first game, I’m just really scared to play this last and final game. However, my opening hand is amazingly strong. Ancestral Recall into LOA, into book, into copy artifact, into other good stuff, and Gwen is not able to hold me down. At this moment, Gwen says “relax, you got this” as I’m shaking and trying to play the best game I got. Nerves!

Semi-Finales

I’m playing against a player from Finland, a character to remember. Partly because he is literally playing a shirtless tournament.

His deck is very fast and scary to play against, it just rained damage, low casting cost cards, blue power and 3/4 blue Djinn’s. Playing it looked a bit like playing against Henk his counter burn deck, but without the counters.

First thing I always notice when a game starts, is how a player treats his cards. This opponent plays and shuffles his deck like a pro poker player.
I don’t care much about shuffling cards in old school but apparently, my opponent does. By thoroughly and consistently reshuffling my library, he was perhaps trying to imply some form of control? Not my style. I’m the -just cut your deck- and -get on with it- kind of player. I also kept in mind the venue had to close, and people wanted quick games. The (re)shuffling mind games/power moves were slightly exhausting.

Game I
By this point in the tournament, I’m not completely sharp anymore because of the long games. The rounds were very close and all my opponents had something special. But the whole power play act by constantly shuffling decks had set me slightly off balance. I’m slow rolling my cards, and putting cards on the table. But my opponent is fast, very fast. I at some point I am winning the first game by creature fight, but my life total is at 10. He then he wheels into 7 new cards, lots of reshuffling libraries, and he passes the turn.

I play my turn after the Wheel. I pass turn and he plays his turn. Then all of a sudden, a Finnish guy interrupts the game, claiming – without being a judge – that I might have played an extra land last turn. Which I don’t think I did. However, according to him, I should have had 5 cards on hand instead of 4. I seem to have forgotten to draw a card beginning my turn after the 7 cards from the wheel, or may have dropped a land and mox last turn. Nobody knows. I propose we retrace moves, and ask if I should draw my forgotten card, but my opponent and I agree it’s ok to continue and a done deal.

Old School is slightly casual to some players, but to others, it’s very competitive. The Finnish guy behind me kept interrupting the game with ‘new information’. With 25 people watching this finale, it’s very distracting. We continue the game and my opponent is trapped and at 2 life. I have a suchi and a factory out. He pulls his last strings; double bolts me, and psi blasts. It’s a draw.

Game II
Because of the chaos in the first last game, I did not even notice it was a draw, I thought it was a loss because he did me 10 damage and did not count his Psionic Blast damage. There was just a lot of tension because of the interruptions and it being a semi final.

The second game is a win for my opponent. 2-0 I assume at that point. But then, most interestingly, my opponent starts to shuffle his library again, and he says lets go to game nr 3. I’m stunned, and think: okay cool, apparently the semi finale is best of 5.

Game III
I win this game. I can’t recall how.

Game IV
After power shuffling our decks, my opponent gets to start the game.
He takes a Mulligan. -> Powershufling.
He takes another Muligan. -> Powershufling (X2)
He takes another Mulligan -> Powershufling his deck even more strongly. (X3).
He then takes another Mulligan! – > Powershufling his deck while applying even more pressure on shuffling (X4)

At this point I can hear people in the audience saying, okay this is going to be a short game because he Mulls down to 3.
He then takes his last and finale Mulligan – > He power shuffles into 2 cards. And it’s thank god not a Balance, Lotus, Wheel or Twister. He plays a land and a pixy.

I’m completely fogged by all the mulligans with extensive shufling I’ve just witnessed, so I just start to play with my 7 cards +1 draw. The game goes very well. Obviously, I have a huge card advantage and I win this game.

The Finale!

I play Gijsbert. As soon as we sit down, the vibe is just very relaxed. This is how I’d personally like old school should be. A festive atmosphere, no power moves and oozing control, it just felt like a casual relaxed game.

Game I
Gijsbert had won 6-0 today, so I was definitely very interested to see where I was up against, The game starts and I immediately see Gijsbert plays a lot of AN. To me, that’s always a good sign, because I play 2 City In A Bottle mainboard.

Gijsbert starts good, pixies, Serendib Djinn, active factories, but I have answers to almost everything.

Game II
Gijsbert starts. I have a LOA in my opening hand and manage to play the entire second game with my LOA active, right up until I have enough cards and the upper hand on the battlefield to cast Armageddon.
I’ve won the tournament! Can’t believe it. Thank you Emiel, for hosting this amazing tournament. Unforgettable!