Baazar of Moxen 3 - Quick Tournament report

[Jah]

Hello everybody,

I'd just wanted to post a quick report from the BoM 3. This is my first report at all and I figured, it'd have been better to write down some more information. But since I do not play any Duress effects for example, I cannot give you so much insights as you might wish. All I write down now is from what I still have in mind. So sorry if it is not the best report you have read so far. I hope the next ones will be better.
This is for the Vintage tournament. I was playing Legacy too with Stifle/nought/Standstill/Counterbalance/Top deck, but the tounmanent was boring.


Ok, first the deck list for vintage. I played Flash. Yes, FLASH.

Non Land Cards (43):

Counter:
4x Fow
4x Pact of Negation
1x Misdirection

Creatures:
4x Protean Hulk
1x Body Double
1x Reveillark
1x Mogg Fanatic
1x Body Snatcher
1x Carrion Feeder

Tutoring:
4x Cunning Wish
2x Summoner's Pact
3x Lim-Duls Vault
1x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
1x Demonic tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Mystical Tutor

Mana:
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Lotus Petal
2x Chrome Mox

Rest:
4x Chalice of the Void
1x Echoing Truth




Lands(17):
4x underground Sea
3x Tropical island
4x Ancient Tomb
3x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All



Sideboard:
4x Leyline of the Void
3x Pithing Needle
3x Reverent Silence
1x Flash
2x Massacre
2x Hurkyl's Recall
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------

First Round vs Full Power Mystic Remora
I win 2:0

He plays loads of Power including Recall. Draws like Crazy.
I wait until he taps out, so I cast lim Duls Vault finding the missing combo piece Cunning wish + a Pact of Negation.
I have 2x Pact of Negation in my hand and a thirsrd no second from top. I draw Cunning and end the turn.
He does nothing special, only pays upkeep costs for Remora and let me go.
I draw Pact and go.
He plays whatever because it does not interest me since I am sure I have won already.
EOT I cast Wish, he does not counter. I reveil Flash and now he becomes aware. In my turn ( I think we are 4th round) I Flash. He Drains it, I Pact it, He Forces My Pact, I Pact again his Force, He Misdirects and I show him my 3rd Counter.
I win.

Second Game:

He draws as usual as crazy,

I find or have my combo pieces already on hand and draw in the 4th round I think my Boseiju. End of Turn Beseiji for Cunning, in My turn Boseiji + Flash = Win.



Round 2: Vs Unknown
I lose 0:2

Ok this was 2 redarted games.
I will make it short. He casts Aven Mindscensor in response to a fetchland activation. I still manage to find a land, however cannot go off with combo I was holding already. Didn't draw my echoing truth, he beats me to death with just that creature.

I board in 2x Massacre

I start with a land.
He keeps opens up with Lotus + Aven Mindscensor lol
I have 6 outs left in my deck (3x Lim Duls vault, 2x Massacre, 1x E. Truth) I don't see anything of them, lose again due to this flyer. He later showed me that is opening hand was crap and he just holed it for the bird lol.
Alright that was very unlucky....

Third Game: vs Fish
I lose 1:2

The next stupid game I should have easily won.

I lose the dice roll he starts with Cursecatcher.
I only draw lands and lose

Next Game I win somehow

3rd Game:
I keep hand and put 1st round Chalice to 1 which totally wracks him.
Rounds later he has 1 Meddling in game attacking me each round. Followed up by a second Mage.
I have 2 mana and both combo pieces. EOT Lim Dul's Vault to find Boseiju. It lies to down 37(!) cards, I lose 7 life. The 5 card boseiju was amongst, were all non land cards!
I draw Boseiju and play it. He coun't do anything. Then topdecking strip mine lol and I lose because No land is coming for the next 4 rounds.



Game 4 I cannot remeber anymore

But I think I lost 1:2.


Game 5 I lost again 1:2 vs Gifts

First round I didn't realise he has 2 untapped islands when I try to go off in round 3 or 4. He Drains the Wish, I pact it, He Forces the Wish again (what an ingenious play). My pact resolves, I lose. Ouch, probably the best expierience I made during the tournament. I wasn'rt aware of this.

Next Game I win.

Last game he opens up with Library of Alexandria, Lotus, 2x Moxes, and an Recall...
Playing loads of Akkumulated Knowledges....
I cannot find my missing piece or Boseiju....




