... best part of the report.

1. Faerie Conclave adds a significant amount of value to the deck, despite its CIPT drawback. The advantages are:

• It is a manland that creates blue mana and requires only blue mana to activate. No other manland has these qualities.
• It has evasion, which is more valuable than most would expect.
  
• The most important reason for its inclusion is that it makes Standstill more powerful. Often, it simply is not good enough to play a Standstill without any pressure. Without pressure, Standstill can be very easy to play around.

2. Flusterstorm and REB can be interchangeable. Generally speaking, if you're able to reach the long game, you're most likely going to win. Also, Flusterstorm is often a hard counter in the long game. Your opponent should not have a lot of mana at their disposal for long periods of time, otherwise something has gone very wrong. In any case, there are pros/cons for both, so I don't think there's anything wrong with swapping one for the other.

3. I've kept the Steam Vents since I haven't found any other land to be better. Playing around Wasteland has never really been an issue for me.

4. I don't like Clique in this deck. It doesn't provide a function that I've ever felt needed. Fire/Ice is a great card, but ever since Golem was printed, Bolt has gained much more value. EE is a fine card, but I prefer Null Rod, and obviously it doesn't make sense to run both. I've never tested Repeal, so I can't really comment there. It's a good utility card but it doesn't have the best of applications in this deck.

Hope that helps.

I'm a big fan of Almost Blue and its flexibility. I've seen it in action many times, most notably in the hands of Jean Baptiste Aymes (creator?). Thanks for the report and welcome back to Vintage

For what it's worth, every time I've ever joined a DE, I get prompted to choose a deck and I've never had issues with the wrong one getting loaded. That's not to say that an issue doesn't exist, just saying that the functionality people seem to be looking for already exists.

Great post. I've held this opinion for a long time. The idea of a "correct" play is often foggy at best.

I tried to read the article but couldn't get past the pretty pictures.

I get that it goes into Gifts piles, but it is very weak if you draw it. I would replace Recoup with a SCM specifically because SCM is just a much better card overall and you really only lose the marginal benefit of a Recoup+Gifts pile by cutting Recoup.

I still don't get the Recoup, but otherwise it looks fine.

Sure, but this is a Gifts deck, and assuming no knowledge about your metagame, BSC is 100% the correct choice.

You'd be amazed at how many games Inkwell Leviathan will lose for you. Run BSC.

I saw Selma last night and it was absolutely riveting. The performance by David Oyelowo seems like a lock for Best Actor.

I wouldn't even want to know what the price of Drains would jump to, but it would be awesome.

Welcome to The Mana Drain! Thanks for posting a report and congratulations on your strong finish. A few things:

• I actually think your matchup against me is not favorable. In the first match, you had very powerful hands, and in the second match, I played terribly in G3 and what should have certainly been a win.
• Null Rod is the best card in this deck. It is a dead draw against Delver, but really good against shops and anything else blue

Regarding the Cages and Relics, they are necessary. I cannot win the Dredge matchup without those cards. I would have certainly lost my first round if I did not have them. Also, Relic is very important in many matchups. It is critical to resolve against Delver and anything the relies on the graveyard --- Goyf, DTT, and random cards like KotR and LftL. Cage is also very good against big blue and Oath.

Energy Flux absolute wrecks Workshops. It is not that difficult to resolve, and it combos well with Null Rod. I'm undecided about the Steam Vents. They are there to minimize the probability of being colored screwed. Basics are nice and all, but I'd rather have better access to red mana.


Gitaxian Probe seemed very powerful for you. I am surprised that more blue control lists don't use it.

I think this pretty much sums it up. I think anyone trying to wing it with this deck in the future is going to have poor results. Point #1 is a big time difference from IRL magic, and one of the reasons I love MTGO. It's much more difficult to scout.

If Randy won the die roll, it makes sense that he won, but if he did not win the die roll, I really would like to see how he pulled off the win. It seems that any of Shops infinite disruption spells would just wreck this deck, and it would take a really lucky Leyline hand on the draw to pull anything off.

4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Mana Drain
4 Spell Pierce
4 Mental Misstep
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Null Rod

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Brainstorm
1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Flooded Strand
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Steam Vents
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pyroclasm
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Flusterstorm
4 Energy Flux

R1: Garlan - Dredge (1-0)
G1: Mull to 1 and scoop
G2: He boards Dredge hate and loses.
G3: Really close. We both mull to 5. I keep a Wasteland hand, he keeps a Bazaar. his first dredge is nothing to write home about. I resolve Crucible, and get Factory + Waste online to stop any BFB shenanigans. I win the long game because my business spells actually do something.

R2: MtgVector - Humans (2-0)
G1: I waste some annoying lands and then resolve Jace to bounce his only threat. He keeps playing into Jace but I bounce and resolve Standstill, and then I am too far ahead once he cracks it.
G2: This game goes the distance. His resolves Bob early and I have Pyroclasm in hand, and I consider sandbagging it in the hope that he walks more threats into it. I end deciding that he is probably a good player and will keep milking it for value, so I cast the Pyroclasm right away. He plays caverns and drops a Canonist and a Thalia, but I have Factories and Conclaves keeping them at bay. I finally resolve Jace and Pyroclasm away his board, but he resolves 2 x KotR and things are looking bad for me. I bounce one and then block the other with a factory on his turn. When he tries to replay the second, I Drain, despite it being cast with Caverns. That gives me enough mana on my turn to Time Walk, Treasure Cruise, Pyroclasm, and Relic.

