I totally have Drains for you.

ill be there holding down hte 0-2 drop bracket.  bob dude, you better show up. 

Congrats again Trav.  Bob is still ass though.

Wow, Batman is a 15 seed?  Dude beats Superman and only merits a 15 seed?  Preposterous.  Gargamel is a 15 seed and he couldnt even beat a bunch of 3 inch tall blue dudes(and chick).

7  Emperor Palpatine
10 Hellboy
Im taking the underdog here.  Hellboy takes it down.

I'll be making it over for this one, no doubt.

If def was your list I jacked, nice job.

I havent played dredge since the deck ran Sutured Ghoul/Dragons Breath, but since Lou picked it up I watched/discussed it a lot w/ him.  He deemphasized the combo aspect of the deck and focused on massive disruption and Ichorid + Zombie tings which I liked.  I ran the FKZs mainly bc I want to take advantage of the win now aspect when it shows up, but really its not really that much of a concern.  If I could have found an Angel of Despair before the tournament I would have run that over one of the Zealots.  I dont think what you have in those two slots will affect your G1 winrate all that much, but I could be wrong.  In short FKZ was fine, but I think a lot of cards would have accomplished the same thing.

I really like the MD Darkblasts.  More dredge is always good, and I think the utility of Dblast outweighs the extra card draw.  Saving the SB space as Naurion said is huge too.

I had a helluva time getting power before Champs and still had no idea what I was gonna play after I did.  Lou  wasnt going to play in the prelims so I decided to jack his stuff and play Ichorid.  I knew I'd be tired and  could just autopilot it in a lot of situations.  More importantly though I expected to play a bunch of long so consistently rolling it seemed like a strong play.

I  had printed out a bunch of deck lists before we hit the road on Thursday and I liked a lot of what I saw in the Ichorid list I had.  I dont recall whose it is, but the dude ran Ancestors Chosen and Strip Mine so credit to him.  I expected a lot Jailers so maindeck Dblast was a must, and 13 dredgers is just super sexy in general.

4 Bridge
4 Narc
4 Ichorid

4 Unmask
4 Therapy
4 Leyline
4 CotV

4 Bazaar
4 Serum Powder

3 Petrified Field
4 City of Brass

2 Dread Return
2 Flamekin Zealot

4 Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed
3 Thug
2 Darkblast

SB
4 Gemstone
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Emerald Charm
3 Contagion

Round 1 - Dave w/ burn

Its burn.  I roll him in 2.  I Serum Powder away 21 cards and mull to 5 in game 1, but it doesnt matter.  He was  even nice enough to let me play in game 2. 

Round 2 - No show!

Round 3 - Jerry Yang w/ PitchLong/TPS
So after my two byes I finally get a decent matchup.
G1 - His life total goes 20 - 14 - 0 and I roll w/ a turn 3 or 4 win.

I expect him to go w/ the Tormods Crypt + Yixlid Jailer plan so I board out the combo, Petrified Fields, 1 Thug  and maybe 1 Unmask for the Gemstones, Contagions and some Chains.

G2 - A much slower game than the first, but Jerry never really got into it.  I ripped his hand apart and slowly  whittled his life down w/ an Ichorid and token.  The tokens eventually multiply and take him out.

Round 4 - Smmenen w/ PitchLong/TPS
I get paired up against Long again, nice!, but unfortunately I have to give a teammate a loss.

G1 - I have to mulligan to 4 this game, but its a hot 4 w/ Bazaar, Chalice and a dredger.  My Chalice puts the kibosh on Steves turn 1 win and his life total goes 20-17-11-0.

I board the same as I did against Jerry.  I know Steve is bringing in 4 Jailers and 2 Crypts and Im not particularly worried by that kind of hate.

G2 - Pretty sure I start off w/ Leyline, but it doesnt do jack shit against Tinker-DSC and I lose in short order.

