Split Mox sanctioned GP oakland Side event---Dredge

[Gambit]

17 People signed up for the GP oakland T1 side event to battle for a mox emerald, due to not owning enough power or workshops, I played the only deck I could get together, although it has been fairly successful for me lately, also, I was looking forward to trying out Nature's Claim in the sideboard. Here's the list I played:

4-Golgari Grave Trolll
4-Stinkweed Imp
4-Bridge from Below
4-Narcomoeba
4-BloodGhast
4-Serum Powder
1-Golgari Thug

4-Bazaar of Baghdad
4-City of Brass
3-Undiscovered Paradise
3-Cephalid Coliseum
1-Dakmor Salvage

3-Dread Return
1-FKZ
1-Iona
1-Sphinx of Lost truths
3-Fatesticher

4-Cabal therapy
3-Leyline of the Void
2-Chain of Vapor
2-Darkblast

SB:
2-Chain of vapor
4-Nature's Claim
3-Whispmare
3-Unmask
3-Pithing Needle

I figured with the event being sanctioned that there would be some other Dredge decks (there were 3 total) so I decided to maindeck 3 leylines. That seemed like it would be enough for me to steal some game 1's from other dredge players if I knew that is what they were playing. I also played 2 maindeck chain of vapor and 2 maindeck darkblast because the deck still wins turn 2, the core of this deck is really consistent and the slots could be pretty much anything, I didn't run the Sharuum package because having chains as outs would just be better.

So 5 rounds, cut to top 4, 17 players (sorry if some of this is wrong, pretty much all from memory, and games really blend together)

R1: BYE, nice, I scout and know what everyone is playing, including the two other dredge players as well as their opponents sideboard plans for the matchup.

R2 Morgan TEZZ
g1:I get a turn 2 (I think) IONA naming blue to his 6 blue cards in hand, he doesn't draw anything good that is black and I win the next turn.
g2:Pretty sure he mulls low looking for leyline, he then vamps in response to a therapy, I see tezz, Fire/ice, Dark confidant, and Inkwell. My dredges aren't amazing, but I slow roll next turn thinking he has rav trap, turns out he has extirpate and he hits my dread returns with bloodghast's landfall on the stack. This does slow me down a little, but his hand is depleted and I beat in with zombies and bloodghasts for the win.

r3:Jed, Dredge
G1: I know what he is playing, fan a 7 with Leyline and bazaar, and also win the die roll. He calls the judge on me to make sure I'm playing maindeck leyliines, I tell him I'm only playing one, Judge says I'm good and he scoops before I even tap bazaar.
g2:Serum powder away the first 7, next 7 includes 2x bazaar and Leyline....must be nice

r4 Fob, oath
g1 Jeff has a way of usually beating me, and by usually I mean always. He beat me in the top 4 of the last event with turn 1 vault+key, I expected the same. But he knows I'm on dredge and thoughtseizes me hoping to hit a chalice. Instead he has to take Iona as it's much better than taking the gravetroll. I think he strips my first bazaar, but it dug me into bazaar #2 which ended things pretty quick.
g2: He brings in a bunch, but ends up mulling to 4 trying to find leyline while I keep a hand with bazaar + land + natures claim + chain. His 4 is pretty good though, turn 1 merchant scroll for ancestral off mox strip mine. He strips my bazaar after 1 activation. I start casting bloodghasts, orchard tokens, and narcomoebas. I nature's claim an Oath at one point early as well. I eventually draw another bazaar, but pretty much bad aggro gets there, I'm holding 2 Chains of vapor as backup.

r5:Charles, TPS
g1: He would like me to scoop him in as I am the only 4-0, but he is the deck I am most worried about as he can be faster. Example, g1 on the play he turn 1's yawg bargain. I still have a chance as he passes and I therapy but he tendrils me after drawing like 15 cards his next turn.
g2: I want to see his sideboard plan, so I don't scoop to him, he mulls I think and can't really remember much he plays a jailer I think, but I bounce it and win?
g3: He mulls to 4 and finds leyline, I claim it, he vamps and plays jailer. I bounce it on my upkeep and therapy his hand, he scoops.

