NJ (9/19) Split in Finals - Report

[personalbackfire]

I split in the finals with a friend yesterday at the NJ tourney. I got the Walk but gave him the bragging 1st place rights.

I played TPS with a Windfall over the Fact or Fiction and a land over the Imperial. Here is the list:


1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
1 Misdirection
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Grim Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Windfall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Inkwell Leviathan

SB:
2 Mystic Remora
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Extirpate
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Plague
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Rebuild


Once the Windfall was awesome, I got to windfall for like 7 against someone. The second time I saw it, it was awful and probably would have won me the game had it been Fact or Fiction, so I am not sure about what is correct. Here is what I remember from the event, sorry as its not fully complete and I don’t take notes at tournaments.

Rd 1: Ronald FowIchorid. I lost to this guy in the finals of NYSEII a few weeks ago.

He wins die roll (I did not win a die roll all day, this is not an embellishment)

G1:I mull to 6. My hand is Black Lotus, Merchant Scroll, 2 land, Cabal Ritual and something else, maybe Tinker. He plays turn one Bazaar. I play turn one Lotus -> Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall, cast Recall. This Recall is absurd and is part of the reason I love playing TPS, it is just so broken sometimes. I recall into Ritual, Ritual, Demonic. It is easy peasy from here as he doesn’t have a Force of Will. I Demonic for Will and do the storm thing. Ronald is a tad bit upset that I mull into good hands against him. If I know that you are on Ichorid, and I know that I have a short window of time to win, I will probably be mulling my extremely slow hands. Same thing goes for any other deck. I will say that the Recall was fortunate and I am glad to pick up the game one.

G2: I start the game out with Leyline of the Void. His turn one he tries to Chain it, which I Force. I play land Mana Vault go. He doesn’t do anything relevant. I top deck Tormods crypt and play it. Then I tinker my Mana Vault, he has an Force for it. Eventually I draw some lands and play Memory Jar and go ballistic on his ass. It involves a will.

Rd2: Collin? w/ TPS
It was his first vintage tournament and he was borrowing the TO’s deck. Despite having it be his first tournament, he played solid and only made like one glaring error, which he saw. He went on to top 8 and I hope he starts making it out to more tournaments.

G1: He turn one Duresses my Duress. I then cast Memory Jar. He Chains it. I ponder in here and make a play mistake that might have cost me the game. I ponder, knowing that I want to replay the Memory Jar from when it got bounced, I see Lotus Petal and Ruby. I proceed to take the wrong card, Lotus Petal and cast Memory Jar with exactly 5 Mana. When I Jar on my next upkeep I get the Ruby but am stuck on only one land and only one blue or black source. If I had put lotus petal back I may be able to have Desired for a few storm and potentially have gotten there. My Jar hand was pretty bad but I certainly did not give myself a chance off it with the misplay. I Duress him, he has blue up and lets me take his Mystical Tutor. The rest of his cards were not relevant. Fortunately for him, it does not matter as he blows me out in a few turns.

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Rd3: Nick Detwiller 5cStax
G1: He gets the lock out and I lose hard.
G2: I Hurks him then get out a Bargain which nearly fizzles. I draw an ass ton of cards but can’t get there on my turn. This is something that I notice a lot with Bargain. In TPS it doesn’t always give you obvious wins. Actually the past like 10 times I have played it, I would say that it has gotten me there but just barely. I pass and have Chain, Merchant Scroll, 2x Force in hand and am at 3 life, which is highly relevant. I force his first threat then almost force his 2nd, which would have been the misplay of the tournament. I proceed to eot bounce his Tangle Wire. I then Scroll for Mystical, Mystical for Will, Draw it off bargain and Win.

G3: He has a Chalice at 0 out and a Smokestack at one at the relevant part of the game. EOT I have 2 Fetchs out and cast Chain of Vapor. This play is critical because if I Chain the wrong card I more then likely loose. I have Mox Pearl in my hand and Tinker so the temptation is there to Chain his Chalice. I make the correct play and chain his Smokestax. Then I cast Rituals, Will and Chain his Chalice. I play a land out of the Graveyard then play my Mox Pearl, and Tinker for Bigman, which gets there. I have 2 lands in hand when I pass. I know he has smokestacks and Chalice in his hand at this point and that may be it. If he top decks, Tinker, Titan, Tangle Wire, game is probably over, which is why I don’t particularly like this play w/o having a Force active, but what can you do. He plays Stax maybe and passes. I draw into a Mox and play a Land. It is over a turn later.

During the match Nick and I discuss the merits of keeping Minds Desire in post board. He thinks that it is too broken to warrant exclusion. In my experiences it costs a million and it has never been good post board, so I take it out. What are everyone’s feelings on this?

