I agree with you that 3 or 4 Ancient Tombs is pretty much required for a Shop deck after the printing of Lodestone Golem. However, perhaps we have to commit blasphemy and cut down on the number of Wastelands. Manabases have been tuned to be resistent to Wasteland anyway. I could see -2 Wasteland, +1 City of Brass, +1 Gemstone Mine pan out perfectly fine. Perhaps even go down to just 1 Waste or cut a Mana Vault for Mox Opal. You have Demonic and Vamp to go get Strip Mine to go with Crucible, so you might not need Wasteland in every game.

Sorry for the extremely late reply, but I just read it. I think, the recent success of Stitcher dredge kind of proves what I was trying to convey all along: it's just the superior version. Dredging into Stitcher is always superior than dredging into Chalice and it goldfishes a lot faster. You always win g1 against Workshop and games 2 and 3 you bring in FoW and Chain to deal with their hate, for the rest you just recur Ichorid a few times and bash face with zombies. Right now, I would cut the Coliseums, Recall, 1 Stitcher and 2 Ichorid to play 4 City of Brass and 4 Gitaxian Probe. In the sideboard I would play 4 FoW, 4 Chain, 4 Nature's Claim, 1 Iona, 2 Ichorid. Hornung's deck is excellent as well and I could definitely see why people play that, but I like Force of Will too much.

I lost to Tobi because of a mulligan to 1 in game 1. Then game 2, I believe I had to mull to 5 or 6 and couldn't handle the hate.

If Regrowth were unrestricted you could Ancestral Recall 5 turns in a row. With Snapcaster Mage this isn't feasible. I don't think it's worse than Regrowth, but Regrowth doesn't lose value as a 4-of, whereas Snapcaster Mage does. Anyhow, I think another good comparison for this card is Confidant and I definately think Confidant is vastly superior. Especially, as Eastman pointed out, in the early stages of the game.

This card is definately Vintage playable but will not invalidaye other strategies or cards, so I welcome this addition.

My mainboard is the same as Commandant proposed but with -1 Black Lotus, +1 Dakmor Salvage.

While some cards are set in stone and don’t need any further discussion I would like to give my opinion on several more contested slots.

Dakmor Salvage:
I would advocate making room for 2 Dakmor Salvage. You oftentimes want one and you have to keep in mind that you can Serum Powder it away or it can be in the bottom few cards of your library. Playing 2 makes the chances of this happening negligible

Number of Fatestitchers:
I believe either 2 or 3 is the right number. Having 3 Fatestitcher in the yard when you only need 1 just isn’t helping your cause but you always want one. 3 feels best for me.

Ichorid:
While I think we can all agree you want at least 2 or 3 Ichorids against Shops postboard I believe preboard Ichorid isn’t necessary. I have yet to run into a Shop deck playing graveyard hate postboard, thus slowrolling isn’t ever necessary. You can easily get them with Bloodghasts and Narcomoebas even if they play multiple Spheres to disable your sac outlets.

Gitaxian Probe:
I played it in a tournament and went 11-1 in games there only losing to mulligans. I was very happy with Gitaxian Probe and although it’s effect was rarely game changing they made the deck smooth just a bit better.Furthermore they help enable FoW postboard. While not earth shattering, Gitaxian Probe could very well be here to stay. I highly recommend testing it, if anyone ends up doing so, please share your results.

Leyline of the Void in the maindeck:
I recommend doing so when you play in a maximum 50 man tournament and you expect dredge to be present. You can easily just look around and see who is playing dredge and mulligan for a Leyline in that case. However, in a 200 man tournament this obviously isn’t possible so maindeck Leyline is debatable. You barely lose games 1 anyway and spending 4 maindeck slots to drastically increase your game 1 odds in the mirror seems like sound logic to me. In other matchups Leyline can be a mild annoyance for your opponent disabling Will and protecting your Bridges.

Force of Will in the sideboard:
FoW protects you from graveyard hate as well as all the broken things that can happen in Vintage such as quick TV/Key, Timetwister and Tinker into BSC. To make things even better, people don’t expect it and you can catch them offguard.

