N.Y. NEV VI Official Report

[Prospero]

Let me offer my sincere thanks to everyone who made it out to Brothers Grim on Saturday for another N.Y. N.E.V. event.  While it wasn’t the turnout that I had hoped for we had 30 players competing, and at the end of the day, Rob Edwards was victorious with Martello Shops!


The Complete Metagame Breakdown:


Drains:

Lanigra U/B/R: 1
Griselbrand Control Oath: 1
Bob Tezz: 1
Turbo Tezz: 1
Suicide Jace Vault: 1
U/B/W Bomberman: 2
U/G/R Landstill: 1
BBS 2012: 1
U/W  Bomberman: 1

Workshops:

5C Stax: 1
Espresso Stax: 7
Martello Shops: 3
Mono Red Shops: 2
Metalworker Forgemaster: 1

Null Rods:

Noble Fish: 1
Merfolk: 2
5C Fish: 1

Bazaars:

Dredge: 1
BoM Dredge: 1


The field was very heavy on Shops, which surprised absolutely no one.  It is interesting, though, that of the seven Espresso pilots, only one broke through to top eight. 


Top Eight Pairings and Results:


Peter Ingram vs. Justin Kohler – Ingram wins
Joe Brown vs. James Kohler – Brown wins
Rob Edwards vs. Brian Ritter – Edwards wins
Mike Eckert vs. Matt Bliffert – Eckert wins


Top Four Pairings and Results:


Peter Ingram vs. Joe Brown – Ingram wins
Rob Edwards vs. Mike Eckert – Edwards wins


Finals:


We had a split in the finals with Rob Edwards getting the win!

Congratulations to Rob Edwards, Peter Ingram, and all of my top eight competitors!


Top Eight Decklists:


1st – Rob Edwards
Martello Shops

4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Duplicant

SB:

4 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Wurmcoil Engine

2nd – Peter Ingram
Espresso Stax

1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Smokestack
3 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Rishadan Port
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland

SB:

2 Pithing Needle
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Serrated Arrows
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Duplicant

3rd – Mike Eckert
Dredge

4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 City of Brass
3 Petrified Field
1 Dakmor Salvage
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Ichorid
4 Golgari Thug
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Darkblast
4 Serum Powder
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Bridge from Below
4 Bloodghast

SB:

4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Unmask
3 Wispmare

4th – Joe Brown
5C Stax

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Trinisphere
1 Sundering Titan
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Crop Rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Balance
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
4 Goblin Welder
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
4 City of Brass

SB:

3 Sylvok Replica
2 Triskelion
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Ancient Grudge
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pithing Needle

5th – Matt Bliffert
Island Walk This Way

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Aether Vial
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Ancestral Recal
3 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Time Walk
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
6 Island

SB:

2 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Island
2 Gilded Drake
1 Phantasmal Image
4 Steel Sabotage
2 Dismember

6th – Justin Kohler
Red Deck Wins

2 Auriok Salvagers
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Trinket Mage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Flusterstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Snare
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Time Walk
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Black Lotus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Plains
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island

SB:

2 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pithing Needle
2 Steel Sabotage
3 Disenchant

7th – Brian Ritter
WUBWUB Bombstep (Egan Bomberman)

1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Island
3 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
4 Dark Confidant
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Flusterstorm
2 Mental Misstep
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Mana Drain
2 Trinket Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Auriok Salvagers
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Tinker

SB:

1 Flusterstorm
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Energy Flux
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Plains
1 Devout Witness
1 Disenchant
1 Pithing Needle
1 Swords to Plowshares

8th – James Kohler
Mono- Red Shops

4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mountain
4 Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Goblin Welder
2 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Smokestack
3 Tangle Wire
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Triskelion
3 Magus of the Moon
1 Trinisphere

SB:

3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Duplicant
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Sundering Titan
2 Shattering Spree
2 Viashino Heretic
1 Pithing Needle


9th Place Prize:


The ninth place prize was won by Will Dayton.  I had forgotten about it, so it’s going to be a terribly card of my choice, to be handed out to Will at a later date.  Congrats!


