Neal Sacks and Chris Roy recap a New England summer regional, one of the bigger events on the local calendar, run by Duress Crew and drawing a crowd that included players up from New York. It is a full tournament report aimed at anyone following the Northeast Premodern scene or curious how the paper metagame is pulling away from what Magic Online looks like. The headline is Chris going 5-0-2 with Psychatog and missing top eight in ninth on tiebreakers, undefeated and out.
Before the event the two talk through how they read the field, landing on Terrageddon, Oath Ponza, and Replenish as the decks to beat. Neal took Replenish to a 4-3 in his first paper tournament with the deck, including a game where an opponent's Meddling Mage named the wrong card and it happened to be Fact or Fiction. Chris goes round by round through the Psychatog run: a fast Sligh race against Hodge, an Aluren opponent flipping Form of the Dragon off Academy Rector, and the concession from Jason Grigley in the last round that set up the ninth-place bubble. They finish with the regional top eight, Landstill taking down the event, Stasis and HFeb over-performing, Goblins doing what Goblins does, and a Fact or Fiction verdict on Claire Ackerman's Gloom-and-Vindicate Oath Ponza.
Also in here: the charity raffle mystery pizza box and its Onslaught packs, a run of Melee signup headaches, and a case of pre-tournament poison ivy.
Chapters
00:00:16 - Reading the field and picking decks
00:10:16 - Tournament prep and signup woes
00:16:16 - The mystery pizza box
00:20:16 - Neal's 4-3 on Replenish
00:28:35 - Chris's 5-0-2 Psychatog run
01:01:16 - Ninth on the bubble, undefeated
01:08:02 - Top 8 and metagame breakdown
01:13:25 - Fact or Fiction: Claire's Oath Ponza
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