Hi all, this is Mike, the guy who was playing the R/B deck.  I debated between playing my usual variant of Fish and the Painter's Servant deck; in the end I decided to go with something different in the face of Gush-bond and tantalizingly low opponent life totals:

4 Dark Confidant
3 Magus of the Moon

4 Ankh of Mishra
3 Chalice of the Void

4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Extirpate
2 Pyroblast

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fireblast
2 Shrapnel Blast
3 Price of Progress

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt

1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Swamp
4 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pyroblast
2 Ingot Chewer
3 Pyrostatic Pillar

(I considered Faerie Macabre, but forgot about it when it was time to throw the sideboard together)

I ended up 2-1-1; should have made Top 4 but for some unfortunate (for me) events:

Round One 0-1 (0-2) - Jeff Huang (UWB Fish)

Game One I am on the draw with a hand that really wanted to be on the play: Mox, Bob, Chalice, Bolt, lands (i think).  Jeff proceeds to drop artifact mana and Meddling Mage naming Lightning Bolt (ouch), and eventually Grunt beats take it down.

Game Two I mull to four in search of mana.  My lone fetchland meets Aven Mindcensor, and that's pretty much it.  Not the best start on the day.


Round Two 1-1 (2-0) - Bye/Togo's Hot Pastrami Sandwich

The sandwich started off with some mild disruption (intense heat from being freshly made), but I proceeded to just chew it up the rest of the round.


Round Three 2-1 (2-0) - Dr_Tongue (Painter's Servant)

I meet Dr_Tongue yet again; always a friendly opponent and a good match, and I don't know exactly what he's playing but am pretty sure he's packing a Gush or two or four.

Game One I start off with Thoughtseize only to have it Misdirected back at me.  I have crazy mana disruption, and after a Strip Mine and Wastelands, Magus of the Moon beats down.  Later it is revealed that he could have Mystical Tutored into Tinker into something scary before Magus came down.

Game Two I still am not sure what he is playing, but I Duress him seeing Painter's Servant and some REB's.  Painter's Servant #1 comes down only to be struck by Lightning Bolt.  Painter's Servant #2 meets a similar fate.  Meanwhile Ankh is making fetchlands cost a painful five life.  After some more mana disruption, Bob shows up and beats for two, followed by double Shrapnel Blast and Fireblast to finish things off.


Round Three 2-1-1 (1-1) - David Ochoa (Doomsday)

Winner makes Top 4, and I know I am a huge underdog but hope for the best.  What was somewhat funny was the fact that the last time we were matched up, we just ID'd into Top 8.  Unfortunately this time the draw was unintentional.

Game One involved one of the longest turns ever.  After some mana problems, he ended up discarding a Gush, which I Extirpated.  Then, somehow, he starts chaining spells together and we stop keeping track of the storm count after 11.  YawgWill resolves and Research/Development returns Gush, and at this point I am thinking its over.  Meanwhile, one table down, Mike Klemic's opponent is going off with Flash (I lent him the deck before the tourney).  He has no chance at Top 4, however, and Klemic has an outside chance, so he just ends up conceding to Klemic anyway, much to my dismay.  The current turn is still going on, and at this point all the other matches are finished so everyone is gathered around watching turn four of our first game.  Eventually Fastbond comes down, and his life total is creeping within burn range, as I am holding Lightning Bolt and Fireblast with a Mountain and Badlands in play.  He is down to three cards, and I Bolt him.  Then he casts Ponder and I decide to Fireblast in response, hoping the two remaining cards are not FoW and a blue card.  Fireblast resolves and we go to the next game.  Despite the outcome of the game, the comeback was pretty impressive.

Game Two a Quirion Dryad comes down and grows to 4/4.  I burn a Fireblast on it, which fortunately takes care of it.  Then I made a huge misplay.  I Duress, seeing Tendrils, Recall, and some lands and other cards I don't remember.  I take Recall, and my next turn instead of Duressing away Tendrils, I drop Pyrostatic Pillar.  Then I realize I should have Duressed as he puts together a mini-Tendrils, taking him back to 20 life and putting me low.  I have Bob out, and every flip from Bob is either a land or artifact mana or 1cc.  I feel kinda bad as I had misplayed and am now lucksacking my way through more and more turns.  The game ends as I am at 1 life and he is at 3, and he mind tricks me into dropping a Bolt and taking two from Pillar (but my Bob flip for the turn would have done me in as well anyway).  Time is called and we haven't started the third game, so the match ends in a draw.


I find out soon afterwards that Klemic got into Top 4 just above me due to his opponent's concession; otherwise, I would've gotten in with the draw due to my tiebreakers.  That aside, I should have just won my match if I wanted to make Top 4 anyway, but its more fun to give the guy a hard time since I lent him a deck to play and his concession knocked me out of Top 4.  The day wasn't a complete loss though, as I traded for a Donate for my draft box and got to spend an afternoon playing Vintage.

Congrats to Top 4 and to LSV and Klemic on their split!

Hi all, my name is Mike and I am a recent law school graduate in Sacramento, CA.  I started playing Magic in the mid-'90s, mostly casual group games, until I discovered the Magic communities on the Internet.  Then I proceeded to play more "serious" decks, eventually playing through the brokenness of the Urza's block, and then quitting for several years around Mercadian Masques.  I returned to the game around the time of Ravnica-Time Spiral, drawn in by the coolness of Ravnica block and the nostalgia of Time Spiral.  While Time Spiral certainly had its share of nostalgic reprints, I longed to play with old favorites such as Tinker (its restricted now?!).  Upon rediscovering a massive box of cards in my closet, I decided to get into Vintage as it seemed like a fun and challenging format in which I could play with my old cards.

Due to the time constraints that legal education imposes, I have only been able to play occasionally in the Vintage tournaments at the local shop in Sacramento (Adventures).  I am, however, a frequent reader of TMD, and I decided its about time I introduced myself.  So, once again, hello everyone!