Inspired from the SCG P9 tournament,
Tokaido Vintage is the biggest Type 1 tournament in Japan, hold in three steps: the first one on May in Tokyo, the second one on August in Nagoya and the last one in Shizuoka on December, with a mini TOP 8 gathering the finalists of the three tournaments. Vintage population in Japan is not as huge as the European or the american one, and we usually play between 20 and 35 players.
6 May 2007, 31 people, my deck:
RGB Belcher1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
4 Chromatic Star
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual
2 Seething Song
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Empty the Warrens
3 Goblin Welder
4 Land Grant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Channel
2 Living Wish
Sideboard:
1 Goblin Welder
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Brass
1 Maze of Ith
4 Duress
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Shattering Spree
5 rounds + TOP 8 elimination, let's go.
ROUND 1: Oath (I loose the toss)
1) He starts, land, mox, CotV = 0... I cannot do anything, so I play a Welder but he doesn't have any artifact in his yard. From then, he plays a lot of draw spell (Impulse, brainstorm, Trall...) to finally play an Oath after a few turns. Activates it: mox, DarkSteel Colossus! I exchange his CotV against his Mox eot, I play all my hand and try to put a Belcher in play -> FoW. Seconde Oath activation, Akroma comes, he attacks me, I send the DSC back to the library. My turn, I make Belcher come back with Welder
ftw. Welder Power.
2) EtW for 12 Goblins, attack one time, he eventually cast a Cunning wish -> Echoing Truth, I hardcast a SSG right after, beatdown ftw. Monkey Power.
1-0-0
ROUND 2: IT (I loose the toss)
1) EtW for 12 Goblins + a harcasted SSG in my turn, beatdown ftw.
2) EtW for 8 Goblins, swing 2 times but he Tendrils me just in time...
3) Mulligan to 4 or 5, he duresses me, I will never come back.
1-1-0
ROUND 3: Dragonstorm Combo (I loose the toss)
1) Kill turn 2 or 3 with Belcher.
2) He plays DSC turn 1, I kill him with Belcher
my turn 1.
2-1-0
ROUND 4: MoMa (I loose the toss)
1) He plays an island and a Mox, go. I can kill him turn 1, I try but got my Seething Song countered. He doesn' do anything revelant then, so I can kill him with my Belcher still on my hand the next turn.
2) Crazy start for him, he plays all his hand full of mana to hardacast Memory Jar. He cracks it, but nothing happens. My turn, I play welder. He has no card in hand and do nothing. My turn again, I make my Jar come back with welder, I crack it for a bunch of mana to cast Belcher ftw.
3-1-0
ROUND 5: Gifts (I loose the toss)
Not really a good match-up for me with Force, Mana Drain, Duress, Merchant et Echoing Truth, but unfortunatly I am 9th and must win it to access TOP 8.
1) As I was afraid of, I get countered, duressed, drained... Sad.
2) He mulligans to 5, I cast a Wheel of Fortune, and am finally able to put 20 Goblins in play! He scoops.
3) I harcast a Memory Jar, crack it: nothing revelant, except a Living Wish that I play on Goblin Welder, which I cast on the turn. Discard Belcher at the eot, that I will make come back with Welder the next turn for 76 lethal damages.
4-1-0
I end Third on the end of the rounds.
TOP 81/4: Gifts (I loose the toss)
1) Great 1st turn with Wheel of Fortune: 12 Goblins + Belcher, ftw of course...
2) He quickly plays Null Rod, I got Welder on table but he has nothing on his yard. 2nd Null Rod, I cannot get rid of them, he kills me with a EtW for 8 Goblins.
3) Almost no mulligan until this match... Mulligan to 4
. I start, bayou duress. His turn, Null Rod... I get Belcher with Demonic Consultation after. We cannot do anything cause of his Null Rod, so I get Black Lotus with Imperial Seal as I have nothing else to do. He doesn't worry too much, as I have no red mana to break the artifact. But I make a marvellous top-deck on SSG, that will allow me to cast Shattering Spree and play Blecher ftw!
5-1-0
1/2: Faery Stompy (I loose the toss)
Daze, Stifle, FoW, Wasteland, Kataki... Wow.
1) Mulligan to 4... I try to cast a Wheel of Fortune by cracking a LED in response... FoW. Next game.
2) Mulligan to 5. I play Belcher turn 1 via Living Wish targeting MWS. Next turn, I activate it but it got stiffled. Next activation will be the good one.
3) A good hand! Mana Crypt, tap for 2, play Chromatic Star, sacrifice it for a black mana, in repsonse I play Vampiric Tutor on Black lotus, draw it, and cast Belcher with Lotus + Rite of Flame. Next turn, SSG + Mana Crypt ftw.
6-1-0
Final: Control Slaver (You know what? I loose the toss)
1) Mulligan to 4 or 5. I play Belcher quickly with MWS, my opponent scoops before I activate it. Thank you, the next 4th card was a land...
2) Mulligan to 3......... I play... Taiga, Mana Crypt, SSG!! Beatdown power! And begins the longest match of the day... I swing and swing and swing again, he's almost dead, 2 life! But he manages to kill my monkey and achieve me with a Triskelion...
3) Mulligan to 4... Bad luck on this one. Nothing revelant, he locks me quickly, gg.
6-2-0
Quarterfinals
A:1.Sensei-Sensei (Yasuo TACHIKI) vs 8.CS (Satoshi HATANO)
B:4.Threshold (Ken HAYAFUJI) vs 5.CS (Masayuki ONO)
C:2.Faerie Stompy (Junji INOUE) vs 7.Gift (Yugo TSUDA)
D:3.Belcher (Nicolas PUJOL) vs 6.Gift (Hiromichi ITOU)
Semifinals
A.Sensei-Sensei (Yasuo TACHIKI) vs B.CS (Masayuki ONO)
C.Faerie Stompy (Junji INOUE) vs D.Belcher (Nicolas PUJOL)
Finals
CS (Masayuki ONO) vs Belcher (Nicolas PUJOL)
Champion
CS (Masayuki ONO)
The lists:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/cdc/20070506The vintage metagame in Japan as always been pretty random, but thanks to the PT Yokohama side-event, many people start to realize the power of Gifts and we see more and more competitive deck here.
Regarding Belcher, the deck is a real bomb, and unless luck abandoned me on the final, Mulligan don't occur so much times. I found EtW to be too slow many times, and I hope the FS new pacts will make this deck stronger than it is right now. Thanks for reading.
