The Dutch Vintage in Breda 8th edition on 14/6

So today was my big day, my big comeback. Coming back to playing a Magic tournament since three years. My last tournament was the first and only time on the vintage scene so I was kinda hoping that I wouldn't suck too much, especially since I picked one of the most headbreaking decks available in vintage magic: Grim Long.
I love Grim Long because I love combo and I also love the dreamteam of cards that THE deck packs, it has that insane high number of restricted spells. I've played this deck for like two months (after acquiring my first vintage cards to a new collection) in MWS. In short, I've really learned to play and understand the deck since the first day I tested it online. I felt confident enough to bring a deck like Grim Long to my ''first'' tourney because I wanted to make sure if testing the deck actually paid off.

Decklist:

Black Lotus
5 Moxen
LED
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
Lotus Petal
Memory Jar
Wheel of Fortune
Timetwister
Time Walk
Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm
Ponder
Merchant Scroll
Necropotence
Mind's Desire
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Windfall
Tinker
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Imperial Seal
3 Grim Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Tendrils
Regrowth
Chain of Vapor
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
3 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
2 SSG

4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
2 Underground Sea
Forbidden Orchard
Tolarian Academy

SB:

2 Rebuild
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Island
Swamp
Duress
Thoughtseize
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 REB

This is a suggestion by Stephen Menendian in a somewhat dated article on the return of Grim long post restrictions. I ended up wanting to play Regrowth over Empty the Warrens so I went with the rainbowlands. I also chose to play the 4th duress and Thoughtseize over 2 Extirpates in the sideboard because I have little experience with the card and luckily I turned out to board the extra duress effects often enough. By the way, Stephen's article can be found in the advanced forum, then the vintage enc. under Grim Long. I would never NOT play Wheel in stormcombo, I love this card.

The four of us left at about 9:15 from Amsterdam to Breda, on the ride I got to meet David and Stefan who I both ended up playing. They were both cool and funny guys and they both played decks to fit those personality traits: Doomsday and Madness, that's just awesome.
Duncan drove us there and if it wasn't for him and our lucky encounter on MWS a couple of days earlier I wouldn't have been playing at all today. He not only offered me a ride, but also offered me to borrow 90% of the cards I needed to play the deck. I don't know how many times I thanked him for this but I hope he's reading this too so I can thank him again now.

When we arrived the four of us weren't even close of having our sh*t together as Duncan was still deciding on his deckchoise in the car. I had to sleeve all cards, shop for some cards @ Rudy and write down my decklist. David was pondering on some deck/sideboard options and Stefan had to buy (a lot of) cards from Rudy as well. But, ofcourse, Rudy was very busy with all kinds of requests and Stefan had to wait for a long time to get his cards, luckily he was in time. Unfortunately I was so busy with everything I totally forgot to verify my entry and didn't get paired. That was really stupid but thank Judge I could still get an opponent because the first pairing was only to collect the decklists.

Okay, so I take a look and immeadiately see that Stefan is my first opponent, I was actually very relieved because this was pretty new to me and I already talked a lot with him on the ride to Breda. He's playing Doomsday so I figured this would be an epic combo match. Still, slightly in my favour because of the 5 card library problem when passing the turn against Grim Long.

