Trip for a Jet - Pastimes Chicago 11/12 10-proxy event

[Seraphim3577]

To begin, I will give everyone my updated decklist.

Eternal Oath

Oath Engine
4 Oath of Druids
2 Eternal Witness
1 Krosan Reclamation 

The Combo:
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Draw / Tutor:
4 Brainstorm
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Burning Wish

Disruption:
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection
1 Engineered Explosives

Mana:
4 Forbidden Orchard (also part of Oath engine)
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Stripmine
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus


SB:
3 Pyroclasm
2 Stifle
1 Meltdown
1 Hull Breach
1 Whipe Away
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Pithing Needle
2 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Life from the Loam



Things to Note: 

I made a couple 2 changes in the maindeck from the list that I was previously testing.  I decided that after testing the Meandeck Gifts matchup that I needed merchant scroll to keep up with them.  Merchant scroll gave me better plays than an extra gifts ungiven.  So, changes to the deck:  -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Engineered Explosives   +2 Merchant Scroll

SB Changes:
Since I am only running 1 underground sea, I found it could be difficult to get off the "free" massacres, let alone pay BB2 for them.  So, I made the changes:  -3 massacre, +3 pyroclasm.
Also after testing the meandeck gifts matchup: -3 stp, +1 whipe away, +2 Stifle.   After adding Whipe Away, I never feared the colossus.  In fact, you will get more on this later in the match descriptions.  Other changes include:  -1 Rebuild +1 Chain of Vapor, -1 Tendrils of Agony, +1 Life from the Loam. 

Leading up to the tournament, I had met a guy at gencon and a local small shop tournament that lives approximately an hour south of me and plays 1.5 and type 1.  He agreed to catch a ride to bloomington where we would meet and ride together to the tourney.  So we take off at about 7:45 in the morning and arrive at Pastimes a couple minutes before the shop owners do.  We didn't have to wait, however, because by the time we had parked and walked to the door, the owner showed up and let us in.  We spend the next 30 minutes going over crucial sideboard slots and making cuts down to the necessary 15.  Out of the 4 other decks I saw while walking around during registration, 2 of them were fish.  So I knew not to cut my pyroclasms and made a hard decision not to cut my loam.  Pretty quickly after registration ended our pairings were up and we were off.


Round 1: Eric piloting Meandeck Gifts
Game 1 involves him taking a mulligan to 6.  I was on the play after we rolled and both got 9s and then I got a 20 on the 2nd one. 
I had a good hand:  polluted delta, mox sapphire, forbidden orchard, brainstorm, force of will, mana drain, misdirection.  I lead off with the delta and sapphire to not give away that I was playing oath.  He opens with volcanic island, black lotus.  Instead of passing the turn, he taps the volcanic island and casts recall.  I misdirect it to me pitching my brainstorm, he sacs his lotus for blue and then plays drain, I drain his drain so he casts brainstorm.  He doesn't find an answer and I draw 3 cards (including my own recall).  Knowing that he has nothing to counter with, I cast my own recall on the next turn and find a duress.  I sacd my delta on turn one for underground sea (still feinting that I'm playing meandeck or some other drain variant) and was able to duress him.  He shows me mana crypt and darkblast.  I take the darkblast and drop an oath and orchard and pass.  He dredges back the blast to kill the orchard token 3 times in a row.  By this point he had drawn nothing useful and had merely kept me from oathing.  After a few turns I find a 2nd orchard and oath into yawg will and company for the win.

