Empty Vault.dec winning a Twister

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Just yesterday I ended up getting 2nd place at a Blue Bell PA tournament with 40+ people playing a deck I like to call empty vault. Its basically a tezzeret style shell, but without tezz. It treated me well all day while loosing in the finals to poor draws but shit happens...heres the list

4 force
4 drain
4 thirst for knowledge
1 fact or fiction
1 gifts ungiven
1 gush
1 brainstorm
1 ancestral recall
3 thoughtsieze
1 duress
1 mystical tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 merchant scroll
1 yawmoths will
5 moxen
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 sol ring
1 chain of vapor
1 hurkyls recall
1 empty the warrens
1 time walk
1 misdirection
1 time vault
1 voltaic key
1 tinker
1 inkwell leviathan
1 ponder

1 library of alex
1 tolarian academy
3 delta
2 strand
2 volcanic island
3 underground sea
2 island
1 snow-covered island

SB
2 empty the warrens
3 relic of prog
2 extirpate
1 reb
1 pyro
1 duress
1 rack and ruin
1 rebuild
1 hurkyls recall
2 jailer

Round 1 vs Fish (Brian Beurgard)
Game 1 got off a huge will, ended up with 30 warrens tokens and time walked for the win
Game 2 turn 3 warrens for 12 tokens for the win

Round 2 vs Thoughtcast tezz (forget name)
Game 1 He draws a ton of cards. I end up controlling his hand with duress' ang get off a small warrens for 6 tokens, knowing that his hand is bad. He top decks echoing truth and i loose from there
Game 2 This match was kind of a blur but i beleive he hard casts leviathan, then i procede to tutor up hurkyls as he had cracked lotus to cast. I Get key vault for the win.
Game 3 I open up with library which goes all the way drawing alot of cards and forcing out a key vault for the win. At one point in the game my hand was pyro, force, extirpate, drain, fact, X, X....seems pretty good in the drain mirror sitting on library!

Round 3 vs Slaver (Marc Frias maybe???)
Game 1 He has 2 active welders, im drawing a ton of cards only discarding leviathan to my grave. I set up key vault forcing him to weld leviathan into play for the win
Game 2 I warrens for 12 tokens early for the win

Round 4 vs Tezz w/ green and red (Stephen)
Game 1 He duresses me alot and i get smoked like a philly
Game 2 I am sitting on a library, and somehow dont draw any duress effects of mana drains and he forces out a key vault for the win

AT THIS POINT I AM 3-1 AND NEED TO WIN NEXT ROUND!!!

Round 5 UR landstill (forget name)
Game 1 He gets a turn 3 crucible strip on the table so I think at that point the game is over....Demonic for my black lotus. I end up being able to duress him twice taking force, and mana drain (at this point he has echoing truth and stifle in hand aswell, so its not looking good for a win with warrens). While i keep playing lands to play spells. I end up drawing a couple off color moxen to give me some type of mana. A turn after I duress the second counter out of his hand i resolve will, with tolarian in grave, 2 duress, demonic, etc, etc...I duress truth and stifle, then warrens for 12 or 14 i think it was FOR THE WIN!!!!! THANK YOU WARRENS!!!
Game 2 I duress his null rod, and at this point i have 3 force of wills in my hand with 3 blue cards aswell. I tinker for leviathan a few turns later sitting on alot of disruption for the win!

Round 6 ID w/ a friend playing tezz (Joe Davis)

Top 8 vs Tezz (Stephen from swiss)
Game 1 I get smashed by alot of disruption and duress'...he seems to draw EXTREMELY well!!!
Game 2 this game is somewhat of a blur, but he gets out a goyf, and i get lucky thirsting into the nuts 2 turns in a row, while i was holding time vault and drew into the key.
Game 3 He has a mox monkey out and a goyf out starts beating me down. At one point he only has 3 mana out and i have key vault in hand so i play time vault, then key (thinking he will use monkey and eat my key but i will get another turn anyways from untapping vault in response) But instead he is holding ancient grudge and casts that while I am holding a force for the win! Afterwards I looked at the top card of my deck to see if it would have made a difference if he would have used mox monkey instead of grudge. I had tinker on top to get the leviathan. Although he made a play mistake, I still believe i would have won the game

