What did I just lose to? StarCity Games Roanoke Day 2 - *1st* PLUS MORE!

[RaleighNCTourneys]

What did I just lose to? StarCity Games Roanoke Day 2 - 1st Place Report plus MORE!

FIRST PLACE! HIGH FIVE! VERY NICE, VERY NICE!!

The Report

It’s not Intuition Tendrils, although I do run Intuition and Tendrils of Agony. It’s not Gifts; I don’t even run Gifts. It’s not a Long variant…. just because you see a Dark Ritual and Tendrils of Agony does not mean you’re playing Long. I got all of these things this weekend. Other than the people who knew me (I played 3 people I drove with day 1 and 2 day 2), many of my opponents didn’t know what I was playing. When I’d ask for a minute to think about a play, some people were more than happy to give me time thinking that I was playing Long and agonizing over some complex decision. If you look in the StarCity database, you can find lists for Drain TPS, which was my inspiration for this deck. This is the closest relative to what I was playing. I call the deck Drain Tendrils (DT); you can call it whatever you want.

I’ve been testing this deck for close to 6 months now and my team (Arsenal) and I were fully aware of the deck’s power going into Roanoke. This deck has got me back into Type 1 and testing every week with the team we recently formed. We even started having local tournaments every month or so. Go back to SCG Charlotte a few months ago, that was the first time I had played DT in a tournament and I didn’t really have much testing with it other than some occasional testing on MWS when I got bored of schoolwork. Other than that, I hadn’t tested the deck against a real opponent. At SCG Charlotte, I piloted the deck to a 13th and 17th place finish, having a whopping 3 matches in both days where winning any of them would get me into the top 8. My lack of testing and seriousness in Type 1 kicked in as the caliber of player got slightly better in the later rounds, and I lost all 3 matches. After that, I realized how good the deck was and I just needed to put more time into it. I was amazed that some goofy deck I messed around with on MWS was so powerful, and coincidentally it was the same list within 1 or 2 cards that I ran at Roanoke. In the 4 local tourneys at the Sports Zone in Cary, NC between Charlotte and Roanoake, I piloted the deck to a 14-0 match record and a 26-2 game record against good decks with generally very competent opponents. I was amazed at how powerful this deck had become and how good I had become with it. In my testing with Machinus (Chris Coppola), I absolutely destroyed Gifts and from pre-boarded games I wrote in my notebook, on the play I was 6-1 and on the draw 5-2 against him. In the local tournaments, my Gifts matchup was the same and I always won with ease. With all the talk about Gifts being the best deck lately, I knew this deck had a great shot at Roanoke.

Here is the list I ran both days at Roanoake:

Maindeck 

Counter                                                                               
                                                               
4x Mana Drain   
4x Force of Will 

Draw
                                 
4x Accumulated Knowledge
2x Intuition
4x Brainstorm
3x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Gush
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Frantic Search

Other Good Stuff

1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Time Walk
2x Rebuild
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Yawgmoth’s Will
2x Tendrils of Agony
1x Dark Ritual

Mana

4x Underground Sea
4x Island
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Lotus Petal
1x Library of Alexandria

// 61 Cards

Sideboard

1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Darkblast
3x Diabolic Edict
4x Duress
1x Tinker
1x Darksteel Colossus
2x Tormod’s Crypt
2x Massacre

// 15 Cards

The trip was generally uneventful. I’m not much of a storyteller so I’ll just get right into the tournament report. It was great seeing all the familiar faces and friends again and meeting new people like Feinstein and so many other cool people I played against and chatted with. Type 1 really has the best player base in all of the formats.

Day 1 I was generally satisfied with my performance, although playing 3 matches against people I drove with was not fun. I went 4-2, good was good for an 11th place, and lost to Becker in 3 games in the match that decided who would top 8. He won the die roll in the match and dropped Chalice of the Void on zero turn 1 in games 1 and 3, which was very hard to get out of. His deck was very impressive and he deserved the win. I was disappointed that I didn’t top 8, but I knew there was tomorrow.

Day 2 Report

Round 1 – Mark Trogdon with Workshop Aggro

I know I’ve talked to Mark at previous SCGs and he’s always been a really nice guy and fun to talk to and play against. Mark and Jerry Yang are 2 of the nicest Vintage players I’ve ever met and it’s always a pleasure to play against them.

Game 1

I talk to my teammate Chris before the match and ask if he knows what Mark plays. He told me Control Slaver and nothing else. I was mentally prepared for CS and that was a huge mistake and should have cost me this game. I am on the draw and keep a VERY sketchy hand with 2x Force of Will, Rebuild, Thirst for Knowledge, Fact of Fiction, Sol Ring and Mana Vault. If I draw a blue source I’m fine and the 2x Force of Will should buy plenty of time. Mark opens with a Lotus and cracks for a Goblin Welder, which I let resolve because he is playing CS. But he’s not playing CS, and if I knew he was playing with Mishra’s Workshops I would have countered it. I believe he then casts a Fire (Fire/Ice), and I gladly take 2. I draw, discard and pass. Mark drops a Workshop and I think to myself how screwed I am. He has an active welder so my 2x Force of Will I have in hand are useless. He plays an off color Mox, which I decide to Force of Will to keep him at 3 mana and not let him have any artifacts in play. He then casts a Mana Crypt. I think for a little bit, mostly about how screwed I am, then I decide I might as well go all in and Force of Will that one too. He then casts an equipment similar to Vulshok Battlegear and passes. I draw a card and pass. He plays a Solemn Simulacrum and passes. I draw a card and pass. He drops another welder, a big artifact dude with equipment and passes. I draw a card and pass. He attacks me for a bunch and does some Solemn Simulacrum stuff. I only have 2 more turns at most to live. I draw an Underground Sea, play my Mana Vault and pass. At this point, I managed to draw into Yawgmoth’s Will  and Vampiric Tutor and I still have my Fact or Fiction in hand. Mark swings with a 7/7 artifact and Solemn, but not with his 2 Welders and I go down to 3. He does some Solemn tricks with Goblin Welder hoping to hit a Wasteland and end the game. On my upkeep, I Vampiric Tutor, going to 1, and get Lotus. I play Sol Ring off Vault and crack Lotus for blue for Fact or Fiction. There is a brainstorm plus Lotus Petal and Dark Ritual, which Mark wisely puts in different piles. I am forced to take the Lotus Petal and I then Yawgmoth’s Will. I end up having to Fact or Fiction again after Will out of desperation and I hit a pile in which Mark puts Mana Crypt and a Mox Sapphire in one pile, which I take. I am able to  Rebuild to make some mana and get the storm count high, and I end up with one blue mana in my pool, a bunch of colorless, a Lotus Petal in play and Dark Ritual in my yard. I cast the brainstorm that’s in my yard (as my last hope) and draw land, Force of Will and… TENDRILS OF AGONY as the third card!!! I go to replay Dark Ritual and my hand slips out of excitement and some artifacts in play almost fall off the table. I then cast Tendrils for 34.

