Can Con 2014. Australian Vintage Champion
That feels good to type.
Just last Monday, on Australia Day, I played Espresso Stax to victory over the 16 other competitors in the Can Con Vintage event. Can Con has traditionally been one of the largest Sanctioned Vintage events on the Calendar in Australia, especially since Nationals was cancelled some years ago. Prior to the Vintage event, I had had a very disappointing run in the Highlander tournament (with Tomato Control/Ponza) on the Saturday and a fairly good Legacy tournament on the Sunday (with stock as stock can be RUG Delver) where I made top 4. I know it was a small event however it was an important one of Australian Vintage, one of the few Annual large events.
However, the one event that I wanted to compete in and do well in was obviously the Vintage event on the Monday. I have been trying to grow the Vintage community down in Victoria and indeed Australia wide and I really wanted to show that I could do well in tournaments. I have had some very solid performances in the past however I have tended to do just above average at most of the larger/Sanctioned tournaments.
I had not actually made the decision to play Espresso Stax until the night before the tournament, even offering out the deck to loan even the day before as I was considering playing Dredge as the deck had not made a big splash anywhere in 2013 and really seemed like it would be well positioned. As I was driving to Canberra I was thinking about Gush so my head was everywhere leading up to the event. The night before I was pulling out Graham’s Dredge cards and just really did not feel like building the deck so I pulled out the Espresso list I had built up, converted what proxies I had into real cards and I was all set. While the decision to play Espresso was kind of last minute, the deck was not. I had won a smaller event in 2013 with it; I had lent it to Tim Hughes who ended up winning our last event of 2013 as well as splitting in top 4 our first of 2014. The deck was probably 72/75 cards set in stone, the only cards I considered changing before the tournament was the Thorn of Amethyst, the third Crucible and the Razormane Masticore in the sideboard. Other parts of the deck are a bit more fluid than others but those were the only cards I actually considered changing for the tournament.
The list I used to take down the event was:
1) Joshua Butler – Espresso Stax (Counter, Sac, Tap, Fade)
Lands (18)
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
Artifacts (32)
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Serum Powder
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
4 Smokestack
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
Creatures (10)
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Duplicant
Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrall Vale
The decklist is very solid, and extremely consistent. I have always really liked the slower, more controlling versions of MUD. I have played aggro lists but always seem to come back to counter heavy versions of the deck… of the Soot variety naturally. Brian De Mars made a good point is one of his recent articles about being able to deal with problematic permanents, adding another counter to Smokestack is always step in the right direction. Serum powder just adds to the consistently of finding hands that had just the right mixture of threats and control elements to allow my long term engines to come online. While it only came up a few times during the day, I was generally quite aggressive with Serum Powder. Getting rid of multiple cards that I like in matchups to find a hand that had what it took to win.
As for the decklist as a whole, I do not think there is anything to new or amazing to be seen. The MB and SB seem pretty standard (at least to me) but I am happy to lay it out if anyone wants.
Another thing I really enjoy (though it came back to haunt me in the final) about the decks with such a good long game is the irrelevance of the threat which actually kills your opponent. In the final match of the day I beat my opponent down with a single Mishra’s Factory down from 28 life to 0. While that particular game was tough I love how the concession phase is a legitimate endgame for this deck.
As for the rounds themselves, I am a little hazy. I was extremely tired at the end of the day due to having hardly eaten throughout the tournament and having extremely tough, long games, especially in the later rounds. I will however give a nice recap of what I can remember. I apologise to my opponents if I get anything wrong.
My only regret on the day was not wearing a better shirt...
