For the PE Saturday, August 9th, 8:30PM Eastern, I'm offering an additional prize of a Mox Ruby to the winner. I know there's been some discussion of trying to fire Sunday's event as well, but Saturday's are the best nights for me, so I decided to sweeten this particular pot.  There should be plenty of players out there to fire both events now that the Tangle Wire and Gifts Ungiven bugs have been fixed.  Let's play some Vintage!

There has been discussion on Classic Quarter regarding trying to fire the Saturday event.  I think V4 is impacting our potential player base, but people (myself included) are getting more comfortable with it, so I think we have a good chance of firing.

It's simply a true statement for my case.  Standard is definitely not profitable to invest in online, because the cards tank when they rotate out.  Eternal formats haven't generally had this problem, but yes, there are no guarantees.  The main point I'm trying to make is that you don't literally have nothing for your investment, as I hear some people contend.

I also had a very easy time turning a significant profit liquidating a friend's collection.  Much like my paper collection, I could sell my MTGO collection for much more than I paid for it.  The point being, you are paying for something tangible.  You can't hold it in your hand, but it has liquid value.  Additionally, I personally get as much utility paging through my digital binder as I do with my paper collection. 

I think it's unrealistic to expect to buy into Vintage for a few hundred dollars (though you can get a playable deck like dredge).  The market of buying and selling is more efficient than paper, reducing costs, but there's no getting around the fact that digital packs are still $4.00 and the secondary market is driven off divvying that $4.00 up amongst the cards in the set.  I know drafts and prizes reduce the average cost per pack, but you get the point.  One nice thing that will keep online eternal much cheaper than paper is the ability to re-release cards and sets for special events from time-to-time.  If prices of cards drift up too much over time, people will draft the heck out of a set when Wizards make the set available for a couple weeks.

Online play can actually be more social than you might think.  It's a pretty tight-knit group that plays Classic currently, and I've gotten to know a lot of the players pretty well through chats, listening to podcasts, reading tourney coverage, etc.  One nice thing is being able to block the few bad apples so you don't have to deal with them (unless you get matched up in a tourney, in which case, you can just ignore their chats and make your plays).  In real life, there's no avoiding them.  As a former Vintage tourney player who was hesitant to join MTGO, I can now say I would much rather play online.  MTGO may not attract as many Vintage players that currently participate in active Vintage communities, but that number is very limited geographically.  I strongly encourage those who have geographic or time limitations to give MTGO a shot.  For both reasons, I personally haven't been able to play in a paper tournament in years.

In the following link, Pete Jahn lays out several advantages MTGO has over paper:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/ten-reasons-why-mtgo-better-real-life-magic
To be fair, he also covers 10 things he feels make paper better in another article, but this does lay out some of the advantages to MTGO.  My favorites include the shuffler, timer, and rules engine.  The biggest advantage though is just the availability of a game whenever you want to play.

Count me in!  I can't wait!  MTGO has many advantages for family schedules.  While I can't easily get away during the day on the weekend (not that there are more than a handful of Vintage tourneys a year in my area anyway), I can log onto MTGO anytime and play.  There's a great group of people currently playing Classic online and I look forward to any bump the P9 can provide for firing tourneys more consistently.  Count me as someone that didn't think playing online sounded appealing at all, but a friend convinced me to give it a try a few years ago and I absolutely love it.

Congrats on another split Tom!  Let me know when you have another deck for me to copy.  I really think this is the most versatile form of flash that I have seen to date because of the secondary nonFlash storm wins and the nice side board options.

Nice report Ben.  It was a pleasure playing you twice, and I’m glad that I got my good draws in the finals instead of the swiss.  It’s a shame that you’re losing half of your team to out of state colleges.  You’re a good group of guys and have been a nice infusion to our Vintage scene in the twin cities.

