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Demonic Attorney
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« on: May 05, 2009, 10:32:44 pm » |
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There comes a time in every Vintage player's career when they have to reassess their strategies. That happened for me at Waterbury, after being completely destroyed while running Remoratog into a field with better disruption, better draw engines, and infinitely superior threats. During Remoratog's heyday, its main advantage was its superior control resources; it ran 11 counters to most decks' 7-8. In addition, 3 of Remoratog's counters, Commandeer, served offensive purposes. But, with Commandeer's potential applications as a threat came significant drawbacks. After getting 3-for-1'd twice after my Commandeer was REB'd twice in the same matchup, I decided it was time to move on. Seeing that even standard Tezzeret lists now ran more counters that were cheaper and more efficient than Remoratog's resources made that decision even easier.
There was the usual process of investigating cool, tricky concepts revolving around unexplored or newly-printed cards like Esperzoa, but at the end of that process, there was no denying that Time Vault/Key was just better than any other archetype in Vintage today. As I play the deck more and more, I'm starting to wonder if it's better than any archetype in Vintage history (with the exception of the stupid days of unrestricted Urza block cards like Tolarian Academy). At the end of the process, I joined the growing ranks of Tezzeret players in Type One.
Fast forward to ELD's Mox this past Saturday. I'd had 1 moderately successful outing with Tez, taking Top 4 at Myriad Games shortly beforehand. Having a model I felt comfortable with meant I didn't need to do much testing the night before to refine my list; instead, I spent more time thinking about what to put in the sideboard, since long-absent deck types are seeing a resurgence in the current metagame, i.e. Long. The morning of the event, I was left with this:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Night's Whisper
2 Tezzeret, the Seeker
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Rebuild
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Merchant Scroll
Brainstorm
Ponder
Tinker
Fact or Fiction
Gifts Ungiven
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
5 Mox
Sol Ring
Lotus
Crypt
Vault
Library
Academy
SB:
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Pyroclasm
1 Trinisphere
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 The Abyss
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Energy Flux
Round 1 vs. Bomberman
I never do find out what deck my opponent is playing, but he tells me after the fact that he was running Bomberman.
Game 1. My memory of this match isn't very clear. I remember Trinket Mage made an appearance at some point, but it might have been in the second game.
Game 2. In this game, I Yawgmoth's Willed into Ancestral, Time Walk, and hardcast Darksteel Colossus from Academy and a multitude of artifacts. He attempted to bounce the big man, which I allowed to happen and then replayed him next turn.
Round 2 vs. Andystok, Tezzeret
Andystok was my first opponent in competitive Vintage, back in the summer of 2005 during one of the last big events at the store in Centerville. Slaver was just ganining ground back then, and we were both playing our own versions. Now in 2009, we're paired again, each with our own version of the dominant Vintage concept.
Game 1. He opens with Library of Alexandra and I know I don't have long before I get buried. I have 2 lands, a Mox, a REB, a Time Walk, Academy, and a DT in hand. I want to set up DT/Walk, Tinker with REB backup to either try to steal the game on a DSC, or at least knock Stok off LoA long enough to pull back into the game with draw spells.
Problematically, Stok plays Gorilla Shaman and eats my Mox, ruining that plan. My Academy does nothing for me and I draw dead for at least half a dozen turns while Stok goes crazy off his Library, and builds an enormous board. I succeed in drawing one additional land during this time. He plays FOF at the end of my turn, and my hand is Drain, REB, Force, Gifts, DT, and Key. I let it hit, wanting to conserve all my resources for the futile counterwar when he made his move.
He revealed Ancestral, Lotus, VT, DT, and something else. I think it might have been Will. I give him the tutors and whatever the 5th card was, knowing my one hope is to bottleneck his mana to get either one last turn to do something or, less likely, win a counterwar with triple counter up. As it turns out, that's just what happened. He burned a lot of his cards setting up and then went for YawgWill. I Drained, he Drained, I REB'd, he Forced, and I Forced, getting ready to scoop 'em up, only to hear those magic words, "What did I do wrong?" as the Will was placed into his graveyard.
On my turn, I used the Drain mana to drop Key and DT for Vault, playing it with 1 mana still to spare. Wow. Usually this stuff only happens to my teammate.
Game 2. I don't have as good a recollection here. His Gorilla Shaman plus five mana presented an annoying obstacle to what would have otherwise been a swift win with Tezzeret. Instead, I went the roundabout way of setting up a huge Yawgmoth's Will, dropping Moxes the turn beforehand to fuel TFK's. Some cards were discarded, but all that stuff came roaring back the next turn when I played Time Walk.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Stok destroyed some of my artifacts on the ensuing turn after Will resolved, but in doing so he took himself off the 5 mana needed to neutralize my Time Vault. I played Ancestral, Night's Whisper, 3 Moxes, Academy, Walk, Vault and then dropped Tez the following turn. In fairness to Stok, if he'd kept the 5 mana up, I was prepared to go the Tinker route.
