Have you tried Cavern of Souls instead of the mountains?
I'd say making your welders uncounterable in the blue matchup is pretty huge and it allows you to cast welders with a chalice @ 1 on the board.

It seems the metagame was pretty prepared for MUD, when I looked around I saw workshops everywhere but only 1 managed to make top 8.
I went 5-4 with an agressive aggro MUD list, my loses were from TPS, Tezzeret, Dredge and something else I can't remember.

With the way prices are handed out to unpowered players, aren't you encouraging people to play Dredge?
My guess is the 8 prices for unpowered players all went to dredge players?

Anyways, it was a well organised event and I had a great time in both the tournaments.

PS. French people are absolutely TERRIBLE at speaking english (no offence ment)

Allways fun to see top 8 video's, I like how both players are keeping up the pace.
Vintage players (including myself) tend to play pretty slowly to avoid stupid play mistakes.

Also I'm wondering what people think about the Gifts Ungiven play in the 3rd game.
Wouldn't it be better to give him the Gush + Underground Sea so the Null Rod would resolve?

It definitely was a nice tournament, only bad thing I can remember is the printer failing.. other than that is all went smoothly.
Shop aggro really dominated the meta and top8 although I was expecting more oath.

I got a dci foil flooded strand and a german black-bordered demonic tutor for making top 4 which is pretty good imo.
I had a pretty decent starting hand of 2x wasteland, 2x mox, lotus, chalice and duplicant.. but Goswin dropped a turn 2 crucible which ruined everything

@ Arjan: I overheard you talking to someone about facing Shop five times, made me laugh

Anyways, see you next time.

Could this be a jedi-mindtrick in hiding my power level? 

Since I play 3 creatures and not just 1 Iona, I think this game was only close from your perspective I knew I had a small chance with turn 1 oath, but I'd still have to oath up Iona to not lose. Turns out I never got to oathing.

With my sideboard of:
4x Leyline
1x Jailer
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Pithing Needle
1x Trinisphere
I did feel pretty confident against ichorid, especially when I fanned out my hand of 2 land, impulse, FoW, leyline, tormod's crypt and 1 card I can't remember, think it was another land.

So I had a solid opening hand, topdecked strip mine and an oath but still lost. When you chained and therapied my oath it was pretty much over. When I casted that will, my only play to not lose the game was to tutor up and cast both tinker and time walk but since I only had 3 mana after casting will that didn't work out.

Still, these games were pretty fun and you played very tight indeed.
Hope to face you again in Breda or some other vintage tournament and not get blown away this time

/Arjen

Hey, I'm the oath player you faced in round 5 and you weren't the only one who made playing errors When I played that tinker with oath in play, my first thought was to go for pithing needle but went for Sphinx instead thinking I would just end the game in 3-4 turns not realizing it would allow you to oath up a painter  Fortunatly for me you didn't draw mana to active your grindstone so I could seal up the game with yawgwill on my turn.

The goblin painter deck you faced is called Imperial Painter which is more popular in legacy than in vintage, the FoW/Goyf deck was BUG Fish.

Now some ideas for your deck. It looks like your deck just scoops game 1 to Null Rod, with 4 Enlightened Tutors you could consider a single Seal of Cleansing. Tinker should definitely be included, probably along with Ancestral Recall. With 26 artifacts in your deck, Tolarian Academy should always be better than City of Traitors. In the sideboard, Goblin Welder would help with both Duress and FoW.

This card comes with worldwake and could/should replace Disenchant:
Nature's Claim 
Instant
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. Its controller gains 4 life.

Good luck with the deck.

Hello and welcome to TheManaDrain.

There are quite a few articles written by Stephen Menendian about TPS which are free by now.

Here's a link of one of his more recent articles:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17980_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Perfect_Storm_Revisited.html
There are definitly more, you should be able to find them if you google around a bit.

Good luck

Gratz on the finish. The list looks pretty good, I like the repeals and 1-of tendrills allthough it seems a bit light on mana.

How were the mindbreak traps? Were you unable to counter certain spells because your opponent didn't play 3 spells?

I see you board in 3 remoras and 2 mindbreak traps in the mirror, what do you board out?

Hey Onno,

You're not the first one to switch Arjen for Arjan it happens ALOT.
I'm glad I could help you out with the missing cards.

My day went something like this (from memory):

Match 1 vs Arjan Bos with 5c Keeper Control (I put him on Tezz):
I lock him out of the game fairly fast, he manages to cast an impulse but doesn't really get anything usefull and scoops.
Game 2 is about the same as game 1, he manages to play a Qasali Pridemage and uses it to blow up a chalice but I have a solid hand and lock him out of the game shortly after.

Match 2 vs Maarten Wevers with Oath:
He drops an oath after a few turns but I have a smokestack, I get hit once by a Hellkite Overlord but I topdeck a duplicant and eat the dragon, smokestack eats his board the turn after and he scoops.
Game 2 i keep him off green mana untill I have a chalice @ 2. This game goes on for quite awhile and I have an enormous board with uba masks, null rod, chalices, crucible + strip mine, tangle wires and 3 welders. I kill him eventually with recurring barbarian rings.

