Now that I think about it, I never did play any combo decks. I suppose that was a large contributing factor for making it as far as I did. About Pyrostatic Pillar though, that card was the bomb every time I played it. I sided both of them in for more than half of my rounds and I kept asking myself why it wasn't maindecked.

It was definitely my MVP out of the board, even if I only had two of them. I always seemed to draw them.

Fun deck.

I get slops?

It wasn't so much a "WoW' thing as it was a "3:30am and gotta drive an hour and a half to get home" thing.

Seriously though, congrats on doing so well. The most interesting thing that I find about your deck is that it doesn't have a single mox. The Guild ain't no Waterbury, but there also was no lack of fully-powered decks and great players there either.

Very nice report.

We didn't play each other, but I was there also. In fact, I believe I was sitting next to "El Conquistador" when said conversation took place. I was playing a Control Slaver build with white in it (huh?). I ended up at 2 - 2 - 1. Not so impressive...

Anyway, I just wanted to say congrats and thanks for making the drive up, especially in the "if my car breaks down I will probably die" kind of weather.

Yeah, I realize he's Indestructable, but the saproling tokens can be combined with Wonder/Anger to win the game quickly. It was just a fleeting thought because a resolved DSC is soooo bad for me. Once I thought about it though, the gameplan is to prevent Oath from triggering, not dealing with it when it does.


That's a good question. It was easy for me to figure out what cards to put in, but I was hazy when it came to exactly what cards to pull out. Looking back, I don't remember committing any glaring mistakes, but I'm sure there were subtle mistakes made with my sideboarding.

I'm not an expert with this deck so maybe someone can give a better answer, but if I were to sit down across Dragon right now I would probably do something like this:

-2 Wonder
-4 Basking Rootwalla
-1 Deep Analysis

+4 Ray of Revelation
+2 Circular Logic
+1 Krosan Reclaimation

Against MeanDeath/TPS, I would probably go with:

-2 Wonder
-4 Basking Rootwalla

+4 Pyrostatic Pillar
+2 Circular Logic

I haven't played against Doomsday at all, so I have no idea about that. Obviously, the Pillars would go in.

So yeah, just from writing this, it looks like Wonder and Rootwalla get sided out a lot. I'm not sure if that's what I'm supposed to do or not, but those are my first instincts.

Last Friday was the weekly Vintage tournament at the Adventurer’s Guild in Eau Claire, WI (about an hour east of St. Paul/Minneapolis). This week however, the prize was an Unlimited Mox Jet in what has been the third higher-profile tournament at this shop in the last five months. After the first of the year, the plan is to have one larger tournament a month. I play regularly at the Guild so it was awesome to be on my home turf. After pairings and re-pairings because of late show-ups, the final headcount was 40 with people from as far north as Brainerd, MN to as far south as Milwaukee, WI. The tournament was 5-proxy and would be 5 rounds of swiss with a cut to top-8. Pretty standard.

I had been tweaking with a Madness build of my own when I came across Ben Kowal’s Madness decklist on TheManaDrain. I’ve never had the time or ability to become much of a deck builder (aka I’m a stupid netdecker) so I decided to give it a shot. I like to win as much as the next person, but I also like to have fun doing it and playing *insert arbitrary StarCityGames tournament top-8 decklist* did not sound very appealing to me.

Here's the decklist again:



Round 1 vs. Control Slaver

I lose the roll. Game one was rather uneventful as he didn’t really get anything going. I think he may have countered a few things and dropped a Welder which met a Fiery Temper. He had plenty of mana, but no business spells to get going. The game was over quickly. Game two he kept a single Island hand with a Brainstorm. EOT he dug for more land by came up dry. Madness is good at taking advantage of stalled decks.

