Some thoughts,
R is the most powerful statistics package available, its free and very customizable but it has an enormously steep learning curve. In terms of power and use-ability SAS with the enterprise guide installed produces really nice outputs in a relatively user-friendly environment. Stata will function similarly but I am not familiar with and GUI packages available for it as I have only used an older command line version. MINITAB is really user friendly like Excel but I wouldn't say the graphics it outputs are publication quality. To me, it seems that the first thing to do is see if your institution supports reduced price licenses for Stata or SAS and if they do, then get one of those (they are many thousands of dollars otherwise). If not then I would immagine you can probably become proficient in R in about 3-6 months so thats your next best bet. 

Hey folks, with the beginning of class at UMass on Tuesday, I have been under an enormous workload which has simply prevented me from having any free time to type up lists or go on the drain. Nothing appears to be super tech from any of the lists in the top 8 and I am as mystified as the rest of you as to why the thread apparently disappeared for a couple of days. Thank you to all of you who posted your lists as this is a huge help and ill do my best to get any interesting ones up before the Waterbury. The 50 hours of HW standing between me and next Monday are not encouraging but ill do my best to attend myself.

Hello folks,
I know several of you have been asking for Top 8 Deck lists and final standings. DA has the Final standings list and has graciously agreed to post them up some time today or tomorrow. I am heading into my Senior year at UMass and have 25 page paper due the first week of school which has severely cut into my free time, but I will try to scan the top 8 deck lists not already posted after work tomorrow. I greatly appreciate those players posting their lists as it makes it much easer on me and if there are any problems with reading the scanned lists, I will be happy to clarify.

I would also like to Recognize Chris (Demonic Attorney) for his help in putting this tournament together. As somebody who is in this entirely for the community, its pretty easy to recognize when others have a similar perspective. My experience with Chris has shown me that he is truly dedicated to the community and, to me, this really adds to his credibility as a Moderator on the Drain.

Finally, I have already begun the early stages of planning my next big tournament which will take place next spring/ early summer. It will be called "The Set Tournament" and will incorporate the The Grudge Match Hadley II. See you all at The Waterbury!

Once again, thank you everyone for coming out to the event, especially to the several new players for whom this was their first Vintage Tournament. We had an even 70 players for this event, which was two less than there were seats for in the store, which worked out pretty well. Also, an enormous thanks to Joe Bernier and Roberto for judging this event and Adam for giving us the use of his store, despite the short notice. Also congratulations to Team New York for winning the Grudge Match and to Joe Brown for winning the Tournament!  Anyhow, on to the results (I apologize if any names are misspelled).

TOP 8:
Jeff Rodgers (Oath) def. [2-1] Evan Hundertmark (MUD)
Travis LaPlante (aka. Nick Pappagiorgio) (UBR Tezz.) def. [2-1] Jeff Roucoulet (Stax)
Travis Jones (UGW Fish) def. [2-1] Andy Probasco (Dredge)
Joe Brown (MUD) def. [2-1] Max Brown (Hexmage Depths)

TOP 4:
Travis LaPlante (aka. Nick Pappagiorgio) (UBR Tezz.) def. [2-1] Jeff Rodgers (Oath)
Joe Brown (MUD) def. [2-1] Travis Jones (UGW Fish)

FINALS:
Joe Brown (MUD) def. [2-1] Travis LaPlante (aka. Nick Pappagiorgio) (UBR Tezz.)

