Thanks for the info.

I do like your 5C Stax list as well.  I believe either, if piloted well, give a great chance at T8ing at any tournament.

Haha!


EDIT: Damnit.  This was really funny for like 15 secs.   

Nice article Steve.

Thanks for using my Mono Red Stax list!   

The Mono Red Stax deck is card for card what I ran at the Meandeck Open and wrote an article about here except:

-1 Null Rod
+1 Sundering Titan

Glad to see the deck still performing extremely well, even in a low Tezz % tournament.  I'm also happy to see it out-performing 5C Stax!   

Does anyone know Ashok Chittturi?  I may know him by username, but I'm from the midwest, so I don't think I've met him.

I'm curious as to how the 7/10 was for him.  I agree with chopping a Null Rod, and have been toying with that myself as well.

FYI, casting Stifle targeting the Standstill's ability doesn't do anything.  The Standstill trigger is on the stack, then Stifle is played targeting the trigger, but since Standstill is still in play, Standstill triggers again.

I'm sure this contributed a ton to your losses.

From looking at the results:

Promote the format Vintage     - 52 (33.1%)
Allow me to discuss ideas with other players I respect     - 39 (24.8%)
Produce the best Vintage decks/tech     - 34 (21.7%)

In my opinion, everyone will vote for "Promote the format Vintage."  (I didn't even notice the typo in the poll until I posted this )  We all know that Vintage is a format that isn't going to perpetuate itself and we must all try to keep it going.  However, I think that counting this vote as the most relevant is a cop-out.  Everyone should vote for this, since if we didn't try to promote the format, we would most likely see the format die.

I interpret the most relevant results to be, "Allow me to discuss ideas with other players I respect" and "Produce the best Vintage decks/tech."

Of course team forums are always going to "Produce the best Vintage decks/tech" before TMD does, but people who aren't on a team, such as myself, simply have to work with the tools available to us.  In this case, TMD is the closest we will get to the "most current best decks/tech" until we have a team.

You will likely get more feedback on this thread in the Legacy forums.   

Game 1, Turn 1:

fizix plays Flooded Strand from Hand
fizix plays Mox Sapphire from Hand
fizix taps Mox Sapphire
fizix plays Sensei's Divining Top from Hand
<fizix> Ok?
<Fowler> Ok
<fizix> Thinking
fizix sacrifices Flooded Strand
fizix's life total is now 19 (-1)
<fizix> Ok?
<Fowler> Ok
fizix is looking its Library...
<Fowler> but i think that i will quit
fizix puts Volcanic Island into play from Library
fizix shuffles library
fizix stops looking its Library...
fizix taps Volcanic Island
fizix plays Mana Vault from Hand
<fizix> Pass
<Fowler> why fetch?
<fizix> to play vault
<fizix> ?
<Fowler> to cast a vault?
<Fowler> yeah
<System> Player Lost

Good thing this guy has never heard of Tezzcast.

My guess is that he already had Time Walk in the yard before Leyline hit.

Based upon this, I think 4x Spell Pierce is the right number.  It may be a dead card later in the game, but it is a blue card that pitches to FoW.  Also, as you pointed out, you have to survive turns 1-3.  If you can effectively slow your opponent down through these turns, you probably win the game.  For these reasons, I feel that Spell Pierce is far too valuable to run less than 4.  I can't really think of a time that you wouldn't want one in your opening hand.

I could be wrong, but against creature decks, I don't feel that them resolving one or two creatures on the first 2 turns are that big of a deal.  You run 7 manlands who can trade with them, if necessary, and 4x Fire/Ice.


This card is extremely strong.  I'd imagine that dropping this dude the turn after your opponent is forced to pop a Standstill would mean GG almost every time.  It's also a good outlet for Mana Drain mana.

I just noticed that Doug Linn's list is 1 card short in the SB.

Doug or Willie, do you know what card is missing?

This makes sense.  If I were jeopardizing a teammate's seat in T8 by scooping to someone, I wouldn't do it either.

You are correct, but I feel that it is extremely situational, since you have no way to reliably get your one-of Memory Jar.  However, if you prefer to keep the Jar in, I would take out a Mana Crypt.


I don't feel that Uba Mask is nearly as relevant against the blue control decks currently as it was in the past.  With all of the Dark Confidants running around and the restriction of Brainstorm, Ponder, and Thirst for Knowledge, it simply doesn't cut off enough cards in my opponent's deck.

Right now, the blue control decks are more about tutoring for a bomb that attempts to win the game for them.  Uba Mask does nothing to prevent this.  This list is more about locking their mana out so they can't play the bomb they got with the tutor.

Right on man.  Thanks for coming out.

If you ever want to playtest or need some advice, feel free to PM me.

I understand.  I will do everything I can to influence the future prize support in hopes of making it a more gradual grade from 1st to 8th.

If I can grab some Bloomington or Indianapolis people, I plan to be there!

For the record, I agree with you completely.  However, I have no control over what the store manager puts up for a prize.  Please note that if the next tournament prize is an UL mox, I would expect better prize support for 2nd-8th or/and a lower entry fee.

I'd like to start this off with a huge THANK YOU to everyone who attended!  You guys are awesome.

