Player report - top8 at Pandemonium 2/20

[Daenyth]

For my second Vintage event, I made 6th place. Not bad at all!

After testing my 5-color Keeper list for a bit, I still don't quite feel comfortable with it in a tourney setting, and decided to switch to this UB control list

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Engineered Explosives

1 Myr Battlesphere
4 Dark Confidant

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Annul
1 Spell Pierce
2 Thoughtseize

2 Jace TMS
1 Tezzeret Agent of Bolas

1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Tolarian Academy
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard

1 Thoughtseize
1 Spell Pierce
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Darkblast
2 Doom Blade
2 Engineered Plague
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Nihil Spellbomb

I have no clue how to sideboard this, so I mostly just wing it.

Round 1
Jack Skirianos with TPS

Game 1 - We go back and forth for a bit, but he punches through Yawgmoth's will and storms me out.

Game 2 - Sideboard out: EE, Hurkyl's, 2x Annul. In: Mindbreak Trap, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, Steel Sabotage (In case he goes for BSC -- better utility than hurks). Jack mulls to 6 and doesn't look happy about the result. I knock my own life total down a bit, at one point forcing his duress (I don't remember what I was protecting). I land a bob, beat down for a little bit, then assemble Vault/Key, which he scoops to.

Game 3 - Same board as g2. He seizes me, taking Gifts, which I think was about my only action in that hand. I land an early key and eventually grab Vault. He bounces it once, but I land it again and this time I force his bounce, denying him his last chance at another turn.

1-0


Round 2
Jon Shunamon with Aggro MUD

Game 1 - My opener is one of the most broken I've ever done. I land turn one Jace with Bob, then flip Vault  on my next turn. He makes 12 mana with his turn 1 worker and dumps threat after threat, but I have the Hurkyl's from my opening hand. My next bob flip is tinker.

Game 2 - Out: 1x Bob, Gifts, 2x Thoughtseize. In: Sabotage, 2x Doom Blade. (Those numbers don't add up -- notes must be wrong). He drops a metalworker and vomits all over the board, knocking me out with multiple golems.

Game 3 - Out: Ponder, In: Pierce (in addition to g2 board). My notes are incomplete here, and I go to 4 life, but I don't have written what happened after, but I'm pretty sure I managed to get in an undeserved win.

2-0

Round 3
Craig Masley with Bob Tendrils

Craig and I chat a bit and talk about last month's event. We're both floored and pleased with the huge turnout. I know he's on storm of some kind.

Game 1 - I get Time Vault and dig like crazy with SDT. He lands bargain and I don't have any counters, even after using SDT. He lands a Bargain with 0 mana, goes to 5 life and storms me out. Key is the top card of my deck.

Game 2 - Out: SDT, 2x Annul, 1x Bob. In: My notes are blank here, but I think it was Sabotage, Pierce, Mindbreak Trap, and Seize. At this point I haven't seen any Bobs, so I leave Darkblast out, thinking he's on TPS. Tezzeret , Agent of Bolas is an MVP in this game. I start the beatdown and he replies by tinkering out Sundering Titan for a 1-sided Armageddon. I blindly swing in with my 5/5 Mox, which gets blocked and dies. Second main phase, I use Tezz to turn his Titan into a 5/5, killing it and making him lose a land in the process. He lands a Bob and unfortunately flips Force of Will. Tezz seals the deal from there with another 5/5.

Game 3 - Same board as game 2 -- I forget about Bob and leave blast out. It doesn't matter much. He lands turn 1 Necropotence with a ritual, and I don't have the Force. I put up a token resistance but he easily ends me.

2-1

Round 4
Andy Probasco with (UB/r gush storm?)

Game 1 - I assemble Vault/key after some Bob beatdown. He lets me have it with Bob and Crypt both in play.

Game 2 - Out: Island, 2x Annul (???) In: Pierce, Steel Sabotage, Mindbreak Trap (I've been liking this on the draw against control decks) -- He lands turn 1 Jace, which I try to Force, but he has the Force to match. I end up getting some counterspells to go with my Bob, and beat down on his Jace a bit. I seize him and he comments on his misplay (not playing around it). I see Tendrils, U.Sea, Vendillion Clique. I take the Clique, then in another turn or two land an unexpected tezz to send a 5/5 at his Jace, knocking it out. I seize him again and see Key, Pearl, Tendrils, Fastbond. I take the fastbond and shortly after, beat him in with my 5/5s

3-1

Round 5
Stefan with Gush

We discuss the standings and ID into the top8

3-1-1

The top8 all decide to split prizes evenly.

All in all, a fantastic event. Rochester drafting from a standard cube after was fantastic, and lots of props to my friends who trekked in to duke it out, as well as all the TMD-ers who showed up.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next one!

[ShamanBen]

Well done.

I found that against storm combo I boarded out the 2 annul and the explosives for the thoughtseize, spell pierce and mindbreak trap, and if they had confidants took out the hurkyls and ponder for 2 darkblasts. I dont know anymore than you if its the best assembly, but it worked.

Against oath I took out the confidants for plagues and doom blades, and the ponder for spell pierce. Seemed solid enough.

Shops the plan was to take out the spell pierce, one jace, ponder (I hated ponder and boarded it out alot) and a thoughtseize for the 2 doom blade and 2 steel sabotage.

Against Gush the plan was spell pierce and thoughtseize over annul and leave as is.


I felt most of the time like I would have liked one more artifact, maybe a pithing needle, in the main.

Glad the list treated you well, excited you played it, and happy to congratulate you.

[Explosive Engineer]

Great (unexpected) turnout for this event.  Hope to see more events at Pandemonium in the near future!  Cheers

[Nefarias]

Good to see the awesome turnout. I'll have to try to make it out for one of these.

It makes a bit more sense if you're replacing it with cards like Thoughtseize and Spell Pierce, but I think Annul is actually pretty strong against combo. It stops Necro, Bargain, Memory Jar, and Lotus, four of their most important cards (the other three imho being YawgWill, Tinker -> Jar, and Mind's Desire, which is often fueled by Lotus and can be stopped if you anticipate correctly). If they have Gush it hits Fastbond too. If they have Bobs it becomes a bit trickier, since they are less likely to have Bargain and you probably want to have some way to attack their Bobs (Darkblast). I don't think the ability to bounce a Tinker dude outweighs the ability to counter Necro or Bargain on Steel Sabotage. They are likely to be Tinkering for Jar anyway, and might even board out the robot against you. Also, YawgWill is so important for them that I would definitely try getting those Spellbombs in there for games two and three.

With that list, I would probably try something like this against TPS:
-1 EE
-1 Hurkyl's
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Myr Battlesphere
-1 Swamp

+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Mindbreak Trap
+2 Nihil Spellbomb

LMK what you think, and congrats on the finish!