Here’s the deck I played:

Rector Flash
2 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Tundra
1 Tolarian Academy

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Dark Ritual

4 Academy Rector
1 Form of the Dragon

1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Flash
4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

Sideboard:
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Gush
2 Duress
3 Razormane Masticore
1 Tinker
1 7/10

The only change I made from the list that Tom (Mox Pearl) played last month winning a Lotus at the College of Dupage and splitting for first at last month’s Monster Den tournament, was to add a 4th merchant scroll dropping one dark ritual.  At times I missed the ritual when comboing off and with the sideboard strategy, but I think I like the scroll overall.  I found myself playing control a lot more than expected, given that I played Team Xiphosura (Meandeck) Tendrils 4 times, so the scrolls were particularly useful, often getting force when I wasn’t in position to win on the current turn.

Round 1 – Brandon playing Meandeck Tendrils (2-0)
This was my first time playing this deck in a tournament, and it didn’t start out well.  Game 1, I flashed in an early bargain, but wound up having to flash in a Form of the Dragon when I couldn’t draw the necessary pieces.  This put me in danger of a mini Tendrils, but I rode a strong counter-wall to the win.  Game 2 was even more awkward, as I used almost all of my resources and wound up having to pass turn, and I had sided out my Form of the Dragon to bring in duress.  The only way I could win was to chain my mana crypt and bargain at 6 life.  Then, I won with rector beats, and a mini-tendrils for 6 to get me out of some danger.  I was already mentally spent, playing what I thought would be less draining than my typical fish deck.

Round 2 – Aaron playing Meandeck Tendrils (2-1)
I quickly lost game one.  I sided out Form of the Dragon and a scroll for 2 Duress.  I got another early flash bargain, but for a 3rd time in a row, ran into problems.  I went down to 3 life and had exactly the storm and mana I needed after dazing and double forcing off one of my own spells.  At this point, I decided not to side out Form of the Dragon against a storm deck anymore (of course I never needed it again, and even when I felt like I needed it, I was able to squeak out wins).  Game 3 was an easy bargain win.

Round 3 – Tim playing GAT (2-0)
I won game 1 off an early bargain, drawing down to 3 life.
Game 2, I sided completely out of flash, trying to win with Razormanes or 7/10.  I was committed to a 7/10 win off the draw, and I actually had to kill my own land to tinker him into play, because of a previous gush.  He attempted an artifact mutation and Yawg’s win, but I was able to counter both.

Round 4 – Ben playing Meandeck Tendrils. (0-2)
Quick losses as I had sub par draws that lacked counters, while he had quick wins.

Round 5 – Jeff playing Rector Flash (2-0)
We were both 3-1, but unable to draw into the top 4.  Game 1, he duressed my bargain, and I had to bring in Form of the Dragon off a hard cast rector and cable therapy taking his Yawgs.  He was left with nothing useful in his hand and lost 4 turns later.  Game 2, he had turn 1 tinker colossus, which was an issue, since I had switched entirely out of the flash strategy, attempting to make use of leyline and avoid his potential leylines.  I think I had a lotus and 2 brainstorms and a fetch.  I felt my only hope was to get into bounce off the 6 cards I could see off the brainstorms.  I wound up getting extremely lucky and was able to hardcast bargain that turn.  I drew down to low life to win that turn, because I wasn’t in a position to pass and take 11 damage.

Semis - Ari playing Sliver Flash (2-1)
Team Xiphosura wanted to split with me, but I am always committed to playing it out.  A few months ago, we were in the same situation, and they beat me in the finals picking the deck that was the most likely to beat me, but I figured I would give it a shot again.  I hope there are no hard feelings, because I know most people like to split.
In game 1, I expended a lot of resources to attempt a turn 1 win without counter backup, but he had force and was able to draw and brainstorm into a turn one win of his own.  Flash can be so stupid.
For game 2, I sided in everything but Hurkle’s and Rebuild and took out the flash cards.  He got 3 poison slivers in play and I took an early 6 poison counters, but Razormane > 3 slivers, and I was able to stabilize, and he couldn’t combo out due to leyline.  I won game 3 off 7/10 wiping out 2 of his lands.

