Oath of Druids/Forbidden Orchard is a nifty combo enabler. This we all know. Most of us realize that Akroma/Spirit of the Night is the quickest way to end most games. But Darksteel Colossus exists and has MANY cool advantages (like Berzerk for the Kill, and the ability to survive, in a way, anything short of Swords to Plowshares). Auriok Salvager, however, loves digging through graveyards and Oath Decks often have FAT graveyards. Inevetably, Oath Decks will try to exploit that.
I did, a few months ago, transforming The Deck Formerly Known As SlapJack into a build of Oath/Salvagers. My build is still different from other Oath/Salvager builds, but is by no means better. The Oath/Salvager thing is still being developed, and recently has been winning top spots in several metas, even if it isn't neccessarily "popular" or "well respected" like say, Control Slaver or "it sucks to be you" Trinisphere.dec.
The following is my account of how I won an actual piece of power with Salvagers. The details might not be totally accurate because I am simply stunned that I won despite all of my CRAZY scrub mistakes. I am humble, Oh ManaDrainers, hear my tale.
The Quick Version is, I won round 1 due to well...I won. Round Two was basically a bye. You'll have to read on to find out why. Round 3: Killed me a Riddler. I took that deck apart about 2 weeks after I proxied it. It sucks balls. Sorry. Try Cereberal Assassin. That deck is fun AND original. it has game even if you only ever get 1 land in play (and maybe a mox). It's crazy! even 1 Possessed Portal maindeck gives you so many outs. Props goes to Garth One Eye for coming up with the tech (at least in my world, and my world involves Gaea Welders: See Casual Forum with ZERO replies for proof). Round 4: I get owned by 3CC savagely. It was so Ugly, I don't even remeber many details. Library go, out counter me. Savage! Round 5: My opponenent conceeded to me out of the kindness of his heart. He is a saint. You will have to read the report to find out why, but Andrei, you rule! May your Traffic Tickets always get lost in the machine (if you had a car still). Sniff. I should have PWNED YOU if I was caffienated enouth! Round 6: TPS: ownage. Sorry man, you got me back game one of T4. Plus Top 4 coverage.
Read on my fellow ManaDrainers. Special thanks to anyone who didn't completely hate on Salvager Tech since last June or So.
Thirty people showed up to duke it out for a Mox Pearl in the first of Eudemonia’s Power Nine series. I had no time to do any actual scouting or anything, as I had to help one of my Possie make proxies for his TPS deck (he wrote LOTUS on some random 0cc artifact, and had RECALL on a blue spell. Sloppy).
If any of my details are screwed up, I apologize. Lemme know and I’ll try to fix it. I didn’t take notes because I didn’t really expect to go all the way. I have confidence in my deck, but other decks are just crazy fine-tuned and amazing. Mine just exploits Fifth Dawn and Black Lotus.
About 2 weeks after Fifth Dawn was release, I slapped together a build of Salvagers/Trinket Mages/Black Lotus/Spellbombs. I tweaked it for a few weeks and then for the first time entered the world of Type 1 Tournaments. I won three of the first 6 tourneys (all like, 20 player size tournies), but I simply rolled over and Died to Fish with its Wastelands and Null Rods. After a few months of Soul Searching, I figured that 5-7 basic lands are what I needed, so I cut black for basics. Later, someone somewhere posted an Oath of Druids deck using Auriok Salvagers.
When I got bored one day, I decided to make my own Combo Oath deck. Salvagers/Spellbomb or White Bringer Mindslaver were the front runners.
I decided it was easier to replace 4 Trinket Mages, 2 Auriok Salvagers, a Tundra, and Either Engineered Explosives or Chalice of the Void, Tolarian Academy and such for basically 4 Oath, 4 Orchard, 1 Blessing, 1 Tropical Island and 1 Lion’s Eye Diamond maindeck than to build a SlaveBringer deck from the ground up.
The results were immediate: I got Salvagers onto the field a LOT more often than before. But I couldn’t give up on my Trinket Mages. I fired TEN cards in my sideboard for the 5 cards that I actually used as Wish targets most often, and the other ten slots were my “back to old school Slapjack build” cards. This change to SlapJack was made about 1 month after Champions of Kamigawa came out.
