It was a very nice tourney and also very nice to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in years again

I was playing the blue belcher deck of the VSL with an updated sideboard and had a lot of fun with it, coming in 11th at 4-2. The deck is pretty nice and stable, but could use a little optimization and also draws some really crappy looking hands that actually are good in the deck, so sometimes it's a bit of a puzzle but that's combo I guess

I don't have a lot of time for MtG anymore, but it was very fun and exciting to be at a tournament again

Hero

I was present on BD ('Hero 't Mannetje, the Dutch Pyromaniac" was my name I think) , pre and post-crash TMD but I haven't posted in the last few years; too many other things in my life so MtG is on the backburner.

I enjoy the occasional EDH/Commander game and some old-school tourneys we have, but since the Dutch vintage scene has dried up (due to other interests of most the old players) I doubt I'll play much more Vintage, still have all the cards though...

We do something similar in the Netherlands for about 1.5 years now and it's very much fun: currently we allow sets up to Ice Age/Alliances/Homelands(no Coldsnap) plus we will test Mirage this time as an added set for this. We use a similar restricted list to what was normal in those days with the addition of Strip Mine and Necropotence, but we have 4 Hymns allowed.

Regardless; it is heaps of fun as you see cards you haven't seen in quite a while

P.S Long time since I've actually posted on TMD...plenty of other stuff to do in my spare time but I might get back into magic a little nowadays

Richard

If you want to come, please let me know. I can put you up for a day or two at my place, as well as pick you up at Schiphol airport or at the train station in Eindhoven if you feel like coming here immediately. Just send me an email or PM on TMD if/when you will arrive.

Hero

With the deepest sorrow, we let you know you that Rudy van Soest aka Morefling has passed away. We appreciate that many of the newer TMD members will not know him, as he was most active on these boards several years ago. Nevertheless, we believe that several of you might remember him and we thought it appropriate to inform you.

Rudy suffered from Myotonic Dystrophia. This disease, which is hereditary, slowly weakens your muscles, which in the end caused cardiac arrest and his passing away. Fortunately, he passed away while sleeping and as such, suffering was minimal.

Aged only 29, obviously this is much too soon, but the clock kept ticking away and caught up with him...We're gonna sorely miss him, his antics, joyfulness and drivenness towards result and winning, always keeping fun in the mix as well.....

"If you need someone told they suck, I'm your man." - MoreFling

The ISP (Insane Scrub Posse) members:

Bram Verhees - BR4M
Marco Kiewit - BigMac
Steven Bukkems
Maarten Bukkems - LevelZero
Nico v/d Hoeven
Hero 't Mannetje - Pyromaniac
Richard Mattuzio - ShockWave
Richard Drijvers - RichardD
Peter Olszewski- DicemanX

Been forever since I posted here but I definitely remember the "good old days"

It was heaps of fun on IRC for certain, between Smmenenenemenemen, Legend, Solaran and the other regulars. Oh and Bram modifying every picture he could find 

Honestly have no idea whether/not I'll be there: buying an apartment at the moment and I'm getting the key Nov 1st if all goes well, so I probably will be quite busy.

Chemical engineer: my company sends me somewhere and I make stuff work, then go somewhere else...rinse and repeat. It's nice to fiddle around a bit with lots of different stuff and I'm already mentioned as inventor on one patent

As to what happened with RVS: he's retired from Magic. I don't know if he still has his cards but he never plays anymore

As for me: I stopped played competitive decks a few years ago and can't be bothered to try and work my way back into competition, I just don't have the time or drive for it. I still attend tournaments every once in a while but mostly just to talk to people I know and play some EDH and casual magic.

The rest of ISP has also semi-retired from Vintage, mostly because we've become somewhat bored with Vintage the way it is at the moment. (And PLEASE don't tell us everything's fine etc...we like to make up our own opinions thank you...) The other issue is that all of us have busy jobs at the moment along with other hobbies which take up most of our time.

Hmm...I should be able to make this as well, possibly bringing some other dutchies as well

Full power with drains, shops, bazaars, 2 grims and Seal/Vault/LoA. Also have an extra Twister and LoA for casual decks

Chemical researcher at TNO, the national research institute of the Netherlands

Congratz to the T8 players and the winner, obviously The field looks fun and somewhat balanced again, which is always nice.

