I can't commit until probably less than a week before (school things) but I'm excited to try to make it out there.

Assuming I can go, I can either carpool from Pittsburgh or take the Greyhound.

The four originally slated to make the expedition are from the Harrisburg/Hershey area, but split up to go back to school.  The only person you might know is Mark Hornung; the rest of us have only gone to a handful of tournaments.  Unfortunately, the whole trip is off due to lack of commitment (AKA flaking).  On the bright side, the rest of the Harrisburg group seems to be catching on to the Vintage scene, so look out for some ringers from central PA in the future.

I'm looking to make the trip from Pittsburgh and pick up some friends from State College and Harrisburg.  One of them is new to Vintage (this will be his first tournament) and he doesn't have the cards to make a deck.  The rest of us only have one deck, so would anyone be so gracious as to help out and lend him a deck for the tournament (preferably blue-based, Fish, or Oath)?  Thanks much.

EDIT: False alarm, he bailed.

Is anyone making the trek from Pittsburgh?  I don't have a car so I'm looking for a ride, although I might have an out to take the Mega Bus to State College and tag along from there.

Cabal Ritual doesn't seem that impressive, but I think if you look at it more as a color washer than a +1 mana source (no threshold) then it pulls its weight.  Most importantly, it can cast a Necropotence off a black source and artifact mana.

Threshold is kind of hit or miss, especially since the games where you've reached threshold are probably the ones you're going to win, but as always you can point to a situation where a +3 ritual was the difference between winning and losing.  Keep in mind that threshold can be pretty easy if you sacrifice all of your lands to Chain of Vapor, or if you EOT Chain of Vapor your Necropotence so you can discard naturally.  In general, I look at CR as a +1 color washer that has the potential to be a (black) Black Lotus.

As for Preordain, I've found myself always wanting an extra cantrip after Ad Nauseam/Necroing and drawing a bunch of topdeck tutors.  Let's just say I've used Ad Nauseam to cantrip after a topdeck tutor.  Not fun.  So despite just defending Cabal Ritual, I'll probably swap in a Preordain for a CR.


You've piqued my interest, sir.  Unfortunately, I'm not feeling terribly creative right now so what does a Doomsday pile in ANT look like?  Do you add a few extra cards to the main to support it?  Also, now I'm thinking about adding some number of Doomsday and Emrakul/Shelldock Isle to the side for the Shops matchup, my thoughts being that your best engine against Shops is also BBB (Necro).  Unfortunately, that'll probably be too many SB slots.

EDIT:
The Doomsday/Emrakul/Isle SB plan against Shops is actually just bad.  Wasteland and Tangle Wire completely screw you, plus sphere effects still count towards casting Emrakul.  However, it could be worth it if you can EOT Hurkyl's, then Doomsday on your turn with a cantrip in hand to get Brainstorm.  Total cost: BBB (Doomsday) + U (cantrip) + U (Brainstorm) + 1U (Cloud of Faeries) = 1UUUBBB.  Ugh, maybe not (and it still dies to Wasteland and Tangle Wire).

It's entirely possible that no serious plan for blue-based control is a mistake.  When I first was getting familiar with the deck, I quickly became worried first and foremost by Shops decks, so I was thinking "omgomgomg need anti-Shops tech."  Thus, I ended up with the Serenity plan, which made my splash white.  I would've liked to add Xantid Swarms (and it's certainly still possible) but I figured the Shops matchup was way more important.

I guess against blue-based decks I've always just had enough Duress effects, although there were a few times where I had to go off without knowing several of my opponent's cards and just got lucky.  I've never thought of Bobs in the side, but that makes sense.  It could just be that the blue matchup doesn't need too many cards, and that any extra cards are just diluting the deck.

Just keep in mind that I don't have a good way to test, just whatever people have the night before I go to tournaments with them.  So I would be wary of thinking that I have some super-secret tech - I probably just got lucky again

I'd like to give a nod to ANT too - I think in the hands of a skilled pilot it can surprise some people.

I started playing Vintage in November 2010 and chose ANT (over Dredge, the two cheapest I knew of) because it's fun and relatively easy to pick up for a combo deck.  I have to give a lot of credit to the discussion in this thread for helping me with card choices.  If I recall, I started with the old Meandeck ANT list and updated it such that our main decks are nearly identical.

So, knowing nothing, I took the deck to Blue Bell (11/20) and managed to get extremely lucky, both in play and matchups.  I lucksacked the crap out of my Oath opponent round 1, and faced only one Workshops deck (UbaStax, I was super confused when I saw Uba Mask for the first time) going 4-0-2 and getting blown out by Dredge in my quarterfinal match (oops).

Next I took ANT to Bloomsburg (12/11), where I played much better but managed to dodge Spheres left and right (my friend played against three Shops decks - what a bud).  I went 3-1-1 (the loss because my deck crapped out on me) and didn't face Shops until the finals, where I was fortunate enough to split against Espresso Stax.

I'll shut up now because I have few insights to offer other than if I can get super lucky and do well with the deck, starting from scratch in Vintage, then perhaps an experienced pilot can do even better.  (I get the feeling that the experienced players turn their nose up at the deck, choosing something more complex, like TPS.  Only babies pack more than one Tendrils.)

Deck lists: Blue Bell (-2 Flooded Strand, +2 Marsh Flats), Bloomsburg

Basically I need to make it from Forbes Avenue near Pitt/CMU in Pittsburgh all the way to the store in Long Island and back.  My best bet is probably to find someone in the Pittsburgh area who's going and tag along with them (don't worry, I pay) for the round trip.  Unfortunately, I need to be back at a decent hour on Sunday to make Monday classes, so no day two.  Any help is much appreciated but don't go too far out of your way because I still have other options (albeit more painful than a straight drive).

I'm moving to Pittsburgh (Oakland) for school and won't have a car but I'd still like to go to the Grudge Match (gotta use that bye!).  If anyone has any suggestions on taking public transportation to get there or wouldn't mind taking on another passenger please shoot me a message.  Thanks!

Andrew K. here.

@Allen
Haha, don't think I wasn't aware about how lopsided it would be.  I was trying to be all "yeah I guess I'll split" when inside I was thinking "splitsplitsplitsplitsplitplea sesplitsplit."

Top 8 Report

Rounds 1-5, Quarterfinals, Semifinals
I didn't face any Workshops so I didn't auto-lose.

Sorry my report is so short but that's mainly because a) it would be a lot of "I Duress/Thoughtseize and take FoW/Drain.  Mox/Dark Rit/Lotus into Necro/Ad Nauseam/YawgWill.  Tendrils. and b) it's the truth.  I have protection from bad matchups.

Thanks all for a good time and thanks to Steve for having made plans

Messrs. Hornung, Elias, and Berse

-Andrew K., 8th place at Blue Bell 11/20/10

P.S. In no way is this vote an admission of having received sexual favors from Mr. Hornung.