I had a mana light hand with double FOW for two early threats I had two choices. (I think I drew the second blue card on turn 2) Mulligan into something more explosive or keep it and try to protect the mana that I had. I had vamp, but no black, Show and tell but no GB. It was a weak keep vs what I think is one of the decks more difficult match ups. I had done all my testing vs Martello Shops so I wasn't really sure how to best attack your deck with the sideboard I had. I don't think either choice would have won me the match unless I got VERY lucky off the mull to six. After seeing your 75, you had karakas on top of everything else. It was definitely an up hill battle for me. GGs

Brett congratulations on you win vs Oath in the top 8.
I hope to avenge my loss in a later event. haha

I'll post my list here for others to see. I credit Greg Fenton with the deck design. I'd also like to thank him for chatting with me during the week prior to the event to understand his philosophy behind card choices and the ins and outs of the deck.

Oath T8 List from TDG Vintage 1k 3-28-2015

Main Deck
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Griselbrand
3 Show and Tell
3 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Thoughtseize
2 Flusterstorm
4 Mental Misstep
2 Misdirection
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Time Vault
1 Voltiac Key
1 Memory’s Journey
4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
60 Cards

Sideboard (15)
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Nature's Claim
1 Forest
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Pithing Needle

Its on!
Now just to figure out what Modern deck I want to play.

I'll be there. And I may or may not be a ringer.

Congratulations once again on your finish AJ.
We are all very proud of you and you've reminded me how much fun competitive magic can be.

Hopefully I can make it out to more events in the coming year. Thanks for the motivation.

I'm really looking forward to this event. I'm hoping to go 2 for 2 in vintage and then use the credit to pick up some modern cards.

Don't call it a comeback...

The deck was fun and I was a little upset by the turn out, but I did play many quality players.
I'm hoping to be around more this year in the local vintage scene.

I did draw Tinker often which is never a bad thing.

Props to all my opponents especially Mikey Noble, Tom Dixon, and Kohler.
Slops to Mr. Nick Coss for being sick and having to leave early. Feel better.

Who knows what I'll play next time maybe I'll resurrect EBA, or 3cc Das Moat style.

Hey Simon!

Myself, AJ, Joe, Matt, and Seth will all be packing skittles decks for the trip to Gencon.
I'm playing a pretty fun Eldrazi Reanimator deck, sometimes I just get to 11 with a storage land and windmill slam a guy.

We've come up with a house rule regarding colored artifacts and that is that they do not go toward the number of artifacts in your deck. The original reasoning was that it seemed that thopter foundry would be impossible to play as it would be 1/4 w,b,u,art and the only way to balance would be playing 4 of that combination of spell. This is all before I realized that it might make the phrexian mana creatures too good without needing to balance them as they can "avoid" color costs all together.

Here is my Eldrazi deck

5 Red
Faithless Looting
Desperate Ravings
Fireball
Flametounge Kavu
Ancient Grudge

6 White
Apostle's Blessing
Path to Exile
Lingering Souls
Ancestor's Chosen
Timely Reinforcements
Oblivion Ring

6 Blue
Deep Analysis
Muddle in the Mixture
Quiet Speculation
Careful Study
Aquaomeba
Forbidden Alchemy

5 Green
Roar of the Wurm
Mulch
Moment's Peace
Cultivate
Krosan Tusker

5 Black
Reanimate
Animate Dead
Necromancy
Infest
Unburial Rites

3 Multicolor
Life/Death
Bitumous Blast
Firespout

6 Artifacts
Sensei's Diving Top
Amrillary Sphere
Lightning Grieves
Orzhof Signet
Darksteel Ignot
Etched Oracle

3 Colorless
Artisan of Kozilek
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Ulamog's Crusher

x Lands
I dont have my deck with me so I won't go through it all, but there are very few white sources in my deck. When building I was really hoping to never need white, but timely reinforcements is really key for this deck to get back in the game so I might change that.

Team 02drop will be sending me as its lone representative as AJ has work and Joe is still a loser (read haven't moved back from Vegas yet)

Thank you for pointing this out I'm pretty sure I've fixed it.

In testing vs land still it is very good.  Its probably the only match up where its very useful as you have to draw it and have 4 mana to cast it vs a deck playing 5 waste effects. In most other cases it is too slow. The only answer they have is to hardcast a mindbreak trap on Thrun. Most people will board out their mindbreak traps for a combination of Lightning Bolts and other removal.

 I did cast it vs RUG Delver in the T4, but he was just back on defense vs a 4/5 goyf and wasn't good in that role.

