Did the entire top 8 get paid out this time? I'm not wild about 5-8 not getting at least $25 store credit, which is about 1/3 of the reason I didn't go (the other 2/3 being that I didn't want to drive to Berkley all by myself).

Jeff is 100% correct. Zendikar is legal already, so be sure to have your Traps at the ready come Sunday.

I was still pumped on UBW Fish after my top 8 at the previous Eudemonia tournament and I was prepared to run out the same deck again this past Sunday in San Jose. However, I've never gotten around to reacquiring Dark Confidants or Wastelands, and I've never owned Null Rods to begin with. Since Jose (the guy from whom I would normally borrow these cards) wasn't going to be showing up, I had two options: I could stay at home, sleep in, take it easy, or I could do battle with TPS. The last time I played TPS people were playing loads of cards like Mystic Remora, Commandeer, and Null Rod/CotV. The Remoras are mostly gone, but I didn't like my chances against Tezz and Fish all day. Still, playing a bad deck is better than not playing at all, right?

Notes on my sideboard: I literally never brought in the Negators, nor did (or would) I ever want to. If I had Bob's (or if I had thought to proxy them) they would have been in that slot instead. Also, I played the Tarmogoyfs for two reasons. The first was that I thought, based on no statistical evidence or testing, that they would be better v. Fish and Shops that having some other card in that slot + having one more basic in my deck. Also, I had just traded for a Bayou, and I wanted to play it. Massacre, as always, was terrible. The fact that I play it proves beyond a shadow of doubt that I am a coward.

Anyway, I only played one Fish deck in 5 rounds of play. The Goyfs were good, but one game seems like a pretty small sample size. I also played and beat 3 Tezzeret decks (6-2 in games), so maybe this old pile of junk is better than I thought. Just be sure, if you play it, that you can sack out when you need to.

I thought of this thread when I read Mark Gottlieb's rules update article today. From the Rules Manager:


I think this makes Illusionary Mask Much closer to unplayable. Sure, you still dodge the Dreadnought's CIP ability, but it's now counterable, and it has considerably less application than Stifle/Trickbind in non-Dreadnought situations.

Everything you say about my Mox proxies are true. However, my Time Walk proxy is amazing (even though I never drew it all day). Also, I keep expecting to see Josh, and I don't want to waste more Perfect Fits.

I know I've played Austin and Junior a few times each, and I seem to get slapped by CrushingChamber.dec every time I show up somewhere, but this may in fact be the first time we've played each other. Interestingly, I don't think I've ever played LSV or Hiryu (outside of a top 8) either. Swiss pairings are funny sometimes.

I can't believe I ever play anything other than Fish....

I started playing T1 because I was attracted to the Gifts Ungiven decks (especially Ritual Gifts). Sadly, I'm not always on top of my game, and I make it difficult for myself to win. But, I'm played Null Rod/Bob/Vendilion in two tournaments and top 8'd both of them.

This time, I went in with exactly zero playtesting. Should be fine...creatures are easy, right? Here's the list:

4 Null Rod
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Meddling Mage
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Dark Confidant
4 Force of Will
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Daze
3 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Swamp
1 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Plains
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland

SB:
3 Relic
1 Disenchant
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Darkblast
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

If you recognize this list, it's probably because it's the exact 60 from pierce's VERY LONG Fishless Fish post (it's the last of the dozen or so suggested decks). I cut a couple cards from his sideboard and added the Sowers and the SoFI. I played my first game with it between cigarettes about 20 minutes before round 1. I assumed that the deck would be strong v. Tezz and I had Sower, Mage, and equipments v. other animal decks, which I assumed would be the two most popular decks in the room. I didn't get much of those match-ups, though...how unlucky.

What was lucky was the news that Jeff had for me just before we signed up. He was leaving (which is a bummer, as he's a good man), but he was only leaving because Web and LSV wouldn't be there. It's amazing to be able to compete against some of the best in the country, but it was my birthday, and I wanted to win. Wrapter being the only ringer there makes winning more likely.

