Nice!  Let's hope for an all Golden Knight's finals.

So, this tourney is coming up fast.  Who's coming?  I hope there's a good turnout.  I'd like to see these things happening routinely.  Maybe some Syracuse Legacy guys can find a Sharpie and make the trip.

See you guys in a few days.

LTR

Wish I had seen this before driving down to blue bell.  I'm in for the next one.

I for one support proxies (without them I'd just have to stop playing).  Here's an idea for TO's.  'Charge' people points or tie breaker percentage for proxy use.  1% per proxy.  I'd be willing to sacrifice 15% on my tie breaker percentage to simply play the deck of my choice.  This would seem to push the 'serious' players to invest and those of us who come to one tourney a year can still compete with the deck of their choice.

So here's something that I was thinking about last night after digesting the No Lotus List and thinking about some of the advice given by Prospero.  Shops need to be on the offensive.  You must keep the pressure on during the first couple of turns.  So this idea leads to consistent 4 of builds.  Your starting 7 should have 2-3 lock pieces and your first couple of draws should find more.  So the question is why are 4of's better than 3of's?  What is the difference between the following two lists:

4 x Shpere of Resistance
4 x Tangle Wire
4 x Smokestack
3 x Crucible

and

3 x Sphere of Resistance
3 x Tangle Wire
3 x Smokestack
3 x Chalice of the Void
3 x Crucible

Same number of lock pieces.  When putting together a list with multiple tutors, would a more diverse list of threats give you the best chance of handling whatever your opponent has? 



@Subsets

I see no problem with any sort of division between players.  The idea of a particular archetype community seems like a great way to spur competition.  Is it any worse than a particular team that keeps there tech secret until the day of the tourney?  There are quite a lot of lines that can be drawn between Drains and Shops, Midwest and East Coast, Young and Old, but in the end everybody still shares with the community at large.


@The community at large

As someone who is at best on the fringe of the Vintage community, I'm always impressed at how open and dedicated everyone is.  TMD alone is an amazing acheivement.  What other sport can a complete amatuer show up to an event and do battle with the top names in the game?  I look at my non-magic (muggle?) friends and think how unfoturnate it is to spend tons of money on football tickets and jerseys and then simply watch the game.  I can spend the same amount of money and actually play with best in the world. 

So thanks to the entire community for all the hard work

-LTR

@Prospero

Thanks for the answers.  I've moved to a 4xSmokestack model and after a few games, I'm digging it. 

Question on Sideboarding - Does Leyline of the Void have a use in the mirror match?  When looking at sideboard space, I find myself dedicating most slots to other matchups, leaving me with 3-4 for the mirror match.  Things like Rack and Ruin, Viashino Heretic and the like.  I'm not sure this is enough.  Since I'm already packing Leylines, I started bringing these in as well.  The stax mirror seems to revolve around two cards, Goblin Welder and Crucible, both handled with Leyline.

Thanks again. 

-LTR

First off, props to N.Y.S.E for starting something.  It's very cool to have so much discussion regarding Stax.

I've got a few general questions for everybody.  I know so much is dependant on game state and the like, but I'm looking more for people's thought process and how they would approach different aspects of playing stax.  Here goes.

1a) Attacking with Welder - do you generally attack with welder when there's nothing better to do?  I seem to have the FEAR with regard to this.  Welder is such an important component that I feel the 1 damage is not worth the risk of some trick I may have missed.

1b) Attacking with welder into an opposing welder or confidant, etc.  Is it worth the trade?

2) Smokestack - I've always tended to think of Smoky as a finisher, or at best a turn 3 or 4 lock piece.  Is it really that good turn one?  Ray certainly has a good argument regarding Smoky.  If your dropping it turn one, you've given your opponent a free turn.  Aren't there better things to do turn one?

3) What constitues a lock piece - Seems obvious, but maybe not.  Is crucible a lock piece?  Without waste/strip, it's more utility, or engine if your running bazaars.  I see people stating that 18-19 locks are the right number, but what are we counting.  I would assume at least the following:

Sphere's
Tangle Wire
Chalice
Smokestack
Null Rod

But how about these

Crucible
Mox Monkey
Uba Mask
Powder Keg

4) Sideboards - It has been mentioned that one of the benefits of 5C is the ability to side in devastating enchantments that also nulify the opponents sided artifact bounce.  This seems like a good tactic, but can also make welder less impactful.  How do people approach this when building a sideboard? 

Again, thanks to all the shop players out there.  It's an exciting time to be playing shops.

- LTR

Another good article.  Just for clarification:

"You go to your second main phase and you tap an Island and play Ancestral Recall. Your opponent taps both of their land and plays Mana Drain. You tap both of your land and play Mana Drain. If you are holding Force of Will, you just screwed up very badly."

