For a brief discussion of card choices and the development of the deck please check out my post in the Blue-Based Control section of Vintage Deck Discussion (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=45880.0). I took the following list with a few changes to tournaments at Mythic Games and The Player’s Guild in Bloomsburg. This is my first tournament report, so please feel free to provide comments and criticism.
The Players Guild 11/30/13
Semi-Finalist – Matthew Murray
“ No deck name provided" (Yeah, forgot to fill that part out…)
4 Show and Tell
3 Omniscience
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Emrakul, the Aeon’s Turn
1 Griselbrand
1 Tinker
2 Thoughtseize
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Preordain
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Misty Rainforest
SB:
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Energy Flux
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Echoing Truth
1 Flusterstorm
1 Extirpate
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Yixlid Jailer
At Mythic Games I finished in 9th out of 21 players. I started the day at 0-2 losing to Doomsday and Slash Panther Shops (did not see the Jester’s Cap coming), and then rallied with wins against Shops twice and a UBg control list. Aside from Jester’s Cap, Chalice on 3 was a huge problem for my deck in the first game and I just scooped to it twice. For Bloomsburg I moved Hurkyl’s to the main to give myself an out and cut the last Mana Drain.
Saturday morning, I met with Calvin, Sam Savage, and Justin Kohler and after the usual pre-Vintage breakfast burrito from Rob’s, we loaded into my car for the trip to Bloomsburg. Twenty-one people showed up at The Player’s Guild, meaning 5 rounds of Vintage.
Round 1 – Ryan Glackin on Affinity
Game 1: I win the roll and lead with a turn 1 Thoughseize which reveals a hand with Frogmite, Cranial Plating, Signal Pest, Workshops, Mox Opal, Lodestone Golem and Strip Mine (I take the Golem). Over the course of the next two turns, he vomits his hand and adds a Phyrexian Revoker that shuts down my Mox Sapphire and chokes me a bit on mana. When he goes to equip his Cranial Plating, I’m ready with Hurkyl’s Recall (instantly rewarded for the switch) to bounce his board and essentially Time Stretch him. The next turn I cast a Gifts Ungiven in response to his Revoker and Ryan gives me Mystic and Vampiric Tutors, binning a FoW and Show. Upkeep, I cast Mystic for Show, Show in Omni, and cast Emrakul, leaving him at 3 life and 1 permanent.
Game 2: I sideboard in the Energy Fluxes, Sabotages, Truth and a Tomb for an off color Mox and some combination of Flusterstorms, Preordains, Fact or Fictions, and Thoughtseize. Ryan leads off with a Lodestone Golem on Turn 1 off a Tomb and Mana Crypt. I am able to Force it and land an Energy Flux on Turn 2 off a Tomb of my own. (Ryan: “Energy Flux…Uhh, I haven’t seen that card in a while) E Flux combines with his double-Tomb draw to lock Ryan out of the game.
(1-0)
Round 2 – Bill Sees on UBg Control
Bill was just involved in one of the sickest games of Vintage I had seen, flipping 3 lands with Dark Confidant while at 1 life, having just enough mana to hardcast a FoW on his opponent’s Hurkyl’s Recall and then cast a Jace to bounce one of his opponent’s two Deathrite Shaman, forcing the other to chump block Bill’s Blightsteel Colossus, and then wining on turn 5 of time. Naturally, his deck craps on him in our two games.
Game 1: I keep a mana light hand that is loaded with permission, Show, and Omni. He accelerates into a Jace and fateseals away a Black Lotus, which I then Vampiric tutor back to the top. I untap, cast Show, put in Omni, and FoF reveals the following selection of cards: Emrakul, Tinker, Land, Gifts, Time Walk. It’s on to game 2.
Game 2: Bill has to mulligan to 4 and leads with a land and a Lotus. My turn 1 consists of Lotus, land, Mox. On Bill’s turn 2 he follows with a Thoughtseize, which I respond to with a FoF. Bill cracks his Lotus and Drains. In response, I go for the blowout with a Flusterstorm on both of his spells, but with his one remaining blue mana, Bill has a Flusterstorm of his own. It ends up being an even exchange, but Bill’s hand is spent and after Extirpating to make sure the coast is clear, Show into Omni into Emrakul takes the match.
(2-0)
Round 3 –Sam on Control Oath
Game 1: Sam manages to Misdirect my Thoughtseize and establish Vault-Key with Jace before I can find a second Thoughtseize to strip the Griselbrand in his hand.
