Ben Bauer won the Shoe City Showdown #4: Enchanted Summer with Elves, and the deck waiting for him in the finals was Replenish, the same matchup that ended his LobsterCon quarterfinal earlier this year. He goes through the full run with Neal, Chris, and Sam, from a round two loss to Red-Green Survival Madness to a finals rematch he did not expect to win. There is a fire alarm partway through the day. Anyone playing Elves, or building against it, gets the current thinking on the list straight from the pilot.

Ben explains why Wall of Roots moved into the main deck, why he got off Recycle and Tangle Wire, and why he added Kamahl and Tribal Force Mage to get to six real mana dumps alongside Deranged Hermit. There is a long stretch on sideboarding against Engineered Plague, where he cuts Priest of Titania and Quirion Ranger and leans on Call of the Herd, Wirewood Symbiote, and walls, plus his case against Biorhythm and the swap from Tranquil Domain to Nantuko Vigilante. Neal goes through Rich Shay's Sligh list from the quarterfinals, including main deck Ensnaring Bridge and why Pyrostatic Pillar costs more than it gains. Chris talks through the top four, where a Survival of the Fittest ended it, and how Dominate has been earning its slot in his Psychatog sideboard.

Sam covers his three Naya Terrageddon mirrors and the tapped Werebear that cost him top eight, Neal plays Goblins for the first time and comes away convinced by Goblin Ringleader, and the crew makes another push for the DuressFest Kickstarter.

Chapter timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:45 - Shoe City champion Ben Bauer
00:01:22 - Zoo Crew, Elves, and Cradle Control
00:11:55 - LobsterCon top eight and deck changes since
00:23:37 - Sideboarding around Engineered Plague
00:27:02 - Shoe City alters and Zoo Crew culture
00:33:15 - Round by round and the fire alarm
00:43:00 - Top eight through the Replenish finals
01:08:25 - Crew reports, Goblins, and DuressFest

References and links

Shoe City Showdown #4 Decklists: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=89047&f=PREM

Neal’s Substack Tournament Report: https://thesack1.substack.com/p/shoe-city-showdown-4-tournament-report13th

Chris's Tournament Report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hIfCsRp62RpBrNryFKmYZkeeGjKytQ3JpxfWxqZsBcE/edit?usp=sharing

DuressFest Kickstarter: https://duressfest.com

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Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Neal Sacks won the 2026 Sacred Torch Showdown in New York on a Sligh list built almost entirely to beat Dreadnought, and this episode is the full accounting of how that deck came together and how the tournament went. Twelve of the fifteen sideboard slots went to one matchup: four Mogg Salvage, four Overload, and four Red Elemental Blast, which forced the maindeck to answer everything else on its own. That meant four Wasteland, no Ball Lightning, three Volcanic Hammer, Goblin Patrol over Goblin Cadet, and cutting Price of Progress entirely for anti-synergy with the Wastelands. Neal goes round by round through the Swiss and the top eight, including the three or four mistakes he admits to and did not get punished for.

Chris Roy takes down the ELD monthly on Psychatog one week after bubbling ninth at a regional, as part of the crew's first triple top four. Sam White makes his first appearance on the show to talk about his 195-page Naya Terrageddon primer, why he thinks Enlightened Tutor is the biggest trap card in the format, and qualifying for the Regional Championship out of a 343-player MTGO Super Qualifier. Shane Echevarria from the Duress Crew comes on to lay out the DuressFest Kickstarter, the tiers, the crew map add-on, and what happens if it does not fund. There is also a long argument about play or draw in the Sligh mirror, and a tangent on the most disappointing video games any of them ever bought.

Chapter timestamps

00:00:16 - Neal takes down Sacred Torch
00:04:41 - Shane on the DuressFest Kickstarter
00:17:17 - Chris wins ELD, crew triple top four
00:25:42 - Sam White's Terrageddon primer
00:34:52 - Most disappointing video games ever bought
01:07:48 - Building Sligh to beat Dreadnought
01:45:07 - Growtog finals and the last turn

References and links

DuressFest Kickstarter - duressfest.com

Sacred Torch Showdown decklists - https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=88865&f=PREM

Chris Roy's July ELD tournament report - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ofUBTLNysBKdZTGlmlk-ClwJbSw9PkIBhSCTxaSfxg/edit?usp=sharing

Neal's Sacred Torch tournament report - thesack1.substack.com

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Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Neal Sacks and Chris Roy recap a New England summer regional, one of the bigger events on the local calendar, run by Duress Crew and drawing a crowd that included players up from New York. It is a full tournament report aimed at anyone following the Northeast Premodern scene or curious how the paper metagame is pulling away from what Magic Online looks like. The headline is Chris going 5-0-2 with Psychatog and missing top eight in ninth on tiebreakers, undefeated and out.

Before the event the two talk through how they read the field, landing on Terrageddon, Oath Ponza, and Replenish as the decks to beat. Neal took Replenish to a 4-3 in his first paper tournament with the deck, including a game where an opponent's Meddling Mage named the wrong card and it happened to be Fact or Fiction. Chris goes round by round through the Psychatog run: a fast Sligh race against Hodge, an Aluren opponent flipping Form of the Dragon off Academy Rector, and the concession from Jason Grigley in the last round that set up the ninth-place bubble. They finish with the regional top eight, Landstill taking down the event, Stasis and HFeb over-performing, Goblins doing what Goblins does, and a Fact or Fiction verdict on Claire Ackerman's Gloom-and-Vindicate Oath Ponza.

Also in here: the charity raffle mystery pizza box and its Onslaught packs, a run of Melee signup headaches, and a case of pre-tournament poison ivy.

Chapters

00:00:16 - Reading the field and picking decks

00:10:16 - Tournament prep and signup woes

00:16:16 - The mystery pizza box

00:20:16 - Neal's 4-3 on Replenish

00:28:35 - Chris's 5-0-2 Psychatog run

01:01:16 - Ninth on the bubble, undefeated

01:08:02 - Top 8 and metagame breakdown

01:13:25 - Fact or Fiction: Claire's Oath Ponza 

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Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The first episode of Fact or Fiction is all introductions. Neal Sacks and Chris Roy lay out who the Squee's House of Pizza crew is, how a group of friends playing Premodern turned into a registered crew, and where the name came from. If you've seen S.H.O.P. near the top of the Crew Clash League standings and wondered who these people actually are, this is the background before the deck talk starts in later episodes.

Chris walks through the founding members and how the crew came together, then gets into the name origin: Granite Goblins was the early idea, then Squee's House of Pizza won out, tying together Squee, Goblin Nabob, the New England "House of Pizza" convention, and Squee's cameo on the original Fact or Fiction art. The back half is a roster rundown of who plays what across the crew: Replenish, Stiflenought, Terrageddon, Psychatog, Sligh, Oath Ponza, Stasis, and a red-green Fires-nostalgia Survival build. Along the way there's the mystery pizza box charity raffle, how the Crew Clash League got started, and why the group decided to make a podcast in the first place.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:16 Welcome to Episode One
01:16 How the Crew Came Together
02:16 Getting Pulled Into Premodern
06:16 Forming a Crew and the CCL
19:16 From Granite Goblins to Squee's House
25:16 Roster and Deck Specialists
40:16 Why Start a Podcast
45:16 Where the Show Name Comes From

References and links:

Crew members mentioned: Neal Sacks (host), Chris Roy (host), Brian Siu, JP Phelan, Sam White, Carlos Pearman, Andreas Damaskos, William Damaskos, Scott Wassmer

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Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.