R1) Aloysius Landrigan (7th) – Grixis Control
Game one was obviously my first match of the day. Al is a regular in the Melbourne Vintage scene and he is usually on either Grixis Control or Dredge. I kept a relatively good hand (though my g1 vs Dredge is quite bad) for either. I won the die roll and proceeded to play a game of Lodestone aggro as two Lodestones and a Chalice over the first two turns were enough to put the game away. The only memorable thing about this game was my first warning for the event. I was sitting back thinking about my attacks on abut turn 4, when I glance at my scoresheet and see “Fetch” written down on my scoresheet. Unthinkingly, I reach over for my opponent’s deck and cut it. … Having already cut it on turn 1 when he fetched. The judge was called over and it was ruled that as it did not affect the game state (no known info etc) it was a warning. I felt really bad after that but I played on and handily took that game.
I shuffled in all 15 cards from my sideboard and immediately took them all out again.
Game two saw him open up with a Dark Confidant and an Ingot Chewer on my Sphere which I quite disagree with, though not knowing his hand I can’t say for sure that it was not correct. I waste him early, he Drains a Sol Ring so he can hard cast an Ingot Chewer but his Confidants flipped at least two force of Wills which sealed the my victory.
2-0 1-0
R2) Liam Prasad (10th) – GWS Tendrils
Liam absolutely smacked me around last time we played, he could have been playing with a deck of bicycles and probably still beaten me last time. I wanted revenge…
I win the die roll and don’t actually see much from Liam as I Lodestone him into the ground. I only saw three non-land cards off him in game one: Gitaxian Probe, Mystical Tutor and Hurkyl’s Recall. From those I deducted he was on either his usual Drain Tendrils, or something a little faster like Suicide Tendrils. The Gitaxian Probe threw me off the scent. I had not seen it is slower versions of Tendrils like GWS or Drain Tendrils so I sideboard for a faster deck.
I am pretty sure I took out 3 Smokestacks, 2 Crucibles and a Karn for 4 Leyline of Sanctity and 2 Grafdigger’s Cage. My reasoning behind this was that if he was laying a faster more streamlined deck like Suicide Tendrils, the Leylines were fantastic at slowing him by stopping the Storm endgame as well as Hurkyl’s Recall. Liam after the game commented that he was surprised that I took out Smokestacks but I figured if he was on a faster deck, they would not have the time to work their magic. I also wanted to be maximally disruptive to his spells as possible in the early turns.
Game 2 I naturally saw the only Smokestack left in my deck in my opener, but the hand was quite disruptive with both Waste effects, a sphere and a Tangle Wire. Liam opens with Land, Mox, Lotus and sits there and really contemplates casting something off the lotus. He elects not to and I am pretty sure I lay a sphere, a Chalice at 1 and passed. He played a Bob and I put down a Tangle Wire and a Wasteland. Liam played a second Confidant which was Duplicanted and Lodestone, combined with a Smokestack put enough pressure on him to earn the win. The Chalice at two, the turn before he flipped Hurkyl’s to his Confidant, obviously helped.
2-0 2-0
Round 3) Thomas Ribet – “Robots” Affinity
I go into this match dreading it. He has so many more cheap permanents than me, they all attack for damage that I am not well equipped to defend against and most importantly, he has a draw engine I cannot compete with. He also wins the die roll to boot.
I throw away a seven which was horrible and a six which would not compete and kept a 5 which just might make it. Thomas drops his hand into which I dropped a Smokestack. His attacks are met with a Tangle Wire, I block with a Lodestone trying to clear his board. My ramp my smokestack as fast as I can which means that when it finally goes, there is 0 permanents on the board, but due to his Skullclamp, he has two cards to my 0. He actually made quite a grievous error which could have cost him the game the turn before Smokestack cleared the board. He chose not to take two damage from a Metamorph, leaving him without the mana to equip his Revoker with a second Skullclamp.
Those two cards naturally killed me as I tried to draw into another answer which was not forthcoming.
For this matchup I was not prepared mentally. I had a quick thing and bring in my Leyline of the Voids to negate his Skullclamp and Ravager, the Wurmcoils, Tabernacle and Maze of Ith for my, Thorn and again some number of Smokestacks, Karns and Crucibles. Of all the Shop mirrors, I think this is the only matchup in which Spheres have any chance of staying in and that is because their mana base is so weak. A timely Wasteland can actually sit heaps of cards in their hand, particularly if you have a sphere to back them up. I am not sure which is correct to have post board, the spheres or the Leylines.
