This event was entirely organized by Shane, who has become a staple of the Chicago Old School community and is one of the most likable people I know. Shane is also absolutely savage and went from a small but respectable Legacy/Commander collection with no Power, to being fully Powered with a sizable collection of Unlimited dual lands in the last year and a half. Go big or go home!





Initially, this tournament was scheduled to be run at the Dice Dojo , a small game shop in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. Our previous two events were hosted by Jaco at his commercial printing space, but Jaco has since moved to LA and was not able to host this time. The prior Sunday before the tournament, Shane and I met up and played some Old School at Hopewell Brewing 's tap room, where we met up with newcomer Dan Piquard and Old School innovator, Brandon Sanders for some games.





Hopewell is only about a 15-minute walk from my house, and I have been there many times before, but never to play MTG. It turns out that the space was completely amazing for gaming. There is a cart of board games right in the bar, and there are generally many games being played at any given time. They had six different beers on tap, and all that I tried were delicious (especially the saison and the sour). After many beers, friendly interested spectators, and Chaos Orb flips I was convinced that Hopewell would be the ideal location for our tournament and exclaimed this to Shane.





Picture of the taproom from Hopewell's website

I realized that the center table (foreground of the picture above) would be large enough to seat the entire tournament. This would be important in making an effort not to take up too much space. The space is also extremely well-lit and air conditioned. It's been extremely humid and in the mid and high 80s [ºF] for the last few weeks, so A/C is a huge plus.









I won the Hopewell growler and had it filled with the All Hope Kettle Sour (awesome beer, in my opinion). I was allowed to pick one old Duelist issue and one card from the pool. I went with Duelist issue three from fall 1994, featuring Drew Tucker, one of my favorite MTG artists of all time. For my card, I chose the very mis-cut Unlimited Plains. I couldn't have been happier with my winnings.



Prizes

Shane tried to get prize shots of most people, unfortunately, he wasn't able to get everyone before they left, but here is what we have:

1st place - Danny "Dandân" Friedman 2nd place - Anthony Collora 3rd place - Nathan Mullen 4th place - Dominic Dotterrer 5th place - Nick Rohr 6th place - Michael Walker 7th place - James Tork 8th place - Shane Semmens 9th place - Stephen Maldonado 10th place - Bob Agra 11th place - Jim Bailey 12th place - Brandon Sanders 13th place - Dan Rech 14th place - Grant Casleton 15th place - John Beste 16th place - Dan Piquard Props and Slops



Props

Shane – for setting up and running this event. It's a ton of work to coordinate these tournaments with attendees from multiple states, having to find a venue to run the event in (for free at that), and all of the other small details. After losing both Dominic and Jaco to California, Shane has really stepped up to the plate. He also organized a Chicago Vintage League that is now in its final week prior to playoffs and has been a blast to play in. He's a boss.



Dom – for being the most functional drunk I have ever met, only possibly rivaled by



Dan Piquard – for diving head-first into Old School and coming to this event. In all fairness, he may have finished at a much higher placing if he had stayed past the first couple rounds (he had a scheduling conflict).



Bob – for jumping on the tournament last-minute and filling the place of another who couldn't make it at the last minute.



Nathan – for figuring out, along with Dom, how to run WER and get our event paired properly. The tournament went off right on time, and we have the combined efforts of Nathan, Shane, and Dom to thank for that.