Round 1 - John Knadler w/ Magus of the Unseen Tezz

Some well timed Dazes and some opportune Meddling Mages (stranding cards like Mana Drain and Pyroclasm in his hand) made this one pretty easy on me. I assumed that he would steam roll me before we started, as I know he usually plays Oath of Druids. I was happy to learn otherwise and was feeling good about my metagame prediction.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2 - Alex Bloch w/ Crushing Chamber Affinity

Despite a first turn Lotus in both games, I'm crushed. He makes loads of guys, draws cards with Skullclamp, draws and plays running Myr Enforcers...It doesn't help that he had a Wasteland for each of the fairly few lands I draw in the match.

1-1, 2-2

Round 3 - Lotushead w/ Red Shops

Game one was amazing. As he mentioned, he has a turn one Tinker, which would cold me most weeks. He gets Jester's Cap, probably putting me on TPS. He takes a pair of Bob's and Inkwell, but I had a few creatures in hand already. If my second Meddling Mage had been naming Trike, I don't think I can lose this match. Unfortunately, he plays Trike and Crucible and has me down to zero permanents while sitting at a precarious 1 life. I can never win, since any creature I draw (even if I hit the Lotus to cast it) will be dead on sight from Trike pings. I scoop in hopes of having time for two more.

Lotushead's summary of games two and three is spot on. Game two went exactly according to plan, and in game three I was able to bleed all of his answers to Sower of Temptation while taking as little damage as possible from big 7/10.

2-1, 4-3

Round 4 - (Sorry, I don't know the name) w/ Landstill

I have an early Recall to put myself head, but I don't have a counter for his, or for the following Standstill. I have Wasteland for his first two Factories, but am forced to break his Standstill when he has manland #3. Even after that, though, my Bob's and Meddling Mage's were able to recoup the card advantage and Duress and Daze were enough to protect them.

Game two saw me taking some beats from Factories. I destroyed one with a Seal of Cleansing and the other with Wasteland. Then I attacked a Mage into a Factory, which pumped itself before damage. He had two Volcanic Islands untapped after that. I proceeded to sac a Lotus to Tinker, which he Drained, which I Dazed, which he Misdirected. I still had a FoW, though so after all that, I had a 7/11 Islandwalker which wrapped it up.

3-1, 6-3

Round 5 - ID w/ Galen

QF - John Anzaldo w/ Goyf Tezz

I don't want to sound like sour grapes or anything, but I could (and arguably should) have gotten the win before even shuffling up for this match. I didn't argue for it, so...I don't know. I have nothing to complain about. I will say this though: Bribery is 100% unacceptable in tournament Magic. Don't even mention the possibility of it. That I was lax in arguing for the enforcement of the rules should not be taken as an acceptance of this kind of behavior.

This first game was the real heart breaker of the day. I took Goyf beats down to 9 before tutoring for an StP. So the situation was that he had lands in play versus my Dark Confidant and Meddling Mage (on Tarmogoyf), with me at 9 and him at 15. Three turns later and I have a Null Rod in play, which is canceling out his Time Vault and Tezzeret the Seeker. However, I had flipped Force of Will, Null Rod and Brainstorm to Bob. I wasn't able to finish him off before Bob finished me. My game one v. Lotushead was rough, but flipping Force is, I believe, the only reason I lost this game.

Game two was much less close. His first turn Recall, second turn Tinker, with a counter for my Aven Mindcensor, was all it took.

Overall, good tournament, though. In fact, I feel good enough right now that I am going to do a first (for me).

Props:
Chris Pikula: I always assumed Meddling Mage sucked, but it was surprisingly good for me.
JefftheFob, Webster, LSV: Nice of you all to let somebody else win for once.
Jose and Wilson: I borrowed almost half the deck from these two. Sadly, I got zero prizes, so I have nothing to kick down to them.
Crepes-A-Go-Go: Best birthday meal ever.

