Well, I'm not saying this is good, but if you're wanting to get Eternity Vessel out quickly, there's always Tinker. Or you could play it in a Workshop deck...

As for combos with it, these are sort of obvious, but Yawgmoth's Bargain/Necropotence seem pretty good with a way to reset your life total just by playing a land...

Those being said, I wouldn't count on Eternity Vessel being good outside of casual.

The other use of Eternal Dragon vs. Exalted Angel is that you can get your Dragon back after using Nevinyrral's Disk/Akroma's Vengence.

I'm going to respond mostly to the original poster's list and ideas, but first some background on me. I've been playing Salvagers since September as my deck of choice in 5 Proxy Vintage tournaments. I own no power, no Mana Drains. I have made 3 Top 8's, one with 50 + people in the tournament, and have not finished lower than 15th. Search for all posts
by me and you'll be able to see the evolution of my build.

Now, on to specifics of the current thread author's build. I am mainly
concerned with the following:

1. Maindeck Stroke of Genius, Fact or Fiction, 6 Duals, 3 colors.

In order: Stroke of Genius can be a kill card, I get that, in fact I use it myself, in the sideboard. It's fine if you have it then combo off, but what about the times you draw it in your opening hand? For this and other reasons (lack of drains etc.) I run Cunning Wishes to fetch the Stroke if I have no other kill card handy. In all the tournaments I have played in with Salvagers, I have only killed with Stroke of Genius once. The vast majority of the time I have been able to use Pyrite Spellbomb. Of course, I run 4 Trinket Mage, and 2 Pyrites, so perhaps my results are not indicative of what your results would be.

I can see how Fact or Fiction might be better for you than for me, since you have Mana Crypt and Mana Vault as well as Sol Ring, whereas I have only Sol Ring in addition to 3 Moxes, however I still feel it's too expensive/slow for the deck.  Perhaps your testing shows otherwise. My advice is to move Stroke to the Sideboard, cut Fact or Fiction, and put 2 Cunning Wish in their place. This is the other benefit of being able to Wish for Swords to Plowshares Game 1, and other Instants should you choose to include them.

Next: 6 Duals, 3 Colors. My orginal list had 8 Duals (4 Tundra, 4 Volcanic)
and I found that I was getting wrecked by Wastelands far too often.
So I cut the Volcanics and the Red sideboard cards I was using, and went down to 3 Tundra. This worked, but was still vulnerable to Wastelands.
I can see how the Black is very nifty. Vampiric/Demonic are really good. Yawgmoth's Will is clearly one of the most powerful cards ever printed. Duress is also solid. I'm still considering trying a Black splash myself, but
I am concerned about stretching the manabase too far. With Wastelands everywhere, only 4 Basics seems like a bad idea. At the very least,
I would reccomend replacing the Strip Mine with another Basic land (your
choice).

Also:  Trinket Mages are definitely not subpar! Having Black Lotus numbers 2-5 is quite good, and the 2/2 body is not a bad side effect. Especially with Crypt and Vault you'd have no problems playing them quite quickly. It's also quite fun when people have to counter a 2/2 common
creature or lose.

Lastly, I started using Intuition myself in January. It's really good,
obviously, and belongs in the deck for so many reasons.

Just for reference, my most recent list can be seen here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21411

Yes, this works. A Taiga could be enchanted by Genju of the Cedars, and so could a Tropical Island, Bayou, or a Savannah.

The Betrayers of Kamigawa FAQ answers this question. It can be found here:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=5262074#post5262074

Yeah, when I draw something other than Ruby for mana sources!

Anyway, nice report!  First turn Trinisphere is ridiculous, especially when
followed up by a Juggernaught or similar threat. See you next month!

Nice report and Congrats on the finish!

I've been playing Salvagers in Vintage Tournaments since September myself, and have made several Top 8's.  Your build is fairly close to my original concept list from when I first decided to play the deck, with some interesting differences. My list has evolved quite a bit from September until the current list, which I am quite happy with for the most part. It seems the biggest differences though is that I cut  Red, don't own Mana Drains, the draw/search cards,  Wastes/Strip and maindeck Swords/Seal/Balance. If you're interested in my latest list, it's here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=338735

If you search for all posts by me, you can see the evolution through 5 tournament reports that I have posted. If you're interested in discussing the deck further, PM me!

@ Mordred: Right! Duplicant! I remember now why the Trinket Mage became irrelevant, with there being an 11/11 on the other side of the table. I'd be interested to see your report.

@ Jake: Yeah, I watched several Control Slaver mirrors. Icky stuff. My ride had a cell phone, so we probably wouldn't have died. I had a good time.

@ gustoh: I've done quite well with Vintage Salvagers. I've played it in 5 tournaments now, counting this one, and 4 at Dreamers in the Twin Cities and my results have been: Top 4, 15th, Top 8, 13th, and now Top 8 again.
It's got game against basically everything, though there are bad matchups and good matchups just like with pretty much every deck.

Adventurer's Guild Vintage Mox Tournament
Format: 5 proxy
Participants: 33
Prize: Mox Jet
Rounds: 5
Placing: 8th (!)

The official results of  this tournament are here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21407

The Adventurer's Guild is in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for those who are unfamiliar with it. This was my first time there. I rode with my teammate, Dan (Draven), in his 2004 Mustang. The drive is about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours from Winona, MN, mostly on 2 lane roads. We arrived in downtown Eau Claire at 6:00 pm, just in time for the start of the Registration period.
Here is what I registered:

4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Exalted Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Decree of Justice
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
2 Cunning Wish
2 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
1 Impulse
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Aether spellbomb
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Tinker
1 Lions Eye Diamond
1 Ancestal Recall

4 Flooded Strand
9 Island
6 Plains

Sideboard
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Stifle
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Energy Flux
1 Control Magic
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt

This is the same list I played on Sunday to 13th place at Dreamer's, and I felt quite good about it going into the tournament. What I didn't feel good about was how tired I was.

Anyway, before Rd 1, we learned there was a slight glitch: The printer that was going to be printing the standings was having problems, and thus we would have to use the screen to read the postings. This wasn't that big of a problem.

Rd 1 pairings went up, and I find I am playing Jason. Jason was playing
Sneak Attack.dec, a matchup I certainly did not expect.

He won the roll and started out Bloodstained Mire, fetch a Badlands, go. I kept a hand with Salvagers, Brainstorm, Mana Leak, and Intuition. Turn 1 I play Flooded Strand and grab an Island. Turn 2 he plays another Mire, Badlands, go. I play land go. On his turn I Mana Leak something, and he passes the turn. I play land go. He plays Mana Vault, which resolves, and plays Sneak Attack, which also resolves, and passes the turn. On my turn I play the Salvagers. I have drawn nothing really relevant, but already have what I need, since he seems to have no disruption. I pass the turn. He takes damage from his Vault, and Sneaks a Dragon Tyrant into play! He hits me for 12, leaving me at 7 and passes the turn. I untap, play a land, and Intuition, which resolves. I go get Black Lotus, Lion's Eye Diamond, and Pyrite Spellbomb. He takes a while pondering, and gives me the Spellbomb. I fetch out the land I need to retrieve the Lotus from the 'yard, and proceed to do so. I explain the combo to him, and he scoops.

I side in 2 Swords to Plowshares for Impulse and Trinket Mage

Game 2 I don't really remember my starting hand exactly, but I do remember that it had at least a counter or 2 and Exalted Angel.
He chooses to play, and plays Mire/Badlands, and Black Lotus, which he uses to play Sneak Attack. On my turn, I draw my own Lotus, and crack it to play the Angel facedown. I seem to recall having a Sol Ring in play as well, and a Plains.
On his turn 2 he plays Vampiric Tutor, but misses his second Land drop, and passes the turn. I take my turn, play Mox Pearl off the topdeck, Island, Flip the Angel, and swing for 4, leaving him at 13, and taking me to 24. I pass the turn. He takes his turn, Sneaking a Serra Avatar into play and swinging for 13, leaving me at 11. He misses his land drop again, and is stuck on just the one Badlands. I swing for another 4, going up to 15, taking him down to 9. I also play a Trinket Mage, grabbing an Aether Spellbomb, and playing it, leaving me tapped out. He takes his turn and Sneaks Dragon Tyrant into play again, but again misses his land drop. I go to 3. I swing again on my turn with Angel and Mage, leaving him at 3, and me with Aether Spellbomb in play, and 7 lives. He untaps, draws, and scoops, still stuck on 1 land.

Games 2-0 Matches 1-0.

Rd 2 vs. Tony playing Ninja Mask (Full English Breakfast + Masknaught)
I've played against Tony before at Dreamer's in September, and he remembers that I played some sort of combo deck, but not how it worked.

Game 1 I Force a Volrath's Shapeshifter, while playing Trinket Mage for Lotus. I already have the Salvagers in hand, and combo out soon after.

I side in Swords to Plowshares again.
He sides in what looks like half of his sideboard.

Game 2 he plays a 1st turn Ground Seal off a Mox and a Fetched Tropical Island, and I frown slightly, even though I do have Cunning Wish in the deck, as well as other non-combo wins. I manage to draw and resolve my Combo, but he still has Ground Seal. I topdeck Cunning Wish, which I use to get Disenchant. This is where I make my biggest mistake thus far. On my turn I play a Fetchland, and fetch out an Island, giving me 3 Islands, Mox Sapphire, and 1 Plains in play. I realize my mistake immediately, but it's too late to do anything about it, so I use up my only White mana to Disenchant the Ground Seal, and pass the turn. Luckily, he has nothing, and extends the hand.

Games 4-0, Matches 2-0

Rd 3. vs Luke Ojala playing Storm Combo (TPS I believe)
I've also played against Luke before, at Dreamer's and he remembers what I played that time (Salvagers) as well. *sigh* Being known for a pet deck has its downside at times.

Game 1 I keep a slowish hand, with Mana Leak, but no Force of Will. On one of his early turns he keeps track of Spells played, and I comment that he's either playing Storm combo, or pretending to. Sadly, he manages to resolve Yawgmoth's Bargain. I have Black Lotus and Pyrite Spellbomb on the board, and Salvagers in my hand. He Bargains repeatedly, and goes crazy, ending up Bargaining down to 3 in the process of playing a lot of spells and gets his Tendrils for 20, while all I can do is draw a card off the Pyrite and look on helplessly as I have only Force of Will, lacking the Blue card or Mana to play it.

I side in Stifle for Impulse

Game 2 he resolves an early Necropotence, while all I manage to do early on is Force a Dark Ritual to slow him down. He's drawing mana sources, but no business spells.
I eventually resolve a Trinket Mage and go get the Lotus, but no Salvagers in sight. He's Necro'ed down to 5, and realizes he has miscalculated. He asks me to quote him in my report as saying "I'm the worst Magic player ever." So there you go Luke. I Trinket Mage him down to 3, and after thinking for a while passes his turn. I Cunning Wish for Stifle. He thinks for a while and scoops.

Game 3 He plays mana sources, while I play Salvagers off a Lotus. He takes a turn, and Duresses me, taking Cunning Wish, which is the only win condition I have in hand, over Force of Will. I untap and slowly take the top card off my Library. It's a Cunning Wish! I play the Wish, and he says in disbelief "You drew Cunning Wish?" I drew Cunning Wish. I count my library, finding 49 cards left. I Wish for Stroke of Genius and Stroke myself for 49. It resolves, and I display the Pyrite Spellbomb. He scoops.

