[report] Hey, who let in all these Elephants? A First Place Report.

[The Atog Lord]

Hey, who let in all these Elephants? A First Place Report.
Rich Shay

Graduate school is giving me the chance to work on some very interesting projects. But the research and very intense classes are consuming quite a lot of time, and I haven't been able to attend as many Vintage events as I would like. This is my second Vintage tournament since I arrived at CMU in August. However, it was a day of playing great games with awesome people, and a reminder of why, despite having so little free time, I continue to play this game.

This was a 22-person tournament at Mr Nice Guy's, the store of a fellow named Ron. My previous trips to Ron's place have involved drafting against some very skilled drafters; I have a lot to learn in that area. Today, however, was Vintage.  So, some other folks and I met up and made our way from the CMU campus to Ron's for a day of Vintage.

The Decklist

This decklist was the product of a collaboration between myself and Brad Granberry, with additional input by other teammates. Brad and I have been teammates for the better part of a decade: first on Reflection and now on R+D. Brad does not attend tournaments as often as some other players do, so he might not be as well-known as some other members of the Vintage community. But he is a first-rate player and theorist. This deck would not have come together without his invaluable insights and testing. Thanks to Brad, and thanks to the rest of Team R+D for their thoughts and ideas regarding this deck.

Here is the decklist:


    4 Forbidden Orchard
    1 Strip Mine
    4 Misty Rainforest
    1 Library of Alexandria
    1 Tolarian Academy
    1 Forest
    2 Island
    1 Tropical Island
    3 Underground Sea

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

    4 Oath of Druids
    1 Tinker
    1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
    1 Darksteel Colossus
    1 Terastodon

    1 Tezzeret the Seeker
    1 Time Vault
    1 Voltaic Key

    4 Spell Pierce
    4 Force of Will

    2 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Yawgmoth's Will
    1 Regrowth
    1 Time Walk
    1 Mystical Tutor
    1 Merchant Scroll
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Demonic Tutor

    1 Ponder
    1 Gifts Ungiven
    1 Thirst for Knowledge
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Lat-Nam's Legacy


// Sideboard:
SB: 1 Terastodon
SB: 2 Show and Tell
SB: 2 Duress
SB: 3 Nature's Claim
SB: 4 Ravenous Trap
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Bribery


26 mana sources is pretty high. But as Brad pointed out to me, there are quite a few decks whose objective is to attack the manabase. Having such a high count of mana means not collapsing when the opponent draws a wasteland. More to the point, in an era of constant Drain mirror matches, you want to have a smaller mana-base. Every card you draw ought to be powerful, and control mirrors can lead to the person who floods losing. But many decks today punish greedy mana bases. Fish is better than it has ever been before, and Workshop decks just got a very powerful new card. Better to be on the safe side, and then board out lands against control if needed.

Then there is Bribery, taken right out of my EDH deck. Brad came up with this clever concept, and it won me two matches. If opponents insist on shoving 9/7s into their decks, we might as well take advantage of them.

Nature's Claim was solid. The logic behind running this over the alternatives like Hurkyl's Recall is simple: Costing one mana is much better than costing two mana. When the opponent's plan is to lock you out with Sphere effects, that one mana can make all the difference in the world.

The above-noted cards are nice, of course. But really, there are similar cards that would function in a not-too-different manner. But then there is Terastodon. There is nothing else like him in Magic. He can give you 18 power all at once. He can remove an opponent's lands. He can remove your own Oath when it no longer seems like a good card to have in play. During the course of the day, I gave myself 3 elephants; I gave my opponent 3 elephants; and I used every combination in between. I realize that the arrival of Terastodon into the world lead to a thread on TMD joking about him. But my opponents who watched their mana bases being torn apart weren't quite so amused. And really, what is a Fish deck going to do about you having 18 power divided among 4 creatures?

My only hesitation regarding this deck is that it scoops to Ali from Cairo.

