After missing out on the Dutch Nationals due to a party of a friend who is going to Australia soon I finally had a chance to get my revenge for my latest showing in the Dutch vintage scene last Sunday. In November I piloted Chris’ Minus Six deck in Breda to 4 match wins in the first 4 rounds. Normally that should be enough to get in the top 8 of a six round tournament, but this time something terrible happened. It turned out there were only three 12-pointers and I got downpaired and lost. Exactly the same happened in the 6th round and I got 9th on 0.5% resistance. My buddy and teammate Guus (Mantis) missed on top 8 due to an incorrect judge call on Echoing Truth and Leyline of the Void. Kind of a frustrating event for the both of us, but we both turned our frustration into more testing and an even better preparation for our next chance to show what we’re worth.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago when the preparation and testing for this event started. Storm combo was well represented in both the top 8 of the Dutch Nationals and the latest Breda tournament. Next to combo I also expected aggro/fish and homebrew decks to be a big part of the metagame. I saw three options to attack Combo, a Workshop deck, a Fish deck or a Combo deck designed to beat the mirror. I preferred the last option, if able, because of its ability to easily defeat aggro and homebrew decks most of the time.
As you all should know by now, I’ve been a big fan of GWSx (the Dark Confidant fueled combo deck designed by the infamous Mike Solymossy and further tuned by him and yours truly) ever since its creation. I’ve taken the deck to three tournaments before over the past 2 years, resulting in a top 8 finish (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36095.0), a top 2 split (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37738.0) and a top 4 finish (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38451.0). Can I choose a better weapon to take my sporting revenge on the Dutch Vintage scene? The deck has never abandoned me and will once more become my ally for a day of intense gaming.
Zendikar has brought us a black Jester’s Cap effect that’s castable off a Dark Ritual. Kind of the ideal opening versus decks (ab)using the storm mechanic, Tezzeret and Oath. We’ve been discussing the card and its applications on our team board quite a bit. This could be the card I was looking for to tune a combo deck to beat the mirror. After I saw Jerry Yang’s deck from the Something 2 Do Mox Jet tournament (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=39325.0) I knew our ideas were sound.
I made a few changes to the maindeck. I kind of dislike Fact or Fiction in storm decks and I thought 4 maindeck Sacraments might be a bit too much. Therefore I added Ponder, for extra early setup, and Lotus Petal, for better first turns and synergy with Will. I replaced the sideboard Grips for basic lands (which I think are better vs. Shops) and simultaneously cut the Tropical for the 4th Sacrament. Testing with Guus proved that Sphinx is the best robot against Shops, and its Lifelink ability synergizes with this decks suicidal component against other aggro decks. The revamped list crushed TPS in testing and the Sacraments nearly did not influence the ability to go combo out against decks where you cannot use it. Selkie, a matchup which I expected and thought to be unfavorable, turned out to be quite winnable as well. With their choice of Spell Pierce as their second counter, they have a hard time stopping your Confidants, which will provide you with enough gas to eventually win through their hate.
GWSxAs suggested by Duncan for a combo heavy metagame// Lands
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Swamp
1 Island
// Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
// Spells
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
3 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Necropotence
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Vault
1 Timetwister
1 Voltaic Key
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ponder
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Swamp
SB: 1 Island
SB: 1 Sadistic Sacrament
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Xantid Swarm
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 1 Helm of Obedience
SB: 1 Tinker
SB: 1 Smother
SB: 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
I was not entirely sure about the Vault Key combo in the maindeck, but decided to go for it because the random games you win of it and the diversification of win conditions making the deck harder to hate. After boarding I can potentially have 5 kill cards (most likely will only be 4) next to my Confidants, making Sacrament not that much of a problem.
Two weeks before I managed to convince my older brother Kevin to come with us. He occasionally plays Magic with me, but most of the time that isn’t Vintage and his last tournament has been more than a year ago. I was happy he wanted to join us once more with a Aggro MUD list we selected for him the previous night. On to the day of the tournament. We start the ride at 8.15 am and pick up Guus and Onno (LennoxLewis86) along the way. When we arrive ar the scene we meet with Marius (marske), Arjan (zieby) and many others and get Kevin the last cards he needs. 42 people have showed up to fight for the Mishra's Workshop and all the other prizes.