Anyways, 5 rounds of Swiss to a cut to top four leaves me facing…
Round 1: Stan Gin playing Meandeck Oath. 2-1
Game 1: I Mull my crap hand into more crap (although not unplayable). Just no business or brokenness or anything. He starts with Sapphire, Land, Ancestral, go. He just controls the game from there and Oaths up Akroma, hitting once, leaving me a 12. I was about to become another Oath Statistic. After topdecking land for the 3rd time in a row, I WAS an Oath Statistic.
Game 2: I mull into counters, and we fight, but I think I got to cast Timetwister in there and kill him via combo. I belive I AEtherspellbombed my Spirit token in order to be outnumbered by his Spirit token. He didn’t see that coming. It was in play. He was just afraid of me bouncing Akroma or something.
Game 3: I think I screw him with Chalice for 2, but I distinctly remember being able to resolve stuff like Intuition, so I cast more threats. Eventually, Salvagers save the day. My opponent somehow just ran out of steam. I bounced his Spirit with my Spellbomb, and he ended the game with Akroma and Mr. Black hogging two of the three slots in his hand.
Round 2: Chetin H playing Mono-Black Doomsday Dragon. I think. 2-0
This was his first Type 1 tournament, and he was nervous. He just did the best he could do with quick combo on 10 Proxies. Sigh.
Game 1: He raped my mulled hand with Duress followed by Cabal Therapy wasting my two Brainstorms and Tinker. He did the same thing a few turns later, leaving me with crap. Luckily, his kill is Laquatus. He mills me to eternity, at least until I hit Blessing, and…later Colossus. Lucky me! We shuffled my deck a few times, and cut, putting one of two piles in the graveyard, repeating if Blessing was there. I get to combo off at leisure. First time Blessing ever helped me not get milled by the Ambassador .
Game 2: Let just say, this is his first tournament. I had AEther Spellbomb on the field (wee!) with at least a couple of Islands untapped. He animates Dragon. I go through the motions of the stack effects with props such as my big life counter die and someone’s deck box. He had no permanents. I killed him shortly after that and helped him learn more about Dragon. As in deck evaluation, other kill methods, not just ownage in the match.
Round 3: ??? playing The Riddler 2-1
Game 1: Trinisphere turn 1 sucks, and he has Mr Dreadnaught in play hitting once before my Tinker for Colossus stall tactic happened. Naught #2 joins to field and we’re off to game 2.
Game 2 and 3: I combo off on him with some Uber Broken Oath stuff early on. I probably forced some stuff, but I remember him sitting on Trinisphere, Karn, Ancient Tomb, City of Brass and 8 life for a while. Sweet times. My opponent was a nice guy, but it is fun watching shop players die to painful lands and Trinisphere. Wee! Good times.
Round 3: Kevin playing 3 Color Control. 0-2
Game 1: Library, go is my worst matchup, especially followed by 2nd turn Ancestral. I got owned. Negators, Meddling Mages, way more counters than me. Ownage. I lost.
Game 2: More Ownage. He countered my Trinket Mage. He countered anything else I did to do stuff. He killed me. Sucks. We was a nice guy, but I didn’t want to face that deck again. It scared me. Great build man.
Round 4: Andrei playing metagame hate White Weenie (with Meddling Mages and fun blue stuff). 2-1
Game 1: He plays Lotus, Samurai of the Pale Curtain, Tundra, Meddling Mage naming Explosives. (they were hiding in Sideboard. We’ve played before, but he was not aware that I do the Oath Engine thing.). None-the-less, Samurai #2 hits the field and he beats me down and after Wishing for Chain of Vapors (my only non artifact bounce Wish target), I find myself 1 mana away from dealing with the situation. I was a 3, he had lots of dudes, and had Salvagers and Colossus on the field. I scooped.