Finals – Ben (again) playing Meandeck Tendrils (2-0)
Team Xiphosura chose Ben to play me because he had beaten me earlier and gone 4-0 and scoop to a teammate in the swiss.
I won game 1 with a hard cast gush and a daze of an ancestral (when he had a mox in hand) giving me enough card advantage.  I think all of my time playing fish helped as I was forced to play control much of the day, allowing the storm decks to expend resources and countering the key card that allowed them to tendrils.  Game 2 was 3 forces of his broken hand as Ben described it in his post.  I would note that I got at least one force off a merchant scroll.

So it was a good day, for a deck that is still without a blemish.  I was tired of losing to my friend Tom in tournaments, so I decided if you can’t beat him, join him.  Props to Jason for another great tournament at the Monster Den.

Congratulations once again Tom!  I'm tired of losing to you in every tournament.  Your draws against me were insane  Maybe you were just trying to trick me when you said a drawback to Form of the Dragon is that you can't get the mana to hardcast it.  Then, you go and do it turn 1 and turn 2 of the same game.  The funny thing is that I was in good shape against flash, since I had a disrupting shoal off the standstill.  You've convinced me to just give up and copy your deck.  It's incredibly consistent and fast.

I'm the player that lost to MoxPearl in the top 8, playing UWB fish.  I am shocked that he netdecked to beat me, with what I had assumed was a completely original pile.  Funny, naming the deck Cerebral Assassin didn't tip me off that the deck was loosely based on a deck I had come across in the past.  In hindsight, naming the deck Cerebral Assassin almost implies giving credit to the original creator of the deck.

I all seriousness, are we all expected to read/remember everything Lunar may have previously written.  If Tom is implying that he made decisions in the deckbuild, isn't it possible that he could draw the same logical conclusions that Lunar drew by looking at the overall vintage card base.  Even if he got the ideas for what he considers modifications to the deck from something he read, he is still only implying that he made decisions about one card versus another and why, not that everything is a completely original idea.  Heck, to my knowledge, I was the first person to use serum powder in an Ichorid deck (though it was a mana version), and yet, without posting anything, other people came to the same conclusion.  There are many competent players out there that can develop a more optimal build starting from a list from an earlier point in time.  I understand that there would be frustration if someone implied that your deck was their original idea, but I really didn't take the post that way at all.

MoxPearl, the legacy runner up, is 3-0 with Oath.  That's all I know.

Tom Lee will win the Vintage world championship today, this time beating Roland Chang in the top 8.

The rest of the top 8:
Methuslahn (Jeff)
Menendian
TK
Becker
Dan Carp
Shay

(I realize the tournament started 15 minutes ago, but I obviously haven't seen any results yet)

This is getting a little off topic for this thread, but thank you for your suggestions.  I think if you view my tournament report with my entire decklist you will see that I am running a non-standard fish build with only eight creatures, no Vial, and a lot more counters, disruption, and removal.  I see it as much more control fish than aggro fish, and I do believe that the thieves fit a specific purpose in my build.  With my creature base and mana base, along with no vial, Ninja of the Deep Hours and Voidmage Prodigies are weak inclusions.  With my 4 mages, I include two Katakis for my workshop matchups and two Thieves for my control matchups.  The Thieves speed up my clock considerably against control, which usually has very few win conditions.  I agree that they would not be as good as ninjas or voidmages in capnproton's build, but he has many key elements that have synergy with these two creatures that are missing from my deck.

I really find Disrupting Shoal to be useful in this deck (Though it is always sided out in the Stax matchup).  These are the reasons I choose to run 2 maindeck:
1.  It is essential to win the counter war against decks that really only need to resolve one spell to win, and I found that decks that run drain and force were commonly outcountering me.  I almost always have something for two in my hand to counter a drain.
2.  It originally found its way into my deck as another option to stop a first turn oath.  In any matchup, I need to survive the first couple of turns to get standstill or some lock element on the board.
3.  It's free to cast and I find that off a standstill, I want things that are free, so I don't have to save mana just in case.  Also, I tend to want to use my resources to cast spells on my turn, attack with factories, or activate thief.

