Additional information regarding the Uthden Troll Cup

Please register asap!

We are very happy to tell that 35 people already have registered for the main event. A few dozen more are still collecting karma points to get the blessings of their partner. Seats for the main event are limited to 56 so if you haven’t registered yet, please do so ASAP at Uthden.Troll.Cup@gmail.com . Also don’t forget to register for the limited events on Friday and Sunday. These are going to be a lot of fun. Special mention here for the 93/94 Rochester Draft on Friday, at 15 euro that’s a real bargain.

Weekend Schedule

Some of you are already brewing a deck for the Saturday main event. And when the brewing starts the questions follow. Especially around the budget deckbuildig questions have arisen. Good, good, let’s make things clear then.

Uthden Troll Cup  Swedish B/R

First off, the main event (November 2nd) is using the Swedish B/R list. We play according the modern rules with the exception of two errata on Chaos Orb and Falling Star. More info about errata and b/r list: click here.  Just like any other dutch Old School tournament you can play your Old School deck with Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and LAAnD (Legends, Arabian nights, Antiquities & the Dark cards). In line with the tradition of all Dutch Swedish Old School tournaments the prize for the winner is a Uthden Troll card signed by all participants. And eternal fame of course. Usually there are no big money prizes for winners of Old School tournaments. The Old School spirit is about having fun and playing in a casual friendly atmosphere. Big prizes tend to ruin that atmosphere. But don’t underestimate the competition, we have very skilled spikes walking around in our Dutch/Flemish Old School scene.

Ravenna reprint policy

One of the goals behind the tournament is to attract new players. There’s a special vibe in Old School and it is much fun to play. So why not share it with as much people as much possible? Of course it helps if you have an interest in the good ole days. And we certainly expect you to respect and adapt to the informal friendly atmosphere.

Having said that, we want anyone to be able to join, so we use a broad reprint policy (Ravenna). Which means you can play with any card from revised, 4th and chronicles and later series if the print art is the same and non foil. So for example a Psionic Blast from Time Spiral is legal, but a sol ring from Commander 2013 is not (different art). Collector’s edition, International edition, Foreign WB or FBB, Italian Dark/Legends are all allowed. Hell, even Chinese fourth is allowed as long as you make sure your opponent knows what card he/she is up against.

Why reward budget decks?

Building a budget deck that is fun and competitive (positive result), is possible with a budget ranging from 100-500 euro. And we will reward the budget deck that puts down the best result. The prize is a The Dark booster fresh from the boosterbox!

There are two reasons we give a little incentive for playing with a budget deck:

1. to encourage new players to play Old School Magic
2. create an even more varianced and fun meta game by challenging  current Old School players to play something different than the usual powered decks

By no means we are telling people to not play the Alpha and Beta cards they have been gathering the last years. If you like to play a full powered 100% Swedish legal deck you just do that. Play what you think is most fun for you.  And of course you are doing a lot of people a favour if you play with Power Nine. First of all because its awesome to see people play P9. And of course it’s even more fun if you beat a fully powered deck with your budget deck, right? 😉

How do we define budget decks?

By definition what we call a budget deck is arbitrary and subjective. But if you give a special prize you also need a clear definition and preferably one that is in the spirit of the main goal (encourage new players to play Old School magic).  Most new OS players will not start with buying tons of expensive rares. Let’s assume they have a limited budget of 100 to 500 euro. This probably means they are willing to pay up to 10 euro for most cards and for some exceptionally good cards up to 100. Some however are very creative with their budget and manage to squeeze in a collectors edition Chaos Orb (€ 250,-) and still stay within their budget of 500 euro.  Following this reasoning we came up with a definition.

Our definition of  a budget deck

You are playing a budget deck if:

1. You only play with cards in your deck that have a market value below 100 euro
2. Or your total deck value stays below 500 euro. In this case you might be able to play a couple of cards that are above 100 euro.
3. Price reference for market value is Magic Cardmarket low for condition played (timestamp October 2019)
4. A picture of your deck stating you are playing budget is required. You can sent it to me by email or WhatsApp. You can do this up to 5 minutes before we start the tournament.

