Lobstercon 2024 Pre-Modern Tournament Report

Last year, I was privileged to fly out to Boston for the first time ever and compete in Lobstercon 2023 where I had a great time playing in the Premodern Friday main event and earned a respectable 44th place in the Old School Saturday main event. Not too bad for a first attempt with minimal preparation and no expectations. Many of the players I ran into were there for the love of the game, just hanging out, playing jank, drinking, and flipping orbs.

This year I knew I wanted to return for Lobstercon 2024 so I secured my ticket months in advance, made arrangements to crash on a friend’s couch, and prepared to once again play in the biggest and best-run Premodern and Old School events anywhere, courtesy of David Firth Bard and New England Old School.

Friday, September 20
North American Premodern Championships

I wanted to run back Burn as my deck choice for the Premodern main event. Last year, I played an Urza’s Bauble build of Burn and early in the event I battled Aaron Dicks who told me that it was his list that I netdecked. He smoked me in that match and helped inspire me to start a year-long journey of mono red mastery in which I started playing Burn in every format to try and gain greater understanding and proficiency with the deck. I fell in love with the subtle complexities of Burn and now consider it to be my favorite strategy in all of Magic with Premodern Burn being my favorite version by a mile.

With a lack of local support for Premodern near me, I had to learn about the metagame by alternative means. I listened to the Spike Colony podcast, hosted by Michael Flores and Lanny Huang, as part of my preparation for Lobstercon and their advice gave me the confidence I needed to commit to Burn this year. Mono red was well-positioned in the meta after the Land Tax ban and Lanny’s nearly three hour Burn versus Goblins video informed some of my card choices (I watched the whole thing). Going up to 22 lands was helpful against the Ponza Oath matchup which I won twice. Playing Seal of Fire instead of Shock felt like a massive tempo advantage that helped me win the two Burn mirrors I played. I didn’t really like Lanny’s four main-deck Sulfuric Vortex plan or the lack of Lava Darts so I played two of each in the main and made room for the third Vortex in the sideboard.

Round One: I feel that round one of any event is very important, it can set the tone for your whole day. A decisive round one loss could catch you the wrong way and deliver psychic damage that can be hard to recover from. I want to start strong and stay relaxed for any event I play.

After turn one when I realized my opponent was playing Ponza Oath, one of the current bogeyman decks in the format, I tensed up big time.

I was constricted on mana due to my opponent landing an early Sphere of Resistance followed by Thermokarst and Winter’s Grasp to blow up my lands but thankfully the 22 land build of Burn was a little more resilient in the face of land destruction. At some point, after I had lost a couple of lands to Stone Rain effects and my opponent had lost a couple of creature lands to Lightning Bolts, I continued to make land drops and my opponent wasn’t. This is the play pattern where I feel Burn becomes advantaged and can win as long as you can fade Zuran Orb.

I took it 2-1, starting the day strong at 1-0.

Round Two: After the first couple of turns, I knew my opponent was on some white and black deck but I don’t know if it’s Dead Guy or Control. One of these matchups feels unloseable and the other feels unwinnable. Anyway, I managed to steal game one against WB Control and proceeded to lose to white sideboard cards and Exalted Angel games two and three.

You don’t know true helplessness until you’re staring at a Circle of Protection: Red and an Exalted Angel with a grip full of red cards and no Sulfuric Vortex. WB Control is scary for that and I wish I had found room in my sideboard for Flaring Pain or Anarchy.

I soldier on at 1-1.

Round Three: I run into the mirror. This is what all of my training was for. For the past year my goal has been to never lose the mirror and after two games of mono red control I proved it. I never leave home without my Lava Darts, I play patiently and never waste on face a burn spell that could be spent on board, and I do not lose the mirror.

My record is now 2-1.

Round Four: My opponent played Survival Rock, a deck that I had significant testing against and a matchup that I felt was almost unwinnable. This deck is the main reason I wanted the third Sulfuric Vortex in the sideboard and a big reason for why the Earthquakes are there too. I knew that game one was tough, but winnable, and games two and three would require a lot of luck to win either of them.

I did manage to win game one and I got absolutely crushed in game two, keeping a hand with two Sulfuric Vortex and getting them both Cabal Therapy’d out of my hand on turn one. My opponent knew that this was the most important card in the matchup.

Game three, I found another double Vortex opening hand so I kept it and hoped that my opponent didn’t have another Cabal Therapy. I played my turn one, then he went Swamp (I hold my breath) into Duress (I exhale) and he took only one of my Vortexes. Over the next few turns I managed to play my remaining Sulfuric Vortex and start applying some pressure. My opponent was low on life but had a Ravenous Baloth in play that threatened to gain him four life once this Vortex was gone. He played a Survival of the Fittest which could find him a way to deal with my enchantment.

I know what’s about to happen on my opponent’s next turn, this is how he wins, but I topdeck the third Sulfuric Vortex and play it. My opponent is visibly upset, activates Survival and shows me the Nantuko Vigilante that likely would have won him the game if it weren’t for the extra Vortex, then he concedes. I don’t care how salty he got, I’m not taking it personally, I’m just so happy to have won the matchup that I couldn’t beat a single time during testing.

I’m 3-1.