Game 2

I board in a Hurkyl’s, 3x Diabolic Edict, Darkblast and Tinker/Colossus. This game ends shortly after I tinker up Colossus with protection and win.

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2 - George Goanos with Bomberman

George is one of the guys I drove up with, but he lives in Georgia and I never get to test with him. I know what he’s playing, but I don’t have much experience against it.

Game 1

I establish early control of the game with counters and draw spells. I manage to get myself down to 12 life from vault damage though. After reducing my opponent to no permanent threats and just a few cards in hand, I am able to safely go for the Yawgmoth’s Will/Tendrils kill and easily win.

Game 2

I board in 3x Diabolic Edict, Tinker/Colossus and 3 or 4 Duress. I open with a strong start with 2 Force of Will and a Library of Alexandria and start abusing. On turn 2 or 3, he drops a Meddling Mage and I activate Library of Alexandria and go to 8 cards with 1 Diabolic Edict in hand. I strongly consider Forcing knowing that he knows my board, but I bank on the guess he’ll name something like Tinker or Yawgmoth’s Will and not Edict. He names Edict and I then wished I had Forced, but I’m still in a very very nice position. He swings for a few turns and I use my Library every turn. He casts an Auriok Salvagers that I Force, and it gets countered. He then plays a Aether Spellbomb shutting off my Tinker plan, which also resolves. He tries a Tormod’s Crypt, which I Force of Will and he Drains my Force on his first main. Crypt unfortunately resolves. He swings with Meddling Mage putting me to 15 and burns for 5 putting him at 15. On his next end step, I try and AK for 4 (I had previously Intuitioned up 3 AKs and resolved the AK for 3) and George thinks about Crypting, but lets it through in fear of Yawgmoth’s Will. I take my turn and during my turn time is called, so I’m in a really nice position. I end up comboing him out with a Tendrils for 20 that turn, which involved playing some cards like Gush, Brainstorm, Black Lotus and Tolarian. I had already hit Tendrils while drawing a lot of cards, so I’m pretty sure I have the win. Just to make sure, I cast Yawgmoth’s Will, he Crypts away about 25 cards. I let the Crypt resolve and then respond to my Will with a Black Lotus and sac for blue. I replay Lotus off Will and Tendrils for the win.

Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0

Round 3 – Mike Hetherington with Meandeck Gifts

I play Mike twice day 2 and he’s a really laid back guy, and we both try to psyche each other out with small talk, which probably doesn’t work for either of us but we always had some sarcastic comments to make to each other after every play. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed being attacked every turn with no creatures and taking the damage. I need to start getting in the habit of going to 2nd main phase every turn more often.

Game 1

I wish I could remember more but I can’t take notes because it’s hard for me to concentrate on the match if I do that. I think I cast Accumulated Knowledge for a bunch of cards and had Drain for one of his Gifts. The next turn I had Fact of Fiction and I was able to get a pile with Mystical Tutor in it. I had Ancestral Recall in hand to Mystical for Yawgmoth’s Will and Ancestral Recall into it and cast it with a juicy yard. I think he has 1 card in hand so I showed him my hand and he scoops.

Game 2

I board in 4x Duress, 2x Tormod’s Crypt and Tinker/Colossus.

I keep a hand with Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Time Walk, Tinker, Force of Will, Underground Sea and a blue card. I keep. He opens with a first turn Fact or Fiction, which I counter. I Tinker up the Big Man and Time Walk. He goes to 9 and I pass. He draws for turn and that ends the match.

Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-0

Round 4 – Cullen Cox with Hide/Seek Control

I’ve played Cullen twice in the local tournaments in NC and the day before at SCG. When I find out we’re paired up we’re both really excited because he drove here together and one of us will top 8 for sure.

Game 1

I am able to find a turn 2 or so Recall and cast a Yawgmoth’s Will turn 3 off Drain mana from a countered Dark Confidant. I cast Will far from a guaranteed win and do not find any good combo pieces. I draw a bunch of cards using Tolarian  and replay my Black Lotus with a Drain, 2 FOW and all draw spells in my hand. I play the slow and safe game for about 5 more turns, countering every important threat. I eventually have about 7 cards in hand and he has 1 or 2. The non-Will Tendrils kill is easily executed off cheap and busted draw spells and Rebuild.

Game 2

I am now 99% sure I won the match and will top 8 because of how long game 1 took. Cullen should have scooped after my Will if he wanted any chance to win this match, which he even said during game 2. I asked him if he wanted to scoop during Will but he wanted to play it out, which is very understandable, but his deck is slow and time is always a huge factor. With my board against Cullen’s deck, I almost can’t lose and even if he takes out all 3 of my win conditions I can play so that the game will take as long as I want it to because I have answers to all of his cards. I board in 3x Edict, 1x Darkblast, 2x Massacre and Tinker/Colossus. I mull to 6 and keep a hand with a Ancestral Recall. I Recall and play a Mox or 2 and pass. He doesn’t do anything (maybe Duress?) and passes. I get Drain online and pass. He plays a Confidant at some point, which I let in and Diabolic Edict him. I counter a Seek (Hide/Seek) at some point, but the second one gets through and he takes a Colossus, which puts him to 27. I still have 2 Tendrils of Agony left in my deck. This is the only match I keep in both Tendrils game 2, because of Seek. He Pithing Needles Library of Alexandria. I have a lot of cards in hand, and he is running low. We are getting very close to time now. He plays a morphed creature, and I Diabolic Edict him again. With about 2 minutes left, he Duresses me with 2 cards in hand and I have 7 consisting of Brainstorm, 2x Drain, Edict, 2x Massacre and Thirst for Knowledge. He scoops and the match is over. Thanks for the good games Cullen I know you’ll get in the top 8 at one of these.

Matches: 4-0
Games: 8-0

Round 5 – ID with Jeremy Seroogy with 5 Color Stax

Round 6 – ID with Dave Feinstein with U/W Fish

I am 4-0-2 after Swiss and the #1 seed.

Top 8 – Marty with 5 Color Stax

Game 1

I play first and play and Island. He drops a turn one Chalice of the Void on 2. He gets out an early Crucible and has Strip Mine in hand soon after, so I quickly run out of lands. I didn’t get a Force of Will that game, and I can’t Drain so he won. I have no permanents for a long time, but I was in the game the whole time surprisingly. I had Will in hand with a Mox and Lotus Petal and a decent yard. I’m pretty sure topdecking Black Lotus or Dark Ritual would have won me the game until he dropped 2 Sphere of Resistance in one turn.

Game 2

I board in Hurkyl’s, Darkblast and Tinker/Colossus. I end up winning this game off a fairly early upkeep Brainstorm then Mystical Tutor for Tinker off a Mana Drained Sphere of Resistance. After Tinker, I am holding Force of Will, Gush, Underground Sea and Darkblast. I am fairly sure I’ve won because if he casts a Goblin Welder to answer my Colossus I can Darkblast it, and I have Force of Will for something like Balance. He does cast a Balance and I Force of Will it and win.

