I'm in. If I knew what deck I was going to play, I'd write the tournament report for me winning here already. Until I decide, assume I lose a round to Twaun and Soly ends up going on super tilt.

It seems that we have reached a point where we can measure how much interest there is in an article by how much TMD complains about it costing three dollars.

Congrats Steve, it seems this might be your most sought after work yet.

Wait, you are from Boston and are claiming another place has worse sports fans?

Also, notice how every midwesterner has stayed out of this thread? It's because we don't need to compare size.

I don't see nearly enough trash talk in this thread. Clevelanders are coming up which can mean only two things: a great time had by all and Twaun in the casual bracket before the matches even start. 

I will almost certainly be there. I'm pretty sure I don't work.

Really fun day of slinging cards. While I am disappointed it wasn't me, I was psyched to see the Delver of Secrets deck that R&D has been working on the past few weeks to take down the event. I missed top 8 playing the exact same 75 as Jimmy on breakers. I actaully had the best breakers going in to the last round, won, but because Matt Hazard (who had previously played Nat Moes, who snuck in at 8th) beat an opponent of mine, I got knocked out. Oh well. Still an awesome time, and I can't wait for the next one!

I'm in to defend my title. Jimmy McCarthy and I are discussing a savage decklist as I type this to blow you people out and make you shake your heads in disgust.

No promises, but if Nat is coming out, maybe I will too.

I should be able to make this.

Come on, Rich. He didn't really think he needed to spell out flashing in Masako the Humorless for the absolute blow out. That was implied.

Thanks for being so awesome, Nick, and still having an event in the face of all of this. I will for sure be there! See everyone tomorrow!

Well, I'm here already, so when Nick posts the update, I will still be there.

I drove down to Long Island today, and the weather report seems to be that we won't see any adverse weather until Sunday. I still plan on going and playing, and being a man and not letting a little thing like a hurricane stop me from winning a beta mox jet.

I'll be there.

I'm in.

This thread is pretty great, because the only people posting in it are Cleveland MtG players. This tournament will be 1000% serious. If anyone is on the fence about it, just go. It will be awesome.

at first I thought this was a thread about who would win: Batman or Big Van Vader, former pro wrestling champion.

that thread is much more awesome.

I'm in for both days, I'm pretty sure.

JR.

Oops. Reading is tech.

That probably changes my lines of play. If I don't have access to Big Predz, I think I generally agree with what Soly has posted, although I think I value Brainstorm slightly less in this matchup than he does. I would probably use my vamp rather aggressively instead of holding it for Brainstorm fodder.  

It should also be noted that in the workshop matchup, if your tinker monster is Inkwell, MUD doesn't really have that hard a time racing you. If they get down Karn, they block inkwell all day, as does crucible/factory.

JR.

I would play fetch, mox, pass.

Assuming the workshop player has kept their hand of seven, we should bank on them assembling three lock pieces by turn two. Now we just have to narrow down what we care about in terms of their lock pieces:

Null Rod- Probably, yes.
Chalice- We have to respond to it.
Thorn/SoR- One can resolve, but two would be a pain.
3Ball- We have to respond to it.
Lodestone- An immediate response would be required.
Tangle Wire- Ugh.
Crucible/Karn/Metalworker- Meh, not really.

So lets further assume, for the sake of argument, that their hand isn't a total blowout, and doesn't include things like Black Lotus so they can put their ballz on our collective chins. This means we are staring down one lock piece from them on their first turn, with our board being a fetch and a mox. Worst case, they get lodestone, and we have to fetch and get natures claim.

If they cast Thorn or chalice @ anything, I think you do a backflip and vamp for Trygon Predator. this same play takes place if they cast any spell that doesn't make your spells cost more. Once Trygon is established, I think you DT for FoW and hold it for Dups/Trike.

If they cast Trinisphere, you vamp for Hurkyl's.

While I don't think that any shop player would do this on turn one, I can't really see the best way to play this hand around Tangle Wire.

If they cast SoR, you probably sit tight.

This is what I can think of.

JR.