Game 6 I have won but I cannot remeber anymore against what and how.




Game 7 vs Dredge I won 2:0

First game starting the game with 2 Leylines of the Void in play.

Second game mulligan to 2 to find the Leyline + drawing Pithing Needle


Game 8
I lose.

All I can remember was that I drew 4 Protean Hulks in a row! From turn 3-7 I draw every round one Hulk...lose of course


Last game I cannot remeber at all lol. Sorry guys. I only know I lost 1:2


Ok some more words to the tournmanet and my deck.

The tournament was very very cool. Loads of friendly people. And the games were exciting, not always like in legacy the day before "EOT Sensei's Top, etc.
I had loads of fun and met a lot of nice people. Our weekend ( I came with a friend from Germany (815km) was extremly stressy. We hadn't even tested that much our decks. He had to drive like 12 hours the first dayx and we only slept 4 hours for the Legacy tournament which was 12 hours long! Then we tinkered with our decks til 2 o clock in the morning and had to get up at 7. so again just 5 hours sleep for a 10 hour tournament.
I did some mistakes because I couldn't concentrate perfectly sometimes which was a pitty (see above, trying to resolve a spell when the opponent has 2 untapped islands, etc).
Around the corner there was a nice pizza bakery with 2 cute blone french girls and I guess they made like a grand each day ofthat weekend since everybody was eating there. It was delicious. 40cm Pizzas
Since we had so less rejuvination before and during the tournament and almost no playtesting at all, we figured, we need more time next time.
So next year, everything should be going smoother and then with more success.

A few words to my deck. it's my own creation Except the kill which is Patrick Chapin's.
This deck runs extremly constant (not 100% of course) but in general I only need 2 cards to win. once I can cast the Wish, Its almost a win, since I can cast the flash too, even if they Wasteland a land. Both are instant, and the kill is instant too.
I was total underdog and when people asked me before what I was playing I got strange reactions like " I hope you know that flash is restricted" etc
Nobody expected Flash and I was probably the only one playing it amonst all the nearly 500 gamers.
My Cunning Wish was never countered in the first game, until they saw flash and got infinite damage. Many people even didn't know the Revaillark Kill.
My deck was totally unpowered + Budget on purpose. (and I only have 1 Mox ruby, though I could have been palying LoA). I lost all but 2 dice rolls and lost 2 games which should be won easily. I am very proud of this creation and I got many compliments from many people including top 8 players.

They pushed me into this forum to post the list and they gave the deck a name. The first name, someone from Switzerland suggested, was Burning Flash which sounds really like Marvel Super Heroes. Very cool.
But then another Suggested Cunning Flash, which sounds less "cool" but the name was straight to the point. Since nobody expected Flash in my Sideboard, and let it resolve all the time just to die seconds later it was very very CUNNING indeed. So here we are: Cunning Flash.

Some more explanations for the deck list:
I need 2 Cards to go off, of course. 3 Colorless+UU only and it's instant. You can easily cast it End of Turn and protect the wish with Pacts of Negation or FOW/Misdirection) and then win in your upkeep before the Pact trigger resolves. The Cunning Wish is equal to the Flash it tutors, so it does not matter which card they counter! As a matter of fact, if they do not counter the Wish you even get an additional drawstep because you don't need to use pact of negation!

The 2 main cards are the insane Lim' duls vault and Chalice of the Void.
Lim' duls is instant again for only 2. It is pitchable to FOW and Misdirection and reads like: 2 mana, instant go find your missing combo piece at the end of your opponent's turn. ou can easily browse thorugh your entire library until you find your missing piece. Besides that, it very strong against the Aven Mindscensor, since you still can search 4 instead of the fice and can repeat the effect several times!

Chalice is THE card in the deck. Casting it on turn 1, it almost every time cripples your opponent a lot. With 4x Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Mana Crypt you can easily cast it turn 1.
This is increadible. In genreal it cuts at least 10-15+ spells in every deck.
Look at 1cmc Spells: Duress, Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, Ponder, Chain of Vapor, Vampiric Tutor, Ancestral Recall, Mystical Tutor, Pyro Blasts, Red Elemental Blasts (+ their Blue Equivalents), Dreadnought, Stifle, Grindstone, almost half of a Fish deck, and much much more.