This event was not the most organized as I had no judge and had to play and TO at the same time.  I also thank everyone for their patience as I fought with Wizards Event Reporter for the greater part of the day.  It was also quite interesting that the store closed after the swiss rounds, so T8 was played in the lobby of the mall and T4 was played at the nearby bar/restaurant called The Trojan Horse.  Honestly, I think the next time, we will plan to do the T8 at The Trojan Horse.  The waitress was very excited that we came in and who doesn't love to drink alcohol while doing magical things!?

We had 19 players, so 5 rounds, cut to T8.  Prize support as following:

1st - Beta Mox Ruby
2nd - 1x Scalding Tarn 1x Misty Rainforest
3rd - 1x Scalding Tarn
4th - 1x Scalding Tarn
5-8th - 2x packs of Zendikar

Standings at the end of Swiss:


T8 Brackets:


The entire album of photos including decklist scans can be found here HERE.

The metagame breakdown:

1 Bitterblossom Control (~5%)
4 Tezz (~21%)
2 Stax (1 MonoR, 1 Twuan B/R) (~11%)
2 Vroath (~11%)
2 ANT (~11%)
3 Fish/Beats (GWU Fish, UB Fish, Meandeck Beats) (~16%)
2 Landstill (~11%)
2 The Deck (~11%)
1 Painter (~5%)

I wish I had more time to type more, but I'm doing this on my lunch hour and I have to get back to work.

Thanks again to everyone for supporting my event and I plan to have another!

Haha.  Sorry about that man, I hate it when people mess my name up too.  I was half asleep getting up for work when I typed that.  I'm working on a real report right now!   

T8:

Doug Linn (The Deck) def. Vroman (Oath)
Ben Tash (Tezz) def. Michael Bolomoth (sp?) (Tezz)
Preston Cordy (Tezz) def. Dave Spiehler (Meandeck Beats)
Kurt Marske (Painter) def. Cory ??? (STL car) (ANT)

T4:

Ben Tash (Tezz) def. Doug Linn (The Deck)
Preston Cordy (Tezz) def. Kurt Marske (Painter)

T2:

Ben scoops to Preston.  Pretty easy split here since they came in the same car!  

I will have a real report up at some point today with decklists and people's correct names!

I still don't know how you made T8 either.  My only guess is this:

Kurt (Painter deck you played round 1) made the T8, so he helped your tiebreakers.
I ended up 3-2 (9th place) so I helped your tiebreakers.
Your BYE round 3 has no affect on tiebreakers.

In round 5, Willie and the guy you beat in round 4 had an unintentional draw.

I was extremely surprised that Willie and the other guy drew round 5, which meant that they both were going to miss T8.

At any rate, thanks for the report and for making the drive.  I'm definitely going to try to get another tournament here and I'll make sure everyone who came this time knows about it.

You're the man vroman!

Tomorrow!!

I look forward to a big turnout as it looks like 6-8 locals are coming!

Casting Meditate will break the Standstill and cause your opponent to draw 3 cards, then you draw 4 cards and skip your next turn.  Sure you draw 4 cards, but you just broke your own Stanstill (giving them a draw 3) and gave them two turns in a row.

This happens as follows:

They tap and sacrifice Wasteland to pay the cost to put the "Destroy target non-basic land" ability on the stack, targeting your fetchland.

With the ability on the stack, you respond by tapping and sacrificing your fetchland to search your library.

You find a land and put it into play.

The Wasteland "Destroy target non-basic land" ability tries to resolve from the stack, but the target is no longer in play and the ability fizzles.

In the previous poster's example, your opponent would then replay the Wasteland from the graveyard (given that they have Crucible in play) and use it to kill the land you fetched, unless you got a basic land.

For the reason that you can simply go fetch a basic land (provided that there is one in your deck) people usually only waste a fetchland for the following reasons:

1)  You just used a tutor to put a card on top of your deck.  If they waste your fetchland, you have to decide to lose the land or shuffle away the card you tutored.
2)  They know you have no basic lands in your deck and have the ability to replay another Wasteland to get the land you fetch.
3)  They have a Strip Mine to kill the basic land you fetch.

His point is that if you play "fetchland, go," you will almost never see someone Wasteland your T1 fetchland.

Have you considered Massacre in the SB?  I know it wipes your board as well, but you should already have more dudes in hand to drop after clearing the board, due to the card advantage of Dark Confidant.  It also has good synergy with Bitterblossom and doesn't kill your Negators.

A Darkblast or two in the SB might also be worth considering.

Being new to Stax, I missed a T8 by not mulliganing.  The next tournament, if I was even remotely afraid that my hand wouldn't be good enough, I immediately mulliganed.  This payed off in spades for me at the Meandeck Open.

You're right.  Perhaps I didn't use the best words to explain it.  My point was that its better to activate Bazaar on your upkeep before you draw so that you can keep the card you draw if you want.

I really like Memory Jar.  If you get it in the yard with an active Welder, you pretty much win the game.  Although you are correct, it can be clunky with a Null Rod in play, it can always be pitched to Bazaar.

In my testing, Memory Jar is the strongest when you can drop it on turn 1 or 2.  Opponent's EOT crack it to get the 8 cards.  Since you already have at least 5 mana on the board and given that you will most likely draw a land or two and an artifact mana, it will put you between 7-10 mana total.  This usually ends up with 2-3 lock pieces going down on the same turn, which is extremely hard for your opponent to deal with.

If you are going to run Affinity with Skullclamp (which I think you should), I think Myr Servitor is a fine 1 drop.  Better than Arcbound Worker, in my opinion.