Subject: 2nd Place in Sorcery @ Sin City Open 2025
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2025 20:34:39 -0700
From: Neil <neil@oldschoolsorcery.com>
To: Old School Sorcery <admin@oldschoolsorcery.com>

2nd Place in Sorcery @ Sin City Open 2025
By: Neil Troy (@bnrrx7 or neil@oldschoolsorcery.com)

Sin City Open 2025 was this past weekend and I was able to pilot Moth's Druid Midrange deck into 2^nd place behind the champ Steve Hines @srhines. The deck was a request I made to Moth of “what deck will beat Jeremy's Battlemage deck?” Moth provided me with a slew of options to choose from and I chose the Druid pile for its ease of play and to give the new avatar a run through.

Old School events are a great place to just pilot what you want to have fun with. There might be a spike in the field (maybe myself or Steve...) but you don't have to worry about a field of Archimago. That being said I wanted to playtest the deck a little bit before heading out to Vegas so I met Moth for lunch the day before the event to jam some games. Moth was nice enough to bring a version of the aforementioned “Jeremy's Battlemage” deck and oh my word it was a slaughter fest. Battlemage just did not stand a chance to what this Druid Midrange pile was doing...so success! After 2-3 games of slaughter Moth switched it up to Archimago at my request. I kind of thought Urbano might play Archimago and I'd like to at least pretend I know what I'm doing in the match-up. Long story short the entire match-up's roles had reversed and I couldn't do a thing against Archimago with Moth piloting it.

Throughout the playtesting and the following weekend of playing there were a few gameplay thoughts that I felt needed to be put on digital paper. Rather than a standard tournament report I thought providing these general thoughts might be more valuable.

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What made this Druid midrange deck play so well in the match-ups? It was card advantage and mana advantage. It wasn't the traditional card advantage you might think of with Sorcerer drawing two a turn. It was making all of your threats require 1-for-1 at minimum and mostly 2-for-1'ing your opponent. Bosk Troll on 2 mana eats 2 or 1 power dudes early. Autumn Unicorn bounces off bolts and missiles as does Dalcean Phalanx. Vampire is insta-kill but when the previous bodies ate all the spells its just death from above. On the other side Kettletop replaces itself, freeing up your avatar to move around (which I think is critical for late game) or allowing more spells off the top.

On top of that Earthquake and Whirling Blades are 2-for-1'ing your opponents easily and adjusting the board state to suit what you are doing. I'd even argue Dwarven Digging Team is virtual card advantage as it counters Bury effects which are always prevalent. Card advantage is always a great strategy in TCGs but this deck excels at pressuring an opponent with the card advantage smashing their face.

Understanding card advantage, to me, is more than just “one spell that draws two cards”. This is technically card advantage (unless your opponent is playing draw three!) but in Sorcery it should be coupled with doing something else. Maximizing card advantage is definitely a viable way to think about building decks to up your Sorcery game.

As an example, when I think critically about Apprentice Wizard I wonder if it is overplayed. Yes it is a body that replaces itself but it is such a weak body. Deathspeaker shenanigans aside, I'd think the wizard is better used in a deck with Poison Nova or other places where the Spellcaster ability is being used meaningfully. This maximizes the card's abilities to create further card advantage. As a body, wizard is just a road block for a turn...which is maybe a quarter of a card? It needs more to it in practical games.

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What made this Druid midrange deck play so well in the match-ups? It was having amazing utility sites. The threshold requirements on this deck are pretty basic. Functional on one of each pip and cruising along with two of each pip. There are no 3 or 4 color splashes, which allows a great selection of the single pip utility lands to be played and they are in an abundance in this deck. Beacon, Bedrock, Briar Patch, Tower, Pebbled Path, Perilous Bridge, Pillar, Quagmire, Rift Valley, and Watchtower are all present in high quantity and all serve a purpose throughout the games. Ramping, solidifying, poking, spellslinging, anti-haste, stopping attacks outright, gaining life, pausing for a turn, moving the board, and stopping sneaky minions...all from the mana base. I could make an argument that this acts like card advantage since the sites aren't just for threshold like many mana bases. The site placement is probably one of the harder aspects of this deck. We all love the site placement aspect of Sorcery but because most sites have utility in the later game you have to be more cautious about what to play. For example, an early Quagmire for threshold reasons might backfire when you could use it later to lock up pieces for a turn.

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What made this Druid midrange deck play so well in the match-ups? Piloting any deck it is important to identify if you are the aggressor or the defender in a game. It's not an uncommon thing for new players to TCGs to think they are the aggressor when in reality they should be defending. Defending in Sorcery can mean building resources, answering threats, or shaping the realm. The old adage is that life is a resource and should be treated like one. Answering early minions with spells may not be the right line for the true endgame. I say true endgame to differentiate from perceived endgame. It is easy to get stuck in a mindset of “I have to answer this minion so that I can swing for 3 now so I can door in two turns.” In reality, the true endgame might involve ignoring or pushing aside a minion to develop for a strong board state later in the game. As it pertains to this deck I feel its important to understand that your life is a resource. This build has a ton of life gain, don't be worried of early hits. Stabilize the board and regain your card advantage.

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What made this Druid midrange deck play so well in the match-ups? This deck is relatively easy to pilot. It is forgiving. There are no crazy combos. You are doing bread and butter Sorcery things with a dash of advanced TCG concepts of resource utilization and card advantage.

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How come I didn't win? I playtested Steve the night before to dust off his deck. I obliterated Steve. It wasn't close. When it came to the actual match in the finals, my deck didn't cooperate. I drew too much life gain and Steve clogged the board with a Root Spider that I couldn't draw an answer to. I never could get pressure on Steve and he capitalized with real card advantage from Sorcerer. Immediately after the game Steve and I talked and we agree on this: in Sorcery its very important to understand what role you are playing in the game. As mentioned above Steve identified early in our finals match that I had no pressure so he could build a solid defense. Steve did NOT play out little minions to start dealing chip damage. The reason was I played an Angel's Egg too early. It was too early because it telegraphed what I thought about the state of the game. I had no minion to drop and I was trying to be mana efficient. He properly identified my weakness and didn't play minions into the board until he thought he had an overwhelming force. Oh, and Steve is a really good player. I call him my kryptonite.

When I playtested against Archimago with Moth we also discussed this. In the Archimago match-up you don't want to play one creature a turn. Why? Archimago is waiting to answer threats to fill the graveyard. Playing against Archimago would be better suited shaping the realm and waiting to drop multiple units per turn on opposite sides of the realm. This stretches Archimago's resources making it harder to efficiently use their card advantage engine.

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In the end the Sin City Open was a great event. James Portello @thescrollrack and crew put on a great event at a great venue. It was great seeing friends again and slinging cardboard. Over $8k was raised for charity (The Poppy Foundation) and a great line-up of artists were there. To all my friends making it down this far, can't wait to see you at redacted.