And so another Darmstadt Vintage tournament is over, I'm back home, frustrated because I punted the last relevant game and therefore got bashed out of the Seminfinals once more by a Yawgmoth's Will from the top right into my face.
But the tournament was still important in the face of the big Ovino tournament in Milano coming weekend. Darmstadt was supposed to be a warm-up for it and so the basic core met again to drive to Darmstadt and tear stuff apart once more:
Fabian Moyschewitz with MUD
Alban Lauter with Oath
and Me with this, powered by CAPTAIN OBVIOUS:
// Lands
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Dakmor Salvage
4 Undiscovered Paradise
2 City of Brass
3 Petrified Field
// Creatures
4 Bloodghast
2 Golgari Thug
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 [DDC] Stinkweed Imp
1 Woodfall Primus
// Spells
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Dread Return
4 Serum Powder
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Darkblast
// Sideboard
SB: 2 City of Brass
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 4 Chain of Vapor
SB: 4 Nature's Claim
SB: 4 Leyline of Sanctity
After I had a pretty good performance with it last time, I gave it another try, but now featuring more Leylines.
Although I top8ed once more, I doubt that this tournament was representative. I will just tell you how my matches went and then you can make your own judgement.
Match 1 against Fabian Moyschewitz with MUDWe ID because we are buddies (and/or arrogant jerks?) and are both convinced that we will meet again in the Top8 playoffs. And because I know he's a very capable MUD player and he knows that I am good with Dredge.
0-0, 0-0-1
Match 2 against Urs Glaubitt with unpowered ANTDiceroll: Me
g1 I mulligan to 1, pass my turn and can just watch how I get Turn2'd by him. Very motivating.
SBing as far as I remember:
Out: 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Chalice of the Void, 3 Petrified Field, 1 Ichorid, 1 Golgari Thug, 1 Woodfall Primus, 1 Bloodghast
In: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 4 Chain of Vapor, 2 Nature's Claim, 2 City of Brass, 1 Darkblast
g2 I have double Bazaar and can setup 20 damage with a Troll, 4 tokens and a Ichorid lurking in my grave to win on Turn 3.
g3 I have double Bazaar again with Chalice. Lots of skill... NOOOT.
2-1, 1-0-1
Match 3 against Florian Scholz with MUDDiceroll: Him
g1 I open with a Leyline of the Void, he starts with Metalworker. I bazaar, go. He draws, reveals me a bunch of cards and plays a Trike together with a Sword of Fire and Ice and equips it.
However, I then hit a Moeba and 2 Bloodghasts together with 2 Bridges, a Dread Return and the Woodfall Primus and just proceed to gun down his boards and spawning more Zombies than the Umbrella Corp. He scoops.
SBing:
Out: 1 Leyline of the Void, 4 Chalice of the Void, 2 Dread Return, 1 Flame-Kin Zealot, 1 Woodfall Primus
In: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 4 Nature's Claim, 1 Chain of Vapor
This is incorrect, but I was amazed how helpless he was g1 because of the black Leyline, so I decided to keep 3 of the LotV. I should have boarded them out completely for the full set of Chains.
g2 I open with 2 Leyline of Sanctity, he opens with Shop, Sphere, I Bazaar and dump stuff into my grave and then my Bazaar gets wasted. I drawstep dredge, drop a Undiscovered paradise to get 2 Bloodghast into play and flashback Therapy him for Relic (which doesn't make sense, I should have called Metalworker. Embarrising). However, he just has got 2 Metalworkers and nothing of relevance. I proceed to bash him with the Bloodghasts and hit a Moeba before I get jammed by a Relic which cycles into a Relic. Anyway, no sweat, I have 5 power on the table.
Since Leyline of Sanctity disables the tap ability, I draw myself back to 8 cards and go for DDD. He cracks his Relic and draws a Lodestone Golem, but I eventually get him with the Bloodghasts because I drawed 2 lands in the process of getting up to 8 cards and they have haste due to him having just 3 life. Otherwise the moeba would have still raced the Golem at that point. However, I'd have died to a Trike.
2-0, 2-0-1
Match 4 against Frank Mann with UG Painterg1 I have double Bazaar and nearly died to a Mystical into Ancestral Recall (I plowed through my deck to desperately find the Flame-Kin, but after the game it turned out he was the bottom card of my library). However, I knew his hand because of a Therapy and before he can draw the Anc, I destroy his whole board and hand with DR Primus, Therapy, Therapy, DR Primus, Therapy.
