Myriad Games Vintage Tournament - Saturday, May 1st, 2010

[DubDub]

I had a great time, thanks for Bill for getting the ball rolling on NE vintage again, and Dan for holding the event.

My list:

Superhero Team-up Movie (or, 'Iron Man and War Machine')
3x Underground Sea
3x Tropical Island
1x Island
1x Snow-Covered Island
1x Library of Alexandria*
1x Tolarian Academy
2x Polluted Delta
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Flooded Strand

1x Mox Jet*
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Black Lotus*
1x Voltaic Key
1x Time Vault
1x Inkwell Leviathan

1x Ponder
1x Time Walk
1x Timetwister
1x Tinker
1x Regrowth
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Merchant Scroll

2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Tezzeret the Seeker

4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
2x Nature's Claim
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Misdirection
1x Rebuild
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Brainstorm

SIDEBOARD
2x Sower of Temptation
1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1x Rebuild
1x Krosan Grip
1x Trinisphere
1x Pithing Needle
3x Yixlid Jailer
2x Relic of Progenitus
3x Energy Flux


Here's my report:

Pre-Game, EDH: I'm playing Radha, against Oli's Isamaru, Adam's Ghost Council of Orzhova, and Kyle's Doran.

Round 1 vs Brian with MUD
G1
He's on the play, and Serum Powders twice before we start.  I feel better about my hand with a Nature's Claim after seeing him exile only mono-brown cards (including, thankfully, a Trinisphere he couldn't cast).
I claim his first play (Smokestack), then untap into Merchant Scroll and Ancestral.  He has a Mishra's Factory but I have two Tezz, so  I drop Tezz and fetch Vault.  Tezz dies and he drops Thorn, then Sculpting Steel copying Thorn.  Fortunately I rip Tinker and cast it for five instead of the second Tezz.  He scoops when I flash the second Tezz in hand.

G2
I claim his first play, and then Tinker up Inkwell with Force backup (and no open mana).  He has Thorn (which resovles) and then Sculpting Steel (which also resolves, thanks to the thorn).  He outraces me since his Robot is unblockable, and I had already given him 4 life.  Nature's Claim laughs at me since his Steel has shroud.  I had dropped Energy Flux to try to wipe his board, but he found enough non-Shop mana sources to keep Steel alive.

G3
He has Pithing Needle for Vault and Crucible.  I Walk and then Twister.  He has Strip Mine again anyway (I had the read that he had it pre-Twister).  I walk again, and then try to figure out how to play Rebuild Vault and Key all in the same turn.  He has two proper Lodestones and a Sculpting Steel copying Lodestone, but I rip Pearl (after delaying unnecessarily for a turn, almost punted), and so can go: Pearl, Tolarian (4), Rebuild, Pearl, Emerald, Vault, Key, turn Key.

1-0, 2-1

Round 2 vs Matt with 4x Creature Oath
G1
He has Oath x3, while I only have two Forces.  His first turn was actually something like:  Pearl, Ruby, Sol Ring, Key, untap Sol Ring, Top, Sapphire, Brainstorm (no cards in hand), Orchard, Oath.  I scoop when Emrakul shows up and I'm at 14.

G2
My notes only say, 'Jace takes it, Vault, Key'.  He is a little mana-screwed in this one, but forces Twice to prolong the game.  I think one of his lands may have been Orchard, so I was beating him with spirits.

G3
He again is heavily mana-screwed, but I don't think it would have made a difference.  My hand was gas.

2-0, 4-2

Round 3 vs BrassMan with Remora-Tezz
G1-3
We have three pretty epic Drain Mirrors.  Game one I have 3x Drain and a Jace that takes it.  At one point I end my turn discarding Tinker, which terrifies him.  My hand is amazing.  I end the game with one each of Jace and Tezz on the battlefield, and one each in my exile zone.  Game two he opens with Ancestral, which I choose not to Misdirect.  On my turn I have Library, draw, Lotus.  Then end of his turn I cast my own Ancestral, but he doesn't bite, and my Drain mana washes away.  I end up discarding the 'extra' cards I had drawn, and that probably cinches it for him.  He tendrils several turns later.  In the clincher I am again on Library for a long time, but am drawing only lands.  My only protection is misdirection with only Jace to pitch.  He's on remora, and I have library.  His Tolarian is making 4-5, so I Demonic into his Remora, which he allows, for I grab Tolarian to set him back.
My memory of games two and three are running together, sorry.

3-0, 6-3

Draw with Chris (DA) and Kyle into the top 8.  Eat lunch and play some EDH, my Radha against Adam (Ghost Council), Kyle (Doran), and Mike, borrowing my Teneb deck (my two blue EDH decks, Wydwen and Numot are missing their Jaces...).