My five Wish targets didn't have the White Weenie matchup in mind at all. I like Andrei's build, and I watched him own my buddy Alex's Crushing Chamber deck earlier. Way cool rogue stuff.
Apparently, I could have Chain of Vapored stuff back and forth with Andrei until I reached a point where I could combo off, but I don’t always make the perfect plays.
Game 2: I side in Trinket Mage and co. I do the Land Mox go,… Land, Trinket Mage Go…Black Lotus Salvager Trinket Mage etc. He got Slapjacked (the name of my build with Trinket Mages).
Game 3: I make a million scrub mistakes. I could have Exploded his Meddling Mage and Samurai and then win with my Lotus. But I didn’t. I scrub out and forget my game plan when it comes to my turn.
I suck crap. But I wasn’t dead. I just lost my Lotus to Samurai. Hence my combo. For some reason, my Tinker was in my graveyard (I intuitioned for it and 2 other spells. I don’t know what I was thinking). Then Time was called during my Draw Step.
Crap. I had a fairly advantageous board position, but would NOT be able to kill him in 3 turns. Then again, he couldn’t kill me either. Worse, we were both 3-1 at this point, and 3-1-1 would do neither of us any good. One of us needed to win, or we both lose.
After stating the position that we were in, while playing (advancing the game) we simply had to decide who would concede.I don’t want to concede to him, because I only have power seven and 2 Drains. He has it all. He concedes to me out the the kindness of his heart. Andrei is a scholar and a gent. Granted, I made SO MANY mistakes this game (Forcing his Scepter when there was a CHALICE FOR TWO out was first, NOT WINNING when I could have was the second.). Eventually, I realize that the problem is, I did not have a regular steady supply of Diet Coke, and this was in the tourney’s 4th or 5th hour. I solved that problem as I went up against…
Round 5: Josh Sherman playing UB Tendrils. 2-0 (I think)
Game 1: I combo off crazy mad style with a first turn Land, Mox, Sol Ring, TIMETWISTER!. I win. He had a gawd hand, apparently, and I got to Oath shortly afterwards.
Game 2: I combo off crazy mad style. This game took much longer, because I mulliganned down to FOUR FRIGGIN CARDS. I remember mulliganing almost every hand of every round. Highlight include me drawing a half dozen cards with my Conjuer’s Bauble. Weak draw engine, but it does draw cards. Crazy. I don’t think I sideboarded at all. I felt confident in this match up (why, I don’t know).
I MAKE TOP 4! WEEE!
Round 6: Josh Sherman, again, playing UB Tendrils, again.
Game 1: He plays Black Lotus, Mox, Mox, Mox, Dark Ritual, Duress probably, Minds Desire for 6. Pretty cool. Then he has a bunch of fun stuff that he gets to play for free. He brainstormed once before casting Yawgmoth’s Will and replaying all his graveyard stuff reDuressing me a couple of times and eventually recasts Minds Desire for 20. Sigh. I make him go through the motions, as this is obviously the most broken he’s gone on turn 1 and I let have have his glory. Josh is a swell dude and deserves to get at least one broken Turn 1 Kill in the top 4. Unfortunately, it was against me. Congrats to Josh. Desireing 26 cards turn 1. Pretty cool!
Game 2: I play land, Chalice for 0 and screw him over. He dies to me tinkering out the chalice to do some Salvager recursion at a leisurely pace. He had Claws of Gix in play (in retrospect, this may have happened during round 6. ), and in hand, along with a bunch of dark rituals, a Yawgmoth’s Will and nothing useful. Good times, 2 dead cards.
Game 3: play land, Chalice for 0, go and screw him over. I Drain his Time Walk, be cause I could actually use the mana, and I think he just wanted to draw a card. Eventually, I tinker something out for Colussus and hardcast a Trinket Mage. He got to play his Necropotence, but…
Gifts Ungiven for 2 good cards and 2 bounce spells puts 2 good cards in the graveyard. I win! (sorry I forgot the details). Josh and I both get free invites to the next Tourney, and Josh gets some nice store credit (fifty bucks. Not bad.)
FINAL MATCHUP!
