Vintage Championships Top 8 LIVE!

[Clint_NZ]

All I can say to this is the folks at Ustream/ggslive deserve the biggest thanks I can muster!!

This was the best Vintage I have seen in quite some time and thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Congratz to the top 8.

Cheers
Clint

[Little Joe]

I believe the real story of the Vintage Championships was not the end result, but the quest to keep 5 color stacks on the map without one of the most powerful/most played cards in all of magic. (Black lotus) I observed a new vintage player by the name of Brandon Jones from MA team GFY. This was his second major vintage tourney (the first being a mox tourney in mass 12th place, and last nights vintage worlds prelim 10th place) he has ever played in. To make it to the top eight is one thing, but to be literally one card away from the finals and probably the championship is mind blowing. I feel that he is the up-in-coming vintage player. I had some time to talk to him to get some match results throughout the tourney along with his deck list after his very close semi-finals lost to the "2009 vintage champion." In this match there was everything. His match in the semis with the newly crowned champion was the match of the entire tourney. Brandon was literally a workshops away from being in the finals. A finals he would have won.

Here is his list:

NO LOTUS SHOPS

MAIN BOARD:

4 WORKSHOPS
4 GEMSTONE MINE
3 WASTELAND
2 CITY OF BRASS
1 STRIPMINE
1 BAZAAR
1 BARBARIAN RING
1 TOLARIAN ACADEMY

5 MOXEN
4 TANGLE WIRE
4 SPHERE OF RESISTANCE
3 CHALICE OF THE VOID
2 CRUCIBLE OF WORLDS
2 UBA MASK
1 TRINISPHERE
1 POWDER KEG
1 SMOKESTACK
1 LOTUS PETAL
1 SOL RING
1 MANA VAULT
1 MANA CRYPT
1 MEMORY JAR

2 ANCIENT GRUDGE
1 ANCESTRAL RECALL
1 DEMONIC TUTOR
1 VAMPIRIC TUTOR
1 CROP ROTATION
1 TINKER

4 GOBLIN WELDER
1 KARN SILVER GOLEM
1 SUNDERING TITAN
1 RAZORMANE MASTICORE
1 TRISKELION

SIDEBOARD:

4 LEYLINE OF THE VOID
2 PYROBLAST
2 ANCIENT GRUDGE
2 ENSNARING BRIDGE
1 RED ELEMENTAL BLAST
1 TORMODS CRYPT
1 TIME VAULT
1 VOLTAIC KEY
1 POWDER KEG


Ok, so lets think about this. He runs no lotus, 2 grudge main, 2 grudge board and vault/key in board. I have never seen that. Ever. I asked him how often he sided  in the vault/key and what matches he did because besides the lotus not being there, that jumped out at me. Brandon said, " Well, to be honest it's just not something you are expecting to see from shops. Against any sort of G/B aggro it is ridiculous. They have two outs. Null rod and oxidize. That's it. With the two ancient grudges in the main, the null rods mean nothing and if they waste the vault then who cares. You just lock them out with another piece they won't be able to deal with. For example, round three in game two I played against G/B and sided the combo in game 2. I went (second obviously) he played a land and said go for his first turn. I went mox + shops + vault + key = infinite turns? Then he oxidized it. So, after he played an irrelevent turn 2 I wasted his 1 land and dropped trinisphere. Good game. Two scoops. It is very good in the mirror of any form because they just can't deal with it. Except welder. Who you just kill. Razormane for the win? Exactly." So, the big question was why he wasn't running black lotus. His reply, "Well, I obviously don't have the money to go buying a lotus. I work a lot and have a lot of bills. I play a lot of type two now. Lucky for me one of my best friends has a huge collection and i pretty much borrow whatever whenever. However, after the outcome of today I'm not sure if I will ever put lotus in. I know it sounds crazy and/or "awful" but think of it like this. Turn one if you are playing countrol and i play shops lotus, what happens? Lotus gets countered. If i go shops, petal what happens? They let the petal go and then it's over. I bait with welder (they counter) and I drop lock piece. From there on in I just ride the wave controlling their lands and tapping them down with tangle wire. I have had possibly one time where I wished it was a lotus and it was in the prelims. I won that match anyway. So, at no point did i need it. Could it have helped? Possibly. Could it have ruined my day if i had it? Probably. If you are playing tezz and thinking, I would let the lotus resolve then you are a liar. Every time I've done it or seen it done it's happened. I've been testing this list back home with my team and I feel like I've worked very hard on it and I'm extremely happy with my results."   Between his arrogance, ego, listening to his Ipod (switching songs mid match thinking "I don't care what you play, I'm locking you out.") and just overall attitude he was definitly one of the most entertaining players I've seen in a long time. If you ever meet him, ask him about some of his matches. They are completely hilarious.