Finally my boarding strats for anyone interested:  
SB: 3 Ichorid, 1 Iona, 4 Chain of Vapor, 3 Nature’s Claim, 4 FoW
Shops: -3 Fatestitcher, -1 Flame-Kin Zealot, -1 Terastodon, -4 Leyline of the Void, -1 Darkblast, -1 Gitaxian Probe
+3 Ichorid, +3 Nature's Claim, +4 FoW, +2 Chain of Vapor
I keep in the DRs because if you get through their Spheres and you are able to cast a Dread Return on a Grave Troll and get infi Zombies they can't win. I like Gitaxian Probe since gets around Wasteland and Pithing Needle.
 
GushBond:
-4 Leyline, -1 Dread Return, -1 FKZ, -1 Terastodon, -1 Golgari Thug, -1 Fatestitcher
+4 FoW, +1 Iona, +4 Chain of Vapor
 
I think I would board in Nature's Claims against TurboTezz instead of Chain of Vapor, to hamper their Vault/Key plan.
Against dedicated storm such as TPS or ANT I would probably keep in the #3 Stitcher as speed is of the essence against them.

Hi Peter!

Is a first turn Moon really that powerful in Vintage? Every blue deck plays at least a few basics, Shop doesn't mind all that much, Dredge can just discard on their endstep. If you are on the draw things get even worse, blue fetches out a basic, Shop plays a Sphere so you never get to play the Moon and Dredge just activates Bazaar in response. I can see Moon being decent if you pair it up with some additional disruption, but I'm not sure building a deck around the premise that if you land a first turn Moon you automatically win the game is a good idea.

Thanks a lot guys, useful stuff.

I am going to try the Matlab trial version and see how that goes.

Fellow researchers,

I am currently writing my first medical paper on heart valve surgery. I used SPSS for my statistical analysis. However, the tables and graphs created by SPSS look atricious in my opinion. What software do you use to create visually pleasing graphs and tables for your papers?

Input would be greatly appreciated.

The mind works like a computer, you have limited CPU. Writing down the cards in your opponenten hand limits the number of tasks you need to focus on. This helps you perform all the other tasks better. It has nothing to do with Alzheimer, a better analogy would be to compare it to texting while driving. Both tasks are easy on their own but simultaniously its bloody hard.

Didn't he try to respond to Cliques come into play trigger? In which case he's probably a fairly solid player and I would actually like to play him on MWS.

Peter, didn't you tell me the exact same story at a Breda (or was it Utrecht?) tournament a year or so back? And didn't you finished decently in that tournament as well? If so I see a trend!

In any case, good job and nice to get those byes!

Ruben Gonzalez's deck looks truly amazing. To echo the comment of beder: PeAcH, could you please ask him to tell us a bit about the deck? Real interesting stuff..

Shaymora
TPS
Jace/Confidant/Drain.dec
Slaver
Gush

5 blue decks, a true skilltester.

I like this idea a lot. To state the obvious, this deck looks very strong against MUD and Fish. But how do you deal with Gush and TPS? They draw more cards and thus more counters and broken stuff, while you draw into Pernicious Deed and Nature's Claim. I see you dedicated a large portion of your sideboard to fight TPS but Gush seems like a very hard matchup.

This is pure theory, but I don't think losing your own manabase against MUD is going to hurt too much if you can clear up the entire field with Deed:
MUD is forced to pick it's poison. Either be deliberate with their lock pieces, allowing your Drain to come online, or  go all-in, play it's Moxen, Chalice, Golems, Spheres etc. and walk right into Deed. MUD has no way of generating true cardadvantage, so it can't play multiple bombs every turn. With so many control cards at your disposal it doesn't seem to hard to deal with 1 threat per turn.

I was wondering why you opt for Leyline and Helm of Obedience instead of restricted cards such as Mystical Tutor, Merchant Scroll and Gifts Ungiven?

