[Free Article] Vintage Opens Up: The Philly Open V

[voltron00x]

Despite all the Vintage bashing in the SCG forums, Nick Coss put on quite a show in Philly, with 82 players ignoring the snow and a $10K weekend to battle at the Philly Open V.  The metagame for this tournament helps us get a read on the makeup of current Vintage in the US.  As I did with the Philly Open IV 3 months ago, I take a look at the decklists and standings to determine the best-performing decks, and examine some of the card choices that are popular with players at the moment.  I had a quick turnaround on this one, but there's a lot of data, and I hope you'll find it useful.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/18924_The_Long_Winding_Road_Vintage_Opens_Up_The_Philly_Open_V.html

[myw002]

Good Article.  Just curious as to why no coverage on the winning deck, TPS?  Despite the immense shop field, how did this storm based combo deck make it to #1?  Just wish you would cover on some of that in addition to the other material.

[Odd mutation]

Good Article.  Just curious as to why no coverage on the winning deck, TPS?  Despite the immense shop field, how did this storm based combo deck make it to #1?  Just wish you would cover on some of that in addition to the other material.

I'm also very interested to know...

Robrecht

[Ravager Sam]

That was a really solid article, as usual.

It was interesting to see that Serenity made it's reappearance (in 5 of the dredge decks) after its seemingly month-long hiatus from the dredge decks that played it in January.

[Nehptis]

On a positive note, solid attendance at a Vintage event is very important.  Regardless of the diversity of the metagame, good attendance shows sustained interest in the format; this is critical to its longevity.

However, I think we have a LONG way to go until we escape from this Dark Age of Vault / Drain domination.  A quote from the Article:

"Time Vault continues to be a part of the format, but is not really dominating the format like it had been; both Tezzeret and Oath decks have had to adapt to Noble Fish, Dredge, and Lodestone Golem."

The problem historically is that anti-meta decks like Fish are always playing catch-up.  What we are seeing today is a minor dip in Vault/Drain domination, because players have gotten both a little complacent and a little bored with Vault/Drain.  Meaning, they were riding the wave and were not innovating as the much as the other decks were.  So, Vault / Drain lost some ground.  Also, boredom set in.  So, some Vault/Drain players switched to other decks.

Unfortunately, for the format this complacency will subside, Vault/Drain strategies will soon be re-invigorated and in-turn, players will drift back to Vault/Drain due to renewed interest.  Fish and the other strategies will then have to play catch up all over again.

It's a difficult cycle to break.

And to end positive, congrats to the Top 8 and to the Tourney Host on a job well done!

[Killane]

Good Article.  Just curious as to why no coverage on the winning deck, TPS?  Despite the immense shop field, how did this storm based combo deck make it to #1?  Just wish you would cover on some of that in addition to the other material.

Yes I'd very much like to hear about this. It seems like a strange meta for TPS to overcome, although looking at the top 8 matchups, TPS beating Oath and Dredge isn;t as strange as it coudl have been. Did he dodge the shops througout the swiss, or did his anti-shop sideboard with Recalls and Repeals work out?

[Gekoratel]

One possible explanation for how he did well with TPS against Shops is that the matchup isn't that poor for TPS especially after boarding.  I will grant that the matchup got a bit tougher for TPS with the printing of Lodestone Golem but TPS can still Force one threat and win like it could in the past or simply build up its rock solid manabase.  Thanks for the article Matt, I always enjoy these in depth looks at the metagame.

[voltron00x]

I can't really speak to what Jesse had to play through in the Swiss.   He did suggest he was going to put a tournament report together, so that would help.

In the top 8, he beat Two Card Monte, which is probably a favorable match-up, and then beat Drain Tendrils, and Dredge (which is also relatively favorable).

I know Steve and Jeff (and others) have always felt TPS is equipped to beat Workshops; I also suspect some people may be overly reliant on Lodestone as a lock piece, and TPS can definitely play through that guy.  TPS runs enough basics to resist Wasteland and Magus of the Moon as well.

Anyway I'll take a look at Jesse's list and compare it to the other decks and some historical lists and see if theres anything that stands out.  I didn't see much at first glance, so I just kind of assumed he hit the right match-ups or played better than the other storm players.

[Doomsday]

I can't really speak to what Jesse had to play through in the Swiss.   He did suggest he was going to put a tournament report together, so that would help.

In the top 8, he beat Two Card Monte, which is probably a favorable match-up, and then beat Drain Tendrils, and Dredge (which is also relatively favorable).

