On June 11th, 2022, we had the pleasure of hosting our fifth yearly, larger-scale Old school Magic event: the Tundra Wolves Challenge 5. This year, 39 mages from the Montreal Tundra Wolves, Quebec city Brew Crew & Fallen Angels, Ottawa Capital Chaos, Toronto Citizens of Brass, American Bong Wraiths, Cleveland Rocs, as well as a couple of USA free agents, gathered to battle it out or spice it up using the Boreal ruleset for 6 rounds of Swiss.
For a fifth consecutive year also, we are proud to support Montreal’s Sun Youth Organization / Jeunesse au Soleil which, for decades now, has been helping youngsters and families in the most tangible of ways. This year, they are on a mission to help refugee families from Ukraine that have recently arrived in Montreal. Then, the tournament proceeds — including revenues from our custom playmat [cf. header], of which a handful of copies remain up for grabs! Drop us a line — amount to a 900$ donation to them.
Many thanks have to be issued to local businesses and overall great people that are enabling us: L’Adversaire game pub and shop for its warm welcome, Tome 2 and L’Expedition game shops, wizards Jason Shaw and Benjamin Gadoua for their prizepool support, @Derfington for the ink magic and COM support as well as @OldschoolMTG. Also: the Terrain Basique podcast and, last but not least, Rich Bourque who provided a platform for us to experiment with the pleasures of livestreaming the event! Archived video is available on Rich’s YouTube channel, by the way:
It is paramount to the Tundra Wolves that everybody gets a chance at winning the most precious stuff. We like to say: glamorous cardboard for all! That’s why the bulk of the prizepool value was raffled in random giveaways of increasing awesomness throughout the night, from altered playsets of UNL Disenchant, FBB Blue and Red Elemental Blasts, to a FBB Serendib Efreet, UNL Demonic Tutor and Cyclopean Tomb, then culminating with a sweet Legends Hazezon Tamar, all featuring the new TWC stamp. The players placing in the Top 8 also received an altered and stamped The Dark Fountain of Youth, while there were some specific altered and stamped trophy cards for the Best Unpowered finish (CE Meekstone), Spiciest brew (UNL Braingeyser) and for the TWC5 Champion (Tundra Wolves) who also received a TWC5 playmat signed by all players — as well as a custom die, thanks to Benjamin G. who just showed up with them lol. The borderline obscene prizepool, along a community prizepool section, looked like this:
TWC5 main prizepool items. See end of report for closeups.
When all was said and done, it was Eric Do from the Toronto Citizens of Brass who took the Best Unpowered finish trophy (at 3-3) with his Pink Weenie type deck. Then, it was Sébastien Dubé with his now conflicted club affiliation between Quebec city and Montreal, who took the TWC5 Champion title. Mighty congratulations to him and for another solid performance following his Lobstercon Top 8! He went undefeated (6-0) at the helm of his Aggro-Pixies deck, followed closely by Karl Rivest Harnois from the Montreal Tundra Wolves, Patrick Burt from the Ottawa Capital Chaos and Maxime Bergeron from the Montreal Tundra Wolves also, who all finished with a 5-1 record and with TIGHT tie-breakers.
Now, before we unroll the deckpics, let us take a moment to observe, with gratitude, the mad concoction of spice that took our collective breath away: Martin Hébert’s le Deck du Seigneur (the Lord Almighty deck). It is not looking to win. Rather, it is looking to bring peace upon us. That is, featuring the recently printed Legends card Divine Intervention as his (flavour) “win” condition. The rest of the deck is used to buy himself time to set it up. He also had actual Hosts to use as counters, for the divine spell. His proposal also featured a reflexion on how each card from his deck could translate into his adaptation of the 10 commandments:
While at it, let’s commence with the Top 4 : Spice deckpics shall we?
TWC5 Top 4: Spice
Martin Hébert (MTL), le Deck du Seigneur. TWC5 Spiciest Deck award! 2-4 in the Swiss rounds.
