Swedish Premodern Nationals 2026

Bringing a rabid wombat to the Swedish Nationals 2026

Decklist: Rabid Wombat

The 2026 Swedish Nationals in Premodern went off the staple (as we say in Sweden) at the Västerås Castle. A neat venue with lots of history connected to it, and gorgeous atmosphere. 96 players had registered, and I think quite a few of them actually showed up as well.

I had decided to play rabid wombat, aka mono white control. This version is what happens if you smash UW control and UB control together and remove all the U and B and the weaknesses that come with that. It requires you to play to your outs at all times, and keep a tight ship to handle all the stuff the opponents throw at you. It has a good matchup against anything that wants to hit you in the face with fair creatures, less so against people that want to hit you in the face with enchantments.

So naturally I hoped to face a lot of Goblins, what with the Röda Goblinen store being the host of the tourney and everything.

Well, sucks to be me I guess.

We were a couple of people from Gothenburg who took the train up to Västerås, and we had discussed matchups, played training games, and generally had a really good time. The plan was also to not play too much against one another.

On that part, at least I succeeded, mostly. But more on that later.

We got a nice speech by local player Mats about how the history of Swedish kings tied neatly into some of the cards played in premodern. And we all united in common animosity against the Danes and their continued unprovoked warfare against us through the ages.

After that we shuffled up, and for the first round I was paired against Evgeny who had travelled from France. When someone takes the time to go that far, it is usually a sign that they know what they are doing.

A couple of rounds in and it was clear that I was playing against UW landstill. Evgeny won the die roll and we were off to the races. (Not much racing going on in this game) All that really can be said about this game was that we wrathed, we swords’d and we decreed things. No creature was safe and spells were mostly played in endsteps. He took the first game, I took the second, and he took the third. I think the loss in the third game came from me mistaking who the aggro player was, I should have kept back and dealt with his soldiers, as his drawing made him deck long before me. Oh well, off to the losers bracket we go.

0-1

Second game was against Magnus on BUG Threshold, hold the shrimp. Game one had me with swords in hand, him with thresholded mongeese in play, and me frantically digging for a wrath. I found it at 4 life, and from there on it was smooth sailing all the way to victory, riding on the back of my small soldiers. Game two, I boarded in rune of protection black and wastelands to attack his mana base. Out went rune of protection red and tsabo’s web. The mongeese struck again, but this time I had wrath a lot earlier and was able to take complete control of the game.

1-1

After the second round we had a great lunch in the castle restaurants, I took the veg and got a bunch of taste wine dolma, and went about socializing. Most of these events are about meeting people anyway, so I was glad that I was able to do that.

Round three I sat down across Ekan, the youngest player at the tournament. I did forget to ask how old he was, but I doubt that he is a teenager yet. We chatted a bit, then he won the die roll and promptly smashed my face in at like turn three with a hasty deranged hermit and friends, off of survival and cradle. Ouch. In went the Angels, out went one Red rune, since I wasn’t sure if he had any burn in there, and the Mobilization since it felt too slow in this matchup. Game two I managed to keep his creature count low, until I had both angels out in the field and they brought me victory. For the third game, The mongrels, angry wurms and deranged hermit were stopped cold by a turn three Humility. As he hadn’t seen any problematic enchantments in the previous rounds, he hadn’t boarded in his Naturalizes, and I could slowly and steadily take control.

2-1

Fourth round I had gotten up in the world, and sat at table 12. I face of against Alexander who had driven about 900 kilometers from Skellefteå. On that alone, he had earned winning the die roll. He started off duressing and playing hyppies, so we were dealing with deadguy ale here. In the first game, I managed to take out his threats and get off two big decrees, that took the first game. In the second game, he got two arenas out, and I gladly fed him time by swording his angels and hyppies. But the card advantage was just too much to deal with, and we stood at 1-1. At this point I had 2 angels, 1 black rune and 3 wastelands boarded in. Out went tsabo’s, red runes, and something else that I apparently didn’t note down. It was a wonderful back and forth, I got to ray an arena, and then later on use that same ray on E plague. We went to time, I had three soldiers out, he had one hyppie. They only thing that could win me the game was a sword. Of course I drew it, and won the game on 5th round of time.

3-1

Now if you remember, I said that I mostly managed to not play against local players. In round 5, I got paired against Ted, who is on Enchantress. Looked like this good run might come to an end. When last we played tournament games, I did manage to take him 2-0, and I do lie awake at nights thinking about beating enchantress, so I felt prepared, but ready to lose. He won the die, and took the first game easily, me not seeing any useful cards. For the second game, I added 2 vengeances, an aura of silence, 2 disenchants. In hindsight, I should have added Thran Foundries as well. He got to a good position, but at least I managed to swords his two waves when he dropped two Opalescence. I followed that up with a Vengeance, which he followed with a Replenish, and that was game.

3-2

Ok, round 6, time to get another win or just drop and hang out, perhaps help Gordon stream a little. My opponent this time was Patrik, a nice fellow from Södertälje. He felt the same as me, win or drop. I won the die roll, and kept a hand with swords and som bös as we say in Gothenburg. He dropped a land and two petals, got Akroma and some other fattie in the yard, therapied me for swords, and then saw me frantically diggin for swords until I died. Right, board time. In with the Foundries, in with Rune of prot black and a wasteland, out with the red runes and out with the webs. Second game he got a fairly quick Multani out on the board. I countered with a Mobilization, which hard countered Multani until I had beaten him down, death by a thousand wombats. Third game I had a sword for his Verdant force, and then following that I dropped a Foundry. He had to bait out the foundry with a reanimate, and after that I had a couple of Abeyance to play in his upkeep so I could stabilize. There was just not enough space to do anything before the soldiers had sliced and diced. Patrik went home and I went on to play another game.

4-2

Last game, probably no chance to get in with my tiebreakers, but I FINALLY got to play against some goblins. Fredrik had been featured on stream earlier that day, and had a decent run as well. I got to win the roll, and bandaged his first Lackey hit. That gave me a sword and the poor Lackey never tried any bad things ever again. Then I got overrun by gobbos. For game two, I didn’t note my boarding, but don’t think I changed too much, since most cards are good here. I wing sharded, wrathed, and vengeanced my way to a win. The third game was crazy, so many goblins, constantly, and I only managed a win with two large decrees after one another that cleared the board and left enough attackers to win it.

5-2

I did like to see that Evgeny and Ted ended up in the top 8, so at least my losses felt deserved.

All in all, it was a great day, I had a lot of fun, talked to a lot of awesome people, and damn I like this deck. I went into it with a change in strategy about sideboard decisions. Instead of considering which cards I wanted from the board, I took out the cards that were actually useless in the current matchup, and replaced them with the best cards from the board. Seems like it worked out this time. Best part of the day? All the people gathering around the matches and wanting to read my weird cards. Next on the to-do list: Whiteborder my basics. Onwards, upwards and chew through the opposition, rabid wombat!