Most of this was a message going to a buddy who will be attending Gencon this year, and halfway through I realized I might as well post the whole thing on
here.
Finding out about this tournament just a couple of days prior, I was pretty convinced I wasn't going to even be playing in it. I hadn't played Type 1 in over a year, and not seriously for closer to a year and a half. I had spoken with my friend Stan Chen some months ago about his success with Oath. I was a bit disappointed by this as I've always hated Oath, being that it's the bane of Stax's existence, and Workshops are where I call "home." I had heard from more than one person that Oath was "the best" deck in format right now, and while I love playing Shops more than anything, I didn't feel comfortable just losing games to the die roll. I consulted John Harduvel about the matter and he had enough cards to fill in the gaps I was missing, getting me under the 15 proxy limit.
I did some research for this, to see what the big names were going with. I checked the Introduction to Oath thread here
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=40610.0 and ultimately, I chose to go with Ben Carp's list, as it looked the most solid. I consider him
the authority on Oath as he's played that deck religiously for the past eleventy years, and figured he knew what was best. I changed Darksteel Colossus to Inkwell Leviathan since I knew there would be some Jace, The Mind Sculptors running around all over the place, as well as some home brews packing efficient removal.
We got 11 people, and the tournament was under way.
Round 1: Greg Hatch with a Key/Vault control deck w/ Bob
Having played a lot of Standard and 1v1 EDH lately, I had almost forgotten how good Vintage cards are. Ancestral, Force of Will, and their new friend Spell Pierce (a card I hadn't had the chance to try out yet) helped me draw me lots of cards and stick Oath of Druids. While Bob got in there several times to my face, he wasn't much of a match for a huge rampaging elephant. Game 2 was even quicker, and I was impressed with what Spell Pierce had shown me so far.
Round 2: Josh Stewart, 5C Stax
Josh wins the die roll, and I end up mulling to 5 in hopes of finding a Force. His first turn play involves Gemstone Mine into Crop Rotation, which I highly consider Forcing, but I know Josh is a clever player and could be holding something back for me. He gets Bazaar, plays some moxen and a Welder. And passes... doh. Not very impressive at all. I play a basic land (iirc), pass, and he uses Bazaar again on his turn dumping Tangle Wire in the grave. I go to my turn, play Orchard and stupidly Time Walk instead of my Oath, hoping to draw into anything else. He Welds in Tangle Wire and buys himself several turns. By this time he's gotten Duplicant into his grave and I just scoop to go to the next game.
Yup, shaking off the rust hurts sometimes.
Game 2 I board out Key/Vault stuff and bring in Nature's Claims. My notes show him going to 24 life, and then down to 15. I'm pretty sure I Claimed a Jester's Cap and then Oath'd up a big ass elephant with friends that game. I decided to just go the aggressive route and blow up my entire board, and rush him. Apparently that's a solid plan, and We were off to game 3.
This game was pretty epic, actually. I had Iona in my opener, but the rest was solid from what I can remember. I ended up drawing into Inkwell, which elected me Mayor of Frowntown. He plays an early Jester's Cap, which I counter, but then follows it up by another one next turn. I can't stop it, and he caps me taking 2 Terastodon and 1 Show and Tell. He's spent, with no real board presence nor cards in hand. We draw go for awhile, and I have an Oath on the table, but no one has any creatures. I build my manabase up pretty high, and finally Brainstorm into an Orchard, putting back Iona. Iona comes into play on my next upkeep, naming White to stop Balance, and I just hardcast the Inkwell. The game was over shortly after.
Round 3: Robert the Swordsman, playing UG aggro.
Game 1 is counter-tastic, but I eventually get Inkwell in play and he scoops as he has no answer for it.
Game 2 involves me putting a big ass elephant into play, blowing my Oath and some lands. He has Seal of Removal for Terastodon, but I'm confident the tokens can get there, as he's Hellbent. Until, of course, he topdecks Echoing Truth like a champ. I'm never in the game again, as Dryads and Goyfs smash my face in.
Game 3 we both mull. My hand is decent, but I'd prefer more mana sources. I believe this is the game where I get Stripped, Wasted, and Wasted for the first 3 turns. I finally get another land and Orchard out. My hand is Oath, Force, 2 Pierce. I just need to draw another land so I can play Oath with double counter back up. I don't draw the other land I need to cast Pierce, but try going for it. The counter war ensues, and he's got the 2 counters. Dryad beats my face in and I die.
At this point I'm 2-1, and we're going into the last round. Due to funky pairings drama, I end up getting paired down against Harduvel who scoops to me. We play for fun, and he gets it 2-1 due to some misplays on my part that involve a creature in my hand and Oathing into oblivion. Keeping those lessons learned in mind, I patiently await the results for top 4.
At 3-1, I make it into top 4 along with Sperling with Tezz, Matteo with MUD, and Rob.
Top 4: Robert the Swordsman
This time I avenge my loss in the swiss with balls to the wall Tinkerness involving a certain Leviathan both games, getting this round 2-1. Sadly, these games weren't very exciting. It was strictly business on both sides and the games were determined quite shortly.
Finals: Matt Sperling with Tezz
Game 1 is very short, as I Tinker for Leviathan turn 1 with double counter backup. Nice game.
