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LSV
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« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2009, 03:48:59 pm » |
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This was an enjoyable event, even though the rescheduling may have cost us some attendees. I think changing the date due to the PTQ was the best call, but it was still somewhat unfortunate either way. Still, battling Vintage is always good times.
I had played one of the Thursday night tournaments with the same deck, which I mostly threw together on a whim. I still had my GP Chicago deck, but figured that Goyfs maindeck weren't necessary. As it turned out, I boarded them in every time, but I didn't play against combo ever. I took out Goyfs and Dazes and Swords, added in Vault-Key and a bunch of restricted cards, and there we have it. I still think Vault-Key in the Grow deck doesnt quite fit, since you only have one Top, no Tinker, and less search/card draw like Thirst or Trinket Mage. It wouldn't be too difficult to work them in, but given the configuration liberalbias showed me right before the event it seemed wrong.
I agree that the metagame is particularly hostile to TPS at the moment, what with the sudden popularity of Remora.dec and the always present Null Rod Fish. It has been awhile since I have sleeved up Rituals, but that may just mean I am waiting for people to get used to them being gone...
I couldn't decide what other color(s) I wanted to play, since UB was the base but I wanted a way to kill Null Rod and/or have a better plan vs Fish. Fish always shows up at our events, and given the abundance of Vault/Key decks I expect it to continue doing so. Null Rod seems like one of the best strategies to fight blue-based decks, and its aggressive nature gives it a better shot against Dredge as well. The two options I was considering were Red and Green for Grudge/Goyf, or just Red for Ingot Chewer, Rack and Ruin, Red Blasts, and maybe some Red removal spells. Web told me (not suggested, actually told) to run just Green for Goyfs, Oxidize, and Trygon Predator. It cleans up the mana, always good vs Wastelands, and gives me the plan I wanted. I do miss out on Red Blast against other Blue decks, but Dark Confidant and Counterbalance are pretty good in those matchups anyway, especially since Tezzeret and other expensive spells have somewhat fallen out of favor and blue decks are of pretty low curve, even the control decks.
The final list got posted above, with the last-minute addition of a whole 5 anti-dredge cards. That probably isn't enough, but I liked the rest of my sideboard! Plus, maybe I can mise....
Round 1 vs Eric Campusano (campee)
Eric usually plays Fish, but last few events had been rocking Vault/Key control. He had expressed some frustration at the last 1k, so I thought he might have gone back to the deck he won two Lotus' with, Fish.
Game 1: One by one I picked up my cards, seeing at first: Tinker, Force of Will, Time Walk, Voltaic Key, Mox Ruby, Mox Pearl. The nuts, if the last card was a blue source, and it was Mox Sapphire. I was on the play, so there is no reason to think about mulling this. Eric mulled once, and I went for t1 Tinker. He Forced, pitching Cursecatcher, which kind of reveals what he's up to. I Force back, and debate getting Vault. The problem with that is if he has Duress or Null Rod on turn 1, I almost assuredly lose. On the other hand, getting Inkwell seems pretty good against Fish. If he was Tezz I might have gotten the Vault, bc Tezz has less answers to the t2 Key and a faster clock, but Fish can't deal with t1 Inkwell. Turns out he had the t1 Duress, so Inkwell goes the distance.
Game 2: I keep a two land hand with Force of Will, Counterbalance, Threads, Thirst, and Spell Snare. His turn 1 Cursecatcher is annoying, and I Snare his turn 2 Null Rod. I play a Counterbalance, but it it keeps flipping 3 drops and black spells (I am on Island + Trop), and I actually never cast anything. Eventually Eric plays a Tarmogoyf and I just die.
Game 3: My opener was interesting: Demonic Tutor, Lotus, Trygon Predator, 4 lands. I debate Lotus + DT turn 1, but really don't want to get Forced. Eric kept his 7, and has shown a willingness to mulligan non-Force hands in the past (like g1). I play land and pass, and get my DT Duressed off his Jet. That sucks, since now I don't have a whole lot of gas. Eric isn't done, and goes Wasteland, Lotus, Tarmogoyf, Null Rod. Well, at least he probably doesn't have another land either. He hits me with a 2/3, then 3/4, Goyf, but I drop a Trygon Predator on turn 3. He is stuck on just Jet, having Wasted + Stripped two of my land. I eat Jet first, since I don't want to eat Null Rod and have him play Confidant. I drop a Goyf, then another, then eat Rod and play Lotus plus Sower on his Goyf. He still can't cast spells, and my now three Goyfs eat him rapidly.
1-0
Round 2 vs Charles (liberalbias)
Game 1: He has an unanswered Dark Confidant for many turns, which feeds him exactly enough disruption (Force, MisD, Vendilion Clique) to keep me off Vault-Key. I messed up on turn 3, when I chose to Ancestral without waiting a turn for Drain backup. I didn't want to let him draw off his Bob, but he is so counter-light that it likely would have been better to match my Drain vs his two cards for the turn in a counterwar. Ancestral got Forced, and that made me shuffle away gas with Top because I needed to crack a fetchland the next turn. The turn before I am to die to Goyf plus Bob, I think I am good, because I have Key + Time Walk + Will, and he only has 3 cards. Unfortunately he Forces the Key, and Vamps for Vendilion and takes my Will once I cast Walk, which leaves me with Vault and nothing since I had to shuffle away Top the prior turn. I don't rip another tutor, and die to his men. Apparently I shouldnt have agreed that he add Vendilion Clique when he asked me about them before the tournament.
Game 2: I have turn 1 Bob on the play, and he answers with his own. I go turn 2 Time Walk, turn 3 Mox + Sower, and he is basically dead. His lone Underground Sea against my Sower, 2 Bobs, and 4 land just doesn't seem fair.
