You’ve Been Targeted
It all started with an advertisement the Verde Canyon Railroad dropped into my Facebook newsfeed at the end of last year. I clicked the link before finishing the first two sentences of the ad, and clearly without giving any shits about how it would affect “the algorithm” that Facebook uses to fill your newsfeed. Needless to say, I’ve since been bombarded by an endless stream of ads for all kinds of local to-dos and whatnot. But that click was worth it and led to an epic three-day adventure with some of my best friends.
Choo-Choo
A historic railway which runs between Clarkdale and Perkinsville, Arizona, the tracks the Verde Canyon Railroad runs on were opened in 1912 as part of a north–south branch line linking a copper smelter at Clarkdale and the copper mines at Jerome to Santa Fe Railway tracks passing through Drake. The Santa Fe Railway owned and operated the 38-mile branch line from 1912 to 1988. It was then sold to David L. Durbano, an entrepreneur who began running passenger cars on the line in 1990.
The vintage diesel locomotives, EMD FP7s 1510 and 1512, pulling the classic passenger cars are two of only ten remaining in operation in North America. They were originally built for the Alaska Railroad in 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in LaGrange, Illinois.
Yes, I pulled all of that from Wikipedia.
Welcome to Clarkdale
Our story doesn’t start aboard the Verde Canyon Rail though, but instead right here on the ol’ internets. After being convinced by the online ad that we needed to take a train ride and host some kind of Old School tournament, Kyra reached out to the railway to see about a bulk discount. As it would turn out, we ended up renting an entire First Class train car complete with leather loveseats, champagne and an open-air car connected to our own.
Still, with the train confirmed, it was decided that instead of trying to host the entire tournament “all aboard” - which was only a four-hour ride door-to-door - we would split the event into two days. We’d host the tournament on Saturday then let the Top 4 battle it out in the Phoenix First Class car on Sunday. But where could we seat 26 people for six plus hours to eat, drink and play Old School? Enter the Main Street Café in Clarkdale, AZ. Owned and operate by Scott and Chelsea Honey, the café welcomed us with open arms, handing over one half of their entire restaurant, as well as the attached back bar. To say they were an integral part of this whole endeavor would be a massive understatement.
Most players rolled into town on Friday afternoon/evening. Many were able to find accommodations in Clarkdale, or nearby Cottonwood (5-min down the road), while a few made a home for themselves at the Cliff Castle Casino. Like our First Class train car, Kyra was able to secure rooms at a couple of the local hotels for tournament players to pick and choose from. Additionally, the epic old mining town of Jerome was a mere ten-minute drive, so I believe a few folks stayed up there. Friday night, we gathered at The 10-12 Lounge, which is attached to the Main Street Café, where a bad ass one-eyed biker bartender catered to a 20-person group of nerds looking to drink and sling old cards until he kicked us out around midnight. Not a bad start to our event.
The Battle Begins
I had decided to schedule the tournament around, well, my schedule. I don’t wake up any early than 8am unless I have to, and I cannot function without coffee. If you know what I do for a living, you’d understand why. So setting a 3:00pm start time for the tournament seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing for me to do. As it turned out, it gave everyone time to hike, explore, eat or drink all morning, then join us at the café to test their wizard skills. A 2pm arrival allowed people to sign Strip Mines, buy raffle tickets and peep the amazing prizes which had been donated by the Old School community. The tournament was underway just before 2:45pm, with Marc Lunde in his DCI referee jersey seeing over the shenanigans. Like Scott and Chelsea at the café, this tournament couldn’t have happened without Marc.
Marc ran five 50-minute rounds, the first two and last three separated by a 45-minute dinner break. After the sixth and final round, he cut to a Top 4.
Scenes from The Tournament
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Charity Raffle
These sorts of tournaments could feel incredibly self-indulgent if it weren’t for the charitable nature of the Old School community. We gather with friends and strangers to play an over-priced card game from our childhood while consuming good food and drink and being merry. But at the end of the day, it’s not about winning or walking away with some sort of prize. Instead, this community has centered around supporting local and regional charities when we gather, often raising thousands of dollars in donations. The Strip Mine Express was no different. Following in the footsteps of our first online charity auction which raised more than $5000 for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, we decided to select them again as the benefactor for the charity raffle we would host this past weekend.
With an assortment of items donated from across the Old School landscape, we were able to raise about $2,500 for the hospital!
Among the items donated to our charity raffle was this fully altered Old School deck donated by Chris Tremble from Texas. [Insert: gasp] Artists included Shaman Ben, QUAIL, Park Cofield, Nick Viau, Cam Wall, and Mark Brothers, among others.
All Aboard
I didn’t really get a chance to see many of the feature matches during Saturday’s tournament, as I was playing a sideboard-less Stasis deck against my mom in the fifth round and missed out on the action. What I can tell you is that it was a wildly contested battled for the Top 4 seats, finally narrowing down to Luis Dominguez, and David Craig from New Mexico, as well as Brian Urbano and Nicholas Aiello-pile from the So-Cal Deepspawners.
On Sunday, after boarding the train, drinking our champagne toasts and enjoying the little snack pack they provided, Dave Craig and Urbano sat down across from one another, with Nick and Luis seated at the table just behind them. I don’t know all the details, but I was able to watch Nick take the win against Luis who was holding Channel/Fireball in his hand with the mana available to cast the combo, however Nick was ahead in life by a mere four-points. Luis would go on to lose the match 2-1 against an angry a Ernham if I remember correctly.
At the other table, Urbano bested Dave Craig 2-1 to face his fellow Spawner, Nick, in the final.
In the end it would be Brian Urbano who took home the Strip Mine Express trophy with his version of Storytime!
Final Thoughts
All told, I couldn’t be more stoked for how this whole weekend worked itself out. The tournament was run flawlessly by Marc Lunde, the food and hospitality that Scott and Chelsea at the Main Street Café provided was second to none, and the train ride, well, I’ll just let the photo gallery courtesy of Twisters Jacob and Sophie below speak for itself.
Thank you to everyone that attended, donated raffle items and bought tickets to support the Phoenix Children’s Hospital. This is truly what keeps me playing Old School and not selling out to buy a boat or something.
- Twister Justin