So, I believe Brandon has picked up where the N.Y.S.E left off after turning away all the disbelievers and putting STAX back on the map. The best two stax/shops lists to date in my opinion are NYSE & NO LOTUS 5C SHOPS. NYSE has been proven (if you read back to the article one of them posted) but if you give it time and see other players play Brandon's list then that could change very quickly)

Lastly, I asked him what he thought of the field at the 2009 vintage tourney here at Gencon and this is what he said: (This made my day.) "Fish sucks, bug fish sucks, brown stax sucks, dredge sucks, 7 card draw tezz sucks and W/G aggro sucks. Go back to the drawing board and stop saturating important events with that trash because you want to nuke tezz even more. Just because you think you can beat tezz, doesn't mean you're going to. Tezz won worlds and his list was questionable. Now imagine if an established player with a real tezz list played? You might as well just hand him your money. I don't like playing against Tezz every round but that's just how it is or was anyway. I hate hearing how W/G players say how they smash stacks/shops and then loose to them in the top 8. It's one thing to beat random scrubs round 1- 6 playing stax, but when you barely make it to the top 8 and proceed to loose miserably doesn't that tell you something? I've never lost to that deck. Just my opinion. What do i know right? This is my second vintage tourney. If ratings mattered in vintage, I'd be a 2000 after today. I know there are a lot of players that are going to read what you post and think very negative of me and that's fine. What do I know right? I top was in the top 4 at vintage championships. #1 SHOPS list at the vintage championship. Where were they? That would be at the bottom of the pairings list. Just play my list and win. No scrubs allowed."That's all i have for you all. I look forward to see his performance in Legacy and some side vintage events tomorrow. I'm telling you, look out for this guy. He means buisness. Try his list out. Best stax player I've ever seen and obviously he should be. He was the top stax player in the world championship. (If you weren't there to stay the best, you aren't the best for all of you who are thinking about who wasn't there.) Remember for all you blue players, if you let lotus petal resolve then you are probably going to get smashed and humilated. Does stax need lotus? I don't think so.

- Max Bennet.




 

I have a new favorite player.

[nicofromtokyo]

I'd like to interview Itou.  If anyone knows how to reach him, PM me.

He should come back to Japan today, I'll contact him for you.

Btw, he played a T1 side-event yesterday and seemed to have done something like 4-0-2 and lost on semi  .

[Smmenen]

I'd like to interview Itou.  If anyone knows how to reach him, PM me.

He should come back to Japan today, I'll contact him for you.

Btw, he played a T1 side-event yesterday and seemed to have done something like 4-0-2 and lost on semi  .

That'd be great.   You could translate too!

[Irrelevant]

Grats to two XG Beatz decks for making the world's top 8!  That's a pretty amazing feat, guys.  You should be quite proud of yourselves.

Peace,

-Troy

Thanks I am   I just wanted to play a deck that was close to threshold in legacy and had good match ups with some of the top decks.  I haven't been playing vintage very long at all am really starting to enjoy the format.  I would have done better had I not made a play mistake in the top 8 the probably cost me the match.  My only two losses on the day were both to Brandon playing 5 color stax. 

[BruiZar]

where exactly is the video? I can't find it on ggs

[v4ino]

Congratulation to our New World Champ, it is great that a non-American won it - gives validity to it being a "World Championship".

@nicofromtokyo
As I said in our PM from 07' you are a pioneer with your support for T1 in Japan

[ggslive]

I'm glad you all enjoyed the coverage.  I really want to fill what seems to be an open space in the way magic, as well as other pro gaming events, are covered.  We live in Chicago, so we will be trying to cover as many event in the area as possible.  Let us know if any events will be in our area by dropping us a line at ggs@ggslive.com.

-Rashad
www.ggslive.com

[Cole]

Great job again on the coverage, and thanks for the tokens.  I look forward to viewing future events you guys cover.

[BruiZar]

Hey Rashad,

This is exactly what Vintage needs. Great work on the coverage and I hope we'll see more of it in the future!

[Lou]

I'm glad you all enjoyed the coverage.  I really want to fill what seems to be an open space in the way magic, as well as other pro gaming events, are covered.  We live in Chicago, so we will be trying to cover as many event in the area as possible.  Let us know if any events will be in our area by dropping us a line at ggs@ggslive.com.