G3 - So this is the competitive game of the match.  I lead w/ Bazaar, obv, and a Chalice that gets FoW'd.  Steve doesnt have anything of note and I drop a key City of Brass on turn 2 so now my Darkblasts are online.  He Crypted me early in the match, but I played a careful slow game.  I didnt go nuts w/ the dredging, only drawing maybe ~12 cards a turn, and never leaving Darkblast vulnerable in the yard.  Eventually I was able to scrounge up enough offense to win.

2-0 against Long, so far so good.

Round 5 - Jesse the Proud Canadian w/ Painter

I've never played against Painter so Im excited.  I can see this matchup being kinda bad between the whole  having a creature that can block and die + the whole simple combo thing.

G1 - 1 Ichorid becomes 2 Ichorids which becomes a win.  He had an early Grindstone, but nothing to pair w/ it.  I took away his business and just beat him down.

I dont recall exactly how I SBd here, but Im pretty I just brought in the Chains+Lands for the  combo+PFields+1xThug.  I had no idea what kind of hate he might have/

G2 - He combos out here w/ relative ease.

G3 - This was a tense game where I made some awful plays.  He Brainstorms and gets the combo on board on turn 3 or 4.  Fortunately though he only has 2 land for mana.  The next turn I can finally start some serious beatdown w/ 2 Ichorids+3 Bridges.  I decide on the proper line of play(sac 1 Ich, swing w/ other), call a judge to get the oracle text on Bridge and promptly play like a bonehead after getting the info from the judge by swinging w/ both.  I give him an extra turn to draw out, but fortune smiles upon me.  This is obv the fault of Lous asian/russian cards and has nothing to do w/ me being a poor magic player.

Round 6 - Chris Nighbor w/ PitchLong/TPS

G1 - Chris spends the first turn or two setting up.  I get an Ichorid swing in and whiff on a Therapy.  Im set up for a savage turn 3 involving a possible combo win or at least tearing his hand apart so he goes the win.  He only manages to reach 9 storm though so I survive at 1.  My army of zombies inflict 35 damage over the next two turns and bring it home.

Same board plan as before.

G2 - I get some small beats in, but I believe he wrecked me w/ Extirpate and won in brutal fashion soon  thereafter.

G3 - I start off w/ Leyline and we settle in to a long tense game.  Im Bazaaring but not finding any dredge.  I find an Ichorid early, but I have to hold to it because of his Extirpates.  He spends about a third of his life total setting up Bargain while I draw through the meaningless third of my deck.  My hand is 2 Bridges, 2 Contagions and the Ichorid I've been sandbagging when he resolves Bargain.  I may be a little off on the details here, but I believe he drew 5 cards down to 8 life, Vamped/ISealed and drew the top card.  He passed w/ a bunch of land, 2 moxen and Mana Vault in play with 5 life and a fetch untapped.  I activate Bazaar on his EOT and finally rip a Grave Troll.  I pitch Troll, Ichorid and Contagion.  My yard is huge, but I have no other black creatures.  I go to activate Bazaar on my upkeep and he finally gets a chance to use Extirpate on my Troll.  I savagely rip Stinkweed Imp and Therapy off the top though.  I swing in with the horror, hardcast Therapy and hit on his only out Minds Desire.  I flashback on his bounce and a Scathe Zombie takes it home next turn.


Round 7 Mike Animnotevengonnatrytogethisla stnameright  w/ Landstill

G1 - My first Bazaar gets wasted and I get to use Petrified Field for the first time all day.  He has the Stifle  and Mutavault+Mishras Factory take me out in short order.

G2 - He gets in some beats but I manage to get an army of Zombies into play and they take it quickly.

G3 - Its a long slow game since Im only drawing like 5 cards a turn w/ no Bazaar.  I had a double Bazaar hand for the first time all day, but he had Waste and Strip.  I manage to get 1 Narc into  play.  He hangs around for a while doing nothing and I miss like 3 damage cause I didnt realize the damn thing flys.   Damn you and your foreign cards Lou!  I miss on a Therapy bc I was too lazy to write his hand down and this may  have cost me the game.  He Extirpates my Ichorids and puts me in a tough spot as I draw 3 Narcs.  I have an  outside shot at winning via Dread Returned Troll, but I cant get all the counters and bounce of his hand after  he Extirpates Bridges.  I have no way win and lose.

