Scholars Monday Night Vintage, First Place Report

[The Atog Lord]

Single-Thirst Tezzeret: Tournament Report and Deck Discussion

The DCI, in its crusade against efficient blue draw spells in Vintage, has finally snuffed out the draw spell which has been the cornerstone of almost every deck I've played since Control Slaver in 2004, the brief resurrection of Gush excluded. The recent restriction of Thirst for Knowledge meant that the basic Mana Drain skeleton on which I had come to rely, and with which I have years of experience, was no longer an option.

My first thought was to replace the Thirsts with other draw spells in what I was playing at the time -- Thoughtcast Tezzeret. I met Smmenen and tested the deck; the results were less than impressive. The games that I was winning were those games in which Tezzeret presented a quick combo, often involving my having counter backup. However, once the game went beyond the initial turns, the loss of the deck's primary draw engine became salient. I was unable to refresh my hand quickly enough, nor was I able to recover from being thwarted by permission spells in a reasonable time frame. In short, Thirst for Knowledge was a vital component of the deck.

From there, I started examining other decks to play. Perhaps I would be able to find a new deck involving one or more of the recently unrestricted cards. I had plenty of ideas, but was unable to progress any of them to the point where I was satisfied. Stax seems promising, but my builds were either not built properly, or not played correctly by their inexperienced Stax pilot (me). Likewise, various other decks seemed to have potential, but I couldn't quite put the pieces together.

Last night, I had the good fortune to play online against Glix. He had built a fairly conventional Tezzeret deck, and then grafted in Dark Confidant. We played a good number of games, and Glix was going at least even with everything I threw at him, often better. I made some adjustments based on his initial list, and this is what I ended up with.


// Land
    3 Underground Sea
    2 Tundra
    3 Flooded Strand
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Island
    1 Tolarian Academy
    1 Library of Alexandria

// Mana
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mox Jet

// Win Conditions
    1 Tezzeret the Seeker
    1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
    1 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Time Vault
    1 Voltaic Key
    1 Tinker

// Draw Engine
    3 Dark Confidant
    2 Mystic Remora
    1 Fact or Fiction
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ponder
    1 Thirst for Knowledge
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Merchant Scroll

// Control Spells
    4 Force of Will
    4 Mana Drain
    3 Duress

// Removal
    2 Repeal
    1 Hurkyl's Recall

// Tutors
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor

// Broken
    1 Time Walk
    1 Yawgmoth's Will

// Sideboard:
SB: 1 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 1 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 Balance
SB: 1 Infest
SB: 1 Sacred Ground
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Sower of Temptation
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Extirpate
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Trinisphere
SB: 1 Abeyance

Before launching into the tournament report, I'd like to say a few words about the deck itself. The deck has the robust permission base of Mana Drain, Duress, and Force of Will. Mana Drain and Force are the backbone of a deck such as this. Duress, of course, is a strong card yet not one entirely correct for some metagames. The Confidants meant that the potential life loss from Thoughtseize was especially unappealing, and Duress seemed like the best option as tertiary control spell against the metagame I was expecting.

Sphinx of the Steel Wind was read its fair share over the course of the day. Soly gets the credit for my giving her a chance. While I'd looked her over previously, it was Soly who urged me to give it a serious testing. And this was that testing. Overall, she seems strong against Aggro decks, but much worse than other options against Drain decks. She is Blue, and so pitches; that is nice, and her combination of Life Link and Vigillence means that she is quite powerful against Aggro decks. However, she takes four turns to end the game, which is more than any other Robot one may consider running -- this is an especially strong factor when one considers how quickly an opposing Tezzeret deck might assemble the Vault Key combo. So, ultimately, I believe Sphinx of the Steel Wind is interesting, and may join Colossues, Titan, and the Leviathan as reasonable Tinker targets in Drain decks. That said, there are many metagames in which she would be quite sub par.

The deck engine of this deck is, as is clear, primarily restricted cards. The Dark Confidants were excellent, as they provide card advantage for a low cost. Of course, there is always the question of whether Night's Whisper would do a better job of providing cards for that cost. And one must also consider the multitude of other options, such as Intuition. All of that said, Dark Confidant is especially potent in a metagame full of Mystic Remora, as he not only ducks the requirement of giving the opponent a card, but also allows the deck to make progress while the opponent is maintaining the Fish.

Another card which has synergy with Confidant is Tendrils of Agony. Tendrils works well with Confidant in three ways. First, the Confidant can chip away at the opponent's life total, reducing the storm needed to be lethal. Second, Bob can fill your hand up, so that you find sufficient spells. Finally, Tendrils can help replenish the life lost to Confidant. One may reasonably argue that Bob is not the idea card for added draw in the deck; though if Bob were cut, I'd also cut Tendrils of Agony.

