Next Level Vintage: May Edition

[shrewarmies]

Well another month has come and gone and we once again return to our brave NLG'ers as 10 players made their way out to test the new post- Dragon's Maze, post- Unrestriction format. There were a couple of hiccups along the way including a ghost player whom no one noticed until round 3 but after 4 rounds we had our champion

In a cunning twist, our first place deck included the now unrestricted regrowth and featured cards from the now released Dragon's Maze.

The final standings after 4 rounds were:

1) Joshua Butler - Gush
2) Gavin Kreeger - Martello Shops
3) Ben Kearney- Storm
4) Jake Rickard -  Dark Times
5) Graham King - Omniscience
6) Andy Horne- UW Bomberman
7) Lee Greaves - Metalworker
8) Daniel Boonchuchau (Grixis Control)
9) James 'Jimbo' Dowling (Tezzeret's Picnic)
10) Owen Goodwin (Noble Fish)

Top 4 Decklists:

1) Joshua Butler (Gush Tinker)

Lands (14)
2 Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifacts (6)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures (1)
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantments (1)
1 Fastbond

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries (15)
4 Duress
4 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Empty the Warrens

Instants (21)
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
2 Mana Drain
2 Far//Away
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard (15)
3 Trygon Predator
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Yixlid Jailer
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Fire//Ice
2 Mindbreak Trap

2) Gavin Kroeger (Martello Shops)

Lands (19)
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors

Creatures (17)
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sundering Titan
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Duplicant

Artifacts (24)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere

Sideboard  (15)
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ratchet Bombs
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Wurmcoil Engine

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) Jake Rickard (Dark Times)

TBA

[A.-1.]

Eagerly awaiting that Gush list.

[Silly time zones.]

[shrewarmies]

Updated with decklists for most of top 4

[A.-1.]

1) Joshua Butler (Gush)
...
4 Regrowth
...
2 Far//Away

  That list made my day.

[shrewarmies]

A Small report from myself (Joshua Butler).

When Regrowth was unrestricted I did not think too much of it. I personally saw it as a bit of a relic of a bygone era. I was looking at the card like I would Snapcaster Mage, except it didn’t leave you with a win condition (2/1 Body) after you had finished with the card. I appreciated that it could get a wider variety of cards but I was not excited. I tried shoehorning a playset into a BUG lists I had devised some months beforehand  ?????????? but as I was rebuilding the deck, all I could feel was a sense that it just didn’t fit. The deck did not seem to be performing as well with the new unrestriction so I threw the idea out. 

When one of the So Many Insane Plays started talking about abusing it with Gush, generating two mana, using that to Regrowth the Gush and casting Gush again netting me 2 cards for 2 life and potentially upping my effective Gushes to 8, I was intrigued about this interaction and started building decks. Then I came to a grinding halt. I didn’t know how to build a deck like this, I was not playing pre 2008 restrictions. My experience with building decks has entirely been in the Dark Confidant era (I started playing ~M11/Scars). My most recent experiences with Gush have been RUG Delver and Cobra Gush which were very different to what I was trying to accomplish with this deck.

So instead of struggling with an unknown deck concept, trying to grapple with the intricacies of a new archetype; I did what any timestarved Magic player would do… I netdecked. Tuesday night had me scrambling the internet for Vintage Gush decks and I found Tommy Kolowith’s Gush Tinker deck from a Star City Indianapolis tournament  and used that as a paint by numbers to reach the deck I played today at Next Level Games. For reference, Kolowith’s deck was:

Creatures (2)
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Lands (14)
2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
Spells (44)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Fastbond
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire / Ice
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Gush
2 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Sideboard (15)
2 Pithing Needle
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Pyroblast
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Rebuild
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Trickbind
2 Pyroclasm

I liked the look of this deck. It had plenty of protection to slow its opponents down, I have always been a fan of multiple Duress effects as you can really channel your opponent down the path you want them to take which just makes it all the easier to just go off or to catch them when you know their pants will be down. It also had an old school feel to it, not just in the inclusions like 4 Brainstorm or Meloku but in how it’s built , I’m not quite sure how but I liked that.