Whats 1 in my deck? Brainstorm, Ponder, Pithing Needle (Sideboard), Sol Ring, Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor. My main Tutor has 2cmc, the Combo Spells 2 and 3cmc.

The main weakness is wastelands and duress effects. I have often Needle on Wastelands and Chalince on 1 against Duress. Again, unfortunately depends a lot on luck, who wins the dice roll! The deck has loads of potential, goes off very often turn 3 or 4 and it is unpowered.
Optimal start: Turn 1 Ancient Tomb + chalice 1, Turn 2 land to go EOT for Iwsh, third Round Win. Everything you need for this is at least 4 times in this deck + tutoring options.
Luck Draw second round kill works with Mana crypt. + Land Round 1, EOT Wish, 2nd round kill.

I figured that the Chrome Moxes are very bad, so I will throw them out and Out in the 4th Lim Dul's Vault and 1 more Land.

Another stuff to toy around with is 1 or 2 more Boseiju's since it's alomst autowin against counter heavy decks. It brought me more than once a win. However it must be tested more.

the sideboard I am not that happy with either.

I will need 4 Leylines VS Drege, but maybe I can Change it for Relic of Progenituss,
3x Pithing needle is against everything like Wastelands and Baazar,
3x Reverent Silence is against opponent's Leyline and of course against Oath decks
1x Flash (no comment)
2x Massacre...I didnt know that fast what to play against fish or creatures... didn't draw it once when I needed them.

I lost two times against a guy who was boadring in Tarmogoyf. So I guess I need some Anti-Creatue stuff. Not sure so far what might be the optimal solution.
The two hurky's recall are obviously against Staxx.

Ok Guys, I hope my next report is more detailed.
Feel free to leave a comment or suggestions for my deck or a powered version, etc.

All the best,

Markus

[nineisnoone]

Excellent idea!  I definitely think Cunning Wish should be explored more now that Scroll is gone. 

Personally though, I think a powered deck would be going the Chalice of the Void route since you will want to power out to 3 mana for Wish.  But it admittedly is a strong card. 

Why do you have green?  Seems like a poor color choice. 

Also I think Chain would be better than Reverent Silence (and also not put you into green). 

I'm surprised you don't really run much of a Wish board.  I'd consider a SB Commandeer just for "randomly awesome."  Don't forget Wish can also get non-blue instants so you could even move so a singleton Summoner's Pact in the SB seems as obvious as the Flash. 

EDIT:  Jank Idea but.... Research and Development?  Seems like a potential add due to Wish being able to find Pact and Flash now.

[Guli]

If you have the cards, why not go with full acceleration to quickly cast the Wish somewhere during their turn backed with pitch counters and pacts. The way I see it, Cunning is an expensive flash. It is like Ad Naus if you look at the casting cost or Tezz. A 5 mana investment that finishes the game. There is a difference and I think it is an advantage. You can devide the 5 mana cost over 2 turns making it more like an 'echo' cost.

All you have to protect is the wishes and if they let it through you just protect the flash. All the same for you.

Would like to see an experienced flash player working out a full powered list with Cunning wish/flash.

[Jah]

Excellent idea!  I definitely think Cunning Wish should be explored more now that Scroll is gone. 

Personally though, I think a powered deck would be going the Chalice of the Void route since you will want to power out to 3 mana for Wish.  But it admittedly is a strong card. 

Why do you have green?  Seems like a poor color choice. 

Also I think Chain would be better than Reverent Silence (and also not put you into green). 

I'm surprised you don't really run much of a Wish board.  I'd consider a SB Commandeer just for "randomly awesome."  Don't forget Wish can also get non-blue instants so you could even move so a singleton Summoner's Pact in the SB seems as obvious as the Flash. 

EDIT:  Jank Idea but.... Research and Development?  Seems like a potential add due to Wish being able to find Pact and Flash now.

Thanks for the nice words guys.
The tipp for putting other instants in your board is not bad. As a matter of fact I tried it already, by putting a Misiderection in it. Hence making your Wish a three mana Misdierection. However, like I wrote above: The sideboard needs loads of work.
As for green: Its an excellent choice, you will see why in a second: With 5 Fetchchlands + 3x Tropical Islands, you have like 99% acess to a Forest. With that you can cast the Silence for free! Thats even cheaper than 1cmc Chain of Vapor (which gets countered by Chalice on1 too by the way). Besides that, it takes out EVERY enchantment, in case opponent starts the game with 2x Leyline, or if he has 2 Oaths, or whatever. You simply grant your opponent 6 life and thats it. Life does not matter of course in this deck since you do inifite damage.

