Great article as always.  My only complaint...How can the Bazaar of Baghdad deck be also known as Seal Team Six?  Shouldn't it be Johnny Cage vs the Republican Guard.

Yeah, that makes it more difficult, I have been trying to figure out with using the sea first but haven't come up with a solution getting around having the fetch to find second land drop that doesn't allow an open turn for the opponent to drop a followup resistor.  I am looking forward to hearing the solution using the fetch.

I will say though with my above time walk plan, if you drop sea first and fecth the island out of your pile, that would leave 2 Gushes and Maniac.  2 out of 3 times you will draw a gush on your time walk turn to allow the scenario play out.  Not terrible odds considering game 1 shops is favored.

Here is another try, only requires using fetch for land drop prior to thoughtsieze so you don't shuffle your library:

Play fetch first, getting sea to thoughtsieze.
I would take the Sphere. Play Lotus, crack Lotus for BBB, cast Doomsday and pass the turn.  DD pile:
Time Walk, Gush, Maniac, Island, Gush
Their turn I'd let them resolve Chalice on 0 and 1, and FOW Throrn (or top decked lodestone/sphere/tangle) pitching Mystical.
My turn, draw Timewalk, drop sea, cast timewalk.
Time walk turn, draw gush, cast gush and float UU drawing maniac and Island, play Island and tap for U, and cast maniac. Pass the turn.
They get one turn to try and kill maniac, if not win next turn with gush, unless a sphere effect lands, but win on next draw step unless lethal damage dealt.

I really liked the articles, and have enjoyed the additions to the material in the Understanding Gush book.  I find the deck development and scenarios very informative.

For the workshop puzzle, here is what I came up with, but I am sure the is a better answer (new to doomsday).

I would take the Sphere.  Maniac gets around thorn if it lands.  Play Lotus now and pass the turn. Since I got Lotus out before Chalice came down, I'd let them resolve Thorn and Chalice on Zero but would counter chalice on 1 with FOW pitching Mystical

Next turn make my land drop (drop and crack Delta for Trop), crack Lotus for BBB, cast Doomsday tapping Sea for Thorn, and make this pile:
Gush, Fasbond, Gush, Maniac, Island and pass the turn.

At which point I would look to Gush into fastbond and land a fastbond to develop me the mana to cast Maniac.
 
For example: Following turn untap, draw Gush, Main phase cast Gush tapping both sea and trop floaing UG and paying U for thorn.  Replay sea for land drop this turn. Cast Fastbond with floating G tapping sea for U for thorn.  Drop Sea off fastbond (-1). Cast Gush tapping sea for U for thorn and draw Maniac and Island.  Replay Sea, Trop and now Island off fastbond (-3).  Tap out for UUG and cast Maniac and pass the turn to win on next draw step.

This is most likely not correct though as it is weak to a second top decked sphere effect or tanlgewire.

After seeing the first of the season, I told my wife Barney and Robin are getting married.  When they were together the first time they were both younger more individualistic people, the timing wasn't right.  The story line seems to be shaping up to them now learning that there is more to life than the individual (Barney having the deisre to be with one woman rather than all women, and Robin seeking comittment rather than fearing it) and thier relation will be able to work and not be determental to each other.
 

A new show that has caught my attention is Person of Interest.  I have always liked J J Abrams shows, and this one has really drawn me in early, the plot is very interesting and I like the character development. 

I too enjoy How I met your Mother, though I fear it is nearing the end of being any good.  Typically happens to most shows when the characters most veiwers want to get together finally do, and then all interest is lost and the show struggles...I fear How I Met Your Mother is heading this way.

Thank you for the article.  I was hoping you would do an update likes this after reading your book and watching the Champs coverage, since Bob/Gush didn't get discussed in this detail.

I noticed your final decklist had replaced Jailer with Spellbomb, but the sideboard chart still refered to Jailer....I assume you are promoting Jailer rather than Spellbomb against dredge?

Lastly, after watching the TSO coverage, will we expect an article like this on Cobra/Gush deck you won with in the future?

