Fact or Fiction

To mark 10 episodes, the whole show is built from community questions, covering the most overrated cards in the format, the post-Tide top three of Replenish, Dreadnought and Enchantress, and why so few people play Dream Halls. Before the questions, Neal and Chris recap Shoe City Showdown #5: Camp Crystal Lake of the Dead, the Zoo Crew's Halloween event, where Neal took Stiflenought to the top eight and Chris played Psychatog with a bounty on his head. Sam also explains why his second Terrageddon Challenge video won't be coming out.Listeners ask the hosts to choose between adding the Zendikar fetchlands and removing the Onslaught ones, and whether cards that care about graveyard order should be errata'd or banned. Other questions cover finding an edge against the top three, cards the hosts could never make work, pet decks they won't take to big events, what they would build for Spice Paradise, how the crew tests for DuressFest, how to build a sideboard, format longevity, and a wrong-answers-only lightning round.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 Intro - listener mailbag and Shoe City Showdown00:00:35 Welcome and the Shoe City costume contest00:03:38 Shoe City Showdown recap - Tog and Stiflenought00:18:10 Terrageddon Challenge video update00:20:38 Mailbag - overrated cards, fetchlands, graveyard order00:43:15 Post-Tide top three and beating it00:56:55 Dream Halls, pet decks and Spice Paradise01:20:18 Testing, sideboarding and games per week01:35:43 Lightning round, format longevity and CCL InvitationalReferences and linksSupport S.H.O.P.: https://ko-fi.com/squeeshouseofpizzaSend us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newEmail the show: [email protected] City Showdown #5 decklists: https://www.zoocrew.team/decklists/scs5/Send us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

Seven of the eight decks in the New England Autumn Regional top eight were black, and Moneyball won the whole thing. Chris got to the finals on Psychatog anyway. A week later at the October ELD monthly, three of us made top four and Sam White beat JP in a Terrageddon mirror to take it. Neal also has to admit he was wrong about Basic Swamp.First up is the Second Bogardan War in Bologna, 139 players, won by Mono Blue Stiflenought. One of the Replenish lists in that top eight looked very familiar, and so did a Terrageddon 75 pulled straight from the primer. Neal also solves a decklist mystery: Fire Spout and Pyrostatic Pillar have the same name in Italian. From the regional, you get Neal’s 4-3 on Dreadnought and how his metagame call backfired, Sam’s day on Terrageddon (including a great match against a Gamekeeper Terravore deck), and Chris’s top eight wins over Paul Matthews and Ben Bauer. There are some ideas for beating Mono Black out of the Stiflenought sideboard too, like Legacy’s Allure, Cursed Scroll, and Dodecapod. At the monthly, Sam ends up as the beatdown against Hodge’s Sligh with three Nimble Mongoose on the table.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 - Intro and three Premodern tournament reports00:00:51 - Episode rundown and crew check-in00:03:07 - Second Bogardan War top eight in Italy00:16:53 - Autumn Regional top eight and black meta00:27:59 - Neal’s Dreadnought and Sam’s Terrageddon runs00:43:52 - Chris’s Psychatog run to the finals00:56:03 - October monthly and Sam’s Terrageddon win01:20:18 - Episode 10 mailbag and closing thanksReferences and linksSupport S.H.O.P.: https://ko-fi.com/squeeshouseofpizza Send us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newBogarden War II Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=91399&f=PREMNew England Autumn Regional Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=91641&f=PREMNew England Premodern Monthly Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=92033&f=PREMDuress Crew Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/duresscrewMatt Zembruski’s Substack: https://substack.com/@mzembruskiNeal’s Substack regional report: https://thesack1.substack.com/p/duress-crew-premodern-autumn-regionalSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

Terravore decks won the Buckeye Brawl 2 and the Czech National Championship this month, and they were two very different decks. Most of the episode, though, is about deck selection, and whether you're better off on the strongest deck, the one you've played the most, or whatever beats the room you expect. Chris talks about going from Stasis to Stiflenought to Parallax Tide to Psychatog, and Sam explains why he'd rather master one good deck than chase the metagame.Neon Mushroom won Buckeye Brawl 2 in Columbus (125 players) on Oath Spec, and Sam covers how that Quiet Speculation and Oath of Druids deck is different from Terrageddon. Michal Smutný won Czech Nationals in Prague (191 players) on Terrageddon with Wild Mongrel, City of Traitors, and a Circle of Protection: Green in the sideboard. Tomáš Koten lost the finals on mono-red Goblins with Mogg Raider and Flash of Defiance. Black-White Control made another top eight, and one Dreadnought list had three Brain Freeze in the 75.Before that, Chris built an all-commons white weenie deck for Magic Online, since Kjeldoran Warrior isn't on there and his banding version is paper only. Neal went 4-1 with BUG Tempo at a Classic Legacy event. Sam had a rough trip to the Baltimore Regional Championship and then split two Premodern Challenge finals in a row on Terrageddon.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 - Intro, Terravore sweep, and deck selection00:01:03 - Episode rundown and nor'easter check-in00:03:52 - All-commons white weenie on Magic Online00:07:17 - Sam's Baltimore RC trip and finish00:20:00 - Back-to-back Challenge finals on Terrageddon00:25:28 - BUG Tempo at a Classic Legacy event00:28:46 - Buckeye Brawl 2 and Oath Spec00:35:11 - Czech Nationals and Wild Mongrel Terrageddon00:47:30 - Power, knowledge, or metagame deck selectionReferences and linksSend us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newBuckeye Brawl II Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=90776&d=889293&f=PREMCzech Nationals 2026 Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=91325&f=PREMBudget White Weenie Video: https://youtu.be/8gIzIC454uoBack to Back Challenge Wins Video: https://youtu.be/_i8xe10e9A4Send us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