@gGulli: Exactly!

Another Nice choice for the deck is "Bile Urchin" instead of Mogg Fanatic. The dredge player I played against gave me this tip. This little guy since it is black allows me to hard cast it and block 1 Tarmogoyf for one round which is essentially 4-6 life for one time. The Fanatic(or Urchin) is the only creature in the combo which may be in the graveyard! So it can block one time. And of course, if your opponent has a Dark Confidant on board, he probably won't attack with it either, since it would be a great trade for you. So again, some life bonus. Its not a big deal, but a neat idea! The last tiny thing is that its not damage but rather losing life which is in very rare cases important.

[negativecreep]

If you add green, xantid swarm might be a better choice than the comes ino play tapped land. Xantid is a bomb against control.

[nineisnoone]

As for green: Its an excellent choice, you will see why in a second: With 5 Pitchlands + 3x Tropical Islands, you have like 99% acess to a Forest. With that you can cast the Silence for free!

I would expect to see more Crypts and Relics than Leylines. And Chain has the bonus of working against either. It does get hosed by Chalice @ 1, but the only match-up that I'd expect to see that is against Oath or Shops.  And that's not that bad since you don't really play creatures and standard anti-Shop stuff should suffice.  It's also possible to Chain something of your own (I guess you have to have something) and then sacrifice Hulk in response to a STP on your Hulk or if you have to hardcast a Hulk (for whatever reason).  It's too early to be competent.... clearly.

If you add green, xantid swarm might be a better choice than the comes ino play tapped land. Xantid is a bomb against control.

And it's pactable.

[Purple Hat]

As for green: Its an excellent choice, you will see why in a second: With 5 Pitchlands + 3x Tropical Islands, you have like 99% acess to a Forest. With that you can cast the Silence for free!

I would expect to see more Crypts and Relics than Leylines. And Chain has the bonus of working against either. It does get hosed by Chalice @ 1, but the only match-up that I'd expect to see that is against Oath or Shops.  And that's not that bad since you don't really play creatures and standard anti-Shop stuff should suffice.  It's also possible to Chain something of your own (I guess you have to have something) and then sacrifice Hulk in response to a STP on your Hulk or if you have to hardcast a Hulk (for whatever reason).

If you add green, xantid swarm might be a better choice than the comes ino play tapped land. Xantid is a bomb against control.

And it's pactable.

you can sacrifice hulk to chain of vapor?  how the heck does that work?

[nineisnoone]

DOH. nevermind, for some reason I thought you could sacrifice permanents for the copy. 

[Jah]

The Xantic Swarm might be a very good idea! I will try it out instead of Boseiju.

Some ideas for the main weakness: Duress effects/Wastelands/Aggro(Tarmogoyfs)?

As for the relic of Progenitus, I will try it out instead of the leyline as well.

All the best,

Markus Gartzke

[zeus-online]

Really nice idea! Never thought of using c. wish for a combo (other then as a finisher in dragon)

[Shock Wave]

Are 4 Hulks really necessary? All your combo pieces are dead draws on their own. Is Scroll Rack not extremely important since the loss of Brainstorm?

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Are 4 Hulks really necessary? All your combo pieces are dead draws on their own. Is Scroll Rack not extremely important since the loss of Brainstorm?

Even when there were 4xBrainstorms Flash decks ran 4xHulks why would anyone run less then 4 now that there is even less quick tutor/filtering? Isn't Scroll Rack just a more expensive sorcery-speed Lim-Dul's Vault that doesn't dig as deep and gets shut off by Null Rod? I never saw Flash decks as wanting an engine that is good over a long period of time. There is also another card if you want to put cards on top of your library but I forgot what its called. Something like a 2 mana brainstorm.

Edit: Lat-Nam's Legacy is what the card is called.

[Jlive00]

[There is also another card if you want to put cards on top of your library but I forgot what its called. Something like a 2 mana brainstorm.

Strategic Planning?  It's P3K and therefore super expensive but it works. 
Impulse and Peer Through Depths also dig pretty deep. 

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

[There is also another card if you want to put cards on top of your library but I forgot what its called. Something like a 2 mana brainstorm.