Metagame Breakdown:

TIME VAULT: 26 Decks [37%]
8 UBG Jace/Tezz/Trygon
6 UBR Jace/Tezz
    2x w/ 4 Jace
6 UB Tezz/Jace
1 UBRG Jace/Tezz
1 UBW Tezz
2 Steel City Vault

WORKSHOP: 10 Decks [14%]
8 Espresso Stax/ MUD (no welder)
2 Stax w/ multiple splashes

FISH: 9 Decks [13%]
4 Hexmage Depths (mono-black)
2 UBG Fish (with Jace but no Time Vault)
2 UGW Fish
1 UR Fish

STORM/TENDRILS: 8 Decks [11%]
4 TPS
3 Bob/Drain
1 Ad Nauseum

OATH: 6 Decks [8%]
5 Elephant Oath
1 Oath + Replenish + Lich + other cool stuff

DREDGE: 4 Decks [6%]
4 Mana w/ Bloodghast

OTHER:
1 Painter
1 Mono Black Vampires
1 White Deck
2 Five Color Control
1 Belcher

I will post up some pictures once I have a bit more time and the deck lists will be up soon as well. Finally a BIG thanks to Rebecca Guay for coming to sign all of our cards and alter the Library for free!

Hey guys, thank you all for coming out and making this a super fun event! We had an even 70 players and team New York took down the Grudge Match I Title. NE will have to wait for a rematch. I will post a TO report tomorrow  with top 8 deck lists and metagame breakdown.

There are a number of restaurants on the same road within a couple of minutes, delivery to the store and even one within walking distance. There will be menus at the store and I will try to arrange for a large delivery if there is enough interest. See you all tomorow!

The proxy limit has been raised, the location has changed, and the storeowner or myself will be buying lots of cards so bring bring anything you are looking to sell or trade. Also we will work on organizing pizza delivery for those folks needing lunch.

Still waiting for final confirmation from the mall owners but they mentioned the old collectibles and cards store near JC Pennies which is vacant right now. I am going in on Monday to try and find out for sure so I will post an update. @ Matt, are you still comming on wednesdays? I may be able to make the one before the tournament if you wana catch a couple of games.

I've got a laptop that we can set somebody up with, it should be able handle streaming I believe. I also have a camera and will probably try to provide some lights so we can have a table specifically set up for feature matches. The mall has decided to give me an entire abandoned store to run the event in so we should have the space for it.

Here is the deck I play for fun with my buddy Joe. Its not really about winning, more about just doing tons of things on your turn. Reigns of Power is an absolute house in this deck, might take it out. pretty much the point is to survive, establish control and then pull off shenanigans. Usually come in second to some dude with a deck designed to win.

What are your thoughts on how to make this more interesting and fun? also if you mess around with Cromat, I'd like to see your lists.

General: 1
Cromat

Fun Stuff: 13
Ajani Vengeant (only to be used for lightning helix)
Elspeth (keeps you alive as long as you don’t ultimate her)
Future sight
Gideon Jura (keeps you alive long enough to pull off shenanigans)
Guided Passage (the most fun)
Hide/Seek (probably the most interesting card in the deck)
Jace, the mind Sculptor
Reins of Power (kinda broke, might take it out)
Sarkhan Vol
Spike weaver
Staff of domination (don’t combo with it)
Timetwister (doesn’t usually do very much for me, but what the heck)
Yawg will ( not to be played unless you are about to lose, mostly in the deck because mine is Chinese)

Utility: 35
Abundance
Arashi, Sky Asunder
Aura of silence
Austere Command
Condemn
Crime/ Punishment
Crystal shard
Damnation
Defense of the heart (still questioning this)
Demonic Tutor
Echoing truth
Erratic portal
Eternal witness (don’t pull any bullshit, just don’t)
Genesis (likes to recycle)
Glory
Grim Tutor (the picture is sweet)
Hallowed Burial
Intuition
Jace Beleren (try to get him to 25 counters)
Lightning greaves (questionable inclusion)
Martial Coup
Mystic Snake (the only fun counter)
Priveleged position
Quasali Pridemage
Rune-Tail, Kisune Ascendant (so cool!)
Sensei’s Divining top (maybe to broken?)
SOFI (a finisher)
Sterling grove
Stoneforge mystic
Sylvan library (best friends with…)
Trygon predator
Urza’s RAGE
Vampiric Tutor
Vindicate
Wrath of God