Some additional thoughts:
- I don't think you can play 4 Wasteland and 4 Mana Drain in the same deck.
- I think you definitely need more draw power, I would replace Helm, Leyline, Crucible and 1 or 2 Claims with a combination of Top, Mystical, Merchant Scroll, Gifts Ungiven, Fact or Fiction, Thirst for Knowledge etc. Ultimately you are a Y. Will deck, since after Deed Will allows you to get all of your Moxen back and assume control, I believe you want to build the deck with that in mind.

The list I last played had both means at getting there without Bazaar and getting Bazaar back.

First of all, I think it's essential to have 4 Ichorids against Workshop, as together with Bridge from Below you can slowly climb your way back. I really like Darkblast to blast away my own Bloodghasts for tokens, again have a dredger in the yard and gain a Zombie or 2 in the process. To support Ichorid however, you need Golgari Thug, as such I think you can only get away with 2 Darkblast max.

Alongside I pack 4 Cephalid Coliseum and 2 Petrified Field to win without Bazaar. I also play 4 Force of Will to deal with Lodestone Golem. With Golem slow dredging is hard, as they put you on a quick clock. You can't really deal with Golem with Claim and Chain as you will never be able to afford them through Chalice @ 1, additional Wastes and additional Spheres. FoW pre-emptively answers Golem by cutting their clock to give you more time slow dredging and allowing you to still pay for Dread Return. I think Ancestral Recall should be in your 75, especially with FoW and Coliseum already there.

I side out 3 or 4 Therapy as I think discard in general is fairly mediocre against Shop and you might not even be able to pay for Therapy through the Spheres. Other than that, postboard the focus is on grinding out the game with Ichorid. I do keep in Dread Return as the effect is much more devastating if you do manage to get enough mana to get through the Spheres.

As you all probably have noticed by now, I prefer to run Fatestitcher and while very good in other matchups, the card is pretty bad against MUD. I do keep in 2 copies, mostly because I need enough blue to support FoW and they are occasionally good at sacrificing their lives for Dread Return.

The point is: You don't always have Chalice but you almost always dredge into a Fatestitcher, I can't emphasize this enough. This is why you can not compare them in a vacuum like you are consistently doing. You only draw into Chalice maybe 30% of the time (mulligans taken into account), while Stitcher will be there like 60-95% of the time (depending on the turn).

That's another possiblity, but that won't work if you had to mulligan or if you don't have the GGT in your hand.

@Shax:
It's an estabalished fact that dredge has a very strong game 1 and a worse games 2 and 3. As such, the general idea of dredge is to win the first game and hope to overcome the hate in one of the 2 postboard games. Winning 2 consecutive postboard games obviously isn't out of the realm of possibilities, but it's definately an uphill battle and one that I like to avoid if possible. Fatestitcher ups my game 1 win percentage just a little bit and therefore helps me avoid the uphill battle. While you definately speak the truth here, your comment doesn't really contribute to the discussion and feels a bit trollish.

@Adan:
My tournament results provide different results than your experience. I have played Fatestitcher in 3 tournaments, finished 1st (aprox 30 players), 2nd (aprox 40 players) and lost 1 game too many to finish T8 at another (aprox 45 players, due to an erroneous judge call). I am 100% sure my record would have been worse had I not played Fatestitcher.

You are right, even with Fatestitcher you can still lose to broken openers. However, he helps you consistently get a turn faster and thus diminishing the chances of this event happening. You can pretend this is not true, but then you are just lying to yourself. Painter, GWSx, TPS, Tez, Gush Tendrills etc. are all decks that can combo you out if you grant them that additional turn. Having a turn 1 BSC against you on the play or a 2nd turn BSC on the draw, Fatestitcher can help you just get enough blockers out to survive. Against a turn 1 TV/Key when you are on the play, the Stitcher can help you find the Terastodon or the win just in time. I won game 1 against Reanimator, had I given him an extra turn he would have cast Stormtide Leviathan and I would have been toast. About Trinisphere: you can pretend like it does not exist because the 'best' MUD deck doesnt play it, but in reality the card sees tournament play.

