I started playing Magic with 6th Edition Starter decks and my first “good” deck was the Green-White Invasion Precon with 3 Armadillo Cloaks and Charging Trolls. Later, I got more an more involved into the competitive scene, playing countless Grand Prixs and with a peak Limited Top100 ELO rating worldwide.
Since I started working full-time, testing and reading about Magic all-day long was not an option anymore. Still, Grand Prix and Pro Tour Qualifiers were absolute quality times because you’re travelling with friends. Grand Prix are no longer now, so for international events, the annual Uthden Troll Cup in Leeuwarden has become the one event I look forward to the most every year since 2021, when I first heard about it.
It is a 3+ day event in a familiar atmosphere, with Oldschool as its big official main attraction, but secretly everyone comes for the Troll Crew as TO team, the beer coupons and to see the same awesome people you’ve met the year before.
This year, I play nicely crafted Repack Drafts, the Oldschool Main event and the Premodern Main Event, the Dutch Premodern Championship.
In Oldschool, I play my trusty Blood Moon deck. I win some matches because I could Mind Twist my opponents, and lose some matches because they could activate Library of Alexandria often enough or Mind Twist me.
In Premodern, I play “UW Flippi”, a deck I am working on for three years now.
This report will try to show the steps I take on Sunday, during the Premodern mainevent.
It started as a UW Rebell Still deck, with a different creature base and less Counterspells. Marvin Karis version of the European Premodern Championship 2023 inspired me to try Armageddon again this time, a card I had toyed with, but that was a time when the deck still had many Rebels. I believe Rebels plus Armageddon is not a right version, but with a more pure UW Solution list, Armageddon can do wonders.
The general goal is to have enough answers to the unfair things your opponent can do and win with fair 2/2 creature beatdown. Sometimes, a 2/2 isn’t enough, so if your opponent plays 4/4 Ravenous Baloths or puts your lifetotal to a Fireblast and Lightning Bolts range too quickly, it might be necessary to turn Exalted Angel face-up.
The sideboard is designed to help against Elves (Mana Maze, Hibernation, Annul) and red Aggro decks (Crimson Acolyte, Worship, Exalted Angel, Galina’s Knight) with a few additional cards in the not so uncommon UW Landstill matchup (Teferi’s Response and Armageddon).
Another possible path for the deck would be with Parallax Tide, Stifle and Parallax Wave, or a more aggressive approach of Jens Jäger, also from the UTC. The singleton Worship may be a remnant of some brewing with Enlightened Tutor. A back-to-the roots version with Rebels and Artifical Evolution to get Meddling Mages out of Ramosian Sargeant was an utter failure at my local testing ground.
With around 60 players, we play six rounds of Swiss, followed by a cut to The Top Eight.
My first opponent is Simon on Aluren
The first game is a fight about his manabase. He plays a Veteran Explorer that I can exile with Swords to Plowshares. A Wasteland for his Phyrexian Tower makes it clear that Swords was a good decision. He plays a Cabal Therapy which I can put on top of his library with Memory Lapse, only to follow-up with a Meddling Mage, naming Cabal Therapy. Overall he has too few mana to do the action he’d like to. Intuition on Aluren resolves, but finds a counterspell, while 1/1s and 2/2s on my side, together with Mishra’s Factory turn out to be a fast clock.
My Sideboard Mana Maze forces him to use Living Wish an Stern Proctor. He has an Aluren on the battlefield, but in response to his second Living Wish, likely for a combopiece Cavern Harpy or Wirewood Savage, I put my Meddling Mage into play, abusing his Aluren. It names Cavern Harpy, allowing me to live another turn where Mana Maze enters the battlefield again. With Living Wishes gone and Cavern Harpy gone, I can close round 1 shortly after.
1-0
My second round opponent is Giamma with Replenish
This is one of the harder matchups. If you Meddling Mage Replenish, they can remove the Mage with Parallax Wave. If you name Parallax Wave, they can outright destroy you with Replenish. The best call might be to call Attunement and pray they don’t have Wave or Tide in hand yet until you can untap and have backup counterspells. Against Replenish and The Rock, Prohibit is the inferior counterspell to, say Mana Leak.
In our match, I resolve an Armageddon with a small board and try to stop him from getting back into the game with Wasteland. He has Ancient Tomb and Skycloud Expanse and is on a two-turn clock to my creatures. I decide to activate Wasteland on Skycloud Expanse. The idea is to cut him off white mana to keep my creatures, my clock alive. Now he’d need to draw a white mana and have Swords to Plowshares to expand the clock to a, say, three-to-four turn clock. At the same time, Wasteland on Skycloud Expanse means he can cast only Swords if he draws Plains, and he can cast only Attunement, but not Replenish or Swords if he draws Island.
