Vintage for Cash 6 Vacaville Results (12 players)

[LotusHead]

12 players showed up, so 4 rounds of swiss with cut to top 4.

Standings at the end of round 4 were

1 Stephen Menendian (Burning Oath)
2 Jim Kinchloe (Buscuit) (Tezzeret control)
3 Daniel Friedman (Strip Miner) (Other Tezzeret Control)
4 Jason Zudell (local scru...player) (Dark Depths)

Strip Miner won't split Top 4 so...

Stephen vs Jason: Steven wins 2-0
Jim vs Daniel: Daniel wins 2-0?

Daniel and Stephen split the finals, as they drove in together.

Lists and pics soon!

1st/2nd Stephen Menendian

3 Burning Wish
4 Duress
4 Oath of Druids
2 Griselbrand
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Hurkyls Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Opal
2 Chrome Mox

Sideboard

1 Yawmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty The Warrens
1 Show and Tell
1 THoughtseize
1 Shattering Spree
3 Nature's Claim
4 ANcient Tomb
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Hurkyl's Recall

1st/2nd Danny Friedman (stripmine)

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Time Vault
2 Voltaic Key
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Gush
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Tinker
3 Preordain
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sideboard

3 Leyline of the Void
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pithing Needle
1 Steel Sabotage
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Yixlid Jailor

3rd/4th Jim Kinchloe

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Dark Confidant
2 Flusterstorm
2 Grim Monolith
2 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Tezzeret the Seeker
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1 Tinker
1 Brainstorm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mox Opal
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Island

Sideboard

1 Mountain
3 Ingot Chewer
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Leyline of the Void

3rd/4th Jason Zudell

1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Crop Rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Dark Ritual
2 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Dark Depths
1 Swamp
3 Marsh Flats
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Badlands
1 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet

Sideboard

3 Leylind of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Steel Sabotage


Metamorphed Factory beats vs Strip Miner! I believe Smokestack set at 2 cleared his board and left me with Tolarian Academy and Sphere. Apparently a Snapcaster Mage was gonna jump me while at 1 life towards the end...
G1 had Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas animating Sol Ring and Mana Vault, me todecking Golems to chump, factories attacking planeswalkers, and all sorts of epic Vintage action.


My hand on the draw g2.


Stephen vs the 1 land hand. :/


Jason's second ever Vintage tourney.  Galen (Aardshark) gets owned by Liliana of the Veil.


And Abrupt Decay...


Round 2 I face Stephen Menendian. I lock him out of game 1 (I win die roll obv). This looks like g2.


Yes, that's SMOKESTACK set at 3...vs Dredge...G1... and yes, after about 5 turns, it got there.


I get my brains devoured g2, but I mull into this position G3 (like 5 minutes left on clock)


I find out that Jason's Vampire Hexmage got sac'ed to remove a counter off Gemstone Mine. :/


Strip Miner vs Buscuit I think.


Stephen's Jar hand. I'll check back in a few minutes to see what his followup play is.


Jason trying to digest the Storm count in Top 4...


Jim tutoring up Force of Will to protect Tezzeret.


This time, the Vampire Shaman is out for Sith Blood! But alas, it gets to witness Mind's Desire for 12 (Burning Wish was 12th flip)

[strip miner]

It was an awesome tournament. Thanks to everyone came and the shop. I had a blast.

[shrewarmies]

Interesting how Tezzeret's stock has really gone up in the last month or so. We have a Tezzeret list in over half of the recent top 4/8's. This is a new trend I am noticing. I wonder what is pushing players in this direction.

@Smennen

How was adding the time vault combo into the mix? Is that a further concession to shops? You have in the past argued against  putting that particular combo into your long decks claiming dissynergy as a contributing factor. Either part seems to me a dead draw without the other and even after you resolve both and have the combo active you still have to win. You dont have "ill just jace you out" as areason to move on.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Congrats to all...

12 players - makes me cry in my pillow.  Oh, for the days of 80+ tourneys again!

[LotusHead]

Pics are up in original post.