Game 2: I board +1 whipe away, +2 Stifle, -1 EE, -1 duress, -1 island (savage tech, i swear!)

pretty exciting game...He goes for the turn 1 recall again, but i'm holding misdirection with force backup.  I swear it has to be pretty depressing to go down to 3 cards in hand and watch your opponent refill his.  Despite all of this, all i manage to do is drop an oath.  I dont find an orchard or a tutor for a while.  So we play draw, go for about 4 or 5 turns.  I finally merchant scroll up a gifts and after a drawn out counterwar, I resolve it (with no more blue cards in my hand).  I gifts up orchard, recall, demonic tutor, vampiric tutor.  He gives me orchard and vampiric.  I drop the orchard on my next turn and pass.  I still have no blue cards in hand (holding tendrills, vampiric tutor, and 2 lands).  I start doing some quick math during his upkeep and realize that he can only draw his yawg will to win.  He topdecks like a champ, but then screws up his math and is unable to demonic tutor for his tendrills and storm me out.  So he recalls himself, brainstorms twice, and then tinkers up colossus and passes (a little side note, I am terrified the entire time he is playing draw spells that I lost a game that I had no business losing because he topdecked will).  I untap, oath up witness but don't hit a yawg will.  So I decide to return timewalkto my hand from my yard.  And I manage to draw the will that turn.  Instead of going for it, i bait the walk.  It works so I take another turn and oath up a duress.  i cast duress and tendrills him out.

Games 2-0
Matches 1-0



Round 2:  Tommy (ICBM member)  Control Slaver
Game 1:  I open up a decent hand involving a first turn oath (no orchard because i'm just not that broken).  I play the oath and it sticks after i force (pitching merchant scroll and keeping brainstorm in my hand) his force.  He drops a polluted delta and a mox sapphire.  He taps the sapphire for a sol ring and passes.  I draw for my turn and cast brainstorm, it resolves.  But now I get depressed.  I used my delta to cast my first turn oath, fetching an underground sea despite holding a volcanic island (my green sorce was a mox emerald).  Of course I don't hit an orchard with my brainstorm and I don't hit a shuffle effect either.  I pass turn after dropping the volcanic island and watch him go broken.  He untaps and drops a volcanic island casts recall at eot and I try to misdirect the recallforce (I don't have drain mana now either) his recall pitching 1 of the 2 drains in my hand).  He drains my misdirection.  He draws 3 more cards, drops a mana crypt and tinkers up a slaver and activates it with the drain mana while still having a red open to cast welder.  Needless to say he wins this game as he returns recall to my hand with witness and targets himself with it.  He proceeds to slave me again and oaths up another witness and pops a fetchland just so he can see my entire deck.  I scoop at this point.

Game 2 Board Plan: In 2 Simics, Out 2 witnesses, In 2 Pithing Needles, Out 1 burning wish and 1 misdirection.
I don't recall much about this game except it involved me playing oath on turn 2 (no moxen for turn 1) with orchard and force backup.  He had dropped a first turn library and that really scared me.  I oath up simics and smash face, though.

Game 3 is pretty epic.
Tommy mulls to 6 and drops a land and passes.  I duress and he brainstorms in response.  I force the brainstorm and see he has a REB and Blood moon in his hand with nothing else but lands.  I curse my luck as I am obviously forced to take the blood moon.  A couple of turns later I duress again and take the force of will and get a bad yawg will off allowing me to play oath from the yard and duress the REB.  He untaps and drops titan.  I drew one orchard all game but ended up using it as a lotus petal because he had a stripmine in play. Because of his own titan, he was unable to get his triskelivus into play so I am able to oath up my simic.  i've been holding a timewalk in my hand since turn 3, never wanting to cast it for fear of that pesky REB.  Now seems to be the perfect chance.  He is winning the life race with me on an 8 pt a turn clock (lone orchard token).  After dropping the simic from the oath, I inspect my yard and pass the turn.  He untaps, draws, swings (i dont block) and passes.  I feint a realization that I'll lose the race, but proceed to oath of my other simic and swing anyway.  He looks puzzled and then it hits him.  He doesn't have the counter for the time walk and he extends his hand.

Games 4-1
Matches 2-0

For the rest, tune in tomorrow...

[EnialisLiadon]

I loved testing against this deck--it's savage!  I won't give the ending away, but even I don't know the fine details.  I can't wait for the "exciting conclusion!"

