I'm finishing selling the rest of my cards, but just wanted to post a deck I've been playing around with! I hope some in the community find it useful!

This is not the most traditional Magic the Gathering auction, but I think I have something very unique for sale. I've always loved Vintage (T1) MTG, but other priorities in life mean that I don't have the time to test decks and travel far distances to play competitive Vintage Magic. My favorite deck after the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge quickly shifted from Drain-based combo to Hermit Druid combo. While Hermit Druid combo has not made a big splash on the competitive Vintage scene, I strongly urge you to take a careful look at my decklist and read my short summary below. I sincerely believe that this deck is ready to explode onto the scene, and I have been developing this deck for a few years without making it public. I feel that it is finally perfected, and I just wish that I had the time to dedicate to play Hermit Druid combo at tournaments. The deck is so insane because it consistently pumps out a turn 1 or turn 2 Hermit Druid allowing for consistent turn 2 or turn 3 wins with counter-magic backup and/or disruption spells. So, without further ado, for sale is a highly competitive and originally innovative T1 Vintage Magic deck with 9 total proxies complete with sideboard and bonuses. Almost all T1 Magic tournaments are non-sanctioned and allow for at least 10 proxies. (Note- The cards that are proxies are Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire, Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Imperial Seal, Time Walk and Ancestral Recall. These are not the actual magic cards and are simply written onto a basic land card.)

All of the cards for sale will be shipped in the official UltraPro Magic the Gathering back sleeves. A deck box is also included. You literally will have everything you need to play in a T1 MTG tournament (that allows for at least 9 proxies) instantly.

The cards for sale are the following:

4x Hermit Druid (NM)
4x Worldly Tutor (NM)
4x Force of Will (Great looking EX+ fronts with some whitening on back edges)
4x Misdirection (EX)
1x Blightsteel Colossus (EX+)
1x Tinker (EX+)
1x Ancestral Recall (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Brainstorm (EX+)
1x Mystical Tutor (EX)
3x Narcomoeba (NM)
3x Impulse (NM)
3x Daze (NM)
3x Cabal Therapy (EX)
1x Demonic Tutor (Played) [from revised]
1x Imperial Seal (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Vampiric Tutor (EX-) [from visions]
1x Dragon Breath (EX+)
1x Dragon Shadow (NM)
1x Cognivore (NM)
1x Dread Return (EX)
1x Bridge from Below (EX+)
1x Bayou (very nice looking front with whitening on the back edges and very slight scratches on the back-- looks great in the sleeve!) [from revised]
1x Underground Sea (some darkening/dirt around the front edges with whitening on the back edges and a slight crease and some scratches-- looks nice in the sleeve!) [from revised]
3x Tropical Island (some darkening/dirt around the front edges with whitening and some scratches on the back-- looks nice in the sleeve!) [from revised]
3x Misty Rainforest (NM)
4x Verdant Catacombs (NM)
1x Mana Crypt (EX-) [book promo]
1x Mox Ruby (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Mox Pearl (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Mox Jet (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Mox Sapphire (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Mox Emerald (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Black Lotus (PROXY- not the real card)


Sideboard cards included:

1x Rushing River (NM)
1x Ponder (NM)
1x Impulse (NM)
1x Time Walk (PROXY- not the real card)
1x Merchant Scroll (NM)
1x Thirst for Knowledge (NM)
1x Blightsteel Colossus (NM)
4x Forbidden Orchard (EX+)
4x Oath of Druids (EX+)

Bonus cards included:
These cards are included as a bonus to complete playsets or as possibly useful cards

1x Daze (EX)
2x Blightsteel Colossus (NM)
1x Misty Rainforest (NM)
1x Cabal Therapy (EX)
1x Narcomoeba (NM)
1x Lotus Petal (EX+)
2x Scroll Rack (SP)
1x Elvish Spirit Guide (EX+)
37x Hermit Druid (Seriously, 37 additional Hermit Druids are included in this auction. I believe in this deck so much that I had loaded up on Hermit Druids to cash in eventually. Most are EX condition.)

Deck Summary-

The basic idea for the deck is to cast a Hermit Druid on turn 1 or turn 2. If you cannot reasonably do this, you should mulligan your hand. Don't be afraid to take mulligans!! This deck runs 4x Force of Will, 4x Misdirection, 3x Daze and 3x Cabal Therapy to ensure your Hermit Druid resolves. Even if it doesn't resolve, there are a ton of ways to find another one! Once Hermit Druid resolves, you can activate it on your next upkeep (as long as Blightsteel Colossus is not in your hand). The reason to do this would be to draw Blightsteel Colossus to ensure you will not draw a combo piece. Alternatively, you can activate Hermit Druid on your first main phase. You must make sure you have at least 2 Narcomoebas in your library. Running 3 Narcomoebas in the deck allows you to pitch one to Force of Will or Misdirection or just draw one and not have to worry. In the rare event that you are short on Narcomoebas in your library, you must hardcast one or cast an additional Hermit Druid.

