Thanks for posting this!

Awkwardly, this is in tension with the 11 am $50 Legacy event. With the Legacy Event giving prizes down to top 32, I'm assuming you'd have to go 1-3 to be eliminated from prize contention in time to play Vintage at 3:00 pm (or 0-3 if the even start late).  So, unless you scrub out hard, you'll have to choose one or the other. All things equal, I'd much rather play Vintage, but I'd hate to forgo Legacy only to have the Vintage event fizzle.

How many folks here are committed playing Vintage at GP Oakland? 

Sad I missed this one; glad there was a good crowd. Anyone know when the next one will be, or if there will there be sanctioned Vintage at GP Oakland(!!)? 

Isn't defense grid + discard a bit of a nombo, in that defense grid essentially limits them to playing 1 (cheap) disruption spell per turn, of which a counter-heavy deck is likely to draw multiples?  Certainly defense grid can be fine on its own, but it seems stronger paired with counter-magic like FOW, fluster, which force them to use their mana.

Interesting. I remember back before loadstone golem was printed, the standard sideboard plan for vintage storm (both TPS and grim long) versus shops was to sideboard into 4-6 bounce spells and 2-3 additional basics, even though you had 2-4 basics main. The idea being that they could play out their lock pieces, but as long as you could develop your manabase without being disrupted you had a good change of eventually resolving a bounce spell with mana to go off before smokestack or crucible/strip mine locked you, or one of their critters clocked you out. With this plan, you wanted to have a bunch of basics (especially islands), to provide a super-stable manabase to both fetch and draw naturally.

I thought the consensus was that loadstone golem made that plan much weaker, though some still played it as there wasn't an alternative that was clearly better. (Loadstone golem arguably marked a turning point for non-hybrid storm as a strong tier 1 deck, though the printing of strong 1cc countermagic also contributed.)

But whatever the current merits of this plan, it's counter-intuitive to me that playing strip effects that don't produce colored mana, and are themselves vulnerable to wasteland (albeit often at a two-for-one cost), would make it better. I'd think that the odd game where you are able to stunt their development and they can't recover in time would be more than offset by those games where you open yourself up to having your own development disrupted. After all, they are a dedicated mana denial deck. Nor do I see how the restriction of chalice does much to change this equation.

But there must be something to the strategy, or it wouldn't be catching on.

Thank you for the detailed response! These all make sense. I definitely need to play with DP more to get a feel for its strength (this is true in both Vintage and Legacy).

One question I forgot to ask is what's up with the Wastelands and Strip Mines in the sideboards of recent TPS lists. Is this the new answer to Dredge, now that their portfolio includes dark depths? Or is their another explanation for this tech? Seems sorta bizarre on its face, since we're not a tempo deck in any traditional sense. 

Thanks for the quick reply! In my experience Chain of Vapor (sacrificing lands) has built storm and raised mana more efficiently, at least on or after turn 3. But maybe Hurklyl's is better because its less all-in? Or maybe bouncing workshop's board is more important than anything chain of vapor can do?

So I've noticed a slight resurgence lately in TPS lately with Dark Petition, further assisted by the banning restriction of Chalice of the Void. Can anyone who's played the deck comment on how it deck plays, and some of the choices. In particular, I was wondering
why (at least some of) the lists exclude Jar?
whether the 3rd and/or 4th Dark Petition are truly better than mystical tutor and/or grim tutor?
whether colossus belongs in the main?
why 4x hurkyl's recall (both main and sideboard) and no chain of vapor?
is 4 defense grain main truly necessary?

Most of all, wondering how good this deck is? It's put up some results, but the sample size is pretty small. I'm having a hard time seeing how DP adds that much over grim tutor, mystical, etc so as to make TPS strong again, but I'd love for it to be true!

Sad I missed this. Hows it turn out?

Good news -- I don't have a wedding tomorrow, so I'll be there! If anyone needs a ride from from Sacramento message or text me (415-407-9118). See folks tomorrow.

Can we please have one of these sometime that I don't have a wedding to go to? This is two for two...

Awesome report as always Jeff! Heartbroken I couldn't make this -- it's been sooo long since I've played vintage. Any clue when the next will be?

Dammit! I have a wedding this day Thanks for the PM Jeff -- hope this happens again.