I was skeptical the first time I tried it in my deck, but after testing it has become a staple against control matchups.  I can usually counter something for two (which are key spells for many decks) and often something for one.  I was really surprised how helpful the 2 Shoals were in keeping control of the board.  In the first round of the tournament, disrupting shoal even saved me when I was luckilly able to counter a tinker off a standstill pitching an old man of the sea.  That's definitely not something you can count on, but it is a nice bonus.

Regarding the other question, for a long time I had two swords main deck and two in the side, but I realized that I nearly always sideboarded two in, so I decided that it was best to just start out that way.  With Colossus, Oath Creatures, Welder, and aggro/fish decks, storm is about the only competittve deck that doesn't rely heavily on creatures.  I know 4 swords to kill one colossus may seem like overkill, but I want to make sure I have one and having two just means that one can eat a counterspell.  I don't remember thinking I was holding extra swords during the tournament, but I played a lot of welder decks, where I use my swords, instead of counters, to combat the pesky goblins.

Tough way for the tournament to end for you Chris.  That's a heartbreaker.

I really like your idea.  That is a great way around my chalice for two issues, and it is a first turn permanent.  One problem I still see is finding room for a creature that can destroy chalice, or finding room for more creatures in general to make vial worthwhile.  My current build typically runs 6-8 creatures post sidboard.

I don't remember some of the specifics of our second match, but I assume Yawg's would have done me in if I wasn't able to outcounter you.  I don't remember you trying to cast it, so maybe you were having mana problems.

I don't consider the thieves to be the key to the deck, but they are a good utility creature with some nice qualities.
#1.  They are key against gifts, or any other deck that has few win conditions.  They put those players on a much quicker clock than aggro alone.
#2.  They are a nice target for curiosity, with 2 toughness and the ability to fly when necessary.
#3.  There are blue, so worst case, they can be pitched to force or disrupting shoal.

I don't run ninjas, so I'm not necessarilly looking for utility one drops, and as far as abilities for 2 casting cost creatures go, they have seemed like the best value after meddling mage and kataki.

Your point about them being mana hogs has been an occasional issue for me, but you can choose not to use the abilities if you need the mana for other things, while you will choose to use the abilities when they can win the game.  I would also note that I am only playing free counter spells, so I can usually afford to use all of my recources on my turn.

I find that I typically keep the thieves in against drain decks and the katakis in against workshop decks.  The other is substituted for better sideboard options.

I recently won a Time Walk tournament with UW Fish facing Stax 4 times including the semi-finals and finals.  My finals opponent was 5 color Stax, while the rest were Uba.  I went a total of 4-0 (8-2) against the Stax builds.

This is my sideboard and the 10 cards I bring in against UbaStax marked in parenthesis:
Tinker x1 (1)
Darksteel Colossus x1 (1)
Maze of Ith x2
Blue Elemental Blast x1 (1)
Disenchant x1 (1)
Old Man of the Sea x2 (1)
Chain of Vapor x1 (1)
Kira, The Great Glass Spinner x1 (1)
Null Rod x1
Serenity x2 (2)
Enlightened Tutor x1 (1)

My first note is that I always name chalice of the void with meddling mage, because if chalice for 2 hits the table, I am in really tough shape, while I have ways of dealing with everything else.

• Serenity is obviously a bomb against stax and I often find that players will over-extend to get permanents on the table, not thinking about the possibility of mass removal.  In play testing, I did find that 4 were too many, and I replaced 2 with Enlightend Tutor and a Crucible, because there are points in the game where you are better off with a crucible or even a null rod.

• Old man is a great anti-welder card and it is also Barbarian Ring proof.  The drawback that I have found is that the 2 blue and 1 can be hard to get to against stax.