[nicofromtokyo]

Hi Seraphim,

First, congratulations for your performance  Second, I still maitain your deck is not an Eternal Oath but a Tendrils Oath  . Actually, I habe been working on a similar deck for 2 months (won a tornament with it last month), and the list is pretty the same. I would like to ask you some questions about your cards choice:

Disruption:
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection
1 Engineered Explosives

These are the slots I think the most interchangeable. I found the EE random, as aggro deck are not a real threat, you just have to put down an Oath and they put creatures on the board for you. My first version of the deck was only playing one witness, and protecting the Krosian at the Upkeep was crucial, so I played with 3 Misdi. Then I choosed to play 2 witnesses to increase the possibility to get broken stuff at the activation. My tactic was slightly different, as my first target is Time Walk. Pick it up directly with Witness, or get it through Tutor at your draw. I didn't play Duress, but Cabal Therapy, for a simple reason: You can play it for free before your Time Walk, and Oath again at your next turn, while knowing your opponent's hand, that means gg at 80% of the time. And it's good in the mirror match too, as you can sacrifice the tokens for free. And so the Misdirection became less important.

The real question here for me are the Mana Drain. Are they actually needed? Do you actually need mana to win? This is the second difference between your deck and my list:

2 Merchant Scroll
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Burning Wish

I don't understand those cards (I didn't say they were bad). Burning wish? Just for Pyroclam? Is this card worth a Volcanic Island on your mana base? I just don't see how you can loose against aggro or fish. Gifts? If resolving a Gifts = gg at 100%, so OK, but I feel it more like a good tutor that makes you win 2 turns after you casted it. Merchant scroll? Hmmm... What are you targeting? Gifts, to cast it and win maybe the next turn? A counter? Trall? I understand these slots are combined with Mana Drain, but I feel Mana Drain not needed here. Moreover, you don't play Lotus Petal, so your chance to be able to play it on the first turn is veeery small.
I personnaly prefer Impulse and Mana Leak (or the Cold Snap Mana Leak?), so your Mana curve becomes much better, as your biggest spell is now Yagwin.

The third comment is concerning the mana base. No Lotus Petal? No Sol Ring? No Mana Crypt? Why? Petal is broken, you need it, you're very tight in black mana, and it may allow you to play Oath or a Counter on the first turn. Same for Crypt. Strip Mine alone? Without Crop rotation didn't you find it too random?

Last question regarding the SB. The worst match-up for Oath must be Combo. 2 Stifle seems to me not enough. I played with Trickbind and was absolutly happy with it (against ToA, Tormod's Crypt, Jester's Caps, Slaver...).

Waiting for the rest of the report  .

[M.Solymossy]

I'll spoil one of the top8 games.


He opens  Jet, Island, Duress.
I show him FOW, FOW, Remand, Bad nonblue men, and lands.
he takes fow.
He then Recalls.  I realize his hand is the nuts because he wouldn't walk into my force without something better.   I force anyways, removing the remand.   He then misdirects it and gets 3 cards.    On my turn, I drop a land and pass turn.  On his, he does the same.  He has double Blue up, and 4 cards in hand.  I drop my second land, and figure I gotta just throw out the Meddling Mage, since I didn't see any bounce in his maindeck from watching previous matches, and I knew he played burning wish.  My fears came true when he drained it.  Okay, so he doesn't have anything too abusively broken.  Wrong again.  He has Demonic.  I don't remember the rest of the game, but I was on SERIOUS tilt because I didn't feel I was in the game from the start because his hand was the nuts.

game 2 i don't recall much of except that my deck did it's job of destroying 3 oaths, but he pyroclasmed my team AT LEAST THREE times, and he strip-loamed me out of the game.

[Seraphim3577]

He did an early duress and took what I felt was an inconsequential card in the face of double pyroclasm, burning wish, and engineered explosives. I only ran into 2 of my 3 sideboarded pyroclasms, i used my burning wish after about 5 turns to grab the loam out of the board and decided to recur my stripmine to keep him off black.  This turned out to be the right choice even though it later led me to an interesting play.  He played out a late kataki, and since I didn't feel like taking 2 every turn and tapping down my moxen for themselves, it forced me to waste my yawg will to recur a lone pyroclasm and duress.