Top 8 vs Brian with MUD
G1
I play Snow-Covered Island, and Key.  He has Shop-Crucible.  I play Tarn.  He has Shop #2, Thorn (resolves), and a Lodestone which I Force, pitching Rebuild.  I fetch basic Island, then play Library.  He has Karn and starts getting in there.

G2
I am happy with my hand, except that my mana is two Underground Seas.  I also have, Tezz, Mystical, Walk, Drain and Force.  I lay Underground and pass. He has Wasteland, Emerald, and Chalice at 1.  I incorrectly decide that Mystical will be my pitch fodder, and I can still get there with Walk and Drain.  So I walk, then play Ruby and pass.  He wastes and Underground, plays Sphere, which I Force, and then Thorn which resolves.  My next few draws are all Moxen, and he cleans up with hungry-hungry Karn.
Brian and I determined that Forcing, probably pitching Tezz is my best bet against Chalice at one (I forgot about Nature's Claims being 1CMC).  I can EOT Mystical for Ancestral.  Fire off Ancestral and hope for a Mox, if so then I also have Walk.  If I have another land then he can't Waste me off UU without another Wasteland, which would at least take his whole turn.

I get a Kozilek for Radha with my store credit (upgrading an Ulmalog's Crusher), and the last full-art Foil Mountain I needed for her.

EDH vs Matt, Radha vs Uril (and later Rhys the GW).

[Myriad Games]

Thanks again to everyone who attended! We had 18 players, 5 rounds of Swiss, and a Top 8, all of which went smoothly, with the main event finishing up by the late afternoon / early evening. We ran an EDH side event during the Top 8 and the participants won Free Myriad Money as part of the prizes. We also gave away some foil promo cards for Best Deck Name (Mike Bergeron won that one - I'll let him chime in with his deck name), Carpool prize, and Random Random Drawing (d20+number of players with an DC of 25 to award the prize, random selection of winner from all players). All in all a great time!

[mike_bergeron]

Deck name: "Little green men, also known as the ELD Tea Party"

Here is my tourney report playing elves:

round 1 versus craig:

I go off game 1, turn 2.  craigs tells at me to play at a reasonable pace and not be a douche by fooling around with nettle sentinals after the trigger should have been done.  I agree with him since im clearly wrong, but still get there despite my awful play.  Craig and I agree that he has a HUGE advantage when he goes first.  Should have sideboarded leyline of lifeforce with this many chalices in the room today.  

He successfully gets chalice @ 1 and multiple spheres in games 2 and 3 very early.  Craig moves on.

round 2 versus arik

I win one game by beating with green men.  

he wins two games by playing much better cards.

I make the punt of my life by conceding when I could have used quirion on HIS turn to krosan grip a time vault.  ouch.  

*side note* thanks to all the folks playing EDH and allowing me to say "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT" anytime a new card came around. fun times, EDH is really sweet.

round 3 versus ELD

eric wins with timely counters and ultimate abilities from tezz.  good games.  I enjoy playing eric, he is always a gentlemen during our matches. discussion about vintage ensues after the match, good times and good topics.

round 4 versus jeremiah

Jeremiah uncorks a new frankenstein monster all over me, named "sen triplets" and also ruins my day with an abyss.  strip lock follows (WTF kind of deck was this) and I scoop soon after.  I may be the first person in a vintage tournament to lose to sen triplets.  Unfortunately, I could draw any of my NINE cards that destroy artifacts/enchantments.  

I love seeing what Jeff and jeremiah bring to the table.  I remember the gargadon days...

Brassman also tells me he is dissapointed to not play me, his sideboard Perish is only good against me today, since no one brought selkie slam! to the tourney.  We all agree the tech play of the day would be to Perish your opponents Terrastodon and elephants they make off an oath.  Demonic Attorney also thought this was a great play, so if it happened, I want credit for that next level thinking.

Unfortunately, Craig, Arik and ELD are fighting for 8th- and I ruined all of their breakers.  I think ELD lost out of the tie, but blame it on Jeremiah.  

Round 5 versus Bye

I win!

Looking forward to the next one, where I will bring back the best and fastest combo deck of all time: Kobold Clamp.


Edit: also, dan allowed me to use IE cards as proxies, as long as they were double sleeved in perfect fit/magic sleeves.  I only used 2, but there really was no difference in the deck.  they worked well, and looked better than most proxies. 

[Myriad Games]

And here are the final standings and playoff results from this event. I apologize for taking a bit with this. It's been a bit busy here at work.





Thanks again to everyone for attending!