• Kira has the same problem, but protects all of your creatures against ring.  Both are more in the sideboard for the mirror and aggro matches, but replace lesser quality maindeck cards.

• Chain of vapor, along with maindeck mistical tutor, give me two outs against an early chalice for 2.

• Tinker colossus is also an alternate win with chalice for 2 on the board, and it is simply great against Uba if you can avoid a duplicant (which some players actually boarded out against me).  The best trick is that you can tinker out a factory and your colossus is welder proof.

• Blue blast and disenchant are nice for the obvious reasons.

Maindeck curiosities were also a great card in my stax matchups, allowing me to keep up in the permanent war.

My tournament report is on the Child board (possibly to be moved soon), if anyone want's more details about my deck.
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27644.0

The tournament for a Time Walk was Sunday the 12th at Dreamers in Minnesota.  The attendance was poor, with only 20 people showing up.  Come on everybody, lets keep type one alive in Minnesota.  Hopefully things pick up this summer.  It seems like there are very few scrub decks anymore, with only the hardcore players coming to the tournaments (this is actually a good thing for fish).  The deck types included a regular mix of Confidant, Oath, and Gifts builds, with at least 5 Stax builds (mostly Uba). 

Until last month, I had been out of the tournament scene for nearly a year, with the birth of my first son, and my wife’s only breaks on the weekend.  It’s hard to get away for a full day of magic, when you already have full days of work during the week.  I had played several goblin builds in the past (when 0-3 proxy tournaments were common), but was always only able to go about even to 3-2 and miss the top eight.  I always liked playing Blue/White in the late 90’s, but hadn’t come up with a competitive build (with few proxies) until about a year ago when I started playing UW Fish.  Last month, was my first tournament with the deck, which I felt gave me a good shot to top 8, but I scrubbed out with a disappointing 10th place finish.

I wasn’t planning on going this month, until my wife was kind enough to suggest it the Friday before the tournament.  Due to the short time frame, I went with the same decklist that didn’t cut it last time.  Here’s the list:
 
Mana base (23):
Mishra's Factory x4
Wasteland x4
Strip Mine x1
Island x2
Plains x1
Tundra x3
Library of Alexandria x1
Flooded Strand x4
Polluted Delta x1
Mox Sapphire x1
Mox Pearl x1

Creatures (8):
Meddling Mage x4
Rootwater Theif x2
Kataki, War's Wage x2

Draw (8):
Ancestral Recall x1
Standstill x4
Curiosity x3

Counter (10):
Force of Will x4
Daze x2
Disrupting Shoal x2
Misdirection x1
Stifle x1

Disruption/Removal (9):
Swords to Plowshares x4
Disenchant x1
Crucible of Worlds x1
Null Rod x3

Other (2):
Time Walk x1
Mystical Tutor x1

Sideboard:
Tinker x1
Darksteel Colossus x1
Maze of Ith x2
Blue Elemental Blast x1
Disenchant x1
Old Man of the Sea x2
Chain of Vapor x1
Kira, The Great Glass Spinner x1
Null Rod x1
Serenity x2
Enlightened Tutor x1

As you can see, it’s more of a control build than an aggro build.  Some thoughts about the build:
•   I prefer null rod to chalice, because it allows me to run fewer creatures (along with not running 4 vials) and chalice is not very effective on the draw.  Also, chalice for 1 is not a very good second option in this deck, given my reliance on swords.
•   I prefer curiosity to ninja, because, again, I can get by with fewer creatures, and the creatures that I do run are too important to bring back into my hand.  Additionally, I find ninja off a factory to be too mana intensive to come out early enough to matter in most games.
•   These two points are what allows me to run a control build, with a lot of disruption, removal, and counter magic, to go with great utility creatures, but it does slow my clock, so I have to maintain control with card advantage.
•   Crucible is too good against stax and the mana intensive gifts builds to not have in the maindeck.
•   Disrupting Shoal is underutilized.  I find it to be necessary to stop first turn oaths and to win counter wars against drains.  And it is a decent hard counter late in the game.
•   I have tinker/colossus in the sideboard, because of the decks difficulty against aggro and other fish builds.  It is also great against stax, as you can tinker out a factory, making your colossus welder proof.  I know there are no brainstorms, but you would be surprised how often you can discard colossus with all of the card draw.
•   Kira, Old Man, and the mazes, actually give you a reasonable chance against aggro decks that you may face in the early rounds.
•   Serenity is too good against stax to ignore in the current environment.


