Mr. Type 4
Creator of Type 4
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Creator of Type 4 - Discoverer of Steve Menendian
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« on: October 27, 2010, 08:29:49 am » |
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Throwback report 10-24-10
So I went to the Throwback Vintage tournament at Mr. Nice Guy Games in Pittsburgh. The format allowed cards in any set up through Alliances and had a strange banned/restricted list to go with it that is sort of a hybrid between B&R lists old and new. It was actually pretty effective in facilitating a format that was difficult to break.
After doing well at the previous Throwback Event, I had some ideas of what I wanted to play. First off, I wanted to play Browse for sure. Rich Shay had Browse in his deck the previous time, andIi was pretty impressed with the way it could take over the game and lead to a combo finish (burn away your whole deck then recur Time walk with Soldevi Digger). You dont even really need Time Walk, you can get pretty far just recurring countermagic, too.
Brian Demars suggested I try Blood Moon, and with 4x Strip Mine legal, I felt like that was worth a look. He also suggested 26 mana sources which I thought was high at first, but made more and more sense as i worked with it. Playing with Basic land lead me to Thawing Glaciers to make my Brainstorms better and to help me build up Basic lands for an eventual Blood moon. In practice, thaw really helped me smooth out my draws, too, since I usually drew through most of my deck every game.
Brian Keil keyed me in on Lightning Bolts, which would be good if people played pro-white dudes like Order of the Ebon Hand. Very smart. He also recommended Burnout for the Sideboard, which seemed like a good idea.
So Friday after work, I got started on my deck and first I tried to build a UBR version with Hymn to tourachs and Dark Rituals - it didnt work. So i went back to my idea of making Brainstorm good and comboing out with Browse. I came up with this:
Browser 2.0
3 Brainstorm
3 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Browse
1 Acall
1 Time Walk
1 Psionic Blast
2 STP
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Blood Moon
1 Balance
1 Recall
1 Moat
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Serra Angel
1 Soldevi Digger
1 Fireball
1 braingeyser
1 Disenchant
1 Timetwister
2 Thawing Glaciers
4 City of brass
2 Volcanic Island
4 tundra
1 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol ring
1 Mana Crypt
SB: 2 COP Black
1 COP Red
1 Land Tax
2 REB
1 Pyroblast
1 Burnout
1 Hydroblast
1 BEB
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plows
3 Wrath of God
I have to admit that I wasn’t super confident with this list. I didn’t playtest it at all and really barely goldfished it. At the last minute before the tournament I considered adding a second Serra Angel (the store only had the new picture ones for sale which I wasn’t into), then I wanted to toss in Demonic Tutor (but I left it at home). In the end it was probably for the best that I didn’t change anything.
Rd 1 - Will - 5C control
Our first game goes back and forth a bit, but I resolve Browse and a few turns later I seize control of the game. BUT I Browsed away my Serra Angel, so I had to try to win in a convoluted fashion - I got into an infinite turn loop and then I began recurring Psionic Blast to deal damage. He made me Force of Will at one point which put my life out of the range for using Psi-Blast as my kill. I looked through my graveyard and there was a lightning bolt in there. I played out the next ten or so turns digging it up, and when I finally did my opponent conceded. I combed out for over 20 minutes.
Game 2 went to a draw, so I get the default win. Amusingly he spent his Black lotus to make Jaymadae Tome in the beginning of the game but didn’t have 4 mana to activate. On the turn he finally got the mana my Gorilla Shaman ate it!
1-0
Rd 2 Josh Morford
Josh is playing an obnoxious Stasis deck. The tournament is really small, so we ID.
Rd 3 Ron Kotwicka - 5c control
Ron Kotwicka is the store owner and has a pretty sweet 5c deck
Game 1 - I'm looking good, but Ron catches me with my pants down and forces through a Jester's Cap. He cant activate it and I’m able to disenchant on my turn. On the next turn he plays another Cap- I scoop.
Game 2 - i manage to resolve Serra Angel when he's out of counters. He plays 2 Jester's Caps on the next turn, but it's no good. Serra goes to town on him since he sided out STPs.
Game 3 - we go to time and draw. I had Browse out, and felt good about it, but he said I was about to get Capped again, so who knows who'd have won.
1-0-2
Rd 4 5c Control
Game 1 - My opponent is pretty demoralized from his previous games. He's playing a version of Keil's deck from the last tournament which I'm very familiar with. Eventually comboed out after he ran out of counters.
Game 2 - He Caps me and I fear the worst. I debate in my mind if I should concede and try to win the 3rd game or try to survive for the rest of the 15 minutes that are left and get the 1-0. However, I get it even better, he doesn't take my Soldevi Digger - keeping the Browse combo live. THEN he just decides to concede, citing the fact that his deck sucks. Thanks =)
2-0-2
I make top 4 in 3rd place.
Top 4 UB Land Destruction
Game 1 - Epic. I stabilize at 1 life and turn the game around, comboing out with Browse.
Game 2 - He consults for Necro burning away a significant portion of his library. I counter the Necro. I play Circle of Protection Black, but I think I only activated it once, I was sooo far ahead. Then I got out Moat too, to add insult to injury. A couple turns later I drain into a lethal Braingeyser.
Finals - Ron Rodgers UB Control
Game 1 - we go back and forth, one player being ahead, then the other. He is destroying my land, but I still have a couple land and some Moxes. I get Gorilla Shaman and eat all of his moxen, then I start picking at him for damage. He gets Library of Alexandria going and I'm in trouble. I draw Balance and use it to blow out his lands - he falls into the trap and counters me, so I FOW back which costs him cards in hand upon resolution.
Eventually he gets back up to 7 in hand, but shortly thereafter I get Browse going and combo out.
That game took almost an hour.
Game 2 - I'm torn about what to side in. I don’t want to over sideboard, and I can use A LOT of my SB cards for Ron's deck. I decide to go with red blasts and to leave the COP Blacks in the box. He has Serendibs, Juzams and Hippies - so I don’t want to get caught by a Serendib when I have COP Black out - that would be annoying.
I probably punted this game. I was pretty far ahead and I countered some things I didn’t need to counter. The tide turned in Ron's favor when he got LOA going and I never recovered.
Game 3 - I got ahead early and was holding a fist full of counter magic. I cast Soldevi Digger early and it got countered. I wasn’t sure what to do about that and then at some point I drew Recall (not Ancestral, the other one). I got back my Digger and resolved a Browse. He got a Juzam and a turn later I Browsed into my Time Walk which pushed me to the point where my deck was burnt out and I was ready to combo. I performed the combo one last time, and won it all.
In the end the tournament was a lot of fun. I played against a lot of 5c Control, but each deck had a number of features that made each unique. Ultimately I had a really good read on the metagame, so my choice to play something designed to beat 5c Control and UB Land Destruction was correct.
I want to thank Mr. nice Guy Games and Chris Lepay for putting on this tournament. It’s hard enough drawing people to play regular Vintage, let alone a quirky “fun” format. It’s awesome to have a wide-open format in which to innovate without there really being any other events to steal lists from – it really gives you that feeling like we live in 1995 before the internet really hit. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and if you missed out, don’t miss the next one! The rumor is that Mirage block will be legal, which adds a lot to the game.
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