Sounds like everyone had fun... aside from the guys who didn't make it >_< Gah, I wanted to go, but sadly, Richie ran out of money, Zac had work, and I was NOT going to drive around the passes when we had just been hit by a snowstorm with chance of more that day... but next time, NEXT TIME we'll make it if I have to drag someone into their car.

...speaking of which, when IS the next one? I don't see it on the announcement forum... well, I'll keep an eye out.

Gratz to all who won!

So, the aforementioned-regarding-previous-tournaments Hurricane Ka-Tahoe has finally hit us... roughly 4-5 feet of snow over the last 36ish hours. Ow. And it's supposed to continue throwing white stuff at us until Thursday... IF it stops early, and a very big IF, and somehow, someway the passes are clear and nice and pretty by Saturday, you will have some of the Snow Ninjas invading (sorry for the very, very, very bad Naruto movie reference, but I had to).

Aaaanyway, I just finished 2 hours of shoveling with a partially-broken plastic shovel, and I work in 8 hours, so I'm going to go lie down and die now. Hopefully we'll be there to wreak havoc, or at least lose in funny and informative, if very sad ways ("Wait, what about Shattering Spree?").

Ah, almost forgot, to anyone thinking of coming down, I say do so. These tournaments have been very fun, with some usual suspects, and some unknown faces, and always it seems to be a very diverse field. Plus, there's a Chinese food place about a block away, so sneaking a lunch break isn't very hard ^_^ Thought I'd add a small plug.

*end ramblings of a madman trapped in snow*

Nice report. The term "pwn" was entirely accurate in our match round 3 =P My horrid record explained in a very short "report" (the size is actually description of a couple of funny matches):
I am playing, of course, Stax.

Round 1 vs Ricky with SuperLong-ish
Games 1 & 2: No real lock peaces resolve from me (stupid FoW countering Spheres), and I die to ye olde Tendrils.

Round 2 vs. Some guy who's name I can't remember despite playing him at 2 tourneys now with RG "IHateStax.dec"
Game 1: I think I stalled a bit, but then got railed.
Game 2: He goes Kird Ape. I got Shop + Crypt = Razormane Masticore (sideboard tech, goblins hates it =P). Quote, "Wow, that's good... as a target for Tin-Street." Poor Razormane... we trade back and forth with stuff, then I think it was this game where I land the Balance Of Doom, and take his entire hand, all his creatures, and 2 of my own lands... while I've got crucible. Game ends in a few turns in my favor.
Game 3: This story I hope goes down as one of the great dumb mistakes of our time. He's got only a Kird Ape on the board as I've been doing the Stax thing to the best of my card draws. I have a Chalice@1, Trini, and Razormane Masicore, as well as some other stuff that didn't matter. He pulls a card and looks upset, to which I respond, "Didn't find Shattering Spree?" (I know he's running them, seen him discard one last game). One of Lotushead's scrub teammates responds, "It wouldn't do anything" pointing to my Chalice and Trini. I say, "Dude, those don't matter, Spree gets around them." I knew I had done something very bad, as you all may have guessed already, when he leaned forward and said, "So wait, what about Spree?" I looked at him, put my forehead in my palm and went, "Aw crap, you have one don't you..." and then proceeded to explain that replicate gets past both Chalice and Trini. He wipes my board of the 3 real problems and then says, "If I had known that from the start, Razormane would still be beating my face right now." This was all with like 7 spectators, so the whole tourney knows the story. Of course, most stuff in quotes paraphrased because my memory sucks. Anyway, that was a long report of Round 2, but I think it was needed... maybe this'll go into a funny stories thread or something.

Round 3 vs Lotushead with Bomberman
Game 1: Pwned because no real lock pieces hit, see Round 1.
Game 2: Pwned by a Mox Monkey because, in an amazing run of bad luck, I drop Chalice@0 turn 1 hoping to keep his combo from going off, to which his hand of no 0 cost and about 4 1cc spells goes, "Oh thank god that wasn't @1". Trinket Mage aids the monkey in keeping my board clear and beating my face. Wee.

Round 4 vs. A kid who's name I can't remember with Discard+Rack=Pain.dec (see Lotushead's round 5)
I win one game by being Stax and LOSE another game (can't remember order) to The Rack + Mana Crypt. Ow. Bad Stax. We then go to time and barely draw with me at around 2 life from another Rack that resolved. Gah. Where's Chalice@1 when you need it? Oh right, that came down AFTER Rack... But it was fun, and I was already in the loser's bracket by this time, so I don't care about win/lose, just playing the game. Sucks too, because my round 5 opponent poofed and I won the round by default. Drat.

