Paul Mastriano's Waterbury report

[Mr. Type 4]

Friday I left work nice and early, came home to pack my stuff and found that there was a party going on at my apartment building.  I had deck ideas flowing through my mind after the previous day's testing with Nat Moes and company.  Everything I'd thrown together thus far had been underwhelming, I tried: Dark times, Fish, and Red Workshops.  Unhappy with any of those, I brewed up a deck that ended up being similar to what I would have played at the Vintage Championship had I gone - UBW Jace

UBW Jace
A Mean Deck by Paul Mastriano

2 Drain
2 Jace
2 Spell Pierce
1 Thoughtseize
1 STP
1 Edict
1 D-Blast
4 FOW
1 Top
1 Acall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawg Will
1 Time Vault
1 tinker
1 Inkwell
1 Key
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
2 Disenchant
1 vendillion Clique
4 Bob
1 Vamp
1 Mystical
1 Demonic
1 TFK

1 Strip Mine
2 Tundra
1 plains
1 Island
3 Sea
4 Strand
1 LOA
1 Academy
1 Misty rainforest
5 Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus petal
1 Sol ring

SB: 4 Jailor
2 Disenchant
1 Rebuild
1 Aethersworn Cannonist
2 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of prog
2 thoughtseize
2 STP

I played Vendillion Clique because my deck doesn’t do anything vs a resolved Jace and I ran a diversified creature kill package because Soly had mentioned being stuck holding STPs vs Inkwell Leviathans in several games he played.  I threw that deck together and went to the party for some beers before Nat Moes came and picked me up.

The next morning I considered audibling to Demar's Lotus Cobra deck, but he said that maybe I should stick with my list in service of diversification, so we didn’t put all our snakes in one basket.  I agreed with that logic, and I also stuck with my deck because even though I'd never tested it, I knew that the combination of Bobs, Time Vault combo and Jace was a proven winner and that Vendillion Clique, Edict, STP and Disenchant would give me a competitive edge.

Demars tossed me a RIW T-Shirt for me to wear since they sponsored me for the event.  RIW is a nice store outside of Detroit that's very supportive of eternal formats - worth checking out if you're ever in the area.

Round 1 Bye

Round 2: Clark

My first game of the tournament was by far my favorite.  I sat down against an opponent I didn't recognize - a good sign!  I drank my energy shot, rolled out my playmat and lost the die roll.  He played turn 1 Delta, pass.

My hand was a couple land, Mox, Mox, FOW, Tinker Time Vault.  I didnt have another blue card for my Force, so my plan was to play TV, Tinker on turn 2 and hopefully find that blue card off the next draw.  I played my land moxes and TV, then passed. 

He drew his card, studied his hand and started playing moxes.  then he played Lotus, and cast Hurkyl's recall on himself.  Suddenly I knew he was trying to generate Storm, and so I worked out the math, realized that the "bottle-neck" was his black lotus and decided to counter it when he played it for the second time.  But when he replayed the Lotus, I Forced removing my Tinker and he forced back.  I was pretty beat at this point so I asked if he had the tendrils - he didn't, he had Mind's Desire FOR 12 =( 

So he shuffles up and starts turning cards.  island, Delta, Island, Ritual, Mox Mox, Ritual etc.  he flipped 11 mana source sand 1 lonely Ponder as his only action.  He played it, looked pretty happy as he found tinker for memory Jar.  so we Jar with 8 Black mana floating and he has some untapped Moxes etc - I was sure I was dead now.  He looks at his seven, and with a bit of irritation passes the turn.  Before we went to end step, I had an effect.  I cast Vamp tutor for key, which he didn’t Force of will.  I have absolutely no idea what he had in that 7 card hand, or how it was possible that there could be 7 more cards in his deck that didnt kill me.  But I didn’t wait around to look at his graveyard to find out if he drew something that could have won, I windmill slammed the key, got the concession and quickly moved on, happy to have won a game that I sooooo should have lost.

I knew at that point it was going to be a good day.   

Game 2 I sided in 2 thoughtseize and 1 Aethersworn Cannonist.  I had the canonist in my opener, he FOWed it, but the FOW left him out of gas. I got Bob/jace going and won fairly easily. 