 I ended up winning on tiebreakers and get a box of Saga along w/ some byes for my trouble.

I was really happy w/ this list and outside of the flexible slots theres nothing I'd change for this metagame.  As for the sideboard, well, I have some ideas I want to explore.  The almost total absence of Leyline defnitely opens up some slots.


Main Event QnD

Ok, so Lou was using the Bazaars in the main event and I lacked Twister+Grim Tutors so I just ran w/ a stock(aka terribad) slaver list.  I did have the Demars sideboard Waste tech though.

Round 1 - Breakfast
Round 2 - Scounting
Round 3 - Jacob w/ some WRB Bazaar fish deck
G1 - He gets in some beats w/ a Grunt and some card quality off Bazaar+1Squee.  He StoPs my Titan but TrikeElvis shows up soon after and takes it home.
G2 - He has too many beats.
G3 - He keeps a hand w/ Bazaar and no land.  I Waste all his colored mana and eventually win.

Round 4 - Mike w/ TPS
G1 - He goes for hte win a bit early on turn 2.  He Jars and Wheels into crap then passes to me w/ a super juiced yard.  I go from 0 to Slaver lock in one turn.
G2 - I get an early Sphere and he cant win.  I Wasted a land here too.

Round 5 - TK w/ TPS
G1 - I get my mana denial on hardcore this game w/ Titan on some lands followed by Shaman on Jet and Mana Crypt.  He goes for an EOT FoF.  I debate about letting it resolve since I have some manner of control, but I decide to spend my FoW on it anyway.  He Chains my Titan on his turn and wins soon thereafter.  I still dont know how I feel about countering FoF.

G2 - I have early 2sphere, but he plays like 4 Moxen and wins with ease.

Round 6 - Smmenen w/ TPS

G1 - He wins easily via Necro->Tendrils(10)->moreNecro->moreTendrils after starting off w/ 2x FoW.
G2 - I have early 2sphere and take this one down w/out too much trouble.
G3 - I keep a good 7 w/ Recall and some other business.  He has turn 1 Duress followed by turn 2 Duress + Ancestral.  Fun.  Steve elects to bypass the easy Tinker->DSC victory and takes the risky/flashy/creative path to victory via Necro+Desire(22)+DSC.  You can read the details in next weeks installment of SO MANY INSANE PLAYS at starcitygames.com.  Be sure to buy premium boys and girls!


I had a helluva time at my first vintage worlds and Im definitely gonna try and attend next year.

Props
-Paul for winning!  Congratufuckinlations dude.
-Brennan/Misty/Scott for putting up w/ me on a roadtrip
-All the meandeckers and tmders I saw for the first time in ages
-Lou and Harry for a nice match

Slops
-Lou for scrubbing the champs w/ the best deck in the format
-Me for playing poorly when it mattered and not playing enough type 1 anymore

Any chance of moving the saturday one back to a 2PM start time?  I'd like to go but I work til 130.

Im down for this, and any other Sunday tourney in Boulder for that matter.  Somebody has to rep the crew in the 1-2 drop bracket.

fuckin lou went into the last round in 5th at 5-1 and ID'd.

Steve and Mastriano are in contention for top 8 but each had to play out their last round.

Owen Turtenwald(sp?) is in top 8 w/ some Platz+Pacts control deck.

One of the Carps(Dan I think) is in top 8 w/ gush tendrils. 

Shay is in contention w/ shitty breakers.

That should be accurate, but my phone sucks so I may have misheard him.

gogogogo fuckin lou!

Also, scott played GAT not ichorid.