Game 3

I keep and open with Library of Alexandria, which is not a very strong play against Stax. He gets a turn one Crucible of Worlds and he gets the Wasteland thing going. I play a few basic lands and artifact mana and counter what I need to and start working the end of turn draw. I eventually get a Tolarian Academy I can use for one turn because of recurring Wasteland. I am able to play through a Sphere of Resistance and Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor and Tinker with Force of Will and Time Walk in hand. I made a huge mistake because I was somewhat nervous and tapped my mana wrong and I ended up burning for 2 and passing with no mana open so I couldn’t Force of Will because of Sphere of Resistance. I am relieved to see him play a Smokestack and pass. I cast Time Walk and win with Force backup.

Matches: 5-0
Games: 10-1

Top 4 - Mike Hetherington (again) with Meandeck Gifts

I am somewhat relieved to find out I am playing Mike again because I am confident in the Gifts matchup and know I have a decent shot and the confidence of a previous 2-0 win.

Game 1

I am on the draw. He opens with Island go. I open with Island, Mox, Mana Crypt go. He Brainstorms at my EOT, and I respond with Fact or Ficton, which he Forces and I Force back. At this point, I start getting way ahead on resources and cards and almost have a secured win. On his turn 4 he top decks Ancestral Recall and casts it with UU open and some artifact mana. My hand is Force of Will, 3 Accumulated Knowledge and Dark Ritual. My plan was to Accumulated Knowledge for 1, 2 and then 3 on his end step and win the game from there (I had the 6 mana open). Pitching AK to Force of Will is really bad for me right now, but I decide to Force of Will his Ancestral anyway, which he Drains on his second mainphase. I think I drained a Fact of Fiction on his turn as well, but I drained something and I have 4 mana the next turn. I untap and draw, use my drain mana to AK for 1 and then 2. I end up with a Dark Ritual, Tolarian and Yawgmoth’s Will (or Demonic Tutor) in hand with no protection. I need to win now or I feel like I will almost definitely lose. I tell Mike if he has the Force of Will (he only has 3 cards in hand) he almost certainly wins, and if he doesn’t he loses. He didn’t have the Force of Will and my Will resolves. He still doesn’t scoop, but as soon as I show him Tolarian he realizes the game is over.

Game 2

I board in 4x Duress, 2x Tormod’s Crypt and Tinker/Colossus.

Mike is on the play again and opens with Mox Sapphire, Brainstorm and pass. Apparently he kept a potentially really good hand with Tinker, Gifts, Force, Sol Ring and Mana Vault. He didn’t hit a land off Brainstorm though. I play an Island and pass. He plays a Sol Ring and passes. I play another Island and get the Drain online and pass. He does some stuff and taps out for a Merchant Scroll, which I Drain. I take my turn and cast a Thirst for Knowledge off Drain mana. I discard 2 Accumulated Knowledge and play a Tormod’s Crypt. I am able to Duress and I see Ancestral Recall, Tinker and Time Walk. I have Demonic Tutor in hand and I can cast my own Tinker that turn if I want to. I remember back to when we played in Swiss and we shared each others board, so I know he brings in Sundering Titan over Colossus against me. This is perfect because I can now Tinker up my Colossus and he can only get a Sundering Titan and won’t be able to race me or have another Colossus in play. With this knowledge, I take Ancestral Recall, get out my colossus and pass. I have basically gone all in with this plan because the only way he can win is with good topdecks and I have Tormod’s Crypt in play to negate his Yawgmoth’s Will plan. He doesn’t find his Wipe Away or any other answer and I win.

Matches: 6-0
Games: 12-1

Finals – Split with Chris Marchand with Bomberman

I have had about 45 minutes of time to relax after my 2 game match. This has given me a ton of time to find out exactly what Chris is playing in his deck and I’ve been talking to one of my teammates from back home and he was nice enough to pull up a Bomberman list and run me through the deck and talk about strategies. I know what Bomberman does, and I know what I want to do, but I haven’t had much testing. A few minutes before I expect we’ll start, Chris is outside and motions me outside to talk to him. He wants to go home, and I know him and his guys pretty well from previous SCGs so I hear him out. He wants to split and I consider it and I know there is no way I am leaving the tourney in 2nd place. I tell him that and let him know that if I do split, the only way I’d do it is if he conceded to me. We work the split out with the judge standing next to us (I don’t know how he found us) so nothing shady goes on. He concedes to me and I am able to get home earlier so I’m happy. For everyone there who really wanted us to play it out, I understand splits are boring, but Chris and his boys had a long drive home and I got to get 1st place and go home early, so it made sense at the time. It would have been nice to play it out though.

Thanks to all of my teammates on Arsenal and everyone else who tested with me! It really made a difference this time around.

The Deck

Drain Tendrils is currently my favorite deck. I made it, I win with it and I take my losses with it. I’m probably not going to stop playing it until it gets hated out or I get bored. A great advantage to the deck is that no one knows what you’re playing. You can play a 3 game match and beat their face in and they still may have no idea what you’re playing. I suppose that the deck is a control-combo hybrid, but I think of it as the current purest competitive control deck that has a combo finish because it makes the most sense. All it is is draw and counters. Draw. Counter. End step draw. Force of Will this, Drain that, draw 3 more cards and try to win when you have to. There’s nothing too intricate to the deck. There’s no pondering for 5 minutes on a Gifts Ungiven pile to save the day. All of my thought and agonizing have gone into my card choices for the deck and extensive playtesting and strategy. Once you know what you’re doing and how to play the thing, the decisions to make should be easy most of the time. The deck draws cards and then uses small “tricks” to build up advantages. The “tricks” are cards like chain of vapor, rebuild, frantic search, gush, dark ritual and 2x Tendrils of Agony along with many others I will discuss.

History

My history with the deck is as follows: MonoBlack to MonoBlack splash blue to Blue/Black Control to EBA to Tog to Drain Tendrils. For my style of play, it was the most logical progression of decks. If you look at the history of the decks, the win conditions decrease as experience increases. This makes sense for a control based blue/black deck. As you become a better player and gain more knowledge of cards and a format, you start adding more cards that give you options to make the best plays and start taking out cards that you can’t really do anything with other than play them and hope they work (like negators, shades, tog and to some extent tinker).

Where did I get the idea for this deck?

