[Report] Eindhoven, July 9th, Testing the new Dragon tech.

[UR]

I had been looking forward to playing Vintage again for quite a while and since DicemanX's Dragon did so well I decided to give it another try with his tech. My brother wanted to play the Illusionary Masks anyway and we don't own any Mana Drains sp my options are pretty limited.

Although Diceman's Dragon deck looked good, I started screwing around with it and came up with the following list;

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead
3 Necromancy
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Duress
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Read the Runes
2 Cunning Wish
2 Deep Analysis
3 Intuition
4 Force of Will
1 Abeyance
1 Balance
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
2 Island
2 Swamp

3 Defense Grid
2 Pithing Needle
1 Abeyance
1 Read the Runes
1 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Stifle
1 Verdant Force
1 Stroke of Genius
2 Sacred Ground

While I thought there was a lot wrong with that list, I didn't feel like testing anymore and I decided that it would just have to do and so here is how it did;

Round 1 vs. René with Darknought

Ohw great, I'm playing by brother. I've already tested this match-up a few dozen times and I should win pre-sideboard. But we've never tested with sideboards and I know he is playing four Leyline of the Void, two additional Withered Wretch and some Diabolic Edict so it'll probably be tough to win games two and three (and four Chains of Mephistopheles maindecked can be pretty tough as well).

Game 1
He won the roll and opts to begin. I keep a decent enough hand but the Intuition gets Unmasked and he plays a Dark Confidant. He shows a Duress on the next turn taking away almost any hope of winning this. I draw some cards with Read the Runes and pitch a Dragon hoping to draw a Bazaar because I have an Animate Dead on hand. He casts a Vampiric Tutor and I cast Animate Dead on my turn to end the game in a draw (I thought he would get a Withered Wretch and remove the Dragon, he later atmitted that he wanted to get another card). I didn't want to drop the Dragon in the yard that early in the game but I didn't have a lot of options.

-4 Force of Will, -1 Lim-Dul's Vault, +1 Chain of Vapor, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Verdant Force, +2 Sacred Ground.

Taking out the Force of Will may seem odd, but he plays four Cabal Therapy and he usually names Force of Will so they are pretty pointless from that point on. Besides, they can't counter the Leyline anyway.

Game 2
Since it was a draw he gets to choose who starts and he leads with a Leyline of the Void followed by Dark Ritual and a Dark Confidant taking one burn. Okay, I'm pretty much fucked. I start developing mana while he keeps attacking with the Confidant. I cast Intuition for Cunning Wish, Echoing Truth and Chain of Vapor to get rid of the Leyline but it is already to late and I die to a Dreadnought needing only one more turn.

I hate that freaking Leyline.

Game 3
Before I get to do anything, he drops a Leyline in play. Goodie, this is going to be a match. While I'm searching for a bounce card, he casts Withered Wretch to make it a little more interesting. I keep drawing lands while taking beats from the critter. Eventually I go for the same Intuition-pile again and I get to resolve a Chain of Vapor on his turn so that the Leyline is gone. On my next turn I drop three Dragons in the yard with my Bazaar and cast Necromancy on one of them. He makes a mistake here by letting it come into play and casting a Diabolic Edict on it to which I respond with a second Necromancy. He is now tapped out and can't use the Wretch anymore. I proceed to win from there.

Close one... and I probably should have lost there.

Game 4
He starts with... Leyline of the Void. By now I'm asking myself which deity I managed to piss off to deserve this. Ohw yes, maybe I should mention that over the course of the game he also gets two Withered Wretches in play, a Chalice of the Void, two Duress, an Unmask and a Diabolic Edict on hand. Four power on the table and that much disruption/hate? Well, right up until the moment he cast the Chalice of the Void (which was half-way through the game) I still had outs. But from that point on I couldn't even count on my Lotus to save me (I was two mana short of winning) and I died to the beats.

Well that sucked...

Round 2 vs. Pim with Staxx

Game 1
He wins the roll and starts with a Shop and a Chalice for one. I just play a fetch and two moxen. At the end of his turn (he cast a Smokestack) I cast Intuition for Dragon and two Deep Analysis. In my turn I go broken by ripping a Black Lotus, a Bazaar and an Animate Dead. Smmenen thinks that isn't luck but skill .

-1 Abeyance, -1 Time Walk, -1 Lim-Dul's Vault, +1 Verdant Force, +2 Sacred Ground.

Game 2
He leads with a Mox, a Chalice for zero and a Juggernaut. I'm not worried because I have enough cards to beat Staxx. That is... until you make a monumental play error. On his next turn he plays a Chalice for two and I don't use my Force of Will because I figure I'll just bounce it. That doesn't happen with an Echoing Truth and two Juggernauts are very unforgiving.