Rd 4: J Hangley (spelling?) NYSE member playing 5cStax

G1: He applies little pressure. I think Tinker gets there
G2: Chalice for 2 was involved I win through it w/ Bargain

Rd 5: ID w/ Hinkle

Top 8
Hinkle w/ cbTop

G1:He casts turn one Tinker for sphinx. Luckily I Recall into a Chain and Mox Sapphire. I cast Mox and Chain his Sphinx. Later on he has a Top in play. I go for a Bargain which he fortunately finds Force off top after a fetch. My dreams are kind of crushed right now. I draw Windfall, which was terrible. Had it been FOF at this point I may have gotten there. He casts Trinket Mage for EE and wipes my 4 Moxs, which included the Black and Blue one. That was upsetting. I am left with 2 lands and Windfall, neither of us has cards in hand. He then gets another TMage out and beats…

G2: I don’t really remember. I believe a Bargain was involved but I know I storm him out.

G3: He keeps a very sketchy hand of Moxs Top, Thirst for Knowledge and plays Top again. He discarded 2 Forces off the TFK and has one card in hand. I really have no idea what just happened, but he is winning the permanent race for sure. Lucky for me I either Ancestral Recall or Brainstorm on my turn one and am able to get a turn one Bargain off and that is game.

Top 4: Nice dude w/ Tezz
G1 Beats me harshly. I keep a hand with Lotus, TW, Recall and something else. He Duresses my Recall and my hand gets much worse. He keeps a hand that does not have a land but does have a Jet. This should be an indicator that he kept a solid hand if he gets a land. I put him on having Force and play my threat anyways, which he Forces pitching Force. I lose from there. I draw blanks, he draws mana and Combos me out.

G2: I get off a Desire for 4, which was pretty decent. I flipped Chain, Cabal Ritual, Timetwister, and Bargain. I know he has Force so I lead with Timetwister, which doesn’t get countered. I Duress him post twist and take the wrong card because I am over confidant that I am going to win. It worked out this time, but had I fizzled it gives him a chance to come back. I then play bargain which resolves. Eventually I play Chain on my Mana Vault to get enough mana to cast Grim Tutor for Will. I then get there with Will, but fumble my way through it. I miss count threshold and black mana like 3 times during the Will. I think my opponent probably thinks I stink at this game, but I am getting way too tired and honestly I wanted to go home. I Tendrils him for enough tho and its all good.
G3 was very interesting. My hand is like loaded. I have Vampl, Dt, Rit, Will, something else at some point. I Extirpate his Duress and see his hand is Vamp, Key with Mana and Top out. I think long and hard on my upkeep and decided to Demonic for Duress on my main phase and Duress him. The problem was that if I go for it he could Vamp for Drain and top into Drain and Drain my Will, which I was trying to set up. I duress him and he Tops in response, for a land, then Vamps. I take his key and pass. I am hopping he got Tezzeret here because if he does I win. He plays his land then Tezz. At this point I have a good feeling I win. I believe his life is 16 life. I upkeep Vamp for Lotus, then play Lotus Rit Will, Rit, lotus, Duress, Demonic some other stuff then Tendrils him for more then enough.

Finals
Dave really does not want to play and wants to go home. We work out a split that involves me getting the Time Walk and Dave getting to say he won a tournament.

Props:
Thanks Nick for running a great event.
My opponents for being stand up dudes for the most part
The store for letting us play in it, the chars were nice.
The random bystanders for being nice.

Slops:
How unreal loud it got during top 8
My misplay in rd 2.
Matt Elias for finding any excuse not to come yesterday


Congrads to Chinkle, Allen, Dave, and Bernie for all doing well.
Congrads to my rd 2 opponent for top 8ing his first vintage event, Ronald for top8ing again with that damn Ichorid deck, and my top 4 opponent for being a stand up guy.

Questions/comments are appreciated! Thanks

[voltron00x]

Man, Eye of the Tiger!  You're on a roll buddy, nice work.

How can you gives me slops though, you didn't want me there to try and steal that Walk anyway, right?? 

[personalbackfire]

Man, Eye of the Tiger!  You're on a roll buddy, nice work.

How can you gives me slops though, you didn't want me there to try and steal that Walk anyway, right??  

Thanks Matt

Yea I would have loved to play you in the finals then crush you like rd 1 last week   jk haha

[daveshotme]

yea steve i really wasnt up to playing again since it was so late and i wasnt confidant in beating tps 4 times in one day lol. congrats on a 3rd finals apperance in row. good job man see u at bb on the 3rd.

