2026 Grand Contest Hartford Recap — 10th Place w/Earth-Fire Ironclad

Sorcery: Contested Realm · by Jack B · October 30, 2026

SCGCon Hartford was a blast! I met a bunch of great new players and old friends, and I had some amazing matches. Tournaments like this are a great way to stoke the community's excitement and get staples into newer players' hands.

Preamble aside, all I’m thinking about going into November is Avatar of the Realm. SCGCon Hartford was a great place to get a lot of games in before then. Usually, when I play in locals, I can only play 3-ish games before everyone else is tired or wants to go home. Likewise, on weekdays I can only fit in 1 game online, if any, because of my work schedule. But at an event like this, I can finally get a BUNCH of information by playing games one after another with a fixed deck.

Playing with a fixed deck really lets me hone in on any issues the deck has, without downtime to overthink and make changes between games. Some changes are definitely needed, but I think finishing 10th shows I’m at least getting close to the final version of this deck.

[earth][fire] {Ironclad} by Jack B

DECKLIST_START

Minions

1 {Arjaro Exorcist} [2][earth]
4 {Kettletop Leprechaun} [2][earth]
1 {Mover of Mountains} [2][earth][earth]
2 {Redmane Hyena} [2][fire]
1 {Saint of Redemption} [2][earth][earth]
1 {Sister Stefania} [2][earth]
4 {Vile Imp} [2][fire]
3 {Colicky Dragonettes} [3][fire][fire]
3 {Order of the White Wing} [3][earth][earth]
3 {Quarrelsome Kobolds} [3][fire]
3 {Root Spider} [3][earth]
1 {Shield Maidens} [3][earth][earth]
1 {Tragedy Worrywart} [3][earth][earth]
2 {Gargantula} [4][earth][earth][earth]
2 {Paladins of Bazia} [4][earth][earth][earth]
1 {Archangel Michael} [5][earth][earth][earth][earth]
1 {Atlas Wanderers} [5][earth][earth][earth]
2 {Stone-gaze Gorgans} [5][earth][earth]
1 {Balor of the Evil-Eye} [6][fire][fire]
1 {Death Dealer} [7][fire][fire]

Magics

2 {Common Sense} [2][earth]
1 {Firebolts} [2][fire]
1 {Bury} [3][earth]
1 {Cave=In} [4][earth]
2 {Earthquake} [5][earth][earth]
3 {Poison Nova} [5][fire]
1 {Craterize} [8][earth][earth]
1 {Assorted Animals} [x][earth][earth]

Artifacts

3 {Toolbox} [2]
1 {Blasted Oak} [3]
2 {Golden Harp} [3]
3 {Makeshift Barricade} [3]
1 {Torrid Omphalos} [4]

Collection

1 {Bless} [1][earth]
1 {Common Sense} [2][earth]
1 {Dispel} [2][earth]
1 {Border Militia} [3][earth]
1 {Bury} [3][earth]
1 {Heat Ray} [3][fire]
1 {Makeshift Barricade} [3]
1 {Angry Mob} [4][fire]
1 {Flayer} [4][fire][fire]
1 {Smite} [4][earth][earth]

DECKLIST_END

Before I get into my actual games, I should go over my deck's goal. This deck uses {Ironclad}’s tankiness and some crazy interactions to extend the end-game and make it hard for my opponent to kill me once I reach Death’s Door. Killing {Ironclad} on Death's Door becomes almost a puzzle.

{Makeshift Barricade} requires 5+ damage to break. {Golden Harp} lets me take 0 damage from strikes and also reduces nearby site damage to 2. Combined with a solid [earth][fire] decklist and a couple of {Craterize}s, this deck is hard to beat, especially if you don’t have artifact removal.

I went to SCGCon Hartford with ForceofPhil, and a few different delays combined to keep us from getting to the event on time. Because of that, we took a first-round loss, which I think gave Will the win (the #1 player at the end of the day). So I like to think I helped him finish undefeated! From there, I just had to win five games in a row, right?

Round Two vs. [fire] {Pathfinder}

The details of the earlier games are a little fuzzy, but the first match I actually played was against a mono-[fire] {Pathfinder}. I managed to get out a lot of my powerful sites that kept his minions boxed in on his own sites and let me pull out a win.

Round Three vs. [fire] {Necromancer}

Round three was probably my worst showing in a while against a [fire] {Necromancer} helmed by Zach C. (@TheRealHeavyZee).