Mystic Remora was a metagame call. Repeal is synergstic with Remora, and can remove Confidant once a lock has been established. It's also a useful way to remove troublesome permanents. I'm not entirely convinced that Repeal and Remora are optimal. However, their being blue brings up the blue count to a healthy 24.

Finally, there's the sideboard. One of the primary objectives of Monday Night Vintage is to test new cards. And with fifteen different sideboard cards, I could test out fifteen different cards. None of the cards in the maindeck were outside of Blue and Black (Sphinx exlcuded). But White had some interesting sideboard options which I wanted to try out.

Now, onto the tournament report. There were fifteen people who showed up. Despite the fairly casual nature of the event, the room was packed with some of the best players around. The competition was fierce, and quite enjoyable. My first place prize ended up being $48 in store credit, which is quite good for the $6 entry fee.

Round One: Nick with GW Aggro
Game One: I Duress and see his hand of lands and creatures, missing with Duress. I then Drain his Teeg, and play Tezzeret off the Drain mana. That's the game.
Game Two: I enjoy my single Thirst, while Nick plays Null Rod. Nick then plays a Canonist, which I steal with Threads of Disloyalty. The game ends when I repeal his Null Rod, untap, Infest to remove the Canonist and Pridemage, and win off Yawgmoth's Will into lethal Tendrils.

Round Two: Andy Farias with Tezzeret
Game 1: Andy Ponders, and I Duress. He Brainstorms in response, and I take his Duress. He then resolves Jace. We both then play a Bob. He eventually Empties the Warrens for ten Goblins, but I untap and Storm up a lethal Tendrils.
Game 2: Andy has fourteen Goblin tokens on his second turn, and I can't stop that.
Game 3: I assemble a third turn Key Vault.

Round Three: Blaine Christiansen with Stax
Game 1: Blaine starts by playing a Welder, which I Force. I Ponder, play a Mox and a Key, and pass. He assembles Crucible and Strip Mine, but has nothing to stop my chaining draw spells off Moxes, and Yawgmoth's Will soon hands me the game.
Game 2: I Force his early Crucible, but he follows that up with Lotus into Null Rod. I play a Sea, which meets Strip Mine. Uba Mask and Smokestack follow, and we're on to game three.
Game 3: I Ancestral into some Moxes, and resolve a Time Vault. Blaine has Chalice at One and a Stack. However, he can't find a way to break the symmetry of Smoke Stack and eventually his own Chalice dies from it. After that, I Vampiric Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will and win.

Round Four: Dan Cunningham with Tezzeret
Game 1: Dan opens with a Swamp, Sol Ring, and Key. I Duress, and take his Imperial Seal. On his next turn, Dan Rituals into Bargain, which I Force. I play Remora with plenty of land out. Dan tries to play into Remora, but the three cards I draw allow me to take infinite turns.
Game 2: Dan opens with Bob. I resolve a Tezzeret and find Canonist. Dan Hurkyl's Recalls me, but I rebuild my board quickly. I then Tinker up the Sphinx. I Merchant Scroll for Mana Drain and ride the Sphinx to victory (slowly).

This, like every single Scholar's tournament I've been to, was excellent. The atmosphere was relaxed and the event quite fun. It's a great chance to hang out and get some good testing in. And winning one of these is generally worth enough credit to get a new Euro game; I went home with Race for the Galaxy.

As for the deck. I think that the new metagame is fairly open, and I fully expect that we'll see powerful new decks unleashed by the unrestrictions. However, this deck was quite solid and stable. It is, at the very least, proof that Mana Drain will continue to be an important component of the metagame going forward.

Props to Glix for most of the deck ideas and Soly for the Sphinx idea.

Rich Shay

[Marske]

@Rich,
Nicely written report and great to see you finishing on top again with drains. It proves that drains are far from gone and will still be a good part of the new meta.

Oh and lets not forget we get to chalk up another W for Team R&D

[Phele]

Very good read, innovative list and congratulations on your nice finish.

I am toying around with some UBW configurations for control combo builds in the moment as well and just came in as runner up at a tournament with 27 participants. I played Drain Tendrils without Tez-Vault-Key. The main reason to splash white beside Balance were three Aven Mindcensor in the maindeck and two Serenity in the sideboard. I just wanted to recommend you to try out the Mindcensors as well. They fill the three mana instant slot Thirst has left, they can generate lots of card advantage – especially in a meta that is probably playing even more tutors in the future – and it helps with many side effects like blocking, being a creature, which is good in the face of Remora, or reduce opponents life to make lethal Tendrils easier. The Mindcensors were just terrific and filled an important role in the disruption arsenal.

