AN IN DEPTH HISTORY OF THE MICHIGAN META GAME, or A HISTORY OF MONDAY NIGHTS AT PANDIMONIUM
This article is meant to be an interactive history of the Michigan Pandemonium metagame. As everybody in Michigan knows, if you want to play with the best in the Mitten, you come to Pandemonium on Monday nights @ 7 PM. Anyways, since I have been playing there ever since the first tourney, I thought that I would take it upon myself to Chronicle a basic skeleton of what has happened, who has done what, and who was there and when. This is by no means a be all end all of what happened, it is however one man’s perspective of numerous events over an extend period of time. So I urge anyone who was there; Post or PM me with things I have left out, or things that you feel are incorrect and I will do my best to update this post as I receive more information. Thanks.
PREFACE
Pandemonium began hosting Vintage tournaments in the fall of 2001 at my request. My brother and I had both gotten back into the game during Invasion, after selling out around the time of Alliances. Although we were both primarily Standard players both of us longed to play with the Mana Drains and Moxes of our youth and thus took up playing Vintage merely against one another. At the time the only place to play Vintage that I was aware of in Michigan was Awesome Comics in Wyandot, which held a weekly event for a Mox (moxes were under $90 then), and it was quite a drive away. I asked Brandon Pepitin, the owner of Pandemonium, if he would hold events and soon after the Pandemonium Vintage came to pass. I think it is really important to note that the Michigan Vintage scene would probably look much different, had Brandon not provided such a great atmosphere and place for players new and experienced to mingle and enjoy the format. Brandon and the entire Pandemonium Staff have done an excellent job at running quality tournaments, as well as doing everything possible to keep players interested and spark the interest and imaginations of new players just learning the format. I really can't say enough nice things about Brandon, he is a great guy and has done tons for Michigan Vintage.
The Dark Ages – Fall 2001 (Odyssey is released) – spring 2002. (Judgement is released)
These were the early days of the Pandemonium scene, and they were quite backward. I can only remember a few names from this period, so if anybody else can remember please fill me in on information. Back in those days I was playing half-powered Keeper, as was one of the other Dark Age notables named Jermain (?). It is funny to look back, because I was playing with among other bad cards, Worship and Crystalline Sliver, in my deck to help combat the Sligh decks! The meta game was primarily composed of R/G aggro, Sui Black, and Sligh.  I can also remember that during this period one of the other chief players was a crazy Canadian fellow who played R/G beats and Goblins. (Hopefully Pac or Jeremy can afford me a name). I cannot underscore enough that this period of Michigan Vintage was characterized by unpowered aggro decks. However, it was (as Mondays at Pandemonium always are) a complete blast to play during this period. One thing I really noticed about the Vintage crowd as opposed to the FNM crowd was that the players tended to be a little bit older, a little less obnoxious, and considerably more laid back in their approach to playing Magic. The impression that playing Vintage made on me, as opposed to playing constructed, was that it felt much more like playing Kitchen Table magic with my friends way back when we played during Unlimited, back years and years ago. After a few months of playing there was a core of five or six of us who regularly attended (along with about 10 or 15 others who randomly rotated in and out of the scene) and it was a blast go to Panda every Monday night and see all of those guys and play crazy/broken games of Magic the Gathering.
Chief players for the Dark Ages and what they were playing.
-Forcefieldyou, with Keeper
-Jermain, with Keeper
-Crazy Canadian Guy, with Goblins
The Middle Ages – Summer 2002 (Onslaught released) – spring 2003 (Scourge Released)
Clearly, there is a division to be made between the spring of 2002 and the summer of 2002. During this period our metagame began to grow drastically and players began to accumulate more and more power, making the metagame much more competitive. It is during this period that Brian Berry became a Vintage notable in Michigan; and also, Todd (Tristal) Davis made his entry to the Pandemonium scene. Todd, if I remember correctly was playing Keeper and Oath from week to week, and became one of the primary players in the metagame. Todd pretty much played good decks (as he had a full set of power minus Lotus) and usually showed up with a judge friend. (What was that guy's name? His IM title was Mierodin).Â
It is also of interest that Ben 'everythingitouchesdies' Perry made his first appearance at Pandemonium shortly after the release of Onslaught. Ben was playing mono black at this time, and he and I quickly became fast rivals and good friends, seeing as we were both frequent top 4 competitors. Ben's Sui Black list (and I hope to get a true deck list from him at some point) was running Nether Voids and Masticores, and was quite a beating against my five color Keeper deck.