Game Record: 2 – 0
Match Record: 1 – 0
MVP: my opponent not mulliganing

Round 2 vs. Oath

This guy went to time in round one so everyone was watching him play and knew what he was playing. It’s always nice to not have to go into a match blind. Both in conversation and testing, Oath seems to be an unfavorable matchup, but it’s not unwinnable. I lose the roll. Game one my game plan is to go combo with Mongrel as I have no way to rid myself of an Oath once it hits the board. I have a decent start, but the inevitable happens when he drops an Oath and passes the turn. Unable to do anything about it, I swing and pass the turn. He Oaths up a Darksteel Colossus. I raise an eyebrow as the DC Oath is generally considered inferior to the Akroma + SOTN version. The obvious disadvantage that DC has against me is his lack of flying. I had Wonder in the yard, but I sadly did not have enough beats to fly over. I now had some sideboarding dilemmas to resolve. Basically, it boiled down to whether or not I should side in Mutations for the Colossus or not. I assumed he was running Tinker which made the threat even greater. In the end, I decided against it because my game plan is to prevent the Oath from ever triggering and if Tinker happens, I just hoped I would have enough beats to win. My opening hand game two is fantastic. I have the ability to hardcast and flash Ray of Revalation. On turn two he plays an Oath. EOT I cast Ray on it, he Forces, I flash it back. That took the steam right out of him and I was able to win easily from there. I don’t think I changed anything so I shuffled up and hoped for a similar hand. Luckily, my hand is fantastic yet again, with Bazaar, Ray, and beats. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed as he opened his first turn with mox, mox, land, Tinker. I obviously have no way to deal with that so I do what every honorable magic player would do: kick and scream and fight until I die to Colossus anyway. Damn.

Game Record: 3 – 2
Match Record: 1 – 1
MVP: Ray of Revelation, Wonder

Round 3 vs. R/G Beats (Todd Otto)

R/G Beats is kind of a local phenomenon at our shop and some shops in the Twin Cities. Before Trinisphere and Chalice were heavily-played in our area, R/G ruled Workshop decks. It was able to do well in many bigger tournaments by simply piggy-back riding on Workshop decks and Fish decks which were almost an auto-win. I used to play it myself and did quite well with it, but its time has passed. It’s a deck that can’t go broken and can’t really stop people from going broken. Root Maze is no Force of Will.

Anyway, I was pretty confident in this matchup as I simply have bigger and more creatures accompanied by burn also. I lose the roll. Game one my hand has one play and one play only: a first-turn Arrogant Wurm off a Black Lotus. I know that I shouldn’t do it but I just can’t throw it back for some reason. I get one swing in before he double bolts it. At that point, I stall out. He uses this opportunity to drop a very annoying River Boa. I have an Island in play so this could get messy. My topdecks are pretty bad and he simply overruns me with Kird Apes and Boas. It was eerie when I looked at my hand game two. I had first-turn Arrogant Wurm yet again off a Lotus. This time my hand had a little better support so I decided to keep it. This game went similar to game one. At one point, I was pretty sure I was going to lose, but I just kept hanging on. I had plenty of draw and mana so when I played a Mongrel I was able to pitch Wonder, Anger, Roar, flash the Roar, and swing for ten. Then do it again next turn. Game three my deck went textbook. A much more balanced opening hand. My opponent had to mulligan also. This match went exactly how I would think it’s supposed to.

Game Record: 5 – 3
Match Record: 2 – 1
MVP: Wild Mongrel, Wonder

Round 4 vs. Crucible Combo/Control (Josh Bayer)

This deck was a pretty standard counterspell-complemented deck (Drains, Forces, etc) that used Gifts Ungiven to set up the Fastbond/Crucible/Zuran Orb combo as fast as possible. I lose the roll. Game one I believe he starts with first-turn Library. He savagely outdraws me and slowly gets his combo together. Before his Leaks and Drains were online, I was able to slip a Mongrel into play. Even with the sheer numbers of cards he drew, he was unable to find answers to my threats and get his combo going. I win the turn before he can go off. I side in my Mutations because two out of his three combo pieces are artifacts. Despite some back-and-forth play, I’m unable to stop a rather large Yawmoth’s Will that nets him infinite life and mana. Game three I start out with a first-turn Pyrostatic Pillar. I also sneak one threat through that chews off a few points of life before getting Ghastly Demised. A second Pillar comes into play. He gets his Zuran Orb but losing four life for every spell he casts makes it just out of reach for him to combo off. Had I not played the second Pillar, I would have lost.