Serenity is probably not an option for you playing the Vault-Key kill. But it is also a powerful card, as MUD variations are very common in our area.

[Qube]

Very good report. Thanks.

A few questions, did you run Fact > Gifts? and why?

About the sb: what was good and what would you not run again?

I really like, that you tried out new cards and also the Sphinx. Wouldn't you think, that Sen Triplets could also be a tinker-target? (and if you run tundras main, you can also hardcast it)

[M.Solymossy]

Well, the cat is out of the bag for the sphinx.  I really like it because in my metagame, everyone plays decks like Selkie Slam, Bug Fish, and Naya Aggro (it won 3 tournaments in a row).   Tinkering this guy just wins the game against those decks because they never play swords to plowshares.  That said, she is very slow, and very bad against the Key-vault decks, but I never like casting Tinker against those decks anyway, unless it's to set up my own key-vault combo.

[Implacable]

Thanks for the report, Rich.  Like everyone and their dog, I've been testing a lot of builds that look like the basics + a grab-bag of permission and card draw.  So far, I've been having better luck with a Ritual-based version than a Drain-based, but I like the look of this one.  How were the Repeals for you?  And did you ever come to a point where going infinite with Vault + Key would be a problem because of Confidants?  Tendrils went a long way towards ameliorating that problem for me, but it still exists (although I run four versus your three).

[Fortune]

Soly, sorry but your post got me curious about the naya aggro deck.  Do you have a list that I could look at?

Please keep these comments in PMs --
Rich

[Zieby]

Concratz Rich, a very solid list.

I must try this one in The Netherlands.

Greetz Arjan

[Korhil]

Game 2: Dan opens with Bob. I resolve a Tezzeret and find Canonist. Dan Hurkyl's Recalls me, but I rebuild my board quickly. I then Tinker up the Sphinx. I Merchant Scroll for Mana Drain and ride the Sphinx to victory (slowly).

I'm slightly confused by this play.
Could you not have found Vault & Key with Tez and Tinker?
Or, did you rip Tinker off the top?

---Korhil

[Grand Inquisitor]

I'm slightly confused

He probably had to get the ethersworn to block for Tez because he couldn't tez and tinker in the same turn or drew tinker later.

Rich, the choice of Sphinx is interesting.  There's a number of robots competing for the precious spot.  You've mentioned metagame considerations.  As someone who plays with robots, how would you rank them/consider them for different fields.  E.g., how would you evaluate a big (largely unknown) field like Chicago or GenCon?

[M.Solymossy]

I'm slightly confused

He probably had to get the ethersworn to block for Tez because he couldn't tez and tinker in the same turn or drew tinker later.

Rich, the choice of Sphinx is interesting.  There's a number of robots competing for the precious spot.  You've mentioned metagame considerations.  As someone who plays with robots, how would you rank them/consider them for different fields.  E.g., how would you evaluate a big (largely unknown) field like Chicago or GenCon?

For chicago and Gencon, I would definitely run sphinx.  There are a lot of people who will run aggro decks.  Sphinx just beats down on Tarmogoyfs, Goblins, and there is a reason Sphinx is never allowed at the zoo!

(Sorry, I felt inclined to post since I've been testing sphinx for awhile).

[T00L]

There goes Rich continuing the trend of running cards in his type one deck that didn't make the cut in his block deck. Sick world.

[The Atog Lord]

Excellent comments.

Phele, I'll have to try Aven Mindcensor.

Qube, I ran Fact over Gifts because I'm not sure there's a clean way to leverage Gifts into a win consistently. As for Sen Triplets, I'd like to give that a try if I have the time.

Soly -- yes, in an aggro-filled metagame, Sphinx is excellent. Very clever idea.

Implacable, Repeal was solid but not broken. Of course, removing an opposing lock piece is not as memorable as the broken play which it enables. I was quite happy with it. And having them enables removing Bob once you're infinite. Between the life gain and the Repeals, my own Bob was never a threat to me.

Korhil, here's the logic behind getting Canonist with Tezzeret. I couldn't have cast Tinker that same turn I cast Tezzeret, so my opponent was getting another turn either way. But I'd much rather pass the turn against a Dark Ritual deck once I have a Canonist in play. And by no means would that have precluded my assembling the combo the next turn. I still have two counters on Tezzeret, and I can Tinker for the other piece.