Games 6-1 Matches 3-0

I am feeling rather good right now about my chances for Top 8. This round ends, however, with many players going to time and drawing.

Rd 4 starts and I am playing Matt, who wishes to be called "El Conquistador" in my report. There you go Matt. He is at 2-0-1, so we must play it out. He is playing Workshop Aggro.

Of note is that we are at Table 1. I am the only player at 3-0, and there are several 2-0-1s and 2-1s.

Game 1 starts off rather slowly, with him playing land and other mana, and me resolving a Trinket Mage for Black Lotus, with Tinker in hand, but no other Artifacts. I am forced to use the Lotus for a Mana Leak on something threatening, and burn for 1. I swing with the Trinket Mage, leaving him at 18 and me at 17. I have drawn Mox Ruby, and play the Tinker, finding Darksteel Colossus. He still has no action, and passes his turn. I take my turn and swing for 13, leaving him at 5. On his turn,  he manages to do something to remove my Colossus, though I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. All I do know is that it was not Swords to Plowshares, as I didn't gain any life. My next notes indicate that I found an Exalted Angel, turned it face up, and rode it to victory. Perhaps El Conquistador remembers what he did to remove my Colossus and Trinket Mage. Balance perhaps? In any case, it was on to game 2.

I side in Disenchants.

He chooses to play. I draw my hand. This is where things start going badly for me. I see a hand of 6 lands, Salvagers. I Mulligan to 6, and see a hand of Force of Will x 2, copious Blue cards, but no lands. I Mulligan to 5, and have Mox Ruby, Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Disenchant, Impulse. I sigh, say something to the effect that "This is brutal." and keep it. Perhaps I should have gone to 4.

In any case, he plays Workshop, Mox, Juggernaught, go. I draw another non-land card, and say go. He swings for 5 and passes the turn. I draw junk and pass the turn. He swings for 5, plays a second Jugg. and passes the turn. I don't draw a White mana source, and say "OK, let's play Game 3.

Game 3 I play Island, go. He plays Workshop, something, which I Force, and he passes the turn. I play Plains, go. He plays Strip Mine, Strip your Plains. He then resolves a Crucible of Worlds. I sigh, but having plenty of land in hand, and Disenchant in my Library I still have outs. Sadly, I don't find them, and when he plays Sundering Titan to nail my lands, it's pretty much over. I hold out some hope of perhaps drawing a Mox and Disenchant before I lose, but he manages a Chalice for 0, 1, and 2 after attacking me down to 5. I scoop. The only good part of this game for me is that his Mana Crypt does 9 damage to him.

Games 7-3, Matches 3-1

After Rd 4, there are 2 people with 10 points and 7 people with 9 points. I am at the top of the people with 9 points in the standings.

I check the pairings, and I am paired up. My opponent is I@n Degraff, who I know to be playing Italian 'Tog, which uses Red instead of Green.

We talk before the match, and with all the 9 point players, I think that I must play it out in order to have a shot at making Top 8, so we shuffle up.

Control on Combo Control matches are hard to remember specifics in, so though Game 1 went on for a long time, my notes are fairly sparse. What I do remember is that he has massive card advantage, and out counters me, before finding 'Tog and winning in one lethal swing.

Sadly, my sideboard is lacking tech against 'Tog, the best I can do being Swords to Plowshares.

Game 2 my notes are a bit better.

I choose to play. My 1st turn is pretty good: I play Island, Sol Ring, Aether Spellbomb, Draw a card off the Spellbomb, which ends up being Black Lotus, which I play, and break for White, playing a face-down Exalted Angel. Perhaps I should have waited and played the Angel 2nd turn off the Island and Sol Ring, hoping to draw another land to flip it face up off the Lotus, but I thought it was more important to get off to as fast a start as possible. In any case, neither of us finds much action for quite some time. My notes  show me attacking with the Facedown Angel for 4 turns before finally managing to turn it face up and swinging once, flying over his Psychatog, leaving him at 7 and me at 23. Unfortunately, this  isn't enough. We trade Force of Wills over his Intuition, and his 2 beat my one, leaving him at 5, and getting 3 Accumulated Knowledges. He draws many cards, flashes back a Deep Analysis, leaving him at 2, and then Fetching, leaving him at 1. He Cunning Wishes for Fling, and has enough cards in hand and graveyard to kill me with the 'Tog + Fling.

Also of note in this game is that he countered 2 Brainstorms that I played with an empty hand after Mind Twisting me. It was notable, and unusual, but absolutely the right play, since I was obviously digging for a second White Mana Source at the time, and had I found one a few turns sooner may have had better luck.

Games 7-5, Matches 3-2

This was the end of the Swiss, and wasn't feeling very good about going 3-0 and finishing 3-2. I watch the match going on next to me, which goes to time, and then head to the computer to check the Top 8. I look at the first pairing, #1 vs #8. I see the following names: #1 I@n Degraff vs. #8 Alan Koxlien (me). I made Top 8! I made Top 8? Incredible. I head back to the table, and I@n is still there. I tell him not to bother moving, we're playing again. It turns out that we could have saved the troble of playing Round 5 after all, and just taken the draw. In hindsight, this may have actually been better for me. I may not have had to play I@n again. The matchup is not totally unwinnable for me, but it is definitely not in my favor either.

The rest of the Top 8 arrives, and I discover the reason my 3-2 was good enough to make Top 8: My tiebreakers were incredible, since I had already played I@n, Luke, and Matt (El Conquistador) in the Swiss, and they were all in Top 8.

We spend about 5 mintues chatting and shuffling before starting Game 1.
He tells me that he is trying to win this tournament so that he can buy a dog for one of his friends. I think it's a bit funny, but noble. This doesn't change anything about how I play, but it's interesting.

We both Mulligan to 6.

I keep a hand that looks pretty good, with Mystical Tutor, Mox, and other pretty good stuff. I play Land Mox, go. He plays Land Duress. I play Mystical Tutor in response to his Duress, which resolves. I get Tinker, and his Duress resolves. I don't remember, and my notes don't say what I discarded. He passes the turn. I untap, draw the Tinker, and play Land, Tinker. He Mana Drains it. From there, it is mostly a repeat of Game 1 of the Swiss matchup we had. His Library of Alexandria and efficient draw engine bury me in Card Advantage, and the finishing Tog + Fling is pretty much a formality.

Game 2, interestingly, is mostly the same. I have early Mystical in response to his early Duress, setting me up for the early Tinker. The difference this time is that I don't actually have the 3rd mana source I need to play the Tinker. I have to make the unusal play of Force of Will against his Duress in order to protect the Brainstorm that is the only card left in my hand. I play the Brainstorm mainphase, which does find me a land, but it's a turn late when I play the Tinker, as he manages to have a counter this time. I do manage to find an Angel and even flip it, but my 21 life are not enough to ward off his 'Tog, Time Walk, attack with 'Tog, Fling. Oh, he played Yawgmoth's Will this game I believe, which I couldn't counter.

This match was like running a Marathon. Uphill. With 3 feet of snow on the ground.  Into a headwind. With the flu. Other than that, I had a good time playing it.   I tell I@n that I am sure we shall meet again, and he agrees. I wish him good luck, and go to find my Teammate. He also has finished at 3-2, but in his case he went 0-2 before finishing 3-0, so his 3-2 is only good enough for 16th place.

I also find out that both Ojala's have lost in this Round.
So I end up with 8th place, which is good enough for a T-shirt, and we drive home.

Props: The Adventurer's Guild for having the tournament.
Draven for driving us there.
El Conquistador for living up to his silly name by going on to win the tournament! Congrats!
I@n for being interesting to talk with, and beating me twice.

Slops: The cold Wisconsin weather. It was -2 degrees F (-19 C) outside after the tournament!

There's a simple explanation: The tournament was 5 rounds, not 6. The cut off ended up being 3-1-1 (10 pts). 9th place was 3-2.

Dreamer’s Vintage Mox Tournament
1/6/05
Prize: Unlimited Mox Jet
Participants: 27
Rounds: 5
Placing 13th

My teammate Draven has posted his report on this tournament here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21348

Once again I am playing Salvagers. I made some changes this month, which I rather
liked, but most people will probably find controversial:

Creatures ( 12 ):

4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Exalted Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Decree of Justice

Counters: ( 8 )

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak

Draw/Search/Utility ( 12 ) :

4 Brainstorm
2 Intuition
2 Cunning Wish
1 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker

Non-Mana Artifacts ( 3 ):

2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Aether Spellbomb


Mana ( 25 ):

4 Flooded Strand
9 Island
6 Plains
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond

Sideboard: ( 15 )

3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Stifle
1 Control Magic
1 Energy Flux
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives

Astute observers will have already noticed the lack of any Dual lands in the deck. With that
change, I found that I was not as reliably able to cast Counterspell at will, so I swapped them
out for Mana Leak. Also new this month is Intuition, which I felt is better than Impulse a lot
of the time. The re-added Aether Spellbomb turned out to be very useful as well.

Rd. 1 vs. Kevin, playing Oath

He wins the roll, and opens with Tropical Island, go. I open with regular Island, Mox go. He
plays Forbidden Orchard, and I know I am up against Oath. He attempts the Oath, but I Force,
and he lets it be countered. Not much happens for a few turns, until I catch him without a
counter for my Tinker, which gets me the Colossus. By this time I also have 2 Spirit tokens
on the board. He finally finds another Oath, and it resolves. He passes the turn.
I have had Aether Spellbomb in my hand for several turns, but hadn’t found the window to play
it. Now I find that window, and he frowns due to lack of countering on his part. I swing for 13
with my assembled army, and pass the turn. He Oaths up Akroma, which I return to his hand
before she can do any damage to me, and he concedes.

Game 2 I side in Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares, and Control Magic.
I keep a hand with Sol Ring, Lotus, Decree, Mana Leak ,and lands. I draw into
Force of Wills and other Blue stuff, while he has no action. I Cycle the Decree into 4 Soldiers
and begin the beatdown. He’s at 15 when he plays Intuition on my end of turn. I Force. He
Forces back. I Force again. He Mana Leaks my Force, and resolves the Intuition for 3 Oath
of Druids. On his turn he plays the Oath, giving me a Spirit in the process. I untap and topdeck
Aether Spellbomb. I attack him down to 9 and play the Spellbomb. He untaps and Oaths up
Spirit of the Night, which I return to his hand. I untap draw and swing for 5, leaving him at 4.
He hits me once with Akroma, and I am at 12, however my 5 1/1 dudes finish him.

2-0 games, 1-0 Matches

Rd 2 vs. Jason playing Oath

Game 1 we play land, go for a few turns. I resolve an Auriok Salvagers, and he comments
that all he has to do is stop the Lotus. How astute. Eventually he draws an Oath, Oaths up
a Spirit of the Night, while all I can muster is Salvagers + Spirit Token beatdown. Guess which
one wins?

Game 2 I sideboard the same as with the first Oath matchup.
This game I have to mulligan twice, leaving me behind the whole time, and he Oaths up
Akroma, swings and wins.

Even though I lost this match, it was my opponent that got schooled, on the rules of Magic.
He learned that targets must be declared when the spell is played, before the opponent chooses
whether or not to counter it.
It’s surprising sometimes how many tournament players don’t know the rules.