The List

4 Noble Heirarch
4 Shardless Agent
4 Quasali Pridemage
4 Meddling Mage
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Trygon Predator

4 Force of Will
2 Daze
2 Spell Peirce
3 Stony Silence
4 Graffdiggers Cage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Island
1 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

SB
4 Ravenous Trap
4 Serenity
2 Trygon Predator
2 Path to Exile
2 Dismember
1 Thrun the Last Troll

Brief List Discussion: I wasn't planning on playing when I arrived but had I been I would have played 2 ooze and 2 goyf I've found that the ooze is really important vs RUG delver and all too often Goyf is just a guy which isn't what this deck needs or wants. Thrun was something I've been trying for th e landstill match up.

Apologizes if the exact course of events aren't as described below. I did this all off memory and didn't have my notes handy.

Round 1 Sneak and Show 1-0 (2-0)

G1: My opponent is on the play. He lays Mox Sapphire and petal but no land and says something about not wanting to be wastelanded. I take my turn play a land and pass. My hand is FOW, Trygon, Daze, Pridemage, Meddling Mage, Waste, Fetch. On his turn he plays a land and show and tell. I force, he forces back, I daze. The show and tell is countered and he is left with one card in hand (After the match I find out it was Emrakul) I win a few turns later thanks to the waste and primage meddling mage beats.

G2: We trade lands for wastelands early. (I remember having 2 in my opener and drawing a third)  On his second or third turn his board is Ruby, Sea, Island. he adds a Mana crypt and plays sneak attack and passes. On the following turn I play a stony silence to cut him off red and waste his sea. He never draws another red source and I soon have a meddling mage on show and tell.

Round 2. Justin with Bomberman (1-0-1)

G1: I end up locking him out of the combo with stony silence, but he goes aggro on me. The game ends with him having 2 Salvagers, 2 Trinket Mages, and 1 Aven Mindsencor in play. I don’t see any Goyfs and my 2/2s aren’t enough to stop the beats.

G2: He gets a little mana screwed early and to make it worse I keep drawing Pridemages. Which he always seems to have an STP for, but also has a mox in play at the time so while he makes the right play of STPing my pridemage its always a 2 for 1 in my favor. When he does lay a trinket mage or Mindsencor I have removal.

G3: We go back and forth trading removal for guys. I sneak in a noble heirach who does some work. I believe about 10 points of damage, at the end of 5 turns I have noble and he is on 2 life, I ask if my opponent would concede to me and he declines. Its perfectly understandable and I wouldn’t have conceded at that point in the even either, but it never hurts to ask.

Round 3 Matt URB Bob Control (2-0-1)

I dont remember much about our games. And it turned out we would play again in the top 8 those are the matches I remeber much better. This was Matt’s first vintage event, and it showed in the fact that he was completely amazed that I played daze. He was a great opponent and I know this will not be his first t8.

G1: I get early pressure and never really let go. I end up dazing a key spell.

G2: Early he had artifact mana and top. I baited with a meddling mage which was countered and then played a stony silence off a mox and a heirarch. I remember this game ending with me having 2x stony silence and a graffdiggers cage in play along with 4 creatures.  

Round 4 Will Forgemaster Shops ( 3-0-1)

G1: He plays gets titan into play off Forgemaster.., GG

G2: I end up winning but don’t remember the game.

G3: My hand is Land, Noble, Waste, Goyf Goyf Trygon Time Walk. I end up going turn 1 noble, turn 2 waste walk, turn 3 trygon, turn 4 trygon, then goyfs join the party. Will is stuck on mana early, but late he can’t catch up with double trygon on the board with exalted, and goyfs on the ground.

Round 5 Mike RUG Delver (4-0-1)

A few months ago I would have drawn into the top 8, but I’m currently 2nd seed and would like to be 1st if I can so that I can be sure that I’m on the play. I figure at least I get to see another deck in the top 8.

G1: He keeps what would be a good hand with multiple lightning bolts. I however keep drawing creatures to replace the ones he is killing. A bystander later told me that he kept on drawing his MD artifact removal and lands.

G2: This game we both have creatures but I have the removal. After I clear away a few of his guys he proceeds to draw only lands for multiple turns in a row and my deck gets there.

It was a real shame to win the match this way. I believe his deck is strongly favored game 1 and pretty even afterward, but Matt would have his revenge.

T8 Rematch Matt URB Bob Control

Both games Matt plays a tutor and gets Ancestral Recall which I let resolve. Either game had he tutored for tinker instead it would have been quite a fight and I’m not sure I would have taken the match in 2 games.
G1: Long drawn out game with meddling mages and agents doing most of the work.