Match 3 vs Jasper Wevers with Sui-Black (bitterblossoms are nasty.dec ):
Game 1 is pretty tense, i have a board containing a welder, 2 tangle wires and a smokestack. I keep saccing 1 tangle wire to the smokestack and putting it back into play with welder and manage to lock him down just long enough for his confidant and bitterblossom to kill him.
Game 2 is all his, he drops a confidant, bitterblossom and negator somewhere in the first few turns and I die fast.
Game 3 seems to be going his way with triple wasteland screwing my mana base, at one point I only have an Ubamask and 2 lands (mountain and barbarian ring IIRC) while he has a bitterblossom starting to generate tokens. I topdeck a bazaar and find another one the turn after. I start to desperatly dig for a powder keg by 'drawing' 5 cards per turn. After 2 turns I finally find a powder keg and blow up his tokens, then keep blowing up his new token with a recurring barbarian ring. He slowly dies to his bitterblossom and I win the game with 2 life left.

Match 4 vs Duncan Keijzer with GWSx:
Game 1 I lock him fairly fast, he scoops after a smokestack starts to eat his board.
Game 2 I drop a few lock pieces but he bounces them EOT and combos me out on his turn.
Game 3 I start off with a few lockpieces including a tangle wire, he plays a hurkyl's recall in his upkeep and plays a time walk in his main phase. At this point I thought the game was over since he had plenty of mana and I had nothing to stop him. Fortunately for me he drew no business spells at all and could do nothing but pass the turn. I drop my lock pieces again on my turn and he scoops a few turn later.

Match 5 vs Jaap Brouwer with 5c Stax:
Game 1 I start with shop into crucible, he plays a time walk turn 1 and tinker into a Sundering Titan turn 2. I drop a smokestack on my turn. He plays a Karn on his turn and swings with the titan. I topdeck a welder and play it. He plays a Triskelion on his turn, kills my welder and I scoop.
Game 2 I drop a smokestack and still have mana left to cast a Rack and Ruin, he has a shop, wasteland and mox ruby and plays a memory jar. EOT I rack and ruin the memory jar and mox ruby and waste his wasteland on my turn. Smokestack eats his shop and we go to game 3.
Game 3 he starts with a chalice @ 0 and tinker for triskelion on turn 1. I drop a bazaar and dig for a red mana source to cast 1 of the 2 rack and ruins in my hand, I find a barbarian ring and cast a sol ring. He ancient grudges the sol ring and wastes the barbarian ring and I die to the triskelion before I get to 3 mana.

Match 6 vs Goswin Zeeman with Tezz:
Game 1 I have a solid opening hand of 2x crucible, 1 tangle wire, lotus, mox ruby, strip mine and 1 more card which I can't remember. He thoughseizes me turn 1 and takes the lotus. I topdeck a mana vault and strip lock him.
Game 2 he goes turn 1 land + voltaic key, I drop 2 moxes, sol ring, smokestack and wasteland. Smokestack eats his board and along with a chalice @ 0 and @ 2 lock him out of the game.

Top 4 vs Boaz van Driel with Ichorid:
Game 1 he does his ichorid thing, I strip his bazaar but die a few turns later to zombies.
Game 2 I have welder + tormod's crypt and plenty of artifacts to weld. He scoops after pretty much all his key cards are RFG.
Game 3 he mulls to 5 and opens with unmask taking my Trinisphere which I could have cast on turn 1. Then he drops a bazaar and discards 3 non-dredgers. I waste his bazaar and he's left with 2 cards in his hand and no dredgers in his graveyard. I build up a board with 2 powder kegs, 2 mogg fanatics and a welder by the time he gets to 7 cards and he decides to scoop.

Final vs Hero 't Mannetje with 5c Stax:
He offers a split which I accept.

Sorry if i missed something (which I probably did ) since it's all from memory, I didn't made any notes.

It was a fun tournament and the deck preformed really well, I only had to mulligan twice to 6.
Btw, if you manage to start some vintage in Amsterdam I'll surely try to be there

/Arjen

IIRC I kept a starting hand of FoW, time walk, confidant, 4 land and you duressed my FoW turn 1, luckily for me you didn't have a fast hand either and my confidant started drawing me cards.. but they were all mana sources. Then you cast wheel which replaced my 4 land hand with the one you mentioned. But by that time you've taken quite a bit of damage from my confidant and that mana burn. Then you necrod 7 new cards and went to 2 life. On my turn I cast my duress and saw thoughtseize, grim tutor, yawg will and lands/mana artifacts. I took the will (I had a tormod's crypt lying around as well) and cast a confidant knowing you had no outs.

Thanks, im flattered. I just wish I knew exactly how to play against a mystic remora that card sure is a pain to play against.

Maybe we'll have a rematch at the next Breda event

/Arjen

I wonder if Spell Snare would be better than Annul, it counters rod and spheres but also goyf, confidant, drain and oath.