Five summer Premodern events produced five different winning decks, from Dreadnought at the European Championship to mono-black at the South American Championship. CCL commissioner Hodge joins Neal and Chris to go through PEACE in Berkley, Michigan, the South American Championship in Argentina, Brazilian Nationals, the Peach Ball in Marietta, Georgia, and the European Championship in Poland, with top eight conversion rates for each. Mr Meseeks and Mike Atkinson of the Motor City Metalworkers, the crew behind PEACE, join for an interview about the charity event. Then Neal, Chris, and Hodge report from the September New England Monthly at ELD.Ian Hoffman won PEACE on big blue-white control with main deck Exalted Angel, three Fact or Fiction, and a Jester's Cap in the sideboard. Brazilian Nationals ended in a Naya Terrageddon mirror, and Hart Horton won the Peach Ball on black-white control while the event raised over $6,200 for the ALS Association. Simone Fierro won Euros on Dreadnought with main deck Brain Freeze and a sideboard Tranquil Domain, cast by using Vision Charm to turn Islands into Forests. Hodge explains what a normal conversion rate looks like at a 225-player event, and the crew covers Guided Passage Dreadnought, Bryson's Weathered Wayfarer deck, a Natural Order into Phantom Nishoba sideboard plan aimed at Sligh, and whether Replenish belongs in the format's top tier.Closer to home, Hodge went 5-1 on Dreadnought for the top seed, Neal made top four on mono-red Goblins, and Chris locked up CCL third-quarter MVP on Psychatog. Claire Ackerman won the event on Psychatog, beating William on Replenish in the final. Hodge also explains how the Crew Clash League works, Chris recaps his all-commons mono-green stompy league run, and Hodge tells the story of his first Premodern event and a very unfamiliar full-art Duress.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 - Intro and five summer Premodern tournaments00:01:59 - CCL commissioner Hodge joins the show00:10:45 - All-commons Pauper Premodern challenge00:19:16 - PEACE charity event and big blue-white control00:24:43 - South American Championship won by mono-black00:32:44 - Brazilian Nationals Terrageddon mirror final00:37:31 - Peach Ball and Guided Passage Dreadnought00:45:34 - Euros Dreadnought and the Replenish debate00:58:39 - PEACE interview with the Motor City Metalworkers01:17:54 - September monthly reports and the CCLReferences and linksSend us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newNeal's Substack tournament report: https://thesack1.substack.com/p/new-england-september-monthly-tournamentHodge’s Data Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LFtb9eRNHV2NK_O5G7VP9emZU55h_MieepgpTPEubLo/edit?usp=sharingPEACE Decklists: https://mtgdecks.net/Premodern/peace-premodern-exalted-angel-charity-event-motor-city-metalworkers-tournament-266338South American Championship Decklists: https://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=44302Brazil Nationals Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=90127&f=PREMPeach Ball Decklists: https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=90090&f=PREMEuropean Premodern Championship Decklists: https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/456817ELD September Monthly Decklists: https://mtgdecks.net/Premodern/eld-open-x-nepmm-eld-s-time-vault-games-bellingham-ma-tournament-270007Send us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

Three lists, five cards each, and not one card appeared on more than one of them. That left Neal, Chris, and Sam with fifteen cards and no way to merge them, so the order got decided offline and revealed one card at a time on tape. The disagreements start on the first card and do not really stop until the last one. The episode also recaps the August monthly at ELD, where the crew put three players in the top eight and took the title.The tournament half covers a Stiflenought top eight built for a red room that never showed up, a Psychatog run to the top four on a list dating back to March, a Terrageddon 4-2 with a single Zuran Orb sitting uncast in the sideboard, and the Mono-Red Goblins list currently trophying leagues, which plays two Goblin Tinkerer main instead of Naturalize and sets up an argument about how many Goblin Goons a Warchief deck should actually run. The countdown arguments themselves move through Moneyball, Psychatog, Terrageddon mana bases, Landstill, Enchantress, Replenish, Oath, Elves, and Sligh, which should tell you roughly what kind of cards made it.Also here: a Classic Legacy tournament that cuts off at Rise of the Eldrazi and bans Vengevine instead of Survival of the Fittest, a Boros Energy run at the Baltimore Regional Championship falling on the same day as the September 12 monthly, and the article and video schedule the crew picked up during five weeks without an event.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 - Intro and what's on this episode00:01:55 - August ELD monthly results00:10:51 - Downtime, Classic Legacy, and videos00:22:00 - Mono-Red Goblins for September00:30:08 - How the underrated list was built00:31:36 - Numbers eight and seven00:45:55 - Numbers six, five, and four01:01:18 - Numbers three and two01:15:15 - The number one card and the bubbleReferences and linksSubstack articles: https://thesack1.substack.com/Send us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