Round Five: I get paired up against David Tao, of the New York crew; these guys are killers. He was playing some version of Burn but with Karplusan Forest and I have no idea what this means but I just remember my training and win game one of the Burn mirror.

I don’t lose the mirror.

Game two played like any other Burn mirror until David casted Call of the Herd, putting a 3/3 elephant into play and threatening to do it again at some point with flashback. In a matchup where 2-for-1 plays are so hard to come by (Lavamancer, Cursed Scroll), David just blew the whole thing wide open by presenting a threat that requires me to spend at least two Lightning Bolts or Incinerates to deal with. I lost that game.

Maybe I do lose the mirror?

Game three, I’m on the play with a no-creature hand so I lead with Seal of Fire and pass, then my opponent plays a mountain and passes. On my second turn I also play mountain and pass, hoping that I can save my burn spells to deal with any creatures he plays. David doesn’t play a creature, though. He starts to throw burn at my face. I’m now in a position where my opponent recognized this game is a burn-face drag race before I did, which would be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that my turn one play was Seal of Fire, so I didn’t lose any tempo due to unspent mana on turn one. It’s a very close race but I find myself with lethal in hand so I pick my moment very carefully and attempt the kill with my opponent’s Urza’s Bauble trigger on the stack in my upkeep. This denies him the additional card that might have allowed him to kill me in response and I win the game and the match.

I’m now 4-1.

Round Six:

Another killer for round six, I had to play against pro player Sam Black. I had no idea what he was playing but I knew I had to treat it like any other match and treat him like any other opponent. He was mostly silent, playing his cards without a word and pointing or gesturing to communicate what he was doing with his spells. I don’t know if this is just his personality or if it’s a deliberate choice he made to behave this way when he plays, but it was somewhat intimidating. I adjusted to his mannerisms and got into my groove, not letting myself be psyched out by his table game. He was playing Enchantress and established a lock with Solitary Confinement game one, killing me with Words of War.

This was a matchup where I just had to race so I boarded appropriately, removing slower cards like Cursed Scroll to make room for Earthquake since it can deal damage to my opponent and his otherwise-untouchable Argothian Enchantresses. In games two and three I executed my plan, Earthquaking away an Argothian Enchantress, killing Black when he stumbled on mana, and in the final game I won in what felt like a close race against an impending combo.

After the match, David Tao, who had been watching, gave me props on my tight play and Michael Flores complimented my “reverse pimp” card choices.

I am 5-1.

Round Seven: I felt pretty confident after my victory over a known good player. It’s obvious that I was playing pretty well and my deck building choices were paying off in a big way. My round seven opponent leads with Ancient Tomb and I felt confident, but apprehensive. Despite Replenish Combo being one of the top decks in the format, I didn’t have any testing experience against it. I have a plan, for sure, but I’ve never had to execute it before.

In game one, I went for a ballsy double Fireblast for lethal that my opponent counters and I died with no lands in play. Game two, my opponent stuck a Sphere of Law on turn three.

If you think Circle of Protection: Red or Warmth are good against Burn, then Sphere of Law is on a whole other level. Most decks wouldn’t dare board in a four mana spell against Burn, but Replenish is already built to cast four mana spells and this card just shuts me down completely.

I couldn’t fight back and my opponent beat me two to zero.

I am now 5-2, dead for top 8 and playing for my life to try and make top 16.

Round Eight: For my final match of the day, I was paired into Oath Ponza once again. Still apprehensive about this matchup, I made land drop after land drop thanks to the 22 lands in my list and my opponent struggled to recover after having his creature lands killed. In game two, I boarded in a Sulfuric Vortex and Price of Progress to shut off Zuran Orb and further punish nonbasic and creature lands. Everything went according to plan with Sulfuric Vortex coming down early and I was able to cast Price of Progress for lethal to win the match.

After conceding, my opponent showed me that he was holding a Zuran Orb in hand, wanting to wait until he had dealt with the Vortex before playing it and forgetting that it would have allowed him to play around Price of Progress if it had been in play.

I end the day at 6-2.

Results: There were twenty one players with a 6-2 record fighting on tiebreakers for tenth through thirtieth place. The top 16 players received a Masticore Trophy card stamped and painted for the occasion. With my 18 match points and 58.29% OMW tiebreaker, I ended up in 17th place.

First loser, as good as last, etc etc etc.

I’m simultaneously very proud of my performance at this event and gutted over my placement. It’s the perfect recipe to light a fire that will encourage me to practice harder and play better next year. My number one mistake was in deck building: I didn’t make room for Flaring Pain or Anarchy which would have been key cards against the two matchups that I lost. I’ll carry these lessons with me next year and come back even stronger. My poor performance during the Old School main event the next day also didn’t help mitigate any of the psychic damage I took. Chicken or the egg? Whatever. I can’t complain too much, though. It was a weekend full of time with friends, great food, new people to meet, and of course plenty of Magic to play. It is hard to be upset with that.

My decklist for day one of Lobstercon 2024

These guys are here to ruin my whole day

My testing team was very excited for this victory

After defeating a strong player on Aaron Dicks’s list, I feel closer to completing my quest of Burn mastery.

Boss fight

My new arch nemesis