1st Place - Myriad Games Vintage - Sunday, May 24th, 2009

[waywreth]

Sixteen people show up on a Sunday at Myriad to play.  Of course that means only four rounds of swiss.

Tezzeret
List is mainly what ELD has been playing, the sideboard is mine.  I'm really tempted to put in Sower, but I'm not sure what to cut.

3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria      
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tundra         
2 Underground Sea      
2 Volcanic Island
1 Mox Ruby         
1 Mox Emerald         
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire         
1 Mox Pearl         
1 Mox Jet         
1 Black Lotus
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Tezzeret the Seeker      
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Trinket Mage
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain         
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
3 Thoughtseize         
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Echoing Truth
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Vault            
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Voltaic Key

Sideboard:
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Yixlid Jailer
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Pyroclasm
1 Pithing Needle
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Round 1 vs. Tony playing UG (and perhaps white) Fish
Tony tells me this is his first vintage event, and he borrowed the deck from a friend.  Considering how well he plays I'm quite impressed.

Game 1 involves an early Tinker by me, that grabs DSC and goes all the way.  This play would be the theme for the day.
Game 2 has Tony either side in, or play main Crucible with a Wasteland.  He starts to attack my mana base, and I lucky enough to draw a few moxen to offset this loss of mana.  Eventually I draw Time Vault, and combined with the Trinket Mage in my hand to grab the key, is enough to setup the infinate turns combo.  Tony has me play out a few turns to make sure I know how to use the combo, but scoops them up after I demonstrate the loop.

1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2 vs. Andrew Fox playing Type 2 with Dual Lands
Ok I'm somewhat kidding here, but he did have Sculler, Putrid Leech, Bloodhall Ooze, and Wild Nactl.

Game 1 isn't even close, as he blows me out dropping creature after creature.
Game 2 is almost as bad, stealing my outs with Sculler.  I did manage to Tinker, but it was too late, as he had pump for his creatures to swing into Darksteel.  However due to my overall horrible draws this match, he doesn't see a majority of my sideboard cards.

1-1 matches, 2-2 games

Round 3 vs. Rich Shay playing Night's Whisper Tezz

Game 1 goes poorly for him, as I end up with a decent hand compared to his terrible hand.  DSC seemed to like his opening hand.
Game 2 is fairly interesting.  At one point I have FOW x3 in hand, along with Drain x2.  He has active Library.  I try to force through a Tezz, which after a counter war lands, but leaves my hand depleted.  He goes on to Yawg Will, and drop his own Tezz along with Key.
Game 3 is anticlimatic, as I tinker out an early DSC and ride him to victory.

2-1 matches, 4-3 games

Round 4 vs. Bill Copes playing TPS
Realizing that the top 8 has already established itself as we have an even number of players, we intentionally draw.

2-1-1 matches, 4-3-2 games

Top 8 vs. Arik playing BUG Fish

Game 1 I do my best to punt, Tinkering with Darksteel in hand and Null Rod on the table.  I get Key anyway since I might as well.  Lucky for me, I draw into ET with Vault in my hand, and take a game I made a serious misplay on.
Game 2 is all about Tinker and DSC with multiple counter backup.

3-1-1 matches, 6-3-2 games

Top 4 vs. Bill Copes playing TPS
Bill and I agree to a prize split if we have to play it out, but both of us want to split.  One of the top 4 players decides he'd rather play it out, so we sit down to play.  However, since we've already prize split, Bill would rather go out with friends, so he scoops to me.

4-1-1 matches, 8-3-2 games

Finals vs. Andrew Fox playing his 4 color aggro deck

Game 1 I win the die roll, and Thoughtseize him, along with countering a few of his early threats just to stave off the beats.  He still gets me down pretty low, but I setup Key/Vault and go infinate.  He had me dead the next turn.
Game 2 involves him playing Sculler after Sculler after Thoughtseize, devastating my hand, and with my lack of mana equals an early doom.
Game 3 is for all the marbles.  He drops an early Sculler along with a pair of Wild Nactls, but I have the Pyroclasm to wipe the board.  We go back and forth with him playing creatures and me desperately trying to draw an artifact (I had mystical in hand to setup the Tinker) and finally drop Trinket Mage, which gets me my artifact and dives in the way of something.  I Tinker out DSC, but realize if I swing, he wins.  I have Merchant Scroll in hand, and am ready to get ET, but then draw my ET!.  I ET his pair of Leeches, leaving him with a large Ooze (5 power) and swing in with DSC.  He draws Lotus and drops both his Leeches, and swings with Ooze putting me to 6.  I Scroll for Ancestral, and play it.  I swing in with DSC, and he blocks with the Leeches, putting himself down to 3.  He swings back with Bloodhall, putting me to 1, and extends the hand.