 

Cyberpunker- I think Soly pretty much summed it up from my point of view, but again, I can't stress enough I think that tutoring for FoW leaves you in poor shape. If they have a blow out hand, with turn one vault key or something equally silly, you lose anyway. If they tinker on turn one, you have two tutors to race. I just don't see any value to tutoring up Force here. If Demonic was Merchant Scroll and we were playing Meandeck Gifts vs. Pitchlong, the answer is different. That isn't the matchup, so I see nothing that makes this play strategically better than others.

Matt and Soly are pretty correct here, as well. Ancestral is a very good card, but it is close to irrelevant at this point if you tutor for it. The only way that I think I would tutor up Ancestral immediately is if I knew 100% that all my early spells were resolving, so I could cast ancestral off the vamp, and demonic up yawg will to do it again, which would but me hugely far ahead. That being said, if I knew my opponent had no counters, I think you just tutor up Vault and key and go to town.

JR.

I am honestly surprised no one has suggested vamp for lotus on turn one, play pearl turn two and DT for Jace and cast him. I don't think this is correct at all, I just would have thought at least one person would have advocated an aggressive strategy of going hellbent for Jace.

I think I disagree with cyberpunker that getting ancestral recall is always the best course of action in the control mirror. I think this line of play for most players, who will throw recall out there to try and get an immediate advantage, is asking to be blown out. If there is one play more lopsided than resolving an ancestral, it is getting one that you tutored for countered.

Soly, Jimmy and I were talking about this earlier, and we are sort of in agreement. The crux of your hand is Brainstorm, and the longer you can wait to cast it the better off you are. Soly is advocating holding vamp (which we both think is subpar here) as an additional card to get rid of off the brainstorm, while I say that if you use the vamp on their turn one eot for mana drain, while you are effectively down a card, you can potentially wait longer to cast Brainstorm, which I think will pay off in the long run.

I hope this helped explain my line of play a little bit better.

JR.

Assuming you are playing against a tezz list or something resembling a control mirror, I would play fetch and pass. If they have a major threat, I can Brainstorm in response, and the other fetchlands allow me to see new cards. If they don't do anything relevant, I think I end of urn vamp for mana drain, draw it play a land and pass. This allows you to third turn DT with drain back up, which hopefully gives you a more informed DT target, or allows you to drain the turn two threat they have. If you drain the turn two threat, demonic becomes an even more powerful play.

I think this line of play is probably the most controlling one I have seen posted. I think tutoring for Recall is fine, but no one is going to counter brainstorm as bait if you have just tutored, so people thinking recall resolving in that situation are silly. Tutoring for tinker, like Jaco has said,opens you up to thoughtsieze, etc. needlessly. I also think that tutoring for tinker pulls your pants down. If your opponent has any good blue cards in their hand, you really have gained nothing if you tap out and put a big guy on board.

Not that I disagree with you or are advocating running Lich in the board, but if your opponent is keeping in/boarding in Trygon and Nature's Claim against ritual based combo, you are probably going to do alright anyway.

Well, according to Oxford English, Heretic comes from the Greek "to choose", and did not have any application until it was used as a description of someone who did not believe in the Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.

By your logic, we should errata Viashino Heretic so that he is a Jew, as well.

Ok, I'll bite. Why? I mean, should we errata it to an Island goblin Viashino Rogue while we are at it? Maybe throw in construct, just so we are covering all the bases?

Some of your ideas confuse me.

JR.

Primary:
Nick Detwiler
Jake Gans
Austin Pollack

Understudies:
Dave Earley
James Hangley
Vinne Forino

Can one of the mods, for the benefit of newer players, just show all the posts that got Ben Perry and Travis banned? They were pretty epic, and summed up what was so awesome about vintage a few years ago.

JR.

I think people are under selling the strength of "lotus, pearl, GGG, Oath" as a first turn play against MUD. Without knowing specifically what the MUD player has in terms of hate, it seems like most decks are just running Dups right now. The pressure that MUD has other than that doesn't really effect you. MUD either plays a guy, which is terrible for them, or they play a sphere effect, which you are not weak to because of the pearl. This allows you to still force the threat you care about if they have something like Eon Hub or ensnaring bridge.

I'm not saying that this is the most optimal line of play available, but it is slightly safer in some ways than the ponder play.

JR.