Game Record: 7 – 4
Match Record: 3 – 1
MVP: Pyrostatic Pillar

Round 5 vs. Stax (Travis Suer)

I was really hoping to draw into the top-8 at this point, but my hopes were dashed when I see that I’ve been paired down. I feel pretty confident in this matchup despite zero testing (I know how stupid that sentence sounds). This time I win the roll! I play mox, land, Mongrel. He starts with first-turn Tinker into Sundering Titan. Damn you Tinker! I take fourteen from the Titan before I’m able to drop an Arrogant Wurm to complement my Mongrel. He swings and I have enough to take down the Titan. I now have a neutered manabase and a lone Mongrel. At this point, my opponent stalls out on threats. He gets plenty of draw and holds me down with a couple of Tangle Wires, but eventually the Mongrel gets through for lethal damage. Game two, my creatures, his Crypt, and his Cities take him down to below five life. I cast two Artifact Mutations on him leaving me with eleven 1/1’s. The turn before I can kill him, he casts (or Tinkers for) Platinum Angel. I have Wonder in my graveyard so it turns into a standoff. This game chews a lot of time off the clock. He eventually gets a Trisk and Welder going to work on my tokens. My life was above twenty due to his Swords to Plowshares. Time is called and on his last turn, he’s able to kill my last token and swing for exactly enough to kill me dragging the game to a draw. This was one of those matches where you’re happy to get out with just a draw.

Game Record: 8 – 5
Match Record: 3 – 1 – 1
MVP: Artifact Mutation

My tie-breakers are good to me and I end up making the top-8 in last seed. The top-8 wasn’t very diverse. There were three 5/3’s, three Oaths, Madness, and Staff of Domination Combo.

Here were the standings after the swiss:

1) Tim Bauer (4-0-1) with 5/3
2) I@n DeGraff (4-0-1) with Staff of Domination Combo
3) Joe Schultz (4-0-1) with Oath
4) Matt Hannafin (4-1) with 5/3
5) Gerry Thompson (4-1) with Oath
6) Jeremy Zwirn (3-1-1) with 5/3
7) Brad Ojala (3-1-1) with Oath
8) Jake Hustad (3-1-1) with Madness

Quarterfinals vs. 5/3 (Tim Bauer)

I’ve been playing 5/3 since GenCon so I know the deck quite well. I win the die roll again and start off with mox, fetchland which effectively neuters his first-turn Trinisphere. He had to mulligan down to six. On his turn he empties his hand of artifact mana and drops a Trinisphere. I get some threats going and start swinging. He eventually gets a Sundering Titan out wrecking three of my lands. But, I get a Roar out with Wonder in the yard and I’m able to swing in for lethal damage. Game two the crucial play was on turn three or four. He Swordsed my only threat and drops a Juggernaught. On my next turn, I drop Lotus Petal, Black Lotus, sac them both to cast Mutation on the Juggernaught and Wild Mongrel. I get a couple turns of beats in while he makes it clear that he has a Tinker in hand but is frustrated because he doesn’t have an artifact. The turn before I can kill him, he drops a Juggernaught and casts Tinker grabbing Platinum Angel. We go into standoff mode for a few turns while my Bazaar goes to work on my deck digging for one of two cards. I eventually find a Violent Eruption and end the match.

