The morning of the Grand Contest's Day Two started a hair earlier than I liked. Some partying in my hotel atrium woke me up around 4 a.m., and my brain clicked into gear thinking about matches both behind and ahead of me.
My mind wandered back to my local Tuesday games, where I went 1-2 with my Steam Persecutor list and went home to sleeve up a different 
version that was more similar to decks I had seen online. Thankfully, my stubbornness and desire to play something more my own won out, and I sleeved the 
cards back up Thursday night.
The deck ran well through Day One. I wasn’t sure if I could make a deep run in the finals with it, but I was determined to make a go of it. To do that, I had to shore up the games that I had lost the day before.
I was certain I was facing Mike Herbig’s Archimago again in the quarterfinals. I thought through the previous match to see what I could do better. I needed to get my hate sites, like River of Blood and Mismanaged Mortuary, into the Realm as soon as possible and move forward faster to protect them from Sinkholes. Otherwise, the aggressive game plan of getting on top of him and shutting off his finishers like Craterize and Major Explosion seemed good.
I considered the Necromancer match to see if I could improve against Gideon’s deck. I really needed to maximize value plays like Poison Nova for multiple minions to keep up with the Necromancer's value engine. Keeping cognizant of his defensive and movement sites was also a must. My aggressive game plan had fallen flat, so perhaps a more defensive plan would work better? There were other possible matchups I had yet to face, but I felt already prepared for most of those.
2026 Grand Contest, Washington, D.C. Top 8
- Necromancer | Tom
Necromancer | Gideon- Necromancer | John
- Imposter | Christian (who beat me earlier in the week at our local)
- Druid | Cameron
- Pathfinder | Tyler
- Archimago | Mike
As expected, I ate my breakfast burrito at the tables and waited for the judges to finish our deck checks. I was paired against Mike in the quarterfinals. The highest seed got to be on the play each match, relegating me to going second in every game unless I matched against Tom again. Not great for the get in there and punch ‘em list, but what can you do?
Quarterfinals vs Archimago - Mike H. (rematch)
I had a lot of time to chat with Mike before our match. Despite his Archimago playing tendencies, he was a really great guy and fellow dog-lover, so I almost felt bad about having to Persecute him.
The Realm ain’t gonna contest itself, though, so we got down to business. This match was easily one of the best of my admittedly short Sorcery career. To quote the Princess Bride, it had everything:
Fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love (for our respective dogs), and miracles.
The round started with a critical decision. Do I worry about threshold, or do I mulligan aggressively to graveyard and healing hate? I mulliganed aggressively, bottoming all three sites to find hate to shut down Mike’s game plan.
Three sites from the top and still no hate, so I gave it one more go by using my second player seer on my Atlas. There it was! Bureau of Occult Control, a site that wouldn’t exactly shut off his game plan, but it would slow him down considerably. After he played a site and passed, I drew that bad boy and placed it down on my home site, where I could protect it.
The remainder of the first few turns played out similarly to the night before, with me making a Vile Imp and Horrible Hybrids and killing a Kettletop Leprechaun and getting in damage before he Earthquaked my minions away and rearranged our respective sites. Eventually, he replaced my Bureau of Occult Control with an Heirloom Lost, and remobilized his value train of a cemetery full of spells.
By this point, my Avatar was on his side of the Realm. Hyperparasite was near him for good measure. He was at seven, and I was at 20. I needed to get him to Death’s Door before he could chain healing spells, so I went for a risky maneuver: I dropped an Aino and stepped it onto his back line, where it and my Hyperparasite could be Earthquaked. I had a Peacemaker Arbalest and Lord of Lies in hand. If I could bait his sweeper, they could probably finish the job.
Sure enough, Mike removed my minions, to which I followed up with Lord of Lies right next to him, removing a defensive foot soldier and bringing him to six life. Prime territory to door him and chase him down with my Peacemaker Arbalest. The following turn, however, was where the torture and escape parts of our tale began.