I really like design of the card.  She has potential to be a very powerful tool for a reanimation deck.  I like that she is able to follow up a discarded reanimation target next turn by forcing a your opponent to sacrifice blocker.  The sac effect takes away the weakness of exhume.  Probably best suited for Legacy.

For Vintage, I agree with DubDub that she does well against most tinker bots (except Battlesphere) and Oath. She is subtully powerful agains all Shops decks (except for welder varieties) as she will most likely be paried with Dark Ritual, thoughtsiezes, counters, and a draw engine.  The discard will can hurt shops since they have little card draws, and can handle one or more of thier creatures. Good follow-up to a counterd 1st turn sphere effect to stabalize the board early on. She will need to be paired with a draw engine (Gush, Bob, Jace), but has the potential to fuel a Dark Ritual combo or control deck.  I approve and look forward to testing since dark ritual needed some help.

I like balance in a deck like this as well, and the heavier use of white over red and green is something I am going to have to test inm y version of The Deck.   I  just think E-tutor EOT for Seal of Cleansing against a shop deck will be a good. And even beter post board for Eflux and Serenity. 

Jace is just a great fit with Cruible/wasteland locks, post mind twist and pre balance plays.

I agree the play logistics of this is a nightmare (which goes with the theme of the set).

I think the most trouble will be limited play, like at pre-releases.  Every booster is getting one of these cards, but not all are getting the checklist cards.  At pre-releases I see few people running opaque sleeves, but all will have these cards and some players won’t have the correct number of checklists.  Hopefully they send more checklists for pre-releases.

The other concern I could see happening, is someone checking off all of their checklist cards with the bomb double-faced card they pulled and/or inserting more checklists than double-faced cards to up your chances of access to one of them if your pull a limited bomb double-faced card.  Deckchecks rarely if ever happen around where I play, even in tournaments.  

I am just amazed how bad these double faced cards are.  I understand the desire to have the creature change and therefore have differnt art to represent it, but that could have been done with a token.  Can you imagine the wear and tear on a high dollar chase mythic such as the new Garruk having to be pulled in and out of a sleeve repeatedly...oh but you have this handy card you can write on to take place of the card in your deck.  Sounds a lot like a proxy to me. 

If it opens the door to WOTC printing and allowing proxies in sanctioned Vintage I am all for those consiquences of this crazy idea, but since I know that will never happen, then I just hate it. I didn't like level up, and this is way worse.

Also, how do you not let an opponent know you are playing with these when representing your deck and sideboard at the begining of a match?  Don't worry about that other stack of cards, those are just my zombie tokens..

The Vintage tournament at Monster’s Den comes around only once or twice a year, so I rarely get to play Vintage in a tournament, but it’s my favorite format so I follow it on the sidelines year round.

Going into the tournament, I was expecting a mix of MUD aggro, Tezz/Vault, Gush, and Dredge.  I figured blue decks to be the majority of the field with a small mix of MUD aggro, dredge, and storm combo.  Turned out to be much more Slash Panther than I expected (probably 30% of field and at least 3 of top 8)

I was planning to play MUD, Gush or fall back on my pet deck The Deck.  I started work on tuning my deck to see if I could match the metagame, but I felt like I wasn’t exploring my options enough.  MUD didn’t fit my play style being aggro, and I didn’t have Smokestacks or Welders to make it more interesting for me.   So I started to work on Gush.

Looking at all the top Gush decks, and reading Menendian’s Book on Gush (which helps with the play techniques and deckbuilding), I wanted something in between Steve’s Bob/Gush deck or Shay’s Gush/Tendrils deck.  Menendian’s deck was going to be pushing aggressiveness too much for me, and Shay’s deck was more my speed with Jace and Drains, but I didn’t have the time to put into playing enough games to get comfortable with a tendrils win and the nuances of that streamlined of a list.  What I settled on was taking Pikula’s winning deck as my starting point.  Here is his list:

Deckname: 4-3-2

3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
2 Island
6 Fetchlands
Tolarian Academy
5 Moxes
Black Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt

3 Dark Confidant
1 Blightsteel Colossus

2 Jace the Mind Sculptor

4 Force of Will
2 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Drain

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

3 Preordain
4 Gush
Brainstorm
Ancestral Recall
Mystical Tutor
Time Walk
Tinker

Fastbond

Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Sensei's Diving Top

Nature's Claim
Hurkyl's Recall

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trygon Predator
1 Nature's Claim
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Mental Misstep
2 Sower of Temptation

I really liked the deck especially the main decked Mental Missteps, Drains, and Jaces.  I really needed to just change the side board for the metagame I expected and possibly the main.  Looking at the other Bob/Gush lists, they didn’t have Mana Crypt, and I wondered if the life loss with Bob, Gush, and Crypt together would be too much, so I decided to cut it.  After loosing Crypt from the list, I cut the Academy in favor of another fetchland because I didn’t want it to turn off Gush.  I then fit 2 Trygons main to fight the MUD decks and cut an island for it since Steve and Pauls Champ’s lists ran 13 and 14 land perspectively and I felt losing the 15th wouldn’t be much of a problem.  For the sideboard, I chose to splash red in the main to get access to Grudge.
Here is the list I sleeved up with (pasted from Cockatrice):
 
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Dark Confidant
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
2 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Drain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Preordain
4 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Time Vault
1 Tinker
1 Fastbond
1 Voltaic Key
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Nature's Claim
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Volcanic Island
2 Trygon Predator
4 Scalding Tarn
SB: 2 Mental Misstep
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 2 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 1 Lightning Bolt
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt

Round 1 Win: Oath with Iona/Painters Servant
Game 1 I was able to Pierce his opening Black Lotus. I realize he is oath when orchard comes down on turn 2, and he Consults for Oath of Druids.  I exiles Iona and bins Painters Servant resolving Consult.  I follow up with a trygon and next turn attack to blow up the Oath (leaving a Grindstone which had resolved), and was able to win shortly after with trygon and spirit beats.
Game 2 was interesting in that I mull to six and keep Gush, Vamp, 3 land, Mox.  Turn 2 after I get land and mox in play he is able to thoughtsieze, I vamp in response to get drain.  I pass next turn with 2 island and drain up, drain his Oath and after he passes I top deck Will.  I won shortly after.  (I tanked a bit on what to vamp for but drain felt right as he had orchard in play already and I had to counter the follow-up Oath).  What would you have vamped for?

Round 2 Loss: MUD with Slash Panther
Game 1:  I believe I loose the die roll, but am able to get Bob on board.  I failed to draw into much business and with tangle wire, beats, and Bob damage, I loose.
Game 2:  I am able to play land, mox, Time Walk. Then follow up turn I have a choice.  I have FOW, Gush, Time Vault, Hurkly’s but no land.  I decided to land Time Vault now and before I get locked out from playing it and have force for the next threat.  Next turn he drops revoker on time vault.  I decide not to counter as I can hurkyl it away, but then he casts a sphere of resistance.  I decide to counter the sphere pitching Hurkyl’s since I wanted the Gush for more land.  I don’t draw into land for 3 turns and loose to cat beats.  Looking back I maybe should have pitched Gush and played the waiting game with Hurklys.  Any thoughts?


Round 3 Draw: Gush (Storm? I only saw Blightsteel win)
Game 1: Plays out like a typical Gush mirror.  I loose a counter war and can’t stop Blightsteel.
Game 2: Again plays out as a typical mirror, but I am able to drain into a will turn and win.
Never got to game 3 due to time.

Round 4 Win: Bob Gush (Menendian’s List)
Game 1: Again plays out like a mirror match, but I am able to put together Vault/Key
Game 2: Same as before, but he gets Vault/Key
Game 3: If I remember correctly I win with Blightsteel
Note: Mental Misstep was great in this matchup.

Round 5 Win: Tezz/Vualt
Game 1: Blue Mirror what I was able to eek out the win with Bob after I had to tinker for top to loose from his draws.
Game 2: Goes to turns, but with Bob out I am able to Will a huge turn and win with Tinker into Blightsteel.

