2021 Old School Magic Summer Derby Results and Deck Photos

REPORT of RESULTS

The 5th annual Old School Magic Summer Derby is in the books! This year’s event featured 190 participants, representing 18 countries (Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam) and at least 50 regional Old School clubs spread across 9 different time zones around the world. Over the span of six weeks, we played roughly 700 matches of Old School Magic via webcam.

Piché vs Ruschpler and the curious case of the quadruple-Controlled Dib

While entry fees were not collected and the Derby series will always remain free to play, we once again encouraged donations at registration to support Partners in Health, a global nonprofit dedicated to providing a preferential option to the poor in health care. Thanks to contributions from many of the players, I am humbled to report that we raised a total of $1,304 in support of Partners in Health’s COVID-19 response efforts around the world.

Pleased to announce the int'l #oldschoolmtg community stepping up once again — on the occasion of the 2021 Summer Derby, we've just donated $1,304 to @PIH to continue to help driving COVID response and other emergency health interventions in the developing world. pic.twitter.com/54MjkuIdMT
— Dave Firth Bard (@dfirthbard) July 3, 2021

The Derby series rotates between different 93/94 format variants every six months. Past Derby events have used the Swedish, Eternal Central, Atlantic, and Pacific B&R lists. This instance of the Summer Derby was played using the Boreal 93/94 B&R list, allowing the full range of original art/old card frame re-prints (Revised, 4th/Chronicles, CE/IE, FBB/FWB, etc.).

Pairings were released in two batches in late June and early July, with all participants asked to schedule and play eight individual matches in about four weeks. After the batches were completed, a winnowed field of 16 players advanced to a single-elimination bracket. The Summer Derby Finals were played on Wednesday, August 11th, and featured Ron Dijkstra of the Dutch Old School Guild (Netherlands) piloting “OrbTog,” a Shops/Atog prison hybrid list versus Jeff White of Team Sped (USA) on a burn-heavy Grixis Disco build.

Summer Derby finals: White vs Dijkstra, w/ commentary from Gordon and Mano

After all was said and done, Jeff White took the match 3-1, and was named the Summer Derby Champion for 2021. Congratulations to Jeff and to all of the Top 16 finalists, and thank you, again, to all of the players who participated. Thanks very much to our “official” streaming partners for the Top 16 — Rich Bourque, Timmy Talks, Simon Rokkjær, and Kenan Lars Salvarli! And special thanks must also go out once again to the inimitable Antonio Rodríguez for designing the Derby series logo and Summer Derby banner, and Mattias “Slanfan” Berggren for developing a bespoke “batch pairings” tool for use in tournaments of this format, making it much, much easier to process the results of literally seven hundred matches behind the curtain. The Derby series has become a fun semi-annual celebration for the international Old School Magic scene, and these contributions and the cooperation of all of the players goes a long way toward making it possible.

For anyone interested in future events, or just trying out webcam Old School Magic for the first time, please consider joining our online community of players! People are always looking for pick-up games in our Facebook group and in the #down-to-play channel on the Old School Discord.