Final 8:
I expected that Methuselahn would post his customary report of the top 8 with decklists, which may still happen, so I wasn’t concerned with getting decklists or writing down the players at the time.  That said, I can remember 7 of the 8, in no particular order:
Brad (UW Fish)
Pat (I believe it was a dark confidant build)
Jeff (4 time vaults)
Craig (Oath, with Akroma and Colossus)
Shane (UbaStax with wires)
Derek (5-color Stax)
Chris (Gifts)
I don’t know the matchups, other than that I played Jeff.

Top 4:
Brad beats Shane
Derek beats Craig

Finals:
Brad beats Derek

Here’s the details I remember from my matches:

Round 1-  Joe playing Grow-a-Tog.
The tournament got off to a “great� start.  After losing the die roll, and proceeding to a board with meddling mage naming “mana drain� with him having a 1/1 dryad on the in play and 6-mana available, I decide to cast standstill.  NO!  What was I thinking? In response he casts 4 nongreen spells and goes on to stomp me.
I easily won games two and three because I started to focus and it is actually an easy matchup for me, with 4 swords, 2 mazes and a counter advantage.  My wins consisted of beatdowns with Mage and Factories.

Round 2 – Shane playing Uba Stax
I haven’t had a lot of luck against Uba Stax in my testing, so I’m not excited to see this matchup.  I end up winning 2-0, and I actually won a die roll for once.  Going back to the last tournament, I think I had only gone first once.  I can’t remember details, but I think I was just able to out-draw and out-permanent him, with meddling mages naming “Chalice of Void�, and swords protecting against welders.  I have a 10 card sideboard switch against Uba Stax, but I am often able to hold my own game one with card advantage.  Null rod was key one game when he was relying on an all artifact mana base.

Round 3 – Justin playing Uba Stax
Surely my luck can’t hold out.  I win game one, but lose game 2 to a workshop, lotus, trinosphere, welder, chalice for 1, first turn.  That’s more like my standard luck, I was able to counter Trinosphere, but that was it.  He proceeded to easily lock down the game.  Somehow, I remember details from my losses but not my wins.  That said, I won game 3.

Round 4 – Pat playing a Dark Confidant build
We choose to draw, since we are the only unbeaten players at this point.

Round 5 – Chris playing Gifts
We draw into the top 8, where I have the number 3 seed.

Quarter-finals – Jeff playing 4 Time Vaults
This is an intimidating matchup for me, because Jeff is one of the elite players in the area, but I know the deck he’s playing gives me a decent shot to win.  I really took my time to think things through in the top eight.  I win game 1 with card advantage and a Rootwater Thief pulling out one win condition (Colossus), followed the next turn by mage chanting “Flame Fussalade�.  He concedes.
Game two – I think he plays first turn oath, but doesn’t have orchard yet.  He soon gets it and I am in trouble as Akroma hits the table.  I had been holding maze of ith and draw disenchant (my deck has been good to me all day).  I drop maze and disenchant his oath.  He tutors, for what I hope isn’t strip mine, which I find out later he doesn’t carry.  I eventually get a swords and win with 3 tokens and a factory.