"Second, and most important, if they have Force of Will for your Force of Will, you get to Mana Drain their Force of Will for an enormous five colorless mana on your next mainphase (which is your next turn)."

If your opponent does have both Drain and Force, wouldn't this be a mistake on your opponents part to start with the Drain.  You've left two blue open, signaling Drain. 

1. You: Ancestral
2. Them: Force
3. You: Force
4. Them: Drain

or, if it follows the bluff,

1. You: Ancestral
2. Them: Force
3. You: Drain (as signalled)
4. Them: Drain

From the opponents stand point it seems better for them to lead with Force. 

Not that it changes the situation much, you still get to Drain their last counter, you'll just get 2 mana versus a good opponent and 5 versus the bad ones.

Here's another thought:

Are there any good rules on when to let your opponent win the counter war?  For example, when your opponent puts Tinker on the stack and you have two counters active as well as Chain of Vapor in hand.  Do you spend the extra counter to prevent the Tinker, or save Counter 2 to protect the back breaking Chain on the fresh Collosus? 

Here's another one:  Your opponent is going off with a Tendrils based deck.  You have Active Force, plus a Stifle.  Do you bait out any possible protection by Forcing a key tutor, or hold the Force to protect your own Stifle.

Thanks again to Steve for the great article.

@stifle

In today's metagame, Tendrils is everywhere.  Dragon is making a come back too.  Don't rule out Stifle.

Life From The Loam in the Mirror Match:

Mirror match is all about Forbidden Orchard.  If you can win this battle, you'll win the war.  LftL brings back wasted orchards or wastelands.  It is also a great way to dig for a land when you and your opponent are stalled. 

Creatures:

I think the secondary creatures are very much metagame dependant.  I'm not sure I would even finalize the list until I've taken a look at the tourney room.  In a pretty standard environment (i.e. SCGP9 etc.), Simic is the way to go.  In local meta's where either people are prepared for your deck or you'll likely face random aggro, you might want something tricky to gain an advantage.

I happen to like this version of Oath above the others.  Here's some pointers

1. Don't worry about the muligan.  This deck muligan's better than most.  All you need is Orchard, Mox, Oath, Force, Blue card and you win.  I always muligan aggressively with this deck.  Plus the 4 Impulse/4brainstorm is great for digging out of trouble. 

2. Bring Simic in game two.  He is a house, but you want speed for game one. 

3. As far as beating aggressive decks, be careful of your role.  This version of Oath can be played aggro or control very easily.  If you're playing game two against goblins, try to weather the initial onslaught and then win.  Don't try to race unless you have the perfect starting hand. 

4. Keep in mind all the tricks this deck can pull.  I have won plenty of games off a hardcast Akroma or crop rotation -> strip mine.  In other words, think outside the box. 

5. Mytical Tutor for Time Walk is your friend - I almost always hold mystical in this deck, unless I have no other choice.  Mystical in hand with an active Oath on the table is game over.  Opponents walk into it all the time thinking they have an extra turn to live.

6. Sideboard for an aggressive meta could include some of the following: EE (great in the mirror as well); More bounce (as Harlequin stated); and two of my favorite sideboard options - Life From The Loam and Blazing Archon.  Laugh all you want, but LftL wins the Oath Mirror.  Archon is a surprise that will often give you the extra turns to win.

Above all remember that this is not ICBM Oath, nor is it Chalice Oath.  Those decks play like Drain.dec, control the game long enough to find your win.  GWS plays more like fish.  This deck does not like the long game. 

Hope this helps.  I love this deck, although some times it can be a cruel mistress.  Paper cuts are not fun.

He's not the only one that feels that way.  Keep up the good work.

Have you given any thought to Intuition/AK as the draw engine.  In my testing, Having AK's in the yard under a yawg will is just better than Thirst.  It also seems like you only have three big artifacts that you'd want to pitch to it (slaver, DSC and jar).  I also love Intuition as a mini-Gifts. 

Aslo, could you talk briefly about you game plan with this deck?  Are you looking to play traditional slaver for the first 2 turns, then combo out?  Are you racing to jar as you mentioned earlier?  Or is it more fluid than that, i.e. react to opponent and win when appropriate.

Re: Second scenario:

On the draw, fearing therapy, this is an easy mulligan.  You'll lose half you win conditions with no recovery in sight.  Not worth the risk.

On the play, with orchard/mox/oath, there is no fear.  Especially since you have a second oath to recover with after they force.

Here's how is goes:

Oath, Oath, Orchard, Fetch, Waste, Force, Mox

T1: You: Orchard, Mox, Oath/They FoW, pass

At this point your opponent may think you've just gone 'all in' on a first turn oath and they busted you.  A little acting will help here.  Confidently throw down the first turn oath, then slump when they FoW.