SBing:
Out: 4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Woodfall Primus, 3 Petrified Field, 1 Bloodghast, 1 Golgari Thug
In: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 4 Chain of Vapor, 4 Nature's Claim, 2 City of Brass
g2 I open with Leyline of Sanctity, he play an Misty Rainforest and passes the turn. I bazaar (drawing a 2nd Bazaar) and discard stuff. He plays a 2nd Land and a Grindstone. I then dredge into insane stuff and hit 2 Painters with Therapy and develop a huge boardposition. He plays a Mox and plays Tinker for a Relic which he can't activate. My 2 handcards at that point were: City of Brass, Nature's Claim. I reveal him my hand and show him the option of DRing a Woodfall Primus to destroy it. He scoops.
2-0, 3-0-1
Match 5 against Benjamin Herz with DredgeI know he doesn't play with Leyline of the Void but I do, so I should have the edge in the mirrormatch. But I also know that the Dredge mirror is the most retarded thing in Vintage.
We I.D. and maintain our Top4 slots.
0-0, 3-0-2 and 4th.
Top8 playoffs, Quarterfinals against Alban Lauter with Oathg1 I open with a black Leyline and don't hit Dredgers for the first 2 Bazaar activations while he plays an Ancestral Recall and a Time Walk and then does nothing relevant.
I eventually hit a dredger and proceed to dredge, Alban drops an Oath. I dredge 18 cars, find a lot of good stuff, strip his countermagic and Dread Return Primus to wreck his Oath.
He scoops.
Sideboarding:
Out: 4 Leyline of the Void, 4 Chalice of the Void, 1 Woodfall Primus, 3 Petrified Field, 1 Bloodghast, 1 Darkblast
In: 4 Leyline of Sanctitiy, 4 Nature's Claim, 4 Chain of Vapor, 2 City of Brass
g2 he mulls to 6 and opens with Leyline of the Void and land, go. I will just copy what I noted down on my paper:
1st Turn Claim on Leyline, 2nd Turn Bazaar, 3rd Turn Chain on Oath, 4th Turn win.
2-0, 4-0-2
And then I wait f'ing 2 1/2 hours for my next opponent because Martin Pfeifer and Tobias Egelhof play a controlmirror. This match will determine my next opponent and Tobias goes down 2-1 against Martin Pfeifer
So, semifinals against Martin Pfeifer with UB Painterg1 I win 2nd Turn.
SBing:
Out: 4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Leyline of the Void, 2 Dread Return, 1 Flame-Kin Zealot, 1 Woodfall Primus, 3 Petrified Field
In: the whole SB
g2 I don't have the white Leyline and at some point get my balls ripped off by a Ravenous Trap out of nowhere. Didn't see that coming.
g3 I slowroll things because I don't have the Leyline and am really afraid of getting lucksacked by a Trap again. When I hit Bridges, he Xtirpated them and I am forced to slowroll with a recurring Ichorid and a Bloodghast while he drops a Jace TMS and proceeds to flood. I disrupt him by darkblasting a Confidant, therapy for trinket Mage, darkblast a Painter that blocked my Bloodghast but then a Demonic Tutor from the top into Yawgmoth's Will into Paintercombo crushes me. I should have dredged way more aggressively and it would have been mine...
1-2, 4-1-2, still 4th after playoffs.
I would have teared Martin apart with a white Leyline because his hate configuration sucks extremely against it (I've seen 2 Tormod's and 2 RavTrap, Xtirpates are basically irrelevant). People still say "well, but you didn't have it", but for me it still proves that the Leyline will punish people very hard (which is the essential point I wanted to find out for Milano).
But anyway, there were 3 things for me to determine:
1) How powerful is this in compairison to my StitcherDredge? -> It's better because it's more versatile.
2) How strong is the white Leyline? -> Ridiculous!
3) What kind of hate must I prepare for? -> All kind of hate as always, I saw a million of Jailers and Leylines as well as Relics, Tormod's, Traps and Needles. My sideboard is okay I guess!
So I am still quite satisfied because I am confirmed with my metachoices.
Anyway, that's all for now, I am tired as hell and I think another report will be coming next week when I'm back from Milano. If no report from Milano comes up from me, you can assume an embarrising performance from me.
So long,
Daniel "Adan" Scherer
