So I have never written one of these and hadnt planned on it. There were 14 players who came to battle at Comic Town in Columbus OH. For those who have never been to a team serious open you definitely need to. We have some serious vintage players who are not only knowledgeable/talented but very friendly as well. I have learned so much by playing vintage in columbus by some really really great players. Also Comic Town always runs a great event and supports the format. I have been tweaking Martello shops the last few times I have sleeved up vintage. I had put down shops to play grixis control for a bit but when Treasure cruise and dig were printed it just wasnt as good. Here is the list that i played.
Main:
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Buried Ruin
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Duplicant
1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sundering Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Coercive Portal
1 Mana crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Staff of Nin
3 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
Sideboard:
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Triskelion
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Helm of Obedience
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Ratchet Bomb
The card I would drop are Karn, Silver Golem to add either another coercive portal, metamorph main, triskelion, or 4th revoker. I was really happy with the deck as I only lost 1 match and that was to a mull to an abysmal 5 on the play against oath and he hit 2 board cards against me early on game 2.
Round 1 against Tamarek with Control Oath
He wins the dice roll and plays a land and preordains. I lead with workshop and play thorn. He plays another land and plays a mox. I play another shop cast a mox and play forgemaster. He untaps and plays oath. I am ready with my active forgemaster to duplicant a fatty and play a sphere of resistance and a revoker naming griselbrand. On his upkeep he doesnt activate oath. I beat down with revoker and a factory over a few turns and game is over. He is newer to vintage and had both fatties in hand. We talk about how he wasnt out of the game as he could have brainstormed or jaced them back on top of the library or got to 8 cards and discarded emrakul as he was playing 1 and 1 griselbrand.
Game 2 I side in 3 cages, 1 metamorph, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 phyrexian revoker. He starts on island preordain, i start on Sphere. i pass he plays a land and mox. I play thorn and pass. He misses land drop and passes back. i play lodestone and pass. He finds lotus plays and passes. I miss my land drop and pass back as im holding forgemaster with one short to play it. He plays oath and passes. I find my land but he has oath active before I can activate my forgemaster. Luckily he finds grisselbrand instead of emrakul. I untap and wait for him to attack with griselbrand which he does. I forgemaster into duplicant on his emrakul when he attacks and block his griselbrand. I attack and make short work of him.
1-0, 2-0
Round 2 against Cody with Fenton Oath
I play my good friend Cody Napier who I already know is on Oath. Cody is using a list very similar to Mark Tocco's Oath list from Vintage champs and he has been testing it for a while now. Cody is a very solid overall magic player and a good friend. We talk some trash but I should have been quiet as I win the die roll but have to mull to a terrible 5 with no lock pieces. He makes very short work of me.
Game 2 I board the same as round 1 but with less luck. My hand is solid with turn 1 cage and turn 2 forgemaster, he led with land mox and oath. He nature claims the forgemaster. We go back and forth a few turns i never find a chalice just some thorns. At end of my turn he abrupt decay's my cage and activates his oath on upkeep and finds griselbrand. This match is my only blemish on the day.
1-1, 2-2
Round 3 against Nick with BUG Control
Next is Nick Leali another good friend who is on bug control. Nick plays bug in Legacy and is very very good with the deck. It is nice to see him sling some vintage. Nick always seems to have my number but not today. Nick wins the die roll and talks aloud saying should I play conservative or go crazy. I tell him this in vintage go crazy! He leads with Land deathrite shaman. I play workshop and trinisphere. He plays a fetch activates deathrite and plays liliana and pluses it. I have forgemaster in my hand. I play which he makes me sac next turn still leaving liliana at 2 loyalty. i draw blightsteel and pass. He plusses liliana and i discard blightsteel. I draw forgemaster and pass. He makes me sacrifice. Leaving Liliana at 1. I play buried ruin, he makes a mistake and tries to eat my forgemaster and i activate the ruin in response. I play forgemaster on my turn as he takes Liliana to 2 but its too late for him. This game was real back and forth and could have gone either way. If he activates his deathrite correctly I think I lose this game.
Game 2 is back and forth as well but I dont sweat near as much and I get there I unfortunately cannot remember much of this game.
2-1, 4-2
Round 4 against Sam with Doomsday
Next is another good friend Sam Krohlow. I know he is on doomsday so I am feeling pretty good about the matchup. Little did i know that Sam had much more hate than the typical doomsday deck. Game 1 I lock him out fairly quickly with spheres.
Game 2 is actually insane. I have 3 sphere effects in play as well as chalice on 2 and he plays doomsday. Early on I had blind revokered Lotus which he actually had drawn a turn or 2 later. After he plays doomsday he passes after 5 minutes of contemplating if he could go off. I top Lodestone like a boss and slam it down. Sam passes again and I top yet another lodestone! turns out the 5th sphere effect was what I actually needed to win against doomsday. This was a bummer as we knew the winner of this match would make top 4.
3-1, 6-2
Semifinals against Ryan with Merfolk
We all decide to split the cash and play for the glory. I feel like a big underdog in the top 4 as there are 2 merfolk decks and Cody who was my only loss in the swiss. The Merfolk decks had drawn rd 4 so they were 1 and 2 seeds so I knew I had to play one of them. I ended up playing against a nice guy who I think his name was Ryan? (sorry if this is incorrect and you are reading this) His decklist is very similar to the VSL lists that have been running chalice main. I dont remember much of this match except I seemed to have the right cards at the right time. Game 1 I beat down with lodestone and revoker. Game 2 I actually locked him out under a few spheres and wasteland him revoker a mox.
4-1, 8-2
Finals against Charles Rolko with Merfolk
I was hoping to exact revenge on Cody with Oath but he loses to Charles Rolko. Charles is one of the better players in the room. He is always making good deck choices based on the meta and plays everything very well. His deck is different then my previous opponent as he doesnt play chalice but has Null Rods
. Luckily for me he never sees them. I also dont remember too much of this match except game 2 I actually landed chalice on 2 and he doesnt force of will it as he feels confident that he can find a cavern. He dies with 6 islands and a mox sapphire in play with 2 lords and 2 illusions in hand and I finish him off with an end of turn (active forgemaster) wurmcoil engine (only because blightsteel is in my hand). I sweat this whole match and feel I was very lucky.
5-1, 10-2
All in all this tournament was full of great vintage players even though we only had 14 who showed up. My deck performed great all day and I did have some good top decks and my opponents made some costly mistakes. Sorry I dont have better recollection of what happened in my matches I didnt have the intent to actually write up this article but had some free time today so I thought I would share. This is my first article so please keep that in mind.
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