Semi-finals – Shane playing Uba Stax (again)
Game 1 – By far the longest game of the tournament (for me anyway).  My finals opponent is set before I get to game 2.  I have a mage naming chalice with a curiosity in play and he has welder with multiple artifact goodies, including 2 smokestacks available, but he can’t get to his bazaar/uba engine and I can’t find a swords.  I go through about 1/2 to 2/3 of my deck, able to not get locked down because of curiosity on my mage, and with him having to manage his smokestack counters.  I finally get swords (a little late) and after a couple of turns the board is completely empty, and I feel like I might have the advantage, but I proceed to not draw blue mana until it is far too late.
Game 2 – Has my luck finally run out?  No, thanks to serenity.
Game 3 – I was playing on the draw, and my hand consisted of a mox sapphire, a factory, library, tinker, colossus, a force, and a BEB.  Let’s hope he doesn’t cast something I need to force turn 1.  He drops a land and passes.  I drop library, draw a dual and discard colossus.  Turn 2, Tinker Colossus, with force and BEB to protect it.  Why can’t fish be broken to?  Can you say turn 4 fish win?  Not very often.  It turns out that he had even sided out his duplicants, which was a concern when I kept the hand.

Finals - Derek playing 5-Color stax.
I had always told my friends at work that if I made it to the finals I would play, but Derek really wanted to split.  I have to admit, I was a little uncomfortable with the difference between a time walk and $30 store credit, so we discuss it for a while.  Then, I decide to play, because I’m not happy with the split options.  He still looked stressed so we talked some more and decided on $70 and the store credit going to the loser.  This actually made the last game a lot more comfortable, and made me feel better, since it was a compromise.
I win the die roll as a 1 teeters to a 3 beating his 2.  This is just my day.  Game 1 was never really close with me having answers from the start.
Game 2 was also going my way, with him doing a lot of damage to himself with mana crypt, mana vault, and city of brass, and me knocking him down with a Kataki and Mage (naming Chalice).  Twice he forgot to pay for Kataki upkeeps, but I let him go back, because he was a nice guy, and it was fairly obvious that he would have paid.  It’s tricky when he had already seen his draw, but I didn’t want to feel bad about my win.  I am able to survive an early smokestack, thanks to disenchant, and tangle wire and sphere of resistance affect him as much as me, due to the mana pressures of Kataki.  We end up both getting Crucible in play and he is down to 6 with wasteland in play and I have a factory in play and one in the grave to go with my kataki and mage.  It’s after my attack phase, and it’s looking bad for him, though he did demonic a turn back.  I cast Meddling Mage, and think for awhile what could save him (obviously balance).  However, I make my second major mistake of the tournament and name pyroclasm.  It goes to his turn and he resolves balance taking a point of damage from the city then kills a factory.  I can’t believe that I may have to go to game three because of a play error.  The next turn I put a factory back in play, then he resolves a tinker taking another point of damage (along with a point from a mana vault, he is at 3).  I don’t know if he runs colossus, if he does and I don’t draw swords I’m dead.  Curiously, he had tapped a wasteland and left red open.  I cast ancestral in response and he blasts it with great enthusiasm.  If he doesn’t have colossus, or it is the card in his hand, I am in good shape, because I still have disenchant.  It’s Karn!  I disenchant and bring a factory back from the grave to pump the other factory for the win.

I won a time walk!  I still needed a mox sapphire, but I can’t complain.  Hopefully, this win can help complete my deck.

Overall record 6-0-2 (12-3), with a shocking 4-0 (8-2) against Stax builds.

My MVP other than the keys to the deck (force, swords, power) would have to be curiosity, which often allowed to keep control of the board, while slowly beating down.  It was particularly powerful against stax, allowing me to win many permanent wars.

Special thanks to the people at work.  Ping for starting us down the path of serious type 1, and for building multiple decks to test against, Tom for raising my game to another level with his knowledge and tournament winning decks to play against, and Adam for playing me at lunch several times a week with Uba Stax, recently helping me realize the necessity of curiosity in the matchup.  Also, thanks to the dice for letting me go first in most games for once, and my deck for being consistent.  Props to Jason for running a great vintage power tournament every month.  And lastly, thanks to my wife for watching our son all day so I could play.  You are the best!