I'm such an idiot. I make a mistake like this in pretty much every tournament I go to... let's just hope this was that one moment and I'll play flawlessly from now on (which I'm certainly capable of if only I could find a way to stay focussed).

Game 3
My notes keep on getting more and more irratic (I was probably frustrated with myself at this point) but I remember leading with a Mox, a land and a Sacred Ground. He manages to play another Chalice for two but I just develop mana and use Intuition to dig for card-advantage. Two uneventful turns later I kill him with Necromancy.

Round 3 vs. Gwen with Control Slaver

Game 1
He wins the roll and starts with a mulligan. Early in the game we are both trying to generate card-advantage, I use Deep Analysis and Bazaar while he uses Thirst for Knowledge and Brainstorm. The key was that he has more counters than I do... my Ancestral doesn't resolve, his does. My second Intuition doesn't resolve, his Tinker does. My Deep Anals keep showing Lands and he counters my last hope (Animate Dead). I felt as though I never really had a grip on the match... CS just has a better control game than Dragon and I couldn't find the right cards at the right time.

-4 Force of Will, +3 Defense Grid, +1 Abeyance.

I wanted to be really aggressive in this match because there is no way that his deck can keep up with Dragon in goldfish speed.

Game 2
I start with a Mox, a land and a Defense Grid that resolves. I'm holding a Demonic Tutor, a Dragon and an Animate Dead so I'm feeling pretty good about myself. But before I get set up properly he resolves a Tinker for Sundering Titan and he nukes my lands. He also has three moxen and a Tolarian Academy so at this point he can simply cast Mana Drain right through my Defense Grid. He does exactly that right before the Titan kills me.

Since the rest of the people I came here with aren't dropping, neither am I... maybe I'll have some fun games now that I'm out of contention for the T8.

Round 4 vs. Simon with a TPS variant.

Game 1
He starts with land go. I kept a shaky hand that I thought would be fun and I play Mox Pearl, Mana Vault and pass the turn. He casts a Dark Confidant and while I have an active Force of Will I decide not to counter it. I do nothing and pass the turn again (getting some pretty weird looks). He plays another land and attacks me. I let another turn go by without doing anything and he resolves an Ancestral Recall on his next turn. Then I decide it is time to do something and I play my Mana Crypt, an Underground Sea and a Balance. He has to discard some cards, sac his Confidant and three lands. Next I hit him with a Duress and he is left doing absolutely nothing while I develop with a Read the Runes. I kill him on the next turn, still holding the active Force of Will.

I know I shouldn't keep hands like that and it easily could have gone wrong, but like I said; I'm out of the tournament anyway.

-1 Balance, -1 Time Walk, +1 Stifle, +1 Abeyance.

Game 2
He starts with a Duress that I counter because I want to protect my Animate Dead. I play a land and pass the turn. He also does very little and on my next turn I play Demonic Tutor for Worldgorger Dragon and put a Bazaar in play. He casts a Tinker and I counter it. Since he is tapped out, I play Animate on the next turn and win from there.

I asked him after that match what he would have Tinkered for and he told me that he wanted to go for Darksteel Colossus. In which case I wouldn't have had to counter it but I was worried about Sundering Titan or maybe Tormod's Crypt (which he was playing).

A bit short, but more fun than the perivious matches and I got to use Balance to devastating effect for the first time, yay!

Round 5 vs. Timothy with Fish?

Game 1
He opens with a Wasteland and passes the turn. I play an Underground Sea followed by a Duress and I see the following hand; Null Rod, Null Rod, Duress, Duress, Strip Mine, Balance. Not the best of hands, but I'm a little worried because if I don't win fast I'm never going to develop any mana. So I play Black Lotus, play Eternal Witness, play Black Lotus, play Ancestral Recall and play Time Walk. I play another Land and attack for two. While he denies my mana, he never draws anything either and the Eternal Witness gets him all the way down to six lives before he kills it by blocking it with a Meddling Mage. I manage to complete the combo after I resole Intuition for Land, Land, Deep Analysis (he gave me the Analysis, but the combined draws of Bazaar and the Analysis gave me everything I needed to play without any risks).

-1 Lim-Dul's Vault, -1 Time Walk, +1 Sacred Ground, +1 Abeyance.

Game 2
I didn't take a lot of notes on this one either, but I remember seeing a Kataki, War's Wage while he held a Null Rod on hand. I ditched all my artifact mana to Bazaar except for Lotus and I managed to find the combo before Kataki and the Meddling Mage could kill me. I do remember being a bit puzzled about him not taking the Dance of the Dead from my hand when he Duressed me (twice in that game) instead taking Intuition the first time and Read the Runes the second time.

