24 (or 23) people gathered at Dreamer’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the monthly Vintage tournament. This month was for an unlimited Mox Pearl.
All last year, I had been playing with my Oath of Auriok deck (oath/salvagers) with great success. It was a deck that threw all of its gas into the first three turns with little pick-up after that point. But, alas, with Stax and Gifts Ungiven decks becoming the rage, null rods, chalices, and pithing needles have made my deck a dying breed. In December, I tried one last hurrah with the deck and got stomped by TT Bob, Stax, and, the final straw, by Parfait.
Wanting to switch to a mana drain deck, I turned to Gifts. I still wanted to play white, which is not a popular color in Gifts, but the winning decks in the Quebec Vintage championships inspired me to play a Salvager Gifts deck.
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=24614.0. Unfortunately, the more I tested and refined the deck to my own liking, the more Auriok Salvagers got in the way and the deck started looking like Meandeck Gifts. And while I’ve always liked Tinker/Colossus, after significant testing against my friends who plays UW fish and Uba Stax, I felt Colossus is too hated out in people’s maindecks. So, I decided to go 100% storm game one, and then bring in Salvagers or Colossus as a secondary win condition in games two and three when the creature hate is less.
Christmas Gifts:
4 Force of will
4 Mana drain
2 Misdirection
1 Disrupting Shoal
3 Gifts ungiven
4 Brainstorm
3 Merchant scroll
1 Mystical tutor
1 Vampiric tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 Fact or fiction
1 Ancestral recall
1 Balance
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Recoup
1 Burning wish
1 Tendrils
1 Time walk
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Lion's Eye
1 Black lotus
1 Lotus petal
1 Mana crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol ring
5 Moxes
4 Flooded strand
1 Polluted delta
1 Tundra
3 Volcanic island
2 Underground sea
3 Island
1 Tolarian academy
Sideboard:
1 Plains
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Darksteel colossus
1 Tinker
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Rebuild
1 Echoing
1 Disenchant
1 Serenity
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
1 Timetwister
1 Claws of Gix
1 Darkblast
Explanations on the deck:
Tech#1 – The gifts stack of: Black Lotus, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Recoup, Yawgmoth’s Will. You’ll usually get Black Lotus and Lion’s Eye, to which you play them, recoup yawgs, and have 5 floating mana and 6 storm count coming out. If you already have one of the components, even better because the extra card goes into the grave for storm, bounce, or draw coming out of the Yawgs.
Tech#2 – The white cards - basic Plains, Serenity, and Salvagers - Against wasteland decks, the basic plains takes the place of Mox Emerald or Mana Vault. Also, no one expects the Serenity or Salvagers coming in game 2.
Tech #3 – Burning Wish maindecked in a storm deck with Tendrils already maindecked itself. Why not a second Tendrils? It’s worth the expression in the opponent’s face when you Yawgs for ridiculous advantage, only to finish off the Yawgs with Burning Wish for it back. Also, without Burning Wish, I wouldn't be able to play...
Tech #4 - Timetwister. Its key role is as a Burning Wish target for a blue spell to toss to Force of Will. If it's part of the Power Nine, it must be good for something.
Tech #5 - Disrupting Shoal maindeck. My 8 year old daughter got it for me for Christmas and asked if I was using it in the tournament. Well, so I put it in my maindeck. I used it once for a gifts stack of mana drain, force, misdirection, disrupting shoal to counter an ancestral. I won that quarterfinal game and the match. So, my daughter can teach me a few things about Vintage deckbuilding.
So, given my daughter’s key contribution to the deck and the unconventional build with white, I decided to name this deck “Christmas Gifts.”
Before you start writing “well, wouldn’t this 'other' Gifts version work better?” Well, to that, half the fun of playing vintage is surprising your opponent with something unique and following it up with some stupid broken play to win the game. The other half of the fun, winning, is more about knowing your deck, not making mistakes, and lucky match-ups than playing the most optimally tuned deck. So, without further ado, the report…
Round 1 – WTF (worse than fish). Game 1 should be heavily in my favor as he has little to stop my combo. Once I get to drain mana, it’s over and I combo out early. Game 2 is tougher because in come 4 phyrexian furnaces…I bring in Colossus. He gets an early Jitte on a mongrel, chalice at 0 and 1, and the aggro attack is too fast. Game 3, he gets out two early furnaces. He wipes my graveyard clean, but taps his mana out with one furnace untapped. On his endstep, I chain of vapor the untapped furnace, cast gifts for recoup-yawgs-tinker-time walk. He gives me the recoup and tinker. I proceed to tinker, recoup, yawgs, time walk, and gifts for mystical, ancestral, drain, and force. He gives me the mystical and force, so I mystical on my upkeep for burning wish, burning wish for time walk, and the big man swings again for the win.
Matches 1-0, Games 2-1
Round 2 - Goblins. Game 1, he taps for red and plays…goblin vandal (whew!) He drops another vandal, as I proceed to ancestral, brainstorm, gifts, yawgs, ancestral, brainstorm, gifts, fact, and other stuff I can’t remember. He’s killing my moxes, but I’m filling up the grave. I finally burning wish for yawgs and tendrils him out. Game 2, he taps for red and plays…lackey. Followed by warchief, piledriver, fanatic, and the game. Game 3, he gets out two pyrostatic pillars. I then realize how difficult it is to combo out taking 4 damage a spell…after countless mistakes and even him allowing me to backstep a few, I scoop.