Strategic Planning?  It's P3K and therefore super expensive but it works. 
Impulse and Peer Through Depths also dig pretty deep. 

I meant to shuffle extra combo pieces into your library its called Lat-Nam's Legacy and at 2 mana instant draw 2 cards its not bad considering how much potential garbage Flash decks have to pack in.

By the way Jah congrats on taking Flash to a big tournament and trying out something new. We need this kind of innovation to break the boring Drain metagame.

Edit: Double congrats on going in unpowered. As probably one of the few people actually still playing Flash do you think it would be as broken as in the past (meaning restriction-worthy) if they only unrestricted Flash but not Brainstorm or Merchant Scroll? Would you still use 4xCunning Wish but put 3xFlash in the maindeck instead or just opt for 4xFlash?

[Cyberpunker]

Game 5 I lost again 1:2 vs Gifts

First round I didn't realise he has 2 untapped islands when I try to go off in round 3 or 4. He Drains the Wish, I pact it, He Forces the Wish again (what an ingenious play). My pact resolves, I lose. Ouch, probably the best expierience I made during the tournament. I wasn'rt aware of this.

Next Game I win.

Last game he opens up with Library of Alexandria, Lotus, 2x Moxes, and an Recall...
Playing loads of Akkumulated Knowledges....
I cannot find my missing piece or Boseiju....

Hey man, that was me! Yeah the tournament was awesome. And I submitted my own little report too. The thing about your deck that I really like is how powerful it is without P9 backing it up. Imagine how good you can do with Ancestral, Moxen, Lotus, Walk, along with 4 Cunning Wishes?

[Shock Wave]

Even when there were 4xBrainstorms Flash decks ran 4xHulks why would anyone run less then 4 now that there is even less quick tutor/filtering?

Brainstorm is the entire reason combo decks were able to run otherwise dead cards. Without Brainstorm, the dead combo pieces become a liability. Without Brainstorm and 4 Flash, the strategy is no longer to combo out as quickly as possible, but rather to sculpt your hand and then push your combo through on Turn 3-5.

Isn't Scroll Rack just a more expensive sorcery-speed Lim-Dul's Vault that doesn't dig as deep and gets shut off by Null Rod?

Lim Dul's Vault and Scroll Rack perform two totally different functions. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. They are not comparable in any way. One is a tutor, the other serves to get dead draws out of your hand.

I never saw Flash decks as wanting an engine that is good over a long period of time.

This is obviously true, because when Flash was a legitimate contender, it ran four copies of the card and was a Turn 0-3 deck. This is no longer the case. The deck is much slower now and will require a different approach.

There is also another card if you want to put cards on top of your library but I forgot what its called. Something like a 2 mana brainstorm. Lat-Nam's Legacy is what the card is called.

This is a more reasonable comparison to Scroll Rack. Again, both cards have their pros/cons. My contention is that since Flash is infinitely slower now, it requires tools that prepare it for the long game. The longer the game goes, the higher the potential for you to draw cards you do not want in your hand. For this reason, Flash would need something like Scroll Rack or Lat Nam's Legacy.

In retrospect, I think I wasted a small segment of my life discussing how to make Flash better suited for the long game. This pursuit is not unlike brainstorming ways to sell ice cream in Antarctica.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

In retrospect, I think I wasted a small segment of my life discussing how to make Flash better suited for the long game. This pursuit is not unlike brainstorming ways to sell ice cream in Antarctica.

Hahaha yeah that was my point.

[Jah]

[There is also another card if you want to put cards on top of your library but I forgot what its called. Something like a 2 mana brainstorm.

Strategic Planning?  It's P3K and therefore super expensive but it works. 
Impulse and Peer Through Depths also dig pretty deep. 

I meant to shuffle extra combo pieces into your library its called Lat-Nam's Legacy and at 2 mana instant draw 2 cards its not bad considering how much potential garbage Flash decks have to pack in.

By the way Jah congrats on taking Flash to a big tournament and trying out something new. We need this kind of innovation to break the boring Drain metagame.

Edit: Double congrats on going in unpowered. As probably one of the few people actually still playing Flash do you think it would be as broken as in the past (meaning restriction-worthy) if they only unrestricted Flash but not Brainstorm or Merchant Scroll? Would you still use 4xCunning Wish but put 3xFlash in the maindeck instead or just opt for 4xFlash?