Slops:
Jose and Derek: Nice decks, fellas.
Wilson: An actual nice deck, but did you forget to put the Drains in or something?
Vegeta: I haven't seen this guy since GP: Seattle, but he still has time to bash me in the forums AND he has yet to deliever on the sweet proxies he made me. What a bum!

It should be obvious, but the dip on price of 7th and 8th Edition Birds of Paradise coincide very closely to the printing of Ravnica. I doubt very much that this dip was due to the fact that more Birds were available, but the fact that more black bordered Birds were available, thereby making the white bordered ones less desirable.

Also, the spike in Hypnotic Spector is at the same time as an increase in the supply of Hyppies. That jump is likely due to the fact that the card was being made STandard legal for the first time since 4th Edition. People were excited...for 6 months. The price has been going down since then, I assume, because people have been finding that it's not a very good card.

Can you actually sanction such a thing?

Chistiaan is certainly Tinkering somebody's face, but it's not mine, FYI.

There is some question as to whether or not Wishes and Research will be able to get cards in the Exile zone. As currently worded, Exiled cards would not be retrievable by such cards, though it is possible that the Wishes and Research could be errataed to include Exile as a legal zone for them to retrieve cards from.

The new rules don't count until M10 is released (17 July, I believe). I'm also pretty sure that any changes that get announced re:the B&R list on the 20th won't be in effect either, so this could be a last hurrah for all kinds of stuff (IF, that is, they make any changes).

Either way, there's about two weeks longer notice for this 1k than the last, so I'll be there with bells on.

OK....There IS weekly Vintage THIS week, right? I haven't been there for the weekly's latey, but I think I can make this one. You know....if it exists.

Same weekend as Regionals. No power for prize. I'd really love to travel down from Northern California, but this one isn't working it for me.

Here's the list I piloted to top 4 (just TPS, no Bob's in main):

1 Academy
2 Sea
4 Delta
1 Mire
2 Island
2 Swamp

1 Inkwell

1 Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 ManaVault
1 Petal
4 Dark Rit
2 Cabal Rit
1 DT
1 VT
1 MT
1 Grim
1 Scroll
1 FoF
1 Gifts
1 Necro
1 Bargain
1 Jar
1 Will
1 Desire
1 Tendrils
4 FoW
1 MisD
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Tinker
1 CoV
1 Rebuild

SB:
2 Massacre
3 Bob
2 Jailer
3 Tormod's
2 Pithing Needle
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Hurkyl's

I wrote about half a report for this little event. By the time I got to round 4 I realized that my notes (as usual) were mostly nonsense, and I didn't trust everything that I remembered about individual games. Also, I realized that the whole reason I was writing it was to tell the story of what a brutal top decking savage I am, and how this fact manifested in the Quaterfinals. Therefore, I'll just skip the swiss and tell that story.

1/4 Finals v Dan Mossineo, WRB Fish

Game one was what I expected both our games to be like. He had either Duress or Thoughtseize on turn one, Sculler on turn two, and more Scullers plus some Goblin Welders to follow up. I was never in the game after turn two. Mind Twist is enough of a beating. Getting attacked for 2 by a Mind Twist is a total blow out.

Game two I was on the play. I don't recall the exact details here, but the relvent situation was that he tapped his only Red source in order to get down a Goblin Welder. Knowing that he had a grip, plus had been spinning a Top for a few turns, I knew he was likely to have an REB. Sensing that this was my only opportunity, I bounced his Sculler to get back some good card, played a few Rituals and busted out Timetwister. My hand went from trash to victory in short order. He told me later that his top card before the Twister was in fact a Red Blast.

Game two was just brutal. He had, I believe a Top on his turn one. I drew, played an Island, and Recalled myself. I then counted things up, played a bunch of artifacts and a Ritual, and Tendrils'd him for 14. I didn't have any tutors to finish it or anything like that. What I did have, however, was a whopping 8 mana in play for the next turn. Also, the cards in my hand were another land and....Inkwell Leviathan!! Yes, America, I was going to hardcast a 7/11 to win.

