2025 Old School Magic Winter Derby Results and Deck Photos

REPORT of RESULTS

The 9th annual Old School Magic Winter Derby is in the books! This year’s event featured 178 participants representing 18 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States). Over the span of six weeks, we played roughly 690 matches of Old School Magic via webcam.

Jason tries to stabilize with a Disk against Paul’s Arabian creatures in a quarterfinal match

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 $1,160 in support for Partners in Health’s provision of access to health care to people and communities who need it most.

The Derby series rotates between different 93/94 format variants every six months. Past Derby events have used the Swedish, Atlantic, and 4-Strip B&R lists (including Eternal Central, Pacific, and Boreal). This instance of the Winter Derby was played using the Atlantic 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 December and early January, 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 Winter Derby Finals were played on Thursday, February 13th, and featured Joe Becica (Belgium) against Matthew Messa (United States).

Matt seals game 2 of the Winter Derby Finals with a Recall for X

After all was said and done, Matt Messa took the match 3-0, and was named the Winter Derby Champion for 2024. Congratulations to Matt 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 — Andy Baquero, Dan Serwan, Simon Rokkjær, Kenan Lars Salvarli, and Joe Singer / The Orb! And special thanks must also go out once again to the inimitable Antonio Rodríguez for designing the Derby series logo and Winter Derby banner, and Mattias “Slanfan” Berggren for developing the Derby Tool, which we used to crunch the pairings for this event. 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(s).