You can see the list I took to 2nd in Swiss at the last Myriad Games here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38470.0Last time I was expecting a creature and stax filled meta, and decided Faerie Tezz with sick equipment was the way to gain an advantage.
This time I wanted to return to a more classic drain control Tezzeret shell, cutting the Dark Confidants everyone's running to avoid splash hate. I also wanted to up the power level a little, and try to abuse MIND'S DESIRE.
Six Mana Sorceries Better Win the GamePlaneswalkers2x Tezzeret the Seeker
Artifact Creatures1x Inkwell Leviathan
Artifacts1x Mox Ruby*
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire*
1x Mox Jet*
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus*
1x Time Vault
1x Voltaic Key
1x Memory Jar
1x Sensei's Divining Top
Lands4x Underground Sea* (That's to indicate that one was proxied.)
2x Island
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Library of Alexandria*
3x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
Legendary LandsTolarian Academy
Instants4x Force of Will
1x Misdirection
4x Mana Drain
2x Rebuild
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Brainstorm
1x Gift's Ungiven
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Thirst For Knowledge
1x Vampiric Tutor
Sorceries1x Merchant Scroll
1x Tinker
1x Time Walk
1x Ponder
1x MIND'S DESIRE
2x Night's Whisper
3x Duress
1x Thoughtseize
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
Sideboard1x Jace Beleren
1x Pithing Needle
2x Chalice of the Void
1x Trinisphere
1x Yixlid Jailer
2x Sower of Temptation
4x Leyline of the Void
3x Energy Flux
Tourney ReportRd 1 versus Sara with Belcher
Gm 1 Sara has to mulligan.
Me: 20 19 18 16 15 13 12 10
Sara: 20
I don't know what Sara's playing, but I've seen her play Stax previously. I'm on the play. I Force her opening Welder, but she has a second. When she stalls out it becomes clear she's instead on belcher (a Thoughtseize helps me determine that). She goes aggro in the end, hardcasting a simian spirit guide, which I drain because I have Memory Jar and Yawgwill in hand but no business in my graveyard, instead I topdeck Time Vault and sink the mana into that. The following turn I topdeck Demonic Tutor and seal up infi turns with YawgWill (recasting Ancestral to quicken the actual kill). Sara scoops when I resolve Tinker a few turns later.
Gm 2 Sara again has to mulligan.
Me: 20 19 18 16
Sara: 20 13 6 2
The mulligan again hurts her, where I play control for a few turns until I am able to Thoughtseize and Duress her, taking Welder and Empty the Warrens. This leaves her without action until I find Tinker. I get Inkwell and swing for a few turns. I believe it is this game that I have Tolarian, a few artifacts including Sol Ring. I play Thirst for Knowledge leaving hardcast force up and find Force Force Pearl. This seals up a win as I can counter her first red spell of each turn (she had only one Taiga for red).
Rd2 vs Jeff with Elves, I believe Jeff had played Elves previously, so I knew what he was playing.
Gm1
Me: 20 19 18 15 14 12
Jeff 20 19
I allow his first turn play (Birchlore Rangers, I believe), slowrolling the Force for his turn two Glimpse. Eventually my hand has run out and I play Mana Crypt to play Memory Jar, quickening Jeff's clock. My hand is just two Night's Whispers and Jeff has gone aggro without a draw engine on the table. On my upkeep I blow the Jar, then draw for the turn. I have Vampiric, Demonic and Yawg in hand. I Demonic for Ancestral, then Vamp for Lotus, then Ancestral into Lotus. I know I will have ~10 storm for Desire (and comment that I should have a Tendrils), but that leaves me with Crypt on the table and Jeff's small horde. Thankfully Ancestral draws me another mox, so I instead have the mana to: Mox, Lotus -> Yawg -> Lotus, Vamp for Key, ACall into Key, then DT for Tinker and Tinker away Crypt for Vault with mana to activate. (Should note that I said Lotus was 'colorless', then realized I needed black, and Jeff didn't hold me to my 'colorless' statement as he said Lotus has to make a color.)
Gm2
Me: 20 16 15 10 7 5
Jeff: 20
In this game I have a hand that can race, but Jeff drops Seal of Primordium. I drop Vault which he kills, then he drops Seal, Seal on the following turn. Ouch. I Tinker up Inkwell, but it isn't doing anything much for me as he has a Wirewood Hivemaster (Symbiote?) to return whichever little one I block. I drop Tezz who searches for Pithing Needle naming Wirewood whoever, though I'm still going to lose the race. He kills Needle anyway, leaving him with just one Seal. However, on his turn he only directs one little one at Tezz. My only action on my turn is a Night's Whisper, which draws me... Yawgwill. Okay, now Tezzeret being alive makes a difference, as he searches for Lotus and Lotus -> Yawg -> Lotus -> Pithing Needle naming Seal, TV, Tinker for Key and Activate.
It's mentioned afterward that I should have just been attacking with Inkwell as it would put him on a clock. I also missed an attack when I Walked. I'm that horrible at combat.
Rd 3 vs Oli with Night's Whisper Tezzeret (I don't think he had Confidants).