Hey it's travis posting from jim's computer.

yeah i lost in the semi's to gobbos not in the quarters. the deck was savage. i don't feel so bad loosing to him, since he won the whole thing and he seemed like a solid player.

thanks again carl for holding the event, and thanks to lou for coming up with the time walk.

hope to see you all at the next event!

I was gonna respond to this a few days ago, but I just now stopped laughing.  None of that sanctioned bullshit this time so I expect everybody in CO to show up for this.  I'll be there reppin the Crew, Freakaleak and Meeeeaaaandeck to reclaim my Time Walk.  Anybody that tries to stand in my way gets mushroom stamped.  The chickens is comin home to roost y'all.

Fuckin A dude.  Congratulations again.  Obv an awesome report too seeing as how you mention me and all.  Im gonna have to get a look at that painting sometime.

Fuckin A dude.  Much congrats to Trav.  He put in the time and earned this shit.

I hate to break it to all y'all that are picking Roland, but he will not be there.  In honor of Roland and Bob, since they can not attend, I will be playing 5c Stax, pronouncing all my Rs as Ls, and putting soy sauce on everything.  There will at least be a Wannabe Asian Stax Player in the Top 8.  Dont worry guys, I'll do you proud.

My prediction:
Jim Gaffney
7 other people that dont matter

I am so fucking geeked for this event, by the way.

How is Breakthrough anywhere near as broken as Tolarian Winds?  Tolarian Winds is the single most busted play this deck can make simply because its the only card you can run that allows you discard your dredge in hand before you draw cards.  Its harder to make the turn 1 Winds happen, but the fact is that when you do your chances to win that game go through the roof since you'll likely have milled 15-20 cards before turn 2.  Breakthrough is weaker in two ways.  First, you cant actually dredge anything since you draw cards and then ditch everything.  Secondly, you have to ditch all your cards.  This impedes your ability to maintain ainy kind of pressure since you cant develop your manabase further and thus cant fully utilize things like Deep Anal or Ashen Ghoul.  Careful Study really does everything that you need Breakthrough to do, but it lets you maintain pressure on your opponent. 


Are you talking about my list or did Godder post a list in a different thread?  It sounds like mine except I defnitely had 15 black creatures.

All y'all talkin about castration and how horrible this guy is need to get the sand out of your vaginas.  If he can find a woman who'll agree to this shit then more power to him. 

Ok, its official.  I have the time off from work and my flight is booked.  Richmond here I come.

The Drain matchup is great game 1, but it changes drastically postboard when the other deck gets REB.  REB beats on this deck like nobodies business.  Its easy to find blue cards to remove because of this vulnerability to REB.  That said however, the Duresses are there more for the combo matchup than for control.

EDIT:  Bob beat me to it and said it much better, but I spent like, a minute typing this out so its not going to waste.

What class is this?  Historical LARPing 101?

Im not one to really pay that much attention to the art, but every now something jumps out at me.  I really dig Hand of Cruelty and Stasis, but my overall favorite piece of magic art has to be  Dandan.  I tend to like Drew Tuckers stuff in general, but this piece is awesome.  It took me forever to notice that theres more to it than the two wee boats.

Ok, so Clown of Tresserhorn is in the finals after losing onlly 1 Game all day.  The other semi-final is made up of 2 more members of the Colorado Crew.  So again NE, CO just dominated you.  Have you no pride?

Im just back on my lunch break from work and I havent read this entire thread, but this was the list I had when I stopped working on the idea:

//11 Draw-discard outlets
4 Bazaar
4 Tolarian Winds
3 Careful Study

//10 Dredge
4 Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug

//11 Kill cards
4 Ichorid
4 Psychatog
1 Ashen Ghoul
2 Wonder

//11 Draw+Disruption
3 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Chalice of the Void

//10 Land
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
1 Island

//7 Mana artifacts
7 MC LoMox

After testing a TON of different cards I've found that this list is so tight, and needs to be so redundant to work properly that you cant stand cards that dont fit your basic strategy.  Each card must do one or more of the following:
i) give you mana
ii) have some sort of graveyard synergy like dredge, flashback, recursion, or damage
iii) it must make you  draw AND discard
iv) be strong, cheap disruption

Ancestral Recall is the lone exception to these rules.  I would add to this that you CAN NOT have cards that cost more than 2 mana.  Since your goal is stop drawing any real cards you need the mana in your opening hand to carry you for the entire game so you cant stand anything that costs more than 2 mana. 