[ashiXIII]

Only reason any of you had a chance is because I couldn't make it yesterday.

[Ten-Ten]

 kudos! Glad to see TPS is still well represented.
now as far as windfall goes, I dropped it and opted for more instant speed.
As of now I am trying out Thirst for knowledge, Gush, and Intuition...maybe even Frantic search dunno yet.
How long have you been running windfall in place of Fact or fiction? Do you think Fact or fiction over windfall would have made a difference against stax or any other matches for that matter? If you don't mind me asking.
 

[personalbackfire]

kudos! Glad to see TPS is still well represented.
now as far as windfall goes, I dropped it and opted for more instant speed.
As of now I am trying out Thirst for knowledge, Gush, and Intuition...maybe even Frantic search dunno yet.
How long have you been running windfall in place of Fact or fiction? Do you think Fact or fiction over windfall would have made a difference against stax or any other matches for that matter? If you don't mind me asking.
 

Thanks, its a fun deck to play, which is why I played it over Tezz.

I have been running Windfall over FoF for 2 days now. I tested the night before the tournament and it was alright. I got it off for around 5 or 6 both times. I like the fact that it does not cast 4 mana, which is the major deterrent to FoF. In the tournament I only saw it twice. The first time I saw it it was good, because it was a draw 7. The second time it was for 1 and sucked. At that time FoF would have been better, but honestly TFK would have been fine as well. My friend, who also was running Windfall said it was lackluster for him as well. I was thinking of trying TFK in TPS earlier today, so I will have to do so. I am interested in what you think of it, and how it plays out for me.

In terms of Stax I board out FoF sometimes are used to atleast. I don't think its really that good in the deck for its cost, which is why I was trying Windfall. TFK would probably also be better in these scenarios since it costs less.

I hope this helped, overall I was not impressed with Windfall.

[Twaun007]

Way to be tearing up the Vintage tourney scene on the East coast! Congratulations and I hope you keep up your dojo domination.

[Marske]

Congrats on the finish and for representing TPS as a deck, this proves that it's very very viable option in today's meta game, something I've been saying for a long time now.

I'm rather curious about how TFK turns out as Gush seems like the worst possible card to run (setting yourself back 2 lands without fastbond is bad and getting it drained is even worse) I've been enjoying FoF in the maindeck for some time now and I believe it's even more strong now TFK has gotten the axe.

During the match Nick and I discuss the merits of keeping Minds Desire in post board. He thinks that it is too broken to warrant exclusion. In my experiences it costs a million and it has never been good post board, so I take it out. What are everyone’s feelings on this?

Thing is... the plan versus most Stax builds is to EOT Rebuild / Hurkyl's and Untap for the win.. With this being the game plan having Desire in the deck is just as good as having Desire in the deck when facing Goblins. You should have all mana / spells you need to execute a lethal Desire, true it takes the most setup but just excluding it because it costs a shitton is the same as saying I don't run desire in the deck vs Drains because it costs a shitton and takes a load to setup. Spheres shouldn't be a factor along with everything else nasty Stax does. I prefer having all my bombs in the deck for my 1 big turn (usually it's all you get) and improve my mana base by cutting "bad" rituals (1 out of 2 cabals) and of Color moxen (they cost mana under spheres and basics don't) I've found out that boarding out bombs like Desire and Bargain (some board it out with the same reason) makes you "fizzle"  way to often during that one single turn you get after you Rebuild them. Not to mention how easy it is to create a lethal Desire if you play Rebuild with already some artifacts out.

[personalbackfire]

Thanks for the congrads.

@ Markse
Gush seems terrible as you pointed out but I am not sure that Frantic Search, which was the other card mentioned earlier, would be any better. The reason is because I want something to try to let me get ahead. Windfall was too random and Fact costs a tad much for my liking right now, but if TFK proves to be bad, then I will prob just go back to it. Why do you think its better now then before?

Desire: My boarding strategy changes against shops on the play vs on the draw but I will say that I leave in all of the rituals and all of the moxs. I think it is important to try to build up your mana base, and your permenants when your playing against shops. In terms of the EOT bounce, then try to play Desire kind of situation you are suggesting, I wont disagree that that can happen sometimes and get you there but it is a little too far fetched for my liking.