His next turn brought a Tidehollow Sculler, and Dan can add to 9, so he took the Inky. Sadly for the little Sculler who could, my deck really wanted me to play that Inkwell. Therefore, my next draw step served up a Massacre. I got the big guy back and won after some chump blocking bought Dan a couple of turns, but nothing to answer such an enormous creature.

Without some amazing luck for me I can probably never win this match-up. That, I guess, is why we play the games.

Agreed that Sunday's are best. I have a lot of old friends in from out of town this week, but you can expect me (and probably a few other Dublin guys) next time.

I've actually cast it with storm 11...and lost the game. All lands/rituals/artifacts.

People harping the casting cost of Mind's Desire are missing the point entirely. Whether you have 1 or 4 copies in your deck, obviously you're never going to PAY for Mind's Desire more than once in a game. The problem is that if the first Desire hits a second one, you essentially get to draw your entire library for no additional cost (unless you consider playing free spells a "cost"). Unrestricting Desire is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard regarding keeping T1 healthy and fun.

Well, I'm not surprised at this. Still, it is disappointing, as I cannot attend. Saves me from having to borrow cards, though!

Storm: Heh...Yeah, I seem to have forgotten that Prog shuffles back in. Anyway, as Troy said, one more attack is frequently enough.

Harlequin: You are giving Curfew more credit than it deserves. Certainly, it does do all the things you say it will. The problem is, few of those things are any good. For the same mana cost, I could play Chain of Vapor, and then the opponent has to sac something to get rid of one of my guys. It's just not worth it to have to pick a creature back up in most instances. Not even Spellstutter, which ultimately isn't very good at countering things that you want it to, anyway. Getting the 187 out of Clique a second time often will be good, but is it worth 1 ? I'll say probably not.

Qube: This deck isn't currently playing MS (or DT or VT, for that matter), and Edict is also an instant, but the FoW part is the most important thing Curfew can do.

I think trying to fit Mutavaults into the deck would make the colors too unstable. If you want to play man lands I think you need to cut Green. Personally, I would rather have a 5/6 for 1 than a 2/2 that costs 1/2 of a Propaganda just to attack.

I'm not sure about main deck Sowers. There was only one Oath deck at the tournament I played in, and his main deck kill was Progenitus. Obviously, if you expect a lot of Fish and Tinker-->DSC, Sower is a fine choice. If you want to have any chance against Oath, I would think that Edict is better. I didn't face a single huge robot all day, though, so who knows.

As far as sideboard Blossoms go, I can't see that is a good option. I suppose if you decide to MD the Sowers, you could just switch them around...Still, if you don't think Blossom should be in the main, I would just want to cut them altogether.

Keeping in mind that I played against BUG Fish twice in the swiss, I would say that the Edicts were great though. Actually sending a creature to the graveyard, as well as having a way to deal with Progenitus if it had come up, was very valuable. When my Goyfs got bounced, it was bad for my tempo. Then they came back down and I won. When I dealt with the other guys Goyf (or Predator) it stayed dealt with. If you expect a lot of Fish, you could play Smother instead, and if you want bounce you can almost certainly make room for it, but I would be hesitant about cutting ways to actually kill creatures.

Also, you are absolutely right about the lack of support for Force of Will. I had 7 cards in hand at one point and had revealed a FoW on a Bob flip. Thankfully, my opponent didn't know I was holding 5 black cards and a land along with said Force, or else I think I would have lost that particular game. Having nothing to pitch, or only having one card to pitch, was an issue all day, and I was probably lucky that it didn't bite me in the ass (in round 1 it very nearly did, but I top decked the second Sower at the exact moment that I needed to).

Turning the Blossoms into Cursecatchers seems like that first step to fixing this problem. Bob was an all-star, so I would be loath to cut him. I've already said how much I liked the Edicts, but probably 2 x Edict, making room for Cursecatcher #4 would be fine.