After playing a few games, I don't feel very confidant about the mana base.. and this was vs an opponent who didn't play any mana denial. I often missed land drops on 2nd turn even with arcane denial on a 0-mana artifact. But overall this deck is pretty interesting

Biggest drawback of this card is the   in the mana cost, else I would probably give it a go in Remora.dec (replacing psychatog). But after playing against fish and workshop aggro alot, I've grown quite fond of the solid UB mana-base and last time I played, 'tog was pretty impressive.

I'm sure he means running Tinker, Inkwell and an Oona instead of 2 Oona, which I think is a good idea.

Going:
- 1 Oona
- 1 Necromany
+ 1 Tinker
+ 1 Inkwell

Seems like a good backup plan.

Allthough I think demonic consultation is a great card, it won't work in dragon. If you remove your Oona while searching for the named card you're pretty much screwed.

Mulldrifter is in the deck because it allows you to stop your dragon loop when you cast intuition (without a bazaar in play). To be honest, mulldrifter can be any creature but mulldrifter is pretty useful on it's own. I've had plenty of games where I evoked an early mulldrifter and later on animated him for some extra cards, then later on animated a dragon and draw your deck untill you have Oona and a Read the Runes.

I'm pretty sure your opponent needs a creature for Sheltering Ancient to work.

Here is the ruling from Crystal Keep:
If no opponent controls a creature, you can't pay the upkeep. [Coldsnap FAQ 2006/06/14]

So you'll still have to go with goyfs or tombstalkers

I agree with most of what Credmond said.

But instead of thorn of amethyst, wouldn't null rod be better? DotD used to run it in the past, storm combo has a hard time going off with a rod on the table and it shuts down most of control slaver's threats. I think in this new meta, null rod is overall better than thorn. Also vs combo, I think I would prefer orim's chant instead of thorn.

About extirpate, against what decks do you board them in other than ichorid? What do you take out the mainboard and what kind of cards do you target?

I run mana crypt mostly because it allows for a turn 1 painter with mana left for either duress or a red blast.

I could see adding blue for deep analysis be pretty good, it would mean something like this:
+4 Deep Analysis
+1 Tinker
+1 Mystical tutor
+1 Ancestral
+1 Time walk

At this point, it's turning into a pretty different deck. You might as well grab a blue controll painter list with a gushbond engine and replace it with bazaars, DA and welders (that might actually work ).

Making a splash for blue will also hurt the mana base alot, running a 3 color mana base along with bazaars and strips is asking for trouble with wasteland making a possible comeback in the new vintage meta.

Welder isn't the plan B, welding in a big artifact is. Welder is pretty important to the deck, if you have a bazaar in play along with a welder it usually is pretty easy to get both a painter and grindstone along with the 3 mana to mill right away. Remember that unless I have a painter, I have no way of protecting my welders so I think running 4 is the right number.

@rkmancer:
Spoken like a true TMWA-player

I've definitly considered demonic consultation, but I'm allways scared to cast 1.. I kinda have a bad habit of ripping my deck apart with cards like that (same goes with mana crypt.. taking 4-5 turns of dmg in a row) though I run most of the targets as a 4-of so I will try to find room for it.

And about Jaya, it's a fun card but if you manage to use her ability vs aggro then you probably would have won allready in the first place

/Liiva

So i've been thinking a bit the last couple of weeks of how to make a painter/grindstone deck in a non-blue shell since I just hate blue, and rather quit magic than playing with cards like merchant scroll, gush and force of will
Anyways, my interest in the deck started in vroman's RBW painter thread (http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=35816.0), were I saw a bazaar list. I quickly added the deck to MWS and goldfished a few games and noticed a few things:

• the deck hardly had any threats of it's own, you just sat there with a pyroblast or 2 and an ancient grudge waiting for your opponent to cast stuff while trying to put together a painter + grindstone.
• I often just didn't have any cards to discard to bazaar
• I felt the deck kinda went all-in with getting painter and grindstone online that 1 counter could screw you up so badly, you couldn't get back in the match
• The deck didn't have a plan-B

Almost everything in the above list is solved with adding Goblin Welder, along with a few artifact fatties.

So I came up with the following list:

   // Lands
4   Bazaar of Baghdad
1   Mountain
4   Bloodstained Mire
1   Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1   Riftstone Portal
2   Wasteland
1   Strip Mine
4   Badlands
1   Swamp

   // Creatures
1   Sundering Titan
1   Platinum Angel
1   Duplicant
4   Dark Confidant (flipping 1 of the above fatties hurts, but the change is pretty low)
4   Squee, Goblin Nabob
4   Goblin Welder
4   Painter's Servant

   // Spells
1   Mox Pearl
1   Mox Emerald
1   Mox Ruby
1   Mox Jet
1   Mana Crypt
1   Black Lotus
2   Tormod's Crypt
2   Red Elemental Blast
3   Pyroblast
3   Grindstone
4   Duress
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Demonic Tutor

   // Sideboard
2   Tormod's Crypt
1   Red Elemental Blast
1   Pyroblast
4   Shattering Spree
4   Extirpate
2   Pithing Needle
1   Darkblast

I really like bazaar in this deck, it allows for quick digging for duresses/red blasts while dumping combo pieces and fat artifacts in the yard, ready to be recurred later on with goblin welder.

