Well, we both know that's true, so I won't argue that point. I do have some dickish tendencies, although I try to keep them reigned in.

As there are no floor rules pertaining to the use of proxies, I'm curious to know how so. The only conclusion I could reach would be unsporting conduct, but you can't make a concrete ruling because you can't positively determine intent.

For what it's worth, I agree that this is frustrating. In fact, I used to do this on purpose just to make my opponent exert a little more mental energy keeping things straight.

It's officially time to announce that for one night only, it's.......

The Return: Part Deux, (Director's Cut) - Semi-Retirement Redux; The Wrath Of The Mox.

Basically, I think I'll be there.

Jimmy, thank you so much for rocking this. Jerry asked me for a singleton suggestion in Tezzeret at the hotel after Regionals. Still in Standard mode, I said Jace Beleren. How was it?

Congratulations to all the T8 and kudos to Ben for running what looks like an amazing event with a stellar turnout.

Poisoned, stabbed, shot, disemboweled, clubbed, and they still had to drown his ass. Rasputin Dreamweaver should totally be errata'ed to be indestructible!

Anyway, neat idea. Hope you can really break it somehow.

-Dave

You know what this card is broken in? Your trade binder. Get your $15+ in trade value and smile all the way to the bank.

Nice!!!!

The Top 4 split.

Top 4 was Tezzeret, BUG Fish, Loam, and something else. (It had Force, Drain, etc. Not sure on the win conditions. Maybe Tez?) I'm sure actual information will be up soon.

Also, I Sandwich Punched Steve.

It's kind of awful, but you can stop any blue instant for G with Guttural Response.

Now it's clear to see who hasn't played the deck.

Necropotence and Timetwister aren't even remotely debatable. They're auto-includes in this shell. Necro is the single most efficient bomb in Storm, period. If you would rather play Russian Roulette for five mana than get a whole new grip for three mana, maybe KoboldClamp is a more suitable choice. Also, Timetwister is a unique bomb that allows you to salvage poor gamestates as well as reset the game against Dredge. It's efficient and attacks from a different angle, making it absolutely vital.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest ineptitude, because Eric has proven to be very good at building and piloting storm decks over the recent years. I will say, however, that Chrome Mox is more powerful in the Ad Nauseam shell than many other storm decks due to it's redundant nature. The ability to afford your deck an amazing card like Chrome Mox adds an extra bit of upside to card slots that might otherwise be somewhat sketchy. (i.e. Chain Of Vapor #4 or Cabal Ritual #4) It's a nice win-win situation; When you need Card X to win, you'll be glad you're playing a full set. When you don't need Card X, you'll be glad you have Chrome Mox.

Although, in lists with a Tarmogoyf/Xantid Swarm sideboard, I would suggest subbing out a Chrome Mox for Mox Emerald. I could make a case for any number of Chrome Moxen except zero. In most cases, I've found two or three to play well.

As someone with some experience with the deck, four Tendrils is best. I've tried two, three, and four personally, and I've always had my best results with four Tendrils. The mini Tendrils plan is very effective in aggro/aggro-control matches and buys a ton of time without requiring a "sick" hand. I really like Chain Of Vapor as well, and have been known to go as high as the full four on those as well, particularly if I think there are several Tarmogoyf decks in the field. The best card in your deck however, is Demonic Consultation. It's so undeniably explosive once you've learned to decipher just what you need in any situation. I've won a bunch of games by casting Demonic Consultation, and not always for Tendrils/Will/etc. Just being able to get a Chain Of Vapor, Duress, etc can break the game open.

I also disagree to some extent with the opinion that Pact Of Negation outclasses Thoughtseize. While it's important to preserve your life total, (Since life = cards) it's important to remember that not every hand is a goldfish that just gets there. In the games where you're forced to interact with average hands, Thoughtseize is the more powerful effect. Thoughtseize has also proven itself in my tournament experience, particularly in matchups like BUG Fish. The disruption that the Fish deck employs combined with a legitimate clock are difficult to overcome if their best creatures hit the table. Thoughtseize and Chain Of Vapor are absolutely vital in that type of match. I do agree that four copies is definitely not optimal, however. I drift between two and three based on what I expect from the field.

I definitely do agree with the suggestion to sideboard Tarmogoyf, however. I've played them for some time, and they're fantastic in this shell. I think I might have even cast Demonic Consultation for Tarmogoyf once!

Anyway, just my opinions.
-Dave

You still can't play Chaos Orb, so I'm not too frightened of the doors opened to you by CE. After getting back into the Vintage groove in Pittsburgh, I'm ready to take this thing down.

Maybe.

Or maybe not.

It's gonna be sick either way though.

Not much chance of that, since I usually get the Bacon Cheeseburger. (Which is still insanely huge)

This is gonna be a blast, and I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again!

I like the direction this deck wants to move in. I think that if you really want to beat Tezzeret however, the best way to do so is to play more Duress effects.