Report

Round 1: Dan Luchesa with Fish
Game 1: I Force Dan's Thoughtseize and Ancestral. Next turn, I get out an Oath. My first Oath creature is Terastodon who eats one or two of Dan's land, and Iona soon follows.
Game 2: Dan Mulligans and leads with a Basic Forest. I get an Ancestral and then Lat-Nam's Legacy. Dan gets down a Goyf and starts attacking, but I find and resolve Tinker before things get out of hand. DSC goes the distance.
1-0

Round 2: Mark Trogdon with Workshop Aggro
Game 1: Mark goes first. I get down an early Oath which wins me the game.
Game Two was the best game of Magic I've played in a while. Mark opens with MWS, dropping Pithing Needle naming Time Vault. Mark, of course, could not see my hand; but I was in line for a turn-two Time Vault win if he hadn't done that. I Strip Mine Mark's Workshop, but he has plenty more mana where that came from. He gets out a Jester's Cap and Pops it. Three of my four monsters are removed. I have all four in, and so a single Capping won't halt my Oath plan. However, Mark has a second Cap. Mark activates the Cap. I respond by casting Mystical Tutor for Bribery, then popping Top to put it into my hand. Now I am all-in on my Bribery to get this game. Mark has a few Spirit Tokens and a few Man-Lands, but no serious threats. He does, however, have three Spheres on the table. I tutor for Academy, and the Bribe one of Mark's men. He had only Golems and Trikes, so of course I take Trike. Mark Pithing Needles Triskelion. But between counters, Strip Mine, and Claims, I can keep Mark's board clear so am getting through with Triskelion. Finally, when things look more cluttered, I cast Yawgmoth's Will, replay Strip Mine, and Bribe another Triskelion. The 4/4s get there.
2-0

Round 3: Steve Rubin with UR Fish
Game 1: Steve Dazes through a Selkie and starts drawing cards.Shaman eats some of my Moxen. Then Oath hits. Steve bounces my Colossus, but when I make three Elephants for myself, there is nothing he can do.
Game 2: Steve has a first-turn Magus of the Moon and Gorilla Shaman. My hand has no basics and I can't get my mana together in time before being run over.
Game 3: This game is brutal. Steve Pierces my Vampiric Tutor. He FOrces my Oath. I Mystical for Ancestral because I have run out of gas. I then YawgWill to replay Ancestral because I had no more gas. But my Tezzeret hits a REB and Steve is starting to assemble a board when time is called.
2-0-1

Round 4: Kris with BUG Fish
Game 1: I have the dumb draw of a first-turn Oath with Orchard. I give my fellow CMU student 2 Elephants and give myself one token. DSC joins the party next turn and it ends.
Game 2: Kris mulligans down to five and I use Spell Pierce to get down an Oath. He buys a turn by Darkblasting a Token, but I win next turn.
3-0-1

Round 5: Jerry Yang with Two Card Monte
Jerry did not come all the way to Pittsburgh to draw.
Game 1: Jerry Mulligans to 5 while I assemble Time Vault.
Game 2: Jerry double-Powders and I keep. Turn-Zero Leyline hits on his side. He Consults for MWS, playing a Helm into my Force. I then play Oath and replace all of his mana sources with Elephants.
4-0-1

Top 8: Jason Pare with Tezzeret
Game 1: I have a bunch of mana. I cast Lat-Nam's Legacy and shuffle away an Orchard, only to draw two more land next turn. I guess running so much mana is bound to catch up with me at some point.
Game 2: I Mulligan a hand with Emerald and no other mana. My next hand has two Orchards and a Sea for mana. I'm still at 3 land for a while, while Jason has an increasing collection of Orchard tokens. I have Oath in hand, but Jason has suspended a Gargadon. I manage to Tinker out a Colossus. Jason plays Tezzeret, who gets Time Vault before Colossus kills him. I then regrow Duress and take his Tinker. Eventually, I win.
Game 3: I have a second turn Oath, and Pierce it through. I get Colossus who gets bounced back to my hand. I then Oath up Iona, and name blue. But I've milled most of my library at this point and I start to become concerned about decking. All of my counters are gone, and Jason has a Leyline in play. Meaning that, despite Iona, if he gets his hands on a Helm, I lose. I am also getting low on life from Orchard tokens, and have no way to stop the suspended Gargadon Jason has. But then I draw Bribery and that gives me another giant monster for the win.
5-0-1

Top 4: Jerry Yang Again
Game 1: Jerry opens with a Leyline. I Ponder and then Strip Mine his land. I then Tinker for DSC. I Force the lethal Helm he plays and then attack for 11. However, I can't stop the Painter and Grindstone that he assembles next turn and I die.
Game 2: Jerry Mulls to five. His hand doesn't go anywhere and his lands become elephants soon.
Game 3: Jerry Mulligans to five again. I Force his Ancestral. He Tinkers up Titan, but Nature claims that Titan. Then Elephants happen.
6-0-1

