The mana base seems like it would be a little light - did you find mana screw to be an issue at all?

I completed my Alpha/Beta set of power back in 2000 - no spare pieces currently.

I'm headed to Oahu, Hawaii later next month - are there any Vintage players in Oahu?  What about stores/tournaments?

This is Ryan.  It is definitely true that I was a little rusty going into Saturday's tournament, but I can say that in my games against Derek that didn't really factor in.  I did run into a MisD with my Recall in our first game, which was probably a bad play on my part, but the remaining games it just seemed as though Derek's deck was faster and more consistent.

Derek, you might remember better than me, but I think you had early game wins set up in at least half of the games we played (and through any counter-magic that I was able to throw at you).

I am definitely interested in playtesting the deck. In theory, I tend to agree with Soly that cutting mana drain prevents you from being able to power out spells for free (or at a reduced mana investment), but there may be some practical results behind having the first turn Negate on board.  I was also VERY skeptical about Reconstruction, but in the games we played, it served Derek very well.

I do think that there was a surprise factor at play with this deck as well.  If I don't switch decks for the next tournament, I'd be eager to play some additional games against it and see if using some different strategies would improve the matchup. On Saturday, Derek definitely crushed me...

Not having ever played in Appleton before, I wasn't sure what the metagame would be for sure. I'd heard through the grapevine that there may be a lot of Fish and random aggro, so that's why I kept the Oath plan in the board. In hindsight, I think that I probably would've opted for something different.

Here's my quick & dirty report:

Round 1: Matt from ICBM playing Stax

Matt wins the die roll and lays some early lock pieces (Chalice for 0 and a 1st or 2nd turn Stax). I'm left holding Lotus, two moxen, a Sol Ring, a Mana Drain and some land. Matt goes a couple turns without putting a counter on the Stax, and adds another one to the mix. I manage to keep a couple land in play and draw into an Echoing Truth, and the following turn a Time Vault. Matt forgets to put counters on his 2 Stax, and I EOT Echoing Truth the Chalice. On my turn I Mystical for Flame Fusillade, drop my power, and combo him out.

Game 2, I bring in Hurkyl's for 1 of each of the combo pieces. I kept a land-heavy hand with a mana vault as the only acceleration. On one of my first few turns, I draw my DSC.    I can't recall Matt doing much of consequence as far as lock pieces go, and I eventually mana drain something for 4 and hardcast my DSC. Matt puts up a valiant effort by playing Karn and a Stax over the next couple of turns, but I draw into Flame Fusillade, kill off Karn, and Beat down for the win.

Round 2: Matt (also from ICBM) playing Gifts

Matt mulligans down to 5 and isn't pleased with his hand. I have an average hand with some counters, acceleration, and search, but no combo pieces. Matt comments that this one will likely just be a goldfishing game for me, and that's pretty much how things play out. I get the FlameVault combo online (with protection) and send massive damage to the dome.

I side in 2 Jester's Caps and take out 2 Merchant Scrolls.

Game 2, Matt starts things off with a 1st turn Orchard, Oath...which I promptly Force. I was wondering if he was running the transformational sideboard, and his first turn answered that!  Over the course of the game, Matt takes 6 damage from a Mana Crypt, 6 from Spirit Tokens, 1 from a tapped Mana Vault, and 2 from mana burn. The pivotal play in this game was when Matt EOT Gifts for Yawg Will, Recoup, Oath and Tinker. I gave him the Oath and Recoup, and he does a pretty broken turn that sees his Oath making it into play. The good thing is, however, that he tapped out. I EOT Vampiric for Jester's Cap. Matt has two cards in hand and I'm praying that they're not Force and another blue card, as I have exactly 6 mana available to me, but no protection. I cast the cap, it resolves, and I remove all of his win conditions.