Here's the list I brewed up after the Pittsburgh Mox tournament:

Mana:
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Windswept Heath
3 Polluted Delta
3 Scrubland
2 Savannah
3 Bayou
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Jet

Utility:
1 Life From The Loam
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Creatures:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Qasali Pride-Mage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Tarmogoyf

Disruption:
4 Thorn Of Amethyst
2 Thoughtseize
4 Null Rod
4 Duress

---------

Sideboard:
4 Yixlid Jailer
3 Relic Of Progenitus
2 Diabolic Edict
3 Pithing Needle
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Extirpate

It's not perfect or anything, but I really like the basic premise. Having 10 copies of Duress is pretty nice against Tezzeret and TPS. In my testing on MWS, I've even been able to snag an Ichorid player's only dredger with a first turn Tidehollow Sculler. Granted, that's definitely the exception rather than the rule since there are so few accelerants in the deck. The sideboard is a concession to the power of Ichorid as well as some nice blanket answers in Needle and Extirpate.

The new breed of Fish decks look very powerful without a doubt, but given the fact that Tezzeret is so dominant and Ichorid is so fundamentally unfair, you really need to beat those decks in order to win tournaments. Given the amount of sideboard space that those matchups demand, Oath players might be forced to just risk playing the Fish match with just a few blanket answers. Of all the cards that fit that role, Massacre is definitely the one I feel most comfortable with.

During the GP: Columbus season, I had a lot of success against Fish in Legacy with a mix of Massacre, Darkblast and my personal favorite, Cabal Pit. Crucible Of Worlds + Cabal Pit was amazing at the time. Maybe Loam and Pit could be a part of the same kind of sick Fish sideboard plan.

I do feel like the deck needs another land in the maindeck, as I mentioned earlier. While the Cabal Pit is probably relegated to the sideboard, I could definitely see the deck adding a Mishra's Factory/Mutavault or the final Wasteland as James suggested.

I just wanted to say that I played James' build at the Pittsburgh tournament in my first event back from a hiatus, and it was a lot of fun and quite powerful. I lost a very close Round One to Dredge due to simultaneous topdecked Bazaars in the third game and made some play errors in Round Two which were all my fault, but after that, the deck was strong and gave me the power and flexibility to win out the rest of the day. (The early losses made for awful breakers and I just missed T8, but c'est la vie.) 

I ran a Progenitus in the sideboard over the Empyrial Archangels, and it was very powerful. I played an Oath mirror in the fourth round that was razor close up to the very end, where it became a blowout due to having a better creature package as well as Life From The Loam and an extra Wasteland from the board.

One thing I did notice is that I had to mulligan quite often, despite religiously pile shuffling the deck into primes at almost any spare moment. Should there be another land in the maindeck?

Other than that one concern, kudos on a quality list.

-Dave

It's a shame how much this thread has deteriorated, but just to reiterate, this tournament was awesome and I can't wait for the next one!

I would much prefer the base 10 proxies to the base 5, for what it's worth. I'm actually strongly in favor of moving away from the infinite proxies as an experiment, but with the base 5 system I feel like I'm in one of two situations:

1) Pigeonholed into playing something subpar or something narrow and linear.

2) Stuck paying $10 more entry than most people just to play competitively.

Anyway, it's not really a big deal, and I'm planning on coming out in any event. Just stating my personal opinion.

Looks like it'll be a blast!

- Dave

I don't think I could have ended my latest hiatus at a better time! Since my crystal ball is broken at the moment, I guess I can't promise to be there, but I'm sure gonna try!

Good points. Reading cards you're not terribly familiar with helps reduce the chance of this happening as well.

Great event yet again. I've never been the least bit disappointed at these events, and I don't expect to be anytime soon!

Congrats to everyone that did well.

Every toll booth is another chance to save your dignity. Each one softly whispering, "Are you sure you want to play that poop deck this badly?"

And yet you keep on monster-trucking it to Pennsylvania. You deserve whatever comes your way.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing everyone again!

- Dave

Neat. Time for Goblins to snatch up a Black Lotus and a Mox Pearl simultaneously!

This entire event is a great gesture and yet another example of how fantastic the eternal community is. We may play with decks that are worth more than our car in some cases, but I'm just privileged to be a part of our player base.

The Dragon that steals all other dragons is cute, albeit not playable. It really is sad that Oath didn't get some absurd monster for the second consecutive set....

I guess we're just starting to get spoiled. (Myself included)

I think my favorite is Krark-Clan Ironworks. It's the card that got me back into Magic after a long break, and I managed to actually win a few small tournaments with clunky but fun Standard and Extended versions. Looping Myr Retrievers with a Disciple Of The Vault or a Brain Freeze was good times. I also rocked such hits as Myr Incubator + Goblin Charbelcher, Mindslaver and Genesis Chamber. I even think Door To Nothingness was in there for all of 24 hours.

Best memory ever was being hit with Cranial Extraction in Extended. The guy named Mindslaver, (A singleton he lost to in G1) saw all the different win conditions in the deck plus Fabricate in my hand, and quit.

Sounds absolutely insane. I definitely want in. Do my connections in the 'Burgh still pull any weight? (I.E. I'd need a place to pass out from euphoria between days 1 and 2.)

Feel free to PM me about it!

- Dave

WARNING: I am playing an archetype that I have never, ever, ever played in a tournament before. You have been warned.

 

See you there!

-Dave

Twaun speaks the truth. I would give my life for an epic sandwich punch. OK, that's a lie, but I could probably gut out a toothpick wound for one.

I'm employed, so I think I'm in there.

Oh man, look at the Meandeckers working to swipe Rich already.  Anyway, congratulations on the strong performance. (It seems like I make that same comment on every thread of yours that I have ever read.)