Finals vs Steve Rubin Again
Game 1: Rubin has Brainstorm, and then Gorilla Shaman. Rubin counters all of my threats and kills me with a bit of help from Reckless Charge.
Game 2: I get down an early Oath.
Game 3: Rubin counters the Ancestral that my Scroll got with REB. I get down Oath, and Rubin Tinkers into an Inkwell Leviathan. I am pleased to Oath up my giant Elephant, and then destroy my own Islands to avoid dying to Islandwalk. The next Oathing brings Iona who wins the game as a flying creature.
7-0-1

Final Thoughts
The deck did everything I hoped it would do, and was very well-suited to the metagame. The current state of Vintage is one of flux, so a deck that works well one week may not work so well the next. But I was quite happy with how this performed today.

Props:
Props to Team R+D for making this deck with me. Specific props to Brad, Marius, Jeff, Duncan, Guus, and Chris.
Props to Ron for running a great event. I was particularly impressed with how professionally Ron acted as a judge. When he was uncertain of a ruling, he took the time to look up the relevant rules. I checked once I got home, and he was correct on both rulings that he made.
Props to the guys who went with me from CMU. I know that Vintage isn't a format you play that often, but I hoped that you enjoyed giving it a try.
Finally, props to the members of the Vintage community who showed up. Brian, it was good finally to meet you. Everyone else, great playing, hanging out, and going to dinner after. It's that sort of thing that makes Vintage the awesome format, and community, that it is.

[Duncan]

Rich, thanks for the report and congratulations with your finish. It seems like you played at a high level.

[Marske]

Great report and congrats on the finish, looks like the deck turned out like we thought. We've unleashed another monster (which brings along 3 more) into this world

[RitNecroWin]

Brian, it was good finally to meet you.

Rich, it was very nice to meet you as well; congrats on such a clever deck design and finsih! Also, quite a well written report; thank you for sharing your day's experience.
 
-I apologize to everyone, but when I scrubbed, I took off to meet my wife for dinner and as such, did not stick around to take pictures and gather up decklists. On Monday, I will be getting my camera and the lists from Ron and will work on the official report.

[Mantis]

For some very obscure reason the title of your thread reminded me of this apres ski song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglUTnUbwAw it says hey and talks about animals too..

Yeah, I need a new brain.

Anyway, great job Rich, enjoyed reading your report and thanks for the props too!

[voltron00x]

Brad had a bit of a rough day with the same list in NY, but the meta there was really unusual yesterday.  He said he got mana-flooded quite a bit... 26 mana sources sounds like maybe one too many to me, but regardless, very cool deck.

Also I'm really happy to see people are playing my combo deck... it also took 9th in NY yesterday, missing top 8 only on tiebreakers.

[luchesa]

Congrats on the win Rich. I didn't stick around after my nice 0-2 start, but it was fun playing you in a match.

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

``Hey, who let in all these Elephants?'' is, in fact, a line from a song. But not that song, Guus.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

I enjoyed reading the report.

You don't seem to have assembled Vault+Key very much, however (only 1 time, unless I missed something).  Do you still think it is worth the 3 slots running Vault+Key+Tezz when you won most of your games with large men?

[jester3397]

Grats on the finish.

A very well thought out deck. I like how it doesn't have any removal like darkblast, fire/ice or bounce like other oath decks. But rather focused on putting oath into play or force a bomb like tezz, tinker or vault-key.

[Rico Suave]

Good job Rich.  

Brad had a bit of a rough day with the same list in NY, but the meta there was really unusual yesterday.  He said he got mana-flooded quite a bit... 26 mana sources sounds like maybe one too many to me, but regardless, very cool deck.

Also I'm really happy to see people are playing my combo deck... it also took 9th in NY yesterday, missing top 8 only on tiebreakers.

Yea, we played 74 card identical lists with the one difference being Lat-Nam's Legacy vs. me playing Lim-Dul's Vault.  I had a rough day due to being sleep deprived and making stupid plays, but I did end up splitting the side event after you left.  I only lost 1 match where I didn't massively punt, and it was round 1 against the guy playing your creation. =)

I lost game 1 due to running DSC instead of Sphinx, and after Oathing out Colossus twice in a row (and having it welded out each time) I died to Titan/token beatdown.  

I got flooded a few times over the day, but I also won a number of games on the back of Strip Mine and Library.  It's so hard to say what is ideal.

[TopSecret]

Congratulations on your finish and the deck!

