Battling for a Workshop with LSV Grixis

Celebrating the Grand Re-Opening at Richmond Comix, 16 players came out to battle for the Pack Mint Workshop put up as prize.

Wanting to scrape some of the rust off in advance of the upcoming Eternal Weekend, I knew I had to sleeve something up but wasn't sure what. I thoroughly know Dredge after years of practice but with full power burning in a seldom used deckbox, there was no way I was going to throw down with Bazaars. 4C Delver from the Grudge Match looked interesting but after a few test games on MTGO, I wasn't fully convinced.

As an avid watcher of the Vintage Super League I was intrigued by LSV's recent 3-0 run with a fairly standard Grixis build. Investigating further, I compared it to a few other builds that Top 8'ed recently and ended up with something very similar:

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brainstorm
1 Dack Fayden
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fire/Ice
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Island
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Mana Crypt
2 Mana Drain
1 Mana Vault
2 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Polluted Delta
1 Ponder
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sol Ring
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Thoughtsieze
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Toxic Deluge
3 Underground Sea
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Volcanic Island
1 Voltaic Key
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard

4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Mountain
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Notion Thief
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Yixid Jailer
1 Viashino Heretic

So MD -1 Snapcaster, +1 Thoughtsieze and SB -1 Viashino Heretic, -1 Thoughtsieze and +1 Yixid Jailer +1 Grafdigger's Cage

I knew Dredge was going to be more likely than Shops but still wanted a Thoughtsieze somewhere in the 75. Disagree? Agree? Let me know.

Round 1 - Johnathan Weih - BUG Gush (2-0)

Game 1 he mulls to 5, lands Fastbond and proceeds to draw nothing but land. Tinker into Vault with Key in hand makes this a quick one.

SB: -1 Hurkyl's, -2 Lightning Bolt, -1 Fire/Ice, +2 Notion Thief, +1 Pyroblast, +1 REB

Game 2 First turn Jace with Force backup digs me into Key Vault before he can exit durdle phase.

I'd seen and copied a similar deck from Rich Shay a couple months ago so I knew that the deck had a tendency to durdle on soft draws, luckily I was able to capitalize on that.

Round 2 - Christian Griffin - RUG Delver (0-2)

Game 1 He wins the die roll, drops a few land while my Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, and a quick Mental Mistep battle over Ancestrals gets me down to 8. While he drops two Delvers, I Dack into Key Vault with Will in hand. I have the mana to combo out but I read him on another Misstep, laying down Vault with 2 mana left and leaving Will, Key in hand for next turn. He flips double Delver the next turn and Bolts me when I go for Key in desperation the following turn. Turns out he didn't have it and I could have comboed off. With only 4 mana, a tapped vault, crypt and only 8 life I was likely dead either way.

SB: -1 Hurkyl's, -1 Mana Crypt, -1 Fact or Fiction, +1 Lightning Bolt, +1 Pyroblast, +1 REB

Game 2 is another clown show with me ignoring the Thoughtsieze in my hand for a turn and eventually losing a counterwar that I otherwise would have won. Delver and Trygon team up to make short work of me after a failed Tinker.

Round 3 - Robert Thiessen - Ashnod Altar Combo (2-1)

Game 1 I get stranded on one land after keeping Misstepx2, Force, Volcanic and Top. I see nothing but spells throughout the game and eventually succumb to Lodestone and Wurmcoil Engine beats. I could have bought an extra turn by not Forcing the first Altar I saw, but I was a bit on tilt after the mana screw and previously lost match.

SB: -1 Fire/Ice, -1 Thoughtsieze, -1 Flusterstorm, -1 Misdirection, +1 Mountain, +2 Ingot Chewer, +1 Viashino Heretic

Game 2 gifted me an uncontested Tinker Bot on turn 2. Myr Retriever is just not going to get it done.

Game 3 is a bit longer but a 2nd turn Heretic keeping his board clear of anything relevant. Luckily I didn't see a Revoker or removal before another cheated out Blightsteel went trundling across the battlefield towards his face.