Game 3: This was quite an epic game, and both of us have pretty busty hands. He has t1 Lotus+Thoughtseize+Bob, which take my Force+Ancestral+Counterbalance when all is said and done. I still have t1 Bob, but he has a t2 Goyf, which is a 6/7! That card is just ridiculous. The Goyf hits me to 4 in short order, and the rest of the game is all about dodging my Bobs (since I play a second one). I DT for Threads to take his Goyf, but he finds a Seal of Primordium a few turns later. I misplay pretty badly one turn, where I attack my Bob into his Goyf. I wanted to kill my bob so I didn't die, since 2 bobs with me at 2 is pretty sketchy, even with a Top out. What I realized as soon as I did it was that he had a Diabolic Edict still in hand from an earlier Mystical, so I needed that Bob to block with. He had Bob+Goyf and I was left with Bob+Goyf, which means Edict = death. This forced me to crack a fetch to play another Bob, thus defeating the purpose of attacking AND costing me a crucial life in the process. Luckily with some Top gymnastics (Top, reveal a land, Top, see no 0cc cards so activate the look in response draw, Thirst, look resolves and I see a land) I was able to survive the two turns it took to kill him once I Sower his Goyf.
2-0
Round 3 vs Alex
Alex was Painter, and we had actually played like 15 games the day before. I joked that this playtesting was irrelevant since we were each going to be the only person playing our respective decks, but Alex actually beat Wrapter the round before who was playing Counterbalance.
Game 1: I have turn 1 Sol Ring plus Top, and he has Ancestral. I go for the turn 2 Ancestral, which he forces, and Tinker, which he does not. I get Inkwell, but don't really think it will be fast enough. He drops a Grindstone, and passes. I play a bob, and bash with Inky. He Vamps, but gets Tinker instead of Painter. He briefly forgot about the fact that Inky has islandwalk, and planned on getting a Colossus with Tinker. He realizes this before Tinkering, so gets a Painter instead. This leaves him with only one mana, so I have a turn to find an answer. He is on 9, so Echoing Truth or Time Walk are my two outs. I Bob, then draw, then Top, then fetch, then Top, and Etruth is among the top 3. Hitting a 2 outer is pretty nice, although it turns out that if Alex Vamped for Painter, he would have had Drain mana up. Awk. I of course got tremendously lucky to win, but I guess thats what happens.
Game 2: This is somewhat anticlimactic, since I force his turn 2 Ancestral and then duress him, seeing DT plus lands. I take DT, and he draws literally 7 mana sources in a row. No joke, I duress him the turn before he concedes and his draws were ALL lands or Moxes.
3-0
Round 4 vs Matt Nass
Since this is a 5 round + cut to top 4, we have to play it out. I know he is dredge, and I, uh, skimped a bit on the dredge hate. Matt hasn't lost a game so far (ever since the finals of the ptq the day before in fact), so I anticipate having to win my next round.
Game 1: On the play I keep Bob+Ancestral+Tinker plus two lands and some blue cards. I really want to Ancestral into some Moxes, but I just hit more blue cards. He has t1 Bazaar plus Chalice, which is bad news. I choose to run out the Bob on turn 2 instead of Time Walk, since Walk is so much better val once you have a Bob. I figure if he turn 2's me then I die, so whatever. He doesn't kill or Therapy me on turn 2, which is kind of lucky. I reveal a Brainstorm with Bob, then draw a Mox. I still am on just my 2 lands, but Brainstorm instead of Walking. I need to see a land in the top 3 anyways, so just Time Walking is pretty pointless. I don't see a land, and just die.
I side in my 5 dredge cards, as well as some Goyfs and an Oxidize, taking out a bunch of bad blue cards.
Game 2: I open with t1 Pearl + Delta + Tormods Crypt, and Vamp for a Jailer after he Bazaars. He Contagions my Jailer, then uses Oxidize to make me pop the Tormod's. Stupid dredge, able to beat t1+2 hate like its nothing. Luckily I draw one of the many hate cards I still have, and 2nd Jailer plus Goyf beat him down rapidly.
Game 3: I keep Tormods, Etruth, Goyf, Brainstorm, 3 lands, and he keeps his 7 for the third time. I probably just lose to Chalice, but this hand is fine otherwise. He just has t1 Bazaar, so I drop Tormods Crypt asap. I have to pop the Crypt in a turn or so, but at this point I have drawn into another Crypt AND a Relic. Good thing I am playing so many, that I draw 3 pieces of hate each game. Double Goyf plus double Bob don't give him time to outmaneuver all my hate, which is why the man plan is much better than the normal blue deck plan of trying to combo out.
4-0
Round 5 vs JefftheFob
I scoop em up, since I am a lock at this point.
4-1
The top 4 split, since the payout of 200-100-50-50 is pretty generous and getting 100 each is better than spending 2hrs battling over a small increase. Plus, I have a 2 hour drive home, and leaving early gives me time to pick up an always insane Zachary's pizza from Berkeley.
Hopefully attendance will increase, especially if we have enough advance notice of PTQs, Regionals, etc, which isnt always possible. I actually have a few questions for Bay area vintage fans:
In general, is Saturday or Sunday preferable for Vintage 1ks?
If a weekly tournament is to be held, which day is best? Thursday is what Superstars is doing now, but it can be moved if there is overwhelming support for a different day of the week/weekend.
What entry would be best for the weekly events? They can be smaller 8 dollar or so entry, or slightly more expensive but higher payout, like 12, 15, or 20. Bear in mind that Superstars gives out 100% of entry fees as prizes, so whatever people prefer is fine.
Leave feedback here or PM me, just trying to do what I can to increase turnouts for the best format one can play!
LSV
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