On Chalice:
You can not compare Chalice and Fatestitcher in that way. Fatestitcher is actually relevant when it's in your graveyard AND when it's in your hand whereas Chalice is only relevant when it's in your hand. If you constructed the rest of your deck tightly, the times you lose to MUD game 1 will be very rare as they can not deal with recurring Ichorid and Narcomoeba's that chump regardless of playing Chalice of Stitcher. I side 2 of my Stitchers out against MUD and the 2 I kept in act as FoW fodder a lot of the time. Chalice, while perhaps marginally better than Stitcher against MUD, just isn't spectacular in the matchup either.

On the Wasteland comment:
I would only consider that play when my opponent plays out their Wasteland first turn and you are on the draw. Corner case and I have never made the play myself, but relevant to mention nonetheless.

An additional advantage of Fatestitcher, is that it opens up the path to FoW in the sideboard. And while FoW does leave you a bit more vunerable to Leyline of the Void, it helps prevent you to get buried under Spheres, stop broken plays and prevents Rav Trap as well as answer Jailer/Crypt/Relic/Needle.

I'm a serious man, Larry.

Not playing Fatestitcher is extremely greedy in my opinion. In a format with Dark Ritual, TV/Key, Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus, Timetwister and Painter/Stone, there are times when a turn 3 or 4 kill isn't going to cut it, but killing a turn faster would. Dredge is entirely constructed with the assumption that you will always win game 1, because winning two games postboard is very hard as the deck is so susceptible to graveyard hate. I plead for not making the blind assumption we will always win game 1, even if we dilute our deck with 12 non graveyard slots as the other decks in the format are capable of making extremely powerful plays as well. In the tournament I played in Fatestitcher won me two game 1's that I would otherwise have lost.

The argument that Fatestitcher is bad against Wasteland obviously bears some truth. However, you could potentially play around Wasteland by first playing your manaproducing land and then Bazaar if Fatestitcher is also in your hand.

Another thing I see in many lists is Chalice or Unmask chosen over Fatestitcher. The Dredge is so good is that you use the entire graveyard to generate card advantage. Chalice and Unmask do nothing in your graveyard while Fatestitcher is amazing, allowing you to kill a turn faster, deal with Trinisphere, tap down a creature to swing for lethal or providing a sac outlet for Dread Return (this can be relevant if you Serum Powdered a few times).

I oftentimes keep in 2 Stitchers postboard as sometimes you deal with a hatepiece and are required to win the turn after because otherwise they get the chance to tutor up another hatepiece, replay it the bounced hate or just have the win in their hand. Bazaar + Stitcher means a stacked yard so you can bombard them with Therapies before anything of the afformentioned things happen.

I hope I convinced you all to play Fatestitcher, if not I’d like to hear the flaws in my logic.

Reading = #winning

Also, time to pick up a playset of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth maybe?

This decks looks neat. I do have some questions:
Wouldn't you want more Intrepid Hero's in the sideboard? If you manage to get him out vs. MUD you pretty much stop their entire deck as he kills Lodestone, Karn and Steel Hellkite. Also, what are you going to do about Lodestone Golem preboard, it seems to me that you are pretty much forced to accept a 2 for 1 in order to stop him.

Can you ever win against dredge? It would seem to me that some Tormod's Crypts and maybe some Nihil Spellbombs/Relic of Progenitus alongside would help you out greatly with Magus or Blood Moon + a Crypt activation you can slow them down enough to fetch up Welder with Imp Recruiter and beat them. The flipside is that you lose a lot of precious boarding space, what is your opinion on this matter?

Also, what are the Avalanche Riders for? They seem a bit slow to me.

Your list looks very good. I really think  you correctly assessed the strength of Fatestitcher, you might even want to pack 1 more.

I agree with Shax that you probably want Leyline of the Void maindeck, this also depends on how big the tournament is. If around <50 people show up you can easily scout the Dredge decks and mull for Leyline against them game 1 and hopefully get an autowin that way.

