Thanks for posting, nice to see these lists.

-Thiago

 Any idea when they will post the decklists?

Wish I could have made it- how many people showed up?

Having just finished the excellent Vintage Champs last weekend, it's fresh on my mind and I'd like to reflect a bit on it.

A little background, I had stopped playing Magic for a number of years, my last vintage tournament was a Waterbury event sometime in the 2007 or 2008 era. Some of you may remember me as the "Crashtest" from the Starcity Games forum "What's the pimpest deck you've ever seen" mega thread that went on for a few years.

This June, I decided I wanted to come back and play some vintage. I did a little bit of research and read a lot online as to what the top decks where - and a lot of strategies and cards had changed since 2008. Nowadays, one could go on youtube and watch actual matches - something not available back then.

 I decided I would play in the NYSE tournament, and decided on Oath. I had played Oath at my last waterbury event and had done well with it almost 7-8 years prior. Almost making top 8, losing in the final round to end up 6-2 if memory serves correctly.

 I played a couple of local events in the NY/NJ/PA area, and took "Fenton Oath" to NYSE. At that event, the metagame had seemed to really be against Oath - and I did not do so well with it.

 My next focus was to play the Eternal Champs, as I had never done so. I switched my deck up - and liked the delver/mentor deck that Stephen Menendian had played at NYSE.

 So after playing it at various local events, I was happy with it. I had just come back from not playing a long time - so I needed some practice to get my skills and knowledge of the format back up, so I focused on this one deck without tweaking too much of the main deck.

 Before I talk about the tournament, I'd like to say I'd had so much fun the last few weeks/months playing Vintage again. The community is so friendly - I have enjoyed myself meeting various new people and talking about magic and strategies. It's a great community and welcoming.

Here is the list I played:

Planeswalker (2)
2 Dack Fayden
Creature (7)
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Monastery Mentor
Sorcery (8)
4 Preordain
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
Instant (25)
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Dig Through Time
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Swords to Plowshares
Artifact (3)
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl (Black Lotus replacement)
Land (15)
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
4 Ingot Chewer  
2 Shattering Spree
2 Sudden Shock
 1 Wear // Tear
3 Containment Priest  
3 Grafdigger's Cage

Pretty standard list - no changes to the main deck as I think it was nicely built. If you notice, I have a Pearl in place of a Black Lotus  in there - I have a graded Alpha Lotus and did not want to crack the case just to play with it since no proxies were allowed.  I almost considered picking up an unlimited one to play with, but decided against it last minute. Lotus is amazing, so I am sure the deck would have been a bit better with it in it.

 As you can see, the sideboard is pretty heavily loaded against shops and dredge. I played in the Vintage champ trials the day before - and in 7 rounds, I played against exclusively blue decks, no shops or dredge. I was 4-1-1 until losing to Mystic Remora/Mentor in the last round.

During Vintage champs - another 10 rounds - I amazingly was able to avoid playing against any shops deck at all once again, and played against only 1 dredge deck. I ended up going 7-2-1.

in 17 rounds of both events, I played vs 1 dredge deck, and the rest pretty much were all blue!  (Minus 1 hate bears deck)  A mix of oath, bomberman variants, pyromancer/gush, and time vault/key decks.

Some impressions of the deck:

This deck seems to do very well against other blue decks, with its main deck Pyroblasts, Flusterstorms, and Misdirection. It felt like I was able to counter the important spells while putting them on a faster clock, most games I won with Mentor getting a big number of tokens and stacking damage with prowess. Turn 1 Delver went the distance a few times as well.

Had I faced Shops decks - I am sure I would have run into trouble. I find it a particularly bad matchup for this deck, because it has a low mana curve and ratio, therefore making it very vulnerable to Trinisphere, wasteland, sphere effects, etc. Post sideboard, I would have like to run Pulverize instead of shattering spree, plus adding a basic mountain. Luckily I did not have to face any last weekend.

 Interestingly enough - both of my loses at the Vintage Champs came to Merfolk decks. One was tough - first turn True-Name Nemesis off a Lotus, and game 2 strip mine and wasteland, while the other Merfolk matchup I was not able to outrace. Hence why I had Sudden Shocks in the sibeboard, very useful card in dealing with a variety of creature threats.

I ended up 29th, which was enough for a top 32 prize - which was cool. Day before I made the cut for the top 24 prize at the Trials, so it was nice getting a little something!

Overall, I think this is a great deck - and with a few more sideboard tweaks, should do well. It's a blast to play, when you start stacking Mentor tokens off chaining cheap draw spells, it's a lot of fun.

The event was run very well, in a beautiful location with a lot of easy access to hotels and food. I had Mark Poole alter an Alpha Island for me with the Ancestral mage, came out nice - and a cool memento for me to remember Vintage Champs 2015.

-Thiago

          

      
            

I'm thinking of going, how many people usually show up at these?

I know it usually goes up on YouTube, but is there anywhere to watch the replay of the top 8 yet from the 2015 vintage champs?

I'll be there too

Great article, exactly what I was looking to read after a big 150 person event- barely anyone has written about it and this is an oasis in the desert!

I also played oath there, and had the same experience you mentioned.

Great report, and good job getting 3rd. You played a lot of mirror matches!

It was nice to meet you guys too - I was the guy playing oath that hung out with you guys Friday and Saturday.