As for which Robot is right for which metagame, that'd likely be an entire article in itself.

[Korhil]

As for which Robot is right for which metagame, that'd likely be an entire article in itself.

I ran Leviathan in New Zealand Nationals the past weekend. I expected a reasonable amount of aggo.
Admittedly, I didn't consider the Sphinx, but I ran the Leviathan because of Shroud, which the Sphinx lacks.

Vs pure aggro, the Sphinx is better. He is still immune to artifact kill.
Vs Fish, I would rather have the Leviathan. They will usually have some main deck bounce and possibly also Swords. If they know you have Confidants, they will likely keep/bring in some swords. Being able to Tinker for Leviathan is often a play they have 0 answers for if they fail to win the counter war.
There are many games situations where after an early Tinker and the resulting counter war leaves you with your robot on table, but no hand to defend it. When the robot has Shroud, you can still have some confidence in it going the distance.

In Drain vs Drain games, I like the Leviathan also. It avoids possible cards like Sower that Remora decks will play.

Both being Blue makes them much better than the 11/11 now that Thirsts is restricted.

---Korhil

[M.Solymossy]

The problem with Inkwell is taht everyone runs hurkyls etc.  Fish decks usually don't play too many Swords (most I see run zero), because they run edict.

[Qube]

Can you please explain some of the sb-cards, I mean which where good for you? does the whitesplash realy helps?

[Troy_Costisick]

The problem with Inkwell is taht everyone runs hurkyls etc. 

I don't see how that makes the Sphinx better than Inkwell.  There's other reasons the Sphinx might be better, but it's not Hurkyl's.

[Phele]

It doesn't make Sphinx better, but it makes Inkwell worth. When a big part of the maindeck played removal hits both, Shroud doesn't count that much anymore compared to Vigiliance, Lifelink and Protections.

[M.Solymossy]

It doesn't make Sphinx better, but it makes Inkwell worth. When a big part of the maindeck played removal hits both, Shroud doesn't count that much anymore compared to Vigiliance, Lifelink and Protections.

First Strike and Lifelink are huge against aggro.

[Troy_Costisick]

It doesn't make Sphinx better, but it makes Inkwell worth. When a big part of the maindeck played removal hits both, Shroud doesn't count that much anymore compared to Vigiliance, Lifelink and Protections.

First Strike and Lifelink are huge against aggro.

I definately agree with you there.  I was just saying that vulnerability to Hurkyl's doesn't make one better than the other.  It's all the other stuff that matters.

[M.Solymossy]

Shroud is never that relevant.  Everyone has been playing Mass Sweepers in order to  beat Inkwell.  So we're looking at it like this:

7UU (tinker)
7/11
Trample, Islandwalk

or

5UWB (Tinker)
6/6
Flying, First Strike, Lifelink, Vigilance, Pro Red/Green

[Qube]

Shroud is never that relevant.  Everyone has been playing Mass Sweepers in order to  beat Inkwell.  So we're looking at it like this:

7UU (tinker)
7/11
Trample, Islandwalk

or

5UWB (Tinker)
6/6
Flying, First Strike, Lifelink, Vigilance, Pro Red/Green

I think the second is definitly better at the moment. I really don't like the Inkwell anyway...

[Marske]

@Soly,
well, if you're comparing it that way I'd know what my pick would be:

7UU (tinker)
7/11
Trample, Islandwalk

or

5UWB (Tinker)
6/6
Flying, First Strike, Lifelink, Vigilance, Pro Red/Green

or

(11)  (Tinker)
11/11
Indestructible, trample

It seems to me the last option just trumps Goyf in every way possible and wins in the damage race. With only 2 turns left you don't have to worry about your opponent having time to find a solution because they most likely won't have one or won't be able to find one fast enough....

[Juggernaut GO]

darksteel wont block and won't buy you an extra turn against fish.  It's pretty reasonable to say that sphinx card is the best metagame choice at the moment.

[Marske]

@JuggernautGO,
Sure he doesn't attack AND block, but no way does Fish have enough damage on the board to kill you AND block the colossus crashing in within 2 turns if that was the case you'd already be in messy situation in which I'm not sure the Sphinx would be ideal as well.

Don't get me wrong, sphinx is a great metagame choice at the moment this is correct, but it's not the ideal tinker target imo. DSC has always been the defacto answer to aggro strategies and I don't see Sphinx dethroning him any time soon, not being able to shuffle him back is matched by the ability to not shuffle back the sphinx which is almost equally uncastable. The only upside sphinx has is that it pitches...