Top 8
Quarter Finals Loss: Keeper
Game 1:  After a counter war where he tries to land Tezz unsuccessfully, he follows up with Jace and Fateseals for the win.
Game 2:  After much work I am able to get Bob in play and then a land a Time Vault.  I my turns, I am able to dodge 4 blind Bob flips at 2 with only a Preordain until I get top and win with Bob….Foreshadowing.
Game 3: After an early stripmine on my first land which sets me back a few turns I am able to again get bob down on the beatdown plan.  I use the Fastbond engine to dig for a win, but draw into several lands.  He is in topdeck mode, and lands an EE to blow up my mox.  Next turn I draw into a Tinker, with no artifacts.  I have him down to 7 life with Bob beats, but I’ at 5 life and now can’t use the tinker I top decked to get top.  I drop the top card for Bob and reveal a FOW. 

Even though it was the first time I have played Gush in a tournament, I felt comfortable with the plays and the power of Gush.  I don’t know yet if Bob is the way to go as I didn’t get to cast him often and when I did…died to him a few times. If I continue to run Bob I would probably find room for another Top in the main.  Mental Misstep is great and unexpected for many players.  I also really like having the red splash for REB, and grudge, but probably didn’t need a 4th Mental Misstep (maybe the 3rd trygon). I also need to test more against MUD as it feels like such an uphill battle.

I will also add it was hard to loose to a keeper deck in the Top 8, as it was so much like my pet deck I have run in the past (including Engineered Explosives).  Getting Mind Twisted games 1 and 3 really sealed the deal.  I actually think it is fairly strong in the current metagame with access to counters and LD.

Interesting deck, I have played a similar deck in the past, and lost against it last tournament when I decided to take a gush list for a spin and forgot how badly Mind Twist can wreck people.

I am intriqued that you have gone more white rather than red/green for your artifact hate.  I have thought about doing that but not done so yet in my deck because of the value of ancient grudge. 

With your deck going more white main for the seal of cleansings, have you tested Elightened tutor?  Seem like it would get you articaft hate, cruicible, and time vault in a pinch.

Other inclusion I would look at would be Jace the Mind Scultor (possibly over Fact or Fiction), he becomes so strong after you have disrupted their manabase and can fateseal them stunting their draws for mana, and as a bonus bounces Blightsteel.

Keeping in mind all options we have (Going for Needle, Going for Spellbomb, Setting up next turn tinker) are all weak to the hate they are sideboarding, here is my thought process:

Needle will get a Bazaar activation in response and most likely a dredger in the yard (at most 3), but the power of needle is it will shut down one of the 3 ways they can get cards in the yard (Bazaar, Dredging, and Cleanup discard).  So on their turn you have limited their option to one of two things, drawing off the top looking for a way to remove needle or replacing their now single draw into dredging. If they don't have the hate to remove needle and no option to remove it from the graveyard (unless they side ancient grudge), they will be force to try and top deck the answer to needle.  If they force the dredge, they get at most 6 cards in the graveyard, none of which will kill you this turn.  This give you the option next turn to upkeep Vamp for Spellbomb and remove the yard eliminating the second of 3 options they have to dump cards in the yard and will be left with clean up discard which by now will be about 2 turns.  You will only have to deal with any nacros or bloodghasts they were able to dredge into with those 6 cards.

Now Spellbomb will not nullify dredging, as your opponent can still dredge to try and force you to crack your spellbomb early to make it less effective.  They will also keep Bazaar active so they have a way to get dredgers into the yard after you use Spellbomb.  Now, I am not a dredge player, but I would suspect if they have a dredger in hand with no hate, they may respond with a Bazaar activation in response to Spellbomb to get a single dredger in the yard.  Then on their turn slow dredge on their draw step to try and get you to crack your Spellbomb and hit a Nacro or Ghast ready to drop a land, and leave Bazaar up for after you crack it. If you don’t crack it they will continue to apply pressure draw step dredging with Bazaar up to dig if needed to find the hate which gives them 2 draws extra per turn if needed.  They can filter less needed cards with Bazaar they don’t need when Spellbomb is cracked for a turn or two.

