My first tournament win – And yes it was on UTC!

by Elon van Erp

Before 2025 I thought UTC was just another Old School tournament, but the rumors got onto me, and I decided this was my next step into Old School. I managed to get in within the 2 minutes it sold out and the journey had started. Every (online) game I played the standard question was: do we see each other at UTC? It got under my skin.

I’ve lost my UTC-virginity at the Old School draft. Sitting next to Rob who just lost a Bayou and a Chaos Orb in ante but won a Mox Sapphire yesterday. Wild. I don’t know how, but he is always around. He was my first opponent in a live tournament (Farmstead cup, Mierlo, he was dressed as a chicken to win spice), he was my first opponent in my first online Timmy tournament and now he’s sitting next to me with a weird big moustache that was apparently some sort of agreement. Let’s start.

My first pack was meh, and I picked a Juggernaut over a Ghost Ship. Not long before Richard was shouting: “Great! It is such a blended tournament and the whole IJzendijke-guys just sit together, what a way to meet new people!” I passed a few Ghost Ships more and I thought: fuck I had to play blue. But I managed to pick up a Sengir, a Hippy, two Cuombaij Witches, a Terror, a Drain Life and a Weakness. The second pack I started with a Tetravus and not knowing what my splash would be an Ernham and a Zersetzung next to a few smaller black cards and Yotian Soldiers. The third round was perfect, more removal and a few more Fallen Empires Creatures. I finished my mono black deck with three red cards. Let’s start.

First game. Against the only other black player, Rudy, so my terrors were useless. I knew there were some Dark Rituals that didn’t return so things could escalate quickly. The classic Ritual/Hippy happened and he actually got a Cosmic Horror in play. The red removal and Ashes to Ashes helped me. He wanted to errata the mighty new Troll Ring right away to: whatever I buy you with alcohol.

I like these kind of things but I know Rudy so I said: ok, if you order the same for yourself. If I got something nasty to drink, at least we’re in it together. It was a Bacardi and coke, it could’ve been far worse. I won the first game, boarded in a Lost Soul, Yotian Soldier and an Immolation but forgot to board out all the terrors. He managed to get a lot of Thrulls with his Breeding Pit and won with a Fallen Angel.

The Last Game he went all in with the Breeding Pit/Lord of the Pit combo, but my Lost Soul and Ashes to Ashes won me the game. A great salute to your deck Rudy! Cosmic Horror, Lord of the Pit and some funky combos are a great honor to Old School. I had to careful take Benja out, because I knew he had a Balance and two Fountains of Youth. Play some creatures but kept a few in hand worked.
Robs mono blue deck could not beat all the removal, a sideboarded Red Blast is apparently crazy good against blue. I won our pod, now in the top 16!
Let’s start.

From here on my memory got misty. Getting into top 16 (Dominik) – 8 (Lauri) – 4 (Juice) – 2 (Arjen) gave the nice kind of pressure of getting closer to the trophy. The only thing I recall is that all the players were amazed by the good cards were I drafted to get this consistent powerful deck. I managed to destroy a lot of Ghost Ships and the occasional Mahamoti in the top 16 and only Lauri managed to win a game. By beating Arjan it had actually happened, and Ron handed me the golden Troll everyone wants to win!

There was great sportsmanship among the opponents, and everyone was happy for me. Time to celebrate! We went to Shooters and with these folks it is actually pretty hard to hand out beers, because that’s everyone’s plan. But with a lot of beers and a plank full of shots, this was the perfect day.

Next day I had a bit of blood left in my alcohol to play absolutely crap in the OS event, but I got a lot of congratulations, and more important: no one could wipe the smile of my face!

We’ve got an amazing community!

Elon