Drain TPS
A Vintage deck, by Steve Houdlette
12th place at a Waterbury tournament in Waterbury, Connecticut, United States on 2006-01-29
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Maindeck:

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Artifact Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus

Enchantments
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Instants
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force Of Will
2 Gifts Ungiven
3 Intuition
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Duress
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Recoup
1 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Basic Lands
4 Island

Lands
3 Flooded Strand
1 Library Of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

Legendary Lands
1 Tolarian Academy

The idea between his deck and mine are pretty similar, but the end result is vastly different in my opinion. No offense to this decks creator, but to me, it just looks like a suboptimal Gifts deck. It has nothing to separate it from Gifts’ game plan and nothing that makes it better than Gifts in my opinion. It’s basically a modified Gifts deck that still runs Gifts, recoup and all those goodies. I didn’t want to play Gifts. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was playing or how to stop my game plan. I also wanted to play blue/black control. From this list, I came up with a list that I played for the first time at a tournament with minimal testing. I played the following version of Drain Tendrils at SCG Charlotte day 2 (I played the same list day 1 without Frantic Search).

Drain TPS
A Vintage deck, by Cody Vinci
17th place at a StarCityGames Power 9 Tournament tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States on 2006-07-09
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Maindeck:

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Instants
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Dark Ritual
1 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
1 Frantic Search
1 Gush
2 Intuition
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Rebuild
3 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll (Chain of Vapor in current list)
2 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Basic Lands
4 Island

Lands
3 Flooded Strand
1 Library Of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea

Legendary Lands
1 Tolarian Academy

Card Choices

I will first go through my reasoning for playing each card before explaining which cards didn’t make the cut.

Cards that need no reasoning: Ancestral Recall, 4 Brainstorm, 4 Force of Will, 4 Mana Drain, Time Walk, Yawgmoth’s Will and the 3 tutors.

2 Intuition/ 4 AK: This engine is the primary draw engine in the deck. Starting with AK for 2, this is where small card advantages turn into game winning hands. Intuition is amazing in this deck because it also sets up busted Yawgmoth’s Will. Theoretically, the deck wants to do this: Intuition for 3 AKs with 1 AK in hand. Draw 7 cards. Find the other Intuition and set up a broken Will and win. Of course, this rarely happens and is not necessary to win, but it is what the cards are designed to do in the deck. Generally, if I am going to Will my Intuition finds: Black Lotus, Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal: the 3 mana sources in the deck that you can play before Will and again after Will resolves. This Intuition pile is somewhat theoretical and also rarely is the resultant pile because of game state factors such as resources (sometimes you need to get Mana Crypt over Lotus Petal) and sometimes you have the mana but not the draw/tutors so you get Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall and Gush or anything that makes sense in a given situation. I much prefer Intiuition/AK over Merchant Scroll/Ancestral Recall/Gifts Ungiven because of the ability to draw so many cards with AKs. If you need to build up card advantage, Gifts isn’t really that great. If you need to win right away, AKs are a cheap investment that can net a huge advantage. Intuition/AK serves as both Merchant Scroll and Gifts in this deck because it provides massive card advantage and sets up the broken win.

Thirst for Knowledge: This is the workhorse draw engine of the deck. It’s not as busted as AK, but it’s always there to give you 3 new cards. If you happen to have an artifact you want to discard, you win a small war. If you don’t, pitching cards like AK, Tendrils of Agony or Dark Ritual don’t really matter too much. These 3 Thirst for Knowledges are what keep the deck running smoothly. They prevent the deck from stalling out and going into topdeck mode. I would run 4 of them, but I can’t find room.

Gush: This is one of my favorite cards in this deck. The deck doesn’t really need more than 2 islands in play to play at a very good comfort level. Having one island in play late game doesn’t really scare me in many situations. Gush is perfect in this deck because it doesn’t run Tinker and devotes its game plan to winning only with Tendrils. For this reason, Gush is a great draw spell even when you are not looking for the win, but even better, it is a free “draw 2 cards” and free storm when going off. No questions asked. Free cards and storm! You can also do neat tricks like if you only have 2 islands and a Mox and want to cast Fact or Fiction. You can go from 2 cards in hand (gush + fact) and 3 mana to 4 mana and about 6 cards in hand just like that. Pretty impressive.

Frantic Search: This card effectively shares the same role as gush but is less effective at doing what it does unless you are going to win the same turn. Gush is always card advantage while frantic search is always card disadvantage. However, I have come to the conclusion that Frantic Search is invaluable in this deck because of its mana fixing ability. You can turn an attempt to win with no hope of being able to cast a Tendrils of Agony or more gas into a secured victory with this card quite often for only 1 blue + 2 colorless mana. Don’t forget the tricks with Tolarian Academy are pretty insane too. With AKs in your deck you can sometimes turn the card disadvantage in your favor. Another free blue draw spell that lets you see 2 new cards… also pretty impressive. You can also do things with Library of Alexandria like tap to go to 8 cards, Frantic Search to go to 9 cards and then discard to 7 and untap 2 lands and Library of Aelxandria and then draw another card off the Library. 

Rebuild: This card has been amazing for me. Running 1 in the deck is simply too little. Against Stax, Chalice Fish and Null Rod Fish, 2 is a must have. You are not running Tinker so you can’t randomly pull out the Colossus and win through hate. You need to have answers to potentially game breaking artifacts. 2 Rebuilds are the best choice here because they cycle, cost 3 mana and return all artifacts. The cycling ability is amazing in this deck because you want to run through your deck as fast as possible and not have dead cards. Costing 3 mana is actually an advantage because chalice on 0, 1 and 2 are by far the most common settings (Hurkl’s Recall gets stopped by 2). Returning all artifacts is extremely important because your only win condition is Tendrils.

Chain of Vapor: Also one of the unsung heroes of the deck. It means you don’t auto-lose to meddling mages set to Tendrils. The reason I like this card so much is because of how much fun it is to bluff a win with it. If you’re playing a competent control player, all you have to do it stare at you board position for a minute (assuming you have a few artifacts and lands). Then you make believe you’re counting storm and make it seem like you have a sufficient amount to go lethal with Tendrils. Then you confidently cast Chain of Vapor targeting one of your artifacts. If you can pull the bluff off, you have just cast a Duress for 1 blue mana. Let’s not forget that a lot of the time you will not be bluffing because you better believe Chain of Vapor wins game with Tendrils all day long.

Dark Ritual: One of the surprise cards and combo-enablers in the deck. Cards like Gush, Frantic Search, the 3 tutors, the 3 bounce spells and Dark Ritual are what I call the combo-enablers in the deck. The really shine when it’s time to win, but they also have very useful functions when you are not going off. With that said, Dark Ritual is the least useful card when not going off. It’s amazing when you are going off. And because you’re playing straight Tendrils combo, it’s useful pretty often. It’s better than Cabal Ritual because it really shines when your graveyard is being hosed. It makes non-Will kills much easier. Turning 1 black mana into 3 black is valuable in many situations the deck will face.

Fact or Fiction: I don’t have much to say on this card other than it’s amazing. It goes 5 cards deep and in a deck that is all about tearing through your library as quickly as possible, it’s really solid.

Tendrils of Agony: 1 is too little by far and 3 is overkill. Without Tinker, 2 is definitely the right number.