Ohw well, at least I made it a somewhat bearable 3-2 overall.

A little sidenote on Cunning Wish though... it sucks. If you are playing it in Dragon, go replace it with something useful right now. The only time I used it was in the first match in a desperate attempt to play around a Leyline of the Void and apart from that it was just a blue card in my hand that I never cast. Seriously, it costs three mana and lets you wait another turn before you can finally cast your card. Three mana is a lot for Dragon and I'd rather use it to play cards that either win now, or at least do something for my development. I know it can be used as a win-condition but the only time I did that was a case where I could have easily won with Ancestal anyway. If you want a second win, just use the Clambassador or something. Not running it also leaves you with a better side-board. So when I got home I immediately cut that piece of crap and replaced it with some extra draw spells and constructed a better side-board.

I was pretty pleased with the disruption I'm running and I wouldn't dream of touching it. Time Walk, Lim-Dul's Vault and Read the Runes are still to be looked at although right now I feel comfortable enough running those as they all have their uses. My next list will still need some testing for the tournament I'll playing in two weeks time, or may I'll just play Masknought again... my brother thought it was crap and cut them for 'more pressure'. But I still love that deck and think it is capable of defeating almost anything if you play it right.

Props;
- Martijn for driving us to the tournament (as always).
- Deep Analysis. I'm still not convinced it is better than Squee, but at least it performed admirably.
- Our judge, for not dying during the tournament... I know you feel different about that, but still.
- 30 people for showing up.

Slops;
- Running into my brother round 1 (AGAIN!).
- Not winning a single roll.
- Cunning Wish.

P.S. Sorry if I misremembered anything, but like I've said already, I wasn't keeping track of the game the way I should. Making notes is tech if you want to write a report.

[warble]

The reason you had trouble with CS was your SB.  I see no null rod's and a single abeyance.  You also have two bounce spells total, so your sideboard is a total mess.  Combine that with the worst mana base in the history of dragon and you get 1-2 scrubbing for the loss.

[Hydra]

A little sidenote on Cunning Wish though... it sucks. If you are playing it in Dragon, go replace it with something useful right now. The only time I used it was in the first match in a desperate attempt to play around a Leyline of the Void and apart from that it was just a blue card in my hand that I never cast. Seriously, it costs three mana and lets you wait another turn before you can finally cast your card. Three mana is a lot for Dragon and I'd rather use it to play cards that either win now, or at least do something for my development. I know it can be used as a win-condition but the only time I did that was a case where I could have easily won with Ancestal anyway. If you want a second win, just use the Clambassador or something. Not running it also leaves you with a better side-board. So when I got home I immediately cut that piece of crap and replaced it with some extra draw spells and constructed a better side-board.

The changes made to the deck are what made Cunning Wish suck for this tournament.  I played Diceman's list at a tournament this past weekend and took 3rd, and loved the Cunning Wishes all day.  this list cut a TON of card drawing, making the deck incredibly dependent on Bazaar, which completely defeats the purpose of the current Dragon configuration. 

Intuition and Read the Runes are combo pieces that coupled with Cunning Wish allows the deck to go off without Bazaar, which is huge for the deck.  Cutting those and a Deep Analysis for a couple more lands and Abeyance/Balance completely alters how the deck plays, for the worst in my opinion.  I am quite curious as to why you felt such changes were necessary, as you should already race most aggro decks and with the all the Animates and card drawing/disruption, you can easily hold your own against control.

As far as the sideboard goes, you really do need to consider either Null Rod (CS/Stax/Shop Aggro) or Chalice of the Void (CS/Combo/Certain Gifts builds).  Either card does a very good job at buying you the time you need to combo out against those decks.

[UR]

This is non-proxy country. I need to deal with creatures every now and then. Playing against Dragon is quite easy... all you have to do is apply a little pressure and have some hatecards on hand. Then the question becomes whether or not you can play around the hate within the amount of turns given to you. Balance works much like Time Walk in that respect because it takes away their clock. Fish is a bloody nightmare without cards like Balance or Massacre and that Fish gets played a lot around here.

The reason you had trouble with CS was your SB.  I see no null rod's and a single abeyance.  You also have two bounce spells total, so your sideboard is a total mess.

I agree that the sideboard is a mess. But I wouldn't put Null Rod back in there, it just isn't worth it. Against Slaver I'd much rather stop their drawing than their moxen.

Combine that with the worst mana base in the history of dragon

It's actually not that bad, considering you only need about two or three mana in any given turn. If you lay down more, you are killing your own Bazaar and like you said, this deck depends much more on the Bazaar. But if you have suggestions on the manabase I'm certainly willing to discuss it.