Is there another resource- like a thread on here or Facebook group that discusses this event/meta game and information in more detail? Have not really seen anything, I'm sure people want to talk about it.

Any idea when the results and decklists will go up?

I remember Apprentice and MWS used to be good, and I see that MTGO now has vintage.

   What do most people use to practice for tournaments online? Are there any good programs still? Anything for the Mac?

Hey guys, some of you may remember me. (From Starcity game's "The Pimp Thread" that went on for a while)

         So I've not played Magic in years, but kept up some of my collection. I always have that urge to play again.

     Things seem a bit different now then a few years ago. How is the vintage scene? As it was back in 2007-2009? Worse?

     There seem to be a few tournaments popping up, where's the best place to see what decks are good now? I don't want to build something with banned cards that changed since I played!

Thanks for the detailed answer!

       That is pretty interesting, dredge especially. How about tournaments and things of that nature, a lot of interest still or did a lot of people stop playing?

Hey everyone - some of you may remember me, I have not played in a few years. I was interested in getting back into the action. So what's new in vintage lately? Are the world champ deck lists from August still the top decks to beat, or has anything changed? When I stopped playing the vintage scene tournament wise was a bit weakened, how is it now?

        Hope to hear from everyone!

Yeah, he said it was a possible reback too - so I do not trust that auction.

Heh, looks like nothing is really done aside from banning user accounts that are easily evaded. If the law won't go after someone even after hundreds of thousands of dollars in fakes, nothing will be done about a few thousand in Magic cards.

      Buyer beware!

A few weeks ago on eBay, 2 Guru Islands went for almost $100 each. The price is back down to around $50-60, but Summer Islands seem to always sell for less than $40. There are some BIN prices on eBay for over 50, but they don't really sell. I got 2-3 Summer Islands a few months ago for around $35, so they aren't too hard to get.

        In my experience, Guru Islands are just as rare as Summer Islands. There are 11 Summer Islands on eBay BIN right now, but only 1 Guru Island for auction. There is less demand for Summer Island- so while it may technically be a bit rarer print run wise, there certainly is a decent amount of supply out there. Most of them stay unsold, while Guru Islands go pretty fast.

 I think at worst they are fairly equal, but I do prefer Guru for the art and black border.

    Guru!

Yeah, Guru lands are definitely amazing. The Guru Islands are even more expensive than Summer now. The only way I'd use Summer Islands is if I had a lot of other Summer cards as well to match. Perhaps that is the next step!

If you guys have not seen the "Pimp thread" on SCG yet, I'd recommend you take a look.

      My stuff is on the first page, second post and after.

http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=295734&start=0

That is definitely very suspect.

      That brings up a good point - remember to examine all aspects of a seller when you buy - which can mean checking some of his feedback transactions. Sometimes you can find some useful information there.

Using a credit card is good, as you can get fraud protection from your company.

       The best proactive measure is to purchase wisely though. This means research the seller in question, ask him about the card, anything to see how fast he responds. Ask for a bigger scan if possible.

             If someone is considering buying a card, they can also post here or PM me - I will be glad to take a look at the auction or scan of the card and give my analysis of it. There are a lot of scams around, but most eBay sellers are still legit.

For starters, here is something that I would avoid. The card has a huge crease in it, which while not always indicating a failed bend test, surely points to that direction here given the very strange wear in the card itself. The crease also only seems visible on the back, a bad sign. (Coupled with the user's lower feedback, I would avoid auctions like this)

Beta Mox Ruby

With Magic cards growing in prices, so are the amount of fakes and scams on the internet.

We can use this thread to post any suspicious auctions or even card scans. I am sure many people will be happy to help, I know I will as best as I can, as this is a topic I am very interested in. The more we can curtail fraudulent activity and fake cards, the better and healthier the market for Magic cards will be in the future.

Take a read through the Fake Black Lotus thread for some further information, and post here if you have any questions!

There is definitely something funny about this card, but nothing conclusive can be said by just the scan without examining it in person. Definitely looks suspicious, just in the way the corners look.

        Rebacked CE cards can get close to real cards, but something always gives it away.
 
     Did you do the light test on it, comparing it to another card?

That was very entertaining actually, it'd be cool to see some of this in Vintage!

I do have to say Goblin Welder, as he is definitely a very strong creature - CS and Stax would not any good without him.

         Juzam Djinn is definitely the coolest creature though, even if he is not currently playable.

He posted on the thread on MOTL. Read his reaction carefully to Dwiz. He turns the table on everyone, and accuses everyone of being malicious and defaming his "Good name", and calls it illegal. Hm, last I checked selling counterfeit cards was really illegal.. It's not like we are only going by pictures, which in and of themselves already reveal the cards are fake by a long shot: But multiple people have found these cards to be fake when they've received them and asked to be refunded.


Some people are unbelievable, simply unbelievable.

http://www.magictraders.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/022251-7.html

Yes, we know how he does it. They are rebacked Collector's edition cards.

       There is evidence showing him purchasing CE cards, take a look at the mOTL thread mentioned above.

           He just glues them on, and fixes the edges, it's as simple as that.

This is a growing problem. Most people can't figure out the card is fake, and the ones that do I think he refunds, and do not leave negative feedback for fear of retaliatory feedback on their account.