I'll write up a more detailed commentary on my choices later, but I just thought I'd throw that out there for y'all.


The most common gameplan against Crypt is losing.  Even if you bring in Null Rod/Needle/Chalice to fight against it any Welder deck will just weld out the disruption and other decks will goldfish past you anyway.

Then allow me to chime in since I've tested Ichorid fairly extensively and found it lacking, especially the Hermit Druid lists.


Thats because you're not playing basics, which is a bad decision especially if you're using Ashen Ghoul which you imply above.  It is also more effective against your build since you depend more heavily upon Hermit Druid which actually does require you to have mana and cast spells.  The Druid plan opens you up to more hate while not giving any sort of significant speed or resiliency increase.


Popular =/= Good


Im not sure I understand what you're saying here.  They can just use the Crypt after the Druids ability resolves or even just in response to all the Ichorid triggers during your upkeep.  Crypt doesnt just slow the deck down, it absolutely wrecks it by toasting all your win conditions.


The Hermitorid list that I saw had Bazaars and Careful Studys as an alternative gameplan.  However, it also only had the 4 Imps for dredge which is slow as fuck.

The friggorid concept fails in type 1 for a few reasons.  The biggest one being that it is just too damn slow.  You take up so much deck space w/ dredge that cant afford to run enough effective disruption to slow other decks down and they can just goldfish over you.  Slaver gets Pentavus and you cry.  Stax gets Karn and races you.  Gifts just goldfishes and wins.  Furthermore, given the decks desire to replace its draws with dredge, you cant really build an effective manabase to use to fight the hate.  Postboard you have too many cards to answer, and not enough mana or turns to do it in.

Trinisphere and Crucible/Waste do absolutely nothing.  If those cards actually affected the friggorid deck then they had an absolutely horrible list.  The deck literally never has to play a permanent or cast a spell if it doesnt want to.  Uba Stax is seriously the decks easiest matchup since it has no clock whatsoever.  I've won games where I did nothing except discard a Grave-troll and dredge for the next 8 turns. 

But yeah, Tormods Crypt is a serious beating and the deck has major major issues in sideboarded games.

EDIT:  Null Rod and Pithing Needle are also pretty worthless against decks running Welder when your entire plan is to put your library in the yard ASAP.

The DSC in the Hermit-friggorid deck is so you dont deck yourself after dropping your library into the yard with druid.  Personally, I dont think Hermit Druid does anywhere near enough to warrant inclusion in type 1 friggorid when you can just mill your entire library by turn 3 using draw effects anyway.  Friggorid in type 1 is a really fascinating deck since its theoretically an absolute nightmare for stax.  A deck that never needs to maintain perms in play or cast a spell is theoretically great.  Its not that easy in practice though.

HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO

Picksburgh Stillers Superbowl XL Champions.  Yuns best get used to hearin that phrase.

This is amazing, I am so incredibly stoked for this.  There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that they'll win.

Thank you.  I have in fact been living under a rock for the past three months and was unaware of this combo. 

But seriously.  Lou stated what I was getting at.  He gives reasons why Mana Vault sucks all of which apply to Time Vault as well, yet he continues to run it.  Im curious why--especially when the Vault/Fusillade combo doesnt have any distinct advantage over something like Burning Wish.

If Im reading this correctly you're saying you dont run Mana Vault because its useless under Rod, not all that hot in the early game and too often you dont want to see it in your opening hand.  So why are you running Time Vault instead of, I dont know, some actually useful card?  It has all the same liabilities you cited for Mana Vault except its hella less useful in general.