A Brief History of Overdrive!

Overdrive! began as an Overextended event with little fanfare at 830PM Eastern time on July 4th, 2011. I had fallen in love with the Tuesday evening Overextended events, hosted by Gavin Verhey, now an an R&D intern at WotC. As one can see, they were huge melees; wild games with a wilder meta. We see some of the first incarnations of decks we still have to beat, or have been killed by the banhammer, in Modern today. I think the most notable being "Project Melira", first popping up in the lists in early July.

I am also a sci-fi buff, and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is classic despite it's cheese. Tina Turner in chain mail? Cave Kids in some forsaken oasis? And most of all... Thunderdome! Chant it with me now: "Two men enter, one man leaves! Two men enter, one man leaves!"

Let's not forget Highlander. Or Emelio Estevez's memorable performance in Maximum Overdrive, with it's killer AC/DC soundtrack. More classic, glorious cheese.

It just so happened I did a Mad Max Marathon one Sunday, watched Highlander the following Monday, and then played in the Tueday OXT event. Someone mentioned they wanted more OXT events to me during a break between rounds, I was listening to AC/DC's Highway to Hell, and *click*! It really just all came together in it's entirety in that split second. I lined up a sponsorship, hammered out the details, and a few days later we were ready to rock. And the 4th of July was just too serendipitous. I "put up the ads" and the rest... is history.

A fight to the death. Last man standing. There can be only one. It's not for the faint of heart.

In those times there was heated discussion on the joys of one format over the other. I was on the OXT side of the fence: I loved the wide and wild meta, the weird decks, the general atmosphere of "we are the world". (Mainly because nothing had happened in the Modern world since the Community Cup Challenge in June of 2011) I did notice early on, however, that a good many of the Overextended decks were almost Modern legal. So while I was then very biased against Modern, I was at least willing to see how it went.

When WotC officially announced the Modern format, Overdrive! attendance took a steep nosedive, but we slogged onwards, and the last Overextended game on MTGO was played on August 22nd, 2011. Modern became an officially sanctioned format online with the downtime on August 24th, 2011, and Overdrive! jumped right into that arena, keeping the same Thunderdome principle: two men enter, one man leaves.

People were hesitant at first about the Modern format. That which they'd only spoken of until now was real, and it was a scary pool to jump into, with it's Twelve Posts and Splinters and Zoo, oh my! And new bannings were coming soon, so the uncertainty meant still more weren't really brewing.

But time progressed; more and more people played the format casually. Now it's not uncommon to see multiple Modern games going on at once. I have seen a great variety of decks running through the Overdrive! doors, and the meta is constantly in flux. This event has become so popular, there is now also a "Euro-friendly" version that takes place on Saturdays at 1200 GMT. Eurodrive! has the same format, rules, prizes, everything as Overdrive!, just placed at an easier time zone for other parts of the world.

Overdrive! #23 Round-up

Quest for a Soul

Diamonti

Creatures 4 Glint Hawk 3 Kor Skyfisher 4 Memnite 4 Ornithopter 1 Ranger of Eos 4 Serra Ascendant 4 Signal Pest 4 Soul Warden 4 Soul's Attendant 32 cards Other Spells 1 Ajani Goldmane 3 Argentum Armor 4 Quest for the Holy Relic 8 cards

Lands 20 Plains 20 cards Sideboard 3 Luminarch Ascension 2 Mark of Asylum 1 Ajani Goldmane 1 Leyline of Sanctity 4 Kor Firewalker 4 Celestial Purge 15 cards

This is the winning deck as piloted by Diamonti. Apparently this is the deck to look out for. It first showed up last week at Overdrive! #22, piloted by ScionOfJustice, and Quest for a Soul took 1st place in the last two Overdrive! events. I expect it to show frequently. Each round, the match against this deck was one of the first ones finished. So it has a very quick clock, and appears to have a good midgame. It does not seem like it should be all that strong when you look at the list, but seems to always pull out what it needs when it needs it. Just when you think the game is over, the deck manages to get back in the game.

Aggressive mullying is a must. There were two of this deck in Overdrive! #23, but mully decisions (according to ScionOfJustice, who didn't mully for the Quest) caused one to fall in the first round. I entirely expected the finals to be a mirror match between the two. I made a maindeck copy and did some quick testing with it, and it is very easy to pilot, as well. It is entirely possible to have a fully fed Quest by the end of turn two, and be swinging with Argentum on turn three.

