LOBSTERCON, 2026. For the second year in a row, New England’s finest Magic: The Gathering communities teamed up to organize two multi-day LOBSTERCON events: the Premodern edition in early May, and the original recipe Old School edition in mid-September, which is the subject of this report. More than 300 players traveled from all over the United States and Canada, plus Chile, Colombia, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in order to participate. 287 players took part in the main event, which followed the Atlantic B&R list.
Over the course of the weekend, the LOBSTERCON community raised a record-obliterating total of $50,908 for Room to Grow, our charity partner in Boston since 2018. This included $11,164 worth of goods donated in-kind through our annual baby/toddler supply drive: 162 books, 95 toys, and 136 essential items and gear including feeding supplies, car seats, and strollers. And, when added to the $19,314 raised earlier in the year by the Duress Crew and friends through the Premodern LOBSTERCON tournament, our powers combined for an eye-watering $70,222 raised for Room to Grow through LOBSTERCON events in the year 2026 alone.
PHOTO REPORT
Click through for a crowdsourced album of 350+ photos from the event on Google Photos:
REFLECTIONS and GRATITUDE
LOBSTERCON is the product of countless hours and passion invested by so many members of the Old School and Premodern communities: lead volunteers/organizers Tim Atwood, Brooks Firth Bard, and Rafflemaster Jared Doucette; Judges Josh and Deen; venue set-up all-stars Tim Moran, Andrew Resor, Mike Van Dyke, Eric Martin, Flint Espil, Cause, Stoomie, Joe Singer, Mitch Grosofsky, Josh Tingley, Shawn Sullivan, Dan Yarrington, Phil Lorrain, and Chris Grennille; volunteers Nicky Scars, James Lebak, Mase and Jenna, Paul Kovalov, Scott Bradley, Mike Belfanti, Scott Coughlin, Jeff Lang and Paul, Nick Pynn, team calligrapher Paul DeSilva, and everyone else, far too numerous to keep track of, who spontaneously dove in to pick up the slack on some task or another throughout the weekend. Our deep gratitude goes out to Jay and Amanda Palmer, Matt Mucci, Greg T., Shawn Sullivan, Dan Yarrington, Akos, Andy Rossmeissl, Neil Troy, Luring, the Masons and Rapoports, Eliot Burk, Luis Neiman, Mike Belfanti, and everyone else who bought baby and toddler supplies, various anonymous madlads with their corporate matching gifts and donor-advised fund contributions, Mark Tedin and Wynne Earle, Andi Rusu, and all of our raffle and auction prize donors: Peter Niemeier, Jason Koresko, Charlie Beane-Lewis, Jay Palmer, Nils Erikson, Beasts of the Bay, Tim Moran, Tom and Andrea Wanerstrand, Art Figueroa, Geoff Walker, Dan Yarrington, MG Alters, Xanadude, Will Hanna, Greg T., Cream City in a Bottle, Nicola Beeson, the Rochester Royals, Nick Mitchell, Jonathan Lai, Jason Savage, the Brothers of Fire, Jared Doucette, Shawn Sullivan, Drew Tucker, Jeff Menges, and anyone else I might have accidentally omitted here — you made this event a success by giving so freely of your time, energy, money, sweat, and everything else. From the bottom of my heart — thank you.