Just wondering, were there any people outside from the US and Canada there?

What it would probably be missing is the truly international status though, since few people from Europe show up, afaik. Nothing to be done about that though, unfortunately

Indeed..fairly annoying that nothing happened

Everrid: Dovescape? That makes sure your opponent doesn't screw you over with random bounce spells anymore and if played correclt, doesn't affect you at all.

[rant] Let the whining, finger pointing and denial begin!![/rant]

Maybe I'll chime in (for the first time in a few years I'll actually post something on vintage ) on this for a bit. I think that the problem(well, problem, at least my perception of a problem, I'll leave it in the middle if it is one or not) is that most of the hands in "amazing games" are game winners on their own. They are quite independent on what your opponent is doing, unless he has multiple counters or disruption effects. "Amazing hand" games generally mean that someone has 1-2 threats AND your opponent has either answers or better threats. Or is there another definition of these amazing games?

We as a community are progressing in this format and understanding better and better how to build the best decks, which can fan open the most powerful 7-card hands as frequently as possible. We're striving to build decks that are least affected by your opponents plays. Let's face it, generally all of the decks we try to play now try to minimize interaction with your opponent by forcing through your own gameplan via counters/speed or just stopping him from playing stuff altogether(stax/MUD)

The format is becoming worse and worse for it as the amount of hands that "just win" is becoming larger and larger in decks: mulliganning to Bazaar as the sole requirement for Ichorid decks springs to mind(Oversimplification, I know, but it's just to make a point).

While I can see the fun of this and used to like T1 a lot, stepping back from it for a month or 9 let me see how bad it really was (or is, depending on your p.o.v). I don't want this to end in yet another debate for restrictions/bannings because frankly, I don't care. The format for now is still fun enough for me to play and random enough so I won't face god draws every other game. It's just a hobby and I can't say I spend any time on it at the moment because trying to invent something new is well..boring in this format. Generally speaking, unless a new mechanic comes out, it's just adding a few other cards to a certain pre-existing core.

Eventually, something will have to be done about this. While I doubt we'll see cards in future sets that enter the restricted list(Wizards is wisening up), a few others should be put onto it like:

Gush (free card draw is NEVER fair)
Flash (no-skill wins are what restricted 3sphere)
Merchant Scroll (tutors for restricted cards)
possibly Bazaar (dredge...blegh, what a dumb and unfortunately, skill-less mechanic)

Yes, I know that there are answers to these cards, but it should be apparent that playing answers isn't the solution to a problem: I'll point to T2-Ravager and leave it at that. There are other cards I'm pondering about occasionally as well, mostly mana acceleration, but this is always in combination with restricted cards.

Anyways, we're also continuously trying to abuse a few cards in this format and frankly I'm getting sick and tired of it, as I see that as "stifling innovation" or some random term like that: next to the unrestricted cards that don't require/reward skillfull play, a few restricted cards don't do this either, which is why they are restricted in the first place. I think Gifts' restriction was caused by 1 card: Will (and to a lesser extent, Lotus). There are numerous other cards that are on the list because of Will, Academy, Recall and a few other widely played(and horribly overpowered/undercosted) cards. I couldn't care less if these cards would be banned eventually, because the format will only get better: the precedent of "all the cards should be playable" should be dumped because it's old, outdated and in dire need of revision.

Yes, I know people will look at me and be like "we're playing legacy with better cards then". I know, BUT, Legacy is fair to a much larger extent and I much prefer it to playing vintage atm. What is wrong with a format being more fair and less "Look, I drew such-and-such card in my opening 7, I'm SO skillfull"?

Maybe you could host it somewhere else(private homepage or something) ? If not, I'd like to receive a copy please

It doesn't work for me either. I can reach mtgchicago.com fine but when I click on the articles section it times out

Depends where you come from, but I think it'd be Eindhoven Airport (I live like 10 mins from it). Otherwise, Schiphol(Amsterdam) is also a possibility, as the public transport is good in .Nl

lol

Slogan: "Loves the Pyromaniac you hate"

Quote: "Come with Pyromaniac if you want to live." - Terminator 2, 1991

I just checked the SCG tourney results for some deck to play and came across this deck, sort of, played by Van Sears to some good results in the SCG tourneys. If there is any resemblance with TGC then I apologize for any offense, none intended by not mentioning it. A lot of lists play like 50 to 54-ish similar cards anyway, so there isn't a whole lot of maneuvering space with decks like these.

