My first vintage tournament (Breda), but but not my last

Hey,

I'm just home from my first vintage tournament ever. A friend and I planned to play vintage some more, and this was the first tournament that we could attend to. He played Doomsday Combo, and I played TMWA. There were a little over 50 people fighting for a mox and a library of alexandria.
Here's the list:

mana (25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Strip Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Wasteland
2 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Plateau
1 Badlands
1 Scrubland
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Plains

Creatures (21)
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Dark Confidant
4 Jotun Grunt
2 Vexing Shusher
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Aven Mindcensor

Spells (14)
4 Duress
2 Extirpate
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Null Rod

Sideboard (15)
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ronom Unicorn
1 Kami of Ancient Law
2 Hide // Seek
3 Shattering Spree

I chose TMWA mostly because I had badlands and the confidants and could borrow the plateau's and null rods, which made this fairly easy to make on a budget. Not that I kept to my intended budget, but the cards I bought are for good use in the future (like extirpate and flooded strand). Anyway, here's a short description of the games.

Match 1 versus Jeffery with R/B Aggro
Jeffrey played a red-black aggro deck with Ashemoor Gougers, Emberstrike Duo's, and Jagged Poppets. A very difficult matchup because his creatures all have superior stats and my deck is rather dependant on the attack phase. Not to mention that my disruption is almost completely useless against his'. He ended on 20 life thanks to a swords on a Gouger and one on a Poppet. I did extirpate the Gouger though, so I could see his deck, and the only real removal he played was Wrecking Ball.

I sided +3 Lightning Bolt, +2 Ronom Unicorn, +1 Kami of Ancient Law -4 Null Rod, -1 Ghost Quarter
Game 2 I kept a hand with a mox jet, plateau, mountain, plains, dark confidant, kataki, and I think bloodstained mire (I can't even read my own notes :S), in the knowledge that I could keep confidant at least 2 turns on the table and hopefully eventually swamp him in card advantage (to cover up for my terrible combat stats). However, after 7 confidant flips I had taken only 2 damage from a vexing shusher, and had flipped 6 lands. I also got a couple of lands on my regular draws which gave me a good flood and very little to do.

I can blame the last match on manaflooding, but the matchup was also really bad. I got a comment later from someone who played near me who was very surprised that I had lost, since he didn't believe the R/B aggro deck was really vintage worthy. I didn't see Jotun Grunt this game, which is a shame, as he is the only real big body I have...

Results: 0-0-1

Match 2 versus Gerwin with workshop aggro
Game 1 my hand was Vexing Shusher, Bloodstained Mire, Mogg Fanatic, Swords to Plowshares, Plains, Simian Spirit Guide, Jotun Grunt. He oped with Workshop, Sphere of Resistance and and floowed that up with mountain and sword of fire and ice, and finally a Goblin Welder. Due to my own stupid mana spendings I had to crack lotus to play swords to plowshares when he wanted to equip welder with sword of fire and ice. However, I did find wasteland for his workshop, played a null rod for his artifacts and a strip mine for a mountain, and finished the game with a grunt and fanatic before he could escape from his own sphere-lock.
My first Game Win in a vintage tournament

I sided +3 Shattering Spree, +2 hide // Seek, -2 Aven Mindcensor -2 Vexing Shusher, -1 Duress (Duress was probably wrong, but I didn't know what else to take).
Game 2 my hand was Plains, Null Rod, Plains, Simian Spirit Guide, Jotun Grunt, Wasteland.
He mulliganed to 5 I believe and opened with mox, black lotus, academy and thorn of amethyst. I wasted his academy to deny him an explosive 2nd turn (and by lack of better play). He played a mountain and passed. I topdecked Kataki, and played him thans to Simian Spirit Guide. He kept his thorn and Pearl and played a wasteland, passing the turn. I started building up a board, and during his draw, after he had drawn, I announced I wanted to extirpate his workshop (to keep him from recovering quickly). Luck had it that he had just drawn a workshop, so he also lost a card in his hand to the extirpate. He never saw much more mana (another mountain when it was too late), and Kataki, Fanatic and Jotun Grunt beats finished him in a couple of turns. His fatal mistake (according to himself) was that he played thorn on turn one instead of a triskelion. I think that he would have had a much better chance with trisk on his side, because kataki would not be able to stick. Nevertheless, he didn't draw much mana during the turns we played, so he wouldn't have been able to play much anyway.
My first Match Win in a vintage tournament!

