Vintage 18 july Breda , The Netherlands

Vintage 18 july 2010 Breda ,The Netherlands

I wanted to play something else than Oath , but I didn’t play any vintage for a few months so I just played a deck I know I’m comfortable with. Some minor updates in the Main and some tweaks in the Sideboard and we are good to go. I cut Timewister and Regrowth for Thirst for Knowledge and Hurkyl’s Recall. In the Sideboard I upped my dredge hate with Wastelands and a Pithing Needle and some Fish hate in double Massacre. I removed Show and Tells, Bribery,Emrakul and the extra Elephant for all this. I made no notes so all this is from memory.

4 Forbidden Orchard
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
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tinker
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Terastodon
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
3 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard
2 Wasteland
2 Massacre
1 Pithing Needle
2 Thoughtseize
4 Ravenous Trap
1 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Nature’s Claim

Round 1 vs TPS

My opponent plays a lot of dredge so I think he’s playing that. Turns out he keeps something completely different this time Smile

Game 1 : I keep a hand with a force an ancestral , a strip mine and some other mana sources.
I can keep my mana light opponent of enough mana to go off and ancestral finds me assorted goodies in Tinker and counters. I ride the Sphinx to victory and counter a dark ritual somewhere along the line.

SB: +2 Thoughtseize – 2?

Game 2 : He can go broken with Jace and Yawghmoth’s Will and Tendrils me for a lot.

Game 3 : He has a first turn Demonic Tutor off a Swamp and Mox Emerald. I hold my Force of Will but he doesn’t have a follow up this turn. Next turn I have Spell Pierce mana up and he can’t get his rituals through my counterwall. After some Ancestral Recall, Jace and Yawgmoth’s Will action I can assemble Vaultkey.

M 1-0 G2-1

Round 2 vs WGB Beats/disruption

Game 1: He get a first turn Library of Alexandria. He can get a couple of beats in with Goyf. The cardadvantage gets me enough counters to stop his 2 Vindicates on my Library and eventually I find Oath. He can kill the Sphinx with a StP but Iona naming White gets there after countering a Shriekmaw.

SB: +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Massacre - 1 Hurkyl’s Recall -2 Spell Pierce

Game 2: He starts off with a Goyf which gets Forced. I Tinker into Sphinx. I Spell Pierce his StP. EoT Gifts Ungiven for Time Vault, Key, Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor.
He gives me VaultKey. He has the Krosan Grip for the Vault but the Sphinx is enough of a threat on his own to seal this game.

M 2-0 G 4-1

Round 3 vs TrinketSalvagers

Game 1: I have a first turn Library of Alexandria and ride the card advantage to victory. He played an engineered explosives on 2 but I won with Tinker Sphinx.

SB : +2 Thoughtseize +1 Pithing Needle - 1 Island -1 Forest - 1 Mystical Tutor

Game 2 : He mulls to five and starts with mox jet , top. I Thoughtseize him and take away his Ancestral Recall. He now has a hand of Swords to Plowshares and Thirst for Knowledge. After some topping he finds a land for which I have Strip Mine. We draw go a lot. He can’t find mana and I draw a lot of mana sources including all my artifact mana. Eventually I find Tezzeret and ramp him to his ultimate. He draws and plays an explosives on 0. On my turn Tezzeret finds me the Vault. EoT he blows his explosives but Hurkyl’s Recall saves my Jewelry. His turn yields nothing and I take the game.

M 3-0 G 6-1

Round 4 vs MUD/STAX

Game 1 : I can resolve a Tinker through all his lock pieces for a Sphinx and I counter his Sculpting Steels. When he tries to buy some more turns with Tangle Wire I have a Force.

SB: + 3 Nature’s Claim +2 Wasteland – 1 LoA – 1 Tolarian Academy – 2 Jace -1 Gifts Ungiven

Game 2 : He opens with triple Leyline of Sanctity. He now has to play with a 4 card hand against my 7. He plays a Manacrypt , a Mox a Sphere and a Chalice for 0. We draw go a lot and I assemble some Orchards. When I try to drain he calls a judge claiming I can’t use my orchards because I can’t target him. The judge rules in my favor: I can draw the mana but he doesn’t get any tokens. Nature Claims the Chalice with the extra mana I find Tinker for Time Vault and I play my Key. I have to pass the turn because I’m one mana short. He draws and tries to Sculpting Steel my Time Vault. Another call to the judge confirms it indeed comes into play tapped. Not that it would have mattered because his next draw would have been a Trinisphere.

M 4-0 G 8-1

Round 5 vs GWSx

I offer the ID , but he wants to play so we are off to some quick games.

Game 1: He keeps a onelander and plays duress turn 1 and 2 , I spell pierce the first. The second nabs a Tinker. I topdeck a Scroll and the Ancestral finds me another Spell pierce countering a Dark Ritual buys me another turn to fire off a Yawgmoth’s Will which assembles VaultKey.

SB: +2 Thoughtseize – 1 Forest -1 Snow-covered Island

Game 2: He starts off with a Dark Confidant which buys him a lot of mana. He duresses my countermagic and fires off a Sadistic Sacrament which removes my 3 creatures. A tezzeret finds me a Vault before he gets offed by the Confidant. After some tutoring I can play Yawgmoth’s Will and replay Voltaic Key. Seeing the clock now only is ticking for me and I will eventually find Jace my opponent scoops.

M 5-0 G 10-1

Round 6 vs Dark Times

We ID , we play a couple to pass the time and I win them quick with first turn Oaths into 18 power of pachyderms.

Quarterfinals vs CombOath

Game 1: He starts with a first turn Library of Alexandria. I can chain some tutors into Ancestral Recall and Tinker which finds me a Sphinx. I strip his LoA. He Strips my Orchard and finds 2 Orchards of his own. The turn before the Sphinx would be lethal he can Oath into Tyrant which bounces the Sphinx.
I can’t find Jace or assemble Vaultkey during my turn and his next turn Oaths him into Emrakul which gives him infinite turns.

SB: - 3 Oath – 1 Island + 2 Thoughtseize + 2 Wasteland

Game 2: I keep a hand with an Orchard,Oath,Ancestral Recall,Force of Will, Mana Drain, Island and Iona. I lead off with an Island an Ancestral which finds me some Moxen. He has an Orchard. I play mine. He strips my orchard and adds another one for himself. I try to Force his Oath but he has Force backup. He Oaths into Tyrant and Emrakul and takes some extra turns,bounces my board and attacks for lethal.

M 5-1-1 G 10-3

As a lot of my games tend to go I win with Tezzeret, Jace or Tinker. In this tournament I Oathed once. Three times if you count the testgames against my round 6 opponent. The deck is extremely resilient and I always feel that people who bring in Oath-hate dilute their deck too much and their deck becomes much worse. It’s better if their hate is part of their main plan like in Fish (Qasali Pridemage, Trygon Predator) , but that matchup is very winnable via other routes and Massacre can blow them out.

Props:
The organization
My opponents

Slops:
My Winning Streak ending too soon Wink