I've been consulting for all kinds of restricted stuff and, unless I run it over in the initial rfg, I haven't had an issue winning because of it. Once I had one burning wish left, but one is all you need.

     Mayby I was to relaxed when I wrote the first post. I actually thought the deck out very thoroughly. I would run this deck in a tournament. The cards I chose are to play against the highest level of play. I have not lost a single match so far. In a Tezzeret metagame I don't see how psionic blast could be called a bad choice. When I say I have not lost a single match so far that must mean that this has some potential. Also when I say I play with the cards I like that means I try not to limit myslef to net decking but I will actually think for myself every now and then. If you think this is one for the casual forum I would hate to see what you think of half of the other lists posted on here. I don't come here for petty arguments and I'm not going to roll over and take it.

Another reason I like it is because you can kill the opponent with it. Also If you noticed this deck has no red in it. You can give them a pretty good beating with the psycatog so the blast has some pretty good potential. Like I said I just play what I like to play. As long as you make halfway intelligent decisions it doesn't really matter what deck your running.

I think it should be four mystic remora after some more testing. I can't even test archmage due to a bunch of eventide cards somehow blocked from my masterbase. I think archmage would be a very good card because it counters then comes back. Psionic blast is for tezzeret for the most part. Mind funeral seems awesome because it can't be misdirected and I would say most vault decks do not run commendeer. It seems pretty good as a 1 of to me because the opponent is going to lose a good part of his important cards because of this. It would set them up for the yawgmoth's will if it comes through his path but that's an if. I'll try the fourth meditation and see what it does for me. As for this not being a good deck. How big of an impact has the other list made on the tournament seen?

And from my recollection only top 8 got foil Gemstones.  I bought one off a guy who got it after blowing my chance at top 16 (and not top 8) in the final round.  Those would have been provided to them free of charge by Wizards anyway.

Pastimes is hosting vintage champs.

I wonder how many people will hold true to their decision stated in this thread not to attend Pasttime events and skip this.  My guess is few will.

There's also a different culture in many parts of Europe, where young adults often continue to live with their parents in their 20s, opening up tons of disposable income that Americans seldom have. I've read articles about how guys in Italy are not moving out even into their 30s!

I'm pretty sure that when he brought up the rarity of tournaments, he was talking specifically about those that are sanctioned or low-proxy.  I suppose it does depend on where you live, but at least around here (NE) there are more than enough tournaments to attend; it's just that they tend to be 10 or more proxy.

Regardless, the frequency/location of tournaments isn't really a variable that we have much direct control over as a community.  Unless we suddenly have a new wave of people who are willing to bear the flag of hosting more tournaments, what we have now is what we get.  The accepted number of proxies is something within our control.

Heh.  You really don't think that having a 15 proxy standard is a good reason not to own power?

Back in the day, players would slowly accumulate power, and proxies and a culture of letting people borrow power enabled that.   Today, there is no incentive at all to acquire or hold onto power. In fact, it's stupid to do so since for most Americans there is only one tournament per year in which you need to own power.    This feeds back on itself since players like myself, who used to have 4 Mox Sapphires to loan out, or Marc Perez, who used to have multiple sets of P9 to loan out, only have one for ourselves anymore.   

I'm still confused as to why he did a poor job? Is it just because of the 5-8 prizes? Are we really labeling the tournament as poorly run because there weren't enough prizes for your liking?

I applaud Alan for taking the time to explain his position on this message board, as it seems like people sometimes forgot that stores stay open and stay successful because the owner treats it like a business.

If this guy only pays out 10% of the door, but it keeps his store open and keeps running events, we should be more than happy. He should take as much money off the top as he needs to keep his store running and to live a comfortable life and support his family. Who are we to criticize him for that?

After reading that I had to check as I thought it was only when a spell resolves!!

Actually, he's since been clued into this thread and expressed his unhappiness with some of the things being said in here for sure.

By the way, did you actually just say, "If you can't take a racial epithet as a joke, grow up?"