I would play Terastodon over Angel of Despair. There are games when you can not rely on Bridge from Below, for example when your opponent has means to get rid of them (for example Trisk + Welder, Karn + Moxen or Extirpate) or when you Serum Powdered away all of your Bridges. In these scenario's it's very nice to still be able to pump out an overwhelming army quickly and not give your opponent a huge time frame to win where you try to beat him down with Narcomoeba, Bloodghast and Ichorid. Additionally, sometimes you can not win the game on your turn but can animate Terastodon, you will put your opponent in a hard position to win because he has 0 lands. In most situations both are equally good, but I can envision scenarios where Terastodon steals you the win where Angel can not.

Other than that, you might want to consider FoW in the sideboard. I played it in my last tournament and felt like it was strong, but still 1 tournament is a limited sample so I can't tell you for sure.

I think dredge is really powerful right now and basically the only thing you realistically lose to is mulligans and Leyline of the Void, all of the other hate can be played around.

Thanks for the heads up guys. Sorry I could not provide more in detail match info, but I don't think dredge lends itself particulary well to a detailed tournament report as the games you win tend to play out the same way. Also, a shoutout to meadbert for giving his thoughts in PM.

21st of march 2011, Vintage Breda, the Netherlands
Approximately 40 people showed up and I took 2nd with a Fatestitcher build I made some minor tweaks on. Credit where credit is due, meadbert deserves it for his excellent work on this archetype.

4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Serum Powder

4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Black Lotus

2 Dakmor Salvage
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
1 Darkblast

4 Bloodghast
4 Fatestitcher
4 Narcomoeba
2 Ichorid

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Dread Return
1 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Terastodon

Sideboard
4 Force of Will
4 Chain of Vapor
3 Echoing Truth
2 Ichorid
1 Darkblast
1 Petrified Field

I am a player that likes to prepare well for the tournaments I attend and this usually pays out nicely. So I did and spent a lot of time theorizing and playtesting various decks. The metagame at last Breda tournament was dominated by Shops, so I figured I had to play a deck that had a good chance against Shops. My first thoughts went out to playing a mono red shop deck, geared to have an edge in the mirror, but I couldn’t quite find a way to actually beat the mirror and still have a good shot against the rest of the field. Also, I figured a lot more people would gear up to beat Shop. I then tried various dredge builds, including one that played Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors to play Null Rod to stop Relic, Tormod’s Crypt and Nihil Spellbomb, but this obviously didn’t work out and Duncan slaughtered me in testing with Rav Trap, Timetwister and Pithing Needle. I turned back to a Sharuum build I played in a previous tournament that has Cephalid Coliseum to get around Needle and FoW to counter Rav Trap. It occurred to me that Cephalid Coliseum is also an excellent way to prevent losing to Wasteland. The limitation of Coliseum is ofcourse that it only taps for blue mana, so I was forced to replace Nature’s Claim with Echoing Truth.

Fatestitcher were detrimental to my succes, they speed you up a turn and enable you to shred the opponents hand or just kill him before he can TV/Key, Tendrills or Painter/Grindstone you. In Vintage you often can not give your opponent 3 undisrupted turns so you might lose game 1, if you lose game 1 then you are up for a rough, rough fight (the no Stitcher build kills on turn 3, so you give your opponent 3 turns when on the draw).

When reviewing the T8 lists of Breda, the 5 Shop decks in the Top 8 all opted for Tormod’s Crypt, Needle and Relic of Progenitus. The all in approach doesn’t work against these decks and as others have mentioned Ichorid helps in beating them. Force of Will is good here, as they will often be forced to mulligan down to a hand with GY hate and lands with very little relevant spells, so FoW can slow them down enough that you can play the slower make zombie tokens game.

Leyline of the Void was maindecked to help win the mirror. I noticed that with ~40 palyers it’s quite easy to scout the entire field and people will most likely know what I play and I will most likely know what my opponent is playing. Dredge has 0 answers to Leyline of the Void game 1 except for a Leyline of it’s own, so I figured including Leyline would ensure I would not receive an autoloss against Ichorid game 1.