Game 2: I flat out punted. Sam has Forbidden Orchard into Vampiric Tutor to play a turn 2 Oath. I Thoughseize his hand, stripping his Yawgmoth’s Will, and seeing that the coast is clear for me to Time Walk into Show -> Emrakul, I forget to attack Sam on the second turn with my tokens. I knew that I had to do this to maximize my chances of winnin, I made a point to attack him on the first turn, and then had a brain-fart. This leaves Sam at 15 life and after he draws 17 cards off double Griselbrand and A-call, he finds the double mox and Jace he needs to punish me.
(2-1)
Round 4 – Jacob on Mountains Win Again.
Game 1: I win the roll and keep a Preordain, Lotus, Crypt, double Show and Tell, Emrakul, Blightsteel hand. His deck is cold to turn 1 Emrakul.
Game 2: I side in Ancient Tombs and Echoing Truth for Thoughtseizes, off-color moxen, and Hurkyl’s Recall. My reasoning is my opponent is very good at killing Moxen and Thoughtseizes are going to be hard to cast if he has a Blood Moon. This goes exactly to plan as Jacob plays a turn 1 Magus of the Moon, turn 2 Vishino Heretic, turn 3 Gorilla Shaman, and then loses to my turn 3 Griselbrand off a basic island and 2 mountains.
(3-1)
Round 5 – Rob Edwards
ID into Top 8
(3-1-1)
Quarterfinals: Justin Kohler on Bomberman
Game 1 (was epic): I luckily win the roll and go Lotus into Show into Omni. Justin doesn’t have the counter but does put into play a V. Clique, which looks at my remaining hand of land, double Force, Preordain. He tanks for a couple minutes and then has me put a Force on the bottom. I cast the Preordain, which finds another Preordain, which finds a Griselbrand and a Gifts Ungiven for the turn 1 kill. Turns out, Justin had the “Kohler” with his 6 remaining cards being Land, Mox Sapphire, Black Lotus, Jace, Sol Ring, Mana Drain.
Game 2 (much less epic): I side out Tinker-Blightsteel, a Mox, and Hurkyl’s, bringing in Flusterstorm, Nihil Spellbomb, Extirpate, and Echoing Truth (He told me about the Peacekeeper in his SB on the drive up). I mulligan to 6 and keep a very bad hand with a single off-colored Mox under the reasoning that I’m probably not going to win on a mulligan to 5 and if I find a black mana source I can Extirpate him to figure out how he sideboarded. Apparently, he brought in Steel Sabotage and Disenchant as he destroyed two of my Moxes and beat me down with Clique and Trinket Mage.
Game 3: I keep a pretty good hand with Preordain, Ponder, A-call, three lands, and Emrakul. I lead off with Ponder, hoping to bait a Misstep, and finding a Show off the shuffle. Justin tanks for 5 minutes (not exaggerating) before playing a land and passing his turn. I draw Force for my turn and Preordain into a second Show, leaving Omni on top. On his turn he plays a land, Sol Ring into Trinket Mage, Lotus, V. Clique in response to which I A-call into a second FoW and Brainstorm. I Force his Clique, untap and go for it. Show and Tell resolves and he has a second Clique to my Omniscience. I Brainstorm with the intent of hiding my Emrakul on top of my library, but when I see Mystical Tutor and Fact or Fiction I keep all three and he scoops when he sees my hand (If he takes Emrakul, I can Mystical for Demonic Tutor, draw it with FoF, then play Emrakul anyway.)
Semifinals: Josh Butker on Doomsday Gush
I get creamed. Both games I have substandard draws with early Shows and Tinkers but no interaction. I die on turn 1 in the first game and turn 2 in the second game after Tinkering up Blightsteel. Rob Edwards, who watched the final game against Justin, said to me after the match, “Man, I was hoping that match would be more interesting.” Me too, Rob, me too. I definitely should have mulliganed more aggressively in the match, but this is only my second time playing against Doomsday (with any deck) and I was unfamiliar with the type of hands I could keep.
Rob and Sam were both pretty interested in the deck and I kind of kept an eye their post-sideboarded games and Brian Kelly’s HumanStorm final match against Josh. I think Rob was impressed by the deck and it seemed heavily favored on the play and competitive on the draw. Sam said the Omniscience chains were really fun but simply casting Show into Emrakul was boring. Brian nut-drew Josh in the finals, but he might put together a tournament of his own and I don’t want to spoil it.
Props:
Dan and Shawn for hosting the tournaments.
Brian Kelly for finishing 1st and 4th with HumanStorm
Sam, Calvin, Justin, and Brian for keeping me entertained and awake on the long car rides home.
Everyone who went out to eat after the tournaments – One of the aspects I like most about Vintage is the community.
Slops:
Kohler for losing to Brian Kelly 0-2 in both tournaments. Apparently, Cavern of Souls, Notion Thief, and Grand Abolisher are kind of good against Bomberman.
