Note: I meant to post this a while ago but forgot to. You can attend the next Team Serious Open tomorrow: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=42553.0I had been looking forward to this event all summer, as the July 4th scheduling would allow me to attend, see all my friends, and visit with one of my favorite storeowners. When my car went down with a leaky gas tank earlier in the week and my wife suggested maybe waiting until Saturday to drive up, I refused and said we'd figure something out. (That reminds me, I still haven't heard from the mechanic; better call them). We left from Virginia after work as scheduled and arrived in Vermilion uneventfully at 2 a.m. I slept uncomfortably for a few hours, had breakfast with my dad, and headed to the store around 11.
The atmosphere around the store was electric. We were expecting a relatively large turnout of Serious gamers and others, and earlier that morning I received a communique from the Dark Lord himself, Stephen Q. Menendian saying that he would be in attendance. The Late JC, Josh Chapple, Coffee Cup, and I had been working on a Wizards! deck for some months in preparation for Gencon and were confident that this would be a good chance to break it out and get some rigorous, real-world testing done. We finalized our decklists in the back room before round one. This is what I sleeved (thanks muchly to Twaun P. Pownerton for typing these up):
Vintage Wizards
A Vintage deck, by Nat Moes aka Lochinvar81
1st place at a POP! Tournament in Sandusky Ohio 7.2.2011
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Dark Confidant
4 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Leonin Relic Warder
3 Cursecatcher
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Meddling Mage
2 Stormscape Apprentice
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Aether Vial
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
SB
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Stifle
1 Mindbreak Trap
4 Planar Void
1 Plains
3 Kataki, War’s Rage
2 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
Then I had to re-sleeve because the first ones melted off. I'll have more information on the decklist as I get time in the next few weeks.
Round 1 - Randamore the Red - Show and Tell ControlI was pretty worried to square off against the Red Wizard so soon since I suspected he might be playing Vintage Infect, which probably crushes Wizards! When he led with a Polluted Delta and got a blue land in game one, I felt much better. I had two Revokers to shut off a Time Vault and a Mana Crypt in game one but never saw a counter for the Gifts or Show and Tell that resulted in Randal having Emrakul in play on turn five. I scooped to the evil alien.
Randal mulliganed and had three Moxes, Ancestral, and Tolarian Academy on turn one that led to another Gifts, which I countered, I think. He was then out of gas. I wasted his Academy, took his Time Vault with a Relic-Warder, Revokered his only black source (Mox Jet), and beat him down.
Game three was similar. The Red-Bearded One scrolled for Ancestral but soon ran out of gas, despite having Sensei's Driving Top. He drew mana several turns in a row (including Moxes shut off by a Chalice of the Void) and lost to 2/x beats.
1-0 matches; 2-1 games
Round 2 - Jason Pare - Vintage ControlKnowing Jason as a blue mage, I was confident about my chances and looking forward to potentially starting 2-0. Unfortunately, he started both games with Library of Alexandria and buried me in card advantage. I never saw Wasteland when it was relevant, nor was I able to resolve Dark Confidant and match his draw engine. Though he was down to three life by the end of game two, Jason was able to win both games with Vault-Key.
1-1 matches; 2-3 games
Round 3 - Mark Trogdon - Mono-Red Shops"Who lies to Mark Trogdon?" was the question on everyone's lips at the beginning of this round. Several people - possibly aided by my reputation and wardrobe - thought that I was playing my beloved Charbelcher deck. Mark thought this as well and hoped above all else to win the die roll. He did and opened with a Thorn of Amethyst. I opened with a Wasteland, taking out his Mishra's Workshop. "I thought you were playing Belcher," he said. "I am! I made some changes," I replied. Then I took out his Ancient Tomb with another one, leaving him landless. Cursecatcher and Meddling Mage (naming Lodestone Golem) were unimpeded, and Trogdon scooped after digging several cards deep with Bazaar of Baghdad, seeing still no mana.
In game two, Mark opened with a Revoker off Sol Ring, naming Qasali Pridemage, which I do not run. I opened with my own Revoker, naming Sol Ring, and decided to send his creature farming, despite its blank effect. Bob Maher joined the fight on my side, and his card advantage (and another mana-light game from Mark) carried me through to victory.
We played two more games after these two for fun. My overall record against this build of Workshops was 3-1, I think.
2-1 matches; 4-3 games
Round 4 - Josh Chapple - Wizards!I think this is a 58-card mirror match. Neither of us was looking forward to it, and it's not like the mirror was something that either of us had tested. Card advantage was probably the name of the game, so Dark Confidant was a prime player, as were broken cards like Ancestral, Time Walk, and Black Lotus. The turn two Sower of Temptation (fueled by Lotus) that JC played in game three this match was critical as both a 2/2 flyer and having stolen my dude, any dude.
Honestly, though, my notes aren't detailed enough to reconstruct these long, back-and-forth games. In every case it came down to who could get the most or the largest dudes on the table for the longest time. JC's Jotun Grunts were very good, as were my Bushido-disciplined Samurai of the Pale Curtain. JC also did a few damage with his fliers, Angelic Curator and Sower of Temptation.
I won game two, but could not win game three.