The day of the tournament:
Duncan Keijzer and his brother Kevin Keijzer picked David Martinez and myself, Guus de Waard up to make the trek to Breda. On the ride there we obviously discussed Magic, I mean, what do you expect when you pit 4 Magic players together and make them drive to a Magic tournament.. Arriving there I got to greet the 2 of the most awesome Vintage players in the Netherlands, possibly the entire world, Frank van Rijn and Arjan Bos (can’t help myself, just have to namedrop these guys).  

Match 1 against a very nervous Belgian playing Reanimator/Show and Tell/Oath created by SCG writer and teammate Matt Elias.
Game 1: I open a strong 7 with Bazaar and Leyline. I later Therapy him to see Vamp, Reanimate, Entomb and some other cards. He gets another turn, but could not do much due to Leyline.

Game 2: The first surprised face of the day as I FoW his Nihil Spellbomb. He Mystical Tutors for Show and Tell on his upkeep and then passes the turn. A costly misplay as I Therapy it out of his hand, although I don’t think it would have mattered as I had another FoW ready. I win with graveyard shenanigans and finish with 0 cards in my library while a Terastodon brings his 3/3 buddies along and I kill him.

Marius (marske) dropped by in between rounds and we had the chance to catch up a little bit. I hope you get the chance to compete during the next Vintage tournament again!

Match 2 against Paul de Rijk with Espresso created by teammate Nick Detwiler. Paul has a stunning deck, with beautiful near mint Beta power.
Game 1: He starts with a Karn, and a few Moxen, so I have to be deliberate with my Bridges. The Karn just proves to be a minor nuisance and I play around it.
Game 2: He mulligans and Serum Powders a bit. He opens with Needle on Bazaar go. I’m not sure how I won, I could have either dealt with the Needle with Chain or FoW or I could have played around it by slow dredging.

Match 3 against Peter Reynders (punki) with Painter. Peter is a very polite gentleman, everytime I have to play him I am pleased because I know the games will be fun.
Game 1: I mull to 1 and get no Bazaar; he kills me on turn 2.
Game 2: He plays Leyline, I play Bazaar. He plays Trinket Mage  Pithing Needle and Yixlid Jailer and beats me to death.
This match probably illustrates why a lot of people probably don’t like to play dredge, sometimes there is just nothing you can do. On the flipside, I think this is basically true for Vintage as a format. I accept it, don’t complain and wish him the best of luck.

Match 4 against Jeroen Schaffhausen (hope I spelled it correctly)
Game 1: I powder 3 hands away and those include 3 Bridge from Below. I actually have to win in a calculated fashion and finish the game with a huge Grave Troll and a few Zombies with exactly 0 cards in my library.
Game 2: I think he played a Needle, but I had means to deal with it, not really sure what happened here. I do know that I won.

Match 5 against Arjan Bos, teammate on R&D, with TPS. Arjan organizes the Breda tournaments, so props to him.
Game 1: I win the die roll and would have definitely lost the game if Arjan could begin. I lay Bazaar, he plays Ponder and Mox Emerald. I have 2 chances to Therapy him. I name FoW first, while I should have named Dark Ritual, as I knew he was TPS. He has Vamp, Demonic, Ritual, land, Gifts, Repeal and Preordain. With my next Therapy I name Demonic and have to pass. Arjan draws, plays land, Ritual, Gifts for Timetwister, Ritual, Mox Saphirre, Black Lotus. I hand him the Twister and the Ritual and he scoops them up as he could not cast the Twister. Had I given him 2 sources of mana, he would have been able to Vamp for Will, Repeal his Mox and go crazy. Had I given him Twister + Saph or Lotus, he would have been able to Timetwister. I just had to pray he didn’t rip a Lotus Petal from the top to Twister me.
Game 2: was very uneventful as Arjan had to mull to 4 and I had a FoW for his Pithing Needle and easily won from there.

Match 6 against Goswin Zeeman
Goswin has 13 points while I have 12. 13 and up get in the next round. Goswin could forced me to play this out as he was lock for T8 anyway but tells me he will ID to me anyway because he does not have a grudge against me (we have a word for this in Dutch; gunnen, but I can’t figure out how that translates to English..). Anyway, thank you for this Goswin, I will help you out next time if I can!