The first reason being while playing against competant stax players, if they aren't doing things in the first 1 -2 turns that matter, then they are doing something wrong. I have found myself in the past two tournaments that I have played this deck in bouncing in a tempo orientated way. Sometimes shops force you to use your bounce spell when you would rather not, just to survive through the game. To use Desire effectively you also need to have 2 blue sources and another source to get that 4 mana, while still having a multiple amount of spells on the stack to make it effective. I keep in Bargain, despite its CC, because it is much eaiser to cast off a swamp and rituals and it ususally means you win the game. Also, since against shops in general I am playing my moxs when I can, to build up my mana base and allow myself to play these bounce spells through resistors and tangle wires, and other cards to try to allow me to win the game. This means I am not holding moxs back for storm in order to Desire. Also the only real bounce spell which is going to get there with Desire is Rebuild, which is a one of in my list post board.

[Marske]

Gush seems terrible as you pointed out but I am not sure that Frantic Search, which was the other card mentioned earlier, would be any better. The reason is because I want something to try to let me get ahead. Windfall was too random and Fact costs a tad much for my liking right now, but if TFK proves to be bad, then I will prob just go back to it. Why do you think its better now then before?

I think the format is "slow" enough now to have FoF be a major impact on the game either in Control or Combo. It's basically Draw 5 because with TPS you're already playing with your yard as is. I don't think TPS has enough artifacts you want to discard to TFK and pitching spells rather then artifacts seems even more dangerous imo FoF has none of this.

My boarding strategy changes against shops on the play vs on the draw but I will say that I leave in all of the rituals and all of the moxs. I think it is important to try to build up your mana base, and your permenants when your playing against shops. In terms of the EOT bounce, then try to play Desire kind of situation you are suggesting, I wont disagree that that can happen sometimes and get you there but it is a little too far fetched for my liking.

The first reason being while playing against competant stax players, if they aren't doing things in the first 1 -2 turns that matter, then they are doing something wrong. I have found myself in the past two tournaments that I have played this deck in bouncing in a tempo orientated way. Sometimes shops force you to use your bounce spell when you would rather not, just to survive through the game. To use Desire effectively you also need to have 2 blue sources and another source to get that 4 mana, while still having a multiple amount of spells on the stack to make it effective. I keep in Bargain, despite its CC, because it is much eaiser to cast off a swamp and rituals and it ususally means you win the game. Also, since against shops in general I am playing my moxs when I can, to build up my mana base and allow myself to play these bounce spells through resistors and tangle wires, and other cards to try to allow me to win the game. This means I am not holding moxs back for storm in order to Desire. Also the only real bounce spell which is going to get there with Desire is Rebuild, which is a one of in my list post board.

Sure dropping all moxen is great and I don't hold them back either, I was just saying that improving your mana base by getting rid of the weaker parts (so to say) and putting in better parts (Basics) seems like the ultimate way to go upping the land count to 14 whilst still keeping all the bombs. It's not likely you're going to go for a blow out game either way or mis that 1 cabal 1 of color mox which you swapped out for basics. Now as to cards I board out I'm usually boarding out Grim tutor / Misdirection and bringing in 2 Hurkyl's Recall (I play rebuild and Chain maindeck) and this boarding plan hasn't failed me except during Ovino facing MUD Stax which capped me on turn 2 twice (ok that was probably though breaks to be honest)

[mmcgeach]

I keep in Bargain, despite its CC, because it is much eaiser to cast off a swamp and rituals and it ususally means you win the game.

I won a match vs. stax on turn 8 or 9, with no permanents in play, by going "swamp, ritual, cabal ritual, bargain."  True story. 

[Ten-Ten]

Hmm. I forgot about Mana Drains when I included Gush. My local meta consists of B/U/G Fish and ANT. along wit bunch of other TPS. So Gush seemed well in my deck at the time. MINDS DESIRE is always maindeck for me. If you play smart it will reward you every time. It aint that hard settin up for it. Plus its one of those last resort type of spells for me. The sooner you want to play it the bigger the storm must be to make it count. I find it easier to chain either a NECRO or BARGAIN's card advantage slowly to get you that BIG DESIRE. rather than bleed all in one desperate turn. I guess it all depends on your play style...

[Shock Wave]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

[ashiXIII]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

You must be. I'm not sure how you think Brainstorm here is as good as Ancestral when you don't know the rest of his hand.

[Shock Wave]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

You must be. I'm not sure how you think Brainstorm here is as good as Ancestral when you don't know the rest of his hand.

According to the report, Duress was resolved what seems like a turn earlier, so it looks as though that knowledge was available.

[personalbackfire]

When I Duressed him it was full of artifact mana and a Black lotus. He then Brainstormed on his next turn, I thought about countering it but ultimately decided against it because I didnt want to be handless against him and figured I could just force or MisD his next threat. I was apparently wrong in this assumption when I got blown out on his turn.