[TopSecret]

Congratulations on the win!

From my perspective, the moral of the story here
is that the Big Man is even better when people are expecting Inkwell Leviathan.

I was going to write a report, too, but all of my matches were essentially like the ones we played:
My opponent either dies to fast beats and manascrew,
or has adequate mana and plays something that I have no answer to the turn before I can kill him.

[waywreth]

Thanks!
Very true about DSC.  The one turn faster clock makes a huge difference.  That said, I would note how many times I cast Yawg Will vs. Tinker for the win...

[The Atog Lord]

Congratulations, Matt. Very well done.

[FadeToBlack]

How anyone beats Playskill Pogrebinsky boggles my mind  Gratz on the win and for writing a solid report..makes me want to start playing again.

[Demonic Attorney]

Playskill Pogrebinsky

I just finished the arduous process of getting rid of browser hijacking software from my computer, and seeing this made it all worthwhile. 

How has the REB/Thoughtseize configuration been?  I tried something similar with Thoughtcast Painter but wound up abandoning it because it was too hard to reliably get B and R online in the early game.

[waywreth]

Thanks all.

How has the REB/Thoughtseize configuration been?  I tried something similar with Thoughtcast Painter but wound up abandoning it because it was too hard to reliably get B and R online in the early game.

I actually played it that way due to the fact that I don't own any Thoughtseizes... and was bumping up against the 15 proxy limit.  Additionally, the life loss from so many Thoughtseizes was causing issues against aggro.  I was tempted to play Duress, but decided that REB was more of an all around utility card, and could be an answer to a resolved Tezz, Sower, and/or Lorescale.  Although it has been a rare occasion that the manabase hasn't been in my favor, that's more of an issue of me not drawing enough lands, no matter the color.  Occasionally I'll have a Thoughtseize in my hand until I draw a fetch, but at the same time, using it to clear a path for Tinker or Key/Vault is highly useful.  I also think that since it is a control deck, having knowledge of my opponents hand is incredibly important.  For example in one game, I saw my opponent had 2 REBs in hand, but was tapped out of Red (he only had one source or none, I forget), leaving the opportunity for me to cast Tinker and win with DSC.

[DubDub]

Hi everyone,

This is Charlie W., I finished in 13th in this event (out of 16), which I thought was suprisingly high considering how poorly I played and built.  I would have written in the Announcement thread but am not yet a full member.  I hope this small threadjack is allowed.  Connor C. and I drove down from Maine for the event, our first proxy event, which was a blast.

Let me begin by saying it was a great event, with a very clean playing area, climate control, and an electronic card inventory, amazing.  Congrats to Matt for winning, and my friend Connor for making the top 4 in his first proxy event.

Posting my list would only serve to show what not to do, which I can accomplish with just a few bullet points:
1. Running red in Tezz for Empty the Warrens is dicey while Mystic Remora is a player in the meta.  I liked it main beforehand as a weapon against Stax (not knowing the meta), and there was (I believe) only one Stax deck there.  In a match against Jeff Carpenter I played out Empty for four tokens just to apply pressure (he was playing Remora/Meditate, but also Sylvan Library and Lorescale Coatl, and had taken 8 from Library), then promptly lost to a topdecked Time Vault with Reb and an active Misdirection in hand.  Duress there not only nabs the TV (if he chooses to draw off the trigger, and if it resolves), and builds more storm for the Empty, reducing my clock by at least a turn.
2. I would support Thoughtseize/Duress over Reb/Pyroblast, as I played one copy of each main, with an additional Reb in the sideboard.  Crucially I feel this way because Reb cannot counter my opponent's Duress.
3. If I were to splash a different color it would be green for Regrowth, or White for Swords to Plowshares and Balance.  I was suprised with how prevalent DSC was, and there were many other creatures without shroud running around.

I will try to get Connor to post explaining his choices for GUW fish.

[nataz]

Hi everyone,
This is Charlie W., I finished in 13th in this event (out of 16), which I thought was suprisingly high considering how poorly I played and built.  I would have written in the Announcement thread but am not yet a full member.  I hope this small threadjack is allowed.  Connor C. and I drove down from Maine for the event, our first proxy event, which was a blast.

MAINE!?

OMG, you could be the foundation for the next Team Maine, world renoun ambassadors from the land of lumber jacks and bears! Puff out your be-flanneled chest, Hold your orange knit clad head high, you Sir stand on the tradition-ous shoulders of giants.

- Jared Carter
frm. team Maine

[puppyj]

It would actually be quite easy to put together a Team Maine again.  I play at a monthly vintage tourny in Central Maine with over half the people having alot of power.  I've been focusing alot of 1.5 lately but would be more then happy to get some local people to test with.