While Nova did destroy my 3 oaths, I had boarded in S³ and just kept loaming back stripmine and polluted delta until he stopped dropping lands and I could tap 7 for the big man.  He did eventually ran into lotus petal with a fetch on the board to play out one of his bobs, but i promptely destroyed it with the EE in my hand.  After about 2 more turns, I payed 7 for the big guy and swung 3 times for the win.

[M.Solymossy]

my deck could handle the pyroclasms fine, but not when I don't have bobs or ninjas on board.  I build my deck to withstand the hate.  And I still have no doubt in my mind that with edict in my hand and the lands, I could have won game 2 no problem.  Stripping my black source, just to have me draw 2 bobs and an edict right after, sucked.

[Seraphim3577]

Time to finish what I started...

Round 3:  Ben Carp (aka The Gunslinga and a member of ICBM) playing ICBM Oath.
Ben is a very nice guy.  I enjoyed playing both of our matches.

Going into game 1, pretty much everyone at the top tables knew that if we won, we could ID straight into the top 8.  With that in mind, Ben and I set out to play our match. 
Game 1:  I keep my 7 and I believe I win the die roll.  I (not having a clue what he was playing) keep a questionable hand.  I don't remember the details, but i remember it had 1 land, a ruby, and a BS.  I lead out with the ruby and land and pass the turn.  He drops a land and a chalice at 0.  I brainstorm in response (thankful it resolved) and see orchard, delta, and brainstorm.  I put a tendrils and krosan back on top (knowing I had to draw one of them again).  I let the chalice resolve seeing as I had no moxen left to worry about for the time being.  At this point I realize that I am going to have to find my EE or Recall to get rid of it.  He passes turn and I draw my Krosan rec.  I drop my delta, still hiding that I am playing oath.  I pop the delta to cast the brainstorm (probably a mistake, should have popped it after...but knowing that I already didn't want one of the cards in my hand was not great).  I end up with a decent hand.  I drop my orchard on the next turn.  He drops oath next turn with an orchard and I think about it.  I'm okay with oath being on the board, but on my terms.  I decide that I'm okay with it because i have the orchard on the board.  He passes, I drop my orchard and duress him.  I take a counter and we are even on tokens.  He untaps and strips my orchard.  While I should have seen it coming, I don't remember seeing the strip in his hand.  He ends up oathing angels and I never really get back into it.

Game 2:  -3 oath, +1 chain of vapor, +1 meltdown, +1 Life from the loam
All I remember about game 2 was having him use a fow to counter my EE set to 0 and resolving a gifts getting a recall and oath in my hand from it.  I don't remember much else about it except it takes me to turn 2 in the extra turns to win the game with a large tendrils after oathing a witness into play to recur .  Though I am certain that I'm the only one of the 2 of us that can kill on or before turn 2, we don't play a 3rd game.

Games 7-2
Matches 2-0-1

Round 4:  Chris with U/W Fish
I'm pretty sure that I am going to make top 8 now because all i have to do is win one of my next two matches while getting paired down both times.  I win the die roll but he mulls to 6.  He draws his cards off his mulligan and I count them in his hand.  He drew 7.  I call him on it and tell him to go down to 5.  He does and keeps it.  I start off with a delta and pass.  He drops a tundra and passes.  At this point I already knew he was playing fish because I had seen isamaru while he was shuffling.  I drop a 2nd turn oath, he enlightened tutors a seal of cleansing.  I don't really remember much past this except I tendrils him out a couple turns later after bouncing his nullrod.  I do remember playing around a misdirection by scrolling up gifts instead of recall this game, though.

Game 2: In 3 pyroclasm, 2 Simic, 1 meltdown; out 1 gifts, 2 scroll, 1 misdirection, 2 eternal witness.