The Mana Base: Some people have told me I run a very light mana base, but it works for me and I’m not about to change it. I’ve never played a deck that was so tight on slots for new cards, but I really can’t change anything at this point without changing a lot of things. I love Library of Alexandria in the control mirror and because the deck has multiple draw spells it’s really good late game as well.

The following cards did not make the cut in the deck but were tested. I will list them in the order I would add them to the deck if I could. I’ll keep these explanations shorter or leave them out.

4th Thirst for Knowledge: Great draw spell, but I have to balance combo-enablers with efficient draw spells. The 4th Thirst came up a little short to Frantic Search.

Duress: Great in the control mirror and against combo. Good for post-TS metagame with Trickbind. Too risky to run maindeck because it can be dead in a few matchups.

Merchant Scroll: Finds good blue cards. I run a lot of those. The problem is tapping out on your mainphase. This deck does not want to do that even with the power of Merchant Scroll. If there was more room, this would probably find a home though.

Misdirection: Very powerful in the control mirror and randomly steals Recall. The problem is it doesn’t fit in with the deck’s plan that well because it just sits in your hand.

Darkblast – In a post-TS metagame, Children of Korlis poses a huge threat. Dealing with Welders, Confidants and fish dudes is very nice too.

Tinker/Darksteel Colossus – Doesn’t fit the game 1 plan, but it is very nice to randomly win games.

Repeal – Very nice to have for storming out and you get to draw a card. The problem is it doesn’t do enough against Stax or multiple Chalice of the Void and Null Rod. Doesn’t answer huge artifacts.

Hurkyl’s Recall – I like that it’s 1 mana less than Rebuild sometimes, but Rebuild has much more going for it.

Cabal Ritual – Not better than Dark Ritual in this deck in my testing.

Yawgmoth’s Bargain  - Seems good theoretically, in practice costs way too much even with drain mana and usually doesn’t win the game the turn it’s played.

Mind’s Desire - Seems good theoretically, in practice is even worse than Bargain.

Sideboarding

My current sideboard is as follows:

4x Duress
1x Tinker
1x DSC
3x Edict
2x Massacre
1x Darkblast
1x Hurkyl’s Recall
2x Tormod's Crypt

This is tuned to a fish heavy metagame (my local meta) and can be adjusted easily. I will discuss how I board based on my current board. I usually like to turn the deck into a metagamed Tinker/Colossus based deck post-board, if that option makes sense. I never, ever, ever board out the core draw spells in this deck. They are what keeps the deck rolling. An exception I can think of may be the AK mirror, but I’m undecided on how to board that. I’m pretty sure I’d still keep 4 AKs in the deck.

Gifts:
 
+4 Duress
+1 Tinker
+1 DSC
+1 Tormod’s Crypt (Sometimes I put in both)

-1 Tendrils
-1 Dark Ritual
-1 Frantic Search
-2 Rebuild
-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 Mystical Tutor

Comments: Post-board can be difficult with Red Elemental Blasts, but you do have Duress to hit their threats too. I like the Tinker and Tendrils kill conditions here post-board here to expand your options for the kill.

Control Slaver:
+4 Duress
+1 Darkblast
+1 Tormod’s Crypt

-2 Rebuild
-1 Frantic Search
-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Dark Ritual

Welders can pose a huge threat to the Tinker plan. I prefer to stay with only the Tendrils kill here and plow through counters with Duress. I may bring in Tinker depending on the skill level of the opponent.

Oath:

+4 Duress
-1 Frantic Search
-2 Rebuild
-1 Vampiric Tutor

I don’t really have much for oath off the board. It’s not really a problematic matchup because they are fairly easy to race. If they run a null rod or chalice configuration I’d keep the rebuilds in and take out dark ritual and a mystical. Depending on the player I may bring in Tinker.

Stax:

+1 Rebuild
+1 Darkblast (if they have welders)
+1 Tinker
+1 Colossus

-1 Tendrils
-1 Dark Ritual
-1 Frantic Search
-1 Vamp tutor

I like this matchup a lot because Rebuild/Hurkyl’s is so amazing here. If it resolves you almost always win. Tinker/Colossus is too big of a threat to not run here, even if they have welders.

White Fish Variants

+2 Massacre
+3 Edicts
+1 Darkblast
+1 Tinker
+1 DSC

-8 Random Cards. You win game 2.

Seriously….

-1 Tendrils
-1 Dark Ritual
-1 Frantic Search
-1 Vamp
-1 Mystical
-1 Rebuild
-1 Chain of Vapor
-1 Gush

SS or Goblins or Non-White Fish

+3 Edicts
+1 Darkblast
+1 Tinker
+1 DSC

-1 Tendrils
-1 Dark Ritual
-1 Frantic Search
-1 Chain of Vapor
-2 Rebuild

Sometimes I bring in a Massacre to hardcast.

Long Combo

+4 Duress
+1 Tormod’s Crypt
+1 Darkblast

-1 Frantic Search
-1 Chain of Vapor
-2 Rebuild
-1 Dark Ritual
-1 Gush

Make sure you bring in Darkblast for their Xantid Swarms. I bring in Colossus against less skilled players.

Comments/Conclusion

I don’t know how this deck will end up in the long run but as of now I like the fact that it’s under the radar and it’s really good. The deck can be somewhat misleading because there aren’t any really tough thinking cards like Gifts Ungiven or draw 7s and such. However, your only win condition is Tendrils game 1 so you can never get lazy and just go for the Tinker kill. I like no Tinker/DSC maindeck because it allows you to play the deck very efficiently and rewards you for skill. Most decks have answers to a game 1 Colossus so it’s a really big risk to run and requires protection. With the tendrils configuration, most decks can’t answer Tendrils (only with Stifle or Trickbind), so protecting your win is much easier and allows for outplaying your opponent in many situations. The more you play the deck the better you will be at it. I just feel like this deck is so good at what it does and the person playing it just needs time to realize the full power of it before making a judgment one way or the other on it.

Edit: Edited the document

[Machinus]

I've been playing against this deck for months and I still think it has the advantage in any drain matchup. Congrats on your win Cody!

By the way, before round 1, all I told you was that Mark played Slaver the last two times I saw him. On day two he told me that was an exception, he usually plays Stax. Nice counterintelligence Mark!

[meadbert]

Great report Cody and congratulations on the win!!!

[Zombie Shakespeare]

Excellent report Cody and congrats again.

[Sean Ryan]

Congratz on your finish!

I've played around with Drain Tendrils off and on for a long time and I have some questions about some of your card choices.

1)  Why not run Tinker/DSC maindeck instead of the 2nd Tendrils when you side it in against Gifts, Stax and Fish (your toughest matchup)?  Versatility of kill is generally a good thing

2)  Why run Thirst over the 3rd Intuition or a lone Giftz, or more disruption, ie; Misdirection?  Thirst just seems really underpowered in this deck, similiar to the more controling versions of Giftz, except that you already have card draw in Intuition/AK, which would require the 3rd intuition to reliably hit AK early game.