I took the deck to a local tournament in Hengelo (Netherlands) today expecting alot of Oath and some flash, gat and doomsday. The meta wasn't quite as I expected since there was quite a bit of random aggro around like RG beatz, GW beatz and Sui Black.. not exactly match-ups I like to face. Here's a small report of my day:

Match 1 vs GW beatz (2-0):
I get a painter + grindstone online, but he has a null rod. I red blast the null rod and try to grind him but he StP's my painter in response. I'm dead in the water, but manage to topdeck another painter the turn before I would have died and grind him.
2nd he only has a lotus petal as white source and doesn't draw another white source almost the entire game while I have a bazaar online with 2 squee's digging for basicly anything.. which just doesn't come and we play draw-go for quite a while. He slows me down with 2 thorn of amethysts but in the end I grind him with a tormod's crypt ready for a gaea's blessing (which he had in his hand).

Match 2 vs Sui Black (1-2):
Game 1 I mull to 6 and keep an average hand with a welder, bazaar, mountain and some other stuff. He opens with swamp, lotus, hymn taking my bazaar and mountain, dark confidant. I don't draw any lands and lose pretty badly.
Game 2 I get a welder online and duplicant takes care of his Tombstalker.
Game 3 is pretty close, he gets a turn 2 tombstalker which beats me 2 or 3 times before I can get rid off it with a painter + red blast. I have a welder in play but no artifacts in my graveyard, sitting with a duplicant and sundering titan in my hand. He hymns me twice and misses my fatties both times. I seem to stabilize at 2 life but he casts a hyppie and wastes 1 of my lands leaving me on 5 mana. I'm dead if I don't draw a land.. which I don't .

Match 3 vs Gat (2-1):
He wins the die roll and opens with a duress, taking my duress. In my turn I lay down a fetch land and pass, having a reb in hand. On his turn he duresses again and lays down a mox + lotus and casts a EtW for 8 goblins.
Game 2 is pretty long, I get a painter and grindstone online but everytime when I try to mill him he uses a hurklys which slows me down quite a bit. I get a welder online though and bazaar away my combo pieces welding them back in and mill him with a tormod's crypt online right before his dryad kills me. My opponent picks up his cards and I still don't know if he's playing gaea's blessing.
We have 10 min left in game 3, but I wasted both his tropical islands leaving him with only 1 mox emerald to cast his dryads (he allready used his lotus and I duressed away his will). We play draw-go for a while, and I eventually find a painter + grindstone but I don't have tormod's crypt in case of a gaea's blessing.. since there isn't much time left I decide to just give it a shot and mill him. He doesn't have a blessing and dies in his draw step.

Match 4 vs UBW Fish (2-1):
Game 1 I get a painter online and the grindstone follows fairly shortly and I mill him.
Game 2 he mulls to 6 and opens with a leyline and underground sea. In my turn I unload my entire hand with a bazaar, mana crypt, lotus, painter, welder and 2 blasts clearing his board. Now i just have to draw either a grindstone or artifact fattie to win the match.. my deck poops on me and only gives me crap for the rest of the match and he slowly plays his creatures and beats me to death.
Game 3 I can't really remember this game but at a certain point i'm pretty low on life with 3 confidants and 2 welders in play along with a grindstone. I chump a jotun grunt with 2 confidants and the game seems to end in a draw untill I draw a painter at the last moment and can cast him + mill him in the same turn.

Match 5 vs Hulk Flash with Sliver Kill (ID):
We ID.

Top 8 vs Hulk Flash with Sliver kill (1-2)
Game 1 I manage to duress away and red blast most of his key spells while resolving 2 dark confidants. He has plenty of mana though and a Hulk in his hand but he doesn't draw a flash or tutor.
Game 2 he kills me on turn 1.
Game 3 was kinda weird. I keep a hand of 2 confidants, red blast, duress, mox jet, squee, welder. It's a decent hand if I would just draw a land. I start with mox jet -> duress and take his vampiric tutor, his hand is pretty much crap with a brainstorm, green pact and 4 mana. I don't draw a land for about 7 turns while my opponent only draws lands, by the time I draw my first land he has hardcasted a sliver (he beated me a bit with it and I allready had 4 poison counters) and a hulk, on his turn he hardcasts another hulk and I know it's over.

So overall I'm satisfied with how the deck preformed. It's pretty fun being able to 'say no' with a non-blue deck.

Anyways, the main reason I'm posting here is: anyone has any idea's or comments on maybe improving this deck and will it be any good in the post-20th june vintage meta?

/Liiva

Also 5 sideboards included a single Gaea's Blessing, so much for the painter/grindstone ownage

That Painter Bazaar list looks pretty interesting.

The mox monkey/ancient grudges are there mainly to combat shop decks I guess? Hardly anyone plays shops in my meta but Oath was all over the place, so i might swap the grudges with rays of revelation or just additional red blasts. Also you kinda need a leyline in play or a red blast ready when you mill the oath player, else he'll use his krosan reclamation to get will back and mill you back with brain freeze.

