Next Level Vintage: April Edition

[shrewarmies]

The sun was shining as 12 players made their way to Next Level Games for our Monthly Vintage event. We had a good mix of decks though the field including Nick Wolter's infinite desire to play Infect in every format it's legal in. We had 3 new players just testing the waters as well as some of our old stalwarts. This was a good event and everyone was cheery as the players sat down for their matches.

Our final Result after 4 rounds were:

1) Weng Cheong - Forgemaster Shops (ID rd 4)
2) James Dowling - Tezzeret's Picnic (ID rd 4)
3) Ben Kearney - Burning Long
4) Andy Horne -  Grixis Control
5) Kenneth Cheong - ???
6) Owen Goodwin - Noble Fish
7) Nick Wolter - Infect
8) Tim Dolphin - GG Oath
9) Travis Pitzer - GG Oath
10) Jake Rickard - Dark Times
11) Joshua Butler - Mono R Highlander Control
12) Bill Murphy - Goblins


Top 4 Decklists

1) Weng Cheong - Forgemaster Shops

Lands (17)
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void

Creatures (18)
4 Metalworker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Sundering Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Duplicant

Sideboard (15)
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Steel Hellkite

2) James 'Jimbo' Dowling

Lands (15)
5 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (17)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
3 Grim Monolith
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Sensei's Divining Top

Creatures (1)
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Enchantments (2)
2 Back to Basics

Planeswalkers (6)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sorceries (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Instants (14)
1 Ancestral recall
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Thirst for Knowlege
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard (15)
2 Dismember
2 Flusterstorm
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Mental Misstep
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Trinisphere
2 Yixlid Jailer

3) Ben Kearney - Burning Long

Lands (11)
2 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (15)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Opal
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Memory Jar

Creatures (2)
2 Griselbrand

Enchantments (6)
4 Oath of Druids
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Instants (9)
4 Dark Ritual
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall

Sorceries (17)
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
4 Burning Wish
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Tinker
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister

Sideboard
1 Gleeful Sabotage
3 Nature's Claim
1 Thoughtseize
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Show and Tell
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Empty the Warrens

4)Andy Horne- Grixis Control

Lands (16)
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (10)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key

Creatures (7)
1 Myr Battlesphere
4 Dark Confidant
2 Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalkers (3)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Chandra, the Firemind

Sorceries (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Instants (19)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gift's Ungiven
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Mana Drain
2 Mental Misstep
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard (15)
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Blightsteel Colossus
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Yixlid Jailer
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mental misstep
1 Mountain
1 Strip Mine

Well done for everyone who made it down and I hope to see you all again next month. Hopefully next time I will remember to bring my own deck and not be forced to run a mono R Highlander list.

[tribet]

ID round 4. Don't be that guy. So not the spirit BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

LOL at forgetting your own deck? What would you have played?

[shrewarmies]

They played it out to put the shop deck on top but there were some problems with the match and they ID'd in any case.

I would have been plaing Tezzeret's picnic also. James and I have been working on it together for a while and it would have been nice to both be playing it. In my defense, I had leant out the Goblins, Dark Times and one of the Oath lists before I realised I had left my deck at home.

[ecky]

It was good to see another 3 new players this month, hopefully they'll come back next month too! Here's my writeup from the Tezzeret side of things:


Round 1 vs. Josh (shrewarmies) - Highlander Red

I knew what Josh was on today as him and I test together a bit - and he knew my list as it was originally his idea anyway. He was piloting a Highlander deck today that runs more than a bit of artifact hate...wasn't looking forward to the matchup!

I won the die roll, and kept a hand that looked like:
Land/Land/Land/Mox/Key/Vampiric Tutor/Time Walk
The play was simple - T1 Key, end step VT for Vault, he didn't have the Shatter.

Sideboard: Steel Sabotage out, Dismember in

Game 2 I mulliganed to 6, kept:
Lotus, Key, Emerald, Sensei's Top, Force of Will, Mana Drain
I can't remember what Josh ended up playing, but I know I countered some things and eventually Tinker'd my Emerald into a Vault to win the game.

2-0


Round 2 vs. Nick - Infect

Today was Nick's first Vintage tournament - his deck was literally changed from Modern to Vintage minutes before round 1 started. He managed to get a turn 2 win both games in round 1 apparently though, so I was pretty worried...once again I knew what he was playing however which may have given me an advantage...

I won the roll again, and kept a 7 of:
Land/Land/Land/Demonic Tutor/Force/Force/Mana Drain

He had no turn 1 play other than an Inkmoth Nexus - both a relief and a scary sight...the deck is still capable of turn 2 lethalling off just the Nexus!
I spent my 2nd time DT'ing for a Back to Basics...immediately wrote that down as a mistake.
However it eventually paid off - I had enough blue cards to Force both of his threats, and Drain a lethal Berserk on his Inkmoth Nexus. He ended up with a tapped Nexus from animating the other one, a tapped Pendelhaven, and a single Forest.
I eventually drew into Yawgmoth's Will and had enough in the yard to close out the game.

Sideboard: Steel Sabotage + Inkwell Leviathan out, Dismember and Mental Mistep in

Game 2 was over fairly quickly. He kept a miseable no-lander, playing a Glistener Elf off an Emerald turn one.
My turn 1 was slightly more juicy - Jet, Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Key and untap Monolith, Tolarian Academy, Jace to bounce the Elf and take over the game. If I hadn't bounced it, he had the Invigorate+Berserk to lethal me turn 2!

2-0, 4-0


Round 3 vs. Jake - Dark Times

Jake was also in his first Vintage tournament today. It was good to see more and more new players, especially with a PTQ on the same day!

I won the roll, and kept a risky 7:
Land/Land/Land/Echoing Truth/Steel Sabotage/Time Vault
I kept it knowing his wincon is Marit Lage most of the time - forgetting about discard spells. Derp.
Turn 1 he Thoughtseized me and took Vault. Turn 2 the Echoing Truth fell to Duress, then he played a Dark Depths...
Things weren't looking good, however he didn't manage to draw a Hexmage or a Tutor, and eventually fell to Tinker turning my Voltaic Key into an Inkwell Leviathan. Not my preferred way to beat a mono-black list but I'll take what I can get.

Sideboard: Back to Basics and Inkwell Leviathan out, Mental Mistep in

Game 2 was also over quickly - I kept:
Land/Key/Vault/Force/Tezzeret the Seeker/Tinker/Echoing Truth
Turn 1 I drew Mana Vault - proceeded to play out Key/Vault, giving the mono-black list 1 turn to draw an answer. I then proceeded to play an extra 6 turns on my own before drawing a Key to stop my Mana Vault from killing me.

2-0, 6-0


Round 4 vs. Weng - Martello Shops

Weng and I ID'd to split 1st and 2nd, then bashed some games out anyway seeing as we had time to spare. I don't have many notes from our games, but I do know I lost fairly convincingly to a mixture of bad draws and bad play on my part.





The list was tweaked a bit since last month's event - we were expecting a couple of Fish decks and a Mono-White list to show up, and there was a lack of fast combo decks, so we decided on Inkwell Leviathan over Blightsteel or Myr Battlesphere. It's a 3 turn clock instead of 1, but it's MUCH more resilient to removal - the only answer I played against for it was a Phyrexian Metamorph. The Darkblast was changed to an Echoing Truth too - I needed another out to Null Rod, and Chain of Vapor just wasn't working for me.