Round 1: Maarten Kwant with Reanimator; 0-2 I win the die roll and look at my opening seven. Tendrils, Thoughtseize and mana, but no plan. I ship them back and my six contains no lands, neither does my five. My four is Delta, Sea, Mana Crypt and Cabal Ritual, at least decent but not a good way to start the tournament. I open with a land and pass the turn. He Duresses my Mana Crypt away. I think I’m in good shape when I topdeck a Confidant on turn 2 and play it, but his turn includes a Careful Study and Reanimate on Akroma, knocking me down to 13. Looks like I’m going to lose the damage race. I reveal a 0cc-er to Confidant and draw Timetwister. Knowing I have one more turn to maximize my chance I pass take another hit. I reveal, draw and play Twister with B floating and a Sea untapped. My hand is now Confidant, Sacrament, Brainstorm, Ancestral, Demonic Tutor, and two lands. I play a land and now I have two options:
a. Play Ancestral and possibly Brainstorm, hoping to draw into gas to turn my Demonic into a Tendrils and win.
b. Play Cabal Ritual and Demonic for Lotus. Crack Lotus for blue and cast Ancestral and Brainstorm with UB floating.
I chose for the first option and fizzled out. In hindsight I think the second is much better.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Demonic Consultation, -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Rebuild,
+1 Helm of Obedience, +1 Tinker, +4 Leyline of he VoidI’m not sure on what I boarded out next to the Sacraments, but I think it were these 3. I take out the Sacrament because Reanimator decks usually run more than three creatures and I do not want to have too many non-combo cards in the deck now that I bring in Leylines. I do not bring in the Sphinx alongside the Tinker because he has creatures to match it.
He mulls to 6 and I open with a Confidant. He opens with Bazaar and discards Iona and two other cards. I drop Time Vault and he reanimates Iona, I respond with Vampiric Tutor and think about getting Chain (bouncing Iona and combo out) or Key (take infinite turns and hope I’ll have an answer for his Iona before bob kills me (assuming he names black). I opt for the key, which turns out for the best when he names blue instead of black, he assumed I took the bounce I guess. I play the Key and to my surprise it gets FoWed, had not seen him play, hold or discard that card until now. He swings with Iona and on my turn I cannot draw a land to get to 9 mana to cast both Leyline and Helm and activate it.
Round 2: Hero ‘t Mannetje with Aggro MUD; 2-1 Game 1 he opens with Ravager, I duress his Tangle Wire (also saw Factory, Trisk and City of Traitors) and drop Confidant. To my grief he topdecks Sword of Fire and Ice and swings, so I have to block. Either way I am going to lose my Confidant. I play a land and pass the turn. He hits me for another five, draws a card and plays his Trisk. He is not the only one who can topdeck, because now I draw Lotus and combined with Dark Ritual and Demonic Tutor I easily win.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Time Vault, -1 Voltaic Key,
+1 Swamp, +1 Island, +1 Hurkyl’s Recall, +1 Tinker, +1 Sphinx of the Steel WindThe second game is quite short. He opens with Shop, Mox, Mana Vault, Trinisphere and follows it up by a Jester’s Cap on turn 2. My hand had 2 fetch and a third land, so was able to fight the Trinisphere, but the Cap was too much.
-1 Timetwister, -1 Gifts Ungiven
+1 Time Vault, +1 Voltaic KeyI board in my 4th win condition to fight the Jester’s Caps.
Game 3 he mulls twice and I have Vault+Key in my opener, but he drops Tangle Wire and two turns later another one. Luckily he cannot put me on a clock while I build up my manabase and sit out the wires. Eventually I can push through a Hurkyl's and win with infinite turns.
Round 3: Ido Passman with Selkie Strike; 2-1He wins the die roll. I have an ok hand, but am unaware he is playing Selkie Strike (he is not known for playing Fish decks). He stifles my first fetchland and stays ahead with Null Rods, Wastes and Dazes.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Time Vault, -1 Voltaic Key, -1 Bayou, -1 Lotus Petal
+1 Tinker, +1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind, +1 Darkblast, +1 Smother, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Swamp, +1 IslandIn the second game he does not really know what I’m playing yet and names Time Vault with his first Meddling Mage. His second one names Demonic Tutor since he saw me play black cards. I build up a hand with Confidant and when I Duress him and see no counters I drop a lethal Tendrils.