G2: He keeps an artifact mana heavy hand, but doesn’t seem to have much to do with it early, but DT for Recall and fire it off. on my turn I play anoble heirarch with 1 active force and a daze. I accumulate 2/2s and the game ends with me having to double force a repeal aimed at my meddling mage on tinker. He is at a low life total. he plays time walk with the hope of drawing business but has to pass back and I get there with my little army.

T4 Rematch Mike RUG Delver

Mike gets his revenge. I pretty much get completely blown out by lightning bolts, delver flips, his goyfs to my lack of goyfs. I had been testing his deck for a few weeks prior to this event and definitely need to give it another look. Powerful creatures teamed with removal, counters and recursion is nothing to sneeze at people.


Props: Nick Detwiler and Nick Coss for running a great series of events. Mike Noble for designing a great deck that has gotten me to bubble one weekend and t4 the next. All of my opponents for being great players and gentlemen espeically Matt and Mike who I played twice each. The vintage community at large. I feel very welcome back after a little over a year off playing competitively and am glad to be competing again.

Slops: The LI Expressway for having crazy traffic no matter when you are driving on it.

Thanks for running a great event at Top Deck Games. I can't wait for the next event!

Question about the sideboard.

Are 4 Leyline's sufficent hate vs Dredge?

I'm assuming that the deck is fast enough when your opponent isn't as set on disrupting your game plan as they are with removing your hate and winning faster than you can. As is the case game 2/3 vs ichorid.

Rich how does the deck fair on a mull to 6/5 with no leylines?
Have you seen that there enough hands of 6/5 that result in a turn 2/3 win or rituals into a draw/tutored Leyline?

I think the deck is pretty brilliant and I look forward to testing it in the upcoming weeks.
-Bernie...

If I were playing this deck I would like lightning bolt over Fire/Ice for my meta, but I see your point. Have you considered Forked Bolt? It is literally the Fire half of Fire/Ice at sorcery speed for R. It might be worth considering as a "cheaper" flip to Dark Confidant.

I've read a good part of the thread and I wanted to talk about the substitution of Tarmogoyf with Scavenging Ooze. I don't think a 4 for 4 replacement is ideal, but perhaps a 1Ooze/3Goyf or 2/2 split could be right. The last time I played Noble Fish at an event (full disclosure a few years ago) I just remember many times goyf would sit as a 1/2 to 3/4 and I really would have rather played a Pridemage or Meddling Mage to put more pressure on the types of plays my opponent could make instead of just a big guy.

Two positive thoughts
1. Ooze is a valid card against Snapcaster Mage, and can help make Yawgmoth's will less good.
2. Midgame vs other creature deck I think the life advantage and ability to grow the ooze could prove very good.

Counter point
1. With the inclusion of MD Graffdigger's cage is the Snapcaster and Will insurance as important?

I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts and experiences with the card in Noble Fish.

I can't wait to play vintage for the first time in a long time!
Watch out NJ/PA vintage I'm back! 

The last time I saw someone use Guided Passage effectively was in an invasion block deck.

The only creatures were Flametounge Kavu, and Mystic Snake. All the spells were counters, Repulse, Fact or Fiction, or Urza's Rage.

A deck like that could be fun, just don't forget to toss mulldrifter in there.

Have we worked out a rule for how the new hybrid guys work? The ones with a hybrid mana and a full other mana symbol?

I think they should be just like the charms, because anything else could get to be very confusing with fractional amounts of each color.

I agree with what previous posters have already noted. Those being that the inclusion of 4 mox diamonds is probably too many and the exclusion of any number of Ancient Tombs is probably not right. My team had a U/W stax deck pre lorawyn and it ran 4 Tombs.
They were very useful for popping out a lot of lock pieces fast. At the time we did not have Thorn of Amethyst but we did play glowrider which worked very well as a lock piece and clock.

Secondly the 1 of Orim's Chant seems very out of place especially with no tutoring.

What is the reason for its inclusion?

At my last even where I played oath, vs Tez I would commonly board in my Null Rods, and a pithing needle. I notice that your deck does not play rod, but does play needle in the board. Perhaps a little preboarding would be best to improve your matchup.

I also see that you aren't running any strip effects. They served me very well in the last tournament.

Also I'm not 100% behind the inclusion of Intuition. You aren't running the AK engine, or DA. That would indicate to me that you are using this as an instant speed tutor for oath/orchard and perhaps some disruption. In my list I played 1x Lim-Dul's Vault. It worked very nicely for me for finding oath or orchard. It was also very nice when I'd find a duress effect in with it and had the mana to set up Duress, Impluse/BS/Ponder into oath and drop it without fear.