Soul Sisters

pelao28

Creatures 4 Ajani's Pridemate 1 Blinding Mage 4 Gideon's Lawkeeper 3 Goldmeadow Harrier 3 Knight of Meadowgrain 4 Martyr of Sands 4 Serra Ascendant 4 Soul Warden 4 Soul's Attendant 4 Squadron Hawk 35 cards Other Spells 2 Brave the Elements 2 Militia's Pride 4 cards

Lands 21 Plains 21 cards Sideboard 3 Kor Firewalker 4 Relic of Progenitus 4 Revoke Existence 3 Timely Reinforcements 1 Brave the Elements 15 cards

The runner-up deck as piloted by pelao28. There is not much to say about this deck that hasn't been said already. Soul Sisters is a fairly common deck, is easy enough to pilot, and has won or placed in both Overdrive! and Eurodrive! more than once. All in all, it's a very solid deck, and one you should be prepared to face.

The one thing I questioned about this deck is three Goldmeadow Harrier + one Blinding Mage. My first impulse would be to go with four Harriers. But after talking with pelao28, it became clear it wasn't just about the cards on hand. Being a 1/2 instead of a 1/1, the single Mage is there for a reason: cards like Engineered Explosives, and other "hosers".

The Semifinalists That Fell

Warp World

ChrisMH77

Creatures 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Bogardan Hellkite 4 Carven Caryatid 4 Kitchen Finks 2 Murderous Redcap 2 Rampaging Baloths 2 Siege-Gang Commander 4 Wood Elves 1 Wort, the Raidmother 27 cards Other Spells 4 Fertile Ground 3 Trace of Abundance 4 Warp World 11 cards

Lands 13 Forest 9 Mountain 22 cards Sideboard 4 Relic of Progenitus 3 Indrik Stomphowler 4 Grazing Gladehart 4 Acidic Slime 15 cards

As piloted by ChrisMH77. This deck made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to the quick clock of Quest for a Soul. Warp World is one of those decks that shouldn't work, yet does seem to work surprisingly well. Up to a point.

Warp World decks have shown up sporadically in Overdrive! since the OXT days, but have never gotten past the semifinals. Usually they fall in the first few rounds. I think this is because no one has included Realm Razer in any build that I can recall, or find mention of in my archives. Will a Razer variant show up one day that does make it to the finals? Or is this "one trick pony" doomed forever to be a bridesmaid, but never a bride?

Next Level Tempo

bluedragon123

Creatures 2 Mystic Snake 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Snapcaster Mage 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Vendilion Clique 15 cards Other Spells 2 Condescend 3 Cryptic Command 2 Engineered Explosives 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Mana Leak 4 Path to Exile 3 Serum Visions 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Sword of Light and Shadow 22 cards

Lands 1 Academy Ruins 4 Breeding Pool 4 Forest 1 Hallowed Fountain 4 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Moorland Haunt 1 Mystic Gate 2 Scalding Tarn 1 Steam Vents 23 cards Sideboard 2 Spellstutter Sprite 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Nature's Claim 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Flashfreeze 3 Spell Snare 3 Timely Reinforcements 15 cards

This deck was piloted by bluedragon123 to the semifinals, where it fell to Soul Sisters. I'm not a heavy control/tempo player, more of an Aggro Timmy, so I don't really know what to say about this deck. From what I saw of the match, it looked touch & go all the way, and could have gone to either deck. But I don't know. The intricacies of control are beyond my feeble grasp. A sword-carrying Tarmogoyf I can understand. The rest is Greek to me.

Interesting Tidbits

All four R(x)DW decks that entered, and two Rock variants, fell in the first round. In fact, no Rock deck - of the four entered - made it past the second round. Two Storm decks entered; one fell in the first round, the other made it to round two. Goblins echoed the Storm results; two decks entered, one fell in round one, the other in the second round. One Affinity and three Control variants made it to round three.

The complete meta for Overdrive! #23 can be found here.

I look forward to seeing you at Overdrive! #24 and Eurodrive! #8! Until then, have fun and good luck!