Round 3

Mike from Marinette playing Masknaught

Mike wins the roll, but has to mulligan down to 5 on the play. I have a control-heavy hand that includes a Library, two mana drains, a fetch, an underground sea, a mox and a brainstorm. Mike lays a swamp, dark ritual, first turn Illusionary Mask, and then debates on what to use the final mana for. He finally settles on Vampiric Tutor, and I'm figuring that I'll be facing down a 12/12 in pretty short order. Without any means of stopping it, I decide to try and draw into some bounce. I draw a land for the turn, play the Library, tap to draw (Time Vault), and lay a mox to end my turn. Mike draws, and then surprisingly doesn't lay a face-down man! WTF?  On my turn, I draw into a Flame Fusillade, drop a fetch, tap to draw (mox), and play the Time Vault with mana drain online for Mike's turn. Mike plays something or other, which I promptly drain, and then EOT fetch for a Volcanic to combo him out the following turn.

While we're sideboarding for Game 2, Mike expressed that he should have simply gone for the Dreadnought instead of trying to be fancy (I forget what it was that he said he VT'd for). I agree and side in 2 Hurkyl's and 2 Powder Kegs.

Game 2, Mike plays a Delta and cracks it right away to play a Dark Ritual, Illusionary Mask. This game I have the Force to stop it though. Mike Vamp Tutors again really early, and duresses away a Time Vault. I draw a Keg and play it, which makes me feel much better about being able to handle any 12/12's that might be headed my way. Mike gets a Hyppie to stick the turn before I draw into Tinker, which converts a mox into an 11/11 body of my own. DSC goes the distance, and I'm on to round four with a record of 6-0.

Round 4

AJ playing U/W Fish with Exalted Angels Main.

I get an early Tinker->DSC online with FoW backup for his StP. Unfortunately for me, AJ happens to be holding 2 StPs and sends my guy farming. We jockey for control tossing counterspells back and forth before I get a Time Vault to stick. I let a Kataki resolve, EOT Gifts for Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Flame Fusillade, and Demonic Tutor. AJ demonstrated that he was unfamiliar with the Flamevault combo by giving me the Fusillade and a Vampiric Tutor...despite my lack of Red Mana. On my upkeep, I vamp tutored for a volcanic and proceeded to combo him out. I go through the motions and AJ reads both of the cards before declaring that it doesn't work that way. I call a judge, who explains that it does indeed work, and AJ demands to see the Oracle wording on Time Vault. The judge complies, and we shuffle up for game 2 (with AJ muttering that he still thinks he's right).

With AJ pissed about the FlameVault combo, I figure he's probably boarding in artifact hate. I board out the FlameVault combo and board in the Oath plan.

Game 2 starts with under 5 minutes remaining in the round (Game 1 just dragged on with neither one of us getting the upper hand for 40+ minutes). AJ gets some early beats on me when time is called. We go to turns, and I Tinker out a DSC (how lucky!). AJ attempts to StP him, but I have counter backup, so AJ scoops.

At this point I can draw into the Top 8, as 4-0-2 makes it in. Unfortunately, my 5th round opponent isn't guaranteed a spot if we ID, so after consulting the tiebreakers, I intentionally scoop so that he can make it in.

Round 6 features me ID'ing with Jake (Sui Black)

Top 8 - Round 1

Jake playing Sui Black

Game 1 features Jake laying a 1st turn swamp, Black Vise. I have a FoW to stop it if I want, but I'm more worried about biding my time against other threats. Unfortunately for me, I draw a Library (what awful luck). After taking 3 for several turns, I'm starting to wish that I had Forced that Vice...but eventually I work my way out from under it, dodging wastelands and other nasty stuff Jake throws my way. Eventually I get out a TimeVault and combo out at 4 life.

Game 2 I bring in the Oath plan. My opening hand consists of land, oath, tinker, mana drain, braintstorm and a powder keg. Jake plays swamp, ritual, duress (not taking Oath, and that's all that matters in this match) and dark confidant. I savagely rip Lotus off the top and lay both the Oath and the Keg. Akroma shows up on my following turn and finishes the game in short order.

Top 8 - Round 2

I'm facing my teammate Ryan Spindler, and Ben Carp is facing his teammate Jeremy Seroogy. We figure that it will save time and suck less if we all four split the prizes and head back home...so that's exactly what we did. Ryan ended up with the Jet, and the rest of us got cash and store credit.