Top 4 vs Tezz (Joe Davis0
Game 1 He keeps a hand with library and no land on the draw hoping to draw into colored moxen or land. While I'm in christmas land and go turn 2 tinker for leviathan, he goes Force, I go Force, he goes Misdirection, I go FORCE!!!! Thats what you call christmas land!!! I proceed to will 2 turns later digging into a force just in case he has an awnser for the leviathan
Game 2 He goes all in on a turn 1 tinker for leviathan. I dont have the force. Leviathan swings once, then I demonic tutor for hurkyls. He swings again, now I'm at 5 life, then I hurkyls, he has the misdirection, but I have the force. I take the game from there

Finals vs Oath (Matt Elias)
Game 1 He gets the nuts while I mulligan to 6. He goes turn 1 duress, Turn 2 oath with force back up too!!!
Game 2 I mull again to 6 with a hand of force, drain, thirst, sapphire, land, X...He goes turn 1 duress, strip mine turn 2, then turn 3 or 4 resolves oath and I loose again. I feel this matchup is not as bad as it actually went. I feel i drew poorly and he drew really well.

Conclusions:
Empty the Warrens treated me well all day long, sometimes I might wish it were a tezz but the majority of the day it was great. Where I feel tezz is weak vs fish and stax. Me playing hurkyls main and 2 other board sweepers on the sideboard, I feel that empty is really good. And my sideboard is prepared for a drain mirror match! Over all happy with the deck perormed extreamly well!!!!

[personalbackfire]

Awesome job Josh! It was a pleasure playing you for the first and second time in a tournament.

In rd 4 I was pretty sure game 1 was the one when you had turn one library since you won the die roll and I was thinking this match is over already. I could be wrong though.

I personally like Empty the Warrens. I think the problem is that if everybody is running vault/key it is just to easy to assemble the combo when you pass the turn with your 5 million tokens. However, if everybody is switching bounce to Hurkly's to deal with Inkwell, maybe it is time for a return of Empty.

I did not see you cast gush against me either games we played, how was it? Also how do you feel about ponder?

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Awesome job Josh! It was a pleasure playing you for the first and second time in a tournament.

In rd 4 I was pretty sure game 1 was the one when you had turn one library since you won the die roll and I was thinking this match is over already. I could be wrong though.

I personally like Empty the Warrens. I think the problem is that if everybody is running vault/key it is just to easy to assemble the combo when you pass the turn with your 5 million tokens. However, if everybody is switching bounce to Hurkly's to deal with Inkwell, maybe it is time for a return of Empty.

I did not see you cast gush against me either games we played, how was it? Also how do you feel about ponder?

First off...yes empty is not that great in the tezz matchup. I was playing it because it seems that fish and stacks are on the rise and null rod is seeing alot more play. So with playing the 2 main deck bounce spells, either to bounce null rod or bounce stax entire board, I should be able to get a good size warrens off vs those decks. I have played regular tezz and did not like the fish and stax matchup that much. I like goyf on the sb for tezz, but vs a good stax build they can normally lock a goyf down with welder/tangle wire tricks. Where as empty throws a bunch of guys out there. I mainly played empty because I felt that tezz was weak vs fish and stacks and empty is not. Also I felt my sideboard was good enough to win the drain mirror even if I end up loosing game 1.

About gush and ponder...I opted to play gush over top in my list for the simple fact is that its a free spell when using empty and doesnt get shut down by null rod as top does. Not to mention it makes an opponents wasteland fizzle. I just expected alot of null rod decks in the meta. Next ponder...I like ponder alot for the sole reason its like a 2nd brainstorm. A hand that packs only 1 land is slightly more keepable when having a ponder or brainstorm and that increases the odds. It also builds storm as it is only a 1 drop. Maybe the reasoning isn't enough reason to play it, but I have had success in hands that were looking short on mana but ended up being alright with the 2nd brainstorm (ponder) in my deck.

[benthetenor]

How is this list better than a Remora/Meditate list? Same game plan, but Mystic Remora and/or Meditate is much better than Thirst for Knowledge.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

How is this list better than a Remora/Meditate list? Same game plan, but Mystic Remora and/or Meditate is much better than Thirst for Knowledge.

Because where I come from giving your opponent an extra turn is BAD...I have tested meditate remora and do not like it WHAT SO EVER in a meta game full of fish and stax. There were a bunch of ppl at this tourney playing gaymora and lost to aggro. That deck tries to make bad cards good...and dont get me wrong it is a good deck with the right matchups and in the right metagame. Secondly your comparing two different decks. I based my list off tezz with a few changes to utilize empty, while you are saying remora.dec is better. It may be better with the right matchups but over all I think tezz shells are more versitile. Lastly it is not the same game plan because remora.dec is not great vs aggro where as with my list i just empty for the win.

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