Some updates are long overdue.
First, I went to Malmö for Tier1Con, a large, GP-wannabe event featuring a Modern main event, numerous vendors and side events, including a classic Danish Old School tournament and a Premodern one the day after. It was all held in a convention center, and largely a disappointment for everyone, since the main event had something like 250 players instead of the 800-1000 they were probably aiming for. And, for me, playing Old School at a convention center with no natural lights and only bad beer (a wonder there was any at all!) isn’t what I want to do at all. I like Danish Old School and I like the Danish community, but we really should just have played at some pub instead. Or it’s just not for me, as much of a spike I am.
Anyway, it was called Tier1Con, so I figured I should play a theme deck:
Over six rounds of Swiss, I went 4-2, losing to an Atog deck drawing really well (when they unload their hand into a draw-7, it’s very hard to win) and to a mirror match that I played horribly on a strategic level and could probably have won. I need to practice more for that matchup, it’s just been too long. And end up 9th on tiebreakers, of course. That did turn out to be okay, though, as it meant I could head for a fantastic dinner and crashing a party afterwards. It helps hanging out with Olle who knows everyone everywhere.
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A few weeks later, I went to Christian Reinhard’s Reinvitational tournament in Sarnen, Switzerland. Basically the inverse of the above in every way: long trip, beautiful scenery, small cosy event, tier 2 deck. Just take a look at this:
I played Kalle.dec for the first time ever with some small twists of my own (Gentlemen’s rules, in case anyone is wondering where the Twist and Library are):
It was fine, I started out 3-0, then lost twice, making t8 but losing again in the quarterfinals. There’s a certain weakness to large creatures here and I realize why Kalle has moved towards white for Swords in recent years. Turn 1 Juzam is almost game over, and in the qfs g2 I faced t1 Blood Moon, t2 Shivan. Those things just happen, I suppose. Copy Artifact is a lot of fun to play with, though, and I should revisit it at some point.
We did play ante games, people were great, Christian won his own tournament, we swam a lot in the lake pictured above. For a more eloquent report, please see MG’s post which you probably always have read. Thanks so much Christian for inviting me and putting together a fantastic event, and thanks everyone else who attended and made the weekend one to truly remember!
Now I decided to skip a few upcoming tournaments for various reasons, mostly logistical, but there might be some other things to write about. We’ll see.
End of turn, draw a card 
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