Result: 1-0-1

Match 3Versus Wim with Oath (Akroma, Razia, DSC)
Game 1 my hand was Bloodstained Mire, Wasteland, Flooded Strand, Null Rod, Swords to Plowshares, Extirpate
He mulligans down to 4 and I waste his tropical island and then extirpate it to see his deck. I find no mana, and when I do, he finds stripmine. He finds orchard and an oath which and gets Razia. I swords it, he counters and I swords it again, and need to use another wasteland to stop the orchard tokens. He gets another orchard and I die of Akroma beats. I have one small moment of overconfidents around turn 2, but try to silence that and convince myself that a mulligan to four is not an automatic game-win. And it proves to be the case, as he wins this match by having my mana development stagnated and he has time to build back into the game with ancestral and multiple Thirsts.

I sided +2 Ronom Unicorn, +1 Kami of Ancient Law, +2 Hide // Seek, -4 Null Rod, -1 Ghost Quarters (maybe should have kept the quarters to keep orchard off the table).
From now on I forgot to write down my starting hands, so ... erhm, sorry. I mulligan down to six and have everything go my way from that point on. He is a bit manatight thanks to my wastes, and when doe gets the time, he plays imperial seal. I respond in my turn by casting Seek on his DSC, gaining 11 life, and shuffling the toped Oath back into his library. He plays mystical on my next turn's endstep, and I play Aven Mindsencor, which causes his tutor to fail. His fetch does find an island, but he keeps locked under mana pressure and the loss of two cards to seek and mindsencor so I'm always one step ahead of him, which is enough to end the game in a couple of turns.

Game 3 started with about 10 minutes on the clock, and I get a decent opening. He starts playing slower and slower to the point where I'm about to make a comment about it (not really, but I should. I'm not yet into the tournament state-of-mind to do those things for subtle slow plays). However, he hits oath on the board, and is in a much better position. I sacrifice the fanatic to destroy my spirit token, and waste his orchard to deny him an oath activation. We keep doing nothing much for a couple of turns, until I hit duress and ronom unicorn after eachother which I use to clear out the oath. He finds another oath and another orchard, but by this time, time was already almost up and we were about to move to the five final turns with me on 19 life (he was at 15). He tinkers for DSC, but I swords it and blow up the spirit token with a fanatic again. Next turn he gives me a token again, but even with time walk he can only do 6 or 12 damage, which is far too little.
My first Draw in a vinatge tournament! I like the fact that when we would have continued playing, he would have won, but he essentially "slowplayed" his own turns away and gave me the opportunity to play defense for a draw.

Result 1-1-1

Match 4 versus Dennis Bijkerk with Painter Combo
Game 1 he opens with Dark Confidant, and I have no choice but to let him draw an extra card. I swords the confidant, but he drops another two, finds ancestral and I'm pretty much behind all the way. Top ensures he gets little damage and tinker for a very well protected DSC finishes the job. I never saw any of the painter combo pieces.

I sided +2 Thorn of Amethyst, +2 Hide // Seek, -4 Null Rod (I belileve, not sure at all. The reason I side this way is because I have no idea what I'm up against. All I saw was a lot of draw, confidants, forces and tinker-colossus and my guess was a ritual combo deck at this point).
Game 2 he mulliganed to 5 and I to 6. I get some early cretures down and keep his mana occupied with wastes and thorn. He dies to fanatic/mindsencor/grunt beats while not being able to recover. Vexing Shusher makes sure that the creatures hit the table. This is the first time I saw a grindstone, so knew that he played servant combo. However, I didn't side new cards beause I had no clue what to side.

Game 3 he mulled to 5 again, and I made a mistake that won me the game. I kept a hand with 2x Duress, Mox Ruby, Plateau, Wasteland, Mogg Fanatic, some other card. For some reason I thought that I had black mana, which I didn't. I do know that because he had no real powerful spells, wasteland and topdecked cards kept him at bay while I beat could beat him, and when I did hit a Mox Jet, I could fire 2 duresses at him in consecutive turns, sealing the game.
He claimed that his mulligans cost him the game (although he had no choice, as he hit 1-mana hands on the 3rd game). I can see the argument as our decks were very even and maybe those two cards allowed me to stay ahead in the game. Two additional cards can mean a force of will + blue card, which means any random card for me could have been negated. However, I plan not to dwell too long on what-ifs, and sometimes you must take a mulligan, and sometimes your opponent must. Besides, I got beaten by someone who went down to 4 cards already, so it's not impossible with tight play and a little luck.