And that's the story of me sucking into a record of 1-3-1 with my only win being because the guy left and didn't officially drop. Think it was actually Dr. Tongue, but I can't remember his real name ^_^;

Overall, a fun if unrewarding tourney. Sorry if I rambled, I tend to do that...

A thought occurs... has anyone tried Shadowmage Infiltrator? He can block Trinket Mage, swing past other creatures, and nets you a card... and still only costs 3. I do like Ninja, but perhaps a better option is needed with the creature-heavy meta right now.

General brokenness would be my guess. Personally I don't see a problem with Flash, while the whole "oops I win" thing is annoying, there's plenty of ways to hate it out... and playing against Flash is some of the most fun games I've had, struggling to keep them from going off each turn despite their counters.

But then, I personally like the format right now (or did... we'll see what Thorn does).

Uh, the Crusher deck DOES have Shop in it... that's 4 of the only 13 lands it runs.

On a more topic-related note, nice article. I do think Goblins will see a rise if Thorn runs rampant, even if just to deal with it. Might go back to it myself if Stax starts to have a hard time. It's a fun deck, and it's nice to get down to pure aggro again, reminds me of my n00b days without me actually sucking that badly.

Nice article, and I definitely agree about Thorn. Shop decks were already on the rise again (so I had heard, don't get many chances to see the meta for myself, stupid west coast...), and Thorn allowing the formation of 9sphere.dec is only going to make it worse. Until, that is, Fish, Goblins, and most importantly of all Ichorid shift into view to combat Thorn. That's what I really like about Vintage... the meta always seems to go in a cycle, with what is dominant and what beats it constantly rotating, as the dominant decks are pushed out by decks that beat them, which in turn become the dominant deck. And then you have new sets that pop out a little baby like Thorn and throw a wrench into the whole thing, starting a new cycle of decks =P People are gonna hate me making this comparison, and I know I'll get yelled at by someone for it, but Gifts did the same thing. *attempts to block flying tomatoes and shoes*

As for the second major card, Thoughtseize, I'm gonna go with hauntedechos on this one. While 8 Duress seems attractive, Fish seems to prefer spread out disruption, meaning 8 is just too many. It'll boil down to "can I afford to lose this life" vs "it hits creatures". Doubt many other decks will be using Thoughtseize unless Thorn forces an even more aggro-heavy meta than we have. Maybe Fish can run all 8 between main and board though? Just a thought.

Teeg I'm skeptical about... he's been argued about in about 5 threads now, so the major points have been covered: colors present a problem, ability is nice depending. We'll see if a deck can really get around his cost without hurting itself in other ways, he might be powerful then. Mirror Entity... never even realized that card would be thought about in Vintage, but now it's got my attention. It'll be interesting to see if it impacts the meta at all, even as just a little surprise now and then. Hey, stupid thought... Mirror Entity + EtW! Yeah, I know, I should just stop talking.

Well, that's my 2cp, ignore it, argue it, agree with it, whatever ya want.

Was typing along, hit preview, and Moxlotus posted. Actually, the MisD player DOES get to see the Thoughtseize player's hand, because they have to reveal it, rather than just look at the targeted hand.

While Bob's a nice engine, there's one tiny problem with him in a shop deck... your cc's tend to be a little up there. Spheres are only 2, but Stack is 4, Wire is 3, Trini is 3, many of the cards you'd tutor for are 3, and while you'd be running plenty of utility lands, thus allowing for more 0 cost cards, flipping over a non-land has a big potential to take a chunk out of your life. Now, I suppose it could also run Top, but... I dunno, then it heads down a convoluted path.

On another note... that's a very, um, interesting deck list Mike O_o There's something about a Juggernaut packing a Sword of Fire and Ice that's so very wrong, yet at the same time so very right.

Despite my earlier comments on the minor lack of real win conditions, I do have to say I love how consistent UbaStax is, but with 4 Bazaars in addition to Workshops and 6 power, I just don't have the funding to run the thing =/ If not for that, you'd see me popping up with it over the winter in whatever tourney's I can get to here on the west coast, but for now I'll be sticking with my 10-proxie 5c Stax, until I get some combination of 3 bazaars/shops/moxes.