Game 3 I get quite lucky. He gets some pressure on board in the form of Qasali Pridemage and Meddling Mage. Later he drops an Aven Mindcensor during my eot. When I’m at 9 life I have cleared the way for Tinker with multiple Duresses. I cast it and he says ok. While looking through my library, he suddenly realizes he has Mindcensor (I missed it too). He points at it and I ask if it’s ok if I look at the top 4 without shuffling since I had not done anything but look through the bottom of my deck. He is ok with it, Sphinx is my 4th card and I after three swings (I had Darkblast for his Mindcensor) I have won.
Round 4: Peter Reynders with 5 color Stax; 2-0He wins the die roll and opens with a Welder and a Chalice set at zero. I drop some lands and a Confidant while he plays a Tangle Wire and a Crucible (without a Waste/Strip). When he drops a Smokestack and has used his Welder in his own turn I can Chain his Chalice and combo out with Moxen, Lotus and Will.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Demonic Consultation, -1 Gifts Ungiven, -1 Timetwister, -1 Time Vault, -1 Voltaic Key, -1 Bayou, -1 Necropotence, -1 Time Walk
+1 Tinker, +1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind, +1 Darkblast, +1 Smother, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Swamp, +1 Island, +4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Helm of ObedienceI do have quite some cards to bring in against 5 color Stax. (Again I’m not entirely sure what I boarded out)
He opens with a Welder again. I drop a first turn Confidant and hardcast Leyline on turn 3. I tutor up the Helm, play it and win without much resistance.
By now both Guus and Kevin have won all their four matches. They have to play each other at table 1 and draw in.
Round 5: Martin Nuyten with Dark Depths Suicide; 2-0 All the tables around me were filled with players I would like to face. They were playing either Storm or Ichorid decks. However, I am paired against a matchup which I know is difficult, but certainly not unwinnable: Dark Depths Suicide. It plays Duress, Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach and Sadistic Sacrament mainboard, not the kind of deck you’d like to face when playing combo.
Game 1 He has a turn 2 Marit Lage, but I had my single Chain of Vapor in my opener. We both play draw go for a while and he puts a clock on me with another Vampire Hexmage. Eventually I push through the win with a tutored-up Yawg's Will and a graveyard full of discarded spells.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Time Vault, -1 Voltaic Key, -1 Bayou, -1 Lotus Petal
+1 Tinker, +1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind, +1 Darkblast, +1 Smother, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Swamp, +1 IslandGame 2 he mulls to 4 but starts with Swamp Ritual Confidant. I have the Smother for his confidant and Duress his Darkblast away. I play my Confidant and he Dredges his blast. I am ok with this trade since I develop my board and draw a card while he does nothing to improve his. We draw go for a while and when I have a grip of mana I eot play the mystical I just drew for demonic (my plan is to play some mana, Demonic for Will, replay the mana and then demonic into Tendrils). I think I’m there because he has no counters, but he Extirpates smother and shuffles my deck in the process. We draw go a bit more and he is beating me down until I find Gifts and win (Tendrils, Demonic, Vampiric, Top). he gives me vamp and top and I Vamp for Will and draw it with Top.
Round 6: Frank van Rijn with ANT; ID We’re both at 12 points, we do some quick math and see we can safely ID and recharge our batteries. I hear Arjan is in top 8 as well. Onno has to play Marius for a spot, so either our whole car gets in, or the whole delegation of team R&D makes it. Onno wins the match in three exciting games.
Top 8: Kevin Keijzer with Aggro MUD; 2-0I am a bit disappointed I am paired against my brother now. One of us will be out of the tournament after this match. The upside is that one of us will also make top 4. We decide to split our prizes before we start playing the match.
Game one I win the die roll and open the most busted hand of all day: Delta, Thoughtseize, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Demonic Tutor and Yawgmoth’s Will. Had I lost the roll I should have mulliganed this because of the threat of getting locked down under sphere effects. I feel kind of sorry for my brother to kill him on turn 1 after he’s been waiting for two hours to play a match.
-3 Sadistic Sacrament, -1 Timetwister, -1 Gifts Ungiven,
+1 Swamp, +1 Island, +1 Hurkyl’s Recall, +1 Tinker, +1 Sphinx of the Steel WindMy opening hand is Sapphire, 2x Island, 2x Duress, Demonic Tutor and Confidant. I do not have the correct colors, but since he’s likely going to open with a Sphere-effect I won’t be able to play anything for the first 1-2 turns. The hand does have 2 basics and a Confidant, which are all good against Shops. He keeps and opens with just a Workshop (after the match we noticed he should have mulliganed this hand). I topdeck a swamp and drop my confidant. He plays another workshop and a Tangle Wire. I build up a manabase and sculpt a hand while he can’t put any pressure on me. Eventually I bounce his board and combo him out.