Round 3 vs. Jeff Carpenter, Selkie Strike Fish
Game 1. Turn 1 or 2 Null Rod with counter backup is difficult for most decks to recover from. Throw in some strip effects and mine is no different.
SB: -1 FOF, -1 Gifts, -1 Drain, -1 Thirst, -1 Tez +2 Pyroclasm +1 The Abyss +2 Pithing Needle
Game 2. He's stalled early on but keeps blue sources up, leading me to expect Stifles. Eventually I make my move into an Aven Mindcensor, which I'm able to later remove with Pyroclasm. I then try to get there with Tinker, but due to my own exceedingly poor planning, it doesn't work.
Round 4 vs. Jesse Martin, Combo
ID.
Top 8 vs. John Longo, Tezzeret
Game 1. I see myself as in pretty good shape in the early turns. I have Top, 2 lands, and a Mox in play, with 2x REB, Night's Whisper, and Drain in hand. He goes for Ancestral, which I REB, which he MisD's pitching Thirst, which I REB, which he Forces pitching Tez. I don't feel too badly about losing that counterwar since he's already given up most of the card advantage the AR generated.
I go to my turn and play Night's Whisper. My thinking is that John just expended massive resources over an Ancestral, he doesn't have too many cards in hand, his mana resources are still small, and if I hit any lands off NW, I'll have Drain online. He Drains the NW and on his turn, drops Crypt, Mox, Tinker for Lotus, DT, Will, win. Welp. Game 2, I guess.
Sideboard: -1 VT, +1 REB
Game 2. We go back-and-forth for a while, with a counterwar breaking out over (I think) his Tezzeret, which I win. I go to my turn and Tinker with 2 cards in his hand and him tapped out. I'd seen REB out of him before so I don't want to go for Tez. Instead I get DSC, figuring he has between 0-1 direct answers and fewer cards in his hand than I have in mind to allow him to try to mount a comeback. He doesn't get there and it's off to Game 3.
Game 3. Night's Whisper lets me set up some very smooth plays, like FOF with REB backup at the end of John's turn, followed up by TFK with Drain backup the next turn. I push through Key/Vault with double counter backup while he has half the combo on the table.
Top 4 vs. Jeff Carpenter, Selkie Strike Fish
This is my chance at redemption after the Swiss.
Game 1. Qasali Pridemage turns out to be a huge obstacle for my main avenue of offense, but I eventually get Tezzeret up to 5 counters and attack with several 5/5's, leaving Jeff at 3 with no creatures. I then play aggressively with my life total, chaining Night's Whispers and fetchlands/Top activations down to 1 life, before finding Tinker which brings this close game to an end.
Game 2. I get a stable manabse underneath me and get The Abyss into play. Jeff needs to expend a lot of resources to get rid of it and I follow up by playing draw spells into a red source which puts Pyroclasm online and wipes his board. From there I'm too far ahead for him to catch up.
Finals split with Rich Shay, Thoughtcast Tezzeret
Without much time to reflect on my recent experiences, I rushed home from work in Boston the following Monday to attend the weekly Vintage event at Scholar's in Bridgewater. The event was heavily promoted, and so presented the opportunity to accumulate Vintage Rankings Points. More importantly, the event would provide my first chance to meet TMD/TMC's own marske, who was looking for a sample of the competition at American Vintage events. I was happy to oblige.
My maindeck changed by 1 card, as I dropped Gifts for a third Tezzeret. My build wasn't really designed to use Gifts, anyway.
Round 1 vs. Goblins
Game 1. On the play, my opening was Underground Sea, EOT Vampiric Tutor for Tinker, Mox, Sol Ring, Tinker -> DSC. I had Time Walk in hand the turn DSC came online. I think my opponent played a Goblin Lackey in the interim.
SB: +2 Pyroclasm, +1 The Abyss, -1 FOF, -2 REB
Game 2. My opening is far less explosive, but features a DT along with 2 lands and a solid array of card draw. Unfortunately my draw spells propel me in counters, which aren't as useful when Lackey is on the board and putting Goblin Ringleaders into play each turn. I hold on in the hopes of using Pyroclasm to knock out his board if he overextends, but once he drops Earwig Squad I decide to just move this match along.
Game 3. As ridiculous as my opening in Game 1 was, my opening in Game 3 was even better. I opened with land, Ancestral, discard DSC. Next turn, Academy, Crypt, Lotus, Sol Ring, Tinker, Tezzeret -> Time Vault. Again, I think a Goblin Lackey made an appearance in the interim, but I had Mana Drain online in case he could have handled DSC and Tez.