I've tested this matchup alot and it gets even better games 2 and 3.  He is on the play and draws 2 no land hands in a row mulling to 5 again.  I decide to keep a questionable hand with my only land being an orchard but having the oath in my hand as well as an fow, 1 brainstorms, krosan rec, misd, and timewalk.  He plays a land, lotus petal and casts meddling mage.  I force it pitching misd.  He passes.  I draw for the turn and don't see a land.  I pass without dropping the orchard (wasteland would wreck me).  He draws for the turn, plays a wasteland and passes.  I draw for the turn and draw a delta.  I drop the delta and pass turn.  He stifles my end of turn pop of the fetch.  i could counter it but i decide not to because that would involve me removing my timewalk from the game if i wanted to brainstorm.  I draw into mox sapphire and drop it, the orchard, and the oath. He lets it resolve and drops a jotun grunt and duresses my brainstorm.  I let it resolve, not to worried about any race at this point.  I oath up the big guy and end up drawing my 2nd copy of Simic.  Frustrated by my luck, I just timewalk after the simic comes out and not oath.  I swing with the big guy for the win.

Games 9-2
Matches 3-0-1


After this I realize that I am not going to have to play my round 5 and happily ID into the top 8.
Matches 3-0-2

For the top 8, see nova's post and my retort from earlier today.
Only things to note are the sideboarding strategy.  I board the same except I decide to leave in the scrolls and leave out the meltdown and forget to bring in loam in game 2...this randomly works out for me as I draw the burning wish after stripping his black source and wish for loam to recur stripmine on him.

Games 11-2-1
Matches 4-0-2

At this point, I get frustrated with my luck.  I realize that I am going to have to play Ben again (see round 3) instead of being in the other bracket where I would have played Tommy again (see round 2).

Semi's:  Ben Carp playing ICMB Oath. 
By this time I already knew that he was packing factories, loams, crop rotation, null rod, chalice, etc.
Game 1 was REALLY GOOD.  He leads with a chalice for 0 which doesn't hurt me that much.  Control of the game goes back and forth with him eventually ending up with the inevitability of having orchard superiority with oath in play due to running 2 wastelands, 1 stripmine, and crop rotation.  He oaths up akroma on approximately turn 8 and swings with factory for two turns putting me at 2 (razia had been drawn and pitched to tfk).  I end of turn gifts (having will in hand) for recall, timewalk, lotus, and demonic.  He gives me the lotus and recall and I proceed to storm him out the next turn after yawg willing and demonic tutoring for hurkyls recall to build the storm.

Game 2:  same boarding strat as above.  I know he boards in simics, factories, and loams.  He tells me that he boards out null rods for the loams.  He opens with land and chalice for 1.  I smirk as I open with delta, mox, mox, mox, lotus, but nothing else good to build to do (holding fow and orchard). He wins game 2 on the shoulders of an unanswered ancestral finding life from the loam 2 turns later (I cast force, but he drained it).  Dredging twice brings back alot of lands but nothing important until about turn 4 or 5 where he tfks and then drops mishra's factory.  I realize that I'm in trouble and start trying to dig for business but don't do a good job.  He gets double orchard out and casts oath with out me being able to stop it.  Simics come flying at my dome and I scoop after seeing my next card.

Game 3:  I decide to board in my chain of vapors and whipe away (I have a sneaking suspicion that he is going to board the angels back in).  Game 3 ends up being my first mulligan of the tournament.  I open a hand with a lotus as my only mana source.  I have BS, 2x duress, the lone oath, gifts and yawg will.  I curse my luck again and paris to 6.  This hand holds an orchard brainstorm and recall but no force.  About this time I get upset because I get mana screwed in none of my matches before and my luck just seems to crash on me in the top 8.  Oh well.  I realize that he probably has counters in his hand as he keeps his 7.  He drops a turn 1 chalice for 0 after dropping a mox and passes turn.  I untap and don't find a land.  I drop the orchard an brainstorm on his upkeep (so the token can't attack me).  he lets it go but I dont find any land or moxes!  I do find an fow, though (thankfully something to protect my recall).  He drops an orchard to match mine and passes.  he has drain mana up and I realize that it probably still won't be enough.  I was right.  I recall on my turn and he misdirects it to him.  I force the misdirection and he drains it.  He promptly drops a 2nd orchard and sacs it to crop rotation to wasteland my orchard and then drops an oath.  I tapped my orchard and burned for 1 to prevent him from oathing the next turn.  He drops a chalice on the next turn and taps his orchard to give me a token and chalices for 1.  I have no lands and he has chalices at 0 and 1.  He oaths up angel the next turn and I draw a land, I drop it but realize that I am dead on his next combat phase.   