After all, in a meta where Ichorid is an endangered species, this little baby will wreck people ^_^

Yeah, so some of those are kinda... optimistic ^_^;

But I'm just trying to explain why Wire is nice... it's all about synergy. It combines with so many cards in Stax it's amazing, allowing each to function even more effectively, such as ruining more of their board with Stack, slowing them even further with Sphere, causing cards they draw to be stalled with Uba Mask, or even just holding them off long enough to land a real lock with any number of the other cards Stax uses. It's about tempo advantage, which, considering the current creature-focused meta, and the overall game plan of UbaStax (total lockdown before they become a threat), is rather important.

I like Tangle Wire. In my experience, it's been a great card when I've seen it, though when I haven't I never really missed it. Honestly, Serum Powder just... doesn't impress me. Wire does. Maybe I'm just bad at debating (if that's what to call it), so my arguments are a little... well, bad.

Have to respond about your matchup listings...

First off, against GAT, oh yay they land a Dryad, oh yay it gets to a 12/12... and then it taps. Every upkeep. Fastbond can help them escape that... assuming you've only got 1 Wire. I've tested 5c Stax against a good GAT player quite a bit (until he got sick of me dropping turn 1 & 2 brokenness on him every game and just stopped playing me), and an early Wire was very helpful. What does GAT use frequently? Merchant Scroll. Which is a Sorcery. Yes, they do have lots of instant-speed draw, but some of their most powerful cards are sorcery-speed, and unless they drop that Fastbond and start to Gush before you stop one or the other from ever seeing play (Chalice @1 maybe, or just massive mana denia, will stop Fastbond), then Wire can slow down their mana and/or a slow-gro Dryad enough for you to establish a lock. This is also with 5c Stax, which can go the pressure route, but GAT has more ways of dealing with that than a hard-lock, which UbaStax is far better at getting down. Thus, with Uba, you should have an even easier time than 5c after Wire's slowing them.

Second, Ichorid. Horrid, horrid matchup pre-board. You reference Leyline... a post-board card. Pre-board, you pray for either a bad Ichorid player or numerous mulligans on their part and an awesome hand on your's. THEN you wreck them... taking out numerous cards, including Wire, to do so.

Stax, I'll agree with you on somewhat... but then, many cards against another Stax match do what you've said Wire does, possibly work or possibly cause you problems. It's basically whoever gets down pressure, a lock, or a Welder first... the B-rings solve that by taking down enemy Welders, which is often all that's needed to swing the match in your favor. And if they get out a 7/10? Then Wire may just save you from getting face-smashed. Again, Wire can actually be harmful to you against Stax, but it's got more uses than hindrances here I think. A tapped enemy Welder is far less dangerous, even if they responded by welding something around.

Flash... Wire + B-ring = Sad Flash deck. They try to go off... you shoot the Heart Sliver. Suddenly Wire delays the game by leaps and bounds, long enough to possibly get a Welder or two, and/or another Wire, and lock them down forever. Alone, Wire isn't that impressive... unless they need to Scroll for Flash after untapping. This slows them down turns, again allowing you to establish some control. Plus, even if they go "Flash on your upkeep with Wire on the stack," they still have to tap down... which will include most of their Slivers. Yes, first turn you're hosed if you don't drop something to slow/stop them on the play, but this is standard Flash strategy, go off fast as possible, preferably with counters in hand. Flash can go off around Stack as well, and even Spheres, and a whole mess of other things, because, well, it's Blackjack.

No need to talk about Fish, you've summed that up well... creature-based decks hate Wire.

If some of the things I've said don't make sense, I'll happily try to explain them better... I tend to focus only on what I'm typing and about to type, so I kinda forget what I've been talking about 2 sentences ago. Might make things sound jumpy.

EDIT: One last thing to add... Wire is amazing with Stack. You remove part of their board, then tap what's left, on every upkeep. By the time Wire's gone (probably because of Stack rather than fading) they've lost most of their board while not having mana to do anything at sorcery-speed. And you can sac the same things you've tapped, since you're the one who stacks the triggers. With 4 of both, this synergy can come up fairly often. Just one of the things I like about Wire =P

Hey Jeff, any idea on the date that Workshop tourney will be? Some of the Tahoe Crew want to go down, but we need a date to plan ahead, or we might have trouble getting the day free. I'll have to see about Zac and Richie, but so far myself and Johnny will be going if possible.