P.S. I've never been pimped out, but my power is still ice waiting to return to glory.

Steve, I'm generally supportive of things that benefit eternal formats, even if they cost me something personally. You've made a convincing case for the stability of alpha and beta values, notwithstanding reprints, due to its value among collectors. But you almost entirely ignore unlimited power (as well as revised duels).

Since unlimited power doesn't hold nearly as much value to collectors, isn't it reasonable to assume that the value of unlimited power, particularly non-mint (and lets face it -- non-mint unlimited power is the majority of what's out there) is essentially a reflection of the minimum price of DCI tournament legal entry into vintage? And the same for revised duels for legacy?  Is it realistic to think that this value wouldn't be greatly diluted if enough of these cards were reprinted to noticeably impact card availability?  I'm skeptical

I'm not saying that power shouldn't be reprinted, just that I don't think it can really be the win-win-win your article implies.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Jeff-

Thanks for sharing your candid thoughts. You are right that I drew extremely well against you this last Sunday and beat you with restricted cards. The same was true in my match against Matt, so there's certainly a high variance factor here: broken blue cards win games irrespective of what else may be in the deck. On the other hand, baubles and cantrips make finding those broken cards in the first couple of turns that much easier (this was a factor against Matt). Also, if memory serves I did Arcane Denial (AD) my own spell in our second game, which found me the cards necessary to win our short war of attrition.  

As Cory points out, AD can cetainly act as an engine (along with dark confidant and other draw spells) to expedite victory. But its core value in my perception is flexibility: its a counterspell that also functions as a draw spell.  How oftn does one draw mana drain when one's opponent has a superior board position? In this situation AD can dig for an answer, or your own win condition. Its also noteworthy as arguably the second-cheapest universal hardcounter in the game next to FOW (I'd argue 1u is cheaper than comandeer), and is particularly strong in its ability to protect dark confidant. Finally, ADs ability to manipulate the stack amidst counter ads value: Cast it first in a counter war and it acts as a hardcounter if you win, and it becomes ancestral recall for 1u when you target your own countered spell (and thus is a virtual hardcounter in protecting your ancestral recall).

All this comes at a cost of course. Use it as a counter and you lose card advantage. And to use it effectively as a draw spell, you have to (1) open yourself up to card disadvantage if they successfully counter your target, and (2) play cards like baubles that you can counter (though I'm not sure baubles even belong -- cards like repeal, scrying, moxen & chain of vapor might provide a critical mass of counterable spells on their own). Whether the pros outweigh the cons is the essential question.

It's also true that I keep losing in the quarterfinals. Since I've lost to superior opponents in skill-intensive control mirrors, I don't know if this is due to my inferior playskill or the weakness of AD (or other flaws in my deck).

I should also point out that I'm not wedded AD at all; I'm just playing around with a concept I consider interesting. Each morning of the last three tournaments I've asked myself if I wouldn't rather playing TPS, traditional Tez, or dredge, all of which I consider to be objectively stronger.  I've chosen to play AD variants because, as you point out, vintage is a casual format and I play for more than to simply maximize my EV.  Doesn't mean I'll necessarily make the choice same next month.

An aside on spell pierce: In this deck, you don't care about hitting their moxen because you're not hitting their mana base. Therefore, pierce was much better against decks that chose to cast "substantive" non-creature spells before they had two extra mana to spare; generally in the first two turns.  Thus, it was great against stax. In contrast, Brent was pretty much able to blank my pierces by waiting to engage until he had excess mana. I wonder if my first round opponent might done better with a similar strategy.

So yesterday was Part 3 of my quixotic quest to prove arcane denial viable (Part 2 was Eudemonia's Mox Emerald Tourney; Part 1 was Eudo's Mox Pearl tourney, in which I went 2-2 with the Tez package main, and did not consider the day newsworthy).

Here's what I played:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Acadamy
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Urza's Bauble
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Force of Will
4 Arcane Denial
3 Spell Pierce
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mind Twist
1 Repeal
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Brainstorm
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
3 Dark Confidant
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Tendrils of Agony
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Claws of Gix
1 Energy Flux
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key

The maindeck was fairly well thought out.  On the suggestions of folks in the Eudo thread I tried Spell Pierce in the place of Mana Drain, which I've been testing on Workstation with reasonably good results.  At the last minute I decided 4 pierces were too many and decided to cut one.  I was thinking of Imperial Seal (in part to better support the Tez package in the board), but couldn't find it and decided on Mind Twist instead (I have no idea if this was a good idea because I never drew it all day long).  