Mana Ramp: 15
Bloom Tender
BoP
Coalition Relic
Garruk
Kodama’s Reach
Lotus Cobra
Mana Vault
Natures lore
Oracle of Mul Daya (sooo good)
Prismatic omen (broken)
Rampant Growth
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Shard Convergence
Sol Ring
Solemn Simulacrum

Lands: 36
Arid Mesa
Bayou
Bloodstained Mire
Boseiju, Who shelters All
Breeding Pool
Forest
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Island
Marsh Flats
Maze of Ith
Mirokoko
Misty Rainforest
Mountain
Overgrown Tomb
Plains
Plateau
Polluted Delta
Reflecting Pool
Savannah
Scalding tarn
Scrubland
Swamp
Taiga
Temple Garden
The Tabernacle at Pendrel Vale
Tropical Island
Tundra
Underground Sea
Verdant Catacombs
Vivid Creek
Vivid Grove
Vivid Meadow
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills

Primary Team:

Ray Robillard ("iamfishman")
Jesse Martin ("failtofind")
Demonic Attorney ("Demonic Attorney")

Understudies:

Sam Richardson
Chris Torloukis
Ben Kowal

Wow Ray, This is SWEET! I will make a point to work in free entry and a buy or something as a prize in to the grudge match. I'm also going to work on seeing if I can attend. 

@Stormanimagus - that would be correct, I'm always getting them confused.
Also, I am still waiting to hear back from scott fischer but does anybody know of any other mtg artists in the Hadley area? Its been too long since I kept track and I figure the more the merrier.

Looks like Rebecca Guay will be able to show up for an hour or so, probably from 1-2. Seeing as this is durring the second round, I will most likely extend the round by 30 minutes so that people will have the time to get cards signed some time durring that hour. I personally can't wait to get my set of foil scryb sprites signed.

The prize pool has changed, a black lotus is now up for grabs.. come and get it

I forgot to mention that if there is enough interest, I am fine running a day two event with a 10 dollar entrance fee for a library or a mox, details will be forthcomming.

Thanks for pointing that out dub dub and yes its just the 28th which is a saturday

*UPDATE* due to the hampshire mall renegging on their promise of free space to run the tournament and demanding $500 I will have to move the event down the road to Off the Wall Games. The store has a lot more space than X-9 Games and should be a better place for an event of this size. I will have to pay 100 dollars to run the event here which will not come out of the prize pool which is my gift to the community. Everything else will be as normal. In the future I will still be running events with Seth at X-9 but Adam at OTW has been very gracious to help me out under short notice (see below for directions). See you all in less than two weeks!

*UPDATE* while I am generally a ten proxy person for my events and prefer to play with less, in the interest of making this event more accessible, ill allow people to purchase up to 5 additional proxies for $5

What:
Hadley MA Vintage for a Black Lotus
-and –
The NE vs. NY vs. PA GRUDGE MATCH
-with-
Card signings by Rebecca Guay!

Where:
Off The Wall Games, near the bridge between Hadley and Northampton on Rte. 9
Store adress: 41 Russell street, Hadley MA 01035
Phone: (413)-586-5451
Website: www.offthewallgamestore.com the site has very good directions to the store which is just ten minutes down the road from the hampshire mall.

When:
 Saturday, August 28th starting at 12:00 pm sharp so get there early (registration starts at 11:00)

Entry:
$25

Prize Pool:
-Guaranteed-
1st Unlimited Black Lotus
2nd Library of Alexandria
3rd – 8th 2x Entomb, 4x Misty Rainforest, 4x Dark Confidant, 1x Foil Memory Jar, 2x Foil Pithing Needle, 4x Leyline of Anticipation (probably foil)

-45 Players-
1st Unlimited Black Lotus
2nd Unlimited Timetwister
3rd – 4th Library of Alexandria, 4x Force of Will
5th- 8th 4x Dark Confidant, 1 Jace, the Mindsculptor, 4x Misty rainforest, 2x Entomb

-60 Players-
1st Unlimited Black Lotus + Free entry to TMD open 14
2nd Unlimited Mox Pearl
3rd Unlimited Timetwister
4th Library of Alexandria
5th 4x Force of Will
6th-8th 4x Dark Confidant, 1 Jace, The Mindsculptor, 2x Entomb

After 60 players, for each additional ~15 players another UL Mox will be added to the prize pool.

