The Queen's Vault- Good Games Sydney, Australia

[shrewarmies]

Last Monday, 11 Players made it out to Good Games Sydney to duke it out for a Minty UNL Time Vault at the end of the day it was the BOM BUG list that won out again. Well done to everybody who made it out and I hope we see you all again.

Meta Breakdown:

Fish - 2
Junk Bears
BOM BUG Fish

Rituals - 3
2 Burning Long
1 TPS

Workshops - 3
1 Mono R Shops
1 Espresso
1 Forgemaster

Drains - 3
2 Bomberman
1 Grixis

After the swiss was done, four decks remained after the cut. They were:

1) Justin - BUG Fish
17 LANDS
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Wasteland
1 Bayou
1 Strip Mine
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest

16 CREATURES
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Trygon Predator
2 Scavenging Ooze

22 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

5 OTHER SPELLS
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet

SIDEBOARD
1 Wasteland
1 Trygon Predator
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Null Rod
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Swamp
4 Snuff Out

2) Robert Bartlett - Grixis
1 Badlands
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brainstorm
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Goblin Welder
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Imperial Seal
1 Island
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mana Crypt
2 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Polluted Delta
1 Ponder
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Volcanic Island
1 Voltaic Key
2 Wasteland
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard
1 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Rebuild

3) Dion Wong - TPS
Instant
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Force of Will
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Dark Ritual
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Impulse

Sorcery
1 Timetwister
4 Duress
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Windfall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder

Artifact
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Memory Jar
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantment
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Land
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
2 Extirpate
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rebuild
1 Brain Freeze
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Massacre
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Mystic Remora

4) Francis Lam - UW Bomberman
Creatures
4 Trinket Mage
2 Auriok Salvagers
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Aven Mindcensor

Other Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Snare
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Æther Spellbomb
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Lands
4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Tundra
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Polluted Delta
1 Plains
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Rest in Peace
2 Disenchant
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Devout Witness
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt

I apologize for the formatting of these deck lists, this is a copy and paste job from our Facebook page.

[tito del monte]

Having played a BUG list at BOM myself, I'm really fascinated and perplexed by this build that keeps doing well - namely the lack of basics in the main and the lack of raw planeswalker power. Playing both Lily and Jace felt really broken to me - but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I do like the inclusion of maindeck ooze to beatdown with. I played only one Clique main as my biggest creature and alone it wasn't always enough pressure - especially against UR Landstill, which felt like a fairly atrocious match-up.

Do you have any insight into the planeswalkers-or-not BUG debate?

[shrewarmies]

I cant give you any tournament insight into the deck sorry. I built the BOM BUG deck and felt that it was clunky at times also. I was to play it at our last tournament but in order to get a newer player to play I gave the list to him so any insight I have is limited to non tournament testing.

I found the deck to be a bit clunky, a few too many 4 ofs that I just did not want to draw a second or a third, namely Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage and Abrupt Decay. When I then rebuilt the deck w the Planeswalkers you mentioned I cut a Snappy, a Deathrite and 2 Decays. I felt when testing that list that they were far better numbers in testing. I am not sure if planeswalkers is definitely the way to go but they do provide a strong backup, Lilliana in particular was very powerful, even over Jace. As for the manabase question, I found the BOM list to be very "active". Every land you draw is the land you want, each fetch can get any of the duals in the deck and you do have a steady supply of them.  The base CMC if the deck is only two also so you can generally take a waste effect before you feel the squeeze, you are not trying to tap out for Jace after all.

I also felt in testing that the deck much better positioned against the "dude" workshop decks while something running Stacks like Espresso can give the deck a bit of a hard time.


Personally If I were to run a BUG Fish deck, along the lines of our BOM deck, it would probably look something like this:

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Brainstorm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm
3 Mental Misstep
2 Steel Sabotage
4 Force of Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
3 Thoughtseize
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Trygon Predator
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
1 Black Lotus
1 Null Rod
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Bayou
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea

Sideboard
4 Snuff Out
1 Swamp
1 Wasteland
1 Trygon Predator
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle

That's just a straight port for the 4 slots I mentioned earlier for 3 Thoughtseizes (which I love currently) and a basic (island/swamp depending on meta). I am fine with running the multiples of the same basic but don't like mana bases like Noble fish which can be stuck with the wrong fetch in hand and just die. Those Thoughtseizes could easily become some number of Jace/Lilliana and if I were to go that route I would try and find room for a Life From the Loam, probably in place a Waste #3 to fascilitate the higher CC's of the walkers, ability to strip lock an opponent  and fuel for Lilliana.

[personalbackfire]

I love to see people do well with TPS, even in a smaller setting. Though I must say some card choices are pretty wild (unconventional, Old School).

I like the 14 lands in a world where Workshops are as good as they are. Same thing with the 3 bounce spells.

The cards I think are questionable are the Fact, Impulse, the second Tendrils, and to a lesser extent Windfall.

If Dion is on TMD I would love to hear why he choose those over Mystical Tutor, Cabal Rituals, Jace, or Preordains.