This is annoying as hell for reasons that have been mentioned. Letter to Mark Gottlieb sent!

Well, I have been running three Duress in my board for a while
and was never really happy with it. Along three Redblasts,
they take up too much space and TPS is the only match up
i boarded in all three. Against Control I feel three Duress plus
three Redblasts is overkill and makes you remove too much
business.
For now I settle on one Extraction and the Platinum. As you
stated, Platinum is quite versatile and defending it against TPS
with Counters and Redblast and maybe a confidant on the
table;-) will have to do. After all, I think Confidants make me
keep Platz.

@Phele:

I played Gifts in the last six tournaments I attended (which is about
once a month due to time matters) and made top8 in the last four.
5 out of 6 of these tournaments, i played Burning Wish maindeck.

I just wanted to test FlameVault in a tournament and I liked it.
I'm not saying I'm not returning to Wish/Tendrils but FlameVault has
a couple of advantages which are nicely summed up by Kowal in his
NY P9 Report which can be found here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27283.0

1-3. Agreed, BUT take into account that a lot of games you will not
draw confidant, will get it countered or removed. In these games
FlameVault performs just as well whereas your strategy suffers.

4. I've got a Null Rod-proof win in Tinker/Collossus. FlameVault is immune to graveyard
hate which is a huge issue as people are siding Withered Wretched and Tormod's Crypt
increasingly. When playing FlameVault you just laugh because they wasted a card and
gift for draw/tutors and win the game.
Tendrils on the other hand is dependant on Will which uses the graveyard. A lot
of times Tormod's Crypt will give you a headache or at least slow you down.
Playing FlameVault makes it able to just ignore graveyard hate.

5. Agreed. Right now for me, the advantages of FlameVault justify the one "wasted" slot.

I never played Tendrils main but will instead of Burning Wish
when I decide to cut FlameVault.
Finally playing FlameVault I managed to win games that Tendrils
wouldnt have won. It's that simple. I suggest you try it out,
maybe it comes down to preferences.


@Gabethebabe

Running the Tendrils kill, Merchant Scroll may be the better option though it cannot find Will.

As stated above the next time Ill play the Tendrils kill, I would maindeck Tendrils over Burning Wish
as I have lost games because of 1R. There is a chance I'd maindeck both.

Hi, I played a very similar decklist to a 3rd place finish in Iserlohn
a week before. The biggest difference is I swapped the Burnig Wish/
Tendrils for the FlameVault combo. It made me win games Tendrils
wouldnt have. Also I played 16 lands. I had a swamp in the sideboard
and will consider moving it maindeck.
I played no tops at all and confidant damage was never an issue as
stated in the post above. I never felt comfortable with the last three
slots in Gifts. I didnt like Misdirection nor Thirst nor Oath. Confidant
just fits perfectly, increasing the deck's power even more.

The topic including decklist and a few comments can be found here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27465.0

Top8 decks are up and can be found here:
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=369

I still copy/paste the deck I played:

1 Black Lotus
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Time Vault
3 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mana Drain
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Fire/Ice
1 Flame Fusillade
1 Recoup


Lands (16):
2 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
 
1 Darkblast
1 Echoing Truth
1 Engineered Plague
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Pithing Needle
1 Platinum Angel
2 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Swamp

About the sideboard:
If you wonder about Goblin Bombardment and Engineered Plague,
there's usually a lot of oath around here and it feels very
comfortable to remove the confidants for Bombardment/Plague and
Echoing Truth.
Darkblast is a must for the inevitable Confidant Battles and the single
Pyroclasm teams up with Fire/Ice in Aggro matchups.
Hurkyl's Recall and Rack and Ruin come in against the lock decks,
though I considered cutting the R&R since all it ever takes me is
a blue bounce which will be scrolled up to win the game.
The swamp is my latest addition for Stax-Decks to allow for
1st turn Confidants without having to worry about your U-Sea.
Pithing Needles and RedBlasts should be obvious.

The list has been played on serveral occasions by different
players in Germany, usually running Burning Wish and
Chain of Vapor over the FlameVault combo.
Not playing the tendrils kill makes Chain of Vapor unnecessary,
though its a very nice solution to scroll up. Also Burning Wish
doesn't make the cut being utility only.

I believe dark confidant is the most amazing card for vintage
printed in a long time. 1st turn confidant usually just wins if
it's not removed immediately. I think everybody who has played
Bob will agree, so I dont have to elaborate further.
On the other hand the deck is regular Gifts and thus not dependant
on confidant at all. I side 'em out in particular matchups without
ever having to alter my strategy.

There is one matchup I am worried about. TPS.
I feel this deck is overall superior but there are those games you lose to
Duress, Duress, Necro or a similar bomb. I do not like to devote 3*Duress
or the like in the sideboard so I opted for Platinum Angel. It won me
a match against TPS so it might stay but right now I am thinking about
a single cranial extraction, since TPS in Germany tends to dropping Red
and running double Tendrils a win condition. Extraction can be tutored
for and leaves them "just" with condidants to win the game.

Thats it for now (still at work;-)

Hi there,

since nobody ever seems to post results from Germany except for Karlsruhe,
I'll give you the link at least: http://www.is-magic.de/
Go to "Turniere" and choose the appropriate date for standings and
deck breakdown. Top8 decks usually follow during the week.

The winning deck was UBW actually, running Meddling Mage and Swords,
i believe.

66 players, 7 rounds of swiss, no top8:
12*Stax
11*TPS
9*Oath
6*Gifts

I placed 3rd playing a Confidant Gifts deck similar to the one Gabethebabe
posted in the Vintage Open Forum, running no tops and including the
Flame Vault combo for the first time, which was really good to me.
There were serveral games I won, which i wouldnt have running Wish/Tendrils.

I went 12-0 in duels and lost the 5th round 2-1 to the eventual
winner. I feel the deck is amazing and for me it only seems to lose
when in mana troubles. I'll post a list if you are interrested.

Sorry for the short post, but I'm at work right now.
Actually I just wanted to link results with top8 to follow.

 

Have you ever thought about using  4 Myr Servitor plus 2 Skullclamp as a draw engine?
When i read the the pimp taiga report i immideately swapped the Thoughcasts for
Servitors and added 2 Skullclamps. Sure it takes up space, but they all can be pitched
for A'S Intuition and it should draw a hell lot of cards. First get Lotus to get things started.
Leave one servitor in the deck in case of removal and clamp for 4 cards a turn.

The report can be found here:
http://www.planetmtg.de/articles/artikel.html?id=1929&typ=2&action=comments

Top3 deck lists:
http://www.trader-online.de/turniere/Decks/2005-02-T1.html