Game two, Tom takes a mulligan to 6, I waste him early and put a Sphere on the table and he is well and truly locked out as I play a golem and a Wurmcoil before he scoops.
Game three I take the mulligan to 6 and keep a turn two Wumcoil followed by a tangle Wire on turn 3. A turn 2 Wasteland from Thomas however keeps me from making that play and I am dead by turn 4 with a heap of small creatures bashing me down without any protection.
2-1 2-1
Round 4) Robert Bartlett (4th) – Espresso Stax
Ahh the Mirror, why cannot I face Blue decks all day…
Robert offers the ID as he is currently 3-0 and I seriously consider it for a while. I was 2-1, going to 2-1-1 meant I would have to bash the next round and face the possibility of being paired down which would really hurt my breakers for top 8. We rolled the die anyway which I won and decided to play.
I get a double break when Robert Mulligans down to 5 after I announce I am going to keep my hand of 7. Robert was never really in the game and I quickly beat him down with an assortment of brown creatures (coupled with a sphere or two)
For game two I bring out my spheres, Thorn, Trinisphere and some number of Stacks and Wires for my 4 Leyline of the Voids, the Maze of Ith, the two Wurmcoils, and the Razormane Masticores.
It was all for naught however because a turn 2 Karn gives Robert everything he needs to have me dead by turn 4 or so. I had kept a hand without a creature and was very promptly destroyed.
Not knowing how much time we had left I quickly upped my Tangle Wires (for Stack 2/3) and shuffled up. I kept a very aggro hand which was laid out within a few turns. Shop Crucible, Shop Wurmcoil, Razormane Masticore kills his Lodestone. Robert tries to get back in the game with a Metamorph on my Wurmcoil but Duplicant removes that problem and I start swinging for 11 and 17 over those two turns and the game is over.
... Sac one in your upkeep???...2-1 3-1
Round 5) Christopher Turner (5th) U/R Pyromancer
I actually did not know what Chris was on but we were safe in 2nd and 3rd respectively so we ID and take a break.
ID 3-1-1
TOP 8) Isaac Egan (8th) Grixis Control
I ended the swiss in second position after Thomas Ribet so I get to be on the play. Isaac is a very good player and is known for winning these events or t the very least doing very well in them. I keep my 7 as does Isaac. I get the best average hand of the deck with a sphere and a chalice, Isaac Forces the Sphere so I end the turn with just a chalice on the field. I am pretty sure the chalice did hurt Isaac as I remember starving him of mana, even though I did not resent a real clock. I eventually found a Revoker which went the distance. I misplayed here as I was nearing lethal when Revoker actually hit the field, I had a sphere but he had 4 mana so I named Jace and definitely should have named either Key or Vault which I realised as I was passing the turn. Luckily Isaac did not have either piece in hand in the following couple of turns but it was certainly scary as I pretty much assumed that I would be dead as soon as I fucked up.
Once again I did not make any changes to the board. Isaac elects to play and I mulligan at least twice to find a competitive hand. Isaac’s first turn bob is met by a Chalice at 0 and a sphere again but my hand is mostly spent. A Revoker joins the battle and it is my Factory and Revoker vs his Bob and Jace. Jace had been on the board for a few turns before I got the second thread so it weathered some hits from my team before Isaac was forced to start fatesealing me. Jace was buying him time and I knew it, unfortunately there was very little I could do as his life total was high enough that attacking him seemed a very poor proposition. I played my cards as I could but unfortunately for me Isaac eventually went on the offensive with brainstorm and Bolt me at the end of turn before casting Yawgmoth’s Will the next turn to finish my Ancient Tomb depleted life total.