He draws Adarkar Wastes and resolves Attunement. My attack brings him to four, enough life to tap Ancient Tomb and Adarkar Wastes once more to play Replenish, returning Opalescene, Parallax Wave and Parallax Tide.
Had I used my Wasteland on Ancient Tomb instead, my clock would be slower, but only in absolute turns, not in relative turns, as he’d also need more turns to get to three mana for Attunement, or four for Replenish too. That’s also one more turn for me to draw a counterspell or Meddling Mage! Wasteland on Ancient Tomb instead of Skycloud Expanse would’ve been the better play.
Game Two, I hit early with a Rootwater Thief, only to find out there are 3 Replenish, 3 Opalescene, 3 Parallax Wave in his deck. That makes it most likely one of each “combo” parts is already in his hand. Although Rootwater Thief hits several more times, I’ll never fully deny the pieces.
1-1
The next matchup is Sligh, historically a bad matchup for UW Flippi, but this time I have multiple Silver Knights and a maindeck Worship, also more counters instead of Rebels.
Last year, I lost my Top8 match to a great Sligh player. This year, I hope I can apply experiences gained from my losses.
I offer Mishra’s Factories and morph-Exalted Angels as easy targets for Grim Lavamancer, Bolts and Shock. Every permanent I lose means 2-3 lifetotal for me. Eventually, Exalted Angel can be cast as 6-mana drop forcing advantageous trades vs Fireblast with another spell. The idea works out, especially when I have more Protection Red creatures in game two. Galina’s Knight blocking Ball Lightning is good enough and with the Banzai strategy learned in the past two years, I have enough life total to dig for Worship eventually.
2-1
Bassiuz is my fourth opponent. He starts with Birds of Paradise and Treetop Village while I can activate Weathered Wayfarer for Wastelands. I did not expect Diabolic Edict for the Wayfarer and decide to Prohibit it at the end of my own turn. This opens a window for my opponent to stick Ravenous Baloth and build pressure. A second! Diabolic Edict finally gets rid of Weathered Wayfarer but I topdeck another immediatly. Eventually, I can force him to play and activate Pernicious Deed for a morph creature in his own turn, allowing me to place Waterfront Bouncer and Standstill. From that point on, I have the superior board, superior (man-)lands and a full hand of seven.
In game two, an early Cabal Therapy find double Meddling Mage of mine. The key scene of the game is when he casts Living Wish and I decide to not counter it. Afterall, I can counter whatever he searches for. He gets Dust Bowl that takes me out of the game entirely over the next four turns. Baloth and Treetop Village finish the game, while I have only Kor Haven, Mishra’s Factory and an Island, unable to cast spells.
The deciding game is about a Sideboard card. His turn one Cabal Therapy gets rid of Exalted Angel, making me believe he has no good removal in hand and possibly a slower hand, afraid of Turn 3 Morph, Turn 4 Exalted. I resolve my Meddling Mage naming Wall of Blossoms and looking at his face, he’s clearly unhappy with this decision. A second Meddling Mage names Pernicious Deed. He can create a cease-fire with Wall of Roots and Ravenous Baloth only to be broken up with Hibernation from my Sideboard. A Vendetta on Meddling Mage possibly brings Pernicious Deed back on the table. He has not enough mana to play and activate the Deed so delays it for another turn. At six power versus five lifepoints, I decide for Reverent Mantra on green for an unblockable Alpha Strike. I forgot about Ravenous Baloth though! He survies the turn, can clear up the board with Pernicious Deed this way, but I have enough Mishra’s Factories to win despite the earlier, greedy mistake with Reverent Mantra.
3-1
Every tournament has one. “That guy” playing Fluctuator. It’s clear to me he’s on the combodeck when he plays Smoldering Crater and Remote Isle. They come into play tapped and I can play Meddling Mage. He attempts to keep on playing, but I won’t run into two Disciple of Malice double blocking my Mage. The second game is over even faster. He has to mulligan to three and I annul his Fluctuator.
4-1
Joris Koek and I end up in the Top8 both if we agree on an Intentional Draw. I don’t know his deck, and we agree on an ID but play for fun.
In the first game, he has a, I believe Turn 1 or Turn 2 Dreadnought with Foil and Reality Ripple backup for my Swords to Plowshares or Disenchant and Kor Haven respectively.
