June 7th Hadley, MA Vintage TO's Report!

[mdenny]

Hello everyone and a big thank you to all of you who came out on Sunday to play Vintage and have some fun! We had 19 players show up to play for a prize pool of an English Mana Drain (in very nice condition), a set of Thoughtsieze’s and two foil Tinkers for third and fourth. I am committed to keeping entry at $10 and was happy with the way things turned out but I welcome your input on the prize structures and entrance fees.

Another big thanks goes out to Seth at X9 for giving me a place to run the tournament for only the price of buying him lunch and to Greg for doing a wonderful job judging.  The tournament consisted of 5 rounds of Swiss with a cut to top eight. I gave out an Alpha Dark Ritual to the best performing zero proxy budget deck with the prize going to George Theocles who piloted RG Beatz to a 3-2 record and just missed out on the top eight on tie breakers. Matt Snow won the door prize of Divine vs. Demonic duel decks which was randomly picked out of those who didn’t top 4 into a prize.

Definitely the coolest match of the tournament (that I got to witness) was Justin Palermo with UR control vs. Matt Snow with chalice Oath. This was Justin’s first tournament back in Vintage in a couple of years and he played what looks to be one of the funnest UR decks ever. His win condition was to enchant Horseshoe Crab with Quicksilver Dagger and Sigil of Sleep and ping them, bounce their guy, draw a card, un-tap Crab and repeat backed up by a lot of counter magic. This seems to be pretty brutal for Oath as Matt was only able to win on the back of Empyreal Archangel. Needless to say, Justin won coolest deck prize of a foil Gaea’s Blessing.

On to the results!

Quarterfinals:
(1)Ray Robilard def. (8)Jesse Martin
(5)Dan Richardson def. (4)David Laurence
(3)Joe Bernier def. (6)Chris Ruscitti
(2)Chris Tourloukis def. (7)Dan Cunningham

Semifinals:
Ray Robilard def. Dan Richardson
Joe Bernier def. Chris Tourloukis

Finals:
Joe Bernier scooped to Ray Robilard

Final standings:
1st Ray Robilard
2nd Joe Bernier
3rd Chris Tourloukis
4th Dan Richardson

Again thank you very much to everyone who showed up and I will actually post a couple of deck lists when I get the time, but not tonight because I am going to play casual vintage from 6-9 at X9 which, by the way I am hosting every Tuesday night!  Anyhow, I am try to finish securing a Library of Alexandria for first at my next tournament so hopefully I will be able to post that one for the first Sunday in August some time later this week!  Hope you all had fun this time and see you next time for $10 Hadley Vintage!

[sundering jerk]

will there be deck lists?

[mdenny]

Here are the decklists from the Top 4, Dan's list is posted in his own tournamnet report. I will try to put up some statistics on the whole field and a couple of other interesting lists but here's a start.

Ray Robillard- 1st Place

MRWA:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Goblin Welder
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop
6 Mountain
4 Triskellion
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Sensei’s Diving Top
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Turf Wound
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Timetwister
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Shattering Spree
2 Eon Hub
2 Viashino Heretic
3 Sphere of Resistance

Joe Bernier- 2nd place

Stax:
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
3 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Duplicant
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
4 Goblin Welder
3 Smokestack
3 Null Rod
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Balance
1 Crop Rotation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tinker
1 Trinisphere
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard:
3 Choke
4 Seal of Primordium
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Ensnaring Bridge

Chris Tourloukis- 3rd

A Handful of Dust:
1 Plains
2 Island
1 Snow Covered Swamp
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Scrubland
3 Polluted Delta
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Pearl
1  Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Force of Will
1 Rushing River
4 Meddling Mage
3 Duress
4 Null Rod
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Dark Confidant
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Thoughtseize
4 Cursecatcher
2 Stifle
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestral Recall

Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Darkblast
4 Spell Snare
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rushing River
3 Serenity

[policehq]

Ray played Wheel of Fortune, not Timetwister, right?

[mdenny]

According to his decklist, he played Timetwister, and not Wheel of Fortune. That is an interesting choice.

[Diakonov]

That Crab deck was really weird.  Strangely frightening.

[Bill Copes]

Turf Wound?

Crab deck?

Some people got some 'splainin' to do.

[iamfishman]

I played neither...I cut the wheel for the Turf Wound

What you read as Timetwister was actually supposed to be Trinisphere.

It is one thing to write the wrong card, but the decklist form had check boxes for the restricted list, and my check must have gone astray by one row.

Ray

[oneofchaos]

I just got excited that you used turf wound .  It was always one of my favorite cards.

[TopSecret]

Ray,
did you consider the inclusion of Stone Rain?

[iamfishman]

Ray,
did you consider the inclusion of Stone Rain?

I don't know...does Stone Rain cantirp?

[mdenny]

Here is the Crab Deck, played by Justin Palermo

1 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Sigil of Sleep
2 Thieving Magpie
4 Quicksilver Dagger
4 Horshoe Crab
4 Boomerang
4 Memory Lapse
4 Force Spike
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Disrupt
1 Arcane Laboratory
13 Island
6 Mountain

According to Justin this list is quite a few years old as he has not played competitve vintage in quite some time, but it is a very interesting combo kill condition backed with alot of countermagic. I am wondering if perhaps with some updates this could be a competitve deck in today's meta. Anyhow, looks like alot of fun to play.

[Stormanimagus]

Here is the Crab Deck, played by Justin Palermo

1 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Sigil of Sleep
2 Thieving Magpie
4 Quicksilver Dagger
4 Horshoe Crab
4 Boomerang
4 Memory Lapse
4 Force Spike
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Disrupt
1 Arcane Laboratory
13 Island
6 Mountain

According to Justin this list is quite a few years old as he has not played competitve vintage in quite some time, but it is a very interesting combo kill condition backed with alot of countermagic. I am wondering if perhaps with some updates this could be a competitve deck in today's meta. Anyhow, looks like alot of fun to play.

A few years back I designed a deck for Legacy that had a similar win Condition. I did not really find Sigil to be necessary against many match-ups and would probably relegate it to the SB against Fish decks or Oath. I think if I were to design that deck for Vintage it might look something like:

Crabs 'N Constables!

Land (17):
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
1 Steam Vents
7 Island

Artifacts (8):
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
4 Null Rod

Creatures (8):
4 Horseshoe Crab
4 Cephalid Constable

Instants (14):
4 Force Of Will
4 Misdirection
4 Mana Drain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm

Enchantments - Aura (7):
4 Quicksilver Dagger
3 Infiltrator’s Magemark

Sorceries (6):
3 Reckless Charge
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Timetwister

SB
3 Threads Of Disloyalty
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Sigil Of Sleep
2 Rack And Ruin
4 Chalice Of The Void

[mdenny]

That deck seems like alot of fun. Its probably worth a post in the open forum, atleast because its one of the more interesting win conditions available in Vintage.