-Rashad
www.ggslive.com

Even though you guys knew shit about the format in general, I think the chat portion really helped out and this turned out to be a blockbuster.

Very well done.

A subject matter expert would have been nice, but I understand the whole doing shit on the cheap and all that. Perhaps someone in the crowd might have had some experience or something though? Just a thought.

[playkenny]

@ ggslive

Loved the tokens. You guys really did a good job, esp making it live!

Filming the splits for legacy finals was also a blast!

[covetousrat]

Is there anyone going to do a premier on Steel City Vault? Im having some issues with the sideboarding strategies.

[nicofromtokyo]

@nicofromtokyo
As I said in our PM from 07' you are a pioneer with your support for T1 in Japan

So happy you remember me  . Still waiting for american challengers at Vintage from Tokyo, Hiromichi should be there next month! 

[SnoopTrog]

     Hi everyone, this is my 1st attempt to write a tourney report. With what little skill and memory that I have left I ask for your forgiveness in any errors and misquotes that might occur, Thank you.

     First, off I like to thank my friend Jerry Yang for all the hours spent play testing and discussing the game of magic. His love for this game truly matches mine. He has helped me the most in developing as a player. Also, thanks to my brother for introducing me to this game in 1998/1999 and hopefully he returns to playing.

     Second I want to thank all the Team Serious members for there love of the game and the many hours of testing, playing, and discussing. You included Bob Davis.

     Thirdly, thanks to all the top players for there encouragement in playing this game. I wish not to name you all for fear of forgetting just one name. But you know who you are and thank you very much.

     So off we head to the Gencon Wend. Jerry is the driver this time. We try to figure what decks to play and when, and which places we are going to eat at!!!!! After arriving and standing in line for hours to register we realize that Matt Hazard was very wise to pre-reg and next year that’s what we’ll do. Then we head off to Acapulco Joe’s for dinner which Nat Moes suggested.  The food was pretty good and priced reasonably. Jerry decides to blow up the Team Serious board with humor of us all getting anal leakage after eating there.

    Thursday arrives and I let Hazmatt use my Merfolk deck for pre-lim legacy. It was already sleeved so he didn’t have to put one together. By the way he did top 8. I was planning to play my Red Shop Aggro deck this evening but I asked Jeremy what he was playing and he said that he wasn’t playing and didn’t want to reveal any tech. So I decided to play my Mud deck from Steel City with a few changes and keep the Red Shop off the radar. Jerry and I head off to Houlihan’s for dinner and bring back leftovers for Matt who was still playing legacy. Also after the tourney starts I find out that Jerry is playing the Steel City Vault.

Finally Pre-lim starts:

Round 1     win 2/1      Doyle Bledsoe ----Bob Tendrils
We split the first 2 games which I don’t remember much. The third game Drew starts off with fetch for swamp, dark rit, black lotus, strategic plan, mox jet, mystical for will, then tendrils for12. I’m at 8 and he’s at 31. I play shop then thorn pass. He drops sea then pass. I waste play metalworker pass he plays mox and passes. I play trike karn tomb and eat moxen. He draws nothing and next turn I swing for 10. He draws no land again and then scoops. At the end of game I point out to him it would have been nice if he mystical before the planning which I thought he kept from the planning, cause that could’ve been a 1st turn kill. He says OMG I got the mox off planning. Luck was on my side.

Round 2   win 2/0      Chris Boomer ----Oath
Both games I locked him out with Chalice/waste/spheres for win with my creature beat down. I ask what he was playing and then he showed me the oath

Round 3    win 2/0      Mattea Alberati ----TPS I think
Game 1 he plays remora then pass. I strip and pass. He lands and passes. I play shop and metalworker and pass. He lands and passes. I waste and play staff for win.
Game 2 he plays a Bob and I waste and play lock pieces still I beat down for the win.

Round 4   lose 2/1      Dave Williams ----Tezzerett
Game 1 the hand looks good but I draw all mana sources mostly. What few threats I play Dave takes care of and eventually tinkers Inkwell for the win.
Game 2 I get some early lock pieces and small threats and again draw a lot of mana sources but thankfully his deck poops on him too. I eventually beat down with factories for the win.
Game 3 Dave plays mox and jet and pass. I play land and lock piece which Dave forces and I pass but he vamps for mox or tinker and precedes to his turn. He tinkers for Inkwell for the win.