Fun times in Appleton!

I've been a member of the team for a year now, and I still don't know what it means....I guess I'll need to actually stop scrubbing out and T8 one of these next SCG's!  Who cares about power when you can learn what the name stands for? 

First off, congratulations on your SCG P9 victory!

I toyed around with playtesting Ubastax after the last SCG P9 in Chicago and have followed the deck's performance at various events since that time. I noticed that you've made a number of changes to it throughout the year, and wanted to inquire about how you arrived at the list you played yesterday.

Here are some of the questions that come to mind:

1) Why the abandonment of Riftstone Portal for Chicago?

2) Your Chicago list also lacks the presence of Black Lotus - was this a typo?  If not, that seems to depart from a fundamental of Type 1 deckbuilding...what was behind that decision?

3) You've played around with some other maindeck bodies such as Myr Enforcer, Pentavus and Triskelion. What made you move to the current creature configuration, and how did you feel the deck performed as such?

4) I may be misunderstanding the interaction between Uba Mask and Memory Jar, but wouldn't the Jar be a better choice over Wheel of Fortune? It would seem to have great synergy with your welders and you can power it out quickly with MWS and fast artifact mana - downside being that you also play Null Rod. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

5) You'd previously tried out stuff like Candelabra, Citanual Flute and Cap in the deck.  Have you found that these just didn't carry their weight as one-ofs?

Thanks!

Zherbus - First, great article - I really enjoyed reading it.

I wanted to inquire about the DoJ choice as well, although not from the "Why not Exalted Angel?" angle. In the quote above, you cited the reasons why Angel isn't very strong vs. Combo, Control Slaver and/or Stax.

Have you found that DoJ performs that much better based on the criteria that you used in deciding to abandon Angel?
 - Combo decks that win in the first few turns
 - Decks like Slaver that don't care about life totals
 - Decks like Stax that stunt mana growth

I would think that DoJ would be too slow to be of much use against Combo, it falls victim to the same weakness vs. decks that don't care about life totals, and any deck that can limit the amount of permanents you have in play would severely minimize the usefulness of Decree because you're not going to get many men (if any).

Given the fact that you've conducted a lot of testing, and I've not run Decree in my control deck for many months, I'm far from being the expert on its usefulness in the current metagame. Outside of cycling to dig for more useful cards, how do you find yourself using DoJ in the matchups you cited above?

It was interesting that a Keeper deck went the distance in a field full of 7/10 men that destroy lands.



Ben - would you care to comment on your matchups throughout the day? Did you see many Titans prior to the finals, and what impact did they have upon your games/matches?

I know that you customized your deck to include Masticore for Welder control, but why the Scepter? It seems as though a lot of folks tried it out when Mirrodin came out, but for some reason moved away from it. Drain or Ancestral on a stick is pretty strong, but I have to imagine that there's a reason it hasn't become a regular inclusion in the mainstream metagame.

Thanks for the posting and commentary Mike!

While it was covered in the original post, I have to highlight the Riddler-on-Riddler mirror match from the second round. It was funny that the mirror occurred at the last table and both of us went on to win every match and T8. I thought it was a fun deck to play - I hope Tommy would agree.

Overall, I think that a good time was had by all - and the (friendly) GWS vs. ICBM rivalry made it a bit more interesting. I must concede that two teams are much healthier for the metagame than just one. Both teams each landed 3 players in the T8, so I'd say that things were pretty evenly matched.

@ Ben - Congrats for winning with Keeper - I missed the entire match, so I didn't get a chance to see the lucksack StP-StP-Will-StP play - how lucky!

@ John - We miss you man. You'll have to plan a trip back out West one of these days for an upcoming tournament.

I'm headed to Nashville on business for the week and wondered if there are any good places to find some Type 1 magic.  Any suggestions?

While the inclusion of Crucible in both maindeck and sideboard has been debated as of late, it would appear that a number of the top finishers were packing it.  

Given the high visibility of the SCG event, I would anticipate that Crucible will find its way into many sideboards in the months to come.  Clearing your opponent's board of land or recurring manlands just seems too hard to pass up...