As for not playing Bazaar, the answer is simple: I don't have any, I sold mine (to UR actually) and haven't gotten round to picking up a few new ones yet .

I considered CotV, but decided against it because:
A, not a lot of people play combo over here.
B, it also shuts off my 1cc threats (This might not be a valid reason for some, bit I can't say I've missed them during the tourney. Also, keep in mind that this deck was playtested exactly 0 times before the tournament, I built it the morning before the tourney)
C, I felt the deck was good enough as it is and I didn't really want to play till the finals (I kinda hate T1 right now and I'd rather play something fun then a 'good' deck like PL or MDG)

The FoWs have been good to me all day long: I wasn't hampered by them at all, even with the low number of blue cards in the deck and at least they give me some chance to force through a threat like a Tinker or answer stupid turn 1 plays from my opponent.

I played some shop-aggro-toolbox'esque deck to a split in the finals (it was already 9.40 PM and we wanted to make sure we caught a train home). I had the following results:

Round 1: 0-2 vs shop-hate.dec : shops, hate cards etc. 2 mulls to 5 didn't help either
Round 2: 2-1 vs Goblins: he played a weird version with Fire Whip on a Lackey which cost me a game
Round 3: 2-0 vs Dragon
Round 4: 2-1 vs Staxless staxx: I topdecked like a pro in the 3th game, since that was all we were doing really.
Round 5: 2-0 vs Oath

T8: 2-1 vs Gifts: Rogier Maaten played this deck really good, but the games were totally lopsided: I demolished him first game with 3sphere and Strip Mine and some fast beats, he crushed me 2nd game when I held a hand I should've mulliganed and I crushed him 3th game with a quick Tinker for Titan
T4: 2-0 vs UWB Fish
T2: Split with Nico vd Hoeven playing Gifts, we went to catch our train.

The deck I played:

"Randomness collection Inc"

4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
3 Wasteland
2 Shivan Reef
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
2 Gilded Lotus

4 Force of Will
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Intuition
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trinisphere
1 Mindslaver

4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Juggernaut
2 Triskelion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Masticore
1 Platinum Angel
1 Karn Silver Golem

Sideboard:
1 Balance
1 Memnarch
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fire/Ice
2 Jester’s Cap
3 Red Elemental Blast

If anyone has questions/comments, lmk.

Greetz Hero

I split in the finals of this event with some workshop toolbox/aggro-esque deck I found  in my archives, based on something Van Sears played in some SCG tourney. If/when I feel like typing a report I'll do so, if people want the list lmk.

This deck is pretty sweet btw, it seems like a blast playing it, but unfortunately I have no Masks and Marco was playing his in his dragon deck sideboard (Don't ask, we're Dutchies, nothing we do makes sense )

The problem isn't with the clamp or plating though, it's with having 4 off-color mana, well, non-shop mana, which isn't that hard with a Worker, but he's frequently the first to bite the dust or get countered. That alone makes Empty the Warrens less then optimal. We might as well play a few other cards then or another storm card. My $0.02

Or you're in Europe

Maybe we'll try and attend one of these and a TMD open next year, as long as they're in successive weekends.

Last: Deicide - Desecration
Currently: Iron Maiden - For the Greater Good of God
Upcoming: Vivaldi - 'The Four Seasons' Concerto 1- Spring (?!? )

So we should make Vintage even more about the die roll? Raising the power level of T1 even further by unrestricting cards doesn't sound like the best option to me to answer Will & co... Besides, what would you want to unrestrict? The only card I can see that might hurt them is 3sphere and the format is random enough as it stands.

ATM: Gone Away - The Offspring

Before that: Afraid to shoot Strangers - Iron Maiden
Following that: ...And Justice for All - Metallica

First of all, congratz with your finish I like reading about combo decks finishing high even though I'm having a tough time forcing myself to play this format atm. That however has been mentioned elsewhere before.


This is exactly why we(dutchies) went there one year and decided not to go again: the prize support is well...shit. If you don't finish first you might as well not T8 at all, unfortunately.