All prizes no longer in the top 8 will be distributed to players based on ranking from Swiss rounds or as side event prizes/ door prizes. Also I will be looking to upgrade the prize pool wherever possible.

Proxies: 10 + up to 5 more for $1 a piece (and please make them easy to understand and follow the SCG guidelines)

Other Information:
-We will have at least two judges on hand including an L2 (maybe an L3 by then) Greg Schwartz.
-Rebecca Guay will be attending for about an hour (tentatively from 1-2p.m.) and when she shows up we will extend the   current round by 30 minutes so you can get your cards signed.
-See DA's thread here for more info on the Grudge Match (http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40777.0)

I can be contacted at matthewjdenny@gmail.com or PM me with any questions. I will continue to look for prizes to bolster the prize pool and will post any updates. Please let me know if you plan on attending in this thread to make planning easier.

Well Sunday the 29th of August looks good for me. I will check with Seth about availability of space at X9 in Hadley and let y'all know, let me know if that works for you folks?

I've been pondering finally running another event at the end of the summer or beginning of the fall in Hadley. What days work best for you folks? Sundays are good for me but if we can get a big enough crew together i'm fine running one on a Saturday too. Prizes could be a Library and a new Jace or something or would it take something like a Mox to get the old crew out?

I'm 21, I have been playing since I was 5 years old, so that would be about when revised came out. Only ever played casual, and vintage once I was old enough to really get what was going on.

Hello everyone, I am posting this tournament for Seth Yeaton the owner of X9 Games. If you have not met Seth then you are missing out, he is truely a gentleman and the most generous store owner I have ever met.  He will be running a Standard tournament next month which I highly encourage all of you to attend, It should be a great time. Feel free to contact the store at 413-582-0310 with any questions or PM me. Hope to see you all there!

Location: X9 Games, Hadley, MA at the Hampshire Mall around the back next to Cinemark
Time and Date: Saturday, March 13th at 12:00 noon (please get there early as Seth would like to start on time)
Entrance Fee: $20
Format: Standard Constructed
First Prize: 4x Baneslayer Angel
Second Prize: Box of Worldwake
3rd-4th: Pick of Playset of Zendikar Fetches
5th-8th: $25 Store Credit

Here are the decklists, let me know if you cannot read somebody's handwriting and I can type it up.
Jeremiah Rudolph 1st:

Ben Kowal 2nd:

Jarad Demick 3rd:

Sam Best 4th:

Travis Laplante 5th:

Chris Dirico 6th:

Chris Roberts 7th:

JR 8th:


It was really interesting to see two dragon lists in the top 8, definitely seems to be on the upswing. Also bens g/w beatz deck was brutal.

@JuggernautGO I completely see what you are saying, but honestly while I don't make any money, I also don't lose any either. I have alot of wonderful friends who help me find prizes for absurdly low prices so its a wash in the end. I take it as a matter of pride to offer similarly absurd prize support.  I had an absolute blast running the event and will hopefully get the decklists up today.

