[Report] Comming up one short with Meandeck Dredge (sorta)

[UR]

This sunday I attended a Vendetta Qualification tournament in Utrecht. The first prize is a slot in the Vendetta Invitational which has a lot of prize-support (the guy who comes in last gets 100 euros). There was a limit of 32 players but 33 people showed up. The Joker is a very small venue and 32 is pushing it space-wise. Luckily for number 33 somebody will always get the bye and thus he could play.

I had been looking forward to playing some Vintage again because it has been a while due to some personal stuff. My new deck of choice is now Meandeck Dredge (sorta) and I've been testing it for quite some time now, getting familiar with some of the plays the deck makes and actually doing reasonably well against Storm, Stax and even Dragon. The worst results were actually against Foodchain goblins because of all the blockers and Wastelands. After some tuning I still really wanted to play some Unmasks, but just didn't know what to cut for it. The night before the tournament I finally did it... I cut the Time Walk and moved Balance to the sideboard. Here is the list I handed in with the judge;

Meandeck Dredge (sorta)

Maindeck:
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Darkblast
1 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
1 Imperial Seal
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Unmask
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Crop Rotation
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
2 Darkblast
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Oxidize
4 Root Maze
1 Balance

Round 1 vs. Björn playing Meandeck Ichorid
He told me before we started that he had never played in a Vintage tournament before and he had never actually played his deck. So I'm thinking is is playing unpowered but this turned out not to be the case. He was playing Smmenen's latest Ichorid list with the Leylines maindecked.

Game 1
I win the roll and keep my initial seven, so does he. I open with City of Brass and cast an Imperial Seal for Bazaar of Baghdad and pass. He plays Gemstone Mine and casts Putrid Imp and Chalice of the Void. Right now I'm putting him on some unpowered Dragon list or maybe Ichorids with Tolarian Wind. I draw the Bazaar and before I use it I cast Vampiric Tutor for a Grave-Troll to ensure dredging. He then discards a Grave-Troll of his own and also starts dredging. The race is on. Although I have a bazaar, my dredes are just worse than his and he overwhelms me with Ichorids and Ghouls. He has one more ghoul than me and one more Ichorid and a six point life advantage because of my tutors so I lose the race fairly quickly.

Sideboard; -4 Chalice of the Void, -2 Unmask, -4 Cabal Therapy, +4 Leyline of the Void, +2 Oxidize, +2 Chain of Vapor, +2 Darkblast.

With hindsight I'm not sure I should have done that. I may have had to keep the Unmasks so you can cast them on yourself on turn one and immediately start dredging with your Bazaar to win the race. I instead dropped them for Oxidizes because he was going on about the Pithing Needles in his board on Bazaar. I didn't see any Bazaars on his side so I thought it a real possibility that he could do this.

Game 2
I mulligan down to six despite the Leyline in the opening seven. It just didn't have enough speed. My six weren't that great either, but it did have a Bazaar, a mana-source and a Chain of Vapor should he start with the Leyline. He had already started mulliganing so I'm assuming it is a real possibility. He doesn't have it and we both start off pretty slow. I attack him down to 11 before I simply lose the race. Darkblast and Chain of Vapor didn't do enough against his team.

Mirrors are always random and I don't think there were a lot of other options for me here... I didn't prepare at all for the mirror so I'll just accept the loss and hope it'll go better in the future.

Round 2 vs. Renaldo playing a Pikula variant
Would you believe I actually played a few games against a deck like this in testing? A friend of mine forgot his Vintage deck and he played with his Legacy deck. I believe I was about 4-0 in testing before we decided it wasn't really worth it.

Game 1
He wins the roll and starts with a mulligan before playing Scrubland, Isamaru, go. I play Gemstone Mine, Imperial Seal for Bazaar of Baghdad and pass it back. He backs up his doggy with a Dark Confidant and attacks for two. I play and activate my Bazaar discarding some dredge guys. He sends in the team for four and the next turn sees the Confidant Darkblasted. Then my Ichorids simply race the hound in the turns after that. He sees two vindicates but neither of them destroy the Bazaar of Baghdad, instead he destroys the lands that produce mana. I think he was trying to stop the Ghouls thinking he could block the Ichorids... but (in the words of the 43rd president of the USA) he misunderestimated us. He does play some blockers (Carnophage I believe) but it isn't enough.