In February of 2003, I decided to play vintage for the first time. I had recently discovered from SerialJester that Pandemonium ran vintage, and I decided to tag along with him. I had two decks, one of which was sligh, and I showed up a little hesitant to play. The turnout for the tournament was only six players, and two of them were playing standard decks. The others were me with sligh, Serialjester with nether void (the other deck I had) a guy playing Chains of Meph with Anvil of Bogarden and manlands, and a guy playing suicide black (the only other deck I had the cards to build outside the two I had built.) We did round robin and I took second to Serialjester. ---everythingitouchesdies.
It was also around this time that I completed my first set of Power 9, by winning a 60 person Vintage event at Awesome Comics. I can vividly remember that the top eight of that tournament was seven GAT decks (pre Gush restriction) and me playing five color control. However, my deck was ready for it. I will scour my computer for a deck list, but I can say that I had 4 Misdirection and Timetwister in the main deck to combat the Gat strategy. On a quirky note, I can also say one of the trademark Michigan phrases that gets tossed around at Panda quite frequently came into being at this tournament. In game three of the finals (which I had wanted to split because it was 4 am and I had class in the morning) my opponent was on the play and dropped a LoA. I took my turn and passed. And he tapped his LoA to illegally draw a card. I looked at him sleepily and asked "How many cards do you have in your hand." He responded, "Seven." And I said "You lose." It's kind of an in joke, but if you play at Pandemonium and have heard this little monologue going on; this is where it came from. The top eight at this tourney was a clear predictor of things to come as the Panda meta (like the rest of the U.S. would soon become overrun by 4 Gush GAT decks).
It is also of significance that Mark 'Windfall' Biller was in attendance at this event in Wyandotte, and was playing monoU control. Although I didn't meet him on this occasion I did meet and play against Clyde (Last name?), one of his good friends who was playing a deck designed by Mark based around Lich and Mirror Universe. I won. However, more significantly I told Clyde about the Monday night tournaments at Pandemonium, and he along with his friends Biller and Franklin "Onelovemachine" would soon start attending our events in Garden City.
Also, we began to see the start of the ‘Canadian’ trend during this period as groups of Canadian players (which included Scratch and his mates making their way across the bridge to play at Pandemonium. I continued to play Keeper during this period even though the insaneness of 4 Gush Gat was dominating the format. However, I was also known to pick up NeoAcademey from time to time and do fairly well with it (this is of course before Tendrils of Agony was printed.) Perry continued to play Sui Black; while the Canadians brought GAT, Oath and Academy to our field. Also, during this period Alex Sellinger became one of the top staple players in our field. He pretty much played 4CC and modified his lists weekly to mimic exactly what I had played the Monday previous (much to my annoyance). However, his tech coping serves him well as he is a perennial top eighter along with Ben and I.Â
Another notable who enters the scene during this period is my good friend Marland Moore, who still plays with us all these years later at Pandemonium. If I remember correctly he was playing GAT way back when at Pandemonium before Gush got the axe.
Chief players and decks of the Middle Ages
-everythingitouchesdies, playing sui black
-forcefieldyou, playing Keeper
-Alex Sellnger, playing 3cKeeper
-Jermain, playing GAT
-Marland Moore, playing GAT
-Todd 'Tristal' Davis, playing Keeper and Oath
During this time the decks become much better and the field becomes almost all fully / partially powered. Mana Drain decks begin to take center stage over disruptive beat down strategies. Looking back, it is during this period when the metagame really turns competitive and players actually begin to metagame, play better decks and sample new strategies.
This is of course just a revisiting of the very early days of Michigan Magic. From here things begin to get really chaotic as more and more players of significance enter the format at different times and do different things. I would like to hear from all of you guys before I go on any further; not only to get the next part right, but also to make sure I've gotten things right thus far. Please PM me or post if I have made any mistakes thus far, or if I have left anything out.
The Renaissance, Fall 2003 (Mirrodin released) – Spring 2004 (Fifth Dawn Released)
Cheers,
Brian
P.S. If any of you guys who have already PM'd me want to write any specific blurbs or passages about a specific deck, game, moment, memory, or whatever feel free to type it out and PM it to me and I will include it in this article.