Round 5    win 2/1       Valerio Passeri ---Mud
Game 1 I combo for the fast win.
Game 2 He Locks me and beats for the win.
Game 3 I play metalworker and empty hand for quick beat down.

Round 6    Draw 1/1/1     Bernie Parisi-----5color stax
In the standings I’m in 5th and he is in 6th and the top 4 draw in. Bernie and I both think that we have to play or else we’re both out.
Game 1 Bernie plays a land and sphere and pass. I play waste and mox and pass. He plays land and sphere 2 and pass. I play tomb and ravager and pass. He wastes both my lands and keeps me lock from lands and never answers the ravager for the rest of game.
Game 2 Bernie establishes a light lock with 2 welders and tangle wires. I do my best to stay in the game but am always a mana or permanent short. The game takes the majority of the clock but he finally wins the race and beats with welders.
Game 3 I get a fast start and just don’t have enough turns to win and it ends in a draw.

When the standings come out I make the top 8 and Bernie gets 9th I think.


Round 7    win 2/1     Manuel Fernandez-----Mud
Game 1 he wins very quickly.
Game 2 He beats me down to 10 but I stabilize with tangle wire and stacks because he lacks permanents. Then beat down with trike and metalworker for win.
Game 3 I mull to 5 and he mulls to 6. He leads off with a 1st turn shop black lotus mox  razor mane and thorn . I play shop and pass. He discards smashes for 5 and passes. I play shop and pass. He discards and swings for 5 and pass. I draw trike Yeah, play factory Crypt Trike and ravager and pass. He discards and shoots trike and I block with ravager sack crypt and ravager dies with 2 mods going to trike. He passes. I play waste on his shop and swing for 6 and pass. He discards and then I shoot his razor mane. He draws and passes. I play land and swing with trike as a 1/1 for the next 7 turns as both Manuel is locked under his thorn and I don’t play another threat till then and finally win.

Round 8    win 2/0      Mitchell Gardenier------Painters?
Game 1 Mitch mulls to 6 and I start with lock pieces turn 1 and metal worker on turn 2. Turn 3 I empty hand and game ends quickly.
Game 2 Mitch mulls to 4 or 5 plays land and pass. I follow same route as game 1 and the game ends very quick.

Final round it’s late and Steve Houdlette wants the Vault box and we agree that He gets what he wants and I get the Byes. It must be 4 or 5 in the morning, Twaun and Jimmy waited to see the finish and we all head back to the hotel. Before I know we are all at breakfast at 10am. I ask everyone at the table what I should play because I intended to play my Red Shop Aggro deck for Champs. The majority said I should stick with the same one as Pre-lims and Jimmy was adamant as to me playing it. Decision made Mud it was and off to sign up by 11:00am.

The tourney starts on time and I happy I get to go take a nap and rest this old body for the first 2 rounds. I get back to the site just in time to start playing.

Round 1  Bye  My opponent lets me sleep

Round 2  Bye  ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Round 3    win 2/0     Chad Behre----- Null Fish
Game 1 Chad gets a couple Confidants in play in the first few turns and I resolve Metalworker and empty hand of trike and karn. I ping the Bobs and smash for the win.
Game 2 Chad gets 2 Bobs on line followed by null rod which locks us both out of mana in between all the waste effects. Needless to say the 2 Bobs decided to help me win the match by doing all 20 points of damage to Chad for me in just 5 turns.

Round 4   loss 2/0     Jesse Speers----Painters
Game 1   Jesse sculpts his hand while I smash him down to about 4 life. Then he combo’s for the win and decks me.
Game 2   Jesse combos early but I have the blessing to survive and he changes to aggro mode and takes me down. I was mana flooded and just couldn’t get there.

Round 5   win 2/1    Paul Mastriano------Steel City Vault
Game 1  I mull to 6 and wittle his life total to 9 before Paul shows me the POWER of the Vault and Wins.
Game 2   Paul mulls to 5 but all my lock pieces don’t allow him to recover to get back in the game. Within 12 turns the game is over.
Game 3   Paul mulls to 6 this game but, still dominates the beginning with all his artifact hate. Finally by about the 7th turn I land a Jester’s Cap and snatch all his win conditions. The factories go for the win.

Round 6   win 2/0   Todd Taylor------Red Shops
Game 1   We get a deck check and about 27 minutes later we can start our first match with 25 minute extension. The judges ruled that Todd’s sleeves were a problem and He got a game loss. Todd was completely on tilt.
Game 2   Todd starts with shop crucible pass. I play shop Metal worker pass. He plays a tangle wire and wastes my shop. I am locked under 3  wires for a few turns then finally get to start a turn with a active metal worker and drop my hand for the win.

