I'll be there.

Ouch, good point, we both completely missed that. It's been three years since I played Vintage, and I hadn't ever played with Snapcaster before, so I just screwed that up.

With respect to game one of the first match, the tutor was a DT, and I was dead before I had the mana to both DT and Tinker. I had kept a hand with no acceleration, so I would have needed to play Time Vault, then tutor, then tinker, then attack, by which point I was already dead. Definitely a reminder to avoid hands with no acceleration or FoW on the draw in a Vintage tournament.

I had a great time playing Vintage again, and had some nail-biting, highly-interactive games. I played a version of Paul Mastriano's deck from the NYSE event, with a Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique in place of the Thoughtseizes (I wanted more ways to kill opposing Jaces). Here's my mini report:

Round 1: Michael on Aggro Mud

Michael was playing the very aggressive Ravager/Genesis Chamber deck, also from the NYSE event. He was on the play in game one and dropped Revokers on Jace and Time Vault on turn one, and then another on Voltaic Key on turn two. I was on a hand with Time Vault and a tutor, which was awkward. I also couldn't find a Hurkyl's before the tournament, making the tutor relatively worthless. I lost in fairly short order. In game two I had a great control hand and managed to stop his first and second wave of threats before drawing into a land clump. He was using Mana Crypt and two Ancient Tombs for mana, so by the time he found another wave of threats, he was very low on life. I managed to bluff having a Snapcaster Mage to keep his two Revokers from attacking for a turn (they had my Time Vault locked down) and that was enough for Mana Crypt to finish him off. The third game went almost exactly the same, except when I drew into the land clump he hit a couple Lodestone Golems and they went all the way.

Round 2: Mike on Esper Control

Mike dropped a Library of Alexandria first turn, on the play, and I was sure that would be it. But he didn't have a counter for my turn on Bob, and seemed to be drawing blanks, so I quickly assembled Vault/Key and then Jace for the win. My notes for the second game are very sparse, but I recall playing Time Walk three times in a row (Snapcaster, then Yawg) for the win.

Round 3: George with Strix Control

This was one of my favorite matches of the day, despite losing it. I kept a hand, on the draw, that was relatively slow, with two mana drains, but no Force of Will. George had a quick hand with two moxes that let him power out a turn two Jace with FoW backup and then a Tezzeret with counter backup a couple turns later. The second game was pretty intense, with both of us drawing off Bob and trading counterspells. I had Tinker and Mana Crypt out early, but he had a Welder to prevent me from winning with BSC. I finally managed to sculpt a turn where I could play Jace, bounce his Goblin, Tinker for Colossus and still have a blue mana left over to Spell Snare his Time Walk. The final game was very close, but in the end his pair of Welders were too much for me to fight through to get BSC or Time Vault going.

Round 4: Ibrahim on Jace/Bob Control

This was a very quick match, owing to some bad luck on Ibrahim's part, which he took very well. He had to double mulligan on the play (I didn't win a single die roll on the day!), and I quickly assembled Key/Vault. In the second game I had a great hand with a turn one Bob that led to a quick Tinker/BSC with massive counter backup.

Round 5: Danny on Jace/Bob Control

Another great match with three back-and-forth games. In the first game Danny, on the play, had Lotus, Ancestral and Bob on turn one. I battled back with my own Bob, but was just too many cards behind to win the last counter war over Vault/Key. In game two I kept a hand with Lotus, 2x Island, Bob and Mana Drain, so I couldn't play Bob with counter backup until turn two. Danny had another Lotus, Ancestral and Bob on his turn one, so the game was on. I don't recall the exact sequence for how I won this game, but I'm pretty sure I Mana Drained a spell of his to power up Time Vault and Key with a Jace in play. I have somehow completely blanked on what happened in game three, but my life total notes show a lot of Dark Confidant triggers, Mental Missteps and Forces, and Danny won it.


Thanks again to Eudemonia for hosting the tournament, and to Stephen for doing the legwork to make it happen. It's great to have Vintage back in the Bay Area, and I'd play every weekend if I had the chance. It was great to meet all the people I hadn't previously met, and I look forward to battling again in the future!

I'm driving up from Mountain View and am happy to give rides.

I got a hall pass, can't wait to play some Vintage!

I played Menendian's TPS list, basically card-for-card, from this article:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17980_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Perfect_Storm_Revisited.html

I started playing Vintage a year and a half ago, and TPS was one of the first decks I tried. Unfortunately the Bay Area was having a Mystic Remora love-in at the time, and TPS is kold to a resolved Remora. I hadn't seen a Remora in a few tournaments, so I figured it was safe to break out the rituals again...

Round One: Walter w/ Remora

Game one: I'm on the play, with a turn two Necro and some counter backup, so I just drop a land and pass. Walter naturally goes: Island, Remora? Ugh. I have the FoW, he doesn't, so phew. I drop Necro, it does it's thing, I win.