First game I keep a very strong hand with turn one Thoughtseize taking his Demonic Tutor leaving LED, Doomsday, Underground Sea, Bloodstained Mire and Mind's Desire. Lucky for me he I (hopefully) stopped the turn two Doomsday, I pass the turn. He has nothing to do if I remember correctly and he passes the turn after dropping a land. Turn two I play Necro and Tinker off a Ritual, Moxen and SSG. Needless to say, I killed him the next turn after Necro'ing from 16 life to 6 life. He flashed a Misdirection at me when I stormed him for exactly the right amount to kill him through the mis-D.
Game two is more exciting and took a little longer. I can't remember exactly but we tore each other apart with Duress and Thoughtseize. Stefan also FoW'd something. I managed to Draw7 at some point if I remember correctly but had to pass the turn. He has the Doomsday and I don't have nor topdeck an answer. I'm not very familiair with Doomsday deck except that I think Doomsday is a great card and so any deck built around it must be awesome. Stefan has many ways to stack his library if the most simple plan is foiled and he explained all about decisions he had to make when he was down on his luck.
Game three was a really exciting game. It was pretty funny as I was busy getting something going and ended up getting my Ancestral Recall countered and fighting to re-cast it using Regrowth. 2nd Recall resolves. I draw mana accelerants and a Grim Tutor. I had to think this one through because I was affraid to be disappointed like in the last game where my own Draw7 killed me. So I Grim for Yawgmoth's Bargain going down to 14 having to pass the turn. I was really sweating because one Duress would basically shut me out of the game. Also, one FoW on Bargain would shut me out of the game but I couldn't really think of any other way to go.
He plays.. Doomsday! He passes the turn. I resolve Bargain and after seeing 8 cards I finally make my land drop and manage to cast Wheel of Fortune. After Simian Spirit Guide beatdown sometime earlier I today decked an opponent with Grim Long. Maybe someday a poison counter kill and people will start to fear me.

Round 2 was against Johan who was playing a BUG Fish deck. He won the die roll and I keep a risky hand with 2 moxen and a Sol ring but no land hoping for a topdeck. He begins with turn 1 Confidant. I don't find land and play out my artifacts. I Duress his FoW away leaving Duress, Spell Snare and Vampiric Tutor.
He ends up playing Cursecatcher and sacrifices it to counter my EOT Mystical Tutor. Luckily I have SSG. He saw it off my Duress but forgot about it, he acknowledges it and quickly FoW's the Mystical too. Despite the fact I was already hopelessly losing it wasn't a bad trade. I think the FoW could've waited because Mystical is a topdeck tutor and that would slow me down more. It didn't matter because he finished the game accordingly and wrapped up things quickly with a Vampiric Tutor to find Null Rod. GG
Game two is fun. I keep a hand with 3 Artifact accelerators, an Academy, Desire and Hurkyl's Recall. I keep my hand and play out my artifacts. Then I tap them for mana and bounce them to generate 8 storm including Desire. I have mana floating so all is good. Then I find little off my Desire, it completely fizzles. I play the only drawspell immeadiately, Windfall, even though I also removed Seize. I can't recall what exactly happened because in amost any case the Seize first would've been better but I Windfalled first, which got countered. Then played Seize and had all the broken stuff next turn and won, that much I know. Strange.. :s My notes are so bad.
Game three I remember again keeping a bad hand with artifact accelerators and Duresses. He turn 1 Duresses me and removes my Grim Tutor. Next turn I take a peek in his hand too but to my horror I find another Duress, Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm and Polluted Delta. I took a long time to think through this decision but ended up taking the Brainstorm, it felt most broken because he had an uncracked fetch in play. Ultimately I just scoop to yet another Duress when I officialy now have nothing left to play, with one off-color mox and a dying Gemstone. I was so pissed of at myself keeping that sorry excuse for a hand. Game one I did it. Grim Long, the sweet and forgiving deck that it is, gives me a Desire for 8 turn 1 in game two. In game three I make the same mistake of not mulliganing, but OK, lesson well learned. I could've kept playing but I just didn't feel like it. At that moment I just wasn't focused anymore and scooped up my cards.
All credit to Johan though as he beat me like he should. I've won many games in MWS keeping hands like that but I've lost twice because of it in this match. This guy just won't allow that, he obliterated me those two games. He actually made top 8, I remember asking how he was doing and I believe he said 4-0-1, nice! Unfortunately for him he didn't win today. After round two Stefan, David and I went 1-1 and Duncan went 2-0.