2-0

Round 3: Carl Winter – UBG Jace

Carl is a teammate and a fellow Vintage Champion. I was not pleased to have to play a teammate so early on.  My deck was designed to compete with the UBG version, so I felt that I had pretty good odds.  Game 1 I got off Time Vault/key and managed to find my Jace before my own Confidant killed me.  Can’t remember the rest of the match too well, I definitely sided in my 2 thoughtseize.

3-0

Round 4: Keith Seals (Mr. Grim) Oath

Keith is friend from the Philly area, and is a good player – I’m pretty sure I was 0-2 lifetime against him.  I think I won game 1, Game 2 I looked good but he used Lim-Dual’s vault to set up a Time Vault combo that I couldn’t stop while I was stuck sitting on a hand of Oath hate.  Game 3 was decided at a critical point where I cast Yawg will for value and he Extirpated my brainstorm in response instead of my Time Walk in hopes that I would be killed by my own Bob (I think I was at 3).  That gambit didn’t work out for Keith – I survived the Bob flip and the extra turn took me to victory. 

4-0

Round 5: Kevin Cron – Snake City Vault

Kevin is another teammate.  We discussed taking an ID, but Demars reminded us that at this stage of the game a loss wasn’t the end of the tournament and a win meant that player was in Top 16.  Plus taking the draw could end with both of us sitting outside top 16.  We decided to play.  Don’t remember game 1 much, but in game 2 he played Bob on turn 1, and my turn 1 was Land, jet, another mox, then I played Thoughtseize seeing a FOW with no blue card, and a bunch of stuff he couldn’t cast.  He was all-in on the Bob, so it was particularly devastating when I Darkblasted it then played my Top.  I had Jace out shortly after to seal it up.

5-0

Round 6; ID

5-0-1

Round 7: Rich with Mono Red Shops

Rich wanted to play for team points.  His deck made short work of me in two games.  I’ve mostly erased them from my memory, but he definitely had 2 Golems in the one game.

5-1-1

Top 16: Joe Brown - MUD

I didn’t know what deck he was playing, although if I’d been paying attention I should have recognized him as the winner from Hadley the previous week. I lost the roll. My hand in game 1 was:

Bob
Tinker
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Land
Land
Spell Pierce

Which I thought to myself, this is a great hand unless he’s playing Shop, and in hindsight it’s actually a pretty good hand vs Shop on the Draw.  If they open with a sphere I can play land – Crypt - Sol Ring, or if he has Chalice = 0 I can still play sol ring and have some good mana.  That would probably be enough to get me into tinker and I can run that gambit, although Tinker is significantly worse vs Joe because his deck features a lot of Karns. 

But none of that mattered at all when he opened with Workshop –> Trinisphere and kicked my ass from that position.

Game 2: In game 2 I had 2 STP’s and a disenchant in my opener so I could kill most of the cards he played.  I also had Mox Ruby and Lotus Petal to kick-start my mana production.  He got an early Golem, I Swords it and I put my time vault into play on my turn.  He got a chalice at 1, which I allowed, followed by a Thorn.  On the next turn he got Karn with one mana left which he used on my Mox Ruby.  I tapped the ruby for mana and Disenchanted the Chalice.  On my turn I untap and have Island, Plains, time Vault and Lotus Petal in play.  I made a critical error here – I could have tapped island/Plains to destroy Karn now to save my Lotus Petal.  Instead I knew he would have to waste mana to destroy the petal on his turn and I could just sac it in response and use the mana to kill the Karn.  This is what I did, and then I spent the rest of the game drawing good black cards including Demonic tutor (for my key) while I kept hoping to draw a black mana source.  Eventually it got too far out of reach and I was finished off. 

So, I can’t say for sure, but I think my deck must be pretty bad vs Shop. It was good vs everything else, but the shop match wasn’t where I needed it to be. I stayed to cheer on Ashok and Brian Demars as they climbed their way up the brackets.

At the end of the weekend, Meandeck did very well as a whole.  We fielded 4 players into the top 16, 2 into the top 4 and 1 into the finals (plus my take on day 2) – We definitely took more than our fair share of the prize money. 

Nice work, Meandeck. 

      Until next time…

Props: Nat Moes for driving, Ryan for allowing use of his car.
-   Ashok, Demars and Kevin for joining me in the top 16.
-   The rest of my teammates for their efforts in deck design and their participation on the team forums.
-   Ray for throwing one of the best tournaments in a long time.  Extra props for everything he did to get so many good Vintage players in the same room. 
-   RIW Hobbies for sponsoring me
-   Everyone else who showed up

Slops: I can honestly say I have no complaints about this one.  It was great.