I strongly considered cutting Dark Confidant due to the prevalence of oath at the last event, but couldn't find a draw package I was happy with. This was possibly influenced by the fact I only own one Scrying (I'd considered 2 Scrying and a Gifts in place of Dark Confidant), but the fact is that confidant is really good against everything other than Oath, especially Stax which is otherwise  bit of a problem. I was also concerned about being cold to Sadistic Sacrament.

On the other hand, the SB was thrown together.  3 cards for workshops felt right, but the decision to go with 2 Hurkyl's /1 Flux (rather than 2 Flux/1 Hurkyl's) was arbitrary I intentionally scrimped on dredge hate because there hasn't been too much dredge showing up lately (and went with Leyline on the theory that its game winning if I can protect it), but 5 is really pushing it. The helm is cute, but I never wanted to bring it in and should probably be a jailer or second needle.  The Tez package was a last minute inspiration as something to take out for confidant in the oath matchup, or bring in against anything where I want more threats, and served me well in my matchup against Fob. Edict is my only creature hate, which seems like way too little since I only have repeal and chain of vapor to answer permanents main; with the rise of noble fish it feels like smother, threads, and/or sowers belongs somewhere, but not sure for what (maybe claws of gix?).

Speaking of the claws, these were inspired by Web's Goblin Bombardment (which I assume were oath tech, since he lacked the other pieces for a transformation to pebbles).  As an amusing aside, the night before the tourney I scoured workstation for blue/black/colorless cards that sacrifice permanents or creatures, and for 15 seconds I was super-excited to find Carrion Feeder, until it occurred to me that bringing in a creatures to get rid of spirit tokens is not in fact tech.  Alter of Demensia was promising since it feeds scrying and will, but I was sold on Claws of Gix because its easier to cast and "combos" better with Arcane Denial and Academy, and paying 1+ colorless per turn to answer orchard (with lifegain to boot) seemed like a small price to pay.  No idea if this is worth the slot; I resolved against Fob, but won the game before orchard saw play.

On to the tourney. I apologize in advance for any mistakes or missed details, as this is all from memory (anyone who's played with me knows I play long enough without trying to take notes). Additions and corrections are welcome.

Round 1: Lin-? (I'm sorry for not remembering your full name) ("The Deck"?)

I believe Lin was a variant of Mr. Weisman's concoction, reconfigured for the modern era by Messrs. and Menendian.  Game 1 went was a bitter control battle that went very long (almost 40 min).  While I don't remember details, the essential feature was that his viscious attacks on my mana base with strip mine, wasteland, and gorilla shaman, combined with naturally land-light draws, left me severely mana constrained (3 lands in play most of the game). Nevertheless, I was able to force through an early bob, and pulled further ahead by casting denial on my worthless moxen (and maybe a recall in there somewhere.  Eventualy I was able to protect a black lotus fueled yawg will for the win.  

I sideboard in the Tez package for rebuild and a couple of baubles I think.

Game 2 I was again able to resolve an early unanswered bob which I rode to victory, winning on turn 4 of extra turns with a lethal mini-tendrils.

1-0 matches/ 2-0 games.

Round 2 v. Matt Nass (Stax)

Matt doesn't own cards and is known for playing what he can find, so I feared he was on dredge.

Game 1 I win the die roll, and open a busted hand of something like land, lotus, mana crypt tinker and spell pierce, confidant, and Mishra's Bauble. I play the bauble to see what I'm facing, and am surprised to see trinisphere (I later learn Matt rented this deck from Fob for $10 before the turney.  Fob said he offered to take 1/2 of any prize winnings instead, but Matt opted to pay cash -- pretty steep if you ask me, but I guess beggers can't be choosers). Having established I'm probably facing stax, I considered tinkering first turn with spell pierce to protect, but opt instead to play land mana crypt, on the theory that I could pierce his first spell and play both confidant and tinker the following turn. As planned, I pierce his first turn tangle wire, and my robot and bob get there.