3) After your first place finish everyone will be gunning for this deck which should mean more Fish and Stax matchups - what do you think of adding a basic swamp for better mana consistency?  This would make Darkblast an actuall threat rather than a nusance against Fish/Stax.

4)  Stax - I have found that diversifying bounce works well.  What do you think of replacing 1 rebuild with Hurkyl's Recall, and adding Energy Flux to the SB?

I would propose these changes:

MD
+2 Tinker/DSC
+1 Hurkyl's Recall
+1 Intuition
+1 Misdirection
+1 Swamp

-1 Tendrils
-1 Rebuild
-3 Thirst
-1 Mana Vault

SB
+3 Energy Flux
+1 Deep Analysis
+1 The Abyss???

-2 Tinker/DSC
-1 Duress
-1 Hurkyl's Recall
-1 D. Edict


Once again, congratz on your finish.  LMK what you think.

Thanks
Sean

[yespuhyren]

That advice about Trogdon sucked...and sucks for you.  I don't know him personally, but from every tournament report I've ever seen his name in he was either playing Uba/Stax/Shop aggro.  Never have I once heard of him playing anything BUT shops.  I have no idea where your roommate got CS from.

BTW congrats on the win....Excellent job, and good luck on all your future tournaments.

[SadPanda]

Congradulations on the finish, and good to see some new tweaks to an old deck.

The idea between his deck and mine are pretty similar, but the end result is vastly different in my opinion. No offense to this decks creator, but to me, it just looks like a suboptimal Gifts deck. It has nothing to separate it from Gifts’ game plan and nothing that makes it better than Gifts in my opinion. It’s basically a modified Gifts deck that still runs Gifts, recoup and all those goodies. I didn’t want to play Gifts. I didn’t want anyone to know what I was playing or how to stop my game plan.

The effect of running red for recoup is two fold. You may play a slightly slower roll in control games, but are able to run better bombs in your sideboard. Red helps out your fish and stax matchups a lot, but hurts your combo game plan to some extent. Other than a few small differences you're running the T1T/"Drain TPS" lists that have been around forever, and I have to wonder why you chose thirst for knowledge? You dont run needles or colossus so it seems all you can pitch to the thirsts is your acceleration, and sometimes AK's. It seems gifts and DA would have been better options.

Once again, congradulations on your finish!

[ashiXIII]

Just for the record, Drain TPS is an insanely powerful deck that never really caught on. My team was playing it and testing it for a while, and then it kind of fell by the wayside. However, whenever I'm trying to figure out what to play at a tournament, it's always an option. I don't know how I feel about the Thirsts, though. I haven't tried them, so they might be good, but I don't know.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

1) Why not run Tinker/DSC maindeck instead of the 2nd Tendrils when you side it in against Gifts, Stax and Fish (your toughest matchup)? Versatility of kill is generally a good thing

2) Why run Thirst over the 3rd Intuition or a lone Giftz, or more disruption, ie; Misdirection? Thirst just seems really underpowered in this deck, similiar to the more controling versions of Giftz, except that you already have card draw in Intuition/AK, which would require the 3rd intuition to reliably hit AK early game.

3) After your first place finish everyone will be gunning for this deck which should mean more Fish and Stax matchups - what do you think of adding a basic swamp for better mana consistency? This would make Darkblast an actuall threat rather than a nusance against Fish/Stax.

4) Stax - I have found that diversifying bounce works well. What do you think of replacing 1 rebuild with Hurkyl's Recall, and adding Energy Flux to the SB?

All really good questions that I've considered in the last 6 months. There are so many varitations this deck can take and still want to do the same thing. I feel like I've stumbled upon one of the best versions of a deck like this to date. I'll take the questions in the order you asked them.

1) I don't like the Tinker/DSC plan game 1 because I don't know what my opponent is playing. I feel like Tinker/DSC is much stronger game 2 when you know what you're up against and you know your opponent's strategy. I also like Tinker/DSC better in the control mirror when I have 4 Duress in my deck. I don't want to be tempted at all to cast a Tinker into Colossus game 1. Other than Tinkering for Black Lotus, the Tinker/Colosssus are 2 cards in the deck that don't do anything for the Tendrils plan. For me, just focusing on the Tendrils plan game 1 allows me to play with more cards that help the Tendrils plan and therefore maximize the chances of winning with that plan. The deck is very focused game one and can try to win under pressure and expect a win. For matchups like fish, they are going to have 3 or 4 dead STP in their deck, which makes me very happy. Game 2, the fish player usually goes down to 1 or 2 STP and then Tinker becomes stronger. Against Stax, I like having darkblast in and just knowing if my opponent plays with Welders or not helps me make Tinker/DSC more effective. You can definitely play the deck with Tinker/DSC maindeck, but I have tested both ways and I much prefer not to run it for my play style and how I view the deck.

2) The 3 TFKs in this deck are necessary and I strongly believe this is where every deck similar to this one has come up short in the recent past of lists that I see. When you win with Will all the time AND cast AKs for 3 and 4... you are always going to have graveyard hate brought in against you. Whether it's a Leyline from Ichorid, a Planar Void from SS or a Tormod's Crypt from basically any deck, expect your graveyard to take a beating post-board and in a few matchups game 1. This is one reason why TFK is really strong. If you depend completely on Intu/AK and/or Gifts, you've just severely compromised your draw engine and made it vulnerable to a single Meddling Mage on AK, which would probably cost you the game. Besides not depending on the yard, TFK is still really good even without DSC game 1 (he comes in game 2 a lot along with Tormod's Crypt). It always goes 3 deep which is the most important part of the card. I run a lot of cards that I don't mind discarding in addtion to the 10 artifacts so it's never a problem discarding to TFK. In both days at SCG, not ONCE did I have to discard cards to TFK that I really wanted to keep in my hand. Let me say that again. In 12 matches I played at SCG, not even once did I resolve a TFK and discard cards that I needed in my hand. This is because the deck functions very efficiently without a lot of mana. 2 or 3 mana is all you really need to do what you want to do until you're ready to win. Of course you build up a lot more mana than that as the game goes on, but discarding artifact accerlaration to TFK is not a big deal like it is in the Gifts plan.

3) I'd be really surprised if the meta shifted after my performance. The idea of a basic swamp has occurred to me and I've never tested it because it would really just be there for one card on my sideboard. The deck is pretty tight on mana and blue sources. I don't think I'd be able to cut a Sea for a Swamp, but I have not tested it, just thought about it and concluded it would be suboptimal. If there is a large amount of stax and fish, I'd probably test it and see how it went.