Sideboard; -4 Chalice of the Void, +1 Balance, +2 Chain of Vapor, +1 Darkblast.

Game 2
He starts with a mulligan again before playing a fetchland and passing the turn. Suspicious to say the least. On my turn I hit him with an Unmask to which he responds by playing Vampiric Tutor. I take his Withered Wretch before playing a Bazaar and a Mox Jet. On his turn he plays a Planar Void and Carnophage. I play a City of Brass and tap it for Chain of Vapor on the Planar Void before removing it from his hand with Cabal Therapy. He attacks me with a carnophage and plays a fatty in the form of Nantuko Shade. I put one Ichorid into play and attack forcing it through for three. I then sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy and respond to the Therapy with another Chain of Vapor removing the Shade and making him discard it. Creature removal in Vintage... don't you just love it? He plays a nice blocker in the form of Spectral Lynx but I darkblast it and the way is clear for the Ichorids to do their job.

Chain of Vapor is the absolute bomb in this deck. It acts as land-destruction, creature removal, a leyline-killer and rocks against Oath. What do you want more from a card?

Round 3 vs. Chris playing R/G Beatz

Game 1
I win the roll and we both keep our opening seven. I start by playing Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Imperial Seal for Bazaar of Baghdad, City of Brass. He goes Taiga into Kird Ape. I love seeing a play like that for two reasons. First I like it when people play Kird Ape and second I actually tested against this deck and you simply cannot lose unless you deck yourself. So I decide to just have fun and make some weird moves. After some dredging the next turn I do nothing. While he plays another Kird Ape I don't reanimate any Ichorids or Ghouls and just hardcast my Golgari Grave-Troll as a 7/7 monster. His attacks stop immediately and the next turn I can take the initiative by animating two Ichorids and a Ghoul. I send in the team except for the Ghoul and he takes it like a man going down to seven. I cast Cabal Therapy but he responds by emptying his hand; Lightning Bolt and Fireblast to the dome take me down to six (good thing I kept the Ghoul back because I'm now in range of his burn). The next turn however he is overwhelmed and we are off to game two.

Sideboard; -4 Chalice of the Void, +1 Balance, +1 Darkblast, +2 Chain of Vapor.

Game 2
He opens with a Forest and a Hidden Guerrillas. After reading what that does I decided it wasn't so hot because I wasn't holding any of my five artifacts. I open with a Bazaar and pass the turn. He casts Skyshroud Elite... stop it with the cards that I have to read! I use the tried and tested way of Vintage creature removal again by bouncing it and making him discard. After that there isn't much to tell. He didn't see any of his graveyard-hate and my clock is only about five turns faster.

Round 4 vs. Maarten playing a TPS variant

Game 1
I start by playing a bazaar and activating it. I draw a Putrid Imp and a Grave-Troll and that is exactly what I wanted to see. I discard an Ichorid, a Stinkweed imp and the Troll. I play my Chalice for 0 and he doesn't counter. I then get a little overzealous and play Unmask removing the Putrid Imp from my hand and he Misdirects it. We ask the judge to confirm that you can make the play and I'm forced to discard my Brainstorm because I'm only holding lands now. Without the Brainstorm I'm not able to race him when he simply bounces my Chalice with a Hurkyl's Recall on turn two and unloads his mana into Yawgmoth's Will along with some brokenness.

Sideboard; -1 Cabal Therapy, -2 Unmask, -1 Darkblast, +1 Chain of Vapor, +3 Rootmaze.

Game 2
I start with a Gemstone Mine, cast Rootmaze and it resolves. On his turn he plays Lotus Petal and a Polluted Delta. I play a tapped Bazaar and pass it back. He fetches and passes back again. He can now activate my Bazaar and discard some dredgers. He plays a Sol Ring and passes back again. I knock him down to seven and have to give him one more turn. I play Cabal Therapy on Yawgmoth's Will but don't hit it. He manages to play Dark Ritual into Yawgmoth's Bargain and starts drawing cards. But without any mana to get rid of the Rootmaze he cannot win and scoops up his cards.