ANYWAY,
I also Top 8ed. I lost in the quarterfinals to Joe (ashiXIII) so I fell in the place of 5-8.

Here is what I piloted along with a mini report.
(Mod: If this thread is nixed or this is more suited for its own thread please PM me so it can be reposted)

King Oath

2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
4 Forbidden Orchard

1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Arkroma, Angel of Wrath

4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Toughtseize
2 Duress
4 FOW
1 Misdirection
4 Negate
1 Lim-duls Vault
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Scroll Rack
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Lat-Nams Legacy
4 Impulse
1 Wipe Away

sb:
2 Null Rod
2 Pithing Needle
2 Firespout
1 Life From the Loam
3 Oxidize
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Empyrial Archangel
1 Extripate

Rnd1 John Jones with Shaymora Win
I am now a lifetime 2-1 vs John and its always fun to play him in events. I didn't test at all vs mora, but i found out that it wasn't a very good match up for him.
G1 I got oath down and eventually found an orchard.
G2 He had 1 land which I wasted and tons of artifact mana. I duressed one turn and took his counter. Next turn I ripped DT to get a null rod which shut him out of the game.

Rnd2 Mike Noble with mono red shops Loss
G1 I think I mulled and couldn't deal with the mana denail.
G2 I won a close game by playing needle forcing him to ususpend his gargadon and then oathing up akroma first and then hellkite. I think I would have lost had it been the opposite order.
G3 the mana denial +3 thorns got to me.

Rnd3 Sam with Ichorid Win
G1 Sam bazzared away 1 dreger. I had a waste for his bazzar on turn 1 and it was enough to let me win.
G2 He mulled to 2. My hand was waste, strip, and DT (for tormod's crypt), VT (for oath), orchard, underground and a fetch. It was pretty solid.

Rnd4 Paul with CS Win
I apologize for not remembering much of our matches.
I believe I got down chalice on 1 in G1 and then oathed.
G2 I believe revolved around the mana denial plan with life from the loam before duressing the way for an oath, but that might be completely wrong.

Rnd5 Taylor with ??? ID

I have no idea what Taylor was playing we IDed and he ended up being the 9th placer due to some odd happenings with a group of 2-1-1s who had to play it out.
Very sorry about that. I hope to see you T8ing at future events.

T8
Joe Davis with Tez
G1 Turn 1 Tez nabbing Time Vault GG
G2 It was close I had oathed and swung with Akroma. I passed the turn. Joe has top and key. He Timewalks + tops to find tinker to get the time vault to compliment his Volatic Key. To be fair he showed the other card in and... of course it was Will. GG buddy.

Props
Darryn for running a great event
The whole T8 for being really solid players
Sushi!!!! yum

I'll shed some light on the situation, even though I understand my friend and teammate's reasoning.

At this past Saturday's Blue Bell tournament, Mike (MISTERTREK) announced that Dan was not present because he has been recently diagnosed with leukemia. He did say that they caught it early, but he didn't have any other details.

Dan, I wish you well and apologize if you did not want this information to become public in this manner.

You will be in my thoughts and prayers. Hopefully you will be well enough to sling cards soon.

-Bernie...

Actually the planar voids were in the main for the expected infinite amount of ichorid.

In testing we also found that they really shored up the already good gifts and long match ups and were even useful against stax's wasteland recursion.

gg, it was fun playing you even though I got smashed. Its ok though b/c next time I'm playing the busted cards no more of this attack phase business lol

This is Bernie (6th place w00t w00t)
and here is the only reason i'm actually replying to this thread...


BPS does not stand for Bob Pwns Scrubs

That would be funny though hehe.
Maybe i'll post what it actually stands for later.
Its really not all that creative nor does it really matter.
But I just thought I'd put that rumor to rest.

Secondly,


I think that (Jank) is a incorrect for the deck Joe was playing.
Gifts or Repeal Gifts are probably better suited.

Thirdly,


I also second the motion that lackey be banned soley based on the fact that 100% of goblins T8ed.
oh that and the only goblin that should see play in t1 are those of the welding variety, but thats just my opinion.

I want to preface this by saying I haven't tested with Experiate at all, however I have played a few games against it.
I was playing Drain TPS. While I can say this card was an annoyance, I was still able to win through him removing all of my Aks, Drains, and FoWs. Now I am sure that the decks I played against were not optimal, but I don't think this is a 4x at all  and is probably better in the board or for a silver bullet strategy.

I have to say that it isn't as busted or even that impressive after I played against it.

just my 2 cents