So you’re always good if you are only playing with cards that are under 100 euro. For each card your price reference is the actual serie the your card was printed in, MagicCardMarket low, condition played. This means you can play with a NM Thunder Spirit (actual value 130 euro) as  Thunder spirit as a played card has a MCM low value of 90-95 euro. But this also means you can not play an full set of Arabian Nights City of Brasses. No you cannot count them as reprinted Chronicles ones. Use the Chronicles ones or simply not bother to play budget if you think it is a hassle.  Good news is that you can play a set of some of the Revised duals (Taiga, Plateau, Savannah, Scrubland). But make sure to count your total deck value if you want to play other Revised duals or a CE Chaos Orb.

I will trust that people are responsible, honest and do fairplay so I’m not going to check any decks upfront in detail to see if we have a ‘legal’ budget deck. But if you rank as best budget deck I of course will do a quick check on your deck picture to make sure we have a truthful winner.

Spicy Brews

To encourage more variance and fun plays we also have prices for the top 3 most Spicy Brews (or creative decks). I will appoint 3 judges who will independently pick their top 3. The two highest results given to a deck will count towards determining the 3 overall winners. The judges will be able to see all the deck pictures you have sent to me. But it will be done anonymously so they do not know who is playing what deck. I do this so that they can do their judging as objective as possible.

So what is a spicy brew? Well, The Deck isn’t, I can tell you that. Regular decks being played all the time obviously are not spice as well. Any more information and I cannot give. I will leave it up to the judges to decide what is a spicy brew. As they are all experienced Old School players who love spicy brews I’m sure they will do an excellent job.

Many cool prizes and items

Of course we don’t want to give away all the surprises, but I can tell you thatDouglas Shuler,the artist who illustrated the Uthden Troll, has made some  fine pieces of art especially for the Uthden Troll Cup Spicy’s brews. Unique and rare items. The winner of the Revised Booster draft will win a Revised booster fresh from the box that we will crack on Friday evening. Also we are very happy with the sponsored items from Wijnand Schoenmakers (see Sales) that we amongst others will give away to the winner of the Troll Bingo.
And did I already mention that we have Troll Food and Troll Drinks as well?

Side event

During the top 8 there will be a Creature Only side event. Your deck contain a minimum of 60 cards with  creatures from Alpha until Weatherlight. Lands: only basic land and up to 4 dual lands max. Sideboard up to 15 cards.
You can register for the side event before top 8 start and it s free of charge.

Limited events

For the Revised Booster Draft and 93/94 Rochester Draft on Friday and the Mirage Block Sealed on Sunday it is recommended you take some basic lands with you. There are a limited amount available  for the ones who forget but not for everyone. More info about the limited events, click the links below:

Revised Booster Draft, 93/94 Rochester Draft, Mirage Block Sealed

Sales

Wijnand Schoenmakers will have a sale stand on the festival during the weekend. You will be able to buy lots of Old School Cards, going from high end pieces to reprints. Also there will be boosters for sale going from Revised, The Dark until Mirage Block.

Live Stream

Great news is that we will have a live stream during the event! Thomas, who goes by the name of Timmy The Sorcerer on Twitch and YouTube will provide the stream (assuming the internet connection works). There won’t be any live commentary during the event but we will do our best to provide a stream which can be followed by the viewers at home.

After the event, matches will be uploaded and commented on by Timmy on YouTube. Check out some of his video’s on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/c/timmythesorcerer

Public Transport

If you are planning to come by train it is good to know that it is only a 10 minute walk to our event location Luwt.

Parking

Luwt is in the centre of Leeuwarden where you cannot park longer than an hour. Therefore I recommend using one of the following parking garages.

Zaailand – Zaailand 5 – 8911 BL Leeuwarden
Oldehove – Oldehoofsterkerkhof 3 – 8911 DM Leeuwarden
de Klanderij – Posthoornsteeg 40 – 8911 AT Leeuwarden
Hoeksterend – Hoeksterpad 3 – 8911 JV Leeuwarden

Parking price for a whole day is € 8,80.

Staying overnight

Staying overnight in Leeuwarden can be as cheap or expensive as you want. If you want to go budget I can recommend Hotel het Anker which is at walking distance (500m) from the event location You can book a room there ranging from 25 euro to 50 per person per night.
Need more luxury? A very fine hotel within walking distance is the Post Plaza Hotel.