2-2 games 1-1 Matches


Rd 3 vs Lee playing Grow-Atog

Game 1 I have a hand with a Trinket Mage, Salvagers, and Force of Will. He plays an early
Dryad, which I attempt to Force, but he Forces back, and it resolves. Before it can do any
damage, I Cunning Wish for Swords to Plowshares and it goes farming. I resolve the Trinket
Mage for Black Lotus, then resolve the Salvagers. He is familiar with the combo, and I Cycle
Decree of Justice for 1,000,000 Soldiers. He untaps, plays some draw spells, finds Cunning
Wish, and realizes that he is 1 mana short of Echoing Truth.

Game 2 I side in 2 Swords to Plowshares.  

He resolves an early Dryad, which beats me down to 14 before I find a Swords. He plays
Brainstorm and Impulse in response to my Swords, giving him 7 life before it finally resolves.
I have no action, as my early spells got countered. He finds another Dryad, and a Psychatog
with me on 6 life, and simply discards to the ‘Tog to finish me.

Game 3 features me mulliganing to 5, and keeping an opening hand containing Mox Sapphire
as my only mana source, along with a couple of Mana Leak. I manage to draw a Flooded Strand
and Fetch out an Island, which allows me to Mana Leak a Dryad, but he has the Force, and
proceeds to beat me up, while I draw another Island and 2 Swords to Plowshares. With me on
13, I draw Intuition, and play it on his end of turn step with me at 10. I grab 3 Plains, and
manage to resolve a Swords after the 1st one is countered, but he finds another Dryad. Luckily,
he is out of cards in hand, as am I at this point, and he doesn’t topdeck any pump for the Dryad.
I topdeck Tinker while his hand is empty, and go get Darksteel Colossus. Sadly, his life total
is now 23 from the Swords to Plowshares, giving him more turns than I like to find pump
spells for the Dryad and race the Colossus, as I am on 5 life from all the Dryad beatdown.
Fortunately for me, this doesn’t happen, and 3 swings of the DSC later the match is over.

Games 4-3, Matches 2-1

I am feeling pretty good at this point, needing only 1 more win and a Draw to make Top 8.

Rd. 4 vs Dan (Draven) playing 2 ½ Color Control or Gothic Smurf.

Dan is my teammate, and this leaves us in an awkward position. If we play it out, one of us
is virtually guaranteed top 8, and the other is basically out. If we take the Draw now, we’ll
both have to win Rd 5 to make it. After a couple of minutes discussion, we decide to take the
ID now, and hope to win Rd. 5.

We play anyway for fun, and I win 2 games in a row, one with the combo, one with
Tinker/Colossus.

Games 4-3 Matches 2-1-1

Rd 5 vs Mike, playing Crucible of Worlds combo

Mike is 2-0-2, which means the winner of this match makes top 8.

Game 1 is an epic game that takes about 25 minutes. I resolve Salvagers, but no Lotus. He
manages to Swords the Salvagers. I resolve Trinket Mage for Black Lotus, but now have no
Salvagers. I beat down with the Mage, and he plays Swords to Plowshares again. He resolves
Tinker for a Colossus, but I resolve Swords to Plowshares, returning his life total to 22. I
Resolve another Trinket Mage, this time for Aether Spellbomb, as both my Pyrites are already
in the ‘yard, and 2 of 3 Moxen are already in play. I resume the Mage beatdown. He finally finds
his combo (Crucible, Fastbond, Zuran Orb) and plays Cunning Wish for Stroke of Genius.
I scoop.

Game 2 I side in Disenchant

I am behind this whole game, and never get anything going. I manage to slow the game down
with Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares, but in the end he combos me out again.

Final result: Games 4-5 Matches 2-2-1 which ends up being good enough for 13th place.

Despite this, I am not unhappy with my deck for the most part. With as many Wastelands as
are in the environment, having no lands that are vulnerable to them is a nice asset. Mana Leak is
not always as good as I would like it to be, and I may switch back to Counterspell. With the
addition of Decree of Justice, I may switch the 2nd Pyrite for an Aether Spellbomb, as Oath
is starting to be more of a factor at Dreamers than it has been. The Intuitions seem to be fine.
I may replace the lone remaining Impulse with something as well. Other than that, things are
going well, as I have now placed Top 4, 15th, Top 8, and 13th with this deck at Dreamers.

Check the Oracle Text of Oath of Druids:
"At the beginning of each player's upkeep, if that player controls fewer creatures than any of his or her opponents, the player may reveal cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a creature card. The player puts that card into play and all other cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard."

It doesn't target anymore. Sorry to burst your bubble and all, but I thought it was rather important.

Yes, I can tutor/search for Spellbombs, but I'd prefer not to have to. With 2 Pyrite, 1 Aether I should be able to draw at least one of the 3 quite easily, and still not worry if one gets Coffin Purged or what have you.

Edit: I just thought of another good reason to keep them: Tinker. If I want to be able to Tinker consistently when I draw it, the Artifact count needs to stay the way it is.



The Crucible/Strip was a last minute lark. The Crucible is not making the
cut for next month. The Strip Mine may stay in the deck, and it may not.
As far as the rest of the mana base, the reason there are not 4 Tundras is because the manabase is no longer based on Dual Lands. It's based on Fetches and Basics. JP Meyer has written an excellent article on Starcity which is partially about this topic, I highly recommend it.
http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8463
I didn't Fetch a Tundra all tournament, and am honestly considering dropping the Tundra count even lower, to 2 or even 0. With Fetchlands and a 2 color deck they just aren't necessary, and make the manabase more vulnerable than it needs to be. If Wasteland is a dead card for my opponents, I'm happy. If my lands are getting  blown up, I'm not.



It's really not that hard to go off around 1 Crypt, but I see, and agree with, your point.

Thanks for the compliment! See you at future tournaments, I'm sure.

That is a good question. I used to run more Red, making the 2 damage ability quite relevant. I hadn't really thought about swapping some out for Aether Spellbombs, but now that you mention it, it's probably a good idea.
The only drawback I can see is if I use the only Pyrite early to draw a card, then my opponent plays Tormod's Crypt and Crypts away my only Pyrite. Of course I could still use an Aether Spellbomb to draw my deck, and then Cunning Wish for Stroke of Genius, but that's riskier. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with less than 2 Pyrites, though 2 Pyrite 1 Aether is probably better at this point in the deck's evolution than 3 Pyrites.



I probably misplayed and forgot that I could do that, since it was the first time I had faced Tangle Wire. Though honestly I don't remember if I had a  white source or not, since I played the Salvagers 1st turn off and Island and the Lotus.

I think what happened is that I played 1st turn Island, Lotus, Salvagers, and he played 1st turn Tangle Wire. Then I had to tap the Island and the Salvagers. Then I played a Plains and a Pyrite. The next turn I misplayed and failed to return the Lotus in my Upkeep. 3rd turn the Tangle Wire had faded enough for me to have UW untapped and go off. I'll be better prepared next time I face Stax, that's for sure.


It's posts like the two I quote above that make me glad I post these reports even with this month's way below average turnout.  Any other suggestions like the above are much appreciated.

Dreamer’s Vintage Mox Tournament
12/12/04
Prize: Mox Jet
Participants: 23
Placing: 5-8th (lost in top 8, no playoffs)

My Teammate Draven has posted a report here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21069

So I will skip the preliminaries.

My own report is as follows:

Once again this month I am playing my pet deck, Salvagers, which has nonentheless taken me to a Top 4 and now a Top 8 at Dreamers, and done well for others in other tournaments.

The list for this month:

Creatures (11):
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Exalted Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus

Draw (8):
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall

Utility (5)
2 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker

Counters (8)
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell

non-mana Artifacts (4):
3 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Crucible of Worlds

Mana (24):

1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
4 Plains
6 Island
1 Strip Mine

Total: 60

Sideboard (15):
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Stifle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Decree of Justice
1 Control Magic
1 Energy Flux

The main changes from October are more basic lands, and cutting the Red from the sideboard so as to make the manabase more stable.

With only 23 players, there were only 5 rounds.

Rd 1 vs Pat playing a deck with Goblin Welders and painlands.

I win the roll and opt to play.

Game 1 I have the Salvagers and the Lotus in my opening hand.  I play them both 1st turn, while he has 1st turn Welder. 2nd turn I draw a Pyrite Spellbomb, ask him if he is familiar with the combo. He asks me to show him the kill card, granting me the mana combo. I flash the Pyrite and it's on to Game 2.

I believe I sided in 2 Disenchant for an Impulse and a Trinket Mage.

Game 2 I have the Salvagers in my opening hand, but no Spellbomb or
Lotus. He has 1st turn Welder again, while I have 2nd turn Trinket Mage, which fetches me the Black Lotus. When I play the Salvagers 3rd turn, he scoops, this time without making me show him the kill card. I had Cunning Wish for Stroke of Genius.

This match took about 10 minutes, tops.

2-0 games, 1-0 matches

Rd 2 vs Cory, playing Stax.

Game 1 he has first turn Workshop, Mox, Chalice for 0, which resolves, due to my not having Force of Will. I am unconcerned, however, as I have Cunning Wish. He also plays Tangle Wire, which does nothing but slow the game down a bit.  A Mishra's Factory hits the table, and swings twice, getting me down to 15, as I had used a Fetchland. I Cunning Wish for Disenchant, Disenchant the Chalice and proceed to Combo off. He scoops.

I side in 2 Disenchant, 1 Energy Flux for Impulse, Trinket Mage and Pyrite Spellbomb.

Game 2 sees him play another early Chalice for 0. I Brainstorm in response, and don't get Force of Will, so it resolves. He resolves a Tangle Wire, off an early Mana Crypt as well. I see no counters, but do manage to play a Face Down Angel once the Wire has Faded. He, however, plays Smokestack, which, combined with my play mistakes cause me to lose the game. For some unknown reason I forget to  turn my Angel face up in response to the Smokestack trigger, and instead sacrifice my Sol Ring and a Plains. He plays a Chalice for 4 in play along with the Chalice for 0.
His Mana Crypt backfires on him almost every turn, getting him down to 8 life, but since I misplay and don't draw anything relevant, I lose to Juggernaut and Double Mishra's Factory. After this game, I feel pretty stupid.

Game 3, however, I play an early Salvagers off the Lotus. He plays an early Tangle Wire, forcing me to wait a few turns to have enough mana untapped to combo out. He draws nothing else to stop me, and I Combo him out.

This was the first time I had actually faced Stax. I had read about it, but not played against it.
What I learned from this matchup: Tangle Wire is annoying, but not Fatal.
Smokestack is also annoying, and can be fatal. Chalice is annoying, but again, not fatal, as I have answers and other win conditions.

4-1 games 2-0 matches

Rd. 3 vs Jon (Frost) playing Belcher

I recognise Jon's name on the pairing sheet as one of the better known and good players at Dreamers and know I am in for a rough time. I don't know before the match what he is playing, which I suppose is fair since he admits to not knowing what I'm playing.

He wins the roll, choosing to play.

Game 1

We draw our 7 cards, and he stares at his for at least 2 minutes, saying nothing. I politely stare at my hand, looking up at him a few times. Finally he asks me something like "I don't suppose you'd tell me what your playing before I choose whether or not to mulligan?" I reply with something to the effect that "I'll give you the hint that I made top 4 a few months ago, but that probably won't help." He mulligans down to 6, choosing to keep. I keep my hand of suffcient lands, a counter, Trinket Mage and I believe Brainstorm.

He plays 1st turn Land Grant, using the alternate casting cost, and I know what he is playing. I see lots of broken stuff, including Timetwister, and comment that I'm going to lose. He disagrees, saying that there is not much there. I still disagree, but admit that I don't know the details of Belcher all that well, just the theory.