Game two: I goofed this one. I opened with Time Walk, Misdirection, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Fetch, Fetch. He opens on Island, go, I drop a land (don't recall what I drew) and pass. He island, goes again. On my second turn, I make a fatal mistake and go for Time Walk (without having drawn another blue card). He Ancestral's in response and then Comandeers my Time Walk! Ouch. Good game. He wins it with a turn three Empty the Warrens for eight dudes. I consulted with LSV, and the right play was to Ritual, DT for Necro and play it with Misdirection backup.

Game three: This one wasn't particularly close. He had an early Remora, with FoW backup, and at some point had two of them, and used Repeal to keep them going. TPS just can't beat that.

Round Two: Dylan w/ Stax

Game one: Dylan is a regular and nearly always plays Stax, so I know what to expect. I get an early Necro down in this game, after FoW'ing an early Trinisphere. The skull does it's thing.

Game two: He gets an early Sphere of Resistance followed by a Crucible with Strip mine. Good game.

Game three: I FoW something early and land a Bargain. I end up going all the way down to one, having forgotten that he already did two damage to himself with Barbarian Ring (I was looking for a zero cost spell or ritual for the 10th copy of Tendrils). I don't find a ritual or artifact mana, but realize he's at 18 and win.

Round three: Brett w/ Oath

Game one: Turn two Necro goes the distance.

Game two: He has turn two Orchard plus Oath into turn three Iona. I have Ancestral on my turn two, but can't find an answer to the Oath.

Game three: I mulligan into a fairly weak hand and Brett has the turn one Ancestral. That is pretty much game, but it takes him a while to find an Oath.

Round four: Mike w/ ??

Game one/two: I don't recall a lot about these games. My notes say I played Vampiric and Grim Tutors in game one, so I assume I Yawg Won that one. Game two was him with Null Rod and some Wasteland/Life from the Loam action, I think.

Game three: This is the one where I could have won two turns earlier if I realized that Bloodghast couldn't block. Reading cards is so overrated.

Round Five: Josh w/ Mono-red Stax

Game one: He wins this one, but I don't remember the details.

Game two: He gets an early Sphere of Resistance, but I manage to duress and FoW his real action, and he's a little mana light. After some turns of draw/go, I manage to get off a Timetwister, which gets me a Chain of Vapor and a Hurkyl's Recall. That, and a Time Walk (timely!) is enough for the game.

Game three: He had Jester's Caps in game two, so I bring in some Negators (despite him having Barbarian Rings). I manage to play one on turn two. He has a Tangle Wire to slow it down for two turns, but I draw nothing but permanents, and win pretty quickly from there (turns out he has a hand full of red spells and no red mana sources, which helps).

So I went 3-2, which puts me in 10th place (in a very close three way tie; Web had me beat by 5/10's of a percent on PGW%).

TPS is a lot of fun, and can do some really dumb stuff. I'm bummed that I didn't get a chance to play against Tezzeret on the day, since I'm very curious about how that matchup goes. The Oath matchup seems like it should be favorable, but Brett had good draws, and I did not. I dropped the Chain of Vapor from Menendian's sideboard for more dredge hate (it's fairly popular here), but may add it back in now to combat Oath. Remora continues to be virtually unwinnable, barring a very fast draw, or the right disruption at the right time.

Is there going to be a Vintage tournament on the 12th? I thought the game center was closed on Easter Sunday.

I asked this question on the StarCity forums, but it sounds like you can't respond there. I'm curious to know how you go about beating the Mystic Remora/Meditate version of the mana drain strategy? It has become very popular in my local metagame (LSV, Web and Fob all run it regularly), and I can't figure out a way to beat it with TPS. Once they have Remora down, there just isn't a lot you can do, since they draw cards off every spell you play (and a lot of those cards are going to be pitch counters). I think that a Grim Long style deck might actually be a lot better, since you can go off more quickly (hopefully before they have a chance to lock you out with Remora). Fast draws are the only way I've managed to beat Remora decks. Do you think that siding in creatures is the way to go?

I can make Thursday or Sunday, but I like the idea of having a regular Sunday afternoon tournament, particularly if it means a better chance of it actually happening. The attendance on Thursday night has been pretty low lately. I like the notion of having a once a month $1k as well. So maybe it's $8 for the regular ones, and $25 for the monthly $1k? Who's in charge of getting this set up and running?

I wasn't trying to imply that you tricked me into keeping Vault/Key out, but I do think the deck needs to change to include it. It occurred to me, during game one of my match against Matt, that having a broken combo would give me some hope, and Vault/Key is the easiest one. What do you think would have to change to include it? What about the addition of another tutor (like Imperial Seal)? Or maybe a second Divining Top? It seems like a mashup of the counterbalance deck and the grow deck could do really well, but I can't quite see it. Also, I dissed Vendilion Clique, but it did a lot of work for me on Sunday. I hope I didn't hurt its feelings too much...