I don't think so. Other people say too, that Flash did not need a restriction. By cutting the main tutor (M. Scroll) + Brainstorm and Ponder, it becomes very hard to be as broken as before. And even in former times, Flash was not auto win. It was just always in the top, just like others. It was like 50/50 who would win.

Ok as for the other suggestions: Xantic Swarm I thought about and I think it is not that good of an idea for a simple reason. The swarm can only attack during your turn. Therefore you cannot go EOT Wish, your turn Flash. You'd need to go attack, play Wish, (hope that your opponent has no Duress effects), wait until your next turn, and attack again, and then play Flash.
My Cunning Flash deck makes use of the advantage for NOT having permanents (which might be shut down somehow) and having a combo which can be played very quickly split into two parts. With the Swarm I'd have to do like said above, or having 5 mana, attack with Swarm and play both in one turn. Thats risky and takes longer.
You must not lose your combo piece, so you cannot play the Wish and give the opponent an extra turn to react. Whereas if you play your Wish end of opponent's turn, he is going to be in trouble.

As for Scroll Rack: Believe it or not guys, but you do not have that many dead cards in your hand. Since you need only 2 combo cards, everything else should be Counters or tutors. If you have a dead card in hand, it's very often a 2nd Cunning Wish, or sometimes a Hulk. But the Wish again is pitchable. I made good use of that very often to feed my FOW! You must not forget that your FOW and Misdirection is hungry for cards.
Sometimes it happens that you have 2 creatures in your hand. This must not happen. To avoid this, you have 1 Body Snatcher in hand which reduces the chance drastically to have acually 2 creatures of your combo, in your hand. And even then, you can have a Mogg Fanatic/ Bile Urchin in your hand because it might hang out on the board or in the graveyard. So the only thing you cannot have is Body Double/Revaillark/Carrion Feeder (2 of them) in your hand. And sometimes you'd still hardcast the feeder quite quickly before going off. Hard to believe I know, but there are not that much dead cards in your hand. Though, sometimes it happens and I wish I'd have more Brainstorms in my deck. Which brings us to:

Lat-Nam's Legacy: That's a card I totally forgott. I was thinking a lot about it and I really like it. I will definately test it! Thanks for mentioning the card. It's pitchable and might stable your deck a little more. But hard to say what'd be trown out for it. I will thik about it. And playtest it!

As for Strategic Planning: Not playable in this deck. Sure its a crazy card and well worth its money, but you cannot(!) fix dead cards from your hand, since it's Ponder-like, not Brainstorm-like. You simply work with the top 3 cards, excluding your hand! Besides that, you have to put 1 in your graveyard which is very very bad. Except Urchin/fanatic, you do not want any of your card in the graveyard! And it is a sorcery. My deck build aims for instant speed! Not only giving the Pact of Negation a ridiculous power boost, but also being able to go EOT for the missing combo piece and win during your turn. You can also go off whenever the opponent taps him/herself out.
AND afraid of Staxx tapping/saccing you out during your upkeep? Just use the mana prior to that and go combo! Believe me, the instantness (if there is such a word ^^) + no permanents makes it very good to play!

Other cards I want to mention for you guys! Cards I have been playing around with and I will definately pay more attention to them in furture. As you could read in my report, we had almost no time and there should have been more time for testing and tinkering!
Here are the cards:

Impulse: Instant, 2 mana (important to avoid Chalice 1) and diiging 4 cards deep + card draw, pitchable for FOW/Misdirection. In earlier versions you'd run 4x Ponder+4x Brainstorm+4x Merchant Scroll. My version has the Lim-Dul's Vault instead now and might be happy to test Impulse as well.

Portent: Might be a broken card in the Cunning Flash build. The very first card I was thinking about to compensate the loss of Brainstorm and Ponder. Not compareable with Brainstorm, make no question about that. BUT here comes Ponder. If you'd still run 4, many (not all) decks probably would. With my deck it is possible to have a 99% reanimation for Ponder thorugh Portent. This card can be nuts. You have the same effect. 1cmc, look at the top three cards, rearrange them or shuffle the deck, next upkeep draw a card.
First of all forget the upkeep line. Since the deck is instant it does NOT matter at all (only in very very rare cases, when you want to have the card immedeately during your turn. But that is (at least in this deck) extremly rare. Since you can go off during your opponent's turn, you still draw the missing piece or counter before they go into their draw step or main phase. That is brilliant! From there you are on the right track again. Go EOT for combo, or have the correct counterspell ready.
Seeing is this way, Portent is actually up to 5 times Ponder! Witht he little ability to screw your opponents draw if you wanted to, but thats just toying arund ^^
And of course it's pitchable again.
Small disadvantage: 1cmc. You do not want to have too many 1cmc spells, since Chalice is THE protection (and disruption) utility in your deck.