David Ochoa playing ??? 2-0
I have seen this guy around, and I know he knows what he is doing. I am scared of him. Actually, terrified. Plus, I forget entirely what he is playing!
Game 1: I keep a hand of Oath, Oath, Orchard, Orchard, Land, Brainstorm and maybe something else. I THINK he Duressed me, prompting me to brainstorm an Oath to the top of my deck. I think he takes a Force of Will. I play Oath turn 2. Pretty cool. I think I put the second Oath next turn into play as well, but I well, I comboed off rather quickly. David asked to look at my rather large graveyard, before going on to game 2. Everything was in plain sight except for Tinker for Colossus, which he probably knew was in the deck anyways.
Game 2: I see an awesome hand of Mox, Sol Ring, Land, and 4 more good cards probably blue ones, like drain and force and tinker, who knows what. David takes a few minutes to decide whether or not to keep his hand. He does in fact keep it and plays Citadel, Ruby, go.
I do the land, mox, Sol Ring, go thing.
David draws a card and says go.
He missed a land drop? And he kept it? My hand had a bunch of goodies in it, and I couldn’t help but want to play stuff, rid his hand of Forces and blue spells. I bait with Trinket Mage, which is answered by Red Elemental Blast! WHAT?!?!? I made 2 mistakes here.
A) Slaver Decks have REBs in their boards. It’s how they win counter wars. I should have known this. Fish did it to me all last summer when I was stupidly playing 2 basic lands, and not 5-7. Instead of 8 Counters, he now has 12.
B) He kept a crap land hand with a Red mox for a reason. David isn’t stupid. The cards in his hand HAD to have been awesome for him to risk missing a land drop turn two with no blue sources. I just wanted to empty his hand and stuff. Keep dropping threats. I learned a LOT about Magic when he Red Blasted my Trinket Mage. Like actually trying to figure out what he boarded in against me.
I was in the mindset of “Combo Hate” or “Oath Hate” or “Graveyard Hate”. I simply forgot about the 4 REB hate that is usefull against just about every deck out there. Thanks David. I learned a harsh lesson.
Ok, dead Trinket Mage. I give him a few Spirit tokens to beat me up with, and he resolves a welder. I follow up with Explosives for 1, but let it sit there. Why? I don’t know. Maybe I wanted him to not do stuff for a while. There were no artifacts in either Graveyard. Later, I brainstorm into a Chalice of the Void, and I contemplate setting it at 3 to stop future Thirsts, Intuitions, YawgWill, Crucib…Well, those first three cards. But how to get 6 mana that he won’t drain?
I had 2 drains in my hand, a Brainstorm, and an Intuition and other goodies in my hand, and decided that the best plan of action is to EOT INTUITION UP SOME FAT MANA SOURCES! That was my Brilliant Idea. I settled on Tolarian Academy, Black Lotus, and Mana Crypt. See what a genius I was? (sarcastic here…). I actually really did want the Tolarian Academy the most, and David was nice enough to let me have it. He then welded out the Explosives and gave me a Mana Crypt which kinda sucked.
We played a few turns with me having some options, but his Spirit Tokens and active Welder and my damn Crypt kept me hurting so I was looking for an out. We fought a counter war over something (a Tinker or Trinket Mage. I wanted a Pyrite Spellbomb to kill his stupid party pooper Welder, but I also needed a red source to activate it.), and I drained his REB and his Force of Will. After my attack step, I resolve chalice for 3.
At some point, I was at three, David had 4 mana sources, and I hand a big field of stuff. 2 Drains in hand, Brainstorms, a Salvager, and maybe a Black Lotus. Real good stuff. However, I had to win NOW or risk losing to Crypt next turn.
Sucks.
I cast Salvagers off Tundra, Sol Ring, Crypt, which resolved. I had 1 floating from Mana Crypt BUT I FORGOT ABOUT IT as I was considering what to do about his active welder. I then popped the Lotus for three white mana. Could he screw me somehow? This is my first time sitting in the FINALS with a Mox on the line. I was trying to figure out how to come up with a way to get my Lotus back without him doing something about it. Actually, I don’t know what I was thinking. All I knew is that I wanted my Lotus back.