I sideboard in hurkyls, energy flux & needle for scrying, FoF a couple of baubles.

Game 2 I again draw a busted hand of with double FOW and energy flux, mox, land and demonic tutor. I fow both his two first turn threats, untap, dt for lotus and go all in on energy flux.  Matt lets me time walk for several turns as he taps out to keep his moxen alive. Eventually he resolves a crucible with wasteland in play, but I have only 1 nonbasic in play and answer with bob, which hits for a while and pulls me further ahead.  Matt may have tried to cast something else which I countered, but is generally hobbled by flux.  Eventually barbarian ring, but strangely decides not to kill bob. He later tells me he thought bob-o-side was his best chance for the win from that board position -- I'm not sure, though there were a couple of turns that flipping dark confidant would have been death.  Instead I draw tendrils and hurkyl's and reply my board for lethal.

2-0 matches / 4-0 games

Round 3: Fob with Vroman Oath

I figured Jeff was on Oath, which he's been playing lately. Game 1 I have land, mox, confidant, tinker. I consider briefly holding back bob, but decide I have to take the risk. Sure enough, Jeff plays first turn lotus, orchard, dt-->oath (I think -- I know the oath came out first turn), protected by FOW. I'm relieved he had orchard anyway, though I stand by my choice to play bob.  I untap, swing for 3, and resolve tinker for DSC (don't remember if I had to protect it or not). Jeff untaps and oaths, Iona naming blue into play after revealing 3-4 cards, and passes the turn. On my third turn I swing with everything; Iona blocks bob, and Jeff goes to 5.  Jeff untaps for his third turn and begins oathing rapidly. I tell Jeff he can flip his deck over and show me if he has no creatures. Jeff complies, and asks me if I want him to combo out.  I truthfully say that I haven't actually seen the combo finish, and would like to see how it works.  So Jeff taps two of his three lands to k-rec lotus and timetwister, draws his card, thinks for a while, says he's a mana short, and scoops. This surprises me greatly, as I really did think he had it.  

I couldn't tell if Jeff was trying to bluff me into conceding or genuinely thought he had it. While we were shuffling he said he misplayed by tutoring for the wrong card. I'm not sure what his options were, but I suspect Jeff was right to resolve oath as quickly as possible, as I think a control standoff favors me.  

I sideboard in my tez package and needle for bobs and a bauble.

Game 2 Jeff double counters my ancestral, leaving us with just a couple of cards each, but I'm left with tez & vampiric tutor in hand, which finds lotus on upkeep to resolve tez --> key. Vault follows the turn after and Fob scoops.

Round 4 & 5. ID.  Round 4 I play two unsideboarded games for fun against my opponent, who it turns out is on Dark Depths.  Game 1 he plays 2 leylines, followed by a 3rd, but nothing else, and I win handily.  Game 2 I'm in control with bob in play, but die to bob after flipping a couple of FOWs. Probably coulda played that tighter.

3-0 matches / 6-0 games.

Top 8 Quarters v. Brent with Tezzerett w/ Intuition & AK

Brent is a close friend of Web and Fob's, and a very tight player. Surprisingly, while I've seen him before I don't think we've played or otherwise been introduced.  I don't know exactly what he's is playing, but suspect a Tez variant since that seems to be what most good players play these days.  

Game 1 is a long back and forth, with several skirmishes over our respective draw spells. If memory serves, Brent resolved his own ancestral recall and countered mine, but I was able to resolve bob and maintain equality, and pull ahead with fact or fiction.  Eventually I was able to resolve lotus --> yawg will with double counter backup (including a hardcast FoW) for the win. An amusing moment in game one arose when Brent was confirming with me how denial works, and Eric (the judge) commented from the other table that it sounded like we were talking about arcane denial -- which he didn't believe at first.

Same sb as Round 1.

Game 2 we start the game playing draw go for a while.  Post board this match proves to be tough for me. I forget the order exactly, but I consistently lose counter wars over draw spells to his better hard counters (his red blasts and mana drains versus my spell pierces and arcane denials). At some point Brent resolves time vault. I find yawg will, but he's able to double counter (he made a comment to Web and Eric about 3 lucky topdecks), and I opt to let his ancestral resolve even though I could have hardcast FoW.  At the time I was afraid he would untap and resolve key for the win, though in retrospect I'm pretty sure not trying to counter ancestral was a mistake -- I don't know if he had protection though. I forget how the game ended exactly, but I think he leveraged his accumulated card advantage into a lethal yawg will (or maybe he just forced through key to complete the combo).