Result: 2-1-1

Match 5 Versus Ilja with Control Slaver
Ilja was a very nice guy with a good mix of friendliness and tournament attitude. Control slaver is a nice list and is probably one of my favourites of the current meta.
Game 1 I gained the upped hand thanks to multiple wasteland, and early null rod and Vexing Shusher. However, I got greedy and made a fatal mistake. I casted a Dark Confidant without mana for shusher's ability and walked right into a drain. He used the drain mana to feed gorilla shaman's apetite for null rod and he was back in the game from that point on. I beat him down to 2 life, but after ancestral, fact or fiction and tinker for DSC (which I plowed away, bringing him up to 13 again), he had good control of the game. I could only extirpate the time walk before he got another extra turn with Yawgmoth's Will, but recurring ancestral and welder and another land was enough to put me in a mindslaver lock.
The moment I played Dark Confidant alarm bells were ringing that I was playing too greedy, and I payed for it with a game loss. Had I just passed the turn, he would not have been able to eat my null rod, which would probably have bought me another turn, which could have brought me a win, since he was at 2 life. When I told him that it was because of my inexperience with mana drain and vintage tournaments, he was quite surprised to hear that this was my first tournament. He complemented me on my deck building (so thanks everyone from the TMWA thread, as well as Marske who helped criticise my deck as well) and my playing style.

I sided +3 Shattering Spree - 2 Aven Mindcensor, -1 Swords to Plowshares
Game 2 was a little disappointing. I mulliganed to 6 and kept a 2-mana hand. I got three lands in total and he got a strip mine taking one out. I found the fourth land when it didn't really matter anymore. He on the other hand opened with volcanic, sapphire, pearl and was able to keep drain mana open all the time. He had an early ancestral and quickly found a mindslaver. He could do nothing devestating on the slaver turn though, as my cards in hand were Dark Confidant, Aven Mindcensor and a Jotun Grunt on the draw. He played mindcensor and drained it, and used the mana on his next turn for a triskelavus, which he used to kill the shusher I had in play. I tricked him into weldering Triskelavus into play on my end step and used Swords (after I had duressed him to grab his force), which he was surprised by. Unfortunately, I forgot that he had exactly 2 mana left to deconstruct his triskelavus and kill it, putting it back into the grave. It bought me a turn, but nothing more really. Triskelavus kept my men at bay and he had more than enough artifacts to semi-permanently put me under slaver.
One of the best games of vintage that I've had today was this first game. The atmosphere, the tension and the fatal mistake that led to my defeat were, for me, the true feeling of vintage. This is what I want more!

Result: 2-1-2

Game 6 Versus Bas with White Weenie
Again an aggro deck that I have difficulties competing with. He used longbow archers, white- and silver knights and serra angels. Backed up by wrath of gods, disks, and Vengeance (yes, 4 mana-destroy target tapped creature) along with Maze of Ith.
Game 1 went just like the first game I played this day. He had better creatures and my disruption was next to useless. I did manage to keep mother of runes off the table, but that was about it.

I sided +3 Lightning Bolt, +2 Ronom Unicorn, +1 Kami of Ancient Law, -4 Null Rod, -1 Ghost Quarters (which I should have kept for maze of ith)
Game 2 went exactly the same though, with longbow archer after longbow archer after white knight filled the board. I did duress his disk, and extirpated both swords and disk (as I knew he had another disk in hand), but that didn't change much to the fact that he had creatures beating down on me. Like Match 1 I didn't see any Jotun Grunts which would have helped (although I'm afraid that it would only have postponed the inevitable).

Final Result: 2-1-3
Slightly under average, which means that I'm very satisfied with my first vintage tournament ever.
Pro's:
- My friend Frank for joining me on the vintage adventure
- My opponents for being friendly competitive players who obviously enjoyed the game
- Rudy for being a good trader
- Marske for being critical about my first deck ideas and forced me to reconsider around 90% of the deck

Cons:
- Myself for walking into a mana drain then give away the game
- Myself for not having any sideboard knowledge or experience
- that's it really... no more bad stuff.

I really liked playing vintage and see decks wrestle themselves out of tight situations or just instatly turn the game around. I enjoyed the different methods of winning, from small incremental advantages to game swinging and winning Drains, Recalls and Wills. It looks like for vintage for me!

Joep Verkoelen