His Land Grant gets him a Bayou, which he uses to play Dark Ritual (I think), and eventually he plays Timetwister as well, making my mulligan decision irrelevant. We draw 7 and I now have: Force of Will, Force of Will, Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, Trinket Mage, Impulse and another non-land card. Ouch. He passes the turn, and I draw something irrelevant, passing the turn and discarding. He comments on my lack of land drop. I frown. On his turn, I Force a couple of things, pitching Mystical Tutor and Trinket Mage, and the jig is up as to which deck I am playing. He passes and I draw Lion's Eye Diamond, which I play. This time he comments that it was a bad land drop, and I agree.  I pass, and EOT he resolves Vampirc Tutor.

On his turn he resolves Belcher and Belches me for 7. I finally draw an Island, but it's too late and he kills me.

I side in Disenchants and Stifle.

Game 2 I set up for the early Tinker off Mystical Tutor, but he plays Timetwister. My Twister hand contains Darksteel Colossus. I resolve Trinket Mage for Black Lotus, but still no Salvagers. I Brainstorm seemingly in response to every one of his spells, never drawing Force of Will. He resolves 2 Goblin Welders. I have about 8 mana on the table, counting the Lotus, when he plays Wheel of Fortune, which draws me the Salvagers I need to go off. Instead, however, he resolves Belcher and Belches me from 20 to 0 in one shot. Blah.

4-3 games, 2-1 Matches

Rd 4 vs Kyle, playing Life combo

I had talked to Kyle before the tournament, and knew he was playing a Life combo deck. He knew I was playing Salvagers. His combo uses En-Kor creatures with either Task Force or Daru Spiritualist to get an Arbitraily large Toughness creature, then sacrificing it to either Diamond Valley or Starlit Sanctum, along with Test of Endurance for the win.  He is unhappy to be playing me, since my Damage trumps his Life, and I have counters, whereas he has none.

Game 1 sees me Force a Daru Spiritualist and Strip a Starlit Sanctum, while he beats me down to 12 with Nomads En-Kor, Task Force, and other random white guys with powers of 1 each, giving me plenty of time to find and play my combo. I do so.

Game 2 I side in a few Swords to Plowshares. It's more of the same. He actually manages to get his combo in play, however he declines to use it, saying that there is no point. I shrug and play the Salvagers and the Lotus, but don't have a kill card. He scoops to the Salvagers and Lotus. I thought later that I probably should have told him after the match that he should make me show him the kill card, and that I didn't have it, but I don't get the chance, as he's gone when I think of it (during top 8).

Games 6-3, Matches 3-1

At this point I am rather certain I can draw in. Pairings go up for Rd. 4 and I am playing my Teammate, Dan (Draven). We do some calculations, with help from Jon (Frost) and decide that if we ID, we both make it, and if we did play, one of us wouldn't make it. We take the draw.

Games 6-3, Matches 3-1-1

Top 8 Vs. Jon (Frost) still playing Belcher.

I am not really looking forward to the rematch, but am happy to be in Top 8.

I don't remember all the details of Game 1, but I remember the relevant bits. I resolve Salvagers, but lack the Lotus to go off. He resolves Belcher and Belches. He reveals 7 cards before hitting a land, and then points to the Salvagers. He did not, however, declare a Target when he activated the Belcher. I had assumed he was Targeting me, but his pointing to the Salvagers said otherwise. We call for the Judge, and he clarifies the rules on playing abilities. Namely, that the Target must be declared before the ability is activated, not after revealing the cards. Since I had assumed
he was targeting me, that's his proposed fix. I am fine with it, and Jason (the Judge) is as well. I take 7, going down to 12 (Fetchland). He passes.

I still don't have the Lotus, but I now have Mystical Tutor, Brainstorm, and Impulse. I play the Mystical, fetching the Enlightened Tutor. I play the Enlightened Tutor, fetching the Black Lotus. Unfortunately, I have only a Mox Ruby left untapped, thus lacking the mana necessary to draw the Lotus off the Impulse and win. I say so. I pass the turn. On his turn, he Belches, this time clearly targeting the Salvagers. He turns over two cards before hitting his second land. He passes, and I combo for the win.

This game showed how bad the matchup really is for me: It took a misplay and very bad luck on his side for me to win.

I side in Disenchants and Stifle again.

Game 2 sees me get an Exalted Angel face up, but it's not enough and he Belches me with both of his lands on the table.

Game 3 sees him resolve an early Xantid Swarm off Elvish Spirit Guide, after I countered his Land Grant. This is my misplay of the match, as I could have countered the Xantid Swarm, but didn't think it would wreck me as badly as it did. It probably didn't matter, since he had a second one a few turns later, but I know better now. I may be confusing this game for Game 2, however.

In either case, my tournament is done for the day. My Teammate also loses, so we buy some stuff from Jason, and head out.

Final results:

Games 6-5 Matches 3-2-1, good enough for 5-8th on the day.

Next month: Intuition! Bye-bye Crucible, Lion's Eye Diamond.  Hello Island and Time Walk (?).

Well, the DSC wouldn't be destroyed, obvioiusly, but you'd still get your 11 Saprolings out of the deal. With Wonder and Anger in the 'yard, you'd get
just as much damage through, if not more, than the Oath player.

That said, I agree that it is still better to not let the Oath trigger in the first place. Nice report.

Re: Sensei's Divining Top. It's a neat card, but I don't think it's better than any of the cards I'd have to take out. Brainstorm and Impulse are enough, I believe.

Re: Counterspell vs. Mana Drain. Yes, it's mostly because I don't own Mana Drains. Counterspell does what I want it to do: Counter target spell. The mana from Drain could possibly be nice, but not essential.

Re: Masticore. It's worth thinking about, at the very least. I'm not sure it's
better than Exalted Angel, especailly if they already have the Welder on the table, since it is itself 'weldable,' and I quite often have a spellbomb in the graveyard at the very least. Though clearly, if I get the Masticore before they get the Welder, they are in for some problems. Hmm...

Date: October 10th, 2004
Location: Dreamers, St. Louis Park, MN
Format: Vintage, 5 Proxies allowed.
Prize for 1st: place: Mox Ruby (Unlimited)
Attendance: 43

 Once again it was time for Dreamers’ monthly Vintage Power tournament, and I and Dan, my
friend and teammate made the 2 hour drive from southern MN. He’s playing 4cc, and I am once
again playing Salvagers combo, after making top 4 with it last month at Dreamers.

For reference, here’s the decklist:
               
Creatures (11):
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Exalted Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus

Draw (8):
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall (Proxy)

Utility (5)
2 Cunning Wish
1 Time Walk (Proxy)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker

Counters (8)
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell

non-mana Artifacts (4):
4 Pyrite Spellbomb

Mana (24):

1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mox Pearl (Borrowed)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxy)
1 Sol Ring
2 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
2 Plains
2 Island

Total: 60

Sideboard:
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stifle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod’s Crypt

   The change I made from last month to the maindeck are -2 Aether Spellbomb, +2 Exalted
Angel. The Exalted Angels I sided in basically every game last month, and the Aether
Spellbombs out, so this month I made the change, basically ‘presideboarding.’
I also cut Tolarian Academy.
In the Sideboard: -2 Exalted Angel -1 Misdirection, +1 Stifle, +1 Engineered Explosives,
+1 Tormod’s Crypt. The Angels moved to the main, freeing up the spots for the Explosives
and the Crypt, and I decided that the Stifle would be more useful than the Misdirection.

On to the report!

Round 1 vs. Josh, playing Workshop Aggro

Game 1 I win the roll, and keep a hand with the Salvagers  a Trinket Mage, and a Pyrite
Spellbomb, meaning that all I have to do is resolve the Trinket Mage for the Lotus and I’ll
have all my combo pieces. 1st turn I play Land Mox, go. He plays Workshop,  Mox, Juggernaut
go.  On my next turn I play Land, Trinket Mage, which gets me the Lotus, and pass the turn. He
plays land, and attacks with the Juggernaut. I chump with the Trinket Mage and he passes the
turn. I untap, resolve the Lotus, the Salvagers, and the Spellbomb. He hasn’t seen the combo
before, but figures it out once I have it in play, and scoops.

Game 2 I side in 2 Disenchant for 1 Impulse and 1 Trinket Mage.  I keep a hand with land,
Tinker, and a couple artifacts. He plays Vampiric Tutor early. I play Tinker and fetch out
the Darksteel Colossus. He scoops when he realizes his deck has no answer that will be fast
enough.

Games 2-0, Matches 1-0

Round 2 vs. Luke, playing Workshop Aggro

Game 1 I win the roll and keep a decent hand with Land, Mox Ruby, Trinket Mage and Pyrite
Spellbomb. He gets a first turn Goblin Welder, but has no other action, except for a Wasteland
or 2, slowing down my Trinket Mage enough to get in 3 attacks with the Welder, and keep me
from killing the Welder with my Spellbomb. Eventually, I kill his Welder and get my Trinket
Mage in play. I Force of Will his Juggernaught,. Eventually he resolves a Trinisphere and a
Crucible of Worlds., and has Wasted me down to no lands, Mox Ruby and the Trinket Mage. He
comments that he’s going to lose to the Trinket Mage, and it looks that way for quite some time,
as his board consists of nothing but lands and the Trinisphere and Crucible.
The combination of the Mage and  Fetchlands  gets him down to 6, but I still have no way
around his Trinisphere/Crucible/Wasteland lock. He manages to draw and resolve 2 Goblin
Welders and a second Trinisphere, which puzzles me, until he welds the Juggernaught back in
during my attack step to block my Mage. I scoop.

Game 2 I side in artifact kill, and out Impulse and Trinket Mage. Unfortunately, he gets
an early Trinisphere/Crucible/Wasteland lock going, and I scoop when I am forced to discard
1 of my 2 Islands to a Memory Jar.

Games 2-2 Matches 1-1

Round 3 vs. Joel, playing 4cc.

I don’t remember these games very well, so this will be brief.

Game 1 he has more counters than I do and his Exalted Angel finishes me.
Game 2 is more of the same, except this time it’s Soldiers off a Decree of Justice that do
cleanup.

Games 2-4 Matches 1-2
 
Round 4 vs Sean playing 4cc

Game 1 we play Fetch, fetch a land, Go for several turns, though I do draw an extra card off
a Pyrite Spellbomb, which finds a Trinket Mage, which when I play  he has to read.
The Trinket Mage finds me the Lotus, and I have Salvagers in hand. He plays
Tormod’s Crypt, which is a concern, but not insurmountable.
I resolve the Lotus and go for the Salvagers. He has to read the Salvagers and appears to
understand the combo, as he plays Force of Will. I Brainstorm in response and find my own
Force, allowing the Salvagers to resolve. I have an extra White and a Blue untapped, and he
asks if that’s it for my turn. I respond “Well, I’m going to try to win now, you might stop me.�
I return the Lotus to my hand once, and he has no response. I use the Lotus for White, and he
still has no response. I return the Lotus and play it again, breaking it for White again. Finally
he gets what is going on, and uses the Crypt. At this point I have 4 White floating, and simply
respond to his Crypt by returning the Lotus and the Spellbomb to my hand, and he now
understands the combo, as he scoops.

Game 2 is a marathon game.

