Any update on this? I'd like to flop some cardboard.

I PM'ed you

This tournament was a lot of fun. After coming back from a vintage sabbatical, this event made me remember how much I love drawing three cards at once. Hope to see everyone in Sandusky in March.

Also, proof of John's triumph over the mighty Thurmanator:




-Jason

It was a Tropical Island

Thanks to Matt Hazard for organizing this, David Baum for hosting, and to everyone who game out. This was a terrific event.

Agree with Nam on this one, I didn't play it for the same reason. Turn one is obviously still backbreaking but it's often a dead draw after that if your deck is working the way it should.

Thanks to Mr. Nice Guy for a great event. It was my first MNG tournament and I'll definitely be back next time. Here's my list (8th place):

Lands (17):
4x Polluted Delta
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Swamp
3x Island
1x Snow-Covered Island
2x Volcanic island
3x Underground Sea
Creatures (7):
4x Dark Confidant
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Ingot Chewer
1x Sower of Temptation
Spells (23):
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Time Walk
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Ponder
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Brainstorm
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Tinker
1x Repeal
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Hurkyll's Recall
1x Darkblast
Artifacts (12):
2x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Voltaic Key
1x Time Vault
1x Black Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
Walkers (1):
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Board (15):
3x Greater Gargadon
4x Leyline of the Void
1x Helm of Obedience
1x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Rebuild
1x Tormod's Crypt
2x Yixlid Jailer
1x Ingot Chewer

Hey Rich, Jason here. Good meeting you and playing against you. Thanks for not rubbing my face in the epic T8 punt -- I am still waiting for my 'nads to drop back down after that devastating Regrowth -> Duress play.

We'll have to truck the Ohio crew back out there to playtest one of these weekends.

Thanks for the report, Nat. It's good to see Vintage communities getting built up through successful grassroots efforts. Hopefully you didn't dreamcrush anyone enough to drive them away from the gentlemen's format.

Thanks for a fun and well-run tournament. It was cool to meet LotusHead and the rest of the NorCal crew. You guys seem to be able to bring out good numbers when you have Vintage events, so I hope the scene continues to grow.

Unfortunately the Workshop gods were not with me on Sunday. I didn't draw one until the second game of my second match, and proceeded to draw mana when I needed threats, and threats when I needed mana sources. Regardless, it was a great time and I'm hoping to make it out to more of these events.

If I have an active Goblin Welder in play and attempt to weld out my Mox Ruby for a Solemn Simulacrum (which was in my graveyard before WoSaM enchanted me), does the Weld resolve? My interpretation is that despite the replacement effect generated by WoSaM, both targets are still legal "as" the Welder's ability begins to resolve because no movement from graveyard to play (or vice versa) has occurred. Is this accurate, and in either case may I have a more technical explanation for this interaction? Thanks!


Oracle texts:

Goblin Welder:

Wheel of Sun and Moon:

I prefer Inkwell because he can't be Welded -- don't underestimate this advantage if you play against Shop decks.

If you're not going to commit to a Bob-based draw engine, I think a 1-of in the deck is pretty useless. You have to wait until the turn after playing him to start getting card advantage, and you'll very rarely draw him in your opening hand. Bob Tezz draw engines are useful because as a 4-of you can usually drop him on turn 1 or 2, reaping the maximum card advantage. In this build, it might as well be another Night's Whisper, though I would strongly suggest Skeletal Scrying -- it's a much more explosive midgame play, takes advantage of drain mana, and can swing a match in your direction immediately.

2 SDTs is just a bad idea -- 1 is already borderline in a deck without Dark Confidants. Replace this with another tutor, a Duress effect, or Impulse like someone else mentioned. I've never played with Jace but that has some potential as well.

Edit: Your maindeck REB suggests you play in a Tezz-dominated meta. Glen Elendra Archmage could be a strong 1x addition.

Disclaimer: I've never played 5c Stax but I've recently picked up the red-only and black/red variants

In my brief time playing the deck, I've found this actually to be a pretty solid play. If your opponent goes land -> go or land->draw spell, you've taken a big step to locking them out of the game by ramping turn 2 and then dropping the rest of your hand as fast as possible. Worst case scenario is they drop a ton of stuff and out-permanent you, in which case you a) have enough quick permanents (or a tangle wire) in your hand to race them, or b) don't ramp. If you played a 4-drop on turn 1 you usually have the mana available to cast nearly any other permanent in your deck. Choosing b) and not ramping would probably be a blowout, but it's unlikely that one would keep a hand without turn 2 plays in the first place.

I tend to think of Smokestack as a finisher as well, but if you can play it without the possibility of it getting Mana Drained and you have some follow-up plays for turn 2 and 3, I think it's such a potential game-changer that you've got to run it out there.

The collectibility issue is huge here -- as tournament players, it's sometimes easy for us to forget that a non-negligible part of Wizards's M:TG market share is due to individuals who gravitate most to the "Collectible" aspect of Collectible Card Games. While Wizards doesn't really care about maintaining the secondary market price of Power 9 cards per se, if they were to reprint these cards it would pretty much invalidate any claims that they have made or could make about Magic cards as collectible items, rather than simply vehicles for gameplay. This would be a huge blow to the identity of Magic as we know it.

It's just not going to happen. And if it did, I would see it as a sign of a company/franchise in its final death throes.

Hey everyone, I'm Jason. I started playing during Revised and took a long hiatus after the Invasion block, but I recently moved to Northeast Ohio and have rediscovered the urge to flip the magical cards. I've been playing with the Cleveland crew for the last 8 months or so (Twaun, Nam Q. Tran, Jerry Yang, Mark Trogdon, etc.) and re-learning the format while getting savaged by Workshop decks on a daily basis. Hope to run into some of you on the vintage scene.