2-2 matches; 5-5 games
Round 5 - Matt Hazard - Workshop AggroI had seen earlier that Matt was playing Workshops with Porcelain Legionnaires, which are absurdly good against a deck filled with 2/2's. I had nothing between my maindeck or sideboard that could tangle with those and win. I'd have to remove them or preempt them with Meddling Mage, which is largely what I'd be trying to do to all of his other large creatures.
On the play in game one, I opened with Lotus, land, Bob, Bob, hoping that I'd be able to draw a bunch of cards and just overwhelm him. Unfortunately, I saw no lands and one Force of Will with Bob instead, losing several life to Confidants over the course of the game. Forced to deal with two Legionnaires, I succumbed quickly, though I (and his own manabase) got my opponent down to two life at the end. Had I drawn differently, I would have won this game.
Games two and three, I was able to use my opponent's manabase to my advantage as he was flooded in one game and I exacerbated his lack of mana in the other with Chalice, Wastelands, and Revokers.
My notes aren't especially complete here, but I know that in game three, I was able to negotiate with two Legionnaires by allowing the first one, countering the second, Wasting his mana, then using Relic-Warder to get rid of the original. I stabilized from there and won the game as Matt had three Ancient Tombs in play.
3-2 matches; 7-6 games
I squeaked into the T8 along with three of my previous opponents.
T8 - Josh Chapple - Wizards!This match played out very similarly to our match in the Swiss rounds except that I won.
In game one, we had several back-and-forth moves, beginning with my having to counter his turn one Chalice for zero so that my Black Lotus opener wouldn't be stopped. He countered my Ancestral Recall later and resolved Time Walk. Again, a close one all the way through, but he took it.
I capitalized on his lack of land by shutting off Aether Vial and destroying lands in game two, our least balanced game yet.
Dark Confidant lived to give me several cards in game three, and Josh was pressured to counter several creatures with Force of Will, setting him even farther back. Eventually I resolved Time Walk for more cards and damage, taking it home from that.
4-2 matches; 9-7 games
T4 - Paul Kim - Vintage ControlThis match was a lot of fun because Paul Kim had no idea what my deck was doing. I'm pretty sure I was running around inside his brain shouting and kicking over file cabinets throughout our games. I opened with Cursecatcher in game one and hit his Sol Ring with Relic-Warder. He resolved Ancestral Recall, but I was able to cut off his win conditions and win with creatures after a few more turns. Looks like I was attacking for five at the end.
Game two had one epic moment where I Stifled one of Paul's fetchlands and effectively Time Walked on a turn he was going to play Tinker. His brain visibly popped. He was able to resolve Tinker a turn later thanks to also having Demonic Tutor in hand, but he seemed very shaken. Despite this, Blightsteel got me.
Paul saw Voidmage Prodigy on turn one in game three, but had a REB for it. Dark Confidant joined the fight on my side next turn, however, and the cards he supplied me with kept me in the game, as I eventually won.
5-2 matches; 11-8 games
Finals - Juan Diego de la Vega Rodriguez - Tidespout OathJuan should thank Stephen Q. Menendian for convincing him to play it out. Personally, I wasn't worried. I have four Relic-Warders and three Meddling Mages maindeck which do a pretty good job of keeping Oath under control. People seem to think that Fish is a dog to Oath, but I don't think it's true. Every Fish deck has so many different ways to remove or negate enchantments. Maybe it's not the best matchup (and my deck would be better if it had Qasali Pridemages), but it's not terrible.
I kept a hand with very little mana in game one, and Juan was able to capitalize by taking my Daze and forcing me to draw another land or Force of Will to answer his turn two Oath. I didn't and lost to Tidespout beats in short order.
I got lucky in game two. I could have stopped a Gush chain by taking out his first land with Strip Mine but neglected to, stupidly. Thankfully he Gushed into no more lands and could not play Moxes through my Chalice. Juan drew an obscene amount of cards but was forced to pass the turn, having Fastbonded himself down to 10. I was able to get back into the game from there as he was forced to play Oath into two Relic Warders and then deal with a Meddling Mage on Yawgmoth's Will. Juan waited too long to remove the Mage with REB and lost to creatures.
In game three, Wizards! did its thing pretty well as Juan mulliganed to six and had to counter a Chalice at one after I had Aether Vial. Though I was drawing mostly mana, Bob was keeping me in the game and Jace couldn't handle a resolved Relic-Warder (since if he bounced it, I would Vial it in again and take whatever I wanted). As the coup de grace, I topdecked a Voidmage Prodigy that would allow me (with Cursecatcher) to uncounterably counter two spells, thanks to Aether Vial. When Juan tried to resolve a last-ditch Tidespout, I was able to stop it and win the game.
6-2 matches; 13-9 games
So that was it. Nobody wanted to split, so I went home with $220 in my pocket. Actually, I had pecan pie and liver and onions at Dianna's, so I guess I went home with $209 and some change in my pocket.
As for the deck, I definitely believe in it. There were some times where I could have played better (Stripping Juan's land would have been one for sure), but things went extremely well. I don't know that I would make any changes at this point. As I said, I write up a more detailed primer (hopefully with the help of Sr. Chapple) probably next week.
Thank you. I hope you had as much fun reading my report as I had writing it!