I realize that the arrival of Terastodon into the world lead to a thread on TMD joking about him. But my opponents who watched their mana bases being torn apart weren't quite so amused. And really, what is a Fish deck going to do about you having 18 power divided among 4 creatures?

If nothing else, I think this report is undeniable proof to all the doubters out there that elephants are serious business.


In hindsight, do you think that some of the non-elephant cards in your deck would have been better as additional elephants?

Did you consider maindeck Show and Tell? I would think that any card that gets elephants into play faster and harder would merit maindeck inclusion.

Have you considered upping the total amount of elephants in your deck to combat cards like Jester's Cap and Sadistic Sacrament?

[LotusHead]

maindeck Show and Tell

!!!

I bought a playset for 1$ each a few months ago, wondering what to do with them. Tyrant is sexy, but sexy elephants? sign me up!

[lawnboy]

Hey Rich, Jason here. Good meeting you and playing against you. Thanks for not rubbing my face in the epic T8 punt -- I am still waiting for my 'nads to drop back down after that devastating Regrowth -> Duress play.

We'll have to truck the Ohio crew back out there to playtest one of these weekends.

[Zieby]

Rich Congratz on your finish, keep up the great preformance,

Greetz Arjan

[yangtime]

Rich, it was great to play you.  I look forward to the next time we play.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Rich, it was great to play you.  I look forward to the next time we play.

Jerry says this, but he's secretly seething.  Next time you two play, I'd wear a cup.

[Razvan]

Oh, hell, Rich is back. Congratulations, great report, hope you will come out to more... even up north .

[Yare]

Congratulations on the finish, Rich. I really like this Oath build.

[Hagrid]

Congrats on the win Rich and thank you for another great report. I was wondering how you felt about library in this build? I have heard many critics on here talking about how slow it is in the current meta. Just wondering if you had any input on the subject? 

[Tha Gunslinga]

I played this deck on Sunday and won at least two games on the strength of Library alone.  It's absolutely amazing.

[voltron00x]

Rich, it was great to play you.  I look forward to the next time we play.

Any thoughts on the deck that you played?  I hope we see decklists, I'd love to see what your list was.

[Oath of Happy]

Rich,

Why do you play Oath?  It's such a mindless easy deck to play for someone of your skill level.

[Cyberpunker]

Wow congrats on the finish and brilliant deck! I knew the Elephant was awesome!!!

[personalbackfire]

Rich,

Why do you play Oath?  It's such a mindless easy deck to play for someone of your skill level?

I would guess it was because he thought it would give him the best chance at winning. This type of oath deck isn't as mindless as they have been in the past. Their are multiple game plans, and decisions that have to be made. Yes living the dream of Mox Orchard Oath happens but it's not like that is how every game pans out. With only 4 Pierce and 4 Force as disruption I would actually be kind of hesistent to play this deck,  since duress is always kind of a crutch, for me atleast.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Rich,

Why do you play Oath?  It's such a mindless easy deck to play for someone of your skill level?

Man, I love it when people say that after I crush them.  If it's so easy to play, why isn't it top-8ing more?  Why aren't YOU winning tournaments with it?

[Twaun007]

Rich has a white kung-fu suit! He could have played Workshop Kobald Coat of Arms and still won. Who are we to question the master?

[Bill Copes]

Rich has a white kung-fu suit! He could have played Workshop Kobald Coat of Arms and still won. Who are we to question the master?

It's true.  I've seen it.  It's like a full-body, blank, wolf t-shirt.

[The Atog Lord]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

It is true that good decks are often difficult to play. But being difficult to play by no means per se makes a deck good. There is no reason, intrinsically, to prefer a  more difficult deck. Moreover, if you'll try this deck yourself, you will discover that it does, in fact, offer quite a few difficult decisions to make.

[RitNecroWin]

Rich, it was great to play you.  I look forward to the next time we play.

Any thoughts on the deck that you played?  I hope we see decklists, I'd love to see what your list was.

I apologize to everyone about decklists. In the past 2 weeks, my wife and I have lost two desktops and as of last evening, a laptop. It seems that the Geeksquad cannot fix the laptop and I don't have the knowledge or the extra funds to replace the computer at this moment.
 I am bringing home a laptop from work and will use it to post lists tonight. Unfortunetly, I don't know how I'll get the pictures loaded (My work computer won't allow me to install software and without it I have no clue how to get the pictures from the camera to the computer.)

I am doing my best to get you guys lists ASAP.