I assume you are referring to the first game of round 2? I agree with you. What's odd is that I don't even think that option occurred to me. I was so locked into playing the control role, and keeping my Remora alive that it didn't even occur to me not to pay for Remora to play Tinker.
The Tinker question is a tough one. Getting Tinker countered can be extremely painful if you are mana light. At that point in the game, I should have had a better read of the situation. In Vintage, you can fairly often deduce what your opponent has or doesn't have. It's not foolproof, but we aren't in an era where opponent's can afford to let tactically important cards resolve. This isn't 1998 or 1994 where some spells are pretty innocuous in some matchups. Virtually every deck in the format interacts most of the time in ways that almost every other deck cares about.
It's not difficult to tell if your opponent can counter a particular threat if you pay attention during the game, and think about that question. The bigger problem here was that I wasn't even contemplating the possibility of letting Remora expire, and thus I didn't think to examine my chances of resolving Tinker.
(Incidentally, I lost a game to you at the Waterbury to a top-decked Hurkyl's after I resolved an early Tinker.)
Are you sure I topdecked the Hurkyl's and didn't have a tutor or Hurkyl's in hand?