Once Hermit Druid is activated, your entire library goes to graveyard (you run no basic lands). Then, your Narcomoebas will return to play. You will also have any number of Cabal Therapies that went to your graveyard. Before activating your combo, you should sacrifice your Narcomoebas or Hermit Druid to Cabal Therapy to make sure your opponent does not have anything relevant in their hand. If you have any combo pieces in you hand, you can also Cabal Therapy them out of your own hand. Because you run Bridge From Below, sacrificing creatures for Cabal Therapy does not mean that you lose any net number of creatures. Even if Bridge From Below is in your hand, you can Cabal Therapy it out as long as your 3 Narcomoebas are in play. Once your opponent's hand is obliterated, you are ready to win. Sacrifice three of your creatures to Dread Return and bring back Cognivore and attach Dragon's Breath and Dragon Shadow for free. The deck runs 22 instants and Dragon Shadow gives Cognivore +1/+0. Your Cognivore now has haste and fear and is a huge flier. You win. You also have the option to Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus and win the next turn as an alternative way to win without using Hermit Druid.

This deck is very different from other Hermit Druid decks I've seen because it is so efficient in terms of card selection and is completely committed to consistently winning on turn 2 or turn 3 with multiple counters and disruption. This deck can get away with running lots of cards and few lands because Worldly Tutor only costs 1 mana. The deck doesn't need more than 2 mana to win. Further, the Cognivore/Dragon Breath/Dragon Shadow package is extremely efficient because Cognivore can be pitched to Force of Will or Misdirection, Dragon Breath is used in conjunction with the sideboard and Dragon Shadow can be boarded out if you want to keep the Hermit Druid deck together and it is irrelevant against your opponent. Believe it or not, this deck can still win with Hermit Druid after pitching Cognivore. If you can't Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus, you can still activate Hermit Druid on your first main phase and leave Blightsteel Colossus in your library. Then, create 2/2 creatures by Cabal Therapying yourself for Blightsteel Colossus (so you draw it next turn) and use Dread Return on Narcomoebas/Hermit Druid to make more 2/2 tokens and return a creature to play. You should be able to make four 2/2 tokens as well as an additional 1/1 creature. This is essentially a two turn clock. You can continue to draw Blightsteel Colossus and Cabal Therapy yourself so that you can re-draw it.

For sideboarding, simply remove 4x Hermit Druid, 4x Worldly Tutor, 1x Dragon Shadow, 3x Narcomoeba, 1x Dread Return, 1x Bridge From Below and 1x Cognivore. Board in your entire sideboard and you now have a solid Oath deck that can surprise your opponent. You deck is no longer graveyard dependent. You can also keep the Hermit Druid combo together after sideboarding and just use the cards in the sideboard to make minor deck adjustments.

There are a few intricacies of this deck that you will pick up after playtesting, but those are the basics. Please feel free to ask me any questions and ENJOY the deck!!! Shipping and insurance are both free for this auction.

Hi... are these prizes guaranteed regardless of attendance? Thanks.

You guys can read Canadian, right? If not, I can translate...

The difference between collectable coins and stuff like that is that they are not actually usable. So, when they get reprinted, they original ones hold their value because they are purely collectable.

With magic cards, they are collectable and usable. For that reason, reprinting them will have a much more severe effect on the prices because many people just need the cards in order to play with them and do not care about collectability.

I believe magic is a card game before it is a collectable. People should have the ability to play with power and play with whatever deck they want without investing thousands of dollars. I'm all about reprinting power and expensive cards. I love playing the game and do not care at all about the cards' value or collectability. I completely understand people who have invested thousands of dollars and do not want that money to go down the shitter, though.

[Results] Vintage for a Lotus at Untouchables 3/28/09

Announcement Thread: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37245.0

From MTGOntario.com:

Edwin just wrapped up yet another great Vintage event - 52 players came out to compete for a huge Black Lotus first place prize!

Of course, we only needed 32 players to give away the big card so we added some cash to the top four, some to the bottom four (5th-8th) and ran a Vintage side-event instead of EDH. We also gave away a prize to the top player without proxies!

Standings After Round Six:
1. Marty Birthelmer [16pts] Ichorid
2. Johmar Chua [14pts] U/R Faeries
3. Ghost Harant [14pts] Stax
4. Chris Sternad [13pts] Tezzeret
5. Kevin Roscoe [13pts] Dragon
6. William Lee [13pts] Landstill
7. Mike Antonarakis [13pts] Tezzeret
8. Noah Long [13pts] Tezzeret

Special mention to Robbie Paterson and Jay Jiang who missed the cut with 13pts each.