Of course I immediately saw that I had to find replacements for Darksteel Colossus, Meloku, 3 Brainstorm, 3 Merchant Scroll due to newer options or the fact that those cards were now restricted. I felt that equating Merchant Scroll with Regrowth, was a safe bet as they could be used in a similar fashion mid-combo e.g. finding my next (or in my case last) Gush to continue drawing cards. Replacing Darksteel with Blightsteel seemed a no-brainer. I have generally avoided using Blightsteel due to the ease with which it can be removed and just how completely useless it is once it’s in your hand but having the fastest win condition seemed right. As I was losing Scroll I added ponder to the mix to keep the number of draw spells up and a misers Hurkyl’s was added as I figured I was pretty stone to shops. I also replaced the Misdirection and Reb/Pyro with Flusterstorm figuring that it was better to have a definite answer to anything my blue opponent had as I could generate storm at will with Gush making my Flusterstorms huge as well as it being easier on the mana base, allowing me to change the 2nd Volcanic into a 2nd Tropical Island to reflect my much heavier green commitment. Two minutes before the tournament I changed the Flusterstorms to Mental Missteps on a whim and I am really glad I did. The Missteps were so helpful, combatting Pierces and opposing Missteps among a whole host of other relevant spells.

The final list was

Lands (14)
2 Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifacts (6)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures (1)
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantments (1)
1 Fastbond

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries (15)
4 Duress
4 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Empty the Warrens

Instants (21)
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
2 Mana Drain
2 Far//Away
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard (15)
3 Trygon Predator
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Yixlid Jailer
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Fire//Ice
2 Mindbreak Trap


Round 1) Andy Horne – UW Bomberman

G1) I misstep his top and I quickly Tinker (Turn 3 or so) into BSC and he can’t find the removal then and there

I did not see much here so I did not board

G2) He Mulligans a weak hand  and Missteps my T1 Duress denying him access to his EoT Top activation so he is caught behind on mana when my T2 Fastbond > Gush draws me regrowth and I spend the next  5 minutes goldfishing the win on turn 2.

2-0 (2-0 games)

Round 2) Ben Kearney – Burning Long
G1)I misstep a Sol Ring and Force a Lions Eye Diamond leaving him with nothing on board except a Mox Opal and a Forbidden Orchard and have enough turns of him not doing anything relevant to build my hand back to a position where I am able to regrowth the Time Walk I spent earlier to finish him off with 4 spirit tokens.

-2 Jace
-2 Regrowth
-1 Hurkyl’s Recall

+2 Fire//Ice
+2 Mindbreak Trap
+1 Tormod’s Crypt

My aim here is to keep him locked out with my weight of counterspells. I brought in the Fire//Ice to deal with Lab Maniac if he chooses to side that in and the misers Crypt to hopefully stop any Yawgmoth’s Will shenanigans. I was hoping that restricting his options as much as possible gave me enough of a chance to win one of the two following games.

G2) He mulls a questionable 7 into a horrendous 6 and even worse 5 (we are talking Gristlebrandx2, Oath x2 and Lion’s Eye Diamond bad) settling on 4. To add insult to injury I open with Library and ride the Library to victory. The highlight of this game was using consecutive Ices of his Tolarian Academy to stop him hardcasting Griselbrand until I had the mana to hardcast my Mindbreak traps.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3) Lee Greaves – Metalworker
G1)I lose the die roll,  he mulls to 5 and promptly stomps me into the dirt with Metalworker, Lodestones and spheres… I guess you can’t run too lucky

-2 Duress
-2 Misstep
-1 Regrowth

+3 Trygons
+2 Hurkyl’s Recall

I’m not too sure of the efficacy of Duress so I am happy with taking two of them out along with the missteps and regrowth seems an easy cut as I actually need something in my Grave yard to regrow.
   
 G2) I Ancestral on his upkeep, Force his sphere and land the turn 2 Trygon which eats at his board. He dies to a combination of my 10 turn clock and his Ancient Tombs.

G3) I force his Lodestone and his Metalworker does not pose much of a threat. I manage to cast regrowth on my fetch lands until I am able to cast Hurkyls Eot, land a Jace and fateseal away all his mana sources until it’s too late

2-1 (6-1) Phew, Dodged a bullet there

Round 4) Gavin Kroeger – Martello Shops
Game 1) I open game one with my Hurkyl’s in hand and drop a land and a mox which is met by his Trinisphere. I play another land and drop a black lotus through the 3sphere. He casts a Lodestone and a Tangle Wire (Sick hand bro) but I use my lotus to cast the Hurkyl’s and land a Jace on my turn. He manages to keep going and I am forced to tinker and he has the Metamorph but I regrow my Hurkyl’s and swing through.