My opening hand was…unfortunate. As you can see above, my deck is only 30% [fire] spells and only 36% of the sites produce [fire]. My opening hand was {Colicky Dragonettes}, {Quarrelsome Kobolds}, {Redmane Hyena}, {Remote Desert}, {Mobbed Court}, and {River of Blood}.

This is kind of a pickle. Statistically, I know the next sites or spells I draw are most likely to be [earth]. In fact, I have multiple spells in my deck that require [earth][earth][earth] or [earth][earth][earth][earth]. I did have other [fire] spells, but they don’t need more than [fire] or [fire][fire].

Honestly, I should have mulliganed all three sites and prayed I'd get more [fire] down the road. Instead, to play it safe, I mulligan’d the {River of Blood}, {Mobbed Court}, and the {Redmane Hyena}. I got back a {Vindictive Nation}, a {Steppe}, and a {Gargantula}. Needless to say, I was absolutely hosed.

After drawing five more cards, three artifacts, a {Vile Imp}, and {Archangel Michael}, I lost in short order. Not to say that Zach wasn’t playing well! The game closed out in 10-ish minutes, which speaks to how well he played his [fire] {Necromancer}.

We played it back afterward for fun, and the same situation happened. So I guess it was fate, at that point. I just wasn’t supposed to win that game! It's probably not possible for me to get to the top 8 from here, but I might as well play it out and see what happens, right?

Round Four vs. [water][air] {Necromancer}

Round 4 was against RobyThul, whom I’ve had the pleasure of playing twice! Once at the Shipwreck Games cornerstone in NJ, and now here! He ran a solid [water][air] {Necromancer} list that scared me more than once. I managed to pull out a win in the end thanks to the new addition of {Craterize} in my deck! Without that removal, though, it would have been tough to come back.

I originally built my deck to combat [water][air] {Necromancer}, with all the strike damage negation. But even with a deck like this designed to combat it, [water] {Necrocromancer} is still challenging to deal with and can pop off if they get all their good uniques and you have weak or no answers.

In this deck, you combat it by making sure you have ordinary sites that can make up your home site, then hopefully getting a {Gnome Hollows} in front of you, or at least a {Blasted Oak} to bait out {Disenchant}s and {Swap}s. Otherwise, it can be rough to deal with the sheer value that Necro gets.

Round Five vs. [earth] {Savior}

Round 5 was against Nadia R., who was playing a Savior deck. Nadia expressed that she was new to Sorcery at the beginning of the game and was very enthusiastic! I love Sorcery, so having an opponent who’s so interested in how the game works is my favorite type of player!

I ended up playing forward some sites onto her side of the board and then getting a turn 4 {Torrid Omphalos}. From there, I just kept getting hard-to-remove minions like {Paladins of Bazia} and {Order of the White Wing}, along with cards that remove or ignore the wards on her minions. Pretty lucky draws from me, in the end.

It was a fun game, and I was definitely happy with my draws, because Savior games can go REALLY long if either party doesn’t draw any acceleration.

Round Six vs. [water][air] {Druid}

The final round was against Micah K., playing a familiar [water][air] {Druid} matchup. I’ve played against a similar deck piloted by Cameron from the Virginia Sorcery community, and I was surprised to find out Micah plays there too!

Micah started with a strong group of minions, and I didn’t have much to counter the site damage he was dealing. My opening hand was mostly end-game pieces and some survival cards like {Makeshift Barricade}. What I did have, though, was {Craterize} and {Death Dealer}. So I figured that as long as I stayed alive long enough to get the mana to play those, I would be safe.

On the turn I hit Death’s Door, he had a full board of pretty scary minions, including a {Coy Nixie} that was two turns away from walking within pull range. I had to choose: throw down a {Makeshift Barricade} and hope he didn’t have any spells that could push the {Coy Nixie} forward, or wipe the board with {Death Dealer} and pray he couldn’t kill me.

I chose to play {Death Dealer} and sat back behind my {Gnome Hollows}, hoping he didn’t have {Toolbox}, {Lightning Bolt}, or something else that could kill me. Luckily, he passed on his next turn, and I dealt 4 damage with {Death Dealer} and played Barricade; the next turn, I {Craterize}d him to get him to door. I was sweating, but the plan worked out!

Ironing the Clad

I pulled out a decent 4-2 record. I ended up coming in 10th and was just short of making the top cut because of my opponent win rate. Story of my life.

In the end, though, the event was fun as hell, and I got to meet some great new players and catch up with friends. I can see the community growing, and that really keeps me fired up more than anything else.

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Featured Image: {Ironclad} by Elwira Pawlikowska