If a car is heading from NYC and has an extra seat, I'd be happy to pitch in for gas/tolls.

I won a Black Lotus running a Vintage deck with four copies of Night's Whisper. It was an Oath of Druids deck, but, still — Night's Whisper will always have a special place in my Vintage heart because of that.

I'm glad to see this black sorcery is gaining some popularity in the current metagame. I saw several during the Eternal Extravaganza event. I've always thought it was a good inclusion in virtually any sort of Vintage deck that could reasonably cast it, perhaps even something obscure like a Junk Hatebears deck.

As of right now, I'm running Preordain instead of Night's Whisper, which, clearly, is not comparable, but is better suited for what I want to do with my current build. The thought of bringing Night's Whisper back crosses my mind every so often. Maybe this will inspire me to sleeve some up again sometime soon.

I'd have to look specifically at his list and at his choices to comment specifically, but if the field is Shops, Rods, and Dredge with Blue sprinkled in, Strixis is the deck to play, not Angels. Drain isn't the problem with blue underperformance, it's what it is built into.

Oh lawdy, the weekend before my birthday

You're right that in that exact scenario, the Grixis player wins the fight over both Oath's (and probably the match) anyway.

However, by FoWing on the first attempt, you at least give the opponent a chance to mess up. Given the mulligan to five, it's pretty clear that Gwen's all-in here, so making the play that would at least push through Oath in one more scenario, seems pretty decent.

Scenario: opponent has FoW, Drain Flusterstorm. You have 2x Oath, FoW, blue spell.

Given:
- Oath of Druids 1 on the stack
- FoW (opponent) on the stack targeting Oath.

Option 1: let FoW resolve and go for Oath 2 --> Opponent has Drain + Flusterstorm left, so Oath is never going to stick.

Option 2: FoW the FoW. Opponent now has two possibilities:
2a. He Flusterstorms the FoW and has Drain left --> same result as option one (No Oath, no party)
2b. He Mana Drains the FoW (a pretty juicy drain-target, btw) --> your second Oath sticks.

So, just considering this specific scenario (and I'll admit that there are many others, some of which favor FoWing first and some of which don't), the second line is definitely better, since it at least gives your opponent a conceivable chance to screw up.

Hi, i was one of his teammates was in Bom with the oath player.

The reason he forced was the following:

After double Demonic Gwen thought his opponent certainly had at least another counterspell. He was actually playing around force, drain + flusterstorm.
In this case when Gwen forces, and opponent drains, than he can drop his second oath through the flusterstorm.
If he doesn't force there, his opponents possible flusterstorm+drain is live for his second oath.

In the end it wasn't needed.

Although he made during the day some strange plays (and misplays) this was rather a smart play to make in the end of a long day.

Troll Time! It's now the day after tomorrow and I don't have any sweet charts to look at!

So where can we see some decklists?  What's in this famous merfolk list?

That doesn't necessarily lead them to conclude you have Drain.  Perhaps one mana isn't enough for you at instant speed because:
-You have REB and Drain and Ancestral.
-You have Flusterstorm and want to be able to pay for their Flusterstorm.
-You have Vendilion Clique and REB.
etc.

I think it would be a big mistake not to play Lotus if you're going to DT for it.  Slightly limiting the opponent's information does not seem worth cutting yourself off Drain.  What if they untap and play Jace?

You could also consider DT'ing for Mox Sapphire and playing that, which more directly telegraphs that you have Drain, but provides a permanent source of mana.  This still enables you to Drain and then untap into Duress+Jace, plus your Lotus is still in your deck.

UW Landstill and Oath. Egan played a very similar list and I believe he had a more shop infested Swiss.

What big tournament? LOL

To me the question is whether it is ok to not announce a trigger that happens until significantly later in order to gain an advantage.

You have to still announce your chalice trigger. Not announcing it is just sloppy play because "everyone shortcuts" in vintage

Since the rules aren't all enforced and most Vintage tournaments are friendly the Regular REL seems like a good choice but a tournament with hundreds of dollar in prize seems more fit for a Competitive REL. I feel like Stephen was a victim of the confusing Missed Trigger Policy. A lot of people don't understand the policy which is understandable with all the changes there was recently and how differently the policy affects the different RELs.

So wait... I see a BBQ... What type of beverages will be at (or allowed) at this thing?!?

You mean Bring TPS Back or Build a Tropical Storm deck that isn't Doomsday because this is just confusing!

I guess this explains why somebody snatched up the playset of Golgothian Sylexes that had been collecting e-dust on the eBay store I manage for over a year now. Was it you, Proto? :p

Obviously City in a Bottle gets better against Dredge as it now no-sir's all flavors of City of Brass. But is that enough for it to warrant any sideboard space in a competitive Vintage deck? I still vote no. If enough people try anyway, City of Brass is easily replaced with Gemstone Mine, Tarnished Citadel, or some other rainbow land.

Though I don't recall this issue ever coming up in an actual tournament, I'm pretty sure proxy Bazaars would get nerfed under the old rules. At least, that would be my ruling.

It's not surprising that Travis would mix Rituals and Workshops.

Mike, you gotta make TheSkull.dec happen now. I expect to see turn one Lotus, Rit, Rit, land, Necro, Batterskull in the near future.