Anthony – for handling the food ordering and getting some delicious



Slops

Our two favorite attendees from central Wisconsin, James Tork and Dan Rech – who both lost matches to missed



Shane – for setting up and running this event. It's a ton of work to coordinate these tournaments with attendees from multiple states, having to find a venue to run the event in (for free at that), and all of the other small details. After losing both Dominic and Jaco to California, Shane has really stepped up to the plate. He also organized a Chicago Vintage League that is now in its final week prior to playoffs and has been a blast to play in. He's a boss.Dom – for being the most functional drunk I have ever met, only possibly rivaled by Sam Krohlow , and flying out to Chicago over his birthday weekend to sling cardboard with us. This tournament, and weekend in general, wouldn't have been anywhere near as great without him.Dan Piquard – for diving head-first into Old School and coming to this event. In all fairness, he may have finished at a much higher placing if he had stayed past the first couple rounds (he had a scheduling conflict).Bob – for jumping on the tournament last-minute and filling the place of another who couldn't make it at the last minute.Nathan – for figuring out, along with Dom, how to run WER and get our event paired properly. The tournament went off right on time, and we have the combined efforts of Nathan, Shane, and Dom to thank for that.Anthony – for handling the food ordering and getting some delicious Dante's Pizza to the tournament goers. We hadn't seen him playing MTG in a while and it was great to have him at the tournament. On a side note, I think the Relic War marks my first Old School tournament win against him, EVER.Our two favorite attendees from central Wisconsin, James Tork and Dan Rech – who both lost matches to missed Chaos Orb flips. If James had won the flip against me, it would have knocked me from first into the sixth place slot and would have been absolutely savage.



John – on being the only attendee to fail to get me a picture deck list, although he did text it (see his list earlier in the post).



Nathan – for not singing



Shane – for nearly losing his phone on Friday in our Uber and not knowing any of his passwords so he could log into Uber on my phone and contact the driver.



Additional Relic War Photos





Brandon (Deadguy Ale) vs Shae ('Lil Dom)

Dom (Fatties) vs Shane ('Lil Dom)

Dan P (U/W Skies) vs John ('94 Tron)

Nathan (White Weenie) vs Dom (Fatties)

Nathan (White Weenie) vs Dom (Fatties)

Dom (Fatties) vs Shane ('Lil Dom)

Dom (Fatties) vs Shane ('Lil Dom)

Dom (Fatties) vs Shane ('Lil Dom)

Tournament seating

Tournament seating

Dan R (The Deck) vs Grant (R/G/B Tempo)

Dan R (The Deck) vs Grant (R/G/B Tempo)

James (Deadguy + Blue) vs Bob (Tax-Edge)

James (Deadguy + Blue) vs Dan P (U/W Skies)

James (Deadguy + Blue) vs Shane ('Lil Dom)

Anthony (5C Good Stuff) vs Jim (R/B Tempo)

Mike (White Weenie) vs Anthony (5C Good Stuff)

Mike (White Weenie) vs Anthony (5C Good Stuff)

Mike (White Weenie) vs Nick (Big Pink)

Nathan's hand against Mike

Too many prizes to sign

Tournament Aftermath

After the tournament ended, may of us hung around at Hopewell drinking beers, taking care of unfinished Vintage league matches, playing Nathan's Type 4 stack, and of course, more Old School. Everyone I spoke with had an awesome time, despite numerous "bad beats" stories (but that is standard after any MTG event).



After we'd all drank all the we could drink and OD'd on Magic, we disbanded and headed our separate ways. Dom had been a more serious drinker than I had been all day, and seemed to be feeling the effects. Aside from a dull headache, I was doing pretty well. We walked back to my house to drop our cards off (and my new Growler of Hopewell All Hope Kettle Sour) and start thinking about dinner.



Dom and I ended up going out for Thai/Japanese at a local place that has been real good every time I've been there,



After dinner, we stopped back at my place, and Elise was there and convinced Dom to go out again to Alice's. I tagged along but didn't drink anything. Instead, I watched Elise and Dom pound down mixed drinks with shots of tequila in between. By 1:30AM, they were fading fast and their karaoke songs had yet to be called, so I walked while they stumbled home.



The next day (Sunday) is a blur to me at this point, but I recall that Shane met up with Dom and I, and we repeated our Friday; we went to Handlebar again, and this time I ordered the chimichanga. We went to Map Room again meeting up with Grant, Grant's fiancée, Katy, and Mike and played more Old School. We disbanded pretty early since I had to work the next morning, and Dom had to wake up at 3AM to catch the train to O'Hare for his flight.