I remember even less about Game 3. I think it played out similar to game 2, with me again losing counter battles but resolving bob to keep from being blown out. The critical turn comes when Brent goes for tinker. I have 2x arcane denail and chain of vapor in hand, but I let it resolve since I figure his target is DSC. Instead he trumps my chain with Inkwell. EOT I try to arcane denial my chain on his mox jet, but he has double blast to stop that nonsense (so in retrospect it wouldn't have mattered if I'd tried to counter his tinker, though I probably should have). I still have some fight left in me though. I topdeck Tez, which finds time vault and buys me an extra turn when he attacks it, and the next turn draw top, which reveals FoF, FOW & DT.  Even though I can theoretically survive another hit, I don't have a blue card in hand, so the best I can do is DT for Key now and hope he hasn't found a counter.  Instead, Brent shows me the mana drain and I extent a hand. There's a flurry of confusion when I quickly clarify that my handshake was not intended as a concession (I'll still be at 1 after Brent's next attack). Brent looks puzzled and asks if I'd seen his hand, at which point I look down at his double fire which everyone in the room but me had noticed.

I think this match can be summed up as me losing a close, tight control match to a better player. The games were filled with difficult decision, and I strongly doubt I made all the right choices. I do think going with spell pierce over.mana drain (or duress/thoughtseize) hurts in this matchup (though it helps with stax and others), and that his sideboard against me is better than mine against his. Still, I'm curious how this matchup would end up if played out between two players of equal caliber.  

Final result 3-1 matches played; 7-2 games played.  I win back$15 in store credit from my $25 entry.

I really don't know what to think about this deck. On the one hand, its hard for me to believe Arcane Denial could be better than cards like Mana Drain, Duress or Thoughtseize.  On the other hand, denial.deck has earned me back to back top 8s in 22 person events, both times losing to one of the two best (pro-caliber) players in the room playing the best deck in the format; and this time that final match was very close. Admittedly, this is a small sample size, but the results seem interesting nonetheless. You also have to realize that while I play solid I'm far from the best (in contrast to some of the folks on here, who could place in any given tourney with dogpoop.dec), so you can't explain my results as a function of play skill. Nor do I think my list is optomized.  I'd love for some of the stronger players on here to test out arcane denial and share their experience... 'till then, bring on the windmills.

Thanks to all for coming out to make a great tourney, and for Superstars to keeping T1 alive in the bay area.

Fail...

Yea, I could have. Been crazy busy lately, and it didn't occur to me that anything other than Eudo and Superstars (both of which I knew about for the immediate future) was holding local tourneys.



That's why I directed my post at Web/LSV/Jeff. They stand to gain the most by my attendance

*sigh*

Vintage opponents on MWS have been unusually unfortunate lately. I've always played in the "default" MWS channel (because I'm not too tech savvy and don't know any better). Are folks playing somewhere else? For example, I remember a thread a while back about a new Apprentice/MWS style program, but don't know what came of it. Or have the quality players switched to a different MWS channel?

Anyone with knowledge of a secret forum for quality online vintage play should feel free to PM me if they deem me worthy of access.
Thanks!

Missed this. Anyone got a link?

Damn. I was in Dublin Saturday but didn't know about this event. How is it that I get TMD emails about events in Kentucky but not my home town?

As an aside, I notice Superstars doesn't event bother posting on the drain anymore. I wish there was a consolidated listing of west coast events. I can't keep track. Web/Jeff/LSV -- you can't win my entry fee for events I don't know about.

Posting your store's address/telephone#/website would be helpful if you want folks who haven't been to your store to consider attending. Since I haven't heard of your store I'm assuming you are in Richmond, VA (or some other Richmond not in CA).

Your points are valid. Spell pierce is definitely worth testing in this archetype.

I actually tested dark ritual (both as a one and four of), but found that it didn't quite do enough to pull its weight. Also, I didn't really want to lose a business speall, but felt I couldn't afford to drop a land or a mox because the mana is already tight. If anything, I'd consider swapping mox pearl for lotus petal before dark ritual (at least if I keep mana drains), or conceivably mana vault. Dropping mana drains and adding gifts might change the calculus, however.