Top 8:
Quarterfinals against Belgian pro player Christophe Gregoir with Tez
Game 1: Dredge does what dredge does.
Game 2: He kills me on turn 2 with TV/Key, I ask him to show me his win condition and get to peek at approximately half his cards and I do not spot a single hate card. I ask him if I can see his deck, he obviously refuses but it was worth the try.
Game 3: I put him on having no hate for me and crush him the way only dredge can crush people.

Semifinals against Goswin Zeeman with Tez.
In between rounds I had some good laughs with Duncan and Goswin so I was pleased to play him.
Game 1: I find a Bazaar and win.
Game 2: He has to mulligan 1 or 2 times and leads off with Leyline of the Void. I play Black Lotus, he Spell Pierces it, I play Bazaar. Next turn I play Cephalid Coliseum, he doesn’t do much and I EOT Chain his Leyline and activate Bazaar. I put stuff in my graveyard and win. After the match he wonders if he should have Pierced the Lotus or not, I played around Spell Pierce either way so it didn’t really matter I guess.

Finals against MUD
Game 1: I have a sick hand with dual Bazaar, his Thorn and Wasteland do not matter. Highlight of this game was a Therapy, while he had 2 cards in hand and I figured the only thing that he would not have played and that would have mattered would be Tangle Wire, he shows me Tangle Wire and Workshop.
Game 2: He leads off with Needle, Thorn or it could be Lodestone not sure. I draw, do not find a dredger to discard. This continues for a few turns, while he lays Spheres and pressure until he finally kills me.
Game 3: I am on the play and he Serum Powders a hand with Leyline, Lotus, Thorn, and 4 non manasource irrelevant cards. I rejoice and tell him there are now only 3 Leylines left, he draws 7 new cards, decides to mulligan, draws 6 cards and keeps. He looks unfazed, I ask him if I can begin, he puts 2 Leyline of the Void into play. I have Chain of Vapor, Bazaar, dredger in hand and a couple of lands to cast the Chain and was on the play, so I would have basically beaten anything but double Leyline. To add insult to injury he also played Pithing Needle. I tried to put up a fight with hardcasted Bloodghasts, but he ripped Precursor Golem from the top.

I am not used to the behaviour he displayed. For example he shouted: stop whining! after I expressed my disappointment when he had double Leyline in game 3. He also continuously told me: How many cards!! I am a bit of a joker during Magic tournaments and like to trash talk, so perhaps this annoyed him. After the match he told me I played well and he apologized for his behaviour. I have to admit that he played very well and rightly acknowledged the strength of dredge during testing and therefore took the right decisions with his mulligans.

Fortunately I was able to shake off my bad beat and leave in good spirit. Duncan drops me off at my girlfriends place and I grab my bike to get some much needed food at the Burger King and then watch the TSL (Starcraft II tournament) to finish this awesome day.

- Guus de Waard of Team R&D

Could this possibly mean SCG is thinking about hosting Vintage SCG Opens again?

Transmute Artifact requires you to sacrifice an artifact as part of the manacost. The stack will end up looking like this: top Transmute Artifact, bottom Su-Chi. Thus, Su-Chi will add 4 mana and then Transmute Artifact will resolve and the pay X clause is not part of it's manacost.

Short answer: Just Su-Chi and Transmute Artifact without any additional mana paid, can get you an artifact of 8 mana.

In my 4th year of medical school.

I predict this card won't see play in Vintage, by the time you have a ton of artifacts out you should be hypothetically winning. Darksteel Juggernaut appears to be the epitome of winmore.

Call me crazy, but this is actually one of the cards I am most excited about. If you replace Mountains with Taigas in Shop Aggro, then this kid could be a decent out to some of the decks problems; Oath and Sphinx. It's also combo's nicely with Welder to put the hurt on in the mirror match. By no means overwhelmingly powerful, but I can see applications so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this card.

Mum wants to take here shopping and dad wants to take her to a Magic tournament... I doubt she will chose the latter

I dont like the changes at all, I mostly visit from my smartphone so going through all the clicks just makes for a painful process. In all honesty I only open the threads that have the last reply in them.