Ben,

Red is neither here nor there against Ichorid. The only cards that you'll want to board in for the matchup are artifacts or black; whether you have Volcanic Islands in the maindeck isn't a factor. If you have Mogg Fanatics or Chewer, then by all means bring them in; but those aren't cards that you'd want to include in the board just because of the Ichorid matchup.

As for Pithing Needle, I would really be thrilled to see Ichorid players bringing these in against me. They cast Pithing Needle. You Live The Dream and Commandeer it, then drop it on your side of the table naming Bazaar of Baghdad. You'll probably win the game, and have a fun story to tell for the rest of the day.

His comment was aimed more at the fact that you can't commandeer a goblin welder because it's a creature.

2.   Prizes.   I won’t quote anyone from the forums here, but let’s just say that some of you thought they were not “fair”.

Answer:  What’s “fair.”  First, please understand what I do for a living… I run events and I sell games.  That is how I pay for my kids to eat and how I pay to put a roof over my family’s head.  That is what I do.  Every week we risk paying for rent, prizes and employees with the hopes to turn a profit so my employees can keep their jobs and I can keep my store.  Sometimes we win… sometimes we lose.   In this forum you guys are deciding what is “fair” for me to make from this event.  In my opinion we gave away about $1100-$1300 in cards (Beta Sapphire, Grim Tutor, a couple Foil Polluted Deltas (I think) and 4 Guru Lands .  If only 15 of you had shown up, would you have been “ok” if I had said, “well – we didn’t get enough people to justify giving away the Beta Sapphire, so here is a Library and a Mana Drain instead.”  I don’t think that would have sat well with you.

And please consider a couple of other expenses that a store or organizer has when putting on an event…  - the venue and the staff.  There were three judges for this event (not counting the scorekeeper as he was doing other events as well).  The venue was hugely expensive – and yes, there was a big GP to pay for that – but we did not know how many would be there for the GP and we have to count all the events towards the bottom line.  You can also throw in the fact that the Vintage event, as part of the overall event, also cost me for: insurance, clean-up, tables, chairs, P/A and security.  Those were all costs that I incurred when running this event.  And we take all the events income towards those costs. 

I also strongly believe that the majority of what we provide is entertainment.  If you are not playing Magic for fun… you really are in the wrong thing….  So, my guess is that about half of the people reading this or more have gone to see Watchmen (what did you think? Me, about 2 ½ stars).  I know that when I went, I paid $12 for my IMAX ticket and $9 for popcorn and a diet coke – (now you want to talk about unfair!)  So I dropped about $20 for a movie that barely entertained me for two hours.  There was no personal attention.  If I called “judge” during that movie I would have been thrown out!  I left with nothing but a memory from the movie and butter stains on my shirt.  But I knew going in it was a cost of entertainment.  I figured I deserved to take the standee in the lobby as a prize for being there – but silly me, they threatened to call the police!  It sounds to me like most folks had a really good time at the GP and at the Vintage tournament – which is my goal.  Handing out over a thousand dollars of prize seemed like a fun extra!

I know that a lot of stores run events and give back everything in prizes.  I have three comments about that:  1. Look at how many stores have gone out of business in the past 10 years for not worrying about their bottom line.  (Pastimes is now in its 18th year) 2. They are not worried about making money on their event (foolish) , they are just hoping you will buy cards, candy or whatever.  I hope this works for them – it is not my model. 3. When those stores go out of business, you lose places to play.  Support them, they need you and you need them!

As far as handing everything back in prizes, I can’t afford to do this.  You all want events – even big events?  You need organizers who are willing to take a risk and who will put up prizes (umm… there was a Beta Mox Sapphire guaranteed here) and have certified judges etc…  Sometimes we make money on our events, sometime we do not.  (Someone said we made 60% from this event - it actually comes out to about 15-20%)  I look at our event income at the end of the year and hope it is in the black – so that next year I can be back and seeing you at even more fun events!

Commandeering a Goblin Welder probably not