Game 2 comes down to Key/Vault... on Matt's side. Yup, Vintage is awesome.
Game 3 ends up being an incredibly close game. I board out Oath's and board in Jace & Tezz #2, Show and Tell, and a Nature's Claim. I'm mostly in the lead this game until it comes down to the crucial decision that will determine the game. I have a hand of Yawgmoth's Will, Nature's Claim, Tinker, Force, and blue card (I think it's Pierce). I gun for the Tinker sacrificing Mana Crypt, which he tries to counter and I protect. I have two choices at this point: play it safe and get Inkwell Leviathan (Crypt has been hitting him this game, and it seems feasible that I can take him out in 1.5 swings) or try and go for the Key/Vault combo by getting Lotus, breaking it into Yawgmoth's Will >> Crypt + Lotus + Fetch >> Tinker for Vault, Vamp for Key, Ancestral into Key, play Key, pass. I tank pretty hard, and weigh each choice. He knows what my hand is from an early game Thoughtseize, and he could be baiting me into overcommitting to the Yawg Will plan, blowing me out pretty badly. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson from Round 2 and assume he's got more than he really does, and I go with the conservative Inkwell play. Next turn he drops his entire hand of 6 cards into multiple jewelry, Academy, Mystical for Hurkyl's Recall, and Ancestral into the Hurkyl's Recall.
Well, shit.
The game goes back and forth for a bit longer, but he's got Top keeping strong disruption on the top of his library. I try putting a Jace out there, but to no avail. Eventually he gets out Tezzeret, and starts searching up artifacts (he knows I still have the Nature's Claim in hand, making the Vault/Key plan potentially moot? Though I'm sure he had enough disruption on top to protect it). He plays things much more conservatively than I had, and doesn't kill me when he has the opportunity to for 2 more turns. Unfortunately, I can't capitalize on this as I draw blanks and next thing I know all his artifacts become /5s and smash me to death.
I take 2nd place with a good deal of store credit, and a reminder that fortune favours the brave, not the cautious.
--
Looking forward, I would change a few things about the deck.
1.) I feel Library was weak, except in the control matchup. And even then, you have to be aggressive vs Control since you're going to end up topdecking creatures here and there, where they are not. That kind of edge on you makes the game worse for you as time goes on. I think I actually activated Library two times during the whole tournament, and that was in one game. I would much rather have had Strip Mine ever other time I drew it.
Strip Mine is also great for the mirror, as it always comes down to Orchard supremacy. It's great vs combo since their manabase is light as it is, and you have Spell Pierce for their accel. Lastly, Strip Mine is great vs Ichorid, which is a problem matchup. I didn't play the one Ichorid deck all day, which was probably lucky since this board is light on the Ichorid hate.
2.) Manabase. I was pretty happy with the basic forest, but I missed the presence of REB quite a bit. My game 3 loss in the finals to Sperling might have been prevented had I drawn a REB at any point. While I'm sure he had some business on top of his library waiting to be Topped into his hand, I was just completely cold to the Planeswalker otherwise. An instant speed vindicate for Tezz (Or Jace) would be incredibly helpful, as I had absolutely no outs to them other than Terastodon.
I was also pretty underwhelmed by Tolarian Academy. It was a useless 0 producing land twice during the tournament. While that could have just been bad luck, I did actually have to mull quite a bit during the day. When you mull to 6 and have an Academy with no artifacts, it's really like a mull to 5. Awful. A Volcanic Island would be much better suited in this slot, I feel.
Basic Forest was awesome, and it never conflicted with Mana Drain on turn 2 once.
3.) Regrowth was underwhelming as well. I get that this is also a combo deck and all with Key/Vault, and it allows for broken Gifts plays, but I think this could be turned into a Jace #2, See Beyond, or Show and Tell. I think Iona has a serious crush on me, because she was in my opening hand 5 games out of 10 while testing with Harduvel later that night. Another way to compensate for creatures in my hand needs to exist. I'm inclined to try out See Beyond, as it seems like it should fit into this deck quite well, at least on paper. It's also the cheapest answer of the 3, making it a better option against Shops.
4.) Inkwell was good for what it is. Knowing I can count on it sticking around regardless of the removal they have is exceptionally nice. However, the flying/lifelink/first strike of Sphinx of the Steel Wind is also very appealing. I would like the opportunity to test vs decks with Swords/Duplicant/etc more often so that I can determine which of the two is the best choice. Colossus is not an option for me whatsoever.
My changes will probably go something like this:
-1 Library
-1 Academy
-1 Regrowth
+1 Strip Mine
+1 Volcanic Island
+1 See Beyond
My SB for the event was as so:
1 Show and Tell
1 Mindbreak Trap
3 Nature's Claim
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret, the Seeker
1 Terastodon
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Massacre
1 Relic of Progenitus
With the changes to the main deck, I will be fitting in 2 REB effects into the board, and potentially a Firespout. I will also be fitting in a Show and Tell, and trying to find a way to make my Ichorid matchup more solid. Any suggestions for this would be much appreciated.
All in all, it was great to play Vintage in SoCal again. I liked the deck a ton more than I thought I would, probably due to it feeling more like a true control deck with Mana Drains. Hopefully we can turn this into a regularly run event with enough support. Thanks again to Shuffle and Cut Games and Sperling for making this happen!