Christian Arcand (QC), monogreen Kobolds. TWC5 Top 4 Spice. 1-5.
Louis-Gabriel Émond (OTT), Rukhanimat0r. TWC5 Top 4 Spice. 4-2.
Yanick Blanchet (QC), The Master Wolves Knock’in on Heaven’s Gate. TWC5 Top 4 Spice. 1-5.
And then, onto the Top 8 performers deckpics.
TWC5 Top 8
Sébastien Dubé (MTL? QC?), Pixies Burn. TWC5 Champion! 6-0 in the Swiss rounds.
Karl Rivest-Harnois (MTL), Le Moulin à Farine. 2nd in TWC5 Top 8. 5-1.
Patrick Burt (OTT), Shops. 3rd in TWC5 Top 8. 5-1.
Maxime Bergeron (MTL), Derelove. 4th in TWC5 Top 8. 5-1.
Kevin Vanier (OTT), 12 Bolts Jerkstore. 5th in TWC5 Top 8. 4-2.
Pez Unholy (USA), Bant Aggro. 6th in TWC5 Top 8. 4-2.
Julien Pouliot (MTL), The Glare. 7th in TWC5 Top 8. 4-2.
Pierre-Olivier Roy (MTL), Troll Disco. 8th in TWC5 Top 8. 4-2.
Here’s a caption of the overall results to sum things up:
TWC5 overall results.
And before we unravel the rest of the deckpics…
Some action shots
Other players’ deckpics
Alexandre Blanchette (MTL), 3-3.
Benjamin Gadoua (MTL), 1-5.
Benoit Seveno (MTL), 3-3.
Brian Bogdon (TOR), SummerSurge. TWC5 Spicy decks honorable mention. 3-3.
Derrick Boyce (MTL), 3-3.
Dominic Beaudry (MTL), 3-3.
Drew Lennon (OTT), 4-2.
Etienne Dupuis (MTL), 4-2.
Eric Do (TOR), 3-3.
François R. Derbas Thibodeau (MTL), Beast Island. 2-4.
Guillaume Larouche (QC), 3-3.
Guillaume Poulin (MTL), 2-4.
Guillaume Soucy (QC), 3-3.
Jason Keays (OTT), 3-3.
Jean-Sébastien Jacques (MTL), 2-4.
Jérôme Mongeau (MTL), 3-3.
Jessy Pouliot (QC), Maggot Distress. TWC5 Spice honorable mention. 3-3.
Joel Bowers (TOR), 3-3.
Kyle A. Wells (USA), Timmy’s Trip to Canada. 2-4.
Laurence Boulanger (MTL), 2-4.
Nicolas Duprat (MTL), 3-3.
Rich Bourque (USA), 2-4.
Richard Welch (TOR), 4-2.
Samuel Beaudry (MTL), 2-4.
Sébastien Gaudreault (MTL), 3-3.
Tristan Bates (TOR), 4-2.
Yves Gillet (MTL), 2-4.
In conclusion
In conclusion, we’d like to give a shout out to the volunteers that have graciously helped us: judge Daryl Gnann, tourney logistics extraordinaire Benjamin Burke and runner Joanie Martin. And another shout out to the organizer’s crew: Dominic Beaudry, Maxime Bergeron, Laurence Boulanger, François R. Derbas Thibodeau, Sébastien Gaudreault, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, MC Benoit Seveno and Pierre-Olivier Roy. Lastly, thanks to all of you who participated! There would be no event without you and we’re already thrilled thinking about hosting you next year for TWC6.
FURTHER COVERAGE
Until then, make sure to check this content out [to be updated]:
i. Rich Bourque’s video archive of the TWC5 livestream on his YouTube channel;
ii. Jason Keays’ tournament report Twitter thread (english);
iii. Terrain Basique podcast’s live interviews at TWC5 (french);
iv. Terrain Basique’s postmortem interview, metagame and Top 4 talk with Karl Rivest-Harnois and Patrick Burt (english);
v. Your coverage here. Hit us up with reports or whatever!