Game three started and I was once again on the play. Isaac was seriously debating whether he would keep or not was really umming and ahhing about it. I announced I would mulligan and after a while he declared that he would keep. He had kept a removal heavy, mana light hand with no way to cast the confidant in it. I kept a decent, quite average hand however my first two draw steps are Crucibles and I just want to kill myself, I almost don’t want to see a Crucible until much later let alone two. When Isaac countered my Tangle Wire I was resigned to just casting Crucibles. I was really worried that when I cast the second Crucible that I had given Isaac too much time with only one Sphere in play as disruption. Luckily for me, Strip mine was the next card down and I started the Strip Lock beginning on turn 4. In the end, Issac did not have enough mana to continue to remove my threats and he was eventually killed by a Revoker and a Lodestone.
Isaac later revealed that he kept something along the lines of: Mountain, Strip Mine, Mox, Force of Will, Dark Confidant, Ingot Chewer.
2-1 4-1-1
Top 4) Robert Bartlett (4th) – Espresso Stax
My top 8 game vs Isaac went for ages so as soon as I had finished, I was lined up to face Robert gain. It had taken all three games to do it earlier so I prepared myself for a long game. I was on the play though so I was feeling quite confidant having discovered that Thomas had lost his top 8 match leaving me the highest seed remaining. We shuffle up and settle in for the long game.
Game one was quite odd. We both played the mirror for sure with us both opening up with Mishra’s Workshop, Mox Sapphire and Lodestone Golem. My hand after he passed the turn to me was: Mishra’s Workshop, Ancient Tomb, Tangle Wire, Wasteland, and Smokestack. What would you do here?
What to do?????I eventually decided on a permanent denial strategy. I offered the trade of golems, which he accepts; I wasteland him, leaving him with just a Sapphire to the Smokestack I then cast. I cast a Tangle Wire the next turn and the stack sits at one to eat his entire board and I eventually find another threat to kill him.
I sideboard the same as before, bringing in Leylines, fatties and Maze of Ith for my Spheres and some number of Smokestacks and Tangle Wires. I was really interested in seeing how Leyline affected this matchup. While I never kept a hand with Leyline all day, I figured they were just as dead as spheres in the late game but provided so much advantage in a long, drawn out game like the Espresso mirror, blanking his Crucible (one of his best cards in the mirror) and Buried Ruin seemed a good trade off.
In the end, it did not matter, I kept a turn 1 Crucible to his Shop, go. I am 100% sure that this was wrong. I should have used the Wasteland I had in hand on turn 1 to his lone shop. Not doing so opened the door for his turn two Mishra’s Workshop, Wurmcoil Engine. I was too preoccupied with the long game, setting up a Crucible engine that I could not deal with the Wurmcoil and lost because of it.
We head into Game 3 which goes for at least 40 minutes all on its own. I exile a hand with Serum Powder and keep a hand with good long game but no threats. I actually draw all 4 Serum Powders in the early turns which was mitigated by the fact that Robert could not break out of my lock as I start to set up the perfect Espresso scenario of a Smokestack on one, a Crucible and a superfluous land. It takes me a while to actually finish the game. Because I had no spheres left in the deck Robert was always threatening to come back in with a flurry of mana accelerants which he did a little too late. I eventually get a Karn out and returning the Ancient Tomb from my graveyard was enough to swing for exactly lethal.
2-1 5-1-1
Final) James Mckay (2nd) – Workshop Aggro
Again I am faced with a workshop aggro deck that I was not as prepared as I might have been given a different sideboard. Because my gave vs Robert wen for ages I took 5 minutes to get a drink and settle back down for the final games of Can Con. Going in I felt like the underdog and was hoping for some luck to get me through. James had a sweet fully Japanese (where possible) deck. Graham King was awesome as we were sitting down and offered to write out the finals. The notes are not fantastic but as the games went for so long most of it was written down.
Game 1- Both James and I mulligan down to 6.
I keep my 6 based mostly off the Crucible and healthy land count and open with the crucible off a shop. James plays a shop and passes. I decided that as I had very little action, slowing down the game was in order and I cast a Tangle Wire. This backfires on me when he plays Shop #2 and a thorn locking me under the Tangle Wire. My turns quick turn into tapping down my permanents while James hits me with Revokers and a Factory. I am forced to Duplicant a Revoker in the face of Batterskull to stay alive but it is all for naught and I scoop on my turn 8.