R3: KDBKGB - RUG Delver (3-0)
G1: the only thing I remember about this game is that we trade a bunch of draw spells (Standstills vs. Gush, Treasure Cruise). Eventually I pull ahead in cards and take it down.
G2: I board in Relic this game and hose his Terasure Cruise plan. On a critical turn, he fetches to get cruise online, but I respond to fetch with Relic and eat his yard. He pauses and then passes the turn, which yields that he has at least one and likely more cruises in hand. That allowd me to resolve the Ancestral I was sandbagging up until this point and take it home from there.

R4: noonesshadow - Big Blue (4-0)
G1: Not sure what variation of blue this is, but I lock him out quickly with Null Rod.
G2: This game goes on for a while, but I shut him down early with Rod again, and resolve draws spells while countering his. He resolved a Trinket Mage, which indicated some sort of Bomberman. I win via Factory beatdown.

R5: WitchKling - Shops (5-0)
G1: I have a sketchy hand with double force but he is light on threats. I force his first sphere, and allow Cotv=1 to resolve. I drain into Jace and take it down.
G2: I lock him out with Null Rod and Wastelands.

R6: Lejay - Unpowered RW Beats (6-0)
R1: I bolt away a few threats and resolve Jace.
R2: He mulls, then Pyroclasm wreaks havoc and I resolve Jace.

R7: EFroPoker - UR Delver (6-1)
G1: He has T1 Ancestral with backup and I can't catch up.
G2: I have 1st turn standstill with backup and he can't catch up.
G3: I draw a bunch of cards but none of them are Pyroclasm, so after we fight over a Pyromancer, I don't have a way to clear the board and it goes the distance.

R8:_qfortier - Grixis Control (6-2)
G1: He has an interesting control build with Gitaxian Probe and broken blue spells. I am able to land a rod but he digs up Tinker and uses Probe to ensure it resolves.
G2: He has Misstep for my Ancestral and FoW for my Standstill, and then does the Tinker thing again.

QF: _qfortier - Rematch
G1: He has an early Tinker that punches through.
G2: He has lots of acceleration but no tinker this time. I land Null Rod and win from there.
G3: My opponent outplayed me this game --- I landed an early cage and was way ahead yet somehow let him back into the game. He eventually resolves Tinker and wins.

The event was awesome and I look forward to more MTGO Vintage. It is getting really good!

I squeaked into the T8 but it looks as though I am about to lose the QF.

Hi Andy. There are no sanctioned Vintage events, but about 10 of us meet up once a month and run an indie tournament. Everyone throws in $10-20. If it interests you, ping me on Facebook and we'll add you to the group.

Weekend was tons of fun. I stunk it up both days but had a blast in the process. Will be there next year to continue supporting the community. Fantastic stuff Nick!

Amazing that you found a list that worked against Treasure Cruise Delver. Admittedly, I didn't put too much time into looking outside the box for solutions, but my feeling was that there was just no way to compete against that draw engine.

The inclusion of Balance is awesome. I have never been able to make that card work in Landstill, since I found in the past that it just hoses my lands, but I suppose the 2 x Crucible served you very well.

Great work, and great results ... even with the narrow T8 miss.

Ok, next time we'll have a more lenient entry fee --- something like $20 early, $30 on the day of the event, or something like that. Thanks for the feedback.

It ended up being a small turnout of 14 players, who graciously accepted my renege on the prize structure, otherwise I would have taken a serious hit. I'm not too sure why the attendance/interest was so low, given that the premiere event easily maxed out. Any feedback would be appreciated.

All in all, it ended up being a smooth 5 Round event, with cut to Top 4.

T4:

TheAtogLord (Delver) vs. Diophan (Delver)
Montolio (MUD) vs. Beyondstupid (Dredge)

T2:

Montolio vs. Diophan

Winner: Montolio

Top 4 split 70 tix each. Thanks to all for supporting the event. Hope to do another one in the near future.

Correct. I'm online pretty much all the time. I also respond to PMs on here pretty quickly.

The deadline is the day of the event. You can change the decklist as many times as you want before that date.

... getting close to 10 pre-registered players. Not bad. Let's try to keep the momentum going! If you were thinking of preregistering, now is as good a time as any. PM me or ping me on MTGO.

I just modified the original post to indicate the registered players. I encourage everyone to register as soon as possible in order to create some momentum.

I'm trying to make it as convenient as possible for everyone. I can't cater to East coast, West coast, Europe, Asia ... 10AM EST seemed like somewhat of a happy medium. Would 11AM EST start make much of a difference for West coast players?

I'm not sure why players have not preregistered yet, but unfortunately, I don't have the time to dig into why. Maybe it has been poor advertising, MODO hate, etc ... who knows. I thought the prizes alone would have been enough to get a few players committed by now, but that has not been the case. If anyone is willing to help promote this event, that would be be great, but I haven't had any offers.

No, but I'm actually considering cancelling the event, since nobody has preregistered, and there doesn't seem to be much interest overall. I think I've seen about 10 players express interest, which is hardly enough to justify running this event.

Absolutely would still buy in.