5-0, 8-1 games played

Top 4
Brett -tezz vs Jeff Oath
Dylan-dredge vs Jed Dredge
We talk about a split, but it would only be like $60 each, I also have a huge advantage with maindeck leylines over my opponent, plus he called the judge on me in the swiss because he thought I was cheating....

top 4 match Dredge mirror:
g1: I open no lands + leyline, KEEP. He starts casting stuff, but I get to 8 cards and discard grave troll, he hardcasts a FKZ to get me to 7, but I make a bunch of zombies and dread return a sphinx with allows me to make 10+ hasted 3/3 zombies.
g2:City of brass + leyline: keep. He plays bazaar and is digging for outs, I slowly start playing some bloodghasts and a thug. He eventually finds a whispmare and kills the leyline, and has 2 bazaars. A lot of his deck is gone though, I chain a couple of narcomoebas as he puts them into play during his upkeep to keep him off creatures. I also have to cast a cabal therapy and then sac my thug to remove his bridges. He runs out of cards in his deck.
Never found bazaar in either game.

Brett concedes to Jeff as Fob has way more dredge hate, but it doesn't matter as we split the finals. The dealer buys the Mox back from us @ $250 so I get $125 + 9 packs of worldwake, while Brett and Fob split the other half.

This deck is good, nature's claim is amazing, I wasn't really worried about any hate, leyline is really easy to answer now with the 8 one mana instants. Ended up 10-1 in games on the day, only losing 1 game 1 to turn 1 Yawg Bargain.

[LotusHead]

I would have made the trek out there with 2 shops and 2 ancient tombs as filler, but I have been sneezing all weekend WITH a headache, which I don't normally have.  I decided that instead of winning a sanctioned tournament, I would instead avoid getting LotusGoo all over you.

Congrats on your finish!

See you all in 2 and 3 weeks for SuperStars and Eudemonia p9's Feb 28 and Mar 7.

I also have a huge advantage with maindeck leylines over my opponent, plus he called the judge on me in the swiss because he thought I was cheating....

While it is totally ok to call a Judge over to have anything clarified, it is another thing to be basically accused of being a damn cheater.  Like knowing putting a leyline into play that should have been in the SB game 1.  Your integrity gets called into question.  I had that happen to me once, but my opponent at least showed supprize at my maindeck, and said he's call a judge over after g1 to verify that my MD was what it was supposed to be. 

My point:  Has anyone on TMD actually gotten a judge to verify that an opponent was outright cheating? Knowingly?  I mean, I heard stories of Mike Long and a ProsBloom Combo piece on his lap, and sometimes a sloppy player might let the bottom card of their deck show while shuffling (giving us a hint at what they are playing).

[Suicideking]

My point:  Has anyone on TMD actually gotten a judge to verify that an opponent was outright cheating? Knowingly?  I mean, I heard stories of Mike Long and a ProsBloom Combo piece on his lap, and sometimes a sloppy player might let the bottom card of their deck show while shuffling (giving us a hint at what they are playing).

Yes I had an opponent get DQd against me during a tournament and played him again at the next tourney.  I called a judge to deck check him and he picked up his cards and left.  Turns out he had a habit of doing those things.

[Gambit]

I also have a huge advantage with maindeck leylines over my opponent, plus he called the judge on me in the swiss because he thought I was cheating....

While it is totally ok to call a Judge over to have anything clarified, it is another thing to be basically accused of being a damn cheater.  Like knowing putting a leyline into play that should have been in the SB game 1.  Your integrity gets called into question.  I had that happen to me once, but my opponent at least showed supprize at my maindeck, and said he's call a judge over after g1 to verify that my MD was what it was supposed to be. 

But it's fairly common to play maindeck Leylines in dredge, usually the manaless version, but still, shouldn't be that shocking.

[jeffthefob]

The tourney was sweet, I was still running pretty hot with Vintage and another split is pretty sweet.  The payout of the tourney is actually pretty sick in comparison to what we had before and considering this is a Conan event...

I played Oath, straight up Oath this time with 3 creatures, no krosan rec. and Timetwister.  I often find myself with 1 of the creature in my hands, but it didn't really matter that much.  The only time it mattered was during round 5 playing for top 4 game 1 vs. Jed.  So I Wasteland his Bazaar and he didn't draw the 2nd one like Dylan.  I landed Oath + Orchard then hit Hellkite Overlord.  Oathing for the 2nd time I hit Iona with 1 card left and that bottom card was Hellkite Overlord.  This is the worse possible situation and I was bit frustrated.  But I managed to beat him g2 and g3 when both of us had some pretty sick draws.  I don't even know how I won rd 2 when I had absolutely no hate against mono Brown as I suspect there are little to no workshops. 