How much hate were folks packing against Fish yesterday?  

While Fish didn't end up on top, I would anticipate that yesterday's strong showing will only add to the deck's popularity.

While it hasn't been a full 24 hours since the Star City P9 Tournament wrapped up, TMD members and Type 1 fans worldwide have likely read the reports and pondered what impact the results of this much-hyped event will bring to the format.

With a host of Fish decks performing well, but falling short of going the distance, a new Aggro Workshop build on the loose (Eric Miller's "The Man Show"), and 4cc chalking up another big win, what changes can we expect to see in the metagame going into the Type One World Championships at GenCon?

@ Lost In Admiration

You probably had a bit of an advantage in the matchup anyways.  You had some savage draws against me during our pre-T8 match.  Humility just haunted me...  


There really is some potential for T1 in Milwaukee.  I'd like to see some type of event for the folks who are interested, but are not familiar with T1 - something along the lines of an "everything you wanted to know about T1 but were afraid to ask."

It could be a deck clinic, common rules overview, and general Q&A to generate interest and swing some of the T2 and Extended folks over to T1.  With all of the proxies you're allotted, T1 is affordable for these folks to get involved and compete.

I don't know if that's something that interests any of the Chicago folks, but I think that the quality of the event would definitely be improved by your attendance.  Something to chew on at the very least...

 

You mean splitting 1st?

In all seriousness, it has been a pleasure to play against both you and Brian.  The T1 scene here in Milwaukee is still maturing, so I'm always happy to see some other long-time T1 players make the drive.

I would agree that Milwaukee is further back on the curve as far as play level among the population of participants of T1 events compared to Dreamers or Chicago - primarily due to a lack of T1 events in the area.

IMO, Milwaukee is currently experiencing a renaissance of T1 popularity.  Outside of our once-a-year dose that we'd get from GenCon when it was still held here, I'd be hard-pressed to recall the last T1 tournament that I attended where there was more than a handful of competitive players.

In contrast, Dreamers and several sites in Chicago have kept T1 alive this whole time.  If any lull existed, it wasn't as severe as what has hit the Milwaukee T1 scene.

My hope is that with continued T1 tournaments, especially proxy events, T1's popularity will snowball here.  Getting guys (and gals would be welcomed too) to come down from MN and up from Chicago helps breathe life into our metagame and makes for better competition.  Convincing talented T2 and extended players that also frequent stores here will also help.

In summary, I think Milwaukee is headed in the right direction.  The Game Universe hosting T1 tournaments is helping.  Competitive players from outside Milwaukee coming and showing their support is helping.  I think that the formation of a team or teams in Milwaukee would also be a healthy step - encouraging both playtesting and learning.

Milwaukee definitely has had a pretty artifact-heavy metagame as of late.   I was a bit suprised to see Slaver in the T8, however.  The last couple of tournaments weren't very kind to Slaver.

Just curious...how many proxies appeared in the field and T8?  Being this store's first 10-proxy event, I was curious how what impact it would have on the metagame.

I was one of the poor souls that couldn't make it (had to visit the in-laws).  It sounds like there was a decent turnout, so it's too bad that I had to miss it.  When's the next one scheduled for?

I attended last month's tournament at Game Universe for an Unlimited Timetwister and piloted Workshop Slaver to a sub-par finish.  I believe that tournament had 28 players, and given the 5 proxy allowance, there was a pretty diverse field.  There was a small contigency of scrubby little kids with elf decks and the like, but also a good showing of decks such as Tog, Fish, Landstill, Masknought, TNT, RG Beatz, Dragon, Keeper, etc.  The store owner took a vote of whether or not the players wanted a Top 8, Top 4, or Top 2 and Top 4 won out.  Later in the tournament a lot of people complained, so it was decided that the April 25th tournament would have a Top 8.  The finals ended up being Tog vs. BG Masknought and the Masknought player took the match (I believe in game three).