Sideboard; -2 Brainstorm, +1 Rootmaze, +1 Cabal Therapy.

Game 3
We both mulligan and I keep a pretty shaky six. It has Chalice of the Void, Lotus Petal, Golgari Grave-Troll, Putrid Imp, Cabal Therapy and an Ichorid but I'm reluctant to go to five and so I keep it. Needless to say, this hand wasn't good enough against a Necropotence. I manage to get him down to two lives and I have an overwhelming number of Ichorids in the yard after both a Memory Jar and a Wheel of Fortune, but the sillyness stopped there.

Hindsight again tells me that I should have mulliganed. I also remember making a playing mistake by not discarding the Ichorid to the Putrid Imp before I sacced it to Cabal Therapy. Weird thing is... I did dump the Grave-Troll and I wanted to discard the Ichorid, but somehow just forgot.

So now I haven't got a chance to get into the T8, but at least I'm having fun with the deck and want to play some more. On to the last round then...

Round 5 vs. Menno with U/R Scepter-Control

Game 1
I win the roll and keep my seven while he goes down to six. I open with a City of Brass and cast Putrid Imp which resolves. I think he may be putting me on Dragon (which isn't completely unlikely in my case) because he opens with Mox Emerald, Underground Sea, Isochron Scepter and imprints it with a Mana Drain. I then discard my Grave-Troll and he asks his friend, who was complaining about having to face R/G Beatz with his Workshop Aggro deck, if he can trade places. On my second turn I play Bazaar of Baghdad after dredging the Troll on my draw-step and send in the Imp for two. I then dredge some more and Cabal Therapy hits Brainstorm. He realizes he is losing and we don't play on for much longer.

Sideboard; -1 Darkblast, -2 Brainstorm, -2 Unmask, +2 Chain of Vapor, +3 Rootmaze.

Game 2
I mulligan down to six while he leads with a fetchland, a mox and Isochron Scepter imprinting a Mana Drain again. I have a pretty slow start that allows him to develop and my Cabal Therapy misses him completely. I get my Bazaar and make a blunder by dredging on my own turn. He Intuitions for three Tormod's Crypts and removes my yard. After a few turns I get going again but he resolves another Isochron Scepter, this time imprinted with Fire // Ice. I end up decking myself with him on three lives. I was one black creature short of winning because I had enough Ichorids, but no more food. It was dumb to blow all those resources just to have them Crypted.

Game 3
I mulligan down to six and lead with one of the most broken hands I've had all day. Bazaar of Baghdad, activate, see a Troll and discard it along with some more goodies. I then cast Chalice of the Void and it resolves. On my next turn I dredge for a lot using both Bazaar and a Brainstorm and see a lot of Ichorids and Ghouls. He plays a land and passes back. Before I attack I cast a Cabal Therapy to which he responds by casting a Mystical Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will. It confused me as well as give me a lot of information. My Therapy can't go for Brainstorm because he would have responded with that as well I think, it can't go for Thirst for Knowledge because it is completely irrelevant, Yawgmoth's Will isn't in his hand so what does he have? Well, the fact that is is tutoring for it must mean that he has a way of casting it. This probably involves a Lotus or other artifact mana. I'm not going to Therapy for those either because there is a Chalice on the board. Okay, so he must have a way of removing it. In a blue-based control deck that is most likely a bounce card. So now I have to choose between A) Chain of Vapor, B) Echoing Truth or C) Rushing River. I don't know why, but I dismissed Rushing River almost instantly and thought Chain to be very unlikely for a deck that plays permanents. I hit him for the Echoing Truth and he extends his hand.

Finally hindsight tells me I made a good call with good reasoning.

So I went 3-2 overall and I think I had chances to do better. More importantly, I had a lot of fun playing a deck that does something completely different. So I think I'll play it some more in the future.

Props;
- The 33 people who showed up. It is nice to see Vintage do well.
- Menendian's deck and the articles on how to play this deck.
- Chain of Vapor.
- The underplayed Rootmaze. It single-handedly won a game that I would never have won otherwise.

Slops;
- Ichorid mirrors. Flipping a coin would be less random.
- Playing mistakes that cost you games.
- Me, for making them.