[Shock Wave]

He played turn 1 Delta, pass.

My hand was a couple land, Mox, Mox, FOW, Tinker Time Vault.  I didnt have another blue card for my Force, so my plan was to play TV, Tinker on turn 2 and hopefully find that blue card off the next draw.  I played my land moxes and TV, then passed. 

He drew his card, studied his hand and started playing moxes.  then he played Lotus, and cast Hurkyl's recall on himself.  Suddenly I knew he was trying to generate Storm, and so I worked out the math, realized that the "bottle-neck" was his black lotus and decided to counter it when he played it for the second time.  But when he replayed the Lotus, I Forced removing my Tinker and he forced back.  I was pretty beat at this point so I asked if he had the tendrils - he didn't, he had Mind's Desire FOR 12 =( 

So he shuffles up and starts turning cards.  island, Delta, Island, Ritual, Mox Mox, Ritual etc.  he flipped 11 mana source sand 1 lonely Ponder as his only action.  He played it, looked pretty happy as he found tinker for memory Jar.  so we Jar with 8 Black mana floating and he has some untapped Moxes etc - I was sure I was dead now.  He looks at his seven, and with a bit of irritation passes the turn.  Before we went to end step, I had an effect.  I cast Vamp tutor for key, which he didn’t Force of will.  I have absolutely no idea what he had in that 7 card hand, or how it was possible that there could be 7 more cards in his deck that didnt kill me.  But I didn’t wait around to look at his graveyard to find out if he drew something that could have won, I windmill slammed the key, got the concession and quickly moved on, happy to have won a game that I sooooo should have lost.

I knew at that point it was going to be a good day.

It is sequences like this that constantly remind me that while skill will largely dictate tournament results, there is often a distinct moment of chance in every player's tournament that can really shape their end result.

Thanks for the read and congrats on the good result!

[DubDub]

Congrats.  It was great to meet you, you seem like a really fun guy who really enjoys Vintage.

[JACO]

He played turn 1 Delta, pass.

My hand was a couple land, Mox, Mox, FOW, Tinker Time Vault.  I didnt have another blue card for my Force, so my plan was to play TV, Tinker on turn 2 and hopefully find that blue card off the next draw.  I played my land moxes and TV, then passed. 

He drew his card, studied his hand and started playing moxes.  then he played Lotus, and cast Hurkyl's recall on himself.  Suddenly I knew he was trying to generate Storm, and so I worked out the math, realized that the "bottle-neck" was his black lotus and decided to counter it when he played it for the second time.  But when he replayed the Lotus, I Forced removing my Tinker and he forced back.  I was pretty beat at this point so I asked if he had the tendrils - he didn't, he had Mind's Desire FOR 12 =( 

So he shuffles up and starts turning cards.  island, Delta, Island, Ritual, Mox Mox, Ritual etc.  he flipped 11 mana source sand 1 lonely Ponder as his only action.  He played it, looked pretty happy as he found tinker for memory Jar.  so we Jar with 8 Black mana floating and he has some untapped Moxes etc - I was sure I was dead now.  He looks at his seven, and with a bit of irritation passes the turn.  Before we went to end step, I had an effect.  I cast Vamp tutor for key, which he didn’t Force of will.  I have absolutely no idea what he had in that 7 card hand, or how it was possible that there could be 7 more cards in his deck that didnt kill me.  But I didn’t wait around to look at his graveyard to find out if he drew something that could have won, I windmill slammed the key, got the concession and quickly moved on, happy to have won a game that I sooooo should have lost.

I knew at that point it was going to be a good day.

It is sequences like this that constantly remind me that while skill will largely dictate tournament results, there is often a distinct moment of chance in every player's tournament that can really shape their end result.

Thanks for the read and congrats on the good result!

It is sequences like this that constantly remind me that playing Mind's Desire and Memory Jar is bascially a crapshoot, and that there are generally better options in combo decks.

Congrats on your success Paul, and thanks for a sweet report!

[voltron00x]

Congrats.  It was great to meet you, you seem like a really fun guy who really enjoys Vintage.

He is.  Paul's the man. 

[Ten-Ten]

Congratulations on the results. Thank you for the Report. Excellent read!