Now that he knows the combo, he manages to counter my Salvagers, with the Lotus and the
Spellbomb in the ‘yard. Sadly, he has Crypt again, and uses it, removing a good number of
cards. He has sided in Flametounge Kavu, which he plays, offing a Trinket Mage, and beating
me up with it until I find Cunning Wish for Swords to Plowshares, bringing him up to 14, with
me on 10. .
We are both down to topdecking with most of the lands in our decks in play. I topdeck Exalted
Angel. He has  1 card in hand, but it’s not a counter, and my Angel resolves. On his
turn he resolves another Kavu, doing the 4 damage to my Angel, and then plays Fire to finish
it off. I get attacked down to 6, then topdeck another Cunning Wish, getting my second Swords
and Swords the Kavu, bringing him up to 17. I find a Trinket Mage, getting a Pyrite. The Mage
goes unanswered for 5 turns, and he Disenchants a Pyrite, which I use to do 2 damage to him
in response, leaving him at 5.
He resolves an Angel, and  I topdeck Tinker and go for it. It resolves, and I get the Colossus. He
topdecks Fact or Fiction, which he plays. This was the worst FoF I’ve ever seen from my
point of view: Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, Exalted Angel, Decree of Justice and Time Walk.
Well folks, what would you do? Under no circumstances can Time Walk and either Decree or
Angel be in the same pile. I split it: Angel and Decree in one pile, Time Walk, Demonic and
the Lotus in the other. He takes the Angel/Decree pile, and proceeds to hardcast the Decree for
2 Angel tokens, and passes the turn. I draw land, survey the situation, and scoop. Time has
been called for the Round, so we draw.

Games 3-5 Matches 1-2-1 Blech.

Round 5 vs. Brad, brother of Luke from Round 2, playing Dragon. .

Game 1 I play Land, Pyrite Spellbomb, go. He plays land, Vampiric Tutor go. I play Land, Lotus,
Salvagers, with one land untapped, and pass the turn.  He gets his combo, makes infinite mana,
and after using Bazaar of Baghdad through most of his deck, finds Ambassador Laquatus.
I ask if he wants to do it the easy way or the hard way, and he chooses the hard way. He mills
me for 3 repeatedly, until I hit my Darksteel Colossus, which I shuffle back in. At this point
I explain and he realizes that the Colossus will be left in my library no matter how many times
he mills me, and that I can then untap, draw the Colossus, and win with my combo. I explain
that I realized that the Colossus gives me some protection from Dragon by reading a thread
on a message board, themanadrain.com. He says he wishes I hadn’t, and scoops to my
combo.

Sadly, I figured this out a month too late, as last month I lost a game in Top 4 vs. Dragon that
I should have won, which would at least have meant a Game 3. C’est la vie. At least I learned
something.

Game 2 is about the same. I get my combo, he gets his, but has no way around my Colossus.
The only variation this game is that he Stifles my Salvagers to buy himself an extra turn to try
to find an answer. He doesn’t, and I win with my combo.

Games 5-5 Matches 2-2-1

Round 6 vs. Chris, playing R/G beats.

My friend and teammate, Dan, had played Chris last round so I already knew what he was
playing before the Match started. I remarked to Chris that I didn’t really want to play against
what he was playing.

Game 1 I keep a hand with the Salvagers among other cards.
he gets an early River Boa and Null Rod in play, but I have Cunning Wish for
Disenchant and a Pyrite Spellbomb to kill the Boa while he is tapped out. He seems
unconcerned, and I see why when he plays Kird Ape and adds Rancor to it. He swings twice
with the angry Ape and plays a second Kird Ape. At the end of his turn I play Cunning Wish,
grabbing Mystical Tutor, which I play, leaving me a Plains untapped with a Pyrite in play.
I grab the Enlightened Tutor, and use the Plains to draw a card off my Pyrite. I untap and
play the Enlightened Tutor at the beginning of my Upkeep, grabbing the Lotus. I play the
Lotus, break it for White and resolve the Salvagers. He is familiar with the Combo, and scoops.

Game 2 I side in 2 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Blue Elemental Blast, 1 Engineered Explosives
1 Mystical Tutor,
for 2 Cunning Wish, 1 Impulse, 1 Trinket Mage, 1 Time Walk, 1 Enlightened Tutor.
For some reason, I forgot all
about his Null Rod, my only thoughts being “It’s Aggro, side in creature kill!� So of course
He plays Null Rod on his first turn, off a Lotus, and adds a River Boa for good measure. I
realize my mistake at once, but since I have other win conditions, I’m not too concerned.
My hand includes Mystical Tutor, which I manage to resolve, grabbing Tinker. I Tinker
for the usual Darksteel Colossus, but of course I have an Island in play, so he attacks me down
to 11 anyway, and plays a second Boa. I attack him down to 10, as his Boa gets in the way and
Regenerates. On his turn he plays Land, Go. I draw a Blue Elemental Blast and attack him down
to 1. He topdecks a Forest and concedes, showing me his hand of Lightning Bolt and Blood
Moon. He asks if he had topdecked a second Bolt if I had the counter, and I flash the BEB.

Games 7-5 Matches 3-2-1

I keep my streak of above .500 finishes alive, My teammate finishes 4-2, and we stick around
long enough to find out that 4-1-1 is the cutoff for Top 8, and that he has finished in 14th.  I
finish 15th. Overall, I am happy with my deck. This month’s matchups were tougher, and
I wasn’t as lucky. That’s life.

For next month, I plan on the following minor tweaks:
-2 Polluted Delta +1 Island, +1 Plains or Plateau, probably the Plains, and swapping the
Mystical Tutor into the Maindeck and the Enlightened Tutor into the Sideboard.

Re: I@n: Yes, I did Swods the Dragon with its comes into play trigger on the stack. He still recovered, because I didn't draw anything relevant.
I probably kept a sketchy hand, with no threats and only answers, figuring I'd draw threats, which I obviously didn't.

Re: Methuselahn: I brought in the Angels every match except my T4 match against Dragon. I included the Aether Spellbombs for the reason you mention about letting the Trinket Mages search twice, and as the pseudo 5th-6th Pyrite in the case of the combo. Returning a Tinkered
Colossus would be good times, returning a Dreadnought would basically just give me another turn which, since I'm playing combo, is a good thing, but I'm not convinced that Aether Spellbombs are stronger than Angels or Cunning Wishes, or any of the other cards in the deck. To me they felt like the weak link, and the most expendable card in the deck, which is why I sided them out every match. Certainly there are situations where they would come in handy, e.g. a Control Magiced Colossus, but I have other answers for those situations that are just as good if not better (Disenchant, REB etc.).

That said, any suggestions are appreciated. This is still not a proven deck, and some of the bugs are still being worked out. My current plan for next month is to remove the Aether Spellbombs from the maindeck, and insert the Exalted Angels in their place. Chances are I will have to proxy the Pearl next time, and if I do the Time Walk will go back to being Impulse #4, though I am also considering Cunning Wish #3 for that slot. For the sideboard, since the Angels will be gone I am considering Stifle for at least one of the open slots, and perhaps Echoing Truth or a 3rd Swords for the other.

Tournament location: Dreamer’s, St. Louis Park MN
Tournament date: 9-12-2004
1st Place prize: Mox Jet
Format: Vintage, Unsanctioned, 5 Proxies allowed


    This was my second Dreamer’s tournament, my first being the Black Lotus tournament held
there in June. That time, I played mono-red Goblins, and went 4-3, starting 0-3, and finishing
with 4 wins in a row. This time I decided that Goblins wasn’t good enough, and I needed
something better. I play tested U/r/w Landstill for a few months, and decided that while the
deck was good, it wasn’t what I was looking for. It’s too slow, and has trouble finishing games,
let alone within the time limit of an actual tournament. That and other problems led me to
look for a different deck to play. I read numerous message board threads, looking for a deck
I could make easily with for the 5 proxy format. I stumbled upon multiple threads with the
Auriok Salvagers/Black Lotus combo deck, or decks containing that combo. I already had the
cards I needed, minus 1 Salvagers, 1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, which I figured I could get
easily enough, so I went for it. I didn’t use any of the lists I found on the threads specifically,
instead working up my own list from scratch while at work. Here’s what I came up with:

“Digging Up Bombs�

Creatures (9):
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
1 Darksteel Colossus

Draw (8):
4 Brainstorm
3 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall (Proxy)

Utility (5)
2 Cunning Wish
1 Time Walk (Proxy)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tinker

Counters (8)
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell

non-mana Artifacts (6):
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Aether Spellbomb

Mana (25):

1 Black Lotus (Proxy)
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mox Pearl (Borrowed)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxy)
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
2 Plains
2 Island

Total: 61

Sideboard:
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Misdirection
2 Exalted Angel

   The Salvagers/Lotus combo has been known about since the Auriok Salvagers were previewed.
For the benefit of those who may not know how it works, it works like this:
Have the Salvagers and a Black Lotus (or Lion’s Eye Diamond) in play. Sacrifice the Lotus for
3 White mana. Use 2 of that White mana to return the Lotus to your hand. You have a White
floating. Play the Lotus. Sacrifice the Lotus for 3 White mana. Use 2 of the White to return the
Lotus to your hand. You now have 2 White floating. This process can be repeated as many times
as necessary, and generate as much mana of whatever color is desired.
Clearly, a third card is needed to actually win the game. I chose the Pyrite Spellbomb as my
primary combo kill card, with backup from Aether Spellbombs, which could be ‘cycled’
repeatedly to draw into a Pyrite Spellbomb. Cunning Wish for Stroke of Genius
is the 3rd option, which I would then use to draw the rest of my library, drawing a Pyrite
Spellbomb in the process, and making Misdirection less of a threat, since it is easily possible
that my opponent would have less cards in his/her library than I do.

  The Tinker was a natural inclusion, since the deck relies on finding artifacts. The Darksteel
Colossus was also (to me) a natural inclusion, since it is one of the better threats available,
with only a handful of answers to deal with it (Swords to Plowshares, a bigger creature, etc.).
and adds an additional win condition.

I decided that 4 Pyrite Spellbombs was the right number, leading to the inclusion of the 4
Volcanic Islands. They could be used to kill small threats, such as Goblin Welder, could be
sacrificed to Tinker, and at worst could replace themselves with another card. Between 6
Fetchlands, 4 Volcanics and the Ruby, I should have Red mana when I need it.

The draw engine is solid. I swapped out the 4th Impulse for Time Walk the day before the
tournament when my friend and play test partner decided to lend me his Unlimited Mox Pearl,
since he was playing U/B/r and didn’t need it, thus freeing up a Proxy slot.  

The Trinket Mages are mostly there to find the Lotus/LED, though they can also fetch Moxen,
Spellbombs, or even the Sol Ring if necessary. They also attack for 2, which is actually relevant
against Control from time to time. The fact that they are larger than Gorilla Shamans doesn’t
hurt any either.  

The Sideboard is set up as a Wishboard with basically any answer to the various matchups
available for Games 2 and 3. The Angels are additional win conditions/threats, designed mostly
to help against Aggro and Control.

Going into the tournament the two matchups I was most concerned about were Dragon and
Workshop aggro. Dragon is just plain faster than my deck, and though I do have control
elements and Swords out of the board, I still felt that it was an unfavorable matchup. Workshop
decks have (generally) Trinisphere and large creatures, meaning that they can slow me down
significantly while beating my head in with Juggernauts. Again, I have control elements, and
plenty of artifact kill out of the board, but I thought that they have more threats than I have
answers for in the short term.

On to the actual Tournament results!