[ashiXIII]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

You must be. I'm not sure how you think Brainstorm here is as good as Ancestral when you don't know the rest of his hand.

According to the report, Duress was resolved what seems like a turn earlier, so it looks as though that knowledge was available.

But it wasn't available to you, so I don't know how you can make that assumption.

[M.Solymossy]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

You must be. I'm not sure how you think Brainstorm here is as good as Ancestral when you don't know the rest of his hand.

According to the report, Duress was resolved what seems like a turn earlier, so it looks as though that knowledge was available.

But it wasn't available to you, so I don't know how you can make that assumption.

The fact that Steve said his only threat was taken with said duress, to me anyway, shows that said brainstorm should have been countered. 

[Blovdek]

Hi,

Im running almost the same version as you. The only difference are :

- 1 Flooded Strand
- 1 Inkwell Leviathan
- 1 Windfall

+ 1 Rebuild
+ 1 Thirst for Knowledge
+ 1 Darksteel Colosuss

With thirst in a deck i said to myself i will give DSC another try   ... Im really not sure about only running 12 lands, but its working for me at the moment ...

[personalbackfire]

G2: On my turn one I Duress him then play Lotus ,Mox-> Sol Ring. I have Force and MisD in hand and am feeling confidant after I duress him and take his only threat. I think this hand is good but I am always a wee bit worried when I have no business. He then plays brainstorm into the nuts apparently. He hits Duress, Will, something else. Whatever it was it was enough to get there. He Duress's my Force and goes balls deep.

Thanks for the posting your report. Regarding the sequence above, it seems a serious misplay to allow the Brainstorm to resolve. Under the circumstances, it is functionally an Ancestral Recall, unless I am missing something.

You must be. I'm not sure how you think Brainstorm here is as good as Ancestral when you don't know the rest of his hand.

According to the report, Duress was resolved what seems like a turn earlier, so it looks as though that knowledge was available.

But it wasn't available to you, so I don't know how you can make that assumption.

The fact that Steve said his only threat was taken with said duress, to me anyway, shows that said brainstorm should have been countered. 

I  dont think its clear and cut and I think it depends on if there was a fetchland involved, which I unfortunatly can not remember. If there was a fetchland available to him countering it seems to make alot of sense, if not I think its more up to debate, but as it stands I lost the game and I cant remember.

[Smmenen]

I think Imperial Seal is mandatory because it sets up turn two Ancestral and Necro.  Turn one Imperial Seal for Necro allows for many turn two Necros, resulting in game wins. 

[Marske]

@Steve,
I agree with you (never thought I'd say this) I've been on the opposition side of including Seal for a very long time. Now, after including it for 3+ tournaments and a couple of hundred playtesting sessions I wouldn't cut it for anything. Seal is just simply amazing.

[personalbackfire]

I think Imperial Seal is mandatory because it sets up turn two Ancestral and Necro.  Turn one Imperial Seal for Necro allows for many turn two Necros, resulting in game wins. 

I didn't include it because at the time I thought there would be more Stax present at the tournament, since around here it usually makes up a big portion of the metagame. I think the Imperial Seal gets worse against Stax and I value the 13th land a bit more in that matchup, which is why I did not play it. I think that the metagame is going towards a little less Stax now, or at least the Bluebell metagame, so I could realistically see cutting the 13th land for an Imperial if I were to play the deck anytime soon.

[pierce]

i would have played imp seal over windfall. the extra land is fine, the more consistant your opening hands are the better. I also hated FoF back when I played TPS.

I leave in Minds Desire. It's a win condition. i usually cut mis-d, and 4 duress for my extra lands and mass bounce spells.

[personalbackfire]

i would have played imp seal over windfall. the extra land is fine, the more consistant your opening hands are the better. I also hated FoF back when I played TPS.

I leave in Minds Desire. It's a win condition. i usually cut mis-d, and 4 duress for my extra lands and mass bounce spells.

I played TPS to a top 8 yesterday with the Imp over the 13th land and TFK over the FoF/Windfall slot.

All day yesterday I had land issues, not having enough or not having the right color source. If I were to play TPS in another tournament I would go back to 13 lands. I can't really comment on TFK because I never saw it all day and I side boarded it out every game but as for Imperial Seal, I didn't really like it. I understand it sets up turn two Recalls and Necros, which should be reason enough to run it but everytime I see it (in testing and yesterday), it would be better as something else. The only time I saw it yesterday I already had vamp in my hand and was stuck on basid swamp against Ichorid. It made for an interesting game state that I eventually won but I didn't really care for it.

I usually keep in some number of duress's against stacks, I don't think its the worst thing on the play and I think there are some worse cards that can come out against them.