Quarterfinals:
Marty [1] d. Noah[8] (note: I believe this should say Noah[8] d. Marty [1])
Chris [4] d. Kevin [5]
Harant [3] d. William [6]
Mike [7] d. Johmar [2]

Noah, Kevin, William, and Johmar each received $30 for finishing 5th-8th.


Semfinals:
Noah [8] d. Chris [4]
Mike [7] d. Harant [3]

Chris and Harant took home $75 for finishing 3rd/4th.

Finals:

Mike [7] and Noah [8] intentionally draw and split the top two prizes ($700 and $150), receiving $425 each.

Mike also took home $50 for the highest finish of a player with zero proxies used.

Richie Cairns and Mike Gouthro battled to the end of a 28-person single-elimination side event, eventually splitting the side-event prize of $50.

Congratulations to everybody and another huge thanks to everybody who came out and participated and contributed to the great atmosphere at this event!

Thanks to Edwin for running another smooth event!

Just one more thing... this is VERY close the the US border. It's less than an hour and a half for me to get there. If you are anywhere near this (NY, Ohio, PA, etc.)... think about going! These tourneys are a blast, the player base is solid and so are the prizes.

This is coming up soon!!!

I'll be there the 22nd so if two people can play Platinum Angel decks with no removal spells and no counters, you guys can just sit there for 2 days until I get there.

Fuck college football. Let's protest the BCS system by playing magic instead. Who's with me??

Let's make this event huge! Just be there if you can...

It kills with Jailer, duh...

Way to get people excited about the tourney

I'm hoping to make it out to this one... should be fun!

Geographic factors have always been the biggest constraint on my attending tourneys. I'd have loved to go to Travis' tourney if it wasn't a nightmare to actually get there.

If the truth is that Vintage is actually shrinking and will go away if nothing is done about it, I think a well thought-out, community-based effort to get wizards to allow 10-15 proxies for Type 1 would be exactly what Vintage needs to get tourneys rolling again and stay on the map permanently. I could only imagine how much renewed interest and excitement there would be for Vintage if this actually happended. And this wouldn't be the kind of excitement that lasts for a week after a new B&R change... this would be the kind that puts Vintage on the competetive MTG map forever. We all know how much fun Vintage can be, but it's awfully hard to get others to see that when the format is so inaccessable.

I know that Wizards/the DCI has a firm policy against proxies, but I really do believe that this is the absolute best way to "save" Vintage (if you believe it does need to be saved).

Before I book my flight... would December 20th work as a potential date to hold the tourney??

I'll be home around Christmas... so I'll post when I'll be home in the next few days when I finalize plans. Don't wait on me, but it would be cool if I could attend.

I'd just like to say that I enjoy reading articles like these rather than ones about established decks. As an on-and-off premium subscriber, articles like these push me toward having it rather than not. I don't give a shit if Steve didn't test the list at all and is just BSing us, even if one card in the deck spaks a new idea for me or my team, then the article was worth it. 

Huh? How is ripping 3 AKs out of your deck virtual card disadvantage?? That's called thinning your deck out, and, if anything, is virtual card advantage since the probabilities of hitting game-ending cards gets higher.

To me, the only disadvantage of running Intu/AK over TFK in non-Welder decks is opening yourself up to graveyard hate. There is nothing wrong with AK for one. As Meadbert puts it, your deck now has 3 cards in it that Wizards thinks is so powerful that they have never printed (instant speed draw 2 for 1U).

This is really close to the US border... so you may be in driving distance and not even realize it (google map it up)...

These events are run amazingly and a lot of fun!

I'll be home in NC for Thanksgiving... maybe next time

Would you mind posting the top 8? For such a large tourney, the top 8 is very relevent even if they didn't win anything.

Sorry that should be UB Drain Tendrils not UR.

I went 4-0-2 in swiss (2 ID) with 8-0 in games and lost to Becker Fish in the top 8. Tourney was a lot of fun!

It's hilarious trying to explain what I'm doing when I cross the border. I'll always start out with "visting some friends for the day." Then, the border people say "what are you going to do?" me: "play a card game" them: "what game" me: it's called magic... you know... like pokemon... for adults... wizards... spells.... them: silence

It's so weird trying to explain magic to the border people. Especially going back to the US when I'm tired of driving and burnt out. They ask so many damn questions...