Edit:
Games 12-3-1
Matches 4-1-2

One additional thing; I may have mentioned it before, but all of my rounds went to within 5 minutes of time except for round 1.  I finished round one kind of early, but even the semi's went 85 minutes.
End Edit.
I extend my hand and he invites me and my carpool / testing partner for the trip to join him and what ended up being 5 of the top 8 players at a local pizza place.  Good times, great games, A lot of fun.  Sorry for cutting it short, but I've been typing for an hour now and am getting kind of tired (I still have to study for an insurance exam). 


Anywho, to answer Nico's questions: 
EE was there mostly for the oath mirror and fish.  Fish can be superlong games if I don't have a way to stop true believer / children of korlis / meddling mage.  Not that I don't still win the games, its just that if I randomly drop game 1, I don't usually get to a 3 to take the match.  EE served as excellent hate while simultaneosly being capable of answering multiple problems.  I didn't want to have my entire manabase wrecked by a goblin vandal or a null rod.  Thus, I still needed jewelry to drop into play for storm post yawg will.  EE served as mox / lotus #7 in the deck as far as free spells to play.  I also found it to be really good in the gifts matchup because I can usually wreck their mana base while only losing one of my own moxes with it.

Duress is the MVP of the deck.  Duress allows you to make soo many better plays than your opponent.  Knowing what they have in hand when you go off is Amazing!  It puts your mind at ease and helps you to not trip overyourself making mistakes because you are worrying that they may counter a critical mana spell like hurkyl's or stifle the tendrills.


After testing the Gifts matchup, I found that the best way to beat them was to join them.  With my exellent early game (oath), I didn't want to just lose to Meandeck Gifts after they scroll up recall and resolve it.  I found the best way to do this was to put my own gifts in the deck and use drains to power it out.  I took out the 2nd copy of gifts as it was just too clunky and decided that since most of the time I ended up draining 1 or 2 CC spells, merchant scroll fit right in.  If I happened to Drain an FOW or Misd, I could spend UUG to tutor up my gifts, gifts for oath and another card.  It seemd to work out really well for me.  The deck didn't want to run multiple gifts, merchant scroll did the trick all on its own.  My deck played the control route in every matchup except control slaver.  And even in that matchup I felt that it did its job by giving me the right mix of disruption and threats.

In reference to the stifles.  When running scrolls, you don't need to board as many blue instants as you would otherwise.  Merchant scroll turns into demonic tutors 2 and 3 against combo.  I've found that 4 duress, 4 fow, 4 drain, 2 misd to be enough to slow them down until I simply combo out myself on turns 3-4.

Please feel free to add in any comments or correct me where I may have errored in my report.  I managed to lose my notes sheet from the tournament and have been trying to recollect as much of it as I can.

I am also welcomed to criticisms on plays, but not flames.  Noone here has done that yet, but I debuted the deck against a field of good players, good decks, and still had great results.


Edit #2:
First, I would like to thank Pastimes for running this event.  The event was judged well, ran well, and with very good prize support (I got a DCI Sol Ring for 3rd - 4th).

Props -
     -EnialisLiadon and Brandon for helping me test my deck.
     -Pastimes for a great event
     -Team ICBM for being a good group of guys to play with and not a single one was a sore loser at any point
     -EnialisLiadon for lending me 2 drains and a misdirection
     -Brandon for lending me a meltdown and misdirection
     -My roommate for lending me my manabase
     -To me for playing an almost errorfree tournament with an extremely difficult to pilot deck
     -To Ben Carp for beating me
     -To Tommy (from ICBM) for not dropping another match and ending up splitting with ben in the finals

Slops -
     -My stupid luck failing me game 3 of the semis
     -n/a  (I don't really have any...I had a blast at my first type 1 tourney)
End Edit.