I normally don't have more than 5 to 6 dredge hate, but everytime when I play in sanctioned vintage I always pack at least 8.  The funny thing is, when I had less hate I beat Dylan and when I have more hate I don't, talk about justice.  Life time 2-2 against Dylan with dredge, guess I wish he was packing workshop because I am truly x-0 against him on that ^^ Though with me packing no hate, I probably will lose :-p

Another interesting point was when I lost to Dylan I asked him to battle it out round 5 (sorry Charles) so there is a chance that one 3-2 will make it.  Dylan was nice in his report and didn't mention that.  But in a way everything made sense.  By playing out round 5 he gets to avoid TPS, a match up that he didn't want to play against.  And if I won, he gets to play against Dredge where he had maindeck Leylines.

Originally we talked about a top 4 split but Dylan refused (obv, knowing he will play against dredge).  And I didn't really want to play against Brett that much so we compared out dredge sideboards and left the decision to me after we played 2 sweet games.  Unsurprisingly, with me being satisfied with cash x3 the buy-in + packs, I made sure Brett was okay and just split with Dylan.  Besides, got to get some food with Web and cheer for Matt Nass. 

@the maindeck Leyline/calling judge issue.  Jed doesn't play vintage that often, so maindeck Leylines may be bit odd to him.  He is also a competitive player, so it isn't unsurprising that that he ask the judge to check.  If he is trying to tilt you by asking the judge, you definitely got him back by saying, "I only play one."  Another thing to note is that all the NorCal vintage players know each other pretty well already, we won't really suspect if we put in some "uncommon" maindeck cards to battle one and another; that is just metagaming.

[Nomad]

...And props to Nick Coss for being ~10mins late to sign up for this...

[Hagrid]

Well with the time change he was actually two hours and 45 mins early Simon!!!

[Jet]

I grabbed the Top 4 decklists from this event. And since one is already in the first post, here's the other 3:

Finalist - jeffthefob

1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Hellkite Overlord
4 Oath of Druids
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Impulse
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
3 Thoughtseize
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Rebuild
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Island
4 Forbidden Orchard

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Pithing Needle
2 Firespout
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Karthus, Tyrant of Jund
2 Mindbreak Trap


Semi-Finalist - Brett Allen

4 Force of will
4 Mana Drain
3 Dark Confidant
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Darkblast
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Gift Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Spell Pierce
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tinker
1 Voltiac Key
1 Time Vault
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Flooded strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Island

SB:

1 Pithing Needle
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Extirpate
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Greater Gargadon
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Ingot Chewer

Semi-finalist - Jed Dolbeer

2 Bloodgast
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Golgari Thug
1 Flame-kin Zealot
2 Dread Return
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Fatesticher
4 Serum Powder
4 Narcomeba
4 Careful Study
1 Brainstorm
3 Ichorid
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Golgari Grave Troll
1 Breakthrough
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Bridge from Below
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Cephalid Coliseum

SB:

2 Wispmare
1 Ichorid
3 Darkblast
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Ingot Chewer
3 Ancient Grudge

[InfectedMushroom]

Jeff's list is missing 5 cards. I assume 3 Forbidden Orchards at least are missing.

[healo]

Vampiric Tutor seems like 4th missing after 3 Orchards..

[Iron_Chef]

Yea I was the epic failure for missing the sign ups... I even went and bought a Lotus!  Oh well, next time Gadget!

[Tobi]

Thanks for the lists and the report.
Can anyone tell me the correct names of the finalists? I assume it is Dylan Jolliffe and Jeff Folinus, but am not sure on it.

Any news about the missing cards in Jeff's list?

[LotusHead]

Thanks for the lists and the report.
Can anyone tell me the correct names of the finalists? I assume it is Dylan Jolliffe and Jeff Folinus, but am not sure on it.

Any news about the missing cards in Jeff's list?

Jeff is Jeff Huang aka JeffTheFob.  Brett is Brett Allen.

He will likely elaborate on the missing cards after LSV is done PWNING at ProTour San Diego.

[Tobi]

Jeff is Jeff Huang aka JeffTheFob.  Brett is Brett Allen.

He will likely elaborate on the missing cards after LSV is done PWNING at ProTour San Diego.

Alright, thanks! The winner's name Dylan Jolliffe is correct then?

[LotusHead]

Jeff is Jeff Huang aka JeffTheFob.  Brett is Brett Allen.

He will likely elaborate on the missing cards after LSV is done PWNING at ProTour San Diego.

Alright, thanks! The winner's name Dylan Jolliffe is correct then?

Dylan Jolliffe yes.

[Jet]

Oops, Jeff's list was missing 3 Forbidden orchards, 1 Vamp, and 1 Scalding tarn.