These are 2 cards with loads of potential to increase the effectivness of the deck and it is still unpowered!. They still need to be tested and I will do that, as soon as possible again. Maybe for our next little Vintage Tournament in Iserlohn (Germany).


@kooaznboi1088 : Hey man how is it going? How was your way back to the Netherlands? It was really fun to play against you and the whole tournament in general! Thanks for the nice words about my deck! I really hope that we can build a good powered version out of this! By the way, where do you live exactly? I live in Düsseldorf which is quite close to the Netherlands!

Greetings from Germany,

Markus Gartzke

[Zieby]

First of All, I like the list and the way you are working with it.

@kooaznboi1088 : Hey man how is it going? How was your way back to the Netherlands? It was really fun to play against you and the whole tournament in general! Thanks for the nice words about my deck! I really hope that we can build a good powered version out of this! By the way, where do you live exactly? I live in Düsseldorf which is quite close to the Netherlands!

Hi,

If you live in Dusseldorf it might be a Cool idea to attend one of The Dutch Vintage tournaments that is held every 2 month's or so in Breda, The Netherlands.
It is 10 Proxie so you can test your fully powered version there.

Hope to see you some time there.

Greetz Arjan

[Guli]

I suggest you run at least 1 Frantic search to do some hand fixing.

[Jah]

First of All, I like the list and the way you are working with it.

@kooaznboi1088 : Hey man how is it going? How was your way back to the Netherlands? It was really fun to play against you and the whole tournament in general! Thanks for the nice words about my deck! I really hope that we can build a good powered version out of this! By the way, where do you live exactly? I live in Düsseldorf which is quite close to the Netherlands!

Hi,

If you live in Dusseldorf it might be a Cool idea to attend one of The Dutch Vintage tournaments that is held every 2 month's or so in Breda, The Netherlands.
It is 10 Proxie so you can test your fully powered version there.

Hope to see you some time there.

Greetz Arjan

Hi Arjan,

Thank you very much for the nice tip! I looked it up and it is just 180km away from Düsseldorf. But I don't know how to get there, since I have no car. And I have no idea how much it would cost to go their by a two way train ticket. If you are living near the boarder to Germany and go by car, it might be cool to drive together to it. Please send me some more information via pm or so.

@Guli: Of course I thought a lot about Frantic Search (and it is Restriced by the way, becausae you said "at least 1"). I still don't know if it is working well. I am still playtesting a lot. The problem is, that you have to discard cards. And if you have some not so useful cards in your hand, like a combo creature like Reveillark, and you draw another one, you cannot discard those, since you cannot get them back! I have a new list by the way and a new sideboard. But it is still a lot of testing neccessary! The sideboard gives me a lot of headache so far.
The major change: I run 2 Lat-Nam's Legacy! Boy, this is increadible. It runs so much better now!
I will have to test if I can put the Frantic Search in it too, but it is probably not possible to remove another card for now.
And I am not sure wheather to play the Frantic, or a third Lat-Nam's Legacy!

I've been asked via pm if I can list a powered version of the Cunning Flash.dec too. It will take a while. I am currently working on everything.

Things which got changed:

OUT: 2x Chrome Mox, 1x Ponder, 1x Lotus Petal

IN: 1x Lim-Dul'S Vault, 2x Lat-Nam's Legacy, 1x Boseiju

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I love this deck. The new Boseiju just kills. I still have no permanents, so I just win via combo with 2 Intstants. With 2x Boseiju, it just simply rocks as hell!
The 2 Legacys made the deck much more stable, and the 4th Lim Duls Vault add more stability as well!

