XIII MTG Old Frame League

The summer season in the Northern Hemisphere may have slowed down a little bit the pace, but there is no stopping the Old Frame machine. Between July and September 2022 we celebrated the XIII MTG Old Frame League in our classic Old Frame Vintage format.

Twelve players registered for the league, leaving us with three very competitive groups. As usual, the pairings were aleatory, but we kept in consideration the time zone and IRL needs of every player to the best of our possibilities. So don’t let worries on how you can combine the league with other commitments stop you for joining us!

A single round-robin was the first step for all of the participants in order to get their hands on one of the coolest prizes ever. An altered foil Demonic Tutor. Our second custom-made altered foil prize (after the Mystical Tutor of the XII MTG Old Frame League).

This league saw an impressive 10 different archetypes played with only two players running Hulk Smash and two commanding The Perfect Storm as the only duplicates. It was awesome to see some cards being played in the league for the first time, like Biorhythm.

After the group stage was over, there was a tie for the best second that meant an extra tie-breaker match had to be played. David Aparicio‘s High Tide vs Phil Thorson‘s Elves. And what a match it was! Pity no one recorded it!

Top 4

David managed to beat the Elves in the tie-breaker and thus we had our semi-finals pairings! Aparicio was to play Karl Akbari, while Dave Kaplan would face Juan Espadas.

The first semifinal was an incredible match. Juan Espadas was running Bear Deck Wins while Karl Akbari played Hulk Smash. The match was streamed live as a collaboration with Youtube’s Old School MTG Channel and commented live by the channel owner, Resti, and Vedast Sanxis (in Spanish). Here is the video of that match.

In the second semifinal Dave Kaplan, one of the greatest performers in the Old Frame Vintage format, beat David Aparicio 2-1 with his TPS to make it 4 final appearances in only five leagues. The previous three had finished with him victorious, would the streak continue?

Finals

Everything was ready for the XIII MTG Old Frame League Final. And it would be the third time Karl Akbari and Dave Kaplan would face each other in the last match of the tournament after the VIII and IX league.

In fact, with the exception of the X League, that was played in the Old Frame Commander format, Dave and Karl had won the last four leagues, and one of them was about to win it again.

Unfortunately for Karl, the third encounter of both players in the Final was not the charm. Dave Kaplan made it an impressive 4 out of 4 in finals won and 4 out of 5 tournaments played. The first player ever to win 4 leagues and thus, the current king of Old Frame Vintage. Definitely worthy of the foil Demonic Tutor.

Congratulations Dave on the win, and Karl, it seems like you have found yourself a final boss. Best of luck in the next league! The last league of 2022!

Would you like to try your luck and skill against Dave, Karl and the rest of us? The registration for the XIV MTG Old Frame League Online will be open on this link until Monday October 31st.

Join us either on Discord or Facebook as we continue to work on bigger and better tournaments both in Old Frame Vintage and the rest of Old Frame formats.

MTG Old Frame League Decks

Here is a complete list of the decks that played the XIII MTG Old Frame League, for your inspiration and to study the metagame!

The Perfect Storm – David Kaplan – First Place

Hulk Smash – Karl Akbari – Second Place

Canadian Threshold – Juan Espadas – Semi-Finalist

Solidarity – David Aparicio – Semi-Finalist

Elves – Phil Thorson

Rector Trix – Alexander Caviris

UW Fish – Óscar Canedo

Stax – Nicholas Santini

Thresnought – Karl Pfeiffer

Dump Truck – Víctor Manuel Martínez

The Perfect Storm – Vedast Sanxis

Hulk Smash – Attilio Bragantini