Gm1
Me: 20 19 18 17
Oli: 20 19 18 16 14
I have Duress, Drain, Gifts, Misdirection, and lands. I open with Duress, seeing Night's Whisper x2 and Merchant Scroll. Obviously I want him to Ancestral into my Misdirection so I take a Whisper. We play draw go for a while until he attempts Gifts on my endstep (on a turn where I laid Sol Ring in order to have my own Gift's plus drain on my next turn), which I Drain. He topdecks Duress, seeing my at this point: Mind's Desire, Lotus, Mis-D, and Gifts Ungiven. As I will have 4 Drain Mana he suspects leaving me Gifts will be an auto-win. I think he knew that I played Regrowth/Yawg/TV/Key last time though I didn't have any green producing lands out. He takes gifts, while I decide to attempt a big DESIRE if I topdeck anything. I draw Rebuild and storm a little: Lotus, Rebuild, Sol Ring, Lotus DESIRE. In response he plays Ancestral (which he had drawn, as Scroll was still in his hand), but I have mana to hardcast Mis-D, which I do. I draw Drain, a land, and something else, and then we resolve DESIRE for 5 total. Time Walk is a good first flip. Flooded Strand isn't bad as I haven't played a land. Duress x2 will solidify me as the control. Last flip is... Demonic Tutor. I Duress twice, taking his Demonic and Tinker (he has no artifacts) and still leaving him scroll. Then I Walk. Then I DT for Tezz (he guesses Yawg, which probably also turns into a win, but he doesn't know that I drew a drain off his Ancestral, and know his hand can't have more than one threat). On my walk turn I play Tezz, fetch vault and pass. He has no action an scoops and I show the Drain.
Gm2
Me: 20 19 18 17 16
Oli: 20 19
Here I fan out Duress x2, Drain and Fact. I Duress on my first turn, then draw Duress on my second turn and Duress again twice. I Draw Gifts and bait with Fact, which reveals DT, two lands, Top and something else. I take the pile of four (the one without DT) and comment that I'm supposed to just keep laying lands in a control matchup. Top comes down and filters my draw into Jace Beleren who draws me a card (Brainstorm). I Brainstorm and then fetch. Another turn with Top and Jace draws me into Tezz (and Walk? and Key? or just Drain up for a turn? Not sure.).
At this point I am 3-0, and 6-0, and can safely draw twice into the top 8. I watch my teammate's games, and play Flux and Type 5 with some of the other players. My first play in Flux is Ancestral, but I don't even get another turn as someone else has won in the intervening three turns. Type 5 uses a Type 4 stack, but instead of infi mana you can play cards as lands that produce mana = their mana cost. I think I end up winning (or every one concedes to me when we're low on time) as I have "Mr. Fantastico" who's gaining me 25 life per turn, with Bargain in play and my deck in my hand (apparently you can't lose to decking). I do get the trigger from Ashnod's Coupon resolved against me before I Desert(ion) someone else's Spelljacked Hamburglar (the UW guildmage), so I actually kinda lose.
Top 8
As I said in the announcement thread, my teammate and I are matched up, and I expect the top 4 to split. He's playing GW beats and his deck just starting waking up after a super slow start. Connor and I split between the two of us and then play it out. I kept really loose hands:
Gm1 Keep Library of Alexandria (first time I saw it all day, so I HAD to), Duress, Top, Desire, Will, Night's Whisper. My first draw I find Lotus, then draw off library. Lotus-Duress+Night's Whisper. No lands. Library gets wasted. I lose. Whatev.
Gm2 Keep Vamp, Sower, Mana Crypt, Library, Island, Academy, Vault. I decide to let Library redeem itself. He has Lotus+Plains->Shusher+Teeg. Instead of building toward a Sower I find black mana and rebuild and Vamp for Key (it was already on top of my library!), then play out the combo. I show that I have the rebuild to allow me to return crypt and replay the combo.
Gm3 Keep Drain x2 Underground, Strand, Top, Force, Tezz. He again opens with Plains, Lotus, which this time I force. I fetch to Island untap, play Underground Sea. He wastes my Sea then passes. I don't draw a land and play top. He lays a savannah and then removes Elvish spirit guide to pay for Choke... which resolves. I draw spells for about 8 turns until he finally beats me down with bears. I have no way to kill choke in my 75 so it's essentially game anyway. We discuss the merits of Forcing lotus, as he would have just played Choke then and that's obviously a better choice. But I can't let him open like game two with Shusher, Teeg, remove spirit guide to make Teeg unforce-able (actually in game two he played Teeg first, then Shusher, which is incorrect as he ought to bluff Spirit Guide there).
In the end I double my entry fee in store credit and wipe out the small amount I already had getting an underground sea and a foil Snow-Covered Island.
Super awesome day. I'd like to say thanks to my opponents and the store. Gratz to Connor for making top 8 after a slow start. Shout out to Renee for working with us difficult Vintage players on her third day at Myriad.
Happy to answer questions if there are any. I think I would play the same list again. Library might be better in the sideboard than the main, probably taking the Jace spot. I think Sower is less effective than Infest at Myriad, as between Elves, Merfolk and Goblins there are plenty of hordes to wipe.