Scrying is nice in that it (1) can be played for less than 4 mana (which I did once or twice this tourney), (2) only hits 1 from bob (cmc of the deck is already pretty high), and (3) can be acane denialed at instant speed (never came up this tourney although I did deny my own repeal). I'd like to make room for one more.  That said, I probably should run fof/gifts over my fourth bob. The only reason I didn't was because I was afraid of bob damage. But really the two extra cmc isn't that big a deal, especially weighed against the fact that the second bob will likely damage me more if I cast him. I do think playing both gifts and fof (over 1 bob and scrying) may be going to far for a deck with bobs and dsc. If I switched away from the bob engine these cards would definitely come in. (Now that I think about it, maybe 2 bobs, FoF & gifts is the right call?)

This is a fascinating suggestion. I wasn't impressed with spell pierce at first blush, but I haven't tested it at all so my opinion is uninformed. You (and Rico and Vroman) make excellent points about spell pierce's ability to answer early game threats, and Vroman is spot-on that in this list drain is only marginally better than counterspell much of the time.  An important exception, however, is that drain mana can be critical in setting up a game winning (or shifting) y-will and/or tendrils -- the key play for which drain tendrils is often building. I noted in my post that y-will turns were mana constrained; losing mana drain would exacerbate this problem.  

Also, suppose for the sake of argument I did swap drains for spell pierce: you'd then have to ask if mana drain wouldn't be better than arcane denial, in which case I could swap the 5 baubles for land/ponder/gifts/fof/? -- in other words, a more standard drain tendrils list, with better uses for drain mana.

After reading these comments, my (untested) sense is that spell pierce is worth testing, but might push the deck away from storm and towards vault-key as a win condition.

Off-topic aside regarding the thread you cited (posted here since I can't post there): I'd have nominated this for the vintage improvement forum until Rico and Vroman belatedly chimed in with serious content.  I'd have hoped the vintage adept forum would have been reserved for article-style posts and discussion of controversial topics, as opposed to quibbling about posting styles.  It's a pitty this straightforward discussion on the merits of spell pierce wasn't initiated in the open forum, where rank-and-file users could flesh out the discussion with relevant tournament and testing experience.  

First, apologies for the delay in posting this; life is crazy busy these days.

To kill the suspense, I went 3-0 in swiss, drew the last two rounds, and lost to Web playing confidant-tez in the top 8.

The story begins at 1:30 a.m. November 1, when I arrive home rather inebriated from partying on Halloween, spread the deck I haven’t looked at since my last tournament, and realize that there’s no way I have the time, energy, or functional brain cells to put together something that doesn’t suck.  Fast forward to 9:45 a.m. when I wake up with a bursting bladder and modest headache, but realize I have an extra hour due to the time change. I take a second look at my deck, make some snap-judgment tweaks (e.g. + top and repeals, - vault package and baubles), pick up a smoothy from safeway to rehydrate, and start off from Sacramento to Berkeley.  

Here’s what I played:

Arcane storm:

3 Underground Sea
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Dark Confidant
4 Arcane Denial
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild
2 Repeal
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Tinker
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Urza's Bauble
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Vault
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard:
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Darkblast
2 Energy Flux
1 Hurkyl's Recal
1 Island
1 Infest
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Thoughtseize

The deck is inspired by Meadbert’s stumping for arcane denial (AD), as exemplified in the following threads:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38527.0
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38790.0

I’ve been testing AD on MWS for a while, and played a variant in the Eudo tournament last tournament (to an uninspired 2-3 finish).

Meadbert’s versions all play 8 baubles. I cut one early on, but still felt like was drawing too many baubles and lacked room for business spells. My inspiration the morning-of was that repeal functioned much like a bauble in that it cycled and was deniable (at instant speed no less), but also dealt with creatures and other permanents, which had been a problem.  I went with bobs as the base draw engine because they are low cc (the deck cheats on a land or two in reliance on cantrips) and function as a win condition. I might have played a second scrying if I had one (maybe for a bob o r repeal?), but I don’t, so I didn’t.  I strongly considered both gifts and FOF, which in addition to being some of the best draw spells ever printed make my yawgwills more broken (see infra) , but I was afraid of bob damage and not being able to cast quickly or consistently enough with my light mana count.

