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To start this off I'll say I am relatively new to vintage and this is my first report of a vintage tournament ever. My name is Joe Milia and I have a unhealthy obsession with punishing fire. I want to begin with a little back story of how this deck came to be. Well the week prior to the winter tournament at TDG me and a friend Dan Miller went to Alternate Universe where I piloted my first vintage deck, dredge. This was one of the most non-fun days I have had playing magic. I love dredge and played it for years in legacy and even put up some good results, though vintage was another beast. Yes I play tested and practiced, but the level of anti dredge hate was something that I could not overcome. Going a embarrassing 0-2 drop left me feeling down about the deck but not the format. For I know how broken the decks can be and the ridiculous things you can do in vintage. So after waiting for my buddy Dan who top8ed with a grixis welder list we started to talk about my options in vintage. We had about an hour and a half drive home so that left a lot of brainstorming time. One card I loved in the format was DACK FAYDEN!! Thus I wanted my next deck to have a theme around him. I only own mainly rug duals so that's the area where I wanted to focus. I wanted something that abused dacks plus ability but could control the board and that's when I realized there was only one answer PUNISHING FIRE!! A card that multiple opponents had to read(throughout the tournament) and can completely take over a game. Mental misstep does nothing and making a opponent force a punishing fire just has to feel bad for them. The ability to rebuy then discard them to dack, or keep all the little creatures in the format down really appealed to me. So after a week of testing and modifying here is the current list of what I played.
1 x misdirection
1x ancestral recall
4x young pyromancer
4x dack fayden
1x brainstorm
4x mental misstep
2x jace, the mind sculptor
3x punishing fire
4x force of will
1x mox emerald
1x mox ruby
1x mox sapphire
1x black lotus
1x time walk
1x null rod
1x ancient grudge
1x fastbond
2x lightning bolt
2x gush
1x pyroblast
1x life from the loam
1x treasure cruise'
1x dig through time
1x ponder
4x scalding tarn
3x polluted delta
1x island
3x volcanic island
2x tropical island
3x grove of the burnwillows
2x wasteland
1x strip mine
SB
3x tormod's crypt
4x grafdiggers cage
1x mountain
4x ingot chewer
1x flusterstorm
1x nullrod
1x ancient grudge
We didn't look at any previous lists we kinda just made it up as we went, I don't know if a deck like this has been made or what but I absolutely loved it.
BTW if I forgot your please forgive me
OK OK now to the rounds
ROUND 1- bye (1-0)
so apparently there were 5 people with byes from other events they got and I just happened to be lucky number 6 who randomly got it, yay me!!!
Round 2 - Shops- it think the guys name was mike (2-0)
game 1- I waste lock him and dack makes this game way out of his reach
game 2- I have a interesting choice my hand has a black lotus, dack, nullrod, land, etc.. he went turn one sphere so I could wait and play dack the following turn or play nullrod into his factory mox mox base. So I crack fetch get volcanic play lotus sack then play null rod. This play really hinders him the rest of the game. He is actually stuck behind his own spheres while I continue to make land drops and waste away his lands. At the end of the game my hand looked something like 2x ingot chewer, 2x ancient grudge, bolt, fire, DTT.
Sidenote-
I think shops is a great matchup for this deck and was hoping to play it all day.
I considered my bad matchups to be dredge and oath, though I might of been wrong, youll see why
Round 3 oath-greg fenton(also a super nice guy, gave me some tips at the end of the match)(3-0)
game 1- comes down to me having double jace and eventually winning via jace ult
game 2- this was a very grindy match, at one point I have a hand of 2x jace and fow, I cast first jace it gets forced now I have the option of forcing back or waiting a turn and drawing the ponder I left on top from a brainstorm to force through the next jace. I do this and it works out jace lands and does his magic though right before I can ult he red blasts it. At this point I have 2 spirit tokens but 3 grafdiggers cages. He destroys 2 of them and it comes down to a abrupt decay on my last cage, thankfully I have a lotus open and pay for a misdirection to his oath, this starts a counterwar which I come on top of. The 2 tokens get there with help of a punishing fire.
Round 4 -Oath forgot the name of opponent (4-0)
game 1- My hand looks like something a delver deck would have and its the absolute nuts on the play. I have no idea what im up against so I just go for it. Turn 1 lotus, land, crack for red and play double young pyromancer. My hand had 2x missteps and a pyroblast left. Im hoping he plays a 1 drop and he does. He goes voltaic key which I misstep, he missteps back, I misstep him again. (I now have 8 power on board he is at 17(crack a fetch). I swing in put him to 9 he plays oath and passes, I pyroblast his land(well you know how this works) just to get the triggers and he concedes.
game 2- Just a super grindy matchup again, jace comes down with the help of some pyromancers and they take it down.
Round 5,6 ID (sorry again for forgetting your names guys)(4-0-2)
Top 8
Round 1 dredge(weird blue version has force/lab maniac) (5-0-2)
sidenote- I have nothing against them game 1 Im pretty much dead unless I can kill them with a recall if they have only a couple cards left.
Game 1- his dredges are poor but they are adding up, I draw recall he has only a few cards left. Im thinking can this really happen? Then he does it, dread returns titan get land bloodghasts come back etc etc.. lab maniac (im tapped out at this point) attempts to draw and wins(I was one mana away)
Game 2- I have hate but he transforms his deck to a mini creature beatdown route. Thankfully I get punishing fire online and clean it up.
Game 3- He is more on the dredge plan but is still hard casting some of his guys. I have P-fire/grove going but he still has the ability to combo me out. The turn before he would be able to IT HAPPENS. I draw the recall!!! He dredges down to 2 cards left in library and before his draw step I recall targeting him. (I will never forget that match)
Top 4
My opponents come to me with a 4 way split I ask who my opponent was and it was another dredge deck. I think my luck may run out so I graciously accept there offer and use my credit to grab my first mox (mox ruby)
The deck performed very well all day, it was a absolute blast to play and destroys the delver (because of of p-fire/grove) and shops decks(all my main and side hate.)
I just want to thank everyone there for a great experience and thank them for being so welcoming in my second vintage tournament. I look forward to going to more in the near future and seeing this deck at all the top tables!!!!
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