As most people who know me know, I had my cards stolen in mid-January. This included all my Vintage stuff, power (well, the 5 I had, anyway) and all. Now, the better part of this loss is being covered by home owner's insurance, so all is not lost. Still, until the check comes from the insurance company, I've been uninterested in actually getting new cards and playing Magic. I've been missing all the regular Thursday night T1, and I even missed the January 1k.

I really wanted to play in this one, though. I called my friend Jose on Friday and asked him if he had a deck I could borrow. He agreed to lend me Sullivan Solution. Now, I am usually not a fan of this sort of strategy. In a format this fast and powerful I don't really feel that choosing weaker yet more "hateful" strategies is worth it. The trade off is just too great. Still, I wanted to play and beggars can't be choosers. I recognize that Fish decks are competitive and probably quite good in this metagame. Plus, it is fun to play different decks from time to time.

In the vain of trying something new out, I remembered a new thread I had seen in the Open Forum about BUG Faeries. Reasoning that Tarmogoyf is better than Phyrexian Dreadnought and that Spellstutter Sprite is probably better than Cursecatcher (I am no longer so sure on this one, by the way), I asked Jose if he could help me build this instead. Between him and our friend Wilson I got everything together and played my first games with the deck Saturday morning before registration. Jose kept getting first turn 3Sphere, so I had basically zero practice going into the actual tournament.

I won't bother posting the whole list, since I just played the exact deck from the first post in the "Fish meets Faeries" thread. I opted for Stifles over Dazes. My sideboard was:
4 x Seal of Primordium (Krosan Grip was selling for $2 on site, so I improvised)
3 x Umezawa's Jitte
3 x Extripate
3 x Relic of Progenitus
2 x Sower of Temptation

A few notes on the board...Relic makes no sense in this deck. It's fine against Ichorid, but this is a Null Rod deck. I happened not to get screwed by it, but I was, I think, lucky. Also, there was only one Oath deck in the whole field. I didn't play him. The Seals only came in in the semi-finals, and they didn't end up being relevant (I had Null Rods to do what the Seals were trying to do). Sower is insane against other creature decks, obviously, and I wished I had 3 of them.

So here's the actual tournament. I don't keep good notes, and what I do keep I lost half of around round 4. If I mess anything up, please correct me.

Round 1 - Bryan - BUG Fish

He beats me handily in game 1. His Stifles and Wastelands keep me from developing my board, and I succumb (probably) to Tarmogoyfs. However, I have Jittes and Sower's in my board. He tells me later that he wasn't able to find his own Jittes before the tourney, and his proxy count was such that he couldn't proxy them. Jitte and Sower make this match tilt heavily in my favor.

In game 2 I stabilize with a Clique holding a stick. In game 3 I get my fourth mana source so I can Sower his Goyf and attack for the win.

I found Sprite to be quite ineffective in this match-up. Most of the spells I want to counter cost more than one, and the Faerie count isn't high enough that you can rely on Spellstutter to counter what you need it to. Still, I feel Faeries should be advantaged against more typical Fish decks. Also, Jitte is an insanely powerful card in this match-up, and if you get as few as 4 counters on it over a game, I suspect you are something like 99% likely to win.

1-0, 2-1

Round 2 - Galen - TPS

Game 1 is long and drawn out. Galen is a fairly deliberate player, and evaluating a hand with his deck can be time consuming. There was no point at which I felt his was playing slower than was acceptable, but when you have so many decisions to make (Necro, I'm looking at you), it can add up. All of this leads to him casting Mind's Desire for 12. The first 10 cards revealed show a Mystical Tutor and an Ancestral Recall. However, he won't have enough mana to cast the Tendrils based on what he's flipped so far. The 11th card was Black Lotus, giving him the BB that he needed. The 12th was Tendrils of Agony, so none of the other stuff mattered.

Game 2 started with about 20 minutes on the clock, so I knew it would be tough to get a win out of this round. His opener was fairly weak (he mulliganed, I believe, to 6), and his situation was made worse by my Null Rod. Still, it took me a while to get any pressure going. Eventually I had Bob, Bitterblossom, Spellstutter Sprite (which had strategically countered a Rebuild)  and Vendilion Clique going. I had lethal damage on the board, and time was called. Galen took his turn and went into the tank.