Conclusion:


Thank you to Gil, Frank, Steve, Dave and all the Brothers Grim staff – without you guys, none of this happens.  Thank you to dealer extraordinaire Nick Coss for providing some sweet prize support, but thank you, most of all, to you, the players.  It was great to see you all out there and I look forward to seeing you all in October!

[mr.grim]

Mad props to Mr. Edwards . 

[Zieby]

I hope the trend isn't going to be 50% of shops in a tournament, that is not healty or even fun.

But, gratz to the ones who made top 8.


Edit some grammer,

[Prospero]

I hope this trend is going to stay 50% of shops in a field is not healty.

But, gratz to the ones who made top 8.

You're right, it isn't healthy. 

People need to step up their game.  Shops are eminently beatable.  It's time to start doing some of the things that beat Shops.

[chrispikula]

14/30 decks i the field were Shops, so it should not be a surprise that half the top 8 was Shops. Half the tourney was Shops!

[Maraxis1985]

The event was awesome as usual! ! ! Also has no one posted a picture of the cake or the T-Rex getting the recall?  BTW there is 1 too many Golgari Thugs in my Dredge list.

[Prospero]

The event was awesome as usual! ! ! Also has no one posted a picture of the cake or the T-Rex getting the recall?  BTW there is 1 too many Golgari Thugs in my Dredge list.

Mike, the list that I have from you has three.  What's in the list in lieu of it?

I don't actually have pictures of the cake, which was the most awesome cake I've ever seen.  I'm glad that I commissioned it/bought it, and I have to thank Jackie Gran for doing an absolutely unbelievable job.

Also, somewhere out there is video of one James Q. Hangley decapitating the gent from Ancestral Recall.  Literally.

[Maraxis1985]

The event was awesome as usual! ! ! Also has no one posted a picture of the cake or the T-Rex getting the recall?  BTW there is 1 too many Golgari Thugs in my Dredge list.

Mike, the list that I have from you has three.  What's in the list in lieu of it?

It was just 3 Thugs.  the list right now is 61 Cards and i was running 60.

[quicksilvervii]

For those who missed it:

[Prospero]

There was a little damage done in the transportation.  Imagine it without cracks, and with everything properly attached.

Still, it looked incredible and was well worth it, even if it wasn't cheap.

[rpf5029]

Mad props to Mr. Edwards . 

[Slayn001]

I hope this trend is going to stay 50% of shops in a field is not healty.

But, gratz to the ones who made top 8.

You're right, it isn't healthy. 

People need to step up their game.  Shops are eminently beatable.  It's time to start doing some of the things that beat Shops.

Yes because clearly being forced to play a mana denial strategy in order to be competitive is normal. The problem certainly isn't that lodestone golem in MUD is format warping.

[Prospero]

I hope this trend is going to stay 50% of shops in a field is not healty.

But, gratz to the ones who made top 8.

You're right, it isn't healthy.  

People need to step up their game.  Shops are eminently beatable.  It's time to start doing some of the things that beat Shops.

Yes because clearly being forced to play a mana denial strategy in order to be competitive is normal. The problem certainly isn't that lodestone golem in MUD is format warping.

Joe, you have too much sodium in your diet.

Is Lodestone Golem the problem?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  Blue decks want to run cards like Misstep and Flusterstorm, which have no value against Shops.  Very few decks in the field touch a Shop decks mana base.  As long as a Shop players mana base is left unmolested, they're going to beat you more often than not.  They have a Black Lotus every turn off their four Mishra's Workshops, the blue pilots don't.  Disrupt a Shop players mana base and you're going to leave them with a lot of clunk and spells that don't aid them in winning the game.  I've seen Shop pilots end up locked under their own Spheres and I've been locked under my own Spheres.  It's a miserable feeling.

One of the most successful decks in the last year has been Landstill.  If you asked me why I would tell you that the Landstill pilot did what none of the other blue players were doing; they disrupted the mana base of the Shop deck.  You can max out on all the hate cards that you want, but many of the Shop decks (especially Espresso Stax) operate on fundamentals; they don't care that you have hate spells, they fight your ability to cast anything.  As long as you allow them to operate like that, they're going to beat you.