I was wondering how you would play the mirror (vs blue-based painter that is), you obviously have some advantages without a painter in play. You could board out the painters since you're probably only helping them with one of your own in play and leave the grindstones in.

In goldfishing I sometimes had hands like this: squee, duress, badlands, mire, leyline, black lotus, ancient grudge. These kind of hands mean you're pretty much in top-deck mode from the start, hoping you'll draw a bazaar or confidant.. so should i mulligan or just pray for the best?

Maybe Serge Metz himself (is he on TMD?) can give some comments on the deck and how his day went in Annecy, what his wins/loses were against and if he made some changes to the deck.

/Liiva

Not in this list but I used to run it in older DotD lists, but i think crypt creeper is better in the current metagame. The sac-ability on creeper is a nice bonus vs ichorid and it's free to use unlike wretch's ability.
EDIT: forgot to mention that wretch BB manacost means it can't be reliably cast on turn 1.

Last sunday i played a list that looked alot like vroman's one but I decided to play hide/seek in the main and thorns in the side and swapped mogg fanatic with crypt creeper. I was expecting alot of Oath and Flash, i was right on the Oath part.

I played the following list:

   // Lands
4   Bazaar of Baghdad
2   Riftstone Portal
1   Strip Mine
2   Scrubland
1   Maze of Ith
4   City of Brass
3   Undiscovered Paradise
1   Wasteland
   
   // Creatures
4   Tarmogoyf
2   Gaddock Teeg
4   Dark Confidant
4   Squee, Goblin Nabob
2   Crypt Creeper
   
   // Spells
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Mox Diamond
1   Life from the Loam
3   Thoughtseize
4   Hide/Seek
1   Balance
2   Duress
4   Swords to Plowshares
1   Black Lotus
1   Crop Rotation
1   Mox Emerald
1   Mox Jet
1   Mox Ruby
1   Mox Pearl
1   Time Walk
1   Ancestral Recall
1   Mox Sapphire
   
   // Sideboard
4   Thorn of Amethyst
3   Ray of Revelation
3   Viashino Heretic
4   Extirpate
1   Imperial Edict

Hide/Seek is pretty decent vs oath and stops flash from comboing, it's also a good answer vs Colossus while thorn basicly does nothing against all of these. Mogg fanatic doesn't do that much vs the new flash kill so i decided to go for either Offalsnout or Crypt Creeper. I chose the creeper because i don't want to skip a turn playing nothing so i have B open for Offalsnout.

There were 18 participants, here's a short report of my day:

Round 1 vs TurboLand.
Turn 2 i try to cast seek, he brainstorms in response (drawing his colossus) and lets it resolve. I chose to remove his will. Shortly after he tinkers into colossus, i have a maze of ith but he finds his strip mine before I find an answer.

Game 2 i open with undiscovered paradise -> thoughtseize which get forced. His turn he casts double mox + strip mine into crucible. I have a crypt creeper in my hand but no moxes. I never get to 2 mana and he eventually combos me out.

Round 2 vs TyrantOath
I start and get a turn 1 Gaddock Teeg off a mox diamond (discarding riftstone portal) and bazaar. He opens with a orchard + mox into oath, i topdeck a hide/seek and try to hide his oath. He forces but i remind him he can't cast it with a Teeg on the table. I soon dig into another hide/seek and my creatures finish him.

Game 2 he starts with orchard + mox into oath. I have a hide/seek but can't cast it on turn 1. He gets to activate his oath and wins fairly shortly after.

Game 3 i have a hand with hide/seek, extirpate, ray of revelation and mana. I open with mox diamond (discarding riftstone portal) + land and pass the turn. He again opens with orchard + petal into oath. I ray it EoT and extirpate it on my turn. He tries to build up a stormcount later on and brainfreeze me but doesn't get enough storm and loses to creature beats.

Round 3 vs U/B MaskNought
This is a pretty good matchup for me since i have 8 MB answers to dreadnought and 12 after boarding. He keeps a slow hand and i have an answer to every threat he lays down.

Game 2 he opens with mox, land, lotus, confidant, tinker into platinum angel. I topdeck a balance and reset the board. After that this game is pretty simular to game 1, i have an answer to every creature he lays down and win eventually.

Round 4 vs TyrantOath
Game 1 was kinda weird, he opens with land + mox into oath but doesn't have an orchard. I get some pretty massive card advantage online through 2 bazaars with 4 squees and i hide away his oath 4 times.. but he keeps drawing them. I decided to load up my hand with creatures and StP's and go all out but he oaths his library away and combos me out with brain freeze.

Game 2
There wasn't much time left but i duressed away an oath and extirpated it. We went to turns and i couldn't kill him in time so he won.

Round 5 vs Flash (with reveillark kill)
Game 1 i get lucky with him only drawing combo pieces and he dies to creature beats.

Game 2 he kills me on turn 1.

Game 3 i resolve a Seek removing his reveillark but he still starts his combo going hulk -> feeder + body double -> getting mogg fanatic and body snatcher (discarding platz in his hand) and saccing the snatcher giving him a 3/3 feeder, a mogg fanatic and a platinum angel. This was more than enough to kill me.