Same boarding as round 3

He lands a Chalice, Thorn and a Revoker (naming Jace) but nothing in the way of spheres so I cast a turn 2 Trygon. He answers with a Wurmcoil whom I am forced to Trygon in order for him to not gain an ungodly amount of life.  He has a Metamorph but I have Hurkyl’s and a second Trygon on the way. On the penultimate turn I regrow the Hurkyl’s , he ponders his turn and extends his hand.

2-0 (8-1)

So in the very first tournament post Dragons Maze, post Regrowth unrestriction; I managed to take a deck born of those event to a first place finish but I’m not sure the deck is really THAT good. As I told Andy Horne after the event, the deck felt more lucky than good. I was blessed with nearly all my hands having sufficient mana which had been a problem in goldfishing. Regrowth was both amazing and subpar. If you notice, I only actually stormed off properly once during the whole tournament so at times it didn’t seem to pull its weight as much in those situations but when it was awesome, it was awesome. It was a land vs shops and a time walk vs Burning Long. Perhaps 4 is not the correct number but the right deck definitely wants more than 1.

Again, I only stormed off once during the tournament itself, at most times I was playing more of a BUG Control style deck. I was genuinely surprised as I felt going into the tournament I would be storming off a lot more. Maybe cutting down on regrowths and adding more cards like Nature’s Claim is a possible direction forward for this deck.

Josh

[rooneg]

Given the amount of actual storming off you did, would you consider dropping Empty the Warrens and using something like Talrand for your "storm" based win condition instead?

[shrewarmies]

Absolutely. Except for the game against Andy and 1 testing game vs the omniscience deck, the biggest number of Goblins I made was 4 and I even cast it for 2 goblins in one game. Traland certainly deserves testing in that slot.

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the great report! This deck looks really interesting. I'm considering how best to add more Regrowths to my old Gush Storm list.

[Smmenen]

I'll echo Rich's comments regarding your report.  Nicely done.

I love what Regrowth does to the Gushbond engine.  It helps make it incredibly consistent.  Regrowth basically functions, once Gush is found, as a Merchant Scroll, but one that doesn't reduce the density of Gushes in your deck.

When one of the So Many Insane Plays started talking about abusing it with Gush, generating two mana, using that to Regrowth the Gush and casting Gush again netting me 2 cards for 2 life and potentially upping my effective Gushes to 8, I was intrigued about this interaction and started building decks. Then I came to a grinding halt. I didn’t know how to build a deck like this, I was not playing pre 2008 restrictions. My experience with building decks has entirely been in the Dark Confidant era (I started playing ~M11/Scars). My most recent experiences with Gush have been RUG Delver and Cobra Gush which were very different to what I was trying to accomplish with this deck.

Since you mentioned our podcast, I should tell you that my latest set review spends a few pages discussing my preliminary testing of Regrowth in the Gushbond engine.  In addition to Preordains, which you'll find gives you more consistency, I suggest a few other cards you might wish to test as well.  For example, I've found Imperial Seal to be very good with 4 Regrowth.  

Also, you may wish to consider checking out my Gush book.  It was published in early 2010 and revised in early 2011, but alot of the principles remain the same.  Also, I've been working on an update with latest decks (will probably be published this fall), and everyone who got the 2nd edition will get the 3rd.

[shrewarmies]

Seal was one of the cards I felt like I really was missing on the day. I have really grown to appreciate seal in the past couple of months working on the Tezzeret's Picnic deck. Having the three black T1 (Vamp/DT/Seal) tutors for whatever I need adds allot of consistency to lists looking for specific cards. I originally didn't play seal for 2 reasons

a) I was using Kolowith's deck as a paint by numbers guide and it was not running seal so I did not feel pressured into running it.


b)I wanted to be able to not expose a dual on my first turn. The past few months have been full of wasteland decks  and I was hoping to avoid them.

Through actually playing in the tournament I found I was missing a critical card or two that could find Fastbond in the early turns and I immediately thought of Seal. I have built another version of the deck given my experience that includes Seal.