The Lim Dul's + the Boseiju went in instead of the 2 Moxes.
The Legacys went in for the Petal and the Ponder. I was thinking ALOOOT about what to remove. But the Petal, was just one quick mana fixer which never was important. The best use was to get Chalice on 1 the first turn. But With 4 Tomb'S + Mana Crypt+SOl Ring, there are still 6 sources for putting Chalice into play in the first Turn!
Ponder gave me headache. It is a very good card, but ONLY in during the first turn! Later The Card draw + Fix with Lat-Nam's Legacy is better. It is still pitchable for FOW/Misdirection, and it does not get countered by my Chalice. This was the main reason! It was very very often a dead card. I don't miss it and the deck runs muuuuch better!

Ok, now my sideboard thoughts:

First of all, like mentioned in my opening post, the main weakness is Duress-effects and Wastelands.
The first one is try to avoided by Chalice, the second by Pithing needles, which are only in the sideboard.

So the mana base is a little bit risky. With the second Boseiju, I have 1 more mana now, but it is still non-basic + another (the 6th!) land which costs me 2 life per activation. This is already half an overkill.
So I was thinking about reconstructing my entire sideboard.
It might be a good idea to just play 1 Boseiju main and 2 or 3 in the sideboard. This sounds like a lot. But this card wins you games like no other. You jsut win with Instants. And you make them uncounterable! So you board in the extra Boseiju versus Every deck which plays counterspell! This is almost an autowin. I had often runs where I played the lat-nam's legacy or a demonic tutor with it and they couldn't do anything. However the life loss is risky esepcially with Ancient Tomb. So you can board them in for those,and you won't lose mana!

Other major thoughts regarding problematic match ups. I thought about Serenity against Staxx! It is just 2 mana and I just need one fetchland and a single plain they cannot Wasteland! I will test it a little bit more. Another choice might be Pulverize with Volcanic Islands for example.



The deck still has problems with Aggro like Tarmogoyfs. And Graveyardhate. So How about Playing Tarmogoyfs in the Sideboard as well!? Besides that it even might kill the opponent, it is the Perfect nswer to an opponent's Goyf, and to every other Type of Aggro!
Graveyard hate was usually Leylines, but the trend is towards Crypt/Relics. So The Reverent Silence might be obsolete! Pithing Needle answers that problem. I might leave 1 Silence I could search in case of emergency.

Last and maybe the biggest problem: I have nothing for Oath decks! Serenity comes 1 round too late, still stopping a second activation. Echoing Truth is just 1 time available! So I hope that someone has some nice suggestions for the sideboard/or this case in particular! Otherwise I say to myself: You canjnot have a deck against EVERYTHING. And you still have your Force of Will! Each deck has a bad match up.


So the Sideboard might look like:
3-4x Graveyard Hate (Relics, or Crypt or Leyline)
3-4x Pithing Needles
3-4x Artifact,Enchantment Hate (Serenity or direct Artifact Hate a la Rack & Ruin)
1x Flash
2-3x Control Hate (Boseiju)
4x Aggro Hate (Tarmogoyfs)

I am very satisfied with my ideas for the board and it looks very solid.But I have to playtest that stuff. Unfortunately I don't know people who own the decks I need to board in against. So more touney plays I guess...
The best is that This Way I don't need the 3 Tropical Islands anymore and I can put in 3 or 4 Basics (1-2 Plains, 1-2 Forests or Islands, depends on the sideboard), which again makes the deck not as vulnerable against Wastelands!

puh....ok thats it for now.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Markus


EDIT: I forgot to mention a very nice thing I noticed a few days ago while playing the deck. With the new 3 or 4 Boseijus there was something very cool possible in some games. You can put Chalice of the Void not only on 1 but play a second one on 2!! This in addition cuts like everything  in every deck. You simply play your flash with Boseiju and win...

[Beralt]

For your aggro problems the only real board sweeper that sees any vintage play is Balance and it's off color for you.

If the problem is 2 power and under creatures you could consider Massacre - but this doesn't solve Goyfs.  Meekstone is another possible answer but it bounceable and suffers from problems getting thru your own Chalice.

[Jah]

For your aggro problems the only real board sweeper that sees any vintage play is Balance and it's off color for you.

If the problem is 2 power and under creatures you could consider Massacre - but this doesn't solve Goyfs.  Meekstone is another possible answer but it bounceable and suffers from problems getting thru your own Chalice.

Serenity is white as well, so with fetchies it should be ok. The bigger problem is that it might ruin my own hand, and it is restricted.
Meekstone sounds very very good. I will test it. But still, I think the Goyfs should solve all aggro problems shouldn't it?