The three-day weekend was one of the best in recent memory. I was super bummed out to have missed the recent



Shane and I have been brainstorming some fun ideas in preparation for



I'm going to try and post a bit more regularly, so that not all posts are this long, but I make no guarantees!



Keep making those



Until next time...



//Danny John – on being the only attendee to fail to get me a picture deck list, although he did text it (see his list earlier in the post).Nathan – for not singing Homiez at Alice's – I don't care if you don't know the words.Shane – for nearly losing his phone on Friday in our Uber and not knowing any of his passwords so he could log into Uber on my phone and contact the driver.After the tournament ended, may of us hung around at Hopewell drinking beers, taking care of unfinished Vintage league matches, playing Nathan's Type 4 stack, and of course, more Old School. Everyone I spoke with had an awesome time, despite numerous "bad beats" stories (but that is standard after any MTG event).After we'd all drank all the we could drink and OD'd on Magic, we disbanded and headed our separate ways. Dom had been a more serious drinker than I had been all day, and seemed to be feeling the effects. Aside from a dull headache, I was doing pretty well. We walked back to my house to drop our cards off (and my new Growler of Hopewell All Hope Kettle Sour) and start thinking about dinner.Dom and I ended up going out for Thai/Japanese at a local place that has been real good every time I've been there, Trike Noodle . Fortunately, Trike is BYOB (for those of you not from Chicago, this is a common thing here for businesses that cannot acquire or afford liquor licenses), and we didn't know to bring any beer or hard alcohol with us. I don't think I could have handled any more alcohol.After dinner, we stopped back at my place, and Elise was there and convinced Dom to go out again to Alice's. I tagged along but didn't drink anything. Instead, I watched Elise and Dom pound down mixed drinks with shots of tequila in between. By 1:30AM, they were fading fast and their karaoke songs had yet to be called, so I walked while they stumbled home.The next day (Sunday) is a blur to me at this point, but I recall that Shane met up with Dom and I, and we repeated our Friday; we went to Handlebar again, and this time I ordered the chimichanga. We went to Map Room again meeting up with Grant, Grant's fiancée, Katy, and Mike and played more Old School. We disbanded pretty early since I had to work the next morning, and Dom had to wake up at 3AM to catch the train to O'Hare for his flight.The three-day weekend was one of the best in recent memory. I was super bummed out to have missed the recent Team Serious Invitational (congrats to Ben on merc'ing the shit out of the field with Two-Card Monte) and Gen Con, but this weekend with the Chicago Old School crew more than made up for it.Shane and I have been brainstorming some fun ideas in preparation for Eternal Weekend , and I couldn't be more excited – this will make it to the blog soon enough! When I last spoke with Jaco, he already had over 50 people pre-registered for the EC Eternal Weekend Old School event , and the list keeps on growing. If you plan on playing Old School at EW, email Jaco and get on the list.I'm going to try and post a bit more regularly, so that not all posts are this long, but I make no guarantees!Keep making those Chaos Orb flips – you never know when it will win you a growler of beer.Until next time...//Danny









I've been trying to keep my blog posts at about one per month – unfortunately, this one's about half a month late, but I didn't want to post anything unless I had something worthwhile. I'm glad to report that I won The Relic War, Chicago's recent Old School tournament on Saturday, July 30th. That makes two consecutive wins, and the first person in our group to have pulled that off (although I imagine that my luck probably won't last through the next event – here's hoping that it will).Before I jump into the full-on tournament report of the Relic War, I want to paint a complete picture of the crazy weekend that ensued which is perfectly representative of what I love about the Chicago Old School community, and Old School communities in general. When MTG is more about having a good time than winning games, it leads to some very enjoyable assemblages of people. I've experienced this in Northern California Gothenburg , and Chicago – in a not-so-minor way, this is largely what this blog is all about.