Claire Ackerman's Oath Ponza is a five color deck now, and this is the episode where she explains how it got there. The four color build made top four at LobsterCon 2026, and rather than sleeve it up again she rebuilt it, taking a top eight at NE Summer Regionals with the new list. Neal and Chris ask how a Legacy control player ended up on a green mana denial deck, and more usefully, how the choices actually got made: Wednesday night calls with her friend Joe, a maybe board of thirty to forty cards nobody had considered, and a stated preference for playing something she has to apologize to her opponent for.The specifics: why four Meddling Mage next to four Sphere of Resistance took the bad matchups from four effective cards to twelve, why Gemstone Mine is worth the fail rate in a 29 land deck, and why a third Sylvan Library was impossible until Vindicate replaced Naturalize and freed the slots. She started at two Vindicate and is on the full four main now, which also took the Stone Rain effect count from eight to ten. Gloom got the leftover flexible slots and never came in all tournament, which turns out to be its own story. The matches carry the same thread, including Andy Voellmer's Landstill in Swiss and again in the regional top eight, mono black Pit Rack collapsing to a turn one Sphere, the Replenish semifinal against Brian Gulotta that ended at exactly lethal, and Smokestack as the next card in line for those open slots.Up top, the Duress Fest Kickstarter cleared its goal and is chasing a 125K stretch, which sets up the largest Premodern tournament run to date.Chapter timestamps00:00:00 - Intro and Claire Ackerman on Oath Ponza00:01:27 - Duress Fest funded and Claire's Premodern start00:09:01 - How Meddling Mage got into the deck00:21:42 - Gemstone Mine and accepting some fail rate00:37:42 - Landstill and the Andy Voellmer match00:54:55 - Replenish ends the LobsterCon run01:06:30 - Vindicate over Naturalize frees Sylvan Library01:17:50 - Voellmer rematch at NE Summer Regionals01:27:42 - Smokestack and the untested short listReferences and linksClaire Ackerman's five color Oath Ponza decklist: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=88099&d=868425&f=PREMSend us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.

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 timestamps00:00:00 - Intro00:00:45 - Shoe City champion Ben Bauer00:01:22 - Zoo Crew, Elves, and Cradle Control00:11:55 - LobsterCon top eight and deck changes since00:23:37 - Sideboarding around Engineered Plague00:27:02 - Shoe City alters and Zoo Crew culture00:33:15 - Round by round and the fire alarm00:43:00 - Top eight through the Replenish finals01:08:25 - Crew reports, Goblins, and DuressFestReferences and linksShoe City Showdown #4 Decklists: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=89047&f=PREMNeal’s Substack Tournament Report: https://thesack1.substack.com/p/shoe-city-showdown-4-tournament-report13thChris's Tournament Report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hIfCsRp62RpBrNryFKmYZkeeGjKytQ3JpxfWxqZsBcE/edit?usp=sharingDuressFest Kickstarter: https://duressfest.comSend us Fan Mail: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2626886/fan_mail/newSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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 timestamps00:00:16 - Neal takes down Sacred Torch00:04:41 - Shane on the DuressFest Kickstarter00:17:17 - Chris wins ELD, crew triple top four00:25:42 - Sam White's Terrageddon primer00:34:52 - Most disappointing video games ever bought01:07:48 - Building Sligh to beat Dreadnought01:45:07 - Growtog finals and the last turnReferences and linksDuressFest Kickstarter - duressfest.comSacred Torch Showdown decklists - https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=88865&f=PREMChris Roy's July ELD tournament report - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ofUBTLNysBKdZTGlmlk-ClwJbSw9PkIBhSCTxaSfxg/edit?usp=sharingNeal's Sacred Torch tournament report - thesack1.substack.comSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.Chapters00:00:16 - Reading the field and picking decks00:10:16 - Tournament prep and signup woes00:16:16 - The mystery pizza box00:20:16 - Neal's 4-3 on Replenish00:28:35 - Chris's 5-0-2 Psychatog run01:01:16 - Ninth on the bubble, undefeated01:08:02 - Top 8 and metagame breakdown01:13:25 - Fact or Fiction: Claire's Oath Ponza Send us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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 Intro00:16 Welcome to Episode One01:16 How the Crew Came Together02:16 Getting Pulled Into Premodern06:16 Forming a Crew and the CCL19:16 From Granite Goblins to Squee's House25:16 Roster and Deck Specialists40:16 Why Start a Podcast45:16 Where the Show Name Comes FromReferences and links:Crew members mentioned: Neal Sacks (host), Chris Roy (host), Brian Siu, JP Phelan, Sam White, Carlos Pearman, Andreas Damaskos, William Damaskos, Scott WassmerSend us Fan MailSupport the showFact 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.