Of course with the Spellbomb first, you will probably get Needle with vamp next turn and they crack spellbomb after you land needle to limit the same options as needle first.  My thought is that needle first will limit the impact of the extra cards Bazaar will let them see. The big difference I see is Spellbomb can be pressured off the table without hate, where Needle needs hate to be removed pressure from the yard won’t affect it.

Good topic to discuss...maybe I am wrong in my anaylisis who knows, but the process of analyzing it after the fact and thinking about it from the dredge players perspective really helps.

Congrats on the win.

@hitman,

I understand and agree Dredge is going to take out a number of Fatestichers, Dread Returns, and DR Targets.  I was just trying to say that in going for either hate or the win, the dredge player will only need 3 cards to answer your threat or GY hate.  Both need mana and a dredger to be effective, but the key is getting a answer to your hate (chain of vapor or nature's claim) or a way to strip your win con (Cabal Therapy) or bounce it (chain of vapor).  

Now maybe someone wants to crunch the numbers, but lets look at it this way.

Dredge will have 8 answers to needle, but it will limit their dig to 3 cards (2 from Bazaar and 1 draw), and the answers have to be in hand or drawn from the library.

Dredge will have 4 ways to strip your tutor, but they can dig 5 cards off the library (4 from Bazaar and 1 draw), but this answer can be also be dredged and cast by sac'ing a creature (chain and nature's claim can't be cast from the yard).  Additionally, they have 4 ways to bounce your win condition in chain of vapor.

So Chain of Vapor with mana will ruin all scenarios.  Nature's Claim will stop Needle and Spellbomb, Cabal Therapy will stop the tutor if cast twice (but can be done with 1 in hand).  I think they are close, but I tend to favor controlling the Bazaar to reduce the cards they have access to.

Brain, great article.  Tilting is something I think all Magic players need to focus on because it's so easy to happen.

In regards to Dredge hate, since you are such an advocate of a 6+ sideboard cards for dredge, it would be nice to read a detailed article on game 2 strategy of blue vs dredge from both sides of the board...playing dredge hate effectively and effectively playing around it.

It is also interesting your article talks about sideboarding for Dredge and a glimpse into Mental Misstep breaking into Vintage decks...since decks with Misstep are better positioned to protect sideboard graveyard hate.

Good exercise to think about.  I agree with Metman, you need to either win this turn, or disrupt the dredge player. 

Hitman’s scenario is strong if the dredge player cannot double Cabal Therapy (which by passing the turn puts you on a turn 2 win and your opponent knows they need to strip your hand or win next turn), but does give the dredge player 2 Bazaar activations and a draw step to win or find and play double therapy. (which would be therapy, black land drop and Nacro or Ghast during a dredge)

Disruption options are to Fetch, Sea, Crypt, Sol Ring, Demonic, for either Needle or Spellbomb.  Both easily handled by in hand hate if they have the mana to cast it.    If they need a hate card or mana, Needle will only give them 1 Bazaar activation and a draw step to find it before you can Vamp next turn.   Spellbomb gives them 2 Bazaar activations and a draw step to find it, but anything put in the yard while digging will be gone.

All of these come down to dredge player getting a 5C land, a hate card or therapy, and a dredger to get the ball rolling.  Either way you go you're telegraphing what the dredge player needs to assemble to keep you from winning.

I think it comes down to your read of your opponent.  Is his hand have hate, mana and dredger light? Then setting yourself up for a turn 2 win is probably best.  Is his hand missing mana or hate, then Needle or Spellbomb.

In a tournament setting, I would have to say my play would probably be to get Needle in play on the Bazaar hampering it's use if there is no hate in hand because I would expect them to have it and be digging for mana.  I would have a hard time sculpting the turn 2 win in my head being a newer player and tend to play more controlling rather than aggressive.

I'd be curious what a Dredge player's input on playing against the options.

Great episode, I really enjoyed the interviews. I hadn't given it much thought before now, but Nick's point about Power as prized for Vintage tournaments makes a lot of sense.  I know regardless of the format, a cash payout based on participation never draws me to a tournament, but as an example, I made plans to play a local Legacy tourney giving away a Lotus.  Locally, the tournaments really fluctuate unless high dollar cards are being put up as prizes.