Hint, I lost this gameI sideboard the same as Espresso shops earlier with the addition of Tabernacle. I knew he was much more creature heavy than I was so I brought in the tabernacle in hopes of hitting a Wurmcoild and its tokens.
Again I keep a hand with Crucible and follow that up with a Factory and Smokestack on turn 2. James must have kept a mana light hand because his turn 1 is just a solitary Wasteland. In sight of Smokestack he drops a Chalice at 0 just for an extra permanent but I waste him twice over the next two turns, place a chalice at two. My factory beats him down as James starts to discard cards and the Karn on my side of the field finishes the game in short order.
Game three was however, not quite so simple. I have to Serum away two hands of 7 consisting of :
Razormane Masticore, Duplicant, Lodestone, Chalice, Waste +2 AND
2 Factories, Tangle Wire, Chalice, Mox Jet, Trinisphere + 1
And naturally keep the hand that gives me a t1 Crucible which James is not happy with, commenting that I had T1 Crucible in all three games.
James leads with a Chalice at 0 and 1 using a shop which I naturally andwer with Shop, Crucible. James’s not very effective Strip mine comes down the next turn and he passes. I play shop 2 and lay a Karn out on the table. Karn is however, immediately dismembered which was disappointing. It gets even worse when he summons a Wurmcoil Engine. I have Maze of Ith in hand but he has a wasteland so I waste his shop and cast a Tangle wire. I take 6 off the Wurmcoi (14)I leave two shops untapped in my upkeep and lay down a smokestack in order forcing him to choose between his Wurmcoil and his mana base. Waste his tapped Wasteland and pass the turn. Again I take 6 (8) and he adds to his board with another Chalice. I get the turn back. I wait until he was no wastelands to play the Maze of ith which caught him a little of guard but he has the Revoker to continue the beat down. I drop to 6 and the 4 when he is forced to crack his Wurmcoil. I block the revoker with a factory, Maze the Lifelinker and take 3 falling to one life with 2 Wurmcoil tokens when my stack finally reaches 3 counters, sacrificing all of my lands to do so, keeping just a Crucible and a Smokestack in my upkeep.i dropped the fast mana in my hand to keep the Crucible around the next turn and pass. In His turn he clears his board and passes. I let my fast mana and stack go away and slowly build up my mana base again with the help of Crucible.
The tokens and Revoker knock me down to 1.From here it was a matter of the long trip down from 28 life for James. He did land another Wurmcoil later in the game with the help of Fast mana but my multiple stacks were enough to keep it at bay when combined with the Maze of Ith I replayed. James kept fight to the end, playing to his outs but in the end, my lone Mishra’s Factory beat him down. James did make one mistake when he drew and played his Lotus into my Tangle Wire but that was just an oversight on his part. A notable part of this game was my casting of a Chalice of the Void on 6 quite late in the game. Also of note was that the bottom 15-20 cards (libraries were very small at the end of the game) contained 3 Lodestones, my second Factory, 2 Wurmcoils and my final Karn, all of whom would have sped up the final turns quite considerably.
That's a small Library, and a Chalice on 6!2-1 6-1-1
Overall I think the deck was really great for me all day. I did not reach my goal of having 5 concurrent counters between Smokestacks but I had at least one on three for multiple turns in a row and 4 counters between three stacks in one game. I would definitely play this list again, it is very consistent and has the answers for just about anything your opponent can do, provided you can get the time to get your late game engines online. Sometimes it felt a little threat light, maybe the 4th Revoker has a home in the list? There are maybe 2-3 slots in the main worth playing with but basically of all the 4 of cards need to stay I believe. I absolutely love playing with and against this style of Workshop deck and I would love to see more players pick up the deck and do well with it.
I hope you enjoyed the write up of the tournament.