Round 7    ID with Brandon Jones and we both make it in to the top 8!!!!!!!!!

Round 8   loss 1/2     Itou Hiromichi----Tezz
These games were podcast live!!!!!
Fantastic tournament!!!!!!! 

Congrats to the new World Champion  Itou Hiromichi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Maverrick77]

I didn't see the t8 round, but he threw away g3 of the t4. The only spell he played was a goblin welder. How do you justify keeping that hand?

He didn't want to mull to 5 on the play. 

[Smmenen]

Don't overdo the no lotus workshop deck. He beat me in his bubble round when we were both 4-0. He won g2 off turn one trinisphere (nice deck), and g3 I mulled to 6 and kept a suspect hand on the play, with FOW, ponder, vampiric tutor, strip mine, 2 U dorks. Better than a five card hand, and by the way he said 'keep' I knew I needed a FOW. He tried another t1 3ball, I FOW, I draw wasteland, I rip up two lands, we play draw go for five turns. He drew better.
I didn't see the t8 round, but he threw away g3 of the t4. The only spell he played was a goblin welder. How do you justify keeping that hand?

I then lost to Brain Demars when we were both 4-1. His deck is insane. I had no chance there.

In the battle of rods vs key/vault, there is a clear winner. The field had way more null rod decks than vault key decks, but look at the t8, and specifically the t4.

Gratz the the t8, and to our new champion.

the broken deck has always been, and will always be, better than the deck that attempts to answer it

gross oversimpflication. it's a 'red queen principle' effect. it depends on the cycle. in this one, vault key is the clear winner.

my point was that the guy got very lucky vs me, and then was able to double draw from there. As for the lotus thing, no one should possibly consider not proxying one at a proxy event. I mean, if they let you play two of one, either lotus petal or black lotus, which would you choose? 

Pierce, did you face Hiromichi?

[Drummer79]

I did, he  was my only loss in swiss

[Irrelevant]

I actually just realized this but they got my decklist slightly wrong.

-1 Mox Ruby
-1 Mox Pearl

+1 Ancestral Recall

[DoubleDrain]

Just wanted to say that it was a blast to meet so many people from the vintage community, and I hope to see everyone again next year. Cheers!

[God_Campbell]

I also want to chime in say I did enjoy meeting Soly, Dan carp, Jimmy and all the other awesome guys over the weekend, and can't wait for the next time we invade from north of the boarder.

[pierce]

I did not steve. I wish I had! tezz was a good matchup, while steel city vault was one of my worst.
I played randos rds1-2, mastriano's friend from philly rd 3, another rando rd4, then both semifinalists in my bubble rounds.

@ mulligans--I walked over just a second too late then. I was under the impression he kept his seven. I withdraw my critique--I had to make a similar call against him in the swiss.

[LordHomerCat]

I also want to chime in say I did enjoy meeting Soly, Dan carp, Jimmy and all the other awesome guys over the weekend, and can't wait for the next time we invade from north of the boarder.

At first I thought this was cool, but then I saw that I was mentioned with Soly and Dan Carp, and realized you cannot be serious.  How cruel =p

[God_Campbell]

well anyone that blows me is awesome, it was nice meeting you jimmy I got beat and it was good times, I am never cruel.

[God_Campbell]

Okay wow, I should not be allowed to type when under the influence....blow me out.....kinda awkward the other way lol.

[MagicIsCardboardCrack]

well anyone that blows me is awesome, it was nice meeting you jimmy I got beat and it was good times, I am never cruel.

I just thought you were being cock-y lol

[LordHomerCat]

I honestly read that over a few times, and then decided that if I didn't reply maybe I would forget that you typed that =p

[conboy31]

where exactly is the video? I can't find it on ggs

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1984827

[Razvan]

Yeah, Donny, we "knew" what you "meant".

I think that's a good point in general though, screw the magic, meeting people is what it was all about. I am sure I will forget someone if listing... but: Dan Carp, Jimmy, Soly (yes, you go between them, Jimmy), Travis, Brian, Dan and Sara Yarrington, TK, Mark Trogdon, Itou, Stephen Houdlette, and... of course... Jerry Yang!

Anyway,  yes, hopefully we'll all make it to some yankee event or the other way around.

[DiviningTop3]

And dont forget Brandon Jones.  It can be argued back and forth whether he's a stronger player than the big names out there, but one thing's for sure, he's the most exciting player around.