So i missed top 8 with 2-3-0, but overall the deck did pretty decently. I made 1 big mistake in round 4 vs the oath player which costed me the match (using crypt creeper on his flash of insight instead of keeping it in hand for brain freeze or yawgmoth's will)

/Liiva

If you're afraid of engineered plague, then you could run a goblin king. Anyways, someone at a local tournament here made top 8 with a RGBU list (blue splash for ancestral recall and timewalk), here's his list:

Creatures
  4 Goblin Lackey
  4 Goblin Vandal
  4 Goblin Piledriver
  4 Goblin Warchief
  4 Goblin Matron
  4 Goblin Ringleader
  4 Earwig Squad
  1 Goblin Tinkerer
  3 Gempalm Incinerator

Spells
  1 Mox Ruby
  1 Mox Jet
  1 Mana Crypt
  1 Sol Ring
  1 Black Lotus
  1 Time Walk
  1 Ancestral Recall
  4 AEther Vial
  1 Warren Weirding

Lands
  4 Bloodstained Mire
  4 Wooded Foothills
  2 Badlands
  2 Taiga
  2 Mountain
  1 Ancient Tomb
  1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
  3 Goblin Tinkerer
  4 Krosan Grip
  1 Skirk Prospector
  1 Goblin Pyromancer
  1 Goblin King
  1 Goblin Sharpshooter
  4 Cabal Therapy

Good luck with your deck

So i played with DotD again today, though this time it didn't do that well

I played almost the same list as last time, but added 2 riftstone portals and a crop rotation. I also used extirpates instead of leylines in the SB (leylines aren't that good if you can't protect them)

Game 1 vs Hulk Flash (win)
I duress away an early Flash and he pretty much fizzles after that.
Second match was kinda weird, i duress away a flash and extirpate it, then we both stall for a while untill i find a confidant and goyf. I thoughtseize him a bit later on seeing 2 hulks, 3 Virulent Slivers and a summoners pact.

Game 2 vs a TPS variant (loss)
I thoughtseize him turn 1 and he shows me necropotence, 2 rituals, an imperial seal and a petal. I don't have a fast hand so i go for necropotence.. looking back now i should probably have gone for the petal. He topdecks a will and gets his necropotence in play. I lose shortly after to a small tendrills followed by an EtW.
Second match, we both stall at a certain point but he gets a necropotence and wins.

Game 3 vs Drain TPS (loss)
He draws tons of cards and manages to win 4 out of 5 rolls from a mana crypt. I get him to 1 or 2 life but he tendrills me, i stp my goyf and drop to 2 life. We're both in topdeck mode (i have a bazaar online though) but I draw 2 confidants and 2 thoughtseizes and some more useless stuff, he hardcasts a colossus and i don't find a plow in time.
Can't really remember what happened in game 2, but my discard isn't very effective against him and he combos me out eventually.

Game 4 vs a homebrew deck (win)
I win both games without much resistance.

Game 5 vs aggro stax (loss)
I don't know what he's playing and i keep a decent hand but a bit low on mana, he strips my bayou and casts a chalice set on 2. I scoop when a juggernaut equiped with sword of fire/ice kills my lonely confidant.
Second match i don't have white mana and i can't plow his t1 metalworker, he goes pretty broken turn 2 with double juggernaut and tangle wire. I can't keep up and lose.

Storm combo decks are pretty rough for DotD, alot of people were playing Oath. GAT, Flash and DeezNoughts were around as well. I might try Vroman's 5c list the next time or just go Ichorid if proxies aren't allowed

I've played grunts in the mainboard before tarmogoyfs and i didn't really like them, putting back some important blue instant in my opponents deck in a metagame filled with merchant scrolls isn't a good idea, and his ability is pretty slow. Besides, you can't cast a turn 1/2 grunt vs most decks.
I would love to play something to counter the broken mid- or endgame wills though.

Thanks, the tournament was in Hengelo (The Netherlands) and there were 31 players.

Seeds of Innocence is getting replaced with something else yes, possibly Krosan Grip. Note: there were Stax decks (2 of them in Top 8) but overall they're pretty rare in my meta. Do you recommend replacing an off-color mox for mox diamond or run it in addition to the other moxen/petal/lotus?

I agree with this, I'm going to cut 1 zombie infestation.

Problem mainly was that i didn't see Gaddock Teeg vs the decks were i needed him (i really REALLY needed him in the empty gifts match vs that engineered explosives  ). So i've only seen him in action vs the decks he isn't that great against. So for now I'm gonna keep him in.

The GAT player did his usual thing, playing a dryad and drawing loads of cards, while i duressed away his counters so my swords would be able to resolve. I really feared misdirection here, if your meta is filled with GAT then a number of cruel edicts in the board might be wise. If you get a zombie infestation online, then you can chump their dryad untill you find a swords or they find a berserk. In the 2nd game we were both in topdeck mode but he had a small dryad, i drew a tarmogoyf to stop his attacks but was on lowish life (9 or something, can't really remember). His dryad grew bigger untill i STPed it but he soon found 2 more dryads while i managed to get a bazaar, another goyf and a dark confidant. My confidant has to chump his dryad, but i swords it the turn after. He only has 1 fairly big dryad left while i have 2 tarmogoyfs. I resolve a squee off a petal and swing him to 3 life with my tarmogoyfs. This was a risky play but looking back at it, it was the right one. He drew a card (now 2 cards in his hand) and casted a tendrills taking me to 1 life, then scooped.

