Date: Sun, 27 Sept 2026 07:18:43 -0700
From: Neil <neil@oldschoolsorcery.com>
To: Old School Sorcery <admin@oldschoolsorcery.com>
Shenanigans at Lobstercon 2026
By: Neil Troy (@bnrrx7 or neil@oldschoolsorcery.com)
This Lobstercon was an event that I couldn't plan much for. We were running an
event two weeks beforehand in Vegas and I just didn't devote brainpower into a
deck and get any reps in. I opted for reanimator in ATL and originally was on
GR-Berserk for X-Points (1 week before flying out) and switched to Diamond
Valley stuff 12-hours before flying for X-Points.
The interesting things I found for reanimator in the planning stages were:
-all-in reanimator kind of fizzles for me.
-mid-range/control was more recommended.
-the mana feels so sketchy.
I settled on the below list. No Fireball, no Regrowth, and no Wheel because I
was so worried about the mana base. The deck got lots of kudos but it went 2-4
before I dropped to do other shenanigans with Stephen Hartford.
I faced:
R1: Joseph on The Deck w/ Main Deck Abyss and Tormod's in the board. 0-1 (0-2)
R2: Jeff on Tax Edge. 1-1 (2-2)
R3: Josh Lion, Dib, Serra + Armageddon. 2-1 (4-3)
R4: Oliver 12-bolt. 2-2 (5-5)
R5: Ross Lion, Dib, Bolt. 2-3 (6-7)
R6: Brandon 12-bolt. 2-4 (6-9)
In general, I played against a maelstrom's worth of lightning bolts and I was a
top deck'd bolt away from losing with lethal on board more than once. The record
suggests I was on the wrong side of the bolts, and I was.
I found reanimator to be complex. Lots of game actions and planning. I probably
played sub-optimal the whole time, but it was neat. Some folks pointed me to
entirely different angles than this Rasputin/Trike build that look interesting
so maybe I don't fully retire reanimator but I can take a break from it for now.
For X-points I final day switched to Diamond Valley stuff. I love Disharmony. I
think walls are great. I just wanted to play Rukh Egg. The list is for sure not
optimal but represented enough stuff that I felt happy whichever way the cookie
crumbled. I had playtested a similar deck last year for SWE with SuChi, Sage and
more Fireballs to ramp the mana with but SuChi is no bueno in X-points without a
Factory.
The first time I shuffled this was on Saturday morning round 1 and the first
four rounds it went 4-0 (8-2). It basically ate 4x zoo decks alive. The walls
are tough to get through for Factories and little dudes and the walls having
power stops even the chip in damage since guys are dying from the Heat or Air.
The life gain from Diamond Valley pulls you safely away in life total and the
Disharmony just wrecks all the
go widecombat math.
After that it was three The Deckish variants one being more UW fliers that did
their thing although most games were long and drawn out. Finally going 4-4 with
a loss to mono-brown that I was content to lose to (mana troubles on my end made
it a nothing game).
Rather than play-by-play I thought a mini level-up of rules interactions might
summarize the weekend better.
Diamond Valley:
-Diamond Valley has the sacrifice portion on the left hand side of the colon in
the Oracle text. This means sacrificing the creature is part of the activated
cost, just like mana would be on other cards like Icy Manipulator. This means
your opponent cannot respond by Terror'ing or Swords'ing your creature to negate
the life gain.
-Diamond Valley is a land, if you have a creature in play and a Diamond Valley
in hand and you choose to play your Diamond Valley your opponent cannot respond
to the land being played. There is no window to respond to playing a land. This
is important for sequencing. If you cast a Rukh Egg without a Diamond Valley
on board your opponent is less likely to counter it. After it resolves you can
then play your Diamond Valley and sacrifice the creature whenever you'd like.
+The Abyss:
The Abyss is a targeted effect that you can respond to. You can choose to target
a Rukh Egg. The trigger goes on the stack. You can then respond to the trigger
by sacrificing the creature to a Diamond Valley. You will not have to choose
another creature. Similarly, you can cast Scavenger Folk with The Abyss in play.
When it gets back to your turn and Scavenger Folk has lost summoning sickness
you can choose Scavenger Folk as target for The Abyss and then sacrifice it to
its own ability to kill an artifact.
