Sadly, I will not be there.

I cannot deny any of these statements.


To actually answer the questions:


Don't sell yourself short. This is exactly why I ran Crypt but not Sol Ring. Good call.

I ran Iona, Shield of Emeria because I expected a lot of people to test their Gifts and/or Mentor decks. I thought naming Blue might lead to a few free wins.

I heard that Rob Edwards is just plain crazy and there was no reasoning behind his card choices.

I second that. Of his podcasts that I've listened to, I've highly enjoyed each one even though I wouldn't call myself a history buff. The podcasts are a great way to pass the time during a long work commute or road trip.

The last time I said I would try to make a TDG event, I got seven inches of snow. Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

JD, this report was a highly entertaining read. Thank you for sharing.


BTW, you're totes prettier than Sarah.

Who's playing some Vintage this weekend?

I enjoyed the write-up, Hrishi, and congrats on making top 16.

Congrats, Vasu.

Sounds like your round one opponent was Pops Ferrante.

In game one of our match, I also played Thoughtseize turn one and during the Will. It was even more brutal than you remember. In game two, I mulled to five and you kept seven, but I still managed to empty your hand after you played FoW pitching Misstep to counter my FoW on your Cage. After I dealt with Cage and Priest and you were hellbent, you top decked the second Priest. In game three, I Missteped your Cage, Misstepped the same Cage you Noxious Revivaled, then you Disenchanted the Oath, but it was the fourth piece of hate in Priest that got me. I assembled Show and Tell and Iona a turn too late.

Looks like I'll have to wait another month to make a TDG event. I hope the weather doesn't deter too many from coming.

In my continued quest to try and remember how to play this game, I might make a long overdue return to TDG.

Beaver, or anyone else coming from that neck of the woods, could you please bring my Mox Ruby and Black Lotus?

What are you talking about? You dominated at Cards Against Humanity.

There is a real possibility I make it out for this one.

Making the stupid long trek from State College, PA to Columbus, OH for a Meandeck Open (8 hours one way?). Hang out with the awesome Ohio crowd. Play one of the guys I came with in Swiss AND top 8 (slops for that). Split top 4.

Learn about Sandwich Punch. Watch a sandwich get obliterated. Experience a Thurman burger. Burger defeats me.

I heard that a certain someone who was on hiatus maybe returning for this one.

Like last time, I only need to vote for three.

Shawn Griffiths
Justin Kohler
Keith Seals

It looks like I'll miss my first TPG event when it's not snowing. 

I've had a lot of memorable games, but I think my favorite one is from the same era with the same deck. I don't know if I'd call it my best game per se, maybe best overall tournament. It comes from TMD Open 12.5. (If you're a fan of old school Painter tech, check out Oli's list.) Six years ago seems like an eternity. My memory of the event is probably not 100% accurate. I feel like it requires a little setup first.

Anyway, the event was the day before classes started at Penn State. Sean Robbins and I were crazy, or maybe dumb, enough to make the drive up there and back. I think I got to bed at 4:00 am the day classes started and decided to just skip what I hoped would just be a syllabus day. I was cruising along until I got a game loss in round five. It was after I got deck checked and incorrectly listed my fetchlands as four Flooded Strand and two Polluted Delta instead of a 3/3 or 2/4 split. I lost that round. Then I got paired against Rich Shay in round six. I asked Rich if he would like to ID, but he wanted to play. Obviously, he crushed me in two games. Being the amazing person he is, he signed the match slip as an ID anyway.

In top eight, I got paired against Matt McNally on Control Slaver. I won game one. Game two is a hazy memory at this point. Some highlights I think I remember: I Blue Elemental Blast a Goblin Welder, he taps six mana during his turn to eat my Sensei's Divining Top with his Gorilla Shaman while holding two Mana Drain, he casts three? spells off Boseiju, and I finally land the killing blow with Yawg Will into Demonic Tutor into Lava Dart for the last point of damage. Lava Dart is overpowered.

Of course I have to face Rich again in top four. I somehow manage to win game one. At some point in game two, I play Duress and pass. Rich plays a FoF, and I correctly split the piles. From the Duress, FoF, and number of cards in his hand, I know exactly what Rich has in hand. I double- and probably triple-check just to make sure before I use exactly all of my mana to play Painter, Grindstone, and activate. I do this even though I know he has a Grindstone in hand. It leaves him with a Darksteel Colossus in library. He Grindstones me back, leaving me with just a Darksteel. I pass the turn, and he decks.

I probably couldn't make it to the next TMD Open, so I scooped to Oli in the finals after we split the credit.

TL;DR - I won a top eight match with Lava Dart, which I also accomplished several years later, and then I won the top four match.

I will not be in attendance of this awesome event.

This might be the last tournament I make for the foreseeable future. Hope to see everyone there.

A lot. Honestly though, your guess is as good as mine, Will. I've kept track of the when, the where, what I made top eight with, how high I finished, what I lost to, and sometimes what I won since my first top eight. But I never kept track of every tournament I attended.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.

Yes, my report was indeed an homage to Raff's Vintage Champs report. The last paragraph of this article is a twist on the Tenacious D song Tribute.

I tried to make the article short and sweet and probably spent the most time finding/researching the quotes.

Thanks for reading, and I hope I can write about the next 50 sometime in the distant future.

I recommend reading this even if you don't play UW. Show the Rodney Dangerfield of Vintage some respect.

Shawn Griffiths
Justin Kohler
Keith Seals

I don't need to vote for five.

If you've never taken one before, this one is a good one to start with. If you've faithfully taken each previous one like me, this one has an interesting twist and is worth checking out.

Josh, for my feedback, highlight this: I got 9/12 correct because I confused seals for otters. This quiz, besides maybe the Trap one, was the easiest to date. If you're trying to make the quizzes more accessible like you previously mentioned, then I would call this one a success. I was one of the people who thought the previous difficulty level was just fine, but I understand why you made the change. Maybe I missed it, but is there a way to review all of your answers? The recap at the end of each previous quiz was helpful. If the user wanted to see all of the deaths, they could use the 'back' button of their browser. That made it quicker than having to restart every time which was nice. A minor nitpick - the load times for each page was much longer than previous quizzes.

I'd rather not spoil anything for anyone who hasn't taken the quiz yet.

Nice report, Vasu. Your style of humor and title amuses me.

What happened here?


It's not Nature's Claim that you should be worried about. It's Abrupt Decay, which is why I like Will's idea of testing Witchbane Orb. I also like the idea of swapping LoA for the Mountain to free up a sideboard slot.