OK, so round three coming up and I get to play Gerwin who's playing Esperzoa (deckname?). I win the die roll and start off with a turn 1 Wheel of Fortune, go. He plays a land and passes. All is good as I resolve a turn 2 Necro. I only have Cities of Brass and Grim Tutor in hand, chances are that I will use that Grim. I Necro from 17 to 9 so I can Grim twice and tap two Cities. Necro does it again for me the next turn.
The second game is Gerwin's game. He has a quick Tangle Wire which he follows up with a Thorn of Amethyst. Another a few turns after that while I can't get off when I'm so tied down. At some point I Thoughtseize away Esperzoa but he later plays a Master of Etherium. It's 7/7 when it runs over to me for the first time.
I take a look at my top card and scoop. Nothing in my deck could've saved me at that point so GG.
Game three is more like it. I Time Walk into a second turn Wheel. I finish him off the third turn. It wasn't very hard as the Wheel got me threshold and I got a huge Tolarian Academy. I even had REB back-up but I can't remember if it was in game 1 or game 3.

Oh no, his brother is coming to get me, I'm playing Gerwin's brother Arjen this very match. I found out later that they were brothers.. I don't know most people by name right now so I don't bother reading full names, just table numbers and first name.
Anyway, game one I mulled to five but still managed to put up a good fight. He was more busy parrying my threats than anything else. Eventually his mana development caught up with me as I only drew threats but no mana. He got a Confidant in play and he was beating me down with Orchard's spirit tokens.
He flipped a Leviathan along the road which made it more exciting than it should. He won after resolving a top at 3 life. I thought he was at 5 life and scooped (2 Fow, Leviathan, Mis-D gone) but it didn't really matter cus he looked at the cards to make sure, he would've taken 0.
My writing for the matches gets sloppier as I proceed so I'm not sure what happened here, I have written down a Duressed hand with Drain, FoW, Duress, Demonic, Confidant, Island. I remember screwing up after a Wheel with floating mana. I was able to Time Walk AND play Necro but was busy looking at my graveyard, counting mana, storm and whatnot. I forgot about my floating mana, waste B to cast Walk and cast Necro next turn. I managed to Necro for 7 but still lost, that turn would've made all the difference in the world. Only, I'm friggin' stupid. Again, strong player. He has a relaxed style of play and knows exactly what he's doing.

Ok, so I'm 2-2. My deck is nice to me but I'm kinda letting the deck down... Sorry, deck.
Duncan unfortunately lost his first match and is at 3-1 now. He can still top 8 if he wins now.

The fifth match is against Marius. This is fun because Marius is playing his TPS deck. Too bad his deck is letting him down all day, I haven't heard the details up to that point but he's talking to a friend at the table and I hear all about it. I'm curious to find out so Marius bluffs at it by throwing something close to 1 on a 20-sided die. I obv win the roll and keep the hand. I turn one Thoughtseize into a mulliganed hand of Gifts, 2 Islands, Tendrils, Merchant Scroll and Hurkyl's Recall. I'm happy to see this hand, I take the Merchant Scroll and pass. Short after I get a Necro into play and go down 14 life, I think he isn't doing anything soon so I'm just going at it full force. I Tendrils 8 him the next turn, again drawing an insane amount of cards. I easily kill him with Will the next turn.
Game two starts with a land drop for Marius. Then I start out with turn one Tormod's Crypt and Ancestral Recall which resolves and gets put back into my hand via Regrowth cast with Mox and SSG. I pass the turn and feel pretty good, but Marius rituals into a Bargain and no land drop yet. He slowly starts drawing card after card, speeding up his pace. I can see the look on his face with each card he draws. I'm no pokerplayer but this guy had tells all over him. It wasn't even a tell, he was really disgusted with having to concede the game at 1 life, a Mana Crypt in play and a hand full of junk drawn of Bargain. He didn't even bother to wait for me to kill him or die off a Crypt flip. All in all they were good games because I think I made the right decisions and made use of my cards like I'm supposed to. Made one slight error by having to respond to my own Ancestral Recall by Mystical Tutoring up Tendrils. It's not really that bad but it is a real goofy play, opening yourself up to all sorts of countermagic troubles. I actually passed priority cus I asked if A-Call was Ok but Marius was a great sport and he didn't mind my fumbling at all.

