Shawn, I clearly remember beating you in the semi-finals of a tournament where you resolved an EOT Gifts against me.

In addition, I defeated JigglyPuff in T8 of SCG Boston after he resolved a Gifts in our game 3. Point is, choosing the correct line of play from each player's opening hand decides the match, not one card in most instances (...and having a properly built deck).

I have to agree with you, it was like taking candy from a baby - the field was unprepared for Dredge, and even when there was hate I had more than enough answers for it.

Dredge has truly become the 800-pound Gorilla in the room and if people do not bring 8 pieces of hate with them we can easily have Dredge as a repeat winner at Worlds this year.

FACT: Dredge has won the last 3 major events in Vintage and is primed to take the forth strait considering people think that Lightning Bolt is a cure all for the meta. If you do not consider Dredge to be the best deck in Vintage then you are obviously looking through shaded lenses.

My list was so generic and uninspired, it is not worth posting - it is an amalgamation of BOM and Cagebreaker.

Obviously Steve hasn’t translated his book into enough languages yet  

Yes, it was an intense deciding game - too bad it wasn't recorded to show future generations how to play magic 

Don't worry, I'm stocking up on 9th place finishes as I need plenty of salt to Jar Tomatoes at the end of August.

...Also, some Doomsday deck's don't run rituals, some do (it may be more appropriately called a gush or FOW deck).

Sounds like someone want's a rematch!!!

... and yes, Land Tax is a broken card advantage engine...

Throw Argivian Find and Aura of Silence on my list as well

And team NY did it with Two and a half men

Predicting Dredge winning worlds and Team NE coming in 4th, I am on a roll

Great, so I have my brother to blame for Dredge winning Vintage Champs

Congratulations again!!!! Philadelphia finally has an idol to look up to aside from Rocky (who happens to be a fictional character).

Basking Rootwalla and every card that has maddness

Well, with a new team added at least Team New England doesn't have to come in 3rd again...

Nick, word on the street is that there are three Russians asking around for you...

After you last year I think everyone learned their lesson about trash talking 

Seriously though, when is Combo going to sack-up and exploit soft blue deck that only care about beating shops?

By the same logic you tinkered on me twice, should I start boarding in Shadow of Doubt?

If you two know each other, take it to a private room

Those were definitely some intense games - Lotus as 7th card off a consult is the stuff great stories are made of!! Leyline can be problematic depending on what type of game it turns into though they are usually just clunk a nimble combo pilot can navigate around. I have to re-evaluate my sb plan as well considering I usually don't need any help beating blue decks packing MD ancient grudges and various other useless cards.

Nick in T8

Nick D. (prospero) is in T16 with Espresso Stax.

I'm not because I didn't go today (obviously).

"I was right on MUD, although one of the three was NYSE Espresso Stax and not Aggro MUD. Big congrats to Vinnie Forino for representing NYSE."

NYSE Espresso Stax - Eliase why would you list the deck as such, where has it ever been written with an NYSE in front of the deck name (no actual response needed)? I ask this because NYSE is a tournament venue, it is not a team that I am aware of nor one that me or my brother are part of (anyone who knows me understands that I don't believe in teams and turned down an invite to R&D).

I believe that many people have this misunderstanding because when Tezz was new and tearing up the scene my brother was asked (Oct/Nov 08") by the local Shop players to come out of retirement and quell the beast. After playing traviscon with a 5C list that was meta'd for GAT he single highhandedly innovated 5C stax by switching to thorns and all the complementary cards to own a Tezz meta. He tutored the local shop fledglings on what the proper 75 should be, how to play the deck and how to board.

Some students where better than others and excelled which made Raffaele happy as he didn't get to go to many tournaments.

In regards to Espresso Stax, the deck was primarily my design with finishing touches put on by my brother (especially SB strategy) - no one else had any input or contributed in any significant manor aside from being a cheerleader. The name of the deck probably speaks to this along with the jump in technology that someone outside of the Shop bubble contributed. To this I must compliment my brother as he asked me to play 5C in December 09' for a tournament (I got 9th on breakers) so he can have a fresh set of eyes on Shops which along with Loadstone spawned the deck.

Very good article overall, you do sound like you can use some cheese with the whine about your performance (which is justified; more often than not Life gets in the way of magic for me...), MTG is a hobby (at-least for guys like me) and most people read articles to be entertained not hear about others problems. There are good lessons regarding play-testing and deck selection for anyone who payed attention.

Ray,

To make Waterbury even more epic - have players give their TMD handle when signing up and have it appear on match slips - it would be really cool to know what someone has posted and their opinions after playing them. It would lead to some great conversations.

I've never worked the computer for a tournament - if the DCI# field happens to be a alpha/numeric that would be a good place to start (or if there is a misc field).

Yet again, I don't know how to execute the idea - just that it would make for a good time.

Really Steve, as someone who use to have the Emperor as his avatar I figured you would be comfortable with the role of being vilified. I hope this guy's comments are no different than when when Feinstein use to refer to you as the Dark Lord in his tournament report(s)....

BTW, does anyone know what's Feinstein's record vs. Meandeck is up to?

Sorry, it seem TMD as eaten my Tournament report. Perhaps it was during the reorganization of the site? Or perhaps things from 06' are put in an archive??? A Mod can answer this question better than I can.


A mono-black deck which is great for our current meta is Dark Time from our own Max Brown - you should check it out though it's not really Sui...

There, fixed!!!

Dredge is a machine that is picking up momentum and starting to roll everything over. It is like a virus that keep adapting to the antibiotics used to kill it - this virus just may have gotten out of control.

Glad I won't be at Gencon when Dredge finally wins it.

One of my all time favorite short reads, I suggest anyone who will be going on a short plane ride pick it up.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275400586&sr=1-1

You know, you would think in a guys own backyard they would properly name the name he built...

Now that you mention it, Didgeridoo is the nutz - worthy of it's own deck to support the Minotaurs...

Nick,

You run a great show! I love my new Wolf shirt and will be were-ing it (haha) at a tournament sooner than later. Getting the best prize and being able to leave before the snow hit hard was an ideal outcome 

Wouldn't that make it Toke for Knowledge?

To say the 3sphere deck was "meta'd" is being very polite

@Steve
There was no good MUD builds from Europe that could be found with 4 Trinispere?

It was interesting to see Tez do well, I have always though of it as a decent deck in a limp meta (big fish small pond if you will) - it sounded like it drew well  in it's matches and probably wouldn't be able to put up the same amount of wins again though. The fact that it beat the 3spere deck is a testament to how "wrong" the shop deck's build was.

I would of liked to see who piloted each deck for the matches (that would of been a value add to the article).

@Vroman
I would probably cut the 2 factories for 2 ancient tombs as well (since it is a fantasy deck).

Congratulation to our New World Champ, it is great that a non-American won it - gives validity to it being a "World Championship".

@nicofromtokyo
As I said in our PM from 07' you are a pioneer with your support for T1 in Japan

Is there any proof this tournament existed, i.e. decklists?

As having probably the most tournament experience with DC since it's restriction out of anyone I would be against the card coming off the restricted list. Even though I have played mid-range combo decks primarily, every time I see DC in my opening hand I think "First turn kill"? Out of all the viable cards still on the list it possesses too great a risk and might make Mtg too luck dependent with a first turn mentality of someone is going to die.

To not be all doom and gloom it is a skill dependent card (even though you may need some luck/good fortune) and most importantly it might force combo decks to be built "correctly" i.e. more like my vision. It may give aggro a boost as well.

Not to stir the pot too much; I would rather see Bargain unrestricted, I think it would be interesting...