[oneofchaos]

The problem with Inkwell is taht everyone runs hurkyls etc.  Fish decks usually don't play too many Swords (most I see run zero), because they run edict.

With most people switching from echoing truth to rebuild/recall, robots get weaker in general.  This is mainly because of our friend inkwell the untargettable.  However since all robots are weak vs. artifact bounce, you cannot safely claim that a robot is weak vs. hurkyl's recall therefore there exists a better option.  Sphinx is certainly awesome in how she protects herself from artifact removal that is not rebuild/hurkyl's recall.  Logically tho, Sphinx is definitely better against dorks as it provides a wall the turn it comes into play, any attacks will usually be negated because of the lifelink trigger occuring before normal combat damage, and it can attack each turn while protecting you.  Albeit it is slower than the other robots, but it won't lose you any random games where the fish opponent out-aggros you.

edit:

With TFK gone, DSC got weakened down.  Now he is harder to pitch out of your hand and frequently will sit there doing nothing.  As our robots keep turning blue, do we still want to use cards that are not blue?

[M.Solymossy]

@JuggernautGO,
Sure he doesn't attack AND block, but no way does Fish have enough damage on the board to kill you AND block the colossus crashing in within 2 turns if that was the case you'd already be in messy situation in which I'm not sure the Sphinx would be ideal as well.

Don't get me wrong, sphinx is a great metagame choice at the moment this is correct, but it's not the ideal tinker target imo. DSC has always been the defacto answer to aggro strategies and I don't see Sphinx dethroning him any time soon, not being able to shuffle him back is matched by the ability to not shuffle back the sphinx which is almost equally uncastable. The only upside sphinx has is that it pitches...

You're assuming you cast Tinker early.   A well built aggro deck can just crash in against Darksteel.  Hell, two tarmogoyfs on table, and if your life is below 10, you can't turn the Darksteel Sideways.  I've actually been killed with Darksteel on board quite a few times.

That, ontop of the fact that when Darksteel is in your hand he doesn't pitch to force.  That's at least one thing the sphinx has going for it.   And if you run petal, Pearl, and a Lotus, Sphinx really isn't THAT hard to cast since he's in two of your colors anyway.

[ELD]

I've been able to get some testing in, and it's definitely better than Tez -3 Thirst, +3 draw spells.  Bob is an engine, something stronger than some cards that let you draw cards stuffed in a deck.  Bob makes the deck win in more ways than just getting card advantage.  The same is true for all the decks I've played most heavily throughout the years.  Gush decks, Thirst decks, Merchant Scroll decks, the mechanism that lets you draw cards accomplishes more than just card draw.  Dark Confidant in this deck does more work than just getting some CA.  He is extremely synergistic with Tendrils kills, chump blocks for Tez, frees up your mana for business, and gets better the longer the game goes.  It doesn't pack the same amount of synergy as Gushbond, Thirst + Welder, or Gifts, but it's probably the best of what's left. 

Sphinx is definitely a good fit in this deck.  If you're facing down 4x 5/6 goyfs, you literally win that race - without even attacking! 

I've taken to calling the deck Bob Shay.  After some testing, I'm pretty comfortable with:

// Lands
    3  Island
    2  Volcanic Island
    4  Underground Sea
    1  Tolarian Academy
    2  Polluted Delta
    1  Library of Alexandria
    2  Flooded Strand

// Creatures
    1 [ARB] Sphinx of the Steel Wind
    4  Dark Confidant
    1  Tezzeret the Seeker

// Spells
    3  Duress
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Merchant Scroll
    1  Mana Vault
    4  Mana Drain
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Hurkyl's Recall
    4  Force of Will
    1  Fact or Fiction
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Brainstorm
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Voltaic Key
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Tinker
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Sensei's Divining Top
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mystical Tutor
    1  Ponder
    2  Repeal
    1  Time Vault
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Tendrils of Agony
    1  Thirst for Knowledge

I'd like to fit in the 4th Duress.  Aside from that it's an extra mana source, which seems right if you're going to see a lot of workshops.  The extra slot could easily be a Gifts Ungiven, Tezzeret or Sensei's Divining Top as well. 

[kalisia]

Gratz for this first place!
If there is not any mistake on the Rich's list, I 'm very surprised by the mana base.
How is it possible to play a control deck with only 14 lands, including a colorless one like LoA???
The only response could be that now these decks have a two card and 4 colorless-mana combo, but even this answer, IMO, would not be sufficient to explain this confidence in playing less than 15 lands.