The last round was against David, who also came with me to the tourney and had the same nr. of wins and losses. Duncan is sitting next to us and he lost his last match also. Top 8 is nearly impossible for us now. So David was playing Madness and won the die roll. He had a great start with Bazaar and 2 Squees. I Duress his Emerald away and he goes nuts with Bazaar, I can't keep up and slowly selfdestruct with my own lands facing a Null rod and eventually a Wild Mongrel in play with more than enough cards to kill me. I desperately hardcast a SSG but then discover the Wonder in his yard. GG
Game 2 is a better start with early disruption and then later a Wheel. I Wheel into black acceleration and Will. I have threshed rituals so naturally I go for it. When I Wheel again with lots of mana floating I drew a fresh hand of blue cards.. and more of nothing. 3 Grims, Demonic, Tendrils, even Memory Jar would be good and I've plowed through half my deck. In the last game of the tournament my deck finally repays me for some of my earlier plays. In shame I write down my huge mana burn while I pass the turn. David thanks me politely for his new hand and wisely drops a Chalice @ 1 for all my troubles. With this play he completely shut down my hand, with Null rod coming up and Chain of Vapor in hand I was slowly dying. That game it was me on my own selfdestruct mission. I literally killed myself with manaburn, painlands and Mana Crypt flips. David didn't have to cast one creature, I just bled to death after that crushing Wheel. No top 8 for any of us but Duncan and David won some boosters going 4-2

All in all it was a great tournament as I did better than expected with a deck that is difficult to play, especially for a beginner in more serious vintage. I went 3-3 and the deck really performed well for me today. I had some bad draws but in most cases it was because I kept a bad hand or made a mistake that left me topdecking.

I also managed to get my hands on some new cards so my Grim Long deck is slowly starting to get real, but I've decided to keep the 10 proxies as a token of a great day. I proxied: 2 Grim tutor, Imperial Seal, 2 City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, LED. And they look like absolute sh*t because Duncan and I scribbled it on there fast but we written down the correct wording on it. Imagine how long it takes to write down the Gemstone Mine oracle?
Finally, I bought beta Demonic Tutor, Wheel, Regrowth and Sol ring for a very good price. I also bought other needed cards like Tinker, Necro, Bargain which I didn't yet have. David traded away a pile of his cards for a Bazaar of Baghdad and Ancestral Recall. It cost him some but not a lot since in the last edition of this series he won 4 Underground Sea which he now traded. Duncan also bought some good cards and ofcourse Stefan who now almost has a complete Doomsday deck. He also drafted after he dropped and later sold his drafted junkcards again to Rudy and he got a Null rod out of it, or at least something useful.

Then we played some games and because I unsleeved my deck to sleeve my new bought cards I couldn't really do the promised rematch with Marius. Instead I ended up playing Duncan's Tez with Marius' TPS. For the ones that don't know, his deck doesn't have proxies and is like pimped to the max with beta power and 80% foils, really nice. On the ride home we were desperately looking for the famous M on the side of the road because we were all hungry, except David, who fell asleep and didn't even knew it when he woke up. That was pretty funny because a minute earlier he talked about how busy he was this week, all the stuff he had to for school, exams and everything. A second later he was gone =D. I guess a day like this can take a lot out of you as well.

I know most of you only write reports when you make a good finish but I think I did well today. Learned from my mistakes, met new players, bought new cards and remember the games pretty well so.. Why not? My notes consisted of life totals, floating mana (which helps remembering which spells I played) and duressed hands and I perhaps should've written better notes because I thought it would be cool to write a report after my first tournament. Many cool things happened so it turned out to be a pretty damn big report but oh well, I hope you guys enjoyed reading it.

My special thanks go out to:

Duncan, for the cards, the ride and a great time.
Rudy, because I got those cheap but hard to find cards AND beta stuff ^^
David, Stefan, Marius, Johan, de Ruiterkamp bros. for the matches and being really polite and kind.
And all the other guys I spoke with, which is way too many. I didn't even ask your names, anyhow, thanks..
Judge, because thanks to him I still got to play round one.
Stephen Menendian, who has designed the deck I played today and has written very useful info on playing grim long, this helped me improve.
Wheel of Fortune, I have cast 1 Windfall it got countered, I haven't seen my Twister at all but Wheel perhaps 6 times today? It also decked Stefan, can't beat that.

Definitely my pick for card of the day.