David asks if there is still 1 colorless floating from the Mana Crypt. DING! YES! I had one floating. Now, armed with WWW1, I could recur my Lotus through any (ok, non-existent) hate. I comboed out, killing his stupid Spirit tokens with Explosives for Zero, then replaying all my 0cc artifacts (except Chalice, which had formerly set at 3.).
There were no Kill cards in my graveyard. Looking back at my hand, I discovered a forgotten Brainstorm. Time to Brainstorm into the ultimate solution. I dig into…TRINKET MAGE?!?!? I put him back there earlier when I couldn’t cast him under chalice, and there he was waiting for me! My friend! He finds me my Spellbomb, and all I have to do is verify that I didn’t do something stupid, like siding it out. I win!
Oath-Salvagers With SlapJack Transformational Sideboard by Jeff Neilson
4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchards
1 Gaea’s Blessing
2 Auriok Salvagers
1 Darksteel Colosus
1 Tinker
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Conjurer’s Bauble
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Cunning Wish
2 Intuition
1 TimeTwister
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Island
1 Plains
2 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
Sideboard
1 Intuition
1 Stifle
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Brain Freeze
2 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mages
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tundra
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
Generally, if my opponent is probably siding in Oath hate, or Combo hate, or IS playing Oath or Combo, I side the 10 non- wish targets for the Oath Engine. The remaining deck is like my old SlapJack build. Very fun.
Props to all of my opponents (even 3 Color Control guy who Savagely Owned me round 4), for my possie for taking on real life Type 1 decks (Alex piloting Crushing Chamber actually took 7th!)
Props to Andrei for being a really great guy. I went all the way, Andrei! I dedicate this win to you and every other Rogue Deckbuilder out there.
Props to David Ochoa for making me better understand Magic.
Props to traditional Oath Decks for making Fish go away.
Props to my deck for being the most forgiving deck I can ever imagine.
Props to Eudemonia for having a Power Nine series on the WEST COAST, Northern California at that, and 9 of em in the next few months.
Props to Proxies in Type 1 Tournements.
Slops to caffeine for not being there for me during rounds 1 through 4.
Well, this is the first piece of Power that I won in Combat. Right now it is sitting in the front page of my Trade Binder, next to the playsets of Kudzus and Rabid Wombats.
My dream is that Auriok Salvagers become respected and eventually fine tuned to be the deck of choice. I want to someday face a Mirror match. It could happen, right?
All thoughts, comments and corections appreciated.
(damn! I win a MOX, yet make so many scrub mistakes! I know round 2 was a bye, and round 4: White Weenie? that was a dedicated Hate machine., but I did kill me a Riddler, Oath, Tps, Tps AGAIN, and Control Slaver, right? Props to Salvagers?)
I can't help it. I have a Mox Pearl in my Trade Binder. How cool is that for Rogue Boy here
?
Andrei, I went all the way. This is for you.
Adam: Damn I need those Drains back! It's addictive! Drain mana! Mana Drain! Argh!
TMD: Keep Vintage Alive
Team Scrubland (uh, Alex and Austin: Kill those netdeckers, even if you ARE netdecking! F-with their manabases, pwn them till you get storm count 10!)
Trinket Mages: Just because you are in the board, doesn't mean I don't love you. It's just...well...the Salvagers hit the board more often if Oath is in play... You know, it's a Forbidden Thing.
To Fishhead, Adam, the other Adam, The Legend of Magic, Zhalfirin, David Ochoa, my Possie from Vacaville, Brent, Devon, Robert the Swordsman, Kilo, Dennis and everyone else I have dealt with in the world of Vintage: Thank You.
Honorary Mention to AngryPheldagrif for advancing the cause in the early days.
(Hey, my first peice of power, it DOES feel like it needs an Oscar speech.)
Lastly, a plug for Gay Welders: Look in the Casual Forum. Mesmeric Orbs: Broken!
LotusHead: Winner of Power since about 2 hours ago...