Mike did what any good Archimago player would have done: cast Border Militia twice and then an Onslaught, making 14 two-power soldier tokens with charge. Three of the tokens teamed up to kill my Lord of Lies. The other 11 swung me to Death’s Door.
I looked behind me toward the escalators leaving the convention hall, and considered what I might get for lunch on the way home. But it wasn’t over. I had my Peacemaker Arbalest and a Mazuj Ifrit in hand, and I had to fight on!
The Peacemaker Arbalest and Mazuj Ifrit combined to give me enough movement and range to get the hell out of dodge and kill the only token close enough to kill me. It wasn’t much, but it was the best I could do. I passed and hoped for the best. He delivered his best instead.
Another site and a Border Militia and Guards one-two punch dropped another 16 or 17 Foot Soldiers all around me. Needless to say, things were looking bleak for our hero, with just a Firebreathing in hand and my lone Mazuj Ifrit to defend me.
As I mentioned earlier, this match had everything, and a miracle was still to come. What I needed was something to even the impossible odds. came right off the top of my spellbook. Poor Mike had to watch as my flew over top of his Avatar and burned all the soldiers away, smacking him to two in the process. A shot from the evened the score, and I had one more turn to hope he had no answer.
Mike leveraged card draw spells like and in his graveyard to draw as many spells as he could. It all came down to one final draw. Would he get the damage spell he needed to finish me off? came off the top, and Mike laid down the quote of the match:
"You live by the Landmass, you die by the Landmass."
—Mike Herbig
Mike stepped out of my range, but the I had been sitting on cooked him for the last point of damage.
The lone in the tournament was no more. I had a ticket to face off against John’s in the semifinals.
Semifinals vs - John
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. John was not an opponent I faced on Day One; probably good for me. His deck was pretty close to what won SorceryCon 2025. John is an amazing player and one of the few Level 3 judges on the Sorcery judge roster. Thankfully, I didn’t find out most of that until after the match, or I might have been considerably more nervous. This game had nearly as many wild swings as the quarterfinals.
My memory of the first few turns of the match is hazy. He made some Skeletons, my marched across the Realm with a in hand. John cast a in the center of the Realm to slow down my advance. I countered with a and , with the damage trigger from the removing the ’s ward before transformed it into a frog. I slayed the frog and continued my movement into John's territory, ready to start sniping his Avatar with my artifacts.
John cast his and a to outvalue me. I put a into play and carried on with my game plan of dropping his life total with and removing his skeletons with the .
Unfortunately for me, John cast , which drowned my minion, submerged my weaponry, shut off my (which was keeping my threshold above two), and my . I was with only in hand. John retrieved my ring with , rose to the surface, and ed it onto his Avatar. I was facing down a pair of with little in the way of board presence. At this point, I considered what I would have for lunch as I exited the tournament; there was no hope of coming back.
One good turn deserves another, though, and my own off the top of my Spellbook drowned his skeleton tokens, , and both . I was on the offensive, pressuring him again.
He built defense via a and , but irony is not dead — I used my to make his fall in love with me.
I kept up the pressure, bringing him to Death’s Door while he chipped away at my life total with his entity that was ped onto my back row. I chased him into his back corner, and the I’d held all game ended things from two steps away.
Another game that I was certain I would lose halfway through resulted in another victory. It just goes to show that the game’s never over till you get hit on Death’s Door, and some wild swings can get you back in it with some careful play and a little (or perhaps a lot in my case) luck.
After the match, John told me that almost every minion he drew was submerged under his and, therefore, could not be cast safely. He lamented not placing it on his , where it would not have been affected by the , but he wanted to cast his s if they arrived. It was a good reminder about playing around if you can, because players seem to always have it.
Like all my matches in this tournament, my opponent was an amazing competitor and a lovely human. We parted with a handshake and well-wishes all around. John headed to the third-place match to contend for a foil promo. I headed to the finals to fight Gideon again for an uncut sheet of Gothic!