@thewhitedragon. Since 2004, 30ish has been the top number of players per tourney in NorCal.  I would be thrilled with 24 man tourneys being the norm. So far, social networking has gotten us a core of 12ish Vintage folk in Vacaville, perhaps next month's Eudemonia will get more people sleeving up decks.

[tito del monte]

As this seems like a fairly tight-knit scene and one well-stocked in cards, judging from the photos at least, why don't you just play this as a sanctioned event? I'm sure collectively you'd have the cards for a similar metagame - and you could have stuff like White Trash and Dredge built for anyone curious to try the format out.

Also - can someone please hook Stephen up with black-bordered Cities of Brass?!

[LotusHead]

My mini-report:
R1 I play against Strip Miner's Tezzeret deck. We have epic games, but I win out.
R2 I play against Smennen. I lock him out G1, he Hurkyl's me G2 and G3
R3 I grind out Aahz's dredge deck with smokestack at 3 G1, lose g2 to triple Bazaar, and get uber aggro hand g3.
R4 I play against Aardshark playing Burning Tendrils. I lose this match. Aardshark does not make top 4.

Lesson: Always look at the pairings on the last round of win and in.  I didn't know that I got paired down, and Aardshark didn't know I was playing to make top 4 (he thought we were playing for funzies). He would have scooped me in if he had known, and I would have mentioned it if I had known. Alas, I did not know, and didn't have a chance to uncleash AWESOME DIE ROLLS AND OPENING HANDS in the top 4.

[Biscuit]

Another quick report.

I woke up that morning and put together my pseudo turbo tezz list before the tournament.  I wanted to play a deck that beat shops and dredge consistently, and turbo tezz seemed like a good fit especially for the shops.  I was very split between including gifts/thirst/blightsteel, but in my limited testing I consistently found that I wanted something to put into play sooner from an opening hand, thus the bobs.  G1 there isn't much artifact hate around so I figured playing fast time vault combo would be fine.  
R1: Played against a snapcaster control?  I won in two games, I believe fielding more fast threats than he could handle.  
R2: Dredge.  Won game 1 off a turn 1 tezzeret.  Won game 2 off a yixlid (which he didn't sideboard in much hate for as it's surprisingly rare) and blightsteel.
R3:  W/U/B snapcaster control.  Won in 2.  Games played oddly like mirror matches, with both us going library and bob.  Lots of cards were drawn and land drops were missed as drawing 3 cards a turn isn't enough apparently.  I remember him casting a jace and me ignoring it when I think I could have countered it.  The benefits of playing a faster deck.
R4: Hexmage My opponent had drawn R3 and wasn't quite in if he drew the match, so we played a game.  I won by keeping a mana heavy hand and depending on my potential insane topdecks.  Yawg will after many liliana discards got me there.  Then I stupidly accepted the draw.
-A split was offered for the top 4, but because of tiebreakers I was not on top after having not lost a game.  That was unacceptable and we played.  I lost in 3, could not compete with his hot draws.  I lost to that other Tezzeret in G1.      
Random Notes
-I really dislike hurkyl's for the blue matchup, it's generally absolutely worthless.  However, having unfortunately dodged all the workshop decks I don't have any real insight on whether one could be replaced maindeck with perhaps an agent of bolas.  Guess I have some more testing to do.  
-The speed of this deck is amazing, yet it has the potential to take a slower, more sure route to victory with the bobs, jace, and library.  I really enjoyed the flexibility, yet I think arguments could be made for a more aggressive build with perhaps welders and immediate benefit spells instead of bobs.  Just some thoughts.  

I had a blast and am really looking forward to the next one if my schedule permits.  Thanks to everyone who came out to play.

[shrewarmies]

I agree with you on Hurkyl's being bad in the U matchups. Too often I am finding myself hoping that I will be able to catch my opponent short on mana and get an extra turn is case of vault but its just never happening. Its still decent vs tinker but I often wish it was anything else.

[Phele]

@Biscuit: Is this typo, or is there a reason, you don't play Tolarian Acadamy?

[LotusHead]

@Biscuit: Is this typo, or is there a reason, you don't play Tolarian Acadamy?

That's my bad. Fixed list. Lemme know if there are any other errors.

[Phele]

Thx Lotus, was just wondering ... in this deck ...