Looks nasty, but I'm concerned about the lack of real win conditions. You have B-Ring recur and Welder beats... if they can knock out those before you get them locked, they just need to sit back and hope you've drawn more cards. And I realize that the only way to do this is either Extirpating both or some combination of LotV and E-Plauge, or some other mass-hoser (at which point you just lay a Smokestack and watch them lose the hate), but it still bothers me... Maybe 1 Trike or 7/10 or some other smasher main, possibly Karn seeing as you have plenty of things to animate, or maybe - I know, this sounds mad - Ring of Ma'ruf with a couple kills in board. Even a man-land like Factory... just something that doesn't rely on Welder or Crucible alone, and can be played easily through your own locks (which Workshops take care of in most cases). And to really establish a lock, Factory can double as a weld target, or even a recurring one with Crucible, though that's a win-more situation about 98% of the time.

Just my view, I don't like having to rely on one of two specific cards to win, at least without some decent instant-speed control. Though it seems people have this funny habit of scooping to a lock, so maybe there isn't a real need for a lot of ways to end a game.

At the very least, it forces them to play around it, lest they find themselves on the wrong side of an army of 4/4's. Stopping those annoying EoT Mystical Tutors, Brainstorms, Opts, not to mention getting a beatstick when they do anything blue in response, seems like this might be a nice card against GAT... then again, it might suck. Depends a bit on the GAT build I think, and a bit more on the GAT player.

One of the things that stands out to me about this though, is that it's a tribal enchantment... people seem to be aiming to play Goyf in said Root Maze/Teeg deck, and this makes him even bigger, as well as forcing blue to a semi-Sorcery speed. Maybe for a mirror match it's shaky but worth the testing, but it might deserve a maindeck slot in a Teeg deck, since a fast majority of the Vintage decks play blue, even if it is mostly just Force and EoT Recall that it'll hit, and if all else fails and it's useless, there's plenty of cards that can dumb it into the grave for Goyf.

I'd say it falls under C. It has potential... at the very least, even if it doesn't fit the current meta, it's worth keeping an eye on if the format changes around a bit again.

Been meaning to reply, haven't had the time...

First off, Congrats on the win Jeff!

Second off, damned Tahoe weather! >_< Zac couldn't get the day off, Richie didn't have the money to go with just two of us, and because it was threatening to snow (in which I suck at driving) I couldn't get off the mountain... Gah! I've got this pent-up need to play Magic and that was going to be my vent. Richie and Zac both completely refuse to play against Stax now, and I dislike playing people on MWS, so I'm kinda hosed... and I miss the one west coast tourney in a 2-month period! Argh!

*ahem* Anyway, hurray again on winning the Ruby. Wish I could've been there to make your life difficult =P

I still like the idea of tossing this little guy into a revamped Bird Shit. You don't need to drop Teeg on turn 2, just sometime before the cards he stops hit the table. Of course, that's usually between turns 1 and 3... anyway, the point is, drop him when you've got like 5 mana on the board (because, unless I'm totally wrong about what Fish does, which is possible, you should be able to disrupt and stall for that long while still keeping cards stocked), then drop Teeg to shut off spells they may have been saving to smash you, or may be hoping to top-deck for a win, while keeping mana open for that Rune Snag or Mana Leak or Drain or whatever the hell non-Force counter magic you run... not to mention that halting Force can really swing future counter wars in your favor, IF you're built for it.

Overall, for this guy to really do anything in Vintage, he's gonna need to be put into a very carefully built, very annoying fish variation designed to work with his colors. Done right, he'll be a strong piece in a frustrating deck... done wrong, he'll be a 2/2 that sits in your hand half the time and shuts off your own Forces when he lands.

That's just my 2colorless, of course. I'm not really a Fish player... the few times I've played a variation were Bird Shit and Sullivan Solution, the former of which was fun to play and seemed to run well even though I lacked power for it (non-proxy tournaments), the latter of which isn't relevant to Teeg. Considering my little experience, please feel free to completely ignore my opinion if you believe I'm wrong =P

Think the main reason for Rack and Ruin is that it dodges chalice @2, which can cause a number of problems for Gro. Blast the chalice that's bugging you, and hit another troublemaker at the same time... win-win =P