BLOGS / PODCASTS / COVERAGE
Lobstercon 2026 ~12 hours of streamed content – The Orb
Lobstercon 2026 DAY TWO ~9 hours of streamed content – The Orb
Round 1: Björn vs Paul K – The Orb (stay tuned for more videos over time)
CHARITY ROCKS – a 2026 Lobstercon Report by Tim Kincaid – Wak-Wak
Sam’s Table 53: Lobstercon Top 4 Recap – Sam Black
Land Equilibrium at Lobstercon with Ammi Ribar – Fool’s Tome
Top 16 at Old School Lobstercon 2026: Atlantic Recap – Llanowar Punk
The Top 16 Decks of Lobstercon – Podcast with Tim K and Michael Parler – OLD MTG
Tim (Lobstercon 2026) – Board Shorts
Andy (Lobstercon 2026) – Board Shorts
Old School Lobstercon 2026: Xpoints Recap – Llanowar Punk
Good Cards, Bad Cards, and Sideboarding – Ty’s MTG Blog (companion post to Fool’s Tome ep above)
TEAM TRIOS SIDE EVENT
We held a Team Trios event again this year! The formats were 4-Strip (Boreal) 93/94, 7pt Singleton, and Premodern. 34 teams (102 players) participated:
Chris Mason – 4-Strip – Shops
Lucas Glavin – 7pt Singleton – UW
Rich Arevalo – Premodern – Burn
X POINT SIDE EVENT
X Point Side Event Final Standings (click through for searchable PDF)
Andrew Carbonella — “Royal Rumble” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 8
Peter Niemeier — “COP Red Chaos” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 8
Jason Beaupre — “Terminator Shops” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 8
James Klepper — “The Other Odyssey” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 8
Jason Koresko — “Puritans and Demons” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 4
Brendan Dillon — “Lichazad” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 4
Raymond Mitchell — “JLV’s Soul Warriors” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 4
Tim Moran — “Mine!” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 4
16th Place: John Bagley
15th Place: Jonathan Towns
14th Place: Manny Moutinho
13th Place: Brady Iba
12th Place: Jesse Moulton
11th Place: Nick Fox
10th Place: Paul Calder
9th Place: Maxime Godbout L’Hebreux
8th Place: Adam Hamdan
7th Place: Sebastien Dube
6th Place: Dan Quirk
5th Place: Oliver Voegeli
4th Place: Hans Feng
3rd Place: Andy Callaghan — “Infinite Jest Singleton”🥉
2nd Place: Rich Shay🥈
1st Place: Matt Wood🥇
OLD SCHOOL FINAL STANDINGS and TOP 16
Old School Main Event Final Standings (searchable PDF)
17th Place (of Glory): David Williams (sorry again for the Tolaria tease)
16th Place: Bryan Mueller
15th Place: Ammi Ribar SPIKE x SPICE AWARD
14th Place: Gregg Graham
13th Place: Flint Espil
12th Place: Lucas Glavin
11th Place: Thomas Sutherland
10th Place: Michael Parler
9th Place: Will Magrann
8th Place: Brian Selden
7th Place: Ryan Grodzinski
6th Place: Ryan Keach
5th Place: Joe Becica
4th Place: Sam Black
3rd Place: Andy Heiszler 🥉
2nd Place: Stephen Hines 🥈
1st Place: Tim Kincaid 🥇🏆
OLD SCHOOL SPICE AWARDS
SPICE HONORABLE MENTION: Rich Bourque / Tropical Shops, Andrew Sifford / Consecrated Beast, Eliot Burk / Sleight Dervish, Eureka Shivan / 5-color Void Prison, Ammi Ribar / Land Equilibrium, Scott Bradley / Drop Control, Micah McRiver / Prison Break, Marc Flore / Storm Seeker Hurks, Charlie Beane-Lewis / Pink Surprise, Dennis Spiegel / Sped Red feat. Fallen Angel, Jason Beaupre / Power Monolith feat. Dragon Engine + Channel, Isaac Weiner / Power Monolith feat. Urza’s Glasses
Stephen Hartford — COP Blue Discard 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Tim Atwood — Dance of Many Elementals 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Nate Gates — High Tide 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Chris DiRico — “Fungus in the Soil” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Andrew Carbonella — Ali Distress 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Andy Baquero — Ali From Cairo? 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
Andy Rossmeissl — “Curses!” 🌶️ SPICE TOP 7
OLD SCHOOL MAIN EVENT DECKS
(Click through to Google Docs folder; deck photos not shown above are listed alphabetically by first name)