(Note: This report was much harder to write than my previous report, where I was playing
Goblins, so some of the specifics, such as opening hands, will be missing, but the general
flow of the matches is captured in my notes.)

It’s an uneventful 2 hour drive from southern MN to Dreamers, and we arrive with plenty of
time to get registered, scout a bit, play a practice game, and relax. Round 1 pairings are posted,
and Jason (store owner and Judge) announces that there are 57 players, meaning 6 rounds of
Swiss before the top 8.

Round 1 I am paired up against Garret, who is playing Animal Farm (Crucible of Worlds
Combo)

Game 1 I win the roll and choose to go first.
We play ‘Land, go’ for the first 2 turns. On his third turn he plays a Crucible of Worlds,
which I respond to with Force of Will. On my fourth turn I play out the Salvagers, but don’t
have the Lotus yet, though I do have a Pyrite Spellbomb in the graveyard. He plays lands,
including Wastelanding a few of my lands. I let his Exploration and Living Wish resolve, and he
wishes for
another Wasteland, a play that I forgot about and didn’t see coming. He resolves a Memory
Jar. My Jar hand contains 2 Force of Will, but only 1 other blue card. His contains at least a
few lands and a Crucible, which he plays, and I Force again. Luckily, he had no other action,
and he passes the turn.
I attack with the Salvagers for three turns before finally finding the Black Lotus and win with the
combo.

Game 2 I sideboard as follows: -2 Aether Spellbomb, -1 Impulse, -1 Trinket Mage +2 Angel,
+2 Disenchant.
He chooses to play, and I draw an opening hand of Sol Ring, , 2 Angel and 2 Fetchlands and 2
random card that I don’t remember. I choose to keep. Sketchy? A bit. However, being familiar
(somewhat) with
the deck, I didn’t think he had any creature kill or countermagic, and the prospect of 2 early
Angels was enough for me. Had I been down a game, I probably would have Parised.

He plays first turn Fastbond, which of course I cannot counter. He plays 3 additional lands,
and passes the turn. I play first turn Fetch, fetch out a Tundra, Sol Ring, and pass the turn.
He plays a Wasteland, kills my Tundra, and plays a Crucible. Things are looking bad for me.
I draw a basic Island, play it out,  play my face down Angel, and pass the turn. On his turn he
hardcasts an Elvish Spirit Guide to get in the way of my face down Angel.
  On my turn I draw and play Lion’s Eye Diamond, which I
crack for White, discarding my remaining Angel and lands. I use the White and the Island to
flip my Angel face-up and attack him down to 10, with me going up to 23. He again doesn’t
manage to draw anything that will help him, and passes the turn. I attack him down to 6 and
pass the turn. He draws and plays Horn of Greed, and several additional lands, still not
finding what he is looking for, and concedes.

2-0 games, 1-0 Matches

Round 2 I am paired against Rob, playing Gro-Atog. Rob looks pretty young, but looks can be
deceiving, so I ask him if he played last month. He replies that this is his first big Vintage
tournament. I tell him that I played in June and took 27th. I win the roll again, and choose to play.
I keep a hand with at least Force of Will and Cunning Wish. I play a land, and pass the turn.
He does likewise. On my second turn, I play land go again. He plays a Quirion Dryad, which I
Force, but he Forces back and it resolves. I still have nothing significant, and on his next turn
he plays a few cheap draw spells and the Dryad is 3/3, and beats me down to 13. On my next
turn I make one of my bigger mistakes of the day. I cast Cunning Wish, and choose Mystical
Tutor over Swords to Plowshares. I Mystical for Enlightened, Enlightened for Black Lotus,
and die to a 6/6 Dryad. Whoops.

Game 2  I side in the Swords and Angels, while siding out the Aether Spellbombs, 1 Impulse, 1
Trinket Mage.  I choose to play, keeping a hand with Force of Will, another Blue card, as well
as lands and Sol Ring. I play Fetchland, fetch a Tundra, Sol Ring, go. He plays land, Mox,
Dryad. I Force the Dryad., and he doesn’t have the Force this time, so passes the turn. On my
turn I decide to take the chance while he is tapped out and doesn’t have Force, to play Tinker,
sacrificing the Sol Ring. It resolves, and I go get the Colossus.  He frowns. I pass the turn. He
draws, plays a land and stares at his hand. Eventually, I give him a questioning look, and he
explains that he is thinking of whether or not his sideboard has any answers to my Colossus,
meaning he has Cunning Wish in hand. A few minutes later, he decides not to Wish for anything
and passes the turn. I untap, draw my card, and move to my attack step, attacking with the
Colossus. He takes 11 and I pass the turn. On his turn, he still doesn’t have an answer to my
Colossus, though he does take a mana burn for no apparent reason. On my turn I finish him off
with Mr. Indestructible.

Game 3 I don’t change my sideboarding. He chooses to play and plays land go. I play Fetchland,
fetch a land, go. Second turn he plays Night’s Whisper, which resolves. Eventually I play
a Tinker again sacrificing a Pyrite Spellbomb, which he Forces. Soon after that I find Lion’s Eye
Diamond and Auriok  Salvagers. I get the Salvagers into play, play the Lion’s Eye Diamond.
I show him the combo, and he concedes.

Games 4-1, Matches 2-0

Round 3 Vs. Tony, playing Masknought

Game 1 we play ‘Land, go’ for a few turns. I play a Trinket Mage, which resolves, and go get
a Black Lotus. He Duresses me a few times, and I lose countermagic. A few turns later I play
Auriok Salvagers, which he has to read. I have a Pyrite Spellbomb in the graveyard, and
after explaining the combo I win.

I didn’t see much of his deck, except for Duress, Impulse, and blue producing lands,
so I still didn’t know what he was playing. Despite that, I side out 2 Aether Spellbombs,
1 Impulse, 1 Trinket Mage, and side in 2 Exalted Angel, and 2 REB. Game 2 features more
‘Land, Go’ and more Duress. I have Exalted Angel in hand when he Duresses me, and I once
again lose Countermagic. He plays more lands, Brainstorm, and other non-business spells,
while I play a face-down Angel. I flip the Angel face up. I attack with the Angel 5 turns
in a row for the win. He never sees a Mask, and shows me Triple Dreadnought in his hand
at the end of the game!

Games 6-1, Matches 3-0

Round 4 Vs. Jeff (Methuselahn) playing Masknought.

I know Jeff is one of the better players, from his posts on TMD, as well as seeing him
compiling a list of what people are playing during the 1st round, using the pairing sheet, and
know I may be in for a rough time. As a side note, this is Jeff’s second round in a row playing
against a deck with the Salvagers combo, as in the previous round he played against a U/B (at
least) version. Also of note is that we are playing at Table 1.

Game 1 features me Tinkering out a Colossus, and the very next turn him Tinkering out a
Colossus. Our Colossi stare at each other for several turns, with neither of us finding any
action, until he is able to resolve a Skeletal Scrying for 6. He soon resolves a Mask, which he
promptly uses to play out a face-down Dreadnought. The following turn he swings with both of
his large guys. I block the Colossus with my Colossus, taking 12 from the Dreadnought, going
down to 6. When I draw a Mox Ruby instead of an answer, I concede.

Game 2 I once again side in the 2 Angels as well as 2 Disenchant for the usual 2 Aether
Spellbomb 1 Trinket Mage, 1 Impulse.
I choose to play, and resolve an early face-down Angel, but am lacking the 2 White to flip it
and have to attack with it face-down two turns in a row. I finally find the White I need, while
he has still not found a threat or an answer to my Angel, which brings him down to 7 over the
course of 2 turns, while bringing me up to 27. He resolves a Vampiric Tutor, going down to
5, which he then uses to play the Mask and the ‘Naught. He attacks me down to 15, while I
attack him down to 1, and finish him off with a Pyrite Spellbomb.

Game 3 I stick with my sideboard plan. This game features much ‘Land, Go’ and once again
I get Duressed a few times, though neither of us finds much action. I resolve an Auriok
Salvagers, but no Lotus but, he resolves a Tinker –> Colossus and smashes my face from 17 to 8.
I get lucky and draw the Lotus, but don’t have a Spellbomb or a Cunning Wish. At this point I
have 2 cards in my hand: Enlightened Tutor, and Exalted Angel. So here I am with ‘Arbitrary’
mana and no win condition. I have the Tutor for a win condition, but no way to draw a card.
I do some math, and realize that if I can resolve the Face-up Angel I can survive long enough
to get another draw step. I make 6 White and resolve the Angel. I make 1 more White and play
the Enlightened Tutor for Pyrite Spellbomb, leaving the Lotus in play, and pass the turn. On
his turn he attacks with the Colossus, which I block with the Angel. The Colossus takes me from
8 down to 2, and the Angel brings me back up to 6. He has no way of stopping my Combo,
and I win the match.

This was an intense match, at least from my side of the table.

Games 8-2, Matches 4-0

There are a few minutes left in the round, so I hit the restroom. The pairings get put up for
Round 5 while I am in the can, and when I get out I find I am playing Taylor Hustad. He was at
Table 2 while I was playing round 4, and I know he is playing Landstill. I head for my seat and
am headed off by Taylor and the 2 other 4-0 players. We all decide to take the Draw this round,
as it is highly likely that 4-0-2 will be guaranteed Top 8. We make the conditional agreement
to Draw in Round 6 if the pairings are as expected, and I take a needed break. Round 5 ends,
and we find pairings are as expected, and Jason confirms that 4-0-2 will indeed be guaranteed
Top 8, so I take the ID again. My Teammate has not been doing well, and has the bye for
Round 6. He plays a non-Tournament game, and as he is playing I inform him that I am in
Top 8. He finishes the game and we go for some supper before Top 8.

I get back to find that Top 8 has started 20 minutes ago, and my opponent is waiting. Jason
points out my opponent as none other than Jeff, a.k.a. Methuselahn, the same guy I played in
Round 4.

Top 8 Vs. Jeff, playing Masknaught. I remark that he is the last person I actually played, as I
had taken the ID the last 2 rounds. He remarks that I have had a long break then, which I
confirm. I realize later that by taking the ID the last two rounds I have received a lower
seed than if I had been 5-1 or 5-0-1, and am therefore playing Jeff again, which I would rather
not have done, considering that I consider the matchup to be 50/50 and know that Jeff is a
sharp player, whereas this is my first Top 8. But c’est la vie, and I am just happy to be in Top
8 at all.

We shuffle up, and I win the roll, choosing to play. Unfortunately for me, this game is over
very quickly, as he resolves a Mask and 2 face-down guys. If even 1 of them is Dreadnought
I am probably done, so I scoop. They are both Dreadnoughts. This was Turn 1. Ouch.

Game 2 I use the same sideboard plan I have used all day, siding in the Angels and Disenchant
for the Aether Spellbombs, Trinket Mage and Impulse.
I@n Degraff sits down to watch part of this game, and we chat a bit, me telling him that I am a
former Goblins player myself, and agreeing that Trinket Mages are really good. He comments
that this was not a matchup he expected to see today.
We trade lands and Force of Wills before I manage to resolve a Trinket Mage, grabbing the
Lotus.
I don’t have the Salvagers to seal the deal however. I do draw and play Tinker. His response is to
break a Fetchland and play a Skeletal Scrying for 1, which resolves, but doesn’t find an answer.
The Tinker gets me the Colossus, and I pass the turn. He is at 10 at this point from a
combination of my Trinket Mage, 2 Force of Wills, a Fetchland and the Scrying. He draws his
card for his turn, looks at his hand, and concedes.