Now you have a Turn 2 where you will get to draw which may lead to:

1. Draw a blue card - You win.  Play Oath with force backup.


 

I've been messing with a very similar list and find that I play this deck like a control deck with a very fast recovery speed.  If you can counter the first threat (or two), the combo focus allows you to either win right there, or re-fill your hand with counters, or set up a controlling board position.  In a fast environment like we have today, you need to be actively winning every turn.  When you and your opponent are in top deck mode, you are just begging to be crushed.  You can't afford to sit and watch your opponent play without forcing some interaction.  This is a great list for today's meta.

When Erayo hasn't flipped yet.

It sounds like what you are trying to say is, "the best tool is tempo".  I feel that Oath is just as fast if not faster than Ichorid.

How about a little match up analysis.  I see another 30 pager coming.  

Life from the Loam was great at Waterbury.  I agree with the criticism, however.  But, here's how I view the LftL.

As a one of main deck, you really only want to cast this once, maybe twice in the Oath Mirror.  Seriously, grabbing three wastelands when your opponent is having trouble finding more Orchards than you is game over. 

Combine LftL with Top/Brainstorm, and the Dredging can be kept safe.  I will admit however that blind dreging is quite dangerous.

I ran one maindeck and one sideboard, and this was for a metagame where we expected to see a good deal of oath. 

The effects of LftL and Crucible are pretty close, it really comes down to play style.  In the mirror, I love the demoralizing effect of Loaming three wastelands back to your hand.  Makes you feel dirty.

It doesn't seem like much, however in the midgame of the mirror, haveing more than three lands

I'm for 5-10 plus 1/$1.  As a relative n00b, proxy tournaments are the only way to get real experience, not only playing with good decks, but against them as well.  If the money were readily available, I'd own every card I need.  Until that time, I'm glad I'm able to proxy.

My local scene offers both proxied and non-p'd events.  It's obvious that the proxy events draw more people.  Proxies=Growth of the Format.

This seems like a pretty decent idea.  Out 'aggro' other aggro decks who aren't playing that many instants, and help delay the control and combo decks while you beat them down.  I also like using the ancient tombs, as these can help cast the Eye, while workshop can't.

How important are the Welders, as you don't have TFK as a discard outlet, and if The Eye hits play there won't be a lot of countering going on.   Could they be replaced with more aggro (Juggies)?

Here's my two bits:

Yawg will is good, use it.

Night's whisper is ok.  I would use over AK solely because you're not gonna run Intuition/AK, so why risk feeding someone else's AK's.  I'd only run 2-3 Whisper's, however.  Doing 4-6 points to yourself, plus Fetches and FoW's is just asking for a loss.

I'm torn with regard to Sleight of Hand vs. Serum Visions:  First, they're both sorcery's, which is a real pain for this deck.  Scry is great, however with the number of tutors and fetch's, you'll sometimes find yourself having to make a decision between the scryed cards and something better.  I'd amlost choose Opt over the two of them.  Although it doesn't give you much control over the cards, it's quicker.  In this slot I'm just looking to pump the dryad and find more stuff to pump him with.  This slot, however, is really up to taste and play style, use whatever works for you.

3rd Tog - It does pitch to FoW and MisD.  Even though I see the Tog as a finisher, I want to be finishing turn 4-5, not turn 6-7.  I especially don't want to have to tutor for him.  I'd play 3.

I disagree with using Shoal.  I was excited as the next Blue Mage when I saw this card, however I think it needs to be designed for not just added in.  When you have this card in hand, you need to know what you're going to counter with it before hand.  This requires holding back that Serum Visions to counter the Welder or holding the Mystical Tutor or AK for Oath.  Doing this puts you on the defensive waiting for something to happen.  GAT wants to be the aggressor.  It's a lot easier to hold onto a MisD and a blue card, than a Shoal and one specific blue card.  MisD is one of those fun ins supprising ways kind of cards.  Plus a MisD on Ancestral is the total nuts.

Mana Drain - Ok, so most of the stuff costs U or U1, there's no Intuition/AK engine to fuel.  I still run two.  Mana Drain in this deck is not like in others.  Decks that run 4 will often counter whatever the opponent plays just for the tempo boost (given that the mana is likely to be used).  Mana Drain in GAT is a conditional counter.  Not as bad as Shoal, because you can always just counter and take some burn.  More likely as a 2-of, this can be used to fuel a game ending Cunning Wish, or Yawg Will.

Tinker/Collosus - If you can find the room for this I would use it.  

GAT is one of my favorite decks.  Countering stuff, attacking with 7/7's on turn 3, sounds good to me.  Just the look on your opponents face when you win a heated counter war with a Dryad on the table, as they realize that you just got a bunch of counter's on her as well as stopping their spell.   Happy Growing.