With the knowledge what I face, I can make better mulligan decisions and using all the tools I have in my deck, and the knowledge he’s probably on Mono Blue Dreadnought, UW Flippi is doing what it is supposed to do. Destroy the Dreadnoughts with mostly Mana Maze from my sideboard. They play a Dreadnought and I counter it. They can’t counter back.
We did it! From my travelling group, Jan Froschster (Beard Brother) and Jens Jäger(slayjay) also made it this far. Jens plays a similar, but more aggressive version with Savannah Lions but no Waterfront Bouncers.
My quarterfinal is against JasperB, who I put on Black-White Discard/Pikula from my memories. During the break, we discuss what the key cards to name with Meddling Mage are vs Black-White Discard. Jens is against a blue-white Life deck and we discover naming Cunning Wish with Meddling Mage is the winoption.
He starts with Llanowar Elves on the first turn, followed by a Survival of the Fittest off a second Forest in the second turn. I have the quick Swords to Plowshares and Disenchant as answers, and the revelation my intel was wrong. This clearly isn’t Black-White Discard. When he casts Yavimaya Elder with a Yavimaya Coast, he reveals that it also isn’t Elves that he plays. Another Swords to Plowshares slows him down and I take guess with Meddling Mage naming Tradewind Riders, the 1/4 creature from Tempest that can bounce permanents with the help of other creatures. He has tons of walls and I can’t really get through with damage. He eventually gets a second Survival of the Fittest active with Genesis and Squee, he continously grows his board. Eventually, he has “just too many things” for me to deal with, namely a Masticore that I can’t solve.
Like in the first game, the second and third games drag out long. They’re very similar and are decided by the same sequences however.
Meddling Mages stop Tradewind Rider and Masticore. An Exalted Angel at home means he cannot reasonably chump-attack. He find a line in Deranged Hermit with Genesis, adding “more stuff” to the battlefield every turn but I can stop it, pun intended, with Swords to Plowshares soon enough. Without Hermit, Masticore and Tradewind Rider he has no chance to interact with my Exalted Angels. He can’t move forward and is out of options while I eventually have Hibernation for big strikes, or if necessary, a bigger library.
The semifinals would be against JasB on Goblins. Against his two Goblin Piledrivers, my plan is a plain turn four Exalted Angel, but he successfully stops me from turning it face-up with Rishadan Port and Wasteland. By the time I decide to use the morph to block one of the Goblin Piledrivers, they have dealt too much damage already.
The remaining semifinals were broadcast on the wakwak livestream. There are some crazy topdecks and awesome sideboard cards showing
To watch the VOD, click on the Twitch.tv/wakwakmtg picture for games 2 and three against Goblins!
I win 2:1, leading to a Mirrormatch in the Finals against Jens Jäger.
The mirrormatch? Seriously ?
He plays a Single Stifle where I play Predict.
We both like the Singleton Fact or Fiction, playsets of Swords to Plowshares and Meddling Mages. I play 2 Waterfront Bouncers in place of his additional Mother of Runes. The main difference is his approach. With 4 Savannah Lions where I play some more counterspells, his deck is designed slightly more aggressive. Wasteland or Dust Bowl isn’t that much of a difference.
I never imagined a mirrormatch with this deck. The more Jens and I talk of it, the more awful it is. Noone is able to attack because a bigger Mishra’s Factory could block and Exalted Angels run into each other? What will you name with Meddling Mage ? Silver Knights ? Savannah Lions, Mana Leak / Memory Lapse only the other player has ?
The best way is to find out in the VOD of finals, commentated with special guest Frank Roelofs, my arch-rival from previous Uthden Troll Cups.
Again, clicking the picture will lead you right to the VOD.
In a fast-paced final match, with spicy Armageddons, many Exalted Angels, I take the trophy, eternal bragging rights and the third German win of the Dutch Premodern Nationals.
It was a fantastic day with peak concentration on gameplay. It means the cards are in my head. I played the cards conscious instead of intuitively and only during the post-finals interview my body gets out of this mindset. Playing with the deep desire to win is exhausting, especially after two years being “almost first”. That may have meant a less Casual expression from me, but hey, we have Repack Drafts and Oldschool for that.
I don’t know if I can bring the same mindset again next year. Afterall, winning Uthden Troll is already the best imaginable Premodern event I see.
Next up, I go to Bologna for the Italian Premodern Nationals, with the same deck idea but slight changes. Depending on my experiences there, I might write another report.
Thank you for following me on my path so far, thank you to all opponents and the event staff of the party that is Uthden Troll Cup.
Old School in Germany 