Also, while I think 5CStax has been dead since June of 2009, you did manage a top four appearance with the deck.  You ran zero Lodestones.  Congratulations on that, Joe.  

I don't think it would hurt to see blue given back some of its weapons.  I don't think that it's time for something like Brainstorm or Gifts Ungiven to be unrestricted, but maybe we can have a conversation (in a different forum, under a separate topic) as to why Thirst for Knowledge is still restricted.  Blue needs that card back.  That card would potentially put a new Slaver-style Vault/Key deck in the field.

[Slayn001]

Don't forget winning a for the vaults at gencon

I think you are misattributing landstill's success to its mana denial strategy. While I agree that is certainly part of it, its real strength comes from its consistency and hyper linear strategy. It's one of the reason fish decks are not as successful, mana denial just isn't enough. I haven't been playing vintage for a long time, but since I have been It has been a steady progression towards more and more linear decks. Shops, oath, landstill, dredge. All decks that at their fundamental level choose not to actually play magic. Shops dropping a 4 turn clock tha prevents you from casting spells. Oath dropping a 2 mana I win card. Dredge.... Well lets just say its dredge. Landstill casting 5 ancestrals while having undercosted counter spells. These are strategies that do not encourage interaction, and are a large part of why the format is in the terrible state it is in.

While it would be nice to see blue decks get some spells back, simply saying that is the answer is naiv. What good is a three casting cost instant if you can't actually cast it, though I agree that's a discussion better left for another thread.

[mr.grim]

Heh, salt.

[disrupting specter]

Thanks for posting the top 8. I just remembered the days where if players in 1-8 place didn't post their own report, you didn't know what went on. You were also pretty quick on the post too. Thanks for the timely report. I don't always say it but I'm always glad its there.

[Grantselrich]

I hope this trend is going to stay 50% of shops in a field is not healty.

But, gratz to the ones who made top 8.

You're right, it isn't healthy. 

People need to step up their game.  Shops are eminently beatable.  It's time to start doing some of the things that beat Shops.

4 Serenity mainboard!

[Ten-Ten]

2/3 Bomberman lists hit top8! 
Congrats guys!

Also, "Island walk this way" is best deckname this year...so far 

[Samoht]

2/3 Bomberman lists hit top8! 
Congrats guys!

Also, "Island walk this way" is best deckname this year...so far 

Slaughter Smurf's wins that debate, but Brian DeMars gets credit for both

[Onslaught]

That cake is amazing. Would it be rude to ask the cost?

[JACO]

That cake is amazing. Would it be rude to ask the cost?

And the origin? That is the coolest Magic related cake I've ever seen (because it's such a huge pool to choose from!).

[Prospero]

That cake is amazing. Would it be rude to ask the cost?

And the origin? That is the coolest Magic related cake I've ever seen (because it's such a huge pool to choose from!).

It was custom made by a friend of mine.  She went above and beyond what I expected.  This cake would typically retail in the $400-$500 range.  I paid less than that, though I am not comfortable saying how much I paid.

We had two birthdays to celebrate (Mike Egan's and Nick Coss's).  It was worth it.

[Prospero]

That cake is amazing. Would it be rude to ask the cost?

And the origin? That is the coolest Magic related cake I've ever seen (because it's such a huge pool to choose from!).

It was custom made by a friend of mine.  She went above and beyond what I expected.  This cake would typically retail in the $400-$500 range.  I paid less than that, though I am not comfortable saying how much I paid.

We had two birthdays to celebrate (Mike Egan's and Nick Coss's).  It was worth it.

Also, this cake wasn't purchased solely by me, as ForcetheWill split the cost on it with me, making this possible.

[arj]

That cake looks awesome!

[Thecheese]

When's the October date?

[Prospero]

When's the October date?

It isn't set yet, but it looks as though it's going to be October 20th.  Should be up, and confirmed, by the end of this weekend.

[Thecheese]

When's the October date?

It isn't set yet, but it looks as though it's going to be October 20th.  Should be up, and confirmed, by the end of this weekend.

That's the date coss was looking at....just an FYI. I can't wait to play more vintage!

[Samoht]

well the 13th and 27th are both shot, as states and the GP are those two days.