Intermission
The Erik’s Curiosa crew wanted to film the third-place match and the finals. They asked Gideon and me if we would mind if the third-place match were played first. Eager for a break, we agreed.
It was a grueling hour and a half long match between Cameron’s and John’s . I took the time to cash in tickets from the weekend’s events for most of a box of Gothic, cracked some packs, and ate some food to let my brain rest after two intense matches.
Round Three vs - Gideon (take two)
Having faced Gideon during Day One, I knew how good he and his deck were. I had to play a pretty much perfect game to beat him. My more aggressive strategy had not worked in our previous match, so I resolved to play more defensively if possible.
Gideon had a turn one , which would later turn all his -mana skeleton tokens into for free. It was already an uphill battle. I had a very strong start, converting a turn-one into a turn two on his front row . I drew early, slowing down his by forcing its activation to cost .
Turn three, I made what I consider the first of several mistakes during the game: I placed in my back row instead of forward, where it could help me attack. This was pivotal later in the game.
Soon after, I made another decision that was probably incorrect. He played an next to his , and leveraged to move my off and back onto his . I took the three damage rather than discard, and he removed my for the low price of a skeleton token.
I believe I had , a , and one other card in my hand, and it would probably have been correct to discard the or the other card instead to maintain my on-board pressure. I passed with no turn three play, opting to hold my in the hopes he would move surface his .
Gideon’s turn four really showcased what makes the deck so good. He ed one of his skeleton tokens into a , and immediately smacked me for five damage. He surfaced his to the middle, prime for my .
The following turn, I killed the with , developed a fourth site forward near his , and put a onto my back row, hoping to protect it from his forced movement. He responded by ping my onto my back row and my up, which I saved from by discarding . He pulled the with his and killed them with . My plan was to play the following turn to crank the pressure, but his timely derailed my plans.
At this point, I experienced something I hadn’t before, which was a full-on tilt. Gideon had interrupted my game plan so expertly that I had trouble getting my head back in the game. I followed up with a and retrieved my from the back row, but he continued developing and a , and suddenly, the board had completely gotten away from me.
I tried attacking his site to move the so I could remove the with my , but I had forgotten his trigger, and I couldn’t afford to discard as she was my only avenue back into the game. I attacked him and preserved my minion instead, and took four damage for nothing.
Shortly after, he played in my front row, absolutely a disaster for me, as he could now get to me easily, almost anywhere on the board. If only I had played my forward earlier.
Gideon cast on my face, and the game was effectively all over. I was on Death’s Door, and he had a commanding board presence. I played out my , hoping to steal an from the top of his spellbook to buy time, but alas, I received a instead. It would have been an excellent hit at any other time, but I only had one out. ended my run the following turn.
I could make all sorts of excuses for my poor play, but ultimately, Gideon played an amazing game, and I did not, and he deserved to win the first Grand Contest. He was an amazing competitor and a great sport throughout the game, even helping me notice some on-board interaction that I missed while tilted.
I was crushed to have come this far and come up short, but with opponents as amazing as these, you almost want them to win. I collected my foil for second place, said my goodbyes, and headed home for some much-needed sleep.
Wrapping Up
The entire weekend was some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. I met and chatted with so many kind, like-minded people and had a blast playing 16 competitive rounds and many other casual rounds of Sorcery. I can’t say enough about the Erik’s Curiosa crew and the judges; they were friendly and professional, and they did an amazing job with the event.
I am so glad I found this game and community, and have participated in the competitive tournament scene. For anyone reading this and wondering if the tournament scene is for you, I’ll say that this was easy for a mostly casual player to enjoy, and if you’re on the fence about attending an event, just go! Everyone is friendly, the competition is incredibly kind, and the community will help you get your bearings and have a great time.
For anyone looking for more information about my Steam Persecutor deck, check out the Common Sense Sorcery podcast episode where I talk more about it!
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Featured image: by Dan Seagrave