In the last tournament I squeezed in a tez package, including tezzerette, vault, key & iseal for two bobs, a repeal and the top (with some other tweaks as well). The problem was, for the games that I won, I had an embarrassment of options of how to seal the deal; at other times I’d lose games because my hand was cluttered with combo pieces and win conditions that didn’t do anything on their own. I never found myself in a position where vault-key was the only path to victory, although these situations would certainly come up (in one game I would have won had my timevault resolved, but it did not and I consequently lost). It’s possible that vault combo belongs in the deck, maybe in lieu of tendrils, but it didn’t feel right to me (and having tendrils, which actually wins the game on extra turn 4 or 5 is a very nice feature for someone playing control at my speed).  

The thoughseizes were a list minute addition to the sb when I perceived there to be little dredge in the room right before the tournament (I think there was one). I intended to use against combo, but I ended up bringing in against Tez and they pulled their weight – I’d like to find a way to make room for two of these if not all three.  The Energy flux is (and remains) untested against workshops, which I had trouble with last tournament.  The problem with the bounce plan is that I’m not always in a position to y-will out after a timely bounce (see general comment below about mana constraint under yawg will. Bounce may still be the better plan though, as Flux could be tough to cast, or maybe  I need red or green for i-chewer/rack and ruin/oxidize.

On to the tourney:

Round 1, John ? with Vroman Oath:

I wasn’t surprised to face this deck, which was getting a lot of attention on the drain the days before the tournament. I might have played it myself if I’d owned an iona and a k-rec, or misty rainforests.

Game 1 one I'm beating down with bob when John twisters in desperation into the nuts and is able to force through an oath. I have Y-will in hand for a lethal tendrils as long as John names blue iona, which I'm optimistic he'll to since my deck is predominately blue.  Unfortunately John is a good player and names black, which prevents me from stealing the game.

SB: in 2 thoughtseize, 1 edict; out 1 repeal, 1 rebuild & 1 bauble. Game 2 I establish control with bobs and am beating down. John eventually resolves oath, which I repeal. By the time he replays its too late, and John dies to my attacking bobs. Game 3 I counter an early oath and establish control. I draw two bobs but decline to play them to avoid making oath a threat (he hasn't drawn orchard yet). Time is called and I continue to play slow and safe, winning with a lethal y-will into tendrils with countermagic backup.

Round 2 v. Jeff H. (aka Fob) with Tez (I think)

Game 1 Jeff and I counter each other's spells, but he eventually is able to force through vault key he has in hand.

SB: in 3 thoughtseize; out 1 repeal, 1 rebuild, 1 bauble. Game 2 I tinker turn 1 into DSC ftw. Game 3 I manage to resolve bob and establish control. When bob damage starts to become a threat I resole a non-lethal yawg.  I mangle the yawg will somewhat, but gain enough advantage to tendrils him out the following turn after I successfully dodge dsc on the bob flip.

As an aside, I struggled to make the most of my yawg wills all tournament. The fact that my build lacks dark ritual and lotus petal, as well as  gifts and fow to put artifacts in the yard made yawg will turns mana tight. Meadbert has written that one of the strengths of his 8 bauble build is synergy with y-will. He may have a point, though I don't know in the increased vulnerability to chalice and null rod is worth it.

Round 3 v. Walter with remora control.

Game 1 is tight. Walter resolves an early remora and pulls slowly ahead with meditate and other draw spells. I finally manage to resolve bob and think I might be able to catch up, but after a couple of turns Walter finds sower. Walter starts hitting me for 4 and drawing two cards each turn, but bob is chipping away at his life as well. My only chance to steal this game is to somehow mini tendrils him out.  I take my shot when walter is at 7 life and my hand is lotus, jet, mystical tutor. On upkeep I mystical tutor, offhandedly tapping my u-sea (leaving a second u-sea and islands untapped). He lets mt resolve (a mistake I think), and I find and draw tendrils. Mainphase I look with dismay at my tapped u-sea and play jet. He takes the bait and counters, at which point I quickly play lotus --> tendrils (fifth spell). He says nothing about lotus and casts meditate (twice?) in response to tendrils to find countermagic (if he counters the lotus I'm just dead obviously). He eventually counters/misdirects 3 tendrils copies to put him at 3 life. I take my extra meditate turn(s), and he flips commandeer for the loss. How lucky!