Here's what I played:

// Lands
    3 Flooded Strand
    2 Polluted Delta
    1 Tolarian Academy
    4 Underground Sea
    4 Snow-Covered Island

// Spells
    4 Accumulated Knowledge
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Chain of Vapor
    1 Demonic Tutor
    3 Duress
    1 Fact or Fiction
    4 Force of Will
    1 Frantic Search
    1 Hurkyl's Recall
    2 Intuition
    1 Lotus Petal
    1 Mana Crypt
    4 Mana Drain
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Rebuild
    1 Sol Ring
    2 Tendrils of Agony
    4 Thirst for Knowledge
    1 Time Walk
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    1 Skeletal Scrying

what deck plays planning that doesn't play will or welder? basically, only slaver runs planning. some long players have tried it, and they use will.

If your opponent has an active Welder and you have a Drain in hand and they cast TFK... you probably want to counter that, right?

What if they cast an Impulse? You probably don't care if it resolves.

What if they cast a strategic planning? You're probably going to seriously consider Draining it.

The reason why you want to Drain it is part of the reason it's so much better than Impulse in Slaver.

You can crash at my place Erk. It might be a little bit of a drive... nothing you can't handle.

I don't know why the advocates of Gifts Ungiven are boasting about how it's always so good. I have no problem disagreeing over a card choice, but at least acknowledge its weaknesses. Like Scrying, Gifts isn't always good and the plays (with Gifts) can not always be made without Recoup.

It's a matter of weighing the advantages and disadvantages of either card and coming to a conclusion, which we as humans clearly are not very good at since there are so many factors to consider.

I don't know where you're getting your statistics from, but I don't believe that at all. If Gifts has to find draw spells some of the time and the end result of Gifts is just casting draw spells, how is it good 99% of the time and Scrying 93% of the time? I know these percantages aren't meant to be exact but rather illustrative, but my point is that if you EVER have to use Gifts to get draw spells, it can't possibly be 99% to 93% because the end result is going to be the same exact thing Scrying would have done: draw cards. If Scrying doesn't hit anything with its draws, Gifts for draw and then drawing isn't going to be any better (probability-wise). I've tested the shit out of Gifts and there are a ton of situations where you must get draw simply b/c there is nothing better to get. In these situation, Scrying is pretty much always better. In situations where Gifts would have won the game on the spot and you have Scyring, a resolved Scrying in its place wins the game with such an overwhelming percantage that I don't care that I didn't have Gifts. The reason Gifts loses to Scrying for me is because of situations where Gifts sets you back a turn because you have to find draw instead of just cast it with Scrying.

Also, you fail to mention an important scenario: You need to win next turn.

If you have the choice of Gifts in hand and Scrying in hand, there are often situations where you cannot find a Gifts pile that will win you the game next turn. In these cases, you need to get draw spells in order to put the win together next turn. If you had Scrying instead, you could have cast a huge draw spell at end of turn and then untapped and had a much better chance of winning. With Gifts in these situations, you tutor for draw and then untap and what have you accomplished? You've effectively set youself back a turn and this can be huge when you have pressure to win.

I have a question for some people with experience with DT regarding boarding.

1) Are there any matchups that you don't board in Tinker/DSC? (if so, which/why?)

2) Are there any matchups you leave in 2x Tendrils and board in Tinker/DSC? (if so, which/why?)

Personally, I don't ever find my self wanting 2x Tendrils post-board or 2x Tendrils + Tinker/DSC in any matchups. If people think that something else may be correct against certain decks, I'd like to hear some other thoughts. Random side note: I often find myself boarding in Jailer against Aggro decks that it can really do something good against like Goblins (to stop Lackey) or Fish-type decks that run Ninja.

The biggest thing with Chalice Oath is winning game 1. Whoever can swing game 1 will win the match with a huge percentage (mostly because of CotV and also getting to Duress first, etc). Since this was my first tourney in Canada, I had no idea what to expect and put in Tinker/DSC maindeck (absolutely horrible last minute decision). The 2x Tendrils maindeck is so much better, and I have no idea why I ran Tinker maindeck.

The Oath matchup isn't as lopsided as the tourney Saturday may have made it seem like. For instance, if I would have had a fetchland in hand in game 3 of round 5 I would have probably won the match since I was only 1 mana short of winning with Hurkyl's, Lotus, Mox, Tendrils. Also, from what I saw, you could have potentially Will'd a turn earlier and put together some nice cards and at worst Time Walk (?). I think you had Vamp and Recall, but I forget.

2 weeks

Also... post this on SCG! I'm telling you, random people check that site any show up from time to time.

Thanks, Dante.

Since some people may have had more time to test certain builds, I'll ask a question I asked before again.

What are people's thoughts on Gifts vs. Scrying? Do people think Gifts should definitely be there over Scrying? Try to think of Gifts in context of the cards in DT and not what you remember from the Gifts era when you think about if it belongs.

Has anyone been able to test the two cards?

My personal testing has confirmed my belief that both cards are very good but Scrying is the better card for my build of DT.