North American Premodern Championship at LOBSTERCON 2026: Organizer’s Report

LOBSTERCON 2026. The Duress Crew came back to run the North American Premodern Championship for the second year in a row and we’re actually writing an organizer’s report this time. The North American Premodern Championship drew 317 players to the Dante in Cambridge, MA, making it the largest Premodern tournament ever held. Players came from across the continent and beyond to battle for the title in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When the dust settled, we had a champion, a record, and — perhaps most importantly —$19,314 raised for Room to Grow, our long-standing charity partner alongside New England Old School. Huge thanks to the community for the donations!

TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE

The main event ran as a two-day GP-style tournament using the standard Premodern rules and banned & restricted list. Day 1 consisted of 9 rounds of Swiss, with the top players returning for 5 additional rounds on Day 2 before a cut to Top 8. We also played with open decklists on Day 2. These were some changes we wanted to try out this year and overall we are happy with the results.

All decklists from the main event can be seen here: Main Event Decklists

THE CHAMPION

Brian Siu aka Dr Siuss is your 2026 North American Premodern Champion!

A member of Squee’s House of Pizza, Brian has been grinding Premodern on his Replenish list with remarkable dedication over the past year, and this victory was the culmination of all of it. He expertly navigated his way through 317 players, and nobody who has seen him play will be surprised to see his name at the top. Congratulations, Brian — Both him, and his team SHOP, have emerged as a powerhouse in New England and we couldn’t be more proud of him for taking the trophy home.

Stay tuned and keep your ear out for the upcoming interview on Hardcast…

THE TOP 8

Our top 8 consisted of :

Brian Siu – Replenish
Bryan Gulotta – Replenish
Galen Lemei – Hermit Full English Breakfast
Claire Ackerman – Oath Ponza
Ben Bauer – Elves
Jeff Rabovsky – Moneyball Black
Nicholas Mostovych – Pit Rack
Stuart Ziarnik – Burn

Congrats to everyone who battled through 14 rounds of Swiss and claimed Top 8!

SIDE EVENTS

Premodern Unchained:

For players who wanted to stretch the format out, Premodern Unchained allowed up to 4 copies of any non-ante card. Bryson Bonham took the trophy with his “Super Wayfarer” list, running 4 copies of Force of Will.

Unchained Decklists

10 Fetch Premodern:

The 10 Fetch event made all fetchlands legal — and the winner didn’t need a single extra one. Jason Laferte’ claimed the trophy on Enchantress, forgoing the additional fetches entirely.

10 Fetch Decklists

Pre-Lobstercon Premodern Precursor (Thursday, April 30):

Hosted offsite by the Red Line Treefolk, the Precursor got the weekend started early. Chris Curtin won a Guru Mountain piloting Replenish — an omen for the rest of the weekend.

REFLECTIONS AND GRATITUDE

An event of this scale is the product of an extraordinary amount of work by extraordinary people. We are grateful to every single person who gave their time and energy to make it happen.

The heart of it all is Duress Crew — thank you especially to Billy Mills-Curran, Jay McCowan, Brad Stone, Shane Echevarria, Ben Gauthier, Trent Bollinger, Jared Bollinger, Bryce Menard, Dan Hall, Liam Kearney, and Ryan Mayo, whose tireless efforts before and during the event made everything run.

Our judges Sean Calvo, Eric Cripps, and Paul Raynes kept the rounds running smoothly and the rulings fair throughout a long and demanding weekend.

The commentary booth was brought to life by Carl Winter, Devon O’Donnell, and Jerry Mee, whose work enriched the stream experience and gave players at home some great coverage.

We were honored to have legendary artists Donato Giancola, Daren Bader, and Mike Sutfin in attendance. Special thanks to Donato for his exceptionally generous donations to the event and to Room to Grow — it meant a great deal.

Thanks to Conor Nolan for the Lobstercon 2026 logo and the playmat + t-shirt artwork. Shout out to Cody McCullough for donating your time and energy to assisting with graphics for the stream along with the Duress Crew shirt design.

Thank you to our friends in the Rochester Royals, Order of the Sacred Torch, and Red Line Treefolk for their help setting up, tearing down and running the side events.

And to every player who registered, traveled, sleeved up cards, and jammed some Premodern— thank you. You are what makes this worth doing.