Round 4 - ID into Top 8

The breakdown of Top 8 was:

2 Workshop (Terra Nova and Classic Stax)
1 Grixis
1 4C Control
1 Goblins
1 RUG Delver
1 Fenton Oath
1 Upgraded Legacy Dredge

Luckily I got the chance to scout a bit before the ID fest that was the last round of Swiss and I knew that I was facing Dredge in the first round of the Top 8. That was definitely a lifesaver.

Top 8 - Romario Neto - Dredge (2-1)

Game 1 saw the Dredge deck mulligan to 4 and then resort to first turn Cabal Therapying out their Grave Troll. No bazaar gives me enough time to dig, dig, dig with the help of a first turn Jace and third turn Dack to find Key Vault before his deck got on its feet.

SB: -1 Misdirection, -1 Hurkyl's Recall, -1 Lightning Bolt, -1 Fire/Ice, -1 Fact or Fiction, 1 Thoughtsieze, +4 Grafdigger's Cage, +1 Nihil Spellbomb, +1 Yixid Jailer

Game 2 featured another spot of rust showing through as I opened on Sea, Sapphire, Mana Vault, Nihil Spellbomb, Graffdigger's Cage, Ponder, Tinker. Instead of jamming Blightsteel into play on turn 1 with a bonus Cage to stop shenanigans, I settle on Ponder, Spellbomb, pass turn. Sure, one chain could have stopped it, but that is one less Chain to worry about stopping my hate. Shaken by my oversight I blow the spellbomb too early and he has the Claim for the follow up Cage. Turn 2 Tinker bot is not fast enough to get me there.

Game 3 starred first turn double cage followed quickly by a Jace. We play the waiting game as he digs with Bazaar and I sort through nonsense with Jace and Top. Mana Vault gets me down to 13 but Tinker into Vault Key comes into play before I am in any real danger.

Down to Top 4, we all discuss a split but one hold out has us playing it out. With only 16 players, the Workshop was the only prize support and the split was going to be somewhere around 100-125 for the four of us. Seemed like easy money for me, but I shuffled up regardless.

Top 4 - Christian Griffin - RUG Delver REMATCH!

Christian was 2nd coming into the Top 8 but the modified play/draw was not in effect. That meant we got to roll for first turn and I came out on top. Good omen.

Game 1 had that omen paying in spades with an uncontested 1st turn Crypt, Lotus, Volcanic, Jace, Top coming into play on my side of the field. His response Delver met Mental Misstep and he was stuck on Tropical + Sapphire soon after. I spent another turn Brainstorm into nothing special but soon started the uptick on Jace once he missed another Land drop. 2 fetches and a Preordain was sent to the bottom before Jace went ultimate. Just in time for me as Crypt had been taking 3 point chunks out of my life total, putting me at a measly 5 before I could DT for Tinker and win the game.

SB: -1 Hurkyl's, -1 Mana Crypt, -1 Mana Vault, -1 Tezzeret, -1 Fact or Fiction, +1 Lightning Bolt, +1 Pyroblast, +1 REB, +2 Notion Thief

After multiple games taking more damage from my fast mana than any of his creatures, I decided to lower the curve and try for the Gush Thief blowout.

Game 2 he started with a Delver that met a Mental Misstep and I followed up with Ancestral that ended up resolving. As the did the follow up Snapcaster targeting same Ancestral in the graveyard. Way ahead on cards I landed a Dack that got me Vault Key and into the finals.

The winner of the other match had already expressed his desire to split (the holdout lost, such is life) and the pool turned out to be 600 in credit instead of the expected 400. With the stakes being $0 vs. $600, we quickly split and headed our separate ways.

After Action Report

Overall the deck felt really solid, powerful, and flexible. I'd say mission Shake Off Rust was about 40% successful with a plethora of misplays and missed opportunities but a good end result. Luckily my deck was kind enough to offer forth brokenness on several occasions and get me to the finals.

I am so pleased to see Vintage come back to Richmond and hope to see more events in the area. The Workshop was never given out so hopefully we'll see another posting here soon.