Cabal Ritual...Some irrelevant artifact...Mind's Desire for 3. Now, I tried to punt here. I could have flashed in a second Clique in response to the Ritual, taking the Desire. Unless he rips Will off the Clique draw, he pretty much cannot win. Still, Desire for 3 was not nearly enough (I think he hit two lands).

1-0-1, 3-2

Round 3 - Josh - Mana Ichorid

Josh is a friend and we feel like I have a better chance against the field than he does, match-up-wise. He scoops and we play for fun. I get demolished in game 1. I win a tight one in game 2. He had intentionally cut me to two Relics, and it was still a tight one. We don't bother with game three.

2-0-1, 4-3

Round 4 - James - BUG Fish

This is nearly the same deck as I played against in the first round. James had a more complete sideboard, though, as we will see. Also, this is a win and in, since the victor will be able to draw round 5 and be assured a top 8 berth.

We are both quickly out of cards in the first game. Some Wastelands and Edicts have been thrown around. Some Recalls have been countered. I get Bob to start drawing me extra cards, though. Then I get another. Double Bob and Clique take it down for me.

Game two features him more or less mana screwed. He has a Jitte, but is without creatures. When he makes a Trygon Predator, I steal it with a Sower. He bounces his Predator and replays it a turn later. While this is going on, I am serving with a Confidant and Clique. He gets the Jitte on the Predator and blocks my Sower. The attacks send him to 1 life, and I have a Stifle to keep counters off the Jitte. He attacks and uses the Jitte counters to kill my only creatures. As close to stabilizing as he was, I had a Sprite to flash in on his end step. He was out of counters and blockers, so I win.

I was in control for most of this game, and it never seemed like I could lose. However, if I hadn't had the Sprite at the end there he would certainly have been able to send it to game 3. Jitte is too insane.

3-0-1, 6-3

Round 5 - Jeff - Tezzeret-less Tezz

ID

Quarters - Webster - TPS

I have never won a match against Web. I think I had only won two games against him prior to this match. I believe he is the most intimidating player in Northern California.

He started, predictably, with a win. I was in a very good situation, but I got greedy. I flipped a Recall to my Confidant, and then attacked with Bob and Goyf. I have lethal damage the next turn. I cast Recall. He Misdirects it onto himself. He was able to Tendrils me for exactly my life total the next turn. I suspect he would not have been able to do that had I just kept the Recall safe in my hand.

Game 2 was much better for me. I honestly don't remember what happened in this game at all, but it must have been good for me.

Game 3...oh game 3...better lucky than good, right? He played a Tarmogoyf off a Basic Swamp and a Lotus Petal. I played a Relic and used it to manage his Graveyard. I took 3 or so points off the Goyf before I Diabolic Edicted it away. He had the Force, but figured that he would be able to better use it to counter something more important later. I ended up amassing some creatures and they attacked him to death. He never drew a Blue source. Even the best need to be able to cast their spells, and random mana screw can kick anybody in the teeth at the least opportune times.

4-0-2, 8-4

Semifinals - Brett - Counter Slaver, I think

I am trying to beat down with a Goyf, but I don't draw a lot of gas in game one. A 3/4 Goyf takes a pretty long time to win a game. He, however, has a Welder in play, plus the ability to go ahead and FoF, Regrowth, FoF. He takes infinite turns, and I scoop. I comment that I should have kept playing, just so I can see what exactly he wins with. He reminds me that he could have attacked 20 times with the Welder.

As I was typing this, Brett posted his own report. He covered games 2 and 3 much better than I could have, so I recommend reading his version if you haven't yet.

5-0-2, 10-5

Finals - Jeff again

Split

So, I made my triumphant return to playing Magic, I played the kind of deck that I would never consider under normal circumstances, I defeated Webster...Over all, it was quite a successful Saturday.