It’s on to game 3, where I once again don’t change my sideboarding, but I believe Jeff does
change at least a card or 2 from Game 2. My notes on this game are sketchy, but I do remember
the gist of it. I Tinker a Colossus into play again and attack him from 18 to 7. He finds and
resolves a Mask, which once again gets him a face down creature with 1 counter. I am down
to 1 card in my hand, a Brainstorm, which I play at the end of his turn, seeing Auriok Salvagers
and 2 other cards, which I don’t really care about and don’t memorize, since I have the Lotus,
which I previously fetched with a Trinket Mage,  as well as a Pyrite Spellbomb in play,
also fetched with a Trinket Mage. My board is at this point: About 5 lands, 2 Trinket Mages,
a Mox, Pyrite Spellbomb and Black Lotus. I untap and move to my attack step, attacking
with the Colossus. At this point, the astute reader will note something: The fact that I didn’t
draw my card for the turn. Neither I nor Jeff noticed this, but my teammate, who is sitting
nearby watching the game does, and speaks up. Jeff calls, rightly, for the Judge (Jason). I sit
being upset at myself for doing something so dumb while waiting for the Judge. Jason
arrives and we explain the situation. He takes my deck and looks at the top 2 cards. He then
takes me aside and says that he has an easy question that will ensure that the situation is
correctly solved. Since I Brainstormed at the end of Jeff’s turn, I saw three cards. One of them
was in my hand. What were the other two cards? I explain that I didn’t memorize them, saying
that they were irrelevant. He says that they aren’t, and I agree, given the situation. He takes my
teammate aside for a minute, but I don’t hear what they discuss. He comes back and tells us
that since no plays have been made since the missed draw, and the only thing that has happened
was a Phase change from Main to Combat, that the corrective action is to back up and for me
to draw the card. He untaps my Colossus, and instructs me to draw my card, which I do, the
card being a Pyrite Spellbomb to match the one already in play. Jason also tells me not to do
it (miss a draw) again, or he’ll have to give me a game loss. I tell him I understand, and he
heads back to the front of the store to mind the counter.*  The rest of the game is rather tense.
I move to my Combat step and
again attack with the Colossus. He flips the Dreadnought, and I Spellbomb it for 2 damage.
He must block or lose, so he blocks and my Colossus finishes off the Dreadnought. I play the
Auriok Salvagers. Jeff ponders the situation, seeing that I have the combo if the Salvagers
resolve. He plays Demonic Consultation, naming Force of Will. There is one Force of Will
in the 1st 6 cards removed, but 15-20 cards later he finds the second one, which he plays, and
my Salvagers are countered. I pass the turn. He untaps, draws, and plays a card I did not
expect: Control Magic, targeting my Darksteel Colossus! Ouch! He passes the turn. I take my
turn and evaluate my options. I drew an Impulse, and have no other cards in hand. My outs at
this point are Impulsing into either Cunning Wish or Disenchant. I do have 2 Trinket Mages
to block, but even if I do block I go down to 12, and have no threats. I pass the turn, having
done nothing but stare at my notebook and the board for a few minutes. He takes his turn and
attacks. I quickly say ‘No blocks’ and go down to 8. I for some reason use a Fetchland, but don’t
have the mana to Impulse end of turn. I untap my stuff and draw my card for the turn. The card:
Disenchant! I Disenchant the Control Magic, taking the Colossus back. I then attack with the
Mages, bringing him down to 3 and pass the turn. He draws his card and concedes. After the
match we exchange ‘Good Match’es and he comments that next time I might not be lucky
enough to beat him twice in one day. I verbally agree and go to find my Top 4 opponent.

Games 10-3, Matches 5-0-2

Top 4 Vs. Matt, playing Dragon Combo

Matt is the owner of a gaming store himself in St. Cloud, MN. I tell him that this is the 1st time
I have played against fast combo, having only played Masknought before then. An observer
comments that Masknought can be fast. I agree, but comment that having a Dreadnought doesn’t
mean you win. Game 1 starts, and I have the Salvagers in hand, but no acceleration. The first
play of note is a Mana Crypt on his side, which he follows up with Intuition for triple Bazaar of
Baghdad. I joke that this will be a tough choice, and he jokes that he doesn’t have any foil
Bazaars. I pick one, and he plays it, then uses it, getting a Dragon in the ‘yard. On my 4th
turn I tap out to play the Salvagers, having had to use the Lotus for something, and also having
a Pyrite Spellbomb in the ‘yard, meaning that when I take my next turn I win. I never get to
take my next turn, as he gets his combo on his turn. I make him show me the kill card, which
is Ambassador Laquatus, and we move to Game 2.

Game 2 I side in 2 Swords to Plowshares and 2 Blue Elemental Blasts for 2 Aether Spellbombs
1 Trinket Mage, 1 Impulse. I thought the Angels would be too slow and the lifegain irrelevant.
Game two I keep a Force of Will hand with the Lotus and a Swords to Plowshares.
I don’t have much action beyond the Lotus in the first few turns, and he tries his combo with 3
Dragons and the Ambassador in the graveyard. I Force his Animate. He Forces back. I break the
Lotus for White and play the Swords, which resolves. Despite that, I still have no action. I
draw BEBs, Tinker, and Tolarian Academy, but I have no artifacts. The turn after I draw the
Tinker, I draw the Colossus.  I manage to Brainstorm the Colossus back into my library, but still
have no other artifacts to Tinker with, and no shuffles. He gets a Bazaar and resolves an Intuition
which he uses to get
Triple Squee, Goblin Nabob. He ends up animating a Sundering Titan, which kills my Tundra,
Volcanic Island, and Plains, as well as his Bayou, leaving me with just the Tolarian Academy
in play, and 2 BEB, 2 Counterspell, as well as Tinker in my hand, and the Colossus on top of my
library, when he plays another animate effect, this time going for the Dragon and winning.

My final tally is Games: 10-5, Matches 5-1-2, and 3rd/4th place, as there was no playoff for
3rd. For my efforts I received $30 in store Credit, which I use to buy an Exalted Angel
(Both Angels were borrowed from my Teammate), a
Lion’s Eye Diamond to replace the borrowed one, and an Auriok Salvagers, also to replace
one I had borrowed , leaving $10 left over, which I save for next time.

Overall, I am very happy with my performance, and my deck’s performance. The only changes
I might make are removing the Aether Spellbombs and replacing them with Exalted Angels,
and cutting the Tolarian Academy. The Academy seemed like a good idea at the time, but
being as it’s restricted, I have no way of fetching it, and many times don’t have more than 1
artifact in play, it’s really not that good. Also, cutting it has the benefit of leaving me at 60
cards instead of 61. The Angels I sided in for every Game 2 and 3, excepting only the Dragon
matchup, where I could just as easily side them out. Exalted Angel is just so good against every
matchup that isn’t Dragon. This also has the benefit of freeing up 2 Sideboard slots, which
means I can include Stifle, among other choices. After playing a tournament with this deck,
I feel that it really plays as a control deck that happens to have a combo or 2 in it, rather than
a combo deck. It being combo-control is one of the reasons that I had as much success with it
as I did in this tournament. Will the trend continue? Tune in next month!

Props go to Jason for holding these tournaments, and to my teammate
who let me use his Mox Pearl, Exalted Angels, and Lion's Eye Diamond.

* I know why I made the mistake of not drawing, and that was because I had my plays so much
set, that I rushed. I knew I was going to attack with the Colossus, and that he had to block or
lose, and then I could finish off the Dreadnought with my Pyrite, and that after combat I could
go for the combo. So I rushed my turn, not thinking about anything other than attacking. It
was an honest mistake, and didn’t affect the outcome of the game either way, as even if it had
not been discovered, I had the Impulse, which would have found the Disenchant anyway,
as I didn’t shuffle between the Brainstorm and end of the game.

Re: Stasis Matchup: It's true that I didn't need to Bolt the Falcon, but here is my reasoning: He was still at 13 at the time, and I didn't have any other Goblins in hand or on board. Had I not bolted the Falcon, he would probably have started blocking, forcing me to either lose the Raging Goblin, or Bolt the Falcon before Combat Damage anyway to save the Raging Goblin. I figured I'd just save time by Bolting the Falcon and attacking for 4, since his odds of finding another Falcon were pretty low. But I can see your logic as well.

Re: Clamp Match: The reason I threw the massive Burn at him was to put pressure on, and I knew he was running Carnival of Souls, which became useless if he drew it on 1 life. This forced him to play for survival rather than several possibly more conservative plays he could have made if I left him at 9 lives.  Giving Combo more time is always bad. As it was, he
had a couple of turns extra. Perhaps it was a mistake, but against Combo I don't like to play conservatively.

Re: Shaman vs Vandal: I've considered running Vandal over Shaman, and I might still test it. In general, even though the Shaman isn't a Goblin, his ability is more useful. He only causes problems when I have only Piledriver + Shaman on the board, or just Shaman on the board with a Grenade in my hand. These situations are not all that common.

That said, I do think I need to up the Goblin Count a bit, as there are times I don't have enough creatures, and I think Vandals should probably be at least a 2 of.

Re: Reckless Charge: I consider Reckless Charge to be a staple in Goblin Sligh. Early game, it's extra damage, since I'm going to be attacking anyway. Late game, I can peel a Fanatic or Piledriver off the top, and Flashback the Charge for an unexpected attacker. First turn Lackey + Charge + Piledriver/Siege-Gang Commander is game over against most decks, unless they have Balance at the ready. Which leads into:

Re: Siege-Gang Commander: You'll note that every time I got Siege-Gang Commander into play, I won that game. Yes, there were and are times that it sits in my hand because I don't have Lackey or 5 mana to cast him, but the times I do cast him and do pseudo-broken things to my opponent, or force through the last 2-4 damage via shooting tokens, or overrunning via the attack step more than makes up for it. Aside from all that, the Commander is why people fear the Lackey. Without the Commander, Lackey isn't nearly as frightening, as the worst I can do is drop a Piledriver (which is still good, of course, but not as scary as uncounterable burn from the Commander), and  I'd have to run something like Mogg Flunkies, which I really don't like.

I think for the next tournament, I am going to try something like:
-2 Blood Moon, +2 Goblin Vandals
As it will be Sanctioned, -1 Ruby, -1 Lotus, +1 Mountain, +1 Lotus Petal

I'm going to also be playtesting Strip/Wastelands, but I think that they will turn out to be bad for this type of Sligh.

And to the Sideboard:
-2 Flaring Pain +2 Blood Moon

Any more suggestions, comments would be welcome!

Mostly because I am not as familiar with FCG as I am with straight Mono Red Goblins. I figured that taking a deck that I was good at playing would be better than taking a deck I had never played, especially for as large a tournament as I expected this to be. FCG was represented quite heavily from what I understand, though none of them made Top 8 either.

The secondary reason is that I don't quite have all the cards I would
need for Food Chain Goblins, though I plan to try them out eventually.

Report on my tournament experience at the Type 1 tournament on
Sunday June 13th at Dreamers in St. Louis Park, MN

1st Prize: Signed, Unlimited, Black Lotus
2nd Prize: Signed, Unlimited, Ancestral Recall (if 60 or more players)

Format: Type 1, 3 proxies allowed.

My friend Dan and I leave at 9am, have a run of the mill 2.5 hour drive. We arrive
an hour and a half early, to find that the store isn't open yet. Lucky for us, the
owners are there early too, and let us in. We register for the tournament, and sit down.
I am playing Goblin Sligh (decklist to follow), Dan is playing Keeper (w/Exalted Angel
and Morphling). We play a practice 'match' and I smash his Keeper as usual.