   We had 30 players show up to play for 2 foil welders, but seeing so many people excited  to play and with people coming out of retirement for this one, including Ben Kowal who placed second, I decided to up first place to Four Foil Welders. Thirty is the highest number of players I’ve ever had at one of my events and it was very gratifying to see so many people show up!
   This was definitely an interesting experience for me because our head judge had a family emergency which I found out about on the morning of the tournament. With ever other certified judge in the area out of town for the weekend (trust me I called all of them), I was put in the position of head judging the event. I definitely have gained a greater respect for judges after today, even though I only had to make a few minor calls. A big thanks to Ray, Chris and Dan for helping to advise me as I’m not the best rules person.
   I had a tough time putting together the prize pool but as those of you who were there know, I gave away about 400 dollars worth of stuff. Making first a full play-set of foil welders was important to me but I will do a better job in the future of giving out a more even prize pool that isn’t quite as top heavy. I’d rather be able to give out 20+ dollar prizes to the rest of the top 8 and a slightly lower dollar value first prize so I will be working hard to try and make this a reality for my next event.
   Running 10 dollar events has been very challenging and I’ve had a number of people approach me with either raising the price or allowing people to buy up to 5 additional proxies. I am strongly committed to running 10 dollar tournaments with 20 dollar prize support and will do my best in the future to continue the trend, however I would like your input on buying extra proxies. My initial feeling is that buying proxies makes it just like a 15 dollar event but I also know that some people cannot make a deck with less than 15 proxies so I’d like to hear what you have to say.
   I hope everyone had a blast and if you didn’t please let me know, as these events are entirely for you, and not about me making (any) money and I am always open to suggestions to improve them in the future. Making cookies was fun and I will probably do it again in the future. Hope everyone is excited to come out and play in the next one and hopefully we can keep improving our attendance! Remember you guys make the tournaments awesome; I’m just here to make sure everyone has fun and walks away with cool stuff.
   

Without further ado, on to the Results!

Top 8:
Jarad Demick def. JR (2-0)
Ben Kowal def. Chris Roberts (2-1)
Sam Best def. Chris Dirico (2-0)
Jeremiah Rudolph def. Travis Laplante (2-0)

Top 4:
Ben Kowal def. Jarad Demick (2-0)
Jeremiah Rudolph def. Sam Best (2-0)

Finals:
Jeremiah Rudolph def. Ben Kowal (2-1)


It was suggested to me that I scan the top eight deck lists so I will try to go to the library tomorrow and get them up. I didn’t get to watch many of the matches because I was too busy running around but I hope that you all can fill in with your reports or comments. Please post your reports if you feel like writing them and I will do my best to get the lists up quickly. Hope everyone got home safe and I hope to see you all at my next event!

         -Matt

110 oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies, ready to go.

Incase anybody was still on the fence about comming, here is the set of Foil Welders that Scott Fisher just signed and altered for me for the tournament (sorry for the image quality, im just using my webcam). I have to give a huge thanks to him as he went out of his way to come sign/alter these cards. See you all on Sunday!

Well I've been Jumping through hoops to try and find the other two foil Welders and it appears that I may have to just spend the money and ebay it, which is fine because its really important to me to put up awsome prizes . However I would feel a bit better knowing roughly how many people are definitely planning on comming. This is for two reasons. The first is that my grilfriend and I are planning on baking chocolate chip cookies for the players (especially those who show up at least a half an hour early to register and fill out deck reg sheets and make things run smoothly) and I wana know how many to bake. Secondly I have access to more chairs and tables and I would like to know if I need to bring them. Thanks in advance and see you all in a couple of weeks!

Even after an unsuccessful trip to Boston, I'm pretty sure that I will be able to the other two Foil Welders to a set, however if this is unsuccessful, I still have some other prizes to add to the top 8 if we hit  high attendance numbers. I have a NM Beta Time Vault if we get towards the 45-50 person mark, I also have a set of Foil Wastelands that can go to second if we get somewhere into the mid 30's. Also the pearl should be going out if we hit around 35-40 players depending on the winner's prefference. Assuming I can finish the set of welders, even if we do not hit the attendance to make giving away a full set feasable which I think is probably around 35-40 players, I will give priority to the winner to buy/trade for the rest of the set at some sort of discount. Furthermore, I hope to have ~$500 in cash to buy cards as prizes for my next tournament so bring all your cool stuff and you can turn it into cash or more cool stuff from my collection. Hope to see you all in three weeks!

I have been parking at the mall for years and haven't ever had a problem but if anyone is seriously worried about their car getting broken into, they are welcome to park in my driveway which is about five minutes away. Also since Zendikar is comming out the weekend before, I will try and get together some vintage playables from the set and add those to the prize pool.