Game Record: 10 – 5
Match Record: 4 – 1 – 1
MVP: Artifact Mutation, Wonder

Semifinals vs. Oath (Gerry Thompson)

It’s about 2:00am at this point so I’m getting a little fatigued, but I still have some fight left in me. I lose the roll this time but my opponent gets very frustrated (and rightly so) that he has to mulligan down to four cards. This didn’t comfort me too much as game one against Oath is really bad for me whether they have seven cards in hand or two. But, he never does get the gasoline needed to keep up with me. It doesn’t help his pain that my deck takes its sweet-ass time in killing him. I was quite happy to steal game one against Oath. I had a good feeling, but it wasn’t to be. Games two and three I never see a single Ray. He has the counters for all of my critical spells. Game three I walk into a Mana Drain only to see a Platinum Angel hard cast on me. Ouch. An unfortunate end to an otherwise great tournament.

Game Record: 11 – 7
Match Record: 4 – 2 – 1
MVP: bleh!

The finals ended up being an Oath mirror so they just decide to split and walk away with $150 cash each. All in all, it was a great tournament with the biggest turnout the store has seen thus far. After the first of the year, the Guild is planning on running one 5-proxy tournament a month for a piece of power. For more details, visit their website here.

As far as comments on the deck, I think the deck is good. Is it great? Maybe, but probably not in my hands. One thing is for sure: this deck is fun as hell to play and in the end, that’s what I’m after.

Well, when a couple of us looked at it, it appeared to be a lock to us. But, it doesn't matter, nobody can force you to ID and it worked out for you anyway. It's just that he hadn't played in many tournaments and we we're pulling for him.

A friend of mine from the Wisconsin crew also ran mono-red Goblin Sligh at this tournament and did quite well. He finished in 10th place and would have made top-eight if his seventh-round opponent could've done some math and realized that they both could've ID'ed in. He ran four Price of Progress in the board and he said they were his MVP.

I'm not sure why the FCG decks had a lackluster showing. Maybe because it was more expected?

Blood Moon is indeed huge, when you can get it into play. But, any deck that can be seriously hurt by it has a plan (or should have a plan) to deal with it. Blood Moon is still a good card, it's just not as good as it used to be. Mishra's Factories seem to play an extremely important role in this deck, and playing with Blood Moon hurts that role.


Well, the metagame up here does, of course, run plenty of duals. It's just that the decks that are doing really well up here are very careful not to let Bloodmoon wreck their day. Maybe I'm completely wrong here, but Bloodmoon seems to punish those who get greedy or don't have a plan for it, and that can, in itself, be a liability depending on where you play.


Mana Drain is indeed insane, but I think the real reason not to run them is the double-blue mana requirement. It seems to me that this deck skates a very fine line with the manabase, and coming up with double-blue mana could sometimes be a problem. (maybe I'm wrong here) Being able to run the deck, damn near optimally, with only one blue mana is a great advantage. Being able to drop a Mox and land with a Leak in hand is a great start also.

I think you may be onto something with cutting the Cunning Wishes. The Wishes give you a flexibility option that is undeniable, but at the cost of speed and focus. Cunning Wish has become so ingrained in blue-based control, that it's not even something that gets considered to be expendable. Lately, I've been wanting to develop a very well meta-gamed control deck that shifts away from the flexible and bastardized sideboard to a more focused and consistent sideboard. I know this seems like a step backward, but I think it can be effective if you have a good idea what decks you'll be playing against (which you obviously do).

And as far as Stifle is concerned, I am onboard. In any given match, I find no shortage of useful targets for this guy (not the least of which are Fetchlands and Wastelands). Sometimes opponents' Wastelands can just win games, and Stifle can allow you to neutralize this advantage. Teferi's Response is neat and all, but it's just too slow and narrow to be useful (at least for me).

Well, Milton, the thing I like most about your deck is how focused it is. There's no random crap and there's a reason for every card in the deck. And I know personally that it is a good deck. I played against you once and you crushed me, and I wasn't playing a bad deck.

But, where do you want to take your deck from here? Are you hoping to improve it somehow? What decks do you consider to be a bad match-up? If you're consistently top-8'ing with it, what do you think is keeping you from going all the way with it?