The final turnout is 68 players, meaning the Ancestral Recall is in play, and there will be 7 Rounds of Swiss, followed by cut to Top 8.

My deck:

"Goblin Sligh"

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Gorilla Shaman (Metagame call)

2 Blood Moon (Metagame call)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Reckless Charge

1 Black Lotus (Proxied)
1 Mox Ruby (Proxied)
4 Barbarian Ring
15 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Shattering Pulse
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Scald
2 Flaring Pain
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Blood Moon
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Tormod's Crypt

Round 1 starts, and I am playing Chris, with BFD/ 7/10 Split

I win the roll and elect to play, always a good start with Goblins.
I keep a hand with Lackey, Raging Goblin x 2, some Mountains and Burn.
Turn 1:
I play Mountain, Lackey go.
He plays: Workshop, Mox, Trinisphere, go.
Turn 2 I attack with the Lackey, dropping a Raging, and a Mountain.
He plays land, Chalice for 2 (presumably to keep me off Piledrivers)
Turn 3 I attack for 2, and drop the second Raging Goblin. My draws have been mostly
irrelevant, though I am finally up to 3 land.
The rest of the game goes like this: He hurts himself with Mana Vault and Ancient Tomb, going down to
6
but brings out a Sundering Titan, which stares at my Lackey for several turns, before
its friends, Sundering Titan #2, and Sundering Titan #3 show up to the party. He swings
with a Titan, my Raging Goblin takes one for the team. I draw nothing, and pass the turn.
He draws and plays Triskelion. Facing down 3 Sundering Titans, I scoop.

In: Rack and Ruin, Shattering Pulse, Blood Moon. Out: Incinerates
Game 2 I keep a  hand with 2 Barbarian Rings as my lands, at least 1 Raging Goblin,
and 2 Rack and Ruin. I am playing again, so I drop Raging Goblin, attack for 1, go.
He drops: Workshop, Trinishpere for the second game in a row. My Raging Goblin attacks
mercilessly as he fails to find any action. Turns 3 and 4 are of note, as I finally have
3 mana to play Rack and Ruin, targeting Trinisphere and Mox, which meets Blue Elemental
Blast. I swing for 1 and pass, and he has no action and passes. Turn 4 I play Rack and
Ruin targeting Trinisphere and a Mox, which again meets BEB. My Goblin Rages some more,
eventually bringing him down to 14 before I find a Gorilla Shaman to keep him company.
He plays Chalice of the Void, with 1 Counter, which would shut me down, except for
the fact that I have Gorilla Shaman in play already, which I promptly use to kill his
Chalice. Misplay, or Mind Game? I don't know.
I still have only 1 Mountain, 2 Barbarian Ring, however the Raging Goblin, Shaman and
a Goblin Grenade bring him down to 5 with me on 10 from my own Rings, and him with
dead Goblin Welders (traitors!). The Shaman attacks for 1, and the Threshold ability of the
Rings let me finish him.

Game 3
He is playing and gets another early Trinisphere, while I have no Turn 1 play, and play
Mountain, go for 3 turns. He counters my Piledriver, and I pass. Eventually, he drops
a Platinum Angel, which I fail to draw burn for, and gets a Goblin Welder and a Sundering
Titan to keep her company. The Angel finishes me.

Chris was a good player, with a good deck and eventually made top 8.

1-2, 0-1
Not the start I had hoped for, obviously.

Round 2, Josh, playing R/G beats

Game 1: We trade blows, my Raging Goblin + Reckless Charge (and Flashback) vs. his
Treetop Villiage and Skyshroud Elite. Eventually, as in, Turn 4, I'm at
7. I attack him to 10 and pass the turn. EOT he Bolts me twice, untaps, and Incinerates
me.

I don't bother sideboarding, as my board didn't have anything for the
pseudo-mirror.

Game 2:  He plays early Call of the Herd, while Bolting my Goblins. When he Flashes back
the Call, and I don't draw my own Bolts, I lose.

1-4 games, 0-2 matches

Round 3, Taylor, playing G/b beats, with Black for creature kill only.

Game 1 we trade blows, him with River Boas, me with Raging Goblin, Gorilla Shaman, and
a couple of Reckless Charges. A few turns of this and we are both at 5. Eventually he
finds Call of the Herd again. After blocking his Elephant for a turn I Concede with no Goblins, facing
River Boa x2 and 3/3 Elephant.

I see only Forests, and think he's playing Mono Green. Out: Blood Moons. In: Disks.

Game 2 sees me get the early Beats with Raging Goblin, and him with nothing, though he
does play Bayou and Smother my Raging Goblin. However I draw Siege-Gang Commander, which
is too much for him, and I win.

I don't change my sideboard plan.
Game 3 we exchange blows again, him with Troll Ascetic, me with Mogg Fanatic, Reckless
Charge, and eventually Goblin Grenade. With me on 6 and him on 9, he pulls Call of the
Herd again, and I lose.

2-6 games, 0-3 matches. I'm out of Top 8 contention, but we keep playing anyway. With
luck I can still make 4-3.

Round 4, James playing Mono Blue Stasis (!) with Forsaken Cities for the lock.

My friend played James in round 3, so I know ahead of time what I am facing.

Game 1 he has the Zephyr Falcon beats, and no Stasis. I have Raging Goblin beats, which
he never blocks. Eventually, we are both at 13, and I find a Piledriver. When he can't
counter it, a Bolt to the Falcon clears the way, and I win a few turns later.

In: Red Elemental Blast x 4. Out: Blood Moon x 2, Incinerate x 2.

Game 2 sees him counter my threats, eventually playing Stasis. I draw no land for
several turns before finding  Black Lotus, which I break for Red, Lightning Bolting
him 3 times. He takes it all, passes, plays Chill and Time Vault. He skips most of his
turns using the Time Vault while I discard, and he counters once I do get 3 untapped lands into play.

Eventually, I have 5 cards in my Library. I count my lands in play, and realize that I have
3 Mountains left in my 5 card Libary. I scoop, hoping for enough time for game 3, as this
game took quite some time.

Game 3 I get the early beats, but he eventually gets Stasis going again. He plays Chill
and counters some of my spells. I manage a Goblin Grendade somewhere in here. He plays a
***Second*** Chill, but loses the Stasis lock
for a turn when I manage to REB it for 5 on his end of turn step.  I untap, and he counters
my 2 spells for the turn, leaving me 4 untapped land. He plays another Stasis, and I
draw no land for a few turns, but manage to have Goblin Lackey and Siege-Gang Commander
in hand. He maintains Stasis, and passes the turn. I topdeck the Lotus and try the Lackey
as time is called in the round. He has no counter, and I pass. He maintains Stasis, and
plays a 3rd Chill! However, it's too late, as I swing with the Lackey, drop the Siege-Gang
Commander, and shoot him with a token with him on 2 life. We finish just as the Judge
asks me how it's going.

3-5 games, 1-3 Matches. My friend loses this round, putting him out of Top 8 contention
too, but we decide to keep playing.

Round 5, Ben, with Blue/White/Black unpowered Keeper (sort of).

Game 1 he rolls over to my Raging Goblin and Goblin Lackey, with Bolt doing cleanup
duty.

I see Blue producing lands, so I bring in Scald and some Blasts for Incinerates and random
cards.

Game 2 he Vampiric Tutors early, and I have the early beats, as usual. I get Scald into
play, and he starts taking damage, eventually playing The Abyss. Unfortunately for him,
I have Siege-Gang Commander, his 3 friends, and a few other Goblins, and
they finish him quickly.

5-5 games, 2-3 Matches

Round 6: Josh, playing (no joke) Kobold Clamp! My friend had played him in an earlier
round as well, so I had the scouting report on his deck, in addition to having seen
a decklist on various message boards. He wins the roll and elects to play.

Game 1 is worth the turn by turn plays:

Turn 1: Him: Swamp, Go.
         Me: Mountain, Mogg Fanatic, go.
Turn 2: Him: Swamp, Spoils of the Vault, naming Skullclamp. He starts flipping cards,
with him counting out loud, and me counting on my fingers. I run out of fingers, and he
runs out of lives, not finding Skullclamp in the 1st 20 cards. Quote "I love that
card."

I don't sideboard anything.

Game 2 I beat him up for a few turns, but nothing serious. He gets Kobolds and a Clamp
and a Carnival of Souls and combos me out with Tendrils of Agony.

I reconsider and board in the Rack and Ruins and the Shattering Pulse.

Game 3 is the best game of the 3. An early Piledriver + Mogg Fanatic has him down to 10,
when I throw 9 points of burn to bring him to 1, but fail to do the last point. I Rack and
Ruin a Clamped Ornithopter (and the Clamp), and he draws 2.
On his turn, he plays a Mana Crypt, a Kobold, and a Tendrils to bring him back to 7. On my turn, I
draw Incinerate, which I play to bring him to 4. On his turn, the Crypt backfires on
him, bringing him to 1, but he has another Tendrils and 2 spells to put him back to 7
again. I draw nothing for 2 turns, and neither does he. His Mana Crypt backfires twice
more in a row, putting him on 1. I have Siege-Gang Commander, but have been stuck on 4
lands. On my turn, I draw Black Lotus, which I play, break for Red, playing the Siege-Gang
and shooting him with a token for the win. This was a tense game for me, as any turn
could have been my last.

7-6 games, 3-3 matches

Round 7 I fail to write down my opponent's name.
He is playing U/W Landstill w/Decree of Justice

Game 1 sees me get out to a good start, but he tutors up a Balance, plays it, and drops Standstill. I get
nothing on my turn, and he Cycles for EOT 3 Soldier Tokens.
I draw no more creatures for many turns, eventually
having to resort to Bolting Soldier Tokens. His Standstill fills his hand, and his Soldiers
do me in as he counters the 1 or 2 Goblins I do draw.

In: Blood Moon, Blasts. Out: Incinerates.

Game 2 is tense, as we go back and forth, me managing to get what I thought was the
upper hand, getting him down to 4 life. He topdecks Balance, plays it, and starts beating
down with his Faerie Conclave. When I am at 8 life, I finally manage to Bolt him, giving
me Threshold, but no Barbarian Ring. He beats me a few more times, and I finally draw the
Ring. When I play it, a brief discussion of how the Stack works ensues, and he eventually
realizes that he has to respond to my sacrifice of the Barbarian Ring by trying to find
a Swords to Plowshares for the Mishra's Factory that he played last turn. After many
card drawing spells, he finds the Swords to live, but can't attack in case I topdeck a
lethal Goblin. Instead, I topdeck a Bolt, which he can't counter.

Game 3 I get the most broken hand of the tournament for me: Mountain, Mox Ruby, Black
Lotus, Red Elemental Blast, Blood Moon, Mogg Fanatic, Mountain.

Turn 1 he plays Tundra, Go.
I play Mountain, Mox, Lotus. I break the Lotus for Red and play the Blood Moon, with the
REB as backup. He has no counter, and it resolves. I play Mogg Fanatic, and he concedes.

Final Standings:

9-7 games, 4-3 matches, which ends up being good enough for 27th place out of 68 people.
My friend takes 29th place, after losing to  1 or 2 land Belcher for the second time in 7
rounds.

Overall it was a fun day, despite my mediocre finish.

For reference:
The Winner's Report is here:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17818&highlight=dreamers