Next Level Vintage: June Edition

Short Report from me.

I had built the BUG Deck to play for this tournament, tweaking the BoM winning list as many other have done when a new guy asked me if I had any decks he could borrow for the tournament and explained all the store lists that we have proxied up and ready to go but he wan't biting so I offered him the BUG list and he had a look through and liked what he saw so he took that, we built him a sideboard and I rebuilt the espresso list I have used at previous tournaments. I got to 58 cards and couldn't remember my last two slots so I just filled those slots with Revokers and we were off the the races.

Round 1 vs Ben McCoy - Dredge (2-1)

Game 1) He wins the die roll and leads with a Bazaar after keeping his 7. I have turn 1 Smokestack and hope he doesn't hit a Narcomoeba forcing him to lose his Bazaar but it was not to be. I managed to lay a couple of spheres and a tangle Wire but on turn 4 or 5 the casts a Dread Return and kills me with a few 3/3 Haste Zombies

-4 Chalice
-2 Revoker
-2 x
-1 Duplicant

+4 Leyline of the Void
+2 Grafdigger's Cage
+1 Tabernacle at Pendral Vale
+2 Pithing Needle

Game 2) I lead with Leyline and Sphere, Wasteland him twice and land sphere number 2. He was never in this game.

Game 3) Unfortunately his Deck hates him and he ends up mulliganing to 2 and loses horribly to my Leyline on turn 0, Cage and Sphere on turn 1 and a Tabernacle on turn 2. I eventually draw a Factory but its completely irrelevant how I kill him at this point.

2-1-0 (1-0)

Round 2 vs Gavin Kroeger - Burn 2-0

We have tested this match up and its not actually as horribly in shops favour as I had expected. There are 3 casting costs that all kill me, he has ways to get around spheres with Fireblast and Hellspark Elemental so I need to slow him down enough (and quickly enough) to get some real resource denial in.

Game 1) I lead with a Chalice at one and lay Crucible and Strip Mine down on turn 2 which gives wins the game when I land a sphere on turn 3 and keep striping him untill the cows come home.

- 1 Duplicant
- 1 Karn
- 1 Crucible
- 2 Revoker

+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+1 Wurmcoil Engine

Thank God I didn't take the Leylines out of the board.

Game 2) After I mulligan a no lander into more garbage I switch to the finding a Leyline plan which I find at 5 Cards. I bank on leyline sticking around which it does but he kept a risky 7 (1 land) and I draw ancient tombs which I keep using to cast spheres and do most of his work for him, I am worried about Goblin Guides and Elementals. He is able to keep all my threats off the board but I eventually find the Strip Mine and go to town.

4-1-0 (2-0)

Round 3 vs Jackson Wain - BUG Fish (2-0)

Well the deck I built is in the 2-0 bracket so I cant have mangled the deck too badly. Jackson seems to be a decent player and know what he is doing.

Game 1) I don't remember game 1 too well but I know it involved an early Revoker on his Deathrite Shaman and a Chalice at 2. I lay down 2 Spheres and a Thorn. I find a Mishra's Factory and beat down through his Deathrite and untill he is at 6 life and I go for the alpha strike and he casts double abrupt decay, killing both my Revokers and blocking the Factory. The games continues but I still have a factory and eventually he can't lay down a blocker.

-2 Thorn of Amethyst

+1 Tabernacle at Pandral Vale
+1 Wurmcoil Engine

Game 2) This Game goes Long...VERY LONG. I end the game with <30 cards in my library. He plays Black Lotus, Thoughtseize taking my Revoker, Land, Mox, Shaman, Shaman. My turn is Tabernacle, go. This tied up both his turn 1 Mox and Land which gave me the time to lay a Tangle wire and a couple of spheres. We traded Wastelands and but he snuff outs my Golem and my Factory. I lay out 3 Tangle Wires over a 10 or so turns keeping him tapped out but me without a win condition. I eventually stack him out and find a Golem on turn 25 or so.

6-1-0 (3-0)

Round 4 vs Andy Horne - Noble Fish (2-0)

Game 1) He keeps a pretty decent hand with Hierarch, Pridemage Cavern, Mox, Land, Teeg and Knight of the Reliquary (or something like that) I lay a turn 1 stack which he doesn't care about for the time being. He plays the Knight, kills the stack and attacks for 4. I casually play smokestack number 2 which causes some trouble for his maths, he starts pumping his knight to be an 8/8, hoping to race my stacks but I Draw and play the third stack which manages to wipe the board, leaving him with 2 cards in hand to my 1 card (shop) and a Chalice on the Board. Because I kept the shop in my hand I manage to lay lay down some spheres, find a factory and that's all she wrote.

-2 Thorn of Amethyst

+1 Tabernacle at Pendral Vale
+1 Wurmcoil Engine

Game 2) He opens with a Thalia, but my only mana rock in hand is a Sol Ring which I use to cast a chalice at 1 off a shop. We play it out for a bit but our gameplans just didn't match up, his resource denial which would have wrecked my hand had it have been two cards different was just not suited to a double shop + Crucible draw which i was able to leverage into the win after I get some blockers for his stuff. I can't quite remember how this match actually went but it was not a blowout by any means but after both games had finished Andy commented on how he felt like he had been dump trucked. I don't think it had to do with match up but more just the individual cards that were drawn in each game.

8-1-0 (4-0)

I really like the Espresso gameplan. You get to bypass many of the quasi-Workshop hate cards like Swords and Bolt and you seem to always have to option of just clearing the board and going back to square 1 with a smokestack. I did not use a single powder all day, I had one in my opener game 2 vs BUG Fish but that hand was clearly keep-able. Other than that I never saw a Serum Powder when Mulliganing. You never want to see them in your first couple of draws but having one in play is not completely dead and you can generally take one or two dead draws before you are too far behind, provided your opener was strong enough. I think I was lucky to beat burn just because we have tested the match up its not as easy to lock out as one might think. They have good spells at 1,2,3 and 4 CC and locking the wrong one out with chalice can be really backbreaking. Having strip lock in both games vs a nearly mono mountain manabase was lucky and contributed greatly to my win. Leyline was of course fantastic even if I did go down to 7 off his creatures and my Tombs.