Rukh Egg:
-Modern errata nets you a 4/4 flying bird token when Rukh Egg dies and goes to
your graveyard. Rukh Egg cares about
dyingand going to the graveyard, Swords
targeting your Rukh Egg won't net you a bird token. You can absolutely bolt or
blue elemental blast your Rukh Egg to get the token effect you want. You can
also Chain Lightning on your Rukh Egg and then send the Chain Lightning to
another target.
-The bird token is not a
card. This may be subtle but that means certain other
cards cannot interact with it. The big one being Chaos Orb. Chaos Orb interacts
with cards and token, by definition are not cards. So your bird token can't die
to a Chaos Orb flip.
-The bird comes into play at the beginning of the next end step. This makes it
slightly annoying in casual OS events as you technically have to have it go to
the graveyard before the end step phase to get the bird that turn. So you can
sacrifice Rukh Egg to Diamond Valley before leaving your opponent's second main
phase but after the resolution of Diamond Valley you are still in your opponent's
second main phase and they can cast sorcery speed spells again, but you will get
your bird on your opponent's end step.
Ydwen Efreet:
-This came up but wasn't natural. More of fun to ask the judge question #4 for
the day. If Ydwen is declared as a blocker a trigger goes on the stack to flip a
coin (get those dice out of here!). Before the resolution of this trigger if
Ydwen is removed from play (Swords, double Bolt, Tawnos' Coffin, etc.) and you
lose the coin flip does Ydwen still get removed from blocking since it isn't on
the battlefield? Yes! Whether Ydwen is in play or not, if the coin flip is lost
it's like the block didn't happen.
Disharmony:
-The wording explains the card but Disharmony must be cast before the declare
blockers step. So it cannot be used after they Berserk their creature for lethal
and you steal it to avoid the damage (assuming they Berserk'd after the declare
blockers step).
Disharmony + Maze of Ith:
-Nothing feels worse than seeing an opponent have Maze of Ith up when you have
Disharmony in hand. But don't be afraid! Although Maze will fog that creature's
damage it doesn't remove it from combat so you still gain control of it. You can
still block with the creature and sacrifice it if you have a sac-outlet.
Juxtapose:
-The order of exchange is creatures then artifacts. If either players does not
have one of the card types that specific exchange doesn't happen. Mishra's
Factory being a land that animates into an Artifact Creature allows it to be
exchanged for either or both exchanges. Example in a mono-green match-up where
your opponent just played a Erhnam and has no artifacts in play you can animate
Mishra's Factory, cast Juxtapose, and then steal their Erhnam and get back your
Mishra's Factory by passing them your Black Vise. Black Vise wouldn't even
change targets. It even gets around those Spectral Cloacked Ali from Cairos that
run around every tournament I go to because nothing is targetted.
Shenanigans with Stephen Hartford
Stephen Hartford was a wonderful host all weekend and in a small token of
appreciation I brought a pile of unopened packs for us to bust open and make
some sealed decks with. We each got 1x Revised, 1x The Dark, 1x Alliances,
1x Fallen Empires, 1x Homelands. Of course Stephen added to this by throwing in
another The Dark, and a few more Fallen Empires and Homelands packs. I bought
most of the packs off eBay as loosies, but wouldn't you know Stephen's Revised
pack had a Scrubland in it! From a limited perspective I opened two bombs
Millstone and Preacher. I also happened to have enough annoying white dudes to
slow the game down so that Millstone could do its thing.
Props:
-Stephen Hartford and his family for being excellent hosts all weekend. See you
at Sin City Open 2027!
-The traveling Beasts, Mike, Jerm, Hines, Eliot, Eliot, and Flint, hanging with
a group of friends all weekend makes the events for me.
-The entire Lobstercon event but especially DFB for putting on an incredibly
well run event that kept everyone engaged all-day long.
-Everyone that joined the Quest for Ice. Pay it forward and bring it with you.
-Lobstercon folks for letting the Beasts claim the main entry for hang-outs.
-Everyone that was willing to move tables to give us more room and everyone else
more room as well.
Slops:
-Jerm for trying to get me to Lady and the Tramp every meal with Andy, not going
to happen!
Notes:
-I get a ton of compliments on deck choice and it is great but also if you truly
find the decks I'm playing neat maybe you should spice up your own deck a bit.
Flint and Ammi both top-16'd with spicy decks, partly because they are unknowns
in the field. That is pure advantage in your direction.
See you at Avatar of the Realm in November, Sin City Open in January, and redacted.
Neil @bnrrx7