Big thanks go out to Eric, Mashi, everybody else at Superstars, all the people who loaned me cards, and the NorCal Vintage community.

I split the finals (as mentioned by Josh above) of a 27 person tourney with the exact deck from the 1st post yesterday (I went with Stifles over Daze), and I thought I'd share a few thoughts.

1) The Spellstutter Sprites were underwhelming. I countered a Rebuild with one. I flashed one in so I could deal the last point against a BUG Fish deck. That was pretty much all they did. If you don't have a Blossom down, they just don't counter very much. If Brainstorm or Ponder were unrestricted this would probably be a more exciting card.

2) Vendilion Clique is amazing. That is so easy to discover that it suggests conspicuousness or little need for perspicacity in the observer.

3) This deck seems to be very good against the more standard BUG decks. You have Edict and guys with evasion in the main. Trygon Predator is pretty good against you, but it's easy enough to deal with. They have Echoing Truth and maybe Smother as removal. Smother doesn't hit Sower of Temptation, which should be in the board if you expect any number of opposing Fish decks (I wanted a 3rd all day).

4) I only got one early Blossom. My opponent had mulliganed to 5 and was mana screwed, so it wasn't really relevant, as I almost could not lose that game. Therefore, I'm not really sure how good or bad it plays in this deck. It draws a lot of FoW's, and there is some value in that. It seemed, and this just dawned on me, that the players who never play Standard or Extended weren't nearly as concerned about Blossom as the players who keep up-to-date on the other formats.

Overall, the deck was very fun to play and can do some powerful things. I wanted the Sprites to be Negates or Mana Leaks all day, but that is a limited sample size, so I wouldn't be too hasty in cutting them altogether.

A permanent is only a permanent if it is in play. Otherwise, it's just a Land/Creature/Artifact/Enchantment card.

I think I'm skipping a list, but I can't figure out what it is. This is 25/26 decks, though, broken down by archetype (more or less):

Oath – 4 (One was running Tyrant, the others had Angel/Hellkite)
TPS – 4
SuiBlack – 3 (2 of which splashed for Goyf)
Painter – 3
Ichorid – 2 (1 of these is the missing deck from Jeff’s top 8 breakdown)
Tezzeret – 2
BUG Fish – 2
TMWA – 1
Mono-Red Painter – 1
Elves! – 1
Tendrils/Oath/Vault "Omnicombo" – 1
Plagerize.dec (The Plague) – 1

So, I got all the lists from this event, aside from the top 8 lists which went to Bill Stark so he can feature them on the Mothership. It's late and school starts tomorrow, so I'm not going to give a full metagame breakdown or anything right now (I will, however, edit that in tomorrow). I do want to make one comment and ask one question about the lists, though.

The first is that the other finalist was playing no power at all. He had Rituals, Negators, Bobs, Goyfs and even Hyppies (in the board), but no Mox Jet, Emerald or Black Lotus.

The question is: Will somebody (Billy Gogol, perhaps) tell me what was up with the unreal number of 61+ card decklists? There were a minimum of 5 such decks (one of which was 63, another was 67. The 67 cards deck was clearly more on the casual side, though).

Additionally, there were two lists that claimed to have 61 cards (that is, the players wrote "61" in the Total Cards Played box) but which had exactly 60. If they had intended to play 61, that would bring the total up to 7.

The Thursday events have all been 20 proxy. However, all of the power events have been 10.

Even by T2 standards that isn't a bad price for a card these days. In T1, as you know, a $20-25 card isn't really much.

To be fair, Parfait is an actual beating and Sligh is almost as much fun as you can have in Constructed Magic.

Just a bump to remind people that weekly San Jose T1 is restarting tomorrow evening.

Hopefully the Berkeley Boys will bring decks (between the whole lot of them they ought to be able to rustle up 2 or so, right?) and whomever amongst them scrubs out can join in the Vintage. Does anybody regularly see them? Josh?

This is actually spectacular for me. I was likely to skip this event and go to Reno instead. Now I get both!