2026 Old School Magic Winter Derby Results and Deck Photos

REPORT of RESULTS

The 10th annual Old School Magic Winter Derby is in the books! This year’s event featured 146 participants representing 17 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States). Over the span of six weeks, we played roughly 540 matches of Old School Magic via webcam.

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 $1,001 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 4-Strip (Boreal) 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 Sunday, February 8th, and featured Esben Jensen (Denmark) against Lucas Glavin (United States).

Esben rips a Chain to win the race at the end of Game 2 of the Finals

After all was said and done, Esben Jensen took the match 3-1, and was named the Winter Derby Champion for 2026. Congratulations to Esben 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” coverage partners for the Top 16 — Simon Rokkjær 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).