[M.Solymossy]

you did, however, make one crucial error against TK that could have, and almost did cost you the game.  You had 2 duals and a non-blue mox on board, with mana drain, misdirection, and vampiric tutor in hand.  You vamped on your mainphase, dropping mana drain mana, and giving tommy a path to victory.

Other than that, well played.

[Seraphim3577]

There was nothing tommy could have played that I would have wanted to drain.  If he drops a big guy and I drain it, I lose 8 life.  If he drops slaver, he didn't have the mana to activate it.  I was more afraid of him drawing a counter and the game dragging on because I didn't find what I needed.  I knew he was counterless at that moment, so I knew that my tutor would resolve.  I could have waited for the end of his turn to vamp, but the only play he could have made that I wanted to stop was recall, which i would have misd'd to myself anyway.  I agree that it probably would have been better to wait, but I was afraid my vamp wouldn't resolve. 

[M.Solymossy]

He could have topdecked a blood moon or Jesters Cap or several other threats and beat you on the spot.  Vamp is an instant; You shoulda kept drain mana up until end step just because you can.  If he topdecked a counter and countered your vampiric tutor, you still have control of the game with the drain in hand.

[AJFirst]

There was nothing tommy could have played that I would have wanted to drain.  If he drops a big guy and I drain it, I lose 8 life.  If he drops slaver, he didn't have the mana to activate it.  I was more afraid of him drawing a counter and the game dragging on because I didn't find what I needed.  I knew he was counterless at that moment, so I knew that my tutor would resolve.  I could have waited for the end of his turn to vamp, but the only play he could have made that I wanted to stop was recall, which i would have misd'd to myself anyway.  I agree that it probably would have been better to wait, but I was afraid my vamp wouldn't resolve. 

In your deck, the only time Vamp gets countered is if you have Oath on the board and no orchard, and the other deck has no way to win before the angels take it or deal with the Orchard/Oath/Win Cons after they hit the board. The right play is to wait.

Other than that you did play quite well. Congrats and good work. My only other problem I had with your 'play' was deck's build. I remember when I first entered vintage Gifts Oath was my deck of choice, that build seems much stronger in my opinion, but I guess time will tell.

It was a really well run tournement with Pastimes sticking with Gaurenteed prize support even though tournout was slightly awful. I told them they need to advertise the tournements a little more. YOU BETTER ALL BE THERE.

Congrats around.
-AJ

[RThomas]

Nicely done, sir.

Also, if there's a tournament in the Christmas weeks (22nd-3rd), someone fire me a PM and hopefully I could come and play with you all.

[Seraphim3577]

By that build, do you mean your previous one?  If so, I am curious to see decklists.
(please put your decklist on the eternal oath thread on the improvement forum so as to not clutter the tournament report up with decklists and opinions on them)

Thanks,
Nick

[FTKzak]

It seems like you'd have trouble working around an early Tormod's Crypt. Did you come up against that at all during the tournament, and if so, what was your gameplan for beating it? Was it easier to tutor up the EE or to go for the Hurkyl's Recall?

[lordmayhem]

He opens with land and chalice for 1.  I smirk as I open with delta, mox, mox, mox, lotus, but nothing else good to build to do (holding fow and orchard). He wins game 2 on the shoulders of an unanswered ancestral finding ...

 

[Seraphim3577]

@ftkzak:

I did not encouter that.  My answer to that usually was to tutor up hurkyl's or EE, whichever appeared to be better based on my mana sources and the board (if I want to blow up some other moxes or challices or orchard tokens, etc...).  I won on the back of a hurkyl's targetting my opponent in a game due to drawing the hurkyls.  This allowed me to gifts for better threats to set up the yawg win.