If the GAT player plays Goyfs as well, then i think you'll need some extra creature removal in the form of cruel edicts. the GAT match-up stays a coin flip though, they sometimes just go nuts with will.. but that's magic right? 

Recurring land destruction can win random games if your opponent keeps mana-light hands but don't count on it. I used the wastelands mostly to cut off a player from a certain color, or kill one of their utility lands. Don't just waste a random land unless it gives you some tempo advantage else you might as well keep it in your hand and bazaar it away for something more usefull

So i played with this deck (same list as above in my first post but in the SB 1 oxidize + 1 ray of revelation instead of 2 pithing needle) in a local tournament and managed to get top 4.

Here's a small report of the day:

Game 1 vs BG hermit druid with bridge from below, dread return and flame-kin zealot as kill
He opens with a duress on my swords to plowshares, i cast a gaddock teeg followed by a goyf. He extirpates my swords but the teeg and goyf win the match
I still have no idea what my opponent is playing so i SB nothing, game 2 he start with an unmask taking my swords and plays a hermit druid, i cast nothing relevant on my turn and he combos me out. In goes the leylines.
Match 3 i mull to 6 and open with a leyline followed shortly by a gaddock teeg, teeg locks out his reverent silences.

Game 2 vs Empty Gifts
First match i duress away most of his cards and finish it with a tarmogoyf
2nd match i'm going pretty strong untill an Engineered Explosives blows away my entire table (2 goyfs, 1 conf, 2 thorns), he finds a will shortly after that and goes broken
There isn't much time left and my opponent offers a draw, which i gladly take.

Game 3 vs Manaless Ichorid
Well what deck doesn't lose the first match vs ichorid?
2nd match he mulls to 4, i mull to 6 and open with a leyline. Nothing really happens on his side so i beat him down
3rd match i mull to 6 again and start with a leyline. He manages to destroy it but my strip mine on his bazaar crippled him too much. Tarmogoyfs finish it off before he can dredge into anything dangerous.

Game 4 vs Tyrant Oath
I get a pretty agressive start and dark confidant + zombie tokens kill him just in time, he manages to oath once.
2nd game, he gets an oath pretty early but doesn't have an orchard. I destroy his first oath with a ray of revelation but it gets extirpated. A 2nd oath follows shortly but i manage to plow away his trisk and 2 tyrants. An broken will follows and i scoop (he still has a Blazing Archon)
3rd game ends in a draw, he needed 1 more turn to finish me off so i got a bit lucky here 

Game 5 vs GAT
This game is basicly tarmogoyfs vs dryads, i win the first match fairly easily but the 2nd match was very close. I had 2 tarmogoyfs but he had a big dryad so we stalled a bit while i was searching for a swords and found multiple. In the end i'm at 3 life and he has a tendrills in his hand but no other spells to get the needed storm so my tarmogoyfs finish it off.

Top 8 vs Flash
1st match i get triple duress in the first few turns, discarding most of his key cards.
2nd match i mull to 6 and keep a mediocre hand, he combos me out on turn 2 with no resistance.
3rd match was a bit like the first match but he keeps a hand with 4 mana (1 is a lotus) summoners pact and hulk, i thoughtseize him twice and he proceeds to draw nothing at all allowing my tarmogoyfs to finish him.

Top 4 vs Platz Oath
He starts with an orchard, mox, oath.
2nd match i destroy his oath after one activation (giving him a platz), my goyf kicks him to zero life but i can't find a swords.. i have 2 active bazaars and use them both for 3 turns but can't find a swords in time

Platz Oath plays vs Tyrant Oath in the finals, the Tyrant Oath player wins.

About the deck
I think the deck did pretty well, it will need some tweaking but i really like the 7 duress package. Gaddock Teeg wasn't that great during the day but i'm not sure if i will replace him just yet. Zombie Infestation was pretty dead.. i didn't face a stax deck (they're pretty rare in my meta) and i found myself discarding them alot to bazaar. Also most of the time i wished balance was just another spot-removal card. I was amazed by tarmogoyf's beating power, i allways considered him like a bad jotun grunt but damn.. a 5/6 beater on turn 2 is pretty good, even in vintage 

So I was browsing the T8 lists at starcitygames, and I noticed Nick Calcoteria finished 2nd in Chicago with Dawn of the Dead . I've been a fan of the deck for quite some time now (along with Vromans 5-color baghdad bob deck). Anyways, here is the list:

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf

Enchantments
3 Zombie Infestation

Instants
4 Swords To Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor

Legendary Creatures
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Sorceries
1 Balance
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
2 Life From The Loam
4 Thoughtseize

Basic Lands
1 Plains
1 Swamp

Lands
3 Bayou
4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Scrubland
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
2 Windswept Heath