4) First off, Energy Flux is not very good in this deck. If someone cast an Energy Flux against me I'd try to counter it in a lot of situations. I know it's very powerful against stax and I used to run 4 in my board in EBA when stax was huge, but I'm afraid this decks combo plan and Tinker plan make Energy Flux suboptimal to board. I've considered Hurkyl's but I am pretty sure 2x Rebuild is better. The ability to cycle the card in so many matchups is like a Time Walk. It's really that important. On top of that, I hardly ever get Chaliced for 3 but often get it on 2. Rebuild is really good at getting around chalice on 2. Lastly, I'm playing storm combo and making sure all of my artifacts go back to my hand as well is very very very important and makes a difference in a game in so many situations. Note that there is a Hurkyl's on the board.

All of your questions are very relevant and I have thought about them all at one point or another. The decklist and board I arrived at are the result of the careful consideration of every single card and what I feel is the most optimal choices. There are many different ways to play this deck depending on personal preferance. This is just my way so don't be afraid to play around with other ways and see if you can get something to work for you and your play style. Thanks for the questions.

[dicemanx]

Great job taking 1st in this event! I was wondering if and when Drain Tendrils was going to make a significant impact - the Intuition/AK engine seemed to fall off the face of the earth for no good reason. The TfKs are a nice addition - I think people don't appreciate how effective they can be even if you don't have as many artifacts to pitch, although it seems like they miss the DSC (with Tinker) in the main deck. This also looks like the kind of deck that should have a superior game against other Drain archetypes since you run relatively cheap and plentiful draw. Would you consider trimming the deck down to 60 cards? Frantic Search looks like the weakest card, so perhaps that could be cut?

[ashiXIII]

Great job taking 1st in this event! I was wondering if and when Drain Tendrils was going to make a significant impact - the Intuition/AK engine seemed to fall off the face of the earth for no good reason. The TfKs are a nice addition - I think people don't appreciate how effective they can be even if you don't have as many artifacts to pitch, although it seems like they miss the DSC (with Tinker) in the main deck. This also looks like the kind of deck that should have a superior game against other Drain archetypes since you run relatively cheap and plentiful draw. Would you consider trimming the deck down to 60 cards? Frantic Search looks like the weakest card, so perhaps that could be cut?

Frantic Search is actually very good. I'd cut Gush first.

[M.Solymossy]

@ Diceman:  The intuition/AK engine hasn't fallen off the face of the earth.  I've had local success with it in my bob-tendrils deck, which also runs mana drain.  As for intuition/AK.  It's a very solid draw engine that comes online sooner than gifts and allows you to successfully fight gifts since cards > tutoring in a drain v. drain matchup.  I just wish I could play the bobtog deck in a large event, since I was having a hardon for team GWS' new pitchlong monster @ gencon.

[zeus-online]

How was the edicts in the SB? i tried running smother, and it was actually decent. (in an UB gifts deck, without recoup)

/Zeus

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Would you consider trimming the deck down to 60 cards? Frantic Search looks like the weakest card, so perhaps that could be cut?

I want to get the deck down to 60 cards and I have tried to in the past, but I can't bring myself to do it because every card has such an important role in the deck. The cards you can cut to go to 60 are a Rebuild, a TFK, Chain of Vapor, Gush, Frantic Search or Dark Ritual, but all of them have insanely important roles in the deck. If I had to cut a card from the deck it would be Frantic Search because it doesn't really come online until turn 3 and it is card disadvantage... but it is important enough to the deck that I'd rather run 61 than cut it for now. I tested without Frantic Search a week before Roanoke to go to 60 cards, and in that week of testing the absensce of Frantic Search was surprisingly noticeable and I put it back in for Roanoke.

How was the edicts in the SB? i tried running smother, and it was actually decent. (in an UB gifts deck, without recoup)

/Zeus

The Edicts were amazing. It was very annoying playing someone who knew my board and blindly Meddling Maged it. You could do something like Diabolic Edict, Chainer's Edict, Cruel Edict if Meddling Mages start becoming a problem. Edict is so good against so many decks that could be problematic. All 3 come in against Bomberman, all Fish variants, SS, Goblins, Hide/Seek Control,  EBA, Workshop Aggro or any other random decks that show up in a tournament. I usually don't board them in against Oath, but you could even use it in that matchup to buy some time.

[TimeWizzle]

I will note that edicts are better than smother if for no other reason than they kill Colossi and Simic Swallowers (which were fairly prevalent at roanoke).

Frantic search is surprisingly good when you are "going off" because you can filter through extra lands, etc. for gas, and worst case you can get two black mana from one U sea.  In a pinch it can help you dig for a counter, or filter colorless mana into blue. 

I have also tested this deck with Cody for months, and found it just about impossible to cut down to 60 cards.  I think it would require replacing the Int/AK enigine, and we haven't found anything suitable for this. 

[zeus-online]

They might be good against DSC, but i doubt that they get boarded in against decks who are likely to run the Tinker/DSC "combo".
but i see the point against oath...oath is always annoying to loose to anyways

/Zeus

[oneofchaos]

Awesome report, 61 card decklist for the win.

Edit: reading does equal tech

[Odd mutation]

Hi,

Congratulations on the win!

I recently played in a type I tournement and I watched a very good player with Control Slaver. He played 2 Impulse main. If I read your posts correctly, you have the Thirsts for Knowledge mainly to dig deep and choose your cards. As the deck looks mana hungry, I imagine you prefer not to discard a Mox or any other mana. Could Impulse be a suitable replacement? Or is the discard/posible card advantage of thirst more important then digging 4 deep? Impulse + Brainstorm is an incredible search engine as well...

Your ideas?

Robrecht.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

That's actually a pretty good idea I haven't thought of/tested. TFK is really good because it can filter cards and let me pick which cards to keep, and Impulse does the same thing for 1 mana less and goes 1 deeper. One huge problem I see with this is Chalice on 2 cripples my draw engine. However, I like that if you draw multiple good cards off TFK you get to keep more than  1 if you want to. Pitching artifacts to TFK and building up card advantage is not a problem for this deck because it does not need a lot of mana to function. Because this deck is very focused on Yawgmoth's Will... pitching artifacts to TFK and replaying them under Will is pretty important.

Impulse has the potential to replace TFK in this deck... I just need to test it out and see how it goes. I'm pretty busy with other stuff the next couple of weeks but I'll give the Impulse's a run when I get a chance and let you know how they work out. Thanks for the help.

[Dxfiler]

hey Cody.  It was nice meeting you.  Congrats on the finish and nice report.  I would have posted this much earlier but I was under the impression I had already posted on here.  This is what no sleep does to a person. :p 

The list looks nice, but I gotta be honest... I H8 61 card decks.  They make me cringe.  Especially in your case, since the mana is so tight...if you could one card it would just improve your draws flat out.  The increase in drawing what you want when you need it by going to 60 cards is small, but it will come up in clutch scenarios in the long run.

You're probably going to shoot me, but I'd suggest cutting Gush.  It just doesn't seem necessary given all the disgusting card draw you have.  Frantic Search untaps lands, and I think that's more important given that you play as a control deck for the early game the majority of the time.