Matches 1-1, Games 3-3
Round 3 – Turbo land. He drops 2 exploration, crucible, and then I force a trade routes. He the drops a memory jar. I chain of vapor the memory jar, gifts for black lotus, lion’s eye, recoup, and yawgs, and combo out. Game 2, he mulligans…drops exploration, then null rod. I drop Serenity. Artifacts and enchantments are cleared, I build up countermagic and I think I get the Salvagers combo wins.
Matches 2-1, Games 5-3
Round 4 – 5C Stax. Game one, he gets a lot of early drops for crucible, karn, smokestack, tinker for sundering titan. I’m down to one land and manage to chain his titan, but he still has crucible down and draws into a welder….on to Game two. Very similar to game one, except this time he has tangle wire instead of smokestack. I’m down to two moxes and two lands with tangle wire at 3 and he about to swing with Titan for the win. On his endstep, I gifts for black lotus, recoup, lion’s eye, and yawgs. He gives me yawgs and recoup. I have mystical in my hand, so during upkeep, I tap for 4 mana before the tangle wire triggered effect resolves, cast mystical, draw rebuild, rebuild. Mox, mox, land, yawgs, play lotus and lion’s eye, petal, etc, etc, etc, game over. Game 3, he has to mulligan. My hand has yawgs, gifts, pyrite, and academy. I early gifts for lion’s eye, black lotus, demonic tutor, and time walk. He gives me lion’s and black lotus, I yawgs, demonic for salvagers, time walk. Next turn, pyrite for a million.
Matches 3-1, Games 7-4
Round 5 – Dragon. There are two people with 12 points, and five with 9 points, and the Dragon player with 7. I unluckily get paired up with him and have to play the fifth round while the other six draw in. And this is a terrible match-up for me. He proceeds to drop orchard and xantid swarm. I can’t counter it and I realize I’m doomed. While I proceed to draw probably 10 lands in 15 draws, he draws none. I eventually combo out. And the luck doesn’t stop there. Game 2, he thinks about mulliganing, and decides to, and then has to Paris…into one mox. He drops the mox and proceeds to draw about 10 cards before hitting a sol ring. This time, I had counterspell-galore, so I had the game locked up anyway.
Matches 4-1, Games 9-4
Quarterfinals – TPS. Game one, he cast Duress seeing Ancestral, Gifts, Gifts, Fact, and three lands, taking Ancestral. We play draw-go for a while, and then before I get to four mana, he decides to slow down the game more and plays Duress, Yawgs, Duress, Duress. We’re now down to nothing and draw for a while before I Balance us down again to nothing again. He then draws Timetwister and decides to reset the game. He then tries to time walk, which I counter, and he’s down to one black, one colorless, and storm count at 4. He casts dark ritual, and realizing the tendrils would send me to 1 life, I force it. He thus fizzles out with a Tendrils in hand. I still have Gifts and I gifts into my combo pieces to win. I think he probably could have won this game, but it was his first tournament with the deck. Needless to say, this game takes probably an hour (two combo decks!) and the other finalist (WTF) is waiting.
Game 2 – we duress and counter back and force, but he gains a 6 to 3 card advantage though I was able to put gifts for black lotus, lion’s eye, yawgs and recoup, receiving black lotus and lion’s eye. I also have burning wish in hand, so I decide to wish for Balance, play balance, which he Forces. Then I crack the lion's and lotus, recoup Yawgs, crack the lotus again, Balance with no cards in hand, then play Ancestral from the graveyard. A turn later I draw/tutor into the Salvagers combo and pyrite him for a million.
Matches 5-1, Games 11-4
Semifinals – Oath with Colossus, Akroma, and Mana Leaks. Game 1, I force an early oath. He then mysticals for ancestral but holds it in hand. I draw into ancestral and cast it, he ancestrals back, I misdirect his ancestral, he impulses to dig, finds nothing, and I draw 6 cards. Ouch. He can’t recover. Game 2, I bring in my Claws of Gix tech, but he brings in his Null Rod tech. He then misdirects my ancestral to return the game 1 favor. I’m able to bounce his creature to his hand and then realize both creatures are in his hand and he’s used 3 brainstorms already. He has such ridiculous card advantage, that though my spirit tokens get him down to 5 life, he eventually draws to over 8, discards colossus, Oath’s him up again, and Time Walks for the win. Game 3, he keeps a 2 wasteland, no color land hand. I keep good hand with fetches and basics. He doesn’t draw into colored mana for like 10 turns and he concedes when I drop yawgs with double counter back-up.
Matches 6-1, Games 13-5
Finals – WTF. The player is close friend, and though I have the advantage, we decide to split the Mox Pearl and $30 store credit.
Matches – 6-1-1
Games – 13-5
Props:
As always, to Jason for hosting a great tournament at Dreamer’s, and supporting this wonderful format in the Twin Cities.
To the goblin player, who was very considerate with all my play errors.
To my UW Fish teammate for instilling a fear of Swords to Plowshares and making me go fully storm.
To my daughter, for her key contribution to the deck. Disrupting Shoal. Merry Christmas.
No slops. Had a blast.