Having decided that Workshop Slaver wasn't the deck for me, I decided to fall back on the deck that I've been toying around with for the last 6 months - a variant of TNT that also included the Masknought engine.  Not having seen a ton of combo at the last tournament, I was inclined to forego the MD 3spheres and place them in the SB instead.  Still needing to make additional room for the Masknought components, I also moved the MD Blood Moons to the SB.

Here's the list that I finally settled on:

===Main Deck (63 cards)===

~Mana Sources (25)~
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Tropical Island

~The Goods (8)~
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Memory Jar

~Creatures (30)~
1 Wonder
4 Goblin Welder
4 Juggernaut
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Illusionary Mask
3 Su-Chi
1 Elf Replica
1 Anger
1 Platinum Angel
1 Triskelion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant
1 Genesis
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Masticore
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

===Sideboard===
3 Blood Moon
3 3sphere
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast

I know that I broke one of the cardinal rules of T1 deckbuilding by going over 60 cards, but having the Survival engine at my disposal, I figured that it provided me with more utility options.  

On to the tournament report...(I don't remember everyone's name, so I apologize if you're reading this and I get it wrong or leave it out).  We had 20 players show up for the Sunday morning event.

Match 1 - ??? playing a random blue deck

Game 1 - I have a sundering titan, a welder, and plenty of mana in my opening hand, so I keep in hopes that I'll be able to get out an early ST and start swinging.  He plays a turn 1 Legacy's Allure and on the following turn takes my Welder - and then plays another Allure.  I don't see a Survival all game, and he ends up getting all four Allures out - with enough counters to take any of my creatures.  I lose the first game to an Imaginary Pet, some of my stolen critters, and a pair of Fog Elementals.

Game 2 - I keep a hand of something like Workshop, Welder, Mox, Sol Ring, Mask, Taiga, Survival.  He plays a turn 2 Legacy's Allure, turn 3 Energy Flux, and Turn 4 Allure.  It totally wrecks my board position, and I'm unable to draw anything but land and welders before his Allures have too many counters on them.  He lays the Imaginary Pet beatdown again, and I hang my head in shame at the loss to such a random deck (no offense to my opponent - he played it very well and took advantage of opportunities that he should have).

===================
*Matches 0-1-0
===================

Match 2 - ??? playing Affinity

Game 1 - I get some early critters to apply some pressure and a Welder helps to slow down the building of his army.  He eventually gets some men on the ground, plays a disciple of the vault and starts to go off.  I survival away a platinum angel and weld it into play to save myself.  He doesn't have a way to deal with it, so the Angel goes the distance.

Game 2 - Similar to game 1 in that I get some early critters, but this time he's mana screwed.  I felt bad, but I definitely used it to my advantage - welding out artifact land that he needed for artifacts that didn't help him.  I hard-cast the Platinum this game and my team took him out without a fight.

===================
*Matches 1-1-0
===================

Match 3 - Matt Hoffa playing U/R Fish

Game 1 - This game is a little fuzzy, but I know that Matt FoW'd at least two of my early threats and got some pressure going with a Lavamancer and some Factories.  A Triskelion managed to resolve, which helped to clear his side of the board a bit and turn the tide of the game.  I ended up taking it, and Matt assured me that he had plenty of SB hate waiting for me in game 2.

Game 2 - Again, a little bit fuzzy, I recall resolving a Mask with two Dreadnoughts in hand and Anger in the yard.  They made short work of him.

===================
*Matches 2-1-0
===================

Match 4 - Matt E. playing Keeper with MD Humility and Damping Matrix

Game 1 - I'm unable to resolve & keep any of my team on the board, and Matt overwhelms me with little 1/1 soldiers compliments of two cycled DoJ's.

Game 2 - I'm finally able to get some men on the board and apply pressure faster than Matt is able to come up with answers.  An activated Memory Jar on my turn mills away all of his DoJ's, and my critters make short work of him.

Game 3 - We go back and forth without either one of us able to completely take control of the board.  Time is called and we take our 5 turns without either one of us able to finish off the other.  Matt is a really good and polite player and I thoroughly enjoyed playing against him.