Since you probably won't cut gush being its one of your favorite cards in the deck, mana vault seems to be a reasonable cut.  Your have a ton of accelerants, and this one appears to be the least needed.  Of course I haven't played the deck, so this is just speculation. 

Still, I'm positive your deck would run better at 60 cards.

It's a shame we never got to play, i think it would have been a good match.  You pack a hell of alot of fish hate in the sideboard :p 

It was nice meeting you, congrats again on the finish.  You guys should come down to Waterbury in a month. 

- Dave Feinstein

[Evenpence]

I completely agree with Feinstein on cutting a card so you get down to 60.  My pick in all honesty would be a TFK (and replace the TFKs with Impulses, that suggestion is VERY good).

All in all, very good innovative deck.  I hope you do very well in the future.

Colby

[RaleighNCTourneys]

You're probably going to shoot me, but I'd suggest cutting Gush.

:: Shoots Feinstein in the foot. ::
The Chinese Consulate does not take kindly to whispers of cutting Gush, Mr. Feinstein.

I know I need to get down to 60 cards and I want to There were just too many cool cards like Gush, Frantic Search and Dark Ritual that no one really ran in their Drain decks that I knew were good and I wanted to win with. As soon as I have some time again I'm planning on testing Impulse and getting down to 60 cards.

I'm glad you finally posted... I was beginning to lose sleep over it. If you notice, I haven't posted in your report yet because mine went up first and I was waiting for you to post first. Just kidding... I'm just lazy. Good job on the double top 8!!!! I hope you win one soon.

All in all, very good innovative deck. I hope you do very well in the future.

Colby

Appreciate it.

[Hi-Val]

In Round 4 – Cullen Cox with Hide/Seek Control:

Knowing that his deck takes a long time to kill and already being up a game, an interesting strategy might be to side out your win conditions in favor of more control elements, knowing that you can likely grind him down because you're just focusing on drawing that game out instead of actually winning. Old Extended Gaea's Blessing decks would do this if they won the first game against something slow; they'd just concentrate on recurring Swords with Blessings or FOFing into more Counterspells.


Also, you side in Tinker/DSC against Gifts and I found that intensely interesting. Could you talk more about your reasons for this?

[RaleighNCTourneys]

In Round 4 – Cullen Cox with Hide/Seek Control:

Knowing that his deck takes a long time to kill and already being up a game, an interesting strategy might be to side out your win conditions in favor of more control elements, knowing that you can likely grind him down because you're just focusing on drawing that game out instead of actually winning. Old Extended Gaea's Blessing decks would do this if they won the first game against something slow; they'd just concentrate on recurring Swords with Blessings or FOFing into more Counterspells.

That's definitely a viable option depending on how much time is left. One advantage to keeping in 3 win conditions is that I assume Cullen's plan is to try to take away as many of my win conditions as possible... so he's devoting resources, tutors and time to trying to seek out my win conditions while he's just making the match take longer. If I take out the win conditions and he realizes this, he may dedicate more of his plan to hand disruption and getting creatures on the table, which could turn out bad for me. Basically, if I won game 1 and he is seeking me, I'm happy because its eating up time and not putting any pressure on me. I've played Cullen's deck in 4 matches in tournaments now and I'm 8-0 against it.... so I'm pretty happy with my current strategy.

Also, you side in Tinker/DSC against Gifts and I found that intensely interesting. Could you talk more about your reasons for this?

My reasoning for Tinker/DSC against Gifts is this: In order to be competetive post-board with their REBs/Duress they bring in, I need to bring in 4 Duress of my own. This basically means that "combo-enablers" that I discussed in my original post have to come out in order to make room for the Duress and Tormod's Crypts I bring in. This means my non-Yawgmoth's Will Tendrils kill is very unlikely and my Yawgmoth's Will Tendrils kill is now slower. If I don't bring in Tinker/DSC, the only kill I can expect will be a Will --> Tendrils kill. If they don't bring in any graveyard hate... just depending on Will --> Tendrils to win is limiting my options way too much. If they bring in Tormod's Crypt... T. Crypt really becomes a must counter and if it resolves is pretty bad news for me. Bringing in Tinker/DSC alleviates the pressure of the Tendrils kill and and shifts the deck from pure combo to 2 viable plans... which works out very nicely. Does this make sense?

[Hi-Val]

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for clearing it up! What's your thought on siding out Gush for the second Crypt? I find that Crypts really constrain Gifts players and so they are more liable to do the Tinker plan with Crypt on the board. I think that were I to side in two Crypts, I'd want an Edict main too so I could break Colossus parity in the chance that we both Tinker or that they get theirs first.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

2nd Crypt for Gush is fine... In my report, when I played Gifts I always ended up bringing in 2x Tormod's Crypts. I don't bring in a Diabolic Edict, though. Hurkyl's Recall off the board essentially does the same thing, except it's blue and can also help the storm combo.

[Hi-Val]

Ah, I didn't see the Hurks. That's a better plan, definitely.

[M.Solymossy]

Misdirection also seems bad when you're running an edict to stop the Gifts Tinker plan.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Misdirection also seems bad when you're running an edict to stop the Gifts Tinker plan.

Exactly. You basically have to choose between bringing in the Hurkyl's, which is key when you both have a resolved tinker (although mis'd would suck for me if both players resolved tinker), or keeping in Rebuild, which is 1 more and sucks when both players have a resolved tinker, but you get to cycle it if you need to and it can't be misdirected. I don't know what the right answer it. I'd say Rebuild is better to keep in as a 1-of if I had to pick.

[Nehptis]

Excellent report!
 
I've tinkered with Drain TOA decks on and off but never found the right card synergies.  2 excellent card choices and more importantly card plays that I like from your report.
 
1) Using Thirst for knowledge in a traditional and non-traditional way.  It seems like some people are calling for you to cut all or some of the TFK.s  But, the synergy you found with the AKs is amazing.  You even had a tourney play where you pitched 2 Aks off a TFK and then Ak-ed for 3 or 4.  That's some serious draw.  Nice work.
 
2) Using Dark Ritual as a utility card and not as a power house TOA enabler.  The problem with DRs in multiple is that they sit in your hand until you can muster up that go-broken turn.  I like how your deck can use a single DR (with all that draw) for a mana boost into a lethal TOAs.  But, it seems more often it is used as a utility card in the GY.  Meaning you dump it in the GY from a IT or TFK, establish control, and then go lethal with a Yawg Will and a jacked up graveyard.
 
Lastly, I like how you've positioned your SB against Fish, because this is obviously one of the decks weak points.  But, with all that hate game 2 and game 3 should be at least even if not in your favor against Fish.
 
I'm going to seriously start exploring this deck again.  Great work!
 
BTW, I think the cards your deck hates the most are Pyrostatic Pillar and Underworld Dreams.  But, who plays them!