This past week the Lords of the Pit hosted another Middle School event in Chicago, in a recurring series of events called Middle School Marauders (#MiddleSchoolMarauders on social media). Future events in this series will usually be open to the public every couple of months, and found on our Events page here.
Tournament Structure and Prizing
As usual, with most local events we try to keep things moving quickly so people can have fun and get in and out, and then go hang out with friends at night afterwards. We often do Swiss+1 with no draws allowed, to encourage people to actually play Magic rather than draw matches.
This month’s event featured 16 competitors (and a couple of other watchers), and a nice smoked pulled pork and brisket barbecue spread, courtesy of Lord Jaco and Lord Greg, with a nice cornbread by Lord Agra, and various accoutrements and beverages donated by other Lords.
As usual, there was a large stack of Middle School staples that people could choose from before the tournament, or people can bring their own card, and each card was stamped, dated, and group signed as part of the prize pool from a memorable day.
Final Standings After Swiss+1
Jaco was the winner of this event, piloting a 5C TaxRack Control deck to the only undefeated record on the day, for a clean 5-0 finish.
Decks
After a heavy presence of Goblins and other aggro and aggro control decks tilting the field the past few events, this field featured a few different varieties of Oath and control decks, as well as a few different Enchantress combo decks to try to take advantage of the prior aggro tune. But Goblins was absent this day, and instead replaced by some wild decks like Zach Zurawski’s Fluctuator combo, Chet Miller’s LED-fueled Quiet Spec Madness, Lil Greg’s Invitational Wizards, and our Most Creative Deck Winner, David Velasco’s 5C Coalition Victory deck, featuring both Natural Order and Coalition Victory. Even in a relatively small field, there was a pretty wide variety of decks this month.
Bob Agra – Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW
Matt Braun – The Rock BG
Mike Chavez – Red Deck Wins
Graham Dickson – Land Destruction Sligh
Enrique Flores – Mono Black Necro
Jaco – 5C TaxRack
Ben Jones – Mono Black Grave Pact
Greg Kotscharjan – UWB Invitational Wizards
Andy MacDougall – Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW
Jimmy McCarthy – OathStill UGW
Caleb Mikolajczyk – Enchantress GW
Chet Miller – LED Speculation Madness
Carter Petray – Full English Breakfast
Rich Tomek – Landstill UW
DECK PHOTO MISSING
David Velasco – 5C Burning Cromat Coalition *Most Creative Deck Winner*
Zach Zurawski – Fluctuator
Tournament Action
Pregame Prep the Day Before, Smoking Some Meats
McCarthy (OathStill UGW) vs. Agra (Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW)
Petray (Full English Breakfast) vs. Braun (The Rock BG)
Chavez (Red Deck Wins) vs. MacDougall (Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW)
Mikolajczyk (Enchantress GW) vs. Velasco (5C Burning Cromat Coalition)
Jones (Mono Black Grave Pact) vs. MacDougal (Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW)
Agra (Enchantress SquirrelCraft GW) vs. Kotscharjan (UWB Invitational Wizards)
McCarthy (OathStill UGW) vs. Flores (Mono Black Necro)
Jaco (5C TaxRack) vs. Petray (Full English Breakfast)
Thanks for reading, and we’ll catch you next time.