Round 2 vs. Matt Macauley, Tezzeret
Game 1. He opens with Library of Alexandria and I know my time is short. I open with Night's Whisper and start building mana resources. By turn 3 I can drop Tez with REB backup, which gets through and he can't put together the win before I get another turn (and all the others).
Sideboard: -1 Vamp, +1 REB
Game 2. There's a lot of back-and-forth in this game with neither of us pressing an early advantage. I think I had Voltaic Key out early, so I used that to bluff a threat for most of the game at different points. At one juncture, Matt had a Tezzeret on the board, and during my last opportunity, I dug into DT and REB, needing to use the REB in order to untap and have access to the mana needed to put this game away.
Game 3 vs. Jesse Martin, Combo
Game 1. Game one goes quickly as he plays Jet, Sea, Crypt, Timetwister into several rituals, DT, and Yawg Will.
Sideboard: +1 Sphere, +1 Thorn, +1 Trinisphere, +1 Relic, -1 FOF, -2 Tez, -1 Thirst
Game 2. Game two goes a little longer but the deciding play happens about as early when I Force his Lotus and see no followup plays for several ensuing turns. I get worried about losing to my own Mana Crypt after resolving a Sphere of Resistance to keep Jesse pinned down, but eventually Tinker comes along and saves the day.
Game 3. This is an intense contest. I open with Vamp at the end of Jesse's turn for Lotus into Relic of Progenitus, Trinisphere. Trinisphere hits, and rest of the game, past the end of time and into extra turns, is spent defending the Trinisphere. I wait on Ancestral until Jessetaps out to play an instant and can't also Misdirect, and from there I have the counter for anything he tries.
In all, I think he played 2 Hurkyl's Recall and a Rebuild. There was one point where I could have backed up my Tezzeret with my lone counter and gambled that Jesse couldn't steal the game on his next turn, but I opted to play defensively and let the Tez get stopped.
On turn 2 of extra turns, I hardcast DSC with Jesse at 12 life. I'm holding DT in hand at that point and make much of my despair about Jesse being at 12, hoping to induce him to pass the turn and elect for a draw or for at least another card before he makes his move on turn 5. Whether or not that worked, Jesse does pass the turn to me, and I DT for Time Walk. He plays Gifts in response but only has the mana to play one spell under Trinisphere, for which I have REB.
Round 4 vs. Stefan Ellsworth, Tez/Painter
Game 1. He opens with Library, and again I need to push through an endgame move before I get buried under his card advantage. I set up Tezzeret with REB backup, but it resolves without the need to play the REB. On Stephan's turn, he tries to play Trinket Mage with few other cards in his hand, so I REB that figuring I won't be able to use it to stop any of his other plays if they happen to be black or artifact. He surveys the rest of his hand and we go to Game 2.
Game 2. He opens with Library and my hand is far less explosive. I get Top in play and run out a Tezzeret with counter backup, which Stephan thwarts. I dig with Top/fetches/Thirst and find that the top 3 cards of my library are Tez, Sea, Will. My hand has a DT, I have 5 blue/colorless mana on the board and no black sources. I wait until my next turn and run out Tezzeret while Stefan is out of LoA range; he has another Force, but pitches something significant in the process.
He takes his next turn and I draw Sea, Top into Will, play DT for Lotus, and take things home from there. Stefan is unhappy with Vintage in its current incarnation.
Round 5 vs. Bill Copes, Metalworker Stax
I'm the only undefeated, so I'd be happy with a draw and calling it a night. Bill has the lowest tiebreaks out of the X-1 bracket (or so he believes) and so playing it out is the best option for him. We're off to the races.
Game 1. I keep a hand with double Force, Night's Whisper, and some lands. He opens with double Sphere, and from there starts churning out threats. I Force a Metalworker and a Smokestack, and find a third Force. I Force something else, but then Trike happens. I draw my fourth Force and counter a followup, but the Trike is enough to get Bill there.
SB: Honestly I'm not sure beyond the obvious cuts: FOF, a Thirst, etc. I brought in the usual suspects: Chewer, Flux.
Game 2. I mull to 6 and keep a slow hand with a few mana sources plus Flux. I Force something right off the bat but then find myself in a situation where I need to either Force a Metalworker pitching Energy Flux, or let it hit and hope the rest of Bill's hand isn't artifacts. Since I think he had already developed a solid manabase at that point, I figured if he had other artifacts in his hand, he'd just play those, so I assumed Metalworker wouldn't matter that much and let it resolve, playing Flux on my turn.
As it would happen, Bill's hand had several artifacts and Flux wasn't too much of a factor. Tangle Wire and Karn emerged shortly thereafter and I just couldn't get in either of these games.
I finish out at 4-1 with the best tiebreaks, ending up in 1st place. Based on the turnout, I collect around $60 store credit (not bad for a $6 entrance fee) and call it a night.
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