I personally think that Legacy has peaked as far as players in the format.  I actually believe the peak was the time between the Survival ban and the printing of Misstep.  The banning of Mystical Tutor IMHO started to get players scratching their head about the management of the format, then banning of SotF drove some of them away, and the big blow was printing of MM.  The entry into Legacy as a format for a lot of players was with Goblins and home brews.  MM created a higher bar to entry into the format for new players by reducing the lower cost options in the format.  Combine this with the expensive cost of staples in a format needing multiples of the staples to be competitive, this has neutered entry of new players into the format.

Tournament turnout will still be good as long a Star City and others have regular Legacy events, but will slowly dwindle due to natural attrition that all formats see since few new players will be coming into Legacy. If however Star City moves to modern, then Legacy will see a much faster decline back toward levels of play that it was prior to the SCG tournaments (or slightly above those levels).  This will not only be due to the lack of SCG tournaments, but also the reduction in attention from Magic writers and players.

Great report, I really liked reading how you tuned the deck leading up to the tourny.  I found it really interesting you started off wanting to run a Jace deck and in the final list Jace was cut. Considering this can you expound more on your thoughts of Jace vs Clique, since one of you goals was to deal with Blightsteel in hand and both handle this.  I understand the interaction wanted on the stack, but would like to hear more specifics on the results from the tournament, such as:

What type of games states during the tourny did you find Clique to be better?

What game states would you have rather had Jace?

How much does this change if (when?) Blightsteel becomes Time Vault?

I do understand that you would have Metamorph in hand and the sphere would limit you the next turn if you miss the land drop or if a sphere lands on the other side.  I actually would be looking to use the 3rd Revoker next turn to shut down any Mox or artifact mana not named by the other Revokers, thereby locking the opponent's mana down further.  If they do find the pieces to land Precursor, you still will have Metamorph the following turn if you make the land drop.

We'll have to agree to disagree, but for me it comes down to the 3rd Revoker will only give you one more chump block and prevent use of one more piece of artifact mana (Mana Vault), Sphere will slow all of the opponents plays, and either way you have the Metamorph to answer Precursor.

Yeah I did mean prison decks.  I would say mostly stacking your upkeep triggers for optimal play. 

For example, I was testing the list in your article against Matt's Rune-Scarred Demon Oath list.  Oath and orchard(tapped) and Island on one side with Shop, Chalice (0), Mox Pearl, Smokestack (1 soot), and Tanglewire(4) with a spirit token on the other side.  Stax players turn, with no creature threats in hand, what are the things to be thinking about when stacking these triggers on my turn and the following turn with Oath in play.   It may be obvious to someone playing it, but for me just getting into testing Stax Prision, it would help to hear someone else's thought process determining lines of play.

Nice article and good to see you writing again.

I have been looking into playing more Stax and any other information on threat order and use of the stack would be great.  I need to go over Nick's primer again, but more thoughts on play scenarios with Stax would be great in a follow up article or posts.

I honestly forgot about Precursor, I just started testing the Cat lists and was using the list in Steve’s Slash Panther thread without Precursor. I want to understand the matchup better so with that said, is the 3rd Revoker really shutting Precursor off more than sphere?

With 3rd Revoker your opponent needs Shop plus Lotus or 2 Mox, with Sphere your opponent needs Shop plus Lotus, Vault or 3 Mox.  What Sphere does do is make Lodestone and Panther harder to cast (Shop plus Lotus, Vault or 2 Mox) as well as all other plays.  Yes the 3rd Revoker will get you another blocker to slow down Precursor beats a turn, but I don’t know that it prevents the Precursor play any more than Sphere. 

Mana is my other concern with this hand, and I feel with the Shop in play and a Sphere I am ahead in the mana and making it more difficult for the opponent to lock me down with another Sphere or wasting my Shop.  I also would be looking to use the 3rd Revoker next turn to keep any artifact mana locked that my opponent plays if they can’t stick a threat due to my Sphere.