Sideboard:
4 Chalice Of The Void
2 Pithing Needle
4 Thorn Of Amethyst
2 Oxidize
2 Ray Of Revelation
1 Seeds Of Innocence

I noticed the deck only has 2 permanent based disruption pieces in the main board (Gaddock Teeg) not counting the wastes/strip. This reminded me of something Vroman said in his RBW post:


So a few points for discussion:
- The 'dig for duress' strategy
- The chalices in the sideboard, what are they for? i can't figure it out.. chalice @ 1 shuts down duress/thougthseize + plows and chalice @ 2 disables pretty much every win condition in the deck. Against what decks do you board this in? Whouldn't 4x leyline be better? (depends a bit on the meta ofcourse)
- I wonder.. has anyone played with Gaddock Teeg on a tournament? If so, how good is he?

/Liiva

I played an almost non-powered (only Mox Jet) version of this deck a few weeks ago since proxies aren't allowed where I play.

I played the following list:

   // Lands
3   Bloodstained Mire
3   Scrubland
2   Badlands
4   City of Brass
3   Mishra's Factory
2   Riftstone Portal
1   Barbarian Ring
4   Bazaar of Baghdad
1   Maze of Ith
1   Strip Mine
2   Polluted Delta

   // Creatures
4   Grim Lavamancer
4   Dark Confidant
3   Aven Mindcensor
3   Jotun Grunt

   // Spells
4   Swords to Plowshares
1   Balance
1   Demonic Tutor
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Life from the Loam
4   Duress
1   Lotus Petal
1   Mox Jet
2   Extirpate
1   Crop Rotation
1   Ancient Grudge
1   Mox Diamond
1   Powder Keg

   // Sideboard
3   Engineered Plague
3   Smother
4   Hide/Seek
2   Sudden Shock
3   Tormod's Crypt

The extirpates sucked pretty badly all day, they didn't do anything at all. The powder keg is there as an answer to Empty the Warrens. Also Aven Mindcensor is too slow and his effect doesn't seem that powerfull. I thought I would be the aggro deck but I noticed in almost all my games that I was pushed on the defense and starting to stabalize at low life only to see my opponent topdeck/tutor for a broken card (Time Walk to buypass my maze  of ith or yawgwill).

Here's a small report of my tournament day:

Can't remember actually if we played 5 or 6 matches, i can only remember 5 and i'm not sure if all the details are correct.

Match 1 vs a fairly new player playing mono-R goblins:
Game 1 I manage to block his lackey at the start of the game and kill most of his dangerous goblins, Game 2 I manage to stay alive quite long but get overrun at the end, Game 3 I kill him in the extra turns after time was called.

Match 2 vs flash rector:
Game 1 I get combod out fairly fast, extirpating his dark ritual did nothing. Game 2 I Hide/Seek his only tendrills and plow his tinker-collosus, Game 3 is kinda the same as game 2, i cast 2 Hide/Seek at the start removing his win conditions but i don't have enough time to kill my opponent so we draw

Match 3 vs URB slaver
Game 1 A Darksteel Colossus swings me once before i stabalize with a Maze of Ith, he tutors for time walk and finishes me off. Game 2 we exhaust eachothers hands and he almost wins by hardcasting a slaver, i have Hide/Seek though and win. Game 3 a Veldalken Shackles shuts me down, my Hide/Seek gets countered and I can't do much..

Match 4 vs UB Masknought with stifles
Game 1 he drops a mask and a dreadnought follows shortly, it hits me once before i get a Maze of Ith online. A time walk follows shortly and we go to Game 2 where i kill all his creatures with smothers, plows and hide/seeks. Game 3 he goes pretty broken again, i'm at 2 life and I think he had 3 creatures in play (conf, cutpurse and nought).. i have 1 card in my hand which is a land. I take my turn and draw another land, then activate bazaar to see another land and... a balance. Balance resolves and i start to stabalize. He plays a dark confidant and topdecks an ancestrall recall which gives him a time walk and once again my Maze of Ith is bypassed.

Match 5 vs my brother with BR TMWA
I hate blood moons...
Game 1 i get a mox diamond, mox jet and riftstone portal online so his magus of the moon isn't much of a threat, his creatures are no match vs Jotun Grunt (though it took a few turn before i depleted all his creature destruction) and i win shortly after. Game 2 he gets a blood moon online (and i'm sitting with sudden shock in my hand) in turn 2, Game 3 blood moons kill me again.

So overall i was a bit dissapointed, alot of matches were pretty close.
I think the deck is a bit low on disruption, my opponent can just play their game while i try to search answers for them. Anyways, in a few weeks there's gonna be a tournament again but with 5 proxies allowed this time so i could play the full set of moxen and lotus so i was wondering if this deck evolved since the release of Lorwyn (Gaddock Teeg, Thoughtseize, Thorn?). Btw, flash and ichorid are pretty rare in my meta, also 0 workshop decks because they're so expensive.

Gratz on making top 8.

I'm pretty interested in the list your girlfriend played (i'm a fan of rogue decks), could you PM me the list?