I know Steve and Jeff (and others) have always felt TPS is equipped to beat Workshops; I also suspect some people may be overly reliant on Lodestone as a lock piece, and TPS can definitely play through that guy.  TPS runs enough basics to resist Wasteland and Magus of the Moon as well.

Anyway I'll take a look at Jesse's list and compare it to the other decks and some historical lists and see if theres anything that stands out.  I didn't see much at first glance, so I just kind of assumed he hit the right match-ups or played better than the other storm players.

Here's his deck from the other topic:

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

Sideboard:
3 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Repeal
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Infest


Looks completely standard to me except for the SDT in place of something (Fact or Fiction, 2nd Grim Tutor) MD, and the Repeals SB.  Maybe 7 anti-dredge cards is unusual but that's harder to say.

[Gekoratel]

Fact or Fiction is pretty marginal so I could see running SDT over it.  I don't understand his fetch base 3 Polluted Delta seems incorrect, no one Pithing Needles fetch lands or Extirpates them.  Where as not being able to get a Swamp when you really need one could lose you the game.  I'd say that 3 Hurks is pretty hateful but not much different from 2 Hurks 1 Chain which I've seen in other TPS boards.  Repeal seems kinda nice because its great against Fish and fine vs. Shops.

[Killane]

Fact or Fiction is pretty marginal so I could see running SDT over it.  I don't understand his fetch base 3 Polluted Delta seems incorrect, no one Pithing Needles fetch lands or Extirpates them.  Where as not being able to get a Swamp when you really need one could lose you the game.  I'd say that 3 Hurks is pretty hateful but not much different from 2 Hurks 1 Chain which I've seen in other TPS boards.  Repeal seems kinda nice because its great against Fish and fine vs. Shops.

yeah SDT is much better than Fact in TPS, the only reason to keep Fact in over it is for Pitch action to FoW. using a blue Tinekr Target instead of DSC solves that issue.

SDT also allows for a Gifts for Demoic/Grim/TopDeck Tutur X /Top to guarantee a Tutor powered Will instantly (assuming mana is available) and so enables much better gifts piles than TPS wihtout Top

plus it has nice synergies with the Sideboard Repeals.

[Doomsday]

I didn't mean to imply that Top is terrible, just pointing out that it's not standard.  Killane you run it just due to proxy reasons, right?

Anyway thanks for this article, it can't be fun sorting through lists and putting these numbers together, but it's appreciated.

[Killane]

I didn't mean to imply that Top is terrible, just pointing out that it's not standard.  Killane you run it just due to proxy reasons, right?

Anyway thanks for this article, it can't be fun sorting through lists and putting these numbers together, but it's appreciated.

Thsi was originally true, but I have since made other allowances to run GrimT in that slot, and dropped Fact for Top. I tested this just this past weekend and was very impressed.

[honestabe]

Jesse won because he's awesome.  End of story

[failtofind]

lol hey this is Jesse

                                      I haven't had time to write a report yet because of work, but i will try to get one in this week. I have been playing tps for a long time and have always had the same mana base, it is probably incorrect now, but i just know my deck so well inside and out now that i didnt want to change to anything that would throw me off even a little. Top is amazing because obv its good in topdeck mode ( in the top 8 against drain i just floated a tendrils on top of my deck, while he duressed me away with conf out and got down to ten..then i just popped top played artifacts and killed him)  but best when you pop jar or twist and aree tight on mana..it turns any one mana tutor into a demonic at that point, sooo much better than fof in any of those situations  repeal was also very good for me,  i tried to make my board flexible, and repeal is decent against fish, shops, oath, and even other storm decks as its a combo engine...i had a pretty even distribution of matches, i beat prospero to top 8 and he was playing shops...golem isnt amazing against me, i would rather have them play that than a sphere any day.
         

[TheBrassMan]

With six basics and 4 bounce spells I'd bet on Jesse vs Stax every time... unless Jesse was up late winning a Lotus the night before, in which case I would bet on basically anyone else.

[failtofind]

 lol brassman...

                         ugh i don't want to relive that tournament....2-0 then my mind melted down from playing combo for so long =[
           it was fun watching you smash kids who didn't know what mystic remora was, that and the spaghetti dinner made up for it lol

[Kiriyuu]

Hello!

Would it be possible to get the lists and the placings of the 2 'The deck's that were played that day?

Thanks