Still, mad props for you to make top 8 in your first tournament in a year!
When the other quarterfinals have been played out, Onno, Guus and I offer a split to Arjan. It’s been a good day and we’re happy with our results. Arjan declines since he’s very close to the finals of a tournament and he likes to get there for the first time (correct me if I’m wrong Arjan). Actually I am kind of happy he declines as I was not sure about splitting either. I knew I have to play Arjan and I think I have a favorable matchup (finally a match in where I can use my Sacraments).
Top 4: Arjan Bos with Almost Blue; 2-0 As I walk to the table I am trying to get into Arjan’s mind by noticing he never won a tournament match against me. Marius is ready to watch our game and smiles. Arjan tells me he is going to do right now.
I win the die roll and think a long time about how to play my opening seven. Delta, Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Time Walk and Gifts Ungiven make up for a very difficult hand. I have the turn 1 kill just as I did against Kevin, but now I play against a deck packing Forces and I sense Arjan has one waiting for me. I open with delta into Ritual, crack lotus for blue and cast gifts with UB floating. If it resolves I’ll probably win, if not I still have options. He forces pitching Time Walk. I play my own Walk, untap, draw a mox and cast Demonic Tutor for Confidant. He plays a land, Lotus, Sol Ring and passes. I draw Mystical and cast my Confidant. He hardcasts FoW. A turn later I mystical for Sacrament at his eot and it resolves during my turn. He has only 2 maindeck Brain Freezes to kill me so he scoops before I can look through his library.
-1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Time Vault, -1 Voltaic Key, -1 Gifts Ungiven
+1 Sadistic Sacrament, +2 Xantid Swarm, +1 Smother(I am not entirely sure what I boarded out here) Boarding in Smother might not seem logical at first hand, but I know he plays both Old Man of the Sea and Dark Confidant in his board. I only wanted to bring in one creature hate, since it is not always useful, so I opted for Smother since it takes care of Old Man.
I mull to 6 and open a hand with 2x Duress, Smother, Chain of Vapor and 2 mana. He plays a land and passes. I duress and he shows: Tinker, Sphinx, Walk, FoW, Freeze, Island. I take Walk since his hand is low on gas and I have the second duress for his FoW to push through my first spell. The second turn we both play a land and pass. Third turn I draw a Confidant, duress his Force (his new card was Academy) and play the Confidant. He plays Tinker and I’m about to face a hardcast Sphinx if he gets Pearl or Lotus. To my surprise he gets Top. He plays a Brain Freeze for 15 cards on me also dumping Yawgmoth's Will in my grave. I draw a Sacrament and cast it removing his Yawgmoth’s Will, Twister and 2nd Freeze, leaving him with Bob and Old Man to do the job (and the Sphinx in his hand), also the Top gets shuffled away, because he used the drawing effect to increase his storm count last turn. In his turn he repeals my Confidant and I replay it (by this time I had drawn my second Confidant, but because of the Sacrament I did not have the time to play it). At my end of turn he wants to repeal again but I Chain Bob in response to deny him the card, he is still low on gas and I’m in good shape. I then drop double Bob and when he casts an Old Man I Smother it. I Thoughtseize his Sphinx away and eventually Bob reveals a tendrils and I win.
Finals: Guus de Waard with Mono R Workshop Aggro; split Guus managed to win against Onno and we are both in the finals. Our hard work paid off. We decide to split our prizes (Mishra’s Workshop for first, 4 Tropical Island for second) and go home. For the fourth time in a row GWSx has brought me fortune, what a deck!
My prediction of a lot of combo was correct. Sadly I did not get paired against it until the semifinals. There, the Sacraments proved their inclusion to me. They have not really hindered me during the rest of the day, so I would run them again if I expect a similar metagame.
I wanted to thank all who attended for again a great day of magic. Also thanks to the organization. I am sad this was the last tournament you guys will organize in Hengelo. It was again well organized and the prize support was very nice. Also props to Team R&D for taking up the first three slots and helping me improve my game. Finally special thanks to Kevin, Onno and Guus for the great trip.
Hope you enjoyed!
Duncan
Ps. I just looked outside and it started snowing here. Happy holidays everyone!