[LordHomerCat]

You say you'd rather stop slaver's card drawing than their moxen, but I don't see how you do either? You sided in defense grids and one abeyance, and sided OUT your protection card (which can stop thirsts if need be)?

Also, running more Read the Runes and Deep Anaylsis will allow you to play out more mana, because you can recoup that card advantage to reactivate bazaar (by saccing extra moxes to RtR, and just drawing a lot of cards with Deep).  It seems your major complaints are basically the result of the cuts you made, like saying you couldnt both lay mana and use bazaar, after you cut the cards which enable that very thing.  It seems you'd be well served by rereading diceman's posts on the deck and how this version of the engine works.

[UR]

You say you'd rather stop slaver's card drawing than their moxen, but I don't see how you do either? You sided in defense grids and one abeyance, and sided OUT your protection card (which can stop thirsts if need be)?

That was an 'all or nothing'-call. One of those things you don't plan in advance. Remember I'm 1-1 at this point and 0-1 down. But if I have a decent sideboard, I'd focus on stopping their draws rather than their moxen.

Also, running more Read the Runes and Deep Anaylsis will allow you to play out more mana, because you can recoup that card advantage to reactivate bazaar (by saccing extra moxes to RtR, and just drawing a lot of cards with Deep).  It seems your major complaints are basically the result of the cuts you made, like saying you couldnt both lay mana and use bazaar, after you cut the cards which enable that very thing.

You are probably right, but I'm still sick over the loss of Squee (I love that card because it enables 'mindless' activations of Bazaar). Right now I'm considering just going back to my old list which has already proven itself to be good (I'll still cut green in favor of white though).

[mulder]

You say you'd rather stop slaver's card drawing than their moxen, but I don't see how you do either? You sided in defense grids and one abeyance, and sided OUT your protection card (which can stop thirsts if need be)?

That was an 'all or nothing'-call. One of those things you don't plan in advance. Remember I'm 1-1 at this point and 0-1 down. But if I have a decent sideboard, I'd focus on stopping their draws rather than their moxen.

Also, running more Read the Runes and Deep Anaylsis will allow you to play out more mana, because you can recoup that card advantage to reactivate bazaar (by saccing extra moxes to RtR, and just drawing a lot of cards with Deep).  It seems your major complaints are basically the result of the cuts you made, like saying you couldnt both lay mana and use bazaar, after you cut the cards which enable that very thing.

You are probably right, but I'm still sick over the loss of Squee (I love that card because it enables 'mindless' activations of Bazaar). Right now I'm considering just going back to my old list which has already proven itself to be good (I'll still cut green in favor of white though).

You know, Null Rod stops more than just Moxen... It also stops Mindslavers, Triskelions, Pentavi (?), Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt,... . If one Null Rod negates the effect of three cards then that's more card advantage than one uncountered Thirst... .

[rvs]

You know, Null Rod stops more than just Moxen... It also stops Mindslavers, Triskelions, Pentavi (?), Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt,... . If one Null Rod negates the effect of three cards then that's more card advantage than one uncountered Thirst... .

More importantly, it stops Tormods Crypt. But I guess you could use Pithing Needle for that as well.

As for the list, I agree with the LordHomerCat. Your list is just wrong :p
As for your argument that you need these modification in order to beat decks like fish, I doubt it. The success of Dragon is very, very much dependant on the abilities of the pilot to play with the deck, and no offense, but I do not think you have mastered the necessary skills (yet).

[UR]

You know, Null Rod stops more than just Moxen... It also stops Mindslavers, Triskelions, Pentavi (?), Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt,... . If one Null Rod negates the effect of three cards then that's more card advantage than one uncountered Thirst... .

Trikes, Slavers, Pentavi, etc. usually follow a thirst. Why not stop it at the source? I know what Null Rod does, I've had in the side for ages... but I don't usually care much for any of those cards (except a Slaver activation ofcourse).

You can easily play around Tormod's Crypt, that is why I don't bother with siding against it anymore. Leyline is so much better against this deck because it dodges almost anything you've got (except for the bounce). But after this tourney I've adjusted my sideboard to match.

As for your argument that you need these modification in order to beat decks like fish, I doubt it. The success of Dragon is very, very much dependant on the abilities of the pilot to play with the deck, and no offense, but I do not think you have mastered the necessary skills (yet).

Maybe... I don't know... I'm confident that I can win anything if I put my mind to it and stay focussed. But for Vintage tournaments that is unlikely to happen because I consider it casual games (ever wonder why I don't play 'metagame decks'?). I have big issues with the 'Cool Play' vs. 'Good Play'... I usually go for the cool play and more often than not, that is the wrong one.