===================
*Matches 2-1-1    I find out that I can still make Top 8 if I win my next match because there were a lot of draws in that last round.
===================

Match 5 - bedafile from TMD playing Landstill.  While I haven't known him that long, he's a quality guy and it sucked that we had to play one another in this round.  One of us would make Top 8, and the other wouldn't...

Game 1 - I didn't take any notes in this match, so I'm simply going by my recollection of the game.  We go back and forth for a while, but I end up getting some men onto the board that go the distance.

Game 2 - I get some men on the ground that start to beat, but he pulls out the secret tech of Oath of Druids and oaths out a Darksteel Colossus the following turn.  I don't have an answer and the 11/11 beats my face in.

Game 3 - Game 3 is always a tense one for me when it is the difference between Top 8 and going home.  We played very slow and deliberately, and I believe that most of this game came down to just sheer luck rather than one player capitalizing on the mistake(s) of the other.  He was unable to find an oath, while my team managed to eat away at his life total.  He wasn't able to come up with any answers, my men went the distance.

===================
*Matches 3-1-1    It is determined that I definitely make Top 8, so I'm pretty pleased.  bedafile and I were the last to finish, so everyone in the Top 8 knew what I was playing.  While I dislike my opponents being at an advantage with knowing my deck, I was glad that I played slowly and didn't make any game-ending errors.
===================

===Top 8===
Being the last to finish pre-Top 8, I didn't get to see any matches before we started T8.  The T8 games were played relatively spread out throughout the store, so I didn't see what all made it in, or how the other matches played out.  Here's what I know (hopefully some of the other players that were in attendance can help me out and fill in what I'm missing for the T8 decks):

Masknought TNT
Dragon
Hulk Smash
7/10 Split
Keeper
????
????
????

==Quarter-Finals==
Keeper vs. ????
Dragon vs. ????
7/10 Split vs. ????
Masknought TNT vs. Hulk Smash - we went to three games and a Sundering Titan from the yard seals the deal.

==Semi-Finals==
Keeper vs. Dragon -> Keeper
Masknought TNT vs. 7/10 Split ->Masknought TNT

My match: Again we went three games.  Game 3 he gets something ridiculous like a turn 2 or 3 sundering titan, with me at 5 mana and a Duplicant in hand.  He swings on his following turn to put me at 13.  I draw into a Foothills, go down to 12, and replace his 7/10 beatstick with one of my own.  I get him within killing distance and he somehow destroys the duplicant (I forget exactly what he used).  It basically comes down to top-decking, and he gets a Trike in play.  I get Survival working for me and load up my graveyard with some goodies (Anger, Genesis, Juggernauts, Squee) so that I can weld in something to beat against his Trike.  He plays a Welder and passes the turn.  I play out a Welder and he shoots it, but I Survival for a Trike, pitch it, and go for another Welder.  Still before the damage resolves, I weld my Trike in and kill both his Trike and Welder (using up all of my Trike counters).  I pass the turn and he brainstorms.  I take some damage from my mana crypt before Tinkering out a Platinum Angel.  The following two turns he played R&R, but I was able to weld the Angel and Trike back and forth from the graveyard to keep the protection and damage going.  The Trike went the distance and it was on to the finals!

==Finals==
Keeper vs. Masknought TNT -> Split

Matt E. and I decided that the gap between 1st and 2nd was daunting enough that mana screw could make a huge difference.  1st was the Unlimited Ruby and 2nd was $25 store credit.  We worked out an equitable split, where he got the card and I got 4 skullclamps, the $25 store credit, and $110 cash (we valued the ruby at $275).

==Debriefing==

In hindsight, I probably would've left out Genesis and Wonder for sure (I never used them).  Additionally I found that Chalice for one shut down my ability to deal with artifacts (shaman & welder), so I think that I'd probably try and swap out the shaman for a Heretic.  The Masknought component was less-than-stellar during the tournament, winning me only two games out of the 7 matches that I played.  I found myself SB-ing in Blood Moon quite a bit, so if I run TNT again, I'll probably go with more of a traditional build (more of what I've seen around as of late).