I really liked the game scenarios, I paused the pod cast after you laid out the scenario to write down what I would do and then compared my answer to your analysis. 

Scenario 1: I would play Shop, Revoker (naming Mox Ruby), Mox Jet, Sphere of Resistance.  I felt that more than likely you would be facing down countermagic and getting a 1st turn lodestone countered would be hard to recover from with that hand, and rather bait out a counter with Revoker into Sphere, as losing either one is not as detrimental as losing Lodestone.  I also felt Shop into Wire if countered would allow another land drop by the opponent to get further past your sphere effects.

Scenario 2: I really wanted to know what my hand was in this case.  If I had a Lodestone or another Sphere to follow up next turn, then I think you are right that naming Sol Ring is correct.  Without a threat or another sphere in hand, the opponent will be out from under the wire soon.  Even a drawn wasteland will do no good against 3 Island reducing the number of effective follow-up plays.  Without knowing what I had in hand, I also came to conclusion that Sol Ring was correct as I would draw into mana denial much easier than a finding a clock to race the soon to come Jace if I didn’t name Sol Ring.  I would probably name Time Vault with a Lodestone or Panther in hand.

Scenario 3: Revoker naming Sol Ring is much easier call with 2 spheres in play and only 1 land. 

Scenario 4: I would let the Panther through and keep Confidant as well to try and make land drops.  I will say you said you had a Mox Emerald in play, so Nature’s Claim is a valid play, and I would consider it, since Panther negates the Jace in my hand.

Scenario 5: I agreed Workshop, Lotus, 2 Revoker, Sphere, except I named Sol Ring and Mana Crypt with the Revokers.  I agree Lodestone is the threat to worry about, but Crypt, Lotus, and Vault along with a Shop will give them a turn 1 Lodestone, so I chose to name the longer lasting effects, to keep ahead in the mana denial, since Metamorph can trade with a Lodestone I rather try to keep the longer lasting fast mana negated.

Unanswered scenario: I would let Crucible resolve.  I have a basic island in play, and they already have a creature. I should be able to find Oath before they find Strip Mine.

Question of the Week:  I really like the Demar's control lists, but I think Espresso Stax will win Vintage Champs.

Suggestion:  It would be really helpful to post the deck lists and scenarios to refer to when listening to the pod cast.  Also include what is in hand when laying out the scenarios as that really defines some of the choices.

Here are the shows I look forward to watching the most:

1). Dr. Who
2). Damages
3). The Good Wife
4). The Closer
5). Community

I will say, I do think HBO is doing amazing TV shows, but it is not in the budget.

I have been thinking about what you could do about the cards getting replaced with a counterfeit, and I think anyone doing this would want to find Heavily played Power since you would want to keep renting them out to garner more profit.   I would actually consider "stamping" the cards with your business logo/address on the white border, then when wanting to sell them have someone alter the art and paint over the stamp with a black border.

Renting them out a lot will cause them to wear out quite a bit due to re-sleeving. To reduce this, I would rent them out with new perfect fit sleeves and opaque sleeves with the logo of you business on the back.


This may be off topic, but at a tournament like the Vintage Champs, do they do deck checks and inspect Power for authenticity?  What is to stop someone from competing with counterfeit Power now? 

Great podcasts, but I agree with Twaun007, your voices aren't balanced.

Question of the week: new M12 cards to see the most play in eternal formats

Vintage: Buried Ruin
Legacy: Phantasmal Image
EDH: Swiftboots

I was suprised you guys did not talk about Jace's Archivist.  Not that I think it will see much vintage play, but it is certianly playable.  I mean if Azure Mage is going to be discussed as possibly playable, Jace's Archivist should have been as well. 

Wow, that is a really strong hate bear.  The  will make for some interesting deckbuilding choices.  I am glad it is not legendary.

Your articles were always a great read and I will miss them.  Thank You!

I really like that the CMC is  and can be found with Trinket Mage.  I see it more Legacy playable in than Vintage in a deck as a 1 of with Trinket Mage.  In Vintage, it would be an interesting answer to Tangle Wire.

I really wish it had flying though, but that must be what was given up to make this cost