Vintage on Sunday is generally better for me, since my wife guards Saturday pretty closely (I can get away for a PTQ every now and then, but I pay, oh do I pay). I'd love to see more of these, since I had a great time, and Vintage is definitely the most fun I've had with Magical cards.

I've been coming to some of the regular Thursday night Vintage tournaments (which are usually 6-8 mans) and having a lot of fun playing. When they announced a Vintage $1k that I could attend, I was psyched. I had been trying to learn my way around TPS, but the popularity of Remora has made TPS a terrible choice. If anyone has any advice on beating Remora with TPS, I'd love to hear it. Playing against a deck that draws a card every time you play a spell is pretty tough.

I decided to go with a Grow deck like the one Steven Menendian posted on StarCityGames a couple weeks ago. Here's the list I ended up with:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Negate
1 Misdirection
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Gush
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Regrowth
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Echoing Truth

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
4 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand

1 Diabolic Edict
2 Seal of Primordium
2 Island
3 Yixlid Jailer
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

The two key moments in the tournament happened *before* the first round. I got to the store early and asked LSV for some advice about playing Tinker/Leviathan or Key/Vault in the deck. He recommended neither, and agreed with my assessment that Key/Valut + Dark Confidant was a non-bo. Naturally he's playing both I went with the pair of Cliques instead, and they were good, but not nearly as amazing as Vault/Key. A little while later I was pulling together a decklist and noticed that Matt Nass didn't have a deck. I offered to loan him my Dredge deck. If you've read Fob's report, you already know how that turned out for me. I got my revenge by convincing Matt to pay for my entry fee with his winnings though We played a half dozen post-board matches, and I won all of them. Naturally he won the one that counted though...

First Round: James w/ BUG Fish 2-0

Game one he has some dead Null Rods and I have a lot more search and card draw and just naturally top deck more Goyfs. I do manage to walk right into a couple Dazes because I'm an idiot, but drew enough cards to overcome it. I just bring in an edict, since this is a pretty good matchup, and game two I avoid his Dazes and take him down with a Clique when the ground stalls out.

Second Round: LSV w/ Legacy.dec 1-2

This is my third match of Vintage against LSV, and I'm 0-3 after it. Game one I Thoughtseize him turn one and see: Vault, Leviathan, Academy, Tropical Island and Dark Confidant. I end up taking DC, but really sweating the Vault. He plays it turn two and I start beating down with my own DC right after. I manage to draw just enough cards to Clique away his Yawg will after FoW'ing his Key (which he got via DT). Game two was all LSV, and he just got the Vault/Key combo down with a couple DC's and a Divining Top on the board. Game three was a lot of fun. I Duress'ed him turn one and saw the nuts: Dark Confidant, Ancestral, Divining Top, Counterbalance, FoW, Mox Sapphire, Polluted Delta. I have: Black Lotus, Dark Confidant, Flooded Strand, Time Walk, Mystical Tutor. I take the Counterbalance, since that + Top is hard for me to deal with, then play DC to get FoW and Ancestral. He drops Top on his first turn and we start going back and forth. He uses Top to find a Sower and a Goyf to stop my lethal attacks and blank my Diabolic Edict (I think I made a mistake by searching it up, in retrospect). The game was really, really close and ended with both of us at one life and LSV needing to untap and find a way to avoid taking one damage from his Dark Confidant. He has Top, and there is a land, so he takes it with an attack.

Third Round: Dylan w/ Stax 2-0

Game one I have a turn one Lotus + DC and that is too much for him to come back from. We played five game ones after the match and he won three of them, so this was fairly lucky. Game two I bring in a ton of hate, and things go exactly as expected.

Fourth Round: Alex w/ Painter 2-0

Alex and I have also played three matches, but I'm up 3-0 in this case. Game one he dropped a turn one Painter, but couldn't find a Grindstone before I got him with a Goyf and a Clique. Game two I negated an early Grindstone and Sower on my Goyf, then got him to throw away his last Sower to a FoW on my Yawg Will. He needed to blow a Relic of Progenitus late in the game to keep my Goyf from killing him, and of course he drew Yawg Will With most of his win conditions removed (he was down to a few Painters), the rest of the game went quickly.

Fifth Round: Matt Nass w/ Dredge 2-0

This went pretty much as Fob reported: Matt kept on seven all three games (!). Game one is hopeless, since I don't have Vault/Key or any other quick win. I had too much hate for him to overcome in game two (double Crypt and Jailer with Regrowth and Yawg. Will), but he had exactly the answers he needed (including triple Therapy on turn three) to take me down, despite a very good draw on my part.