SB: same as round 2. Game 2 is much less interesting. Walter mulligans to 5 and I thoughtseize his only business spell (meditate). Bob comes down and puts me far ahead. When bob damage finally takes me down to a precarious life total I vt on upkeep for a lethal y-will.

Round 4-5: ID

Top 8 v. Web with Tez.

The truth is I was never really in these games. Game 1 web mulligans, but opens with ancestral. My hopes are dashed when web fires my bob and and forces through his own, followed by a second.  SB: same as round 2, + darkblast for another bauble. Game 2 web resolves an early Tez ftw.

So I go home empty handed. I guess I can't complain too much about going 3-1, losing only to the third best player in the world* player the best deck in vintage. (*As of writing the DCI ranks Mr. Ochoa as #3 in the word by composite ranking, though by eternal rating he was actually # 3 in the room, behind Brent (#1) and LSV (#2) -- of course most vintage tourneys aren't sanctioned, so Web's recent tear might not be reflected. Tough room.)

My jury is still out on arcane denial. Its definitely an interesting and flexible card. I'd say I used it about equally as a draw spell versus as a counter. Denying my opponents spells with bob on the board was also a very nice tempo play, since bob would maintain card parity.

That said, this build as a whole has some issues, e.g. there are limited uses for drain mana, and possibly too many counterspells overall. More importantly the overall power level isn't particularly high, and while no matchups are unwinable, I'm not sure any are particularly favorable either. Chalice and null rod can be real problems (though repeal helps with both), oath is tough to keep from resolving (and especially threatening with the bob engine), and dedicated combo can win before my countermagic comes online.  I'd have thought tez would be a pretty good matchup, but my games against Web and Fob, as well as subsequent testing, is proving this match tough also.  

In sum, I'm not sure what this has going for it over standard drain tendrils. I'm thinking the tempo advantage of arcane denial might make it better in a fish deck or variant of meandeck beats? That said, 3-1 is a reasonable result, so I'll probably try some variant of this at least once more.

Didn't get the memo in time :/

All good points.

Sorry for the misrep. I've beat I've beat shaymora, and I've beat LSV & Web (with Tez I think). Just not at the same time.

I also don't see cutpurse as a card to race with; rather its something that will swing the attrition war in my favor if left unchecked. Contrary to your suggestion, I've never lost a game where cutpurse hit twice. More often than not it gets countered, which is fine since few cards in my deck draw out countermagic on their own. For this reason, I'm not even sure how often I'd want to play it off ritual even if I could, since (1) I'd be walking into card disadvantage when cutpurse is countered (or parity if fowed), as it usually is, and (2) ritual triggers mystic remora.  Cutpurse is also arguably better many face-off situations -- negator can't profitably attack into or block goyf, but cutpurse will usually hold him off.

The biggest advantage of cutpurse is that its blue, which means I can side it in for blue cards (including misdirection and merchant scroll) without compromising my fow count.  I'm not denying that is possible Negator (or confidant) is better, but my sense is that cutpurse is better in a deck scraping to support fows.

I should have been clear that neither of my wins were actually against LSV or Web piloting shaymora.  Cutpurse is an acceptable option if you want to have something v. control but don't want to distort your manabase.  I personally suspect xantid swarm is necessary to make shaymora favorable; which means if you expect both shops and remora to come out in force TPS may not be the right call.

I've been playing this in my TPS sb for several months to bring in against Tez and (especially) Shaymora piloted by very stong opponents (including LSV, & Web).  One big reason to chose this card is that it keeps your FOW count up (so you can sb out blue cards for it).

So far I'm 2:3 against this matchup -- not stellar but acceptable for a bad matchup against excellent opponents, and cutpurse definitely helps. Its also notworthy that in  my most recent match in the quarters against shaymora piloted by FOB (which I lost 1 game to 2), my cutpurse sowered through FOW -- I was surprised he even kept sowers in against me, since cutpurse was my only target. But FOB's good and it was the right call and won him the match. Still, that says something for the power of cutpurse.