What is Your Most Memorable Vintage Match?

[msg67183]

There is a match that you will always remember, whether you won from out of nowhere, got destroyed by your opponent, or had a very fair and grindy match, you will always remember it. I'm asking you, the reader, to give us a description of your memorable match.

Here is mine:

The year was 2010, it was November.
I just traded away my entire Standard / Extended collection for Legacy / Vintage cards. I had my own build of Dark Times built to play at my first Vintage tournament. For a list, here is a link:

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1363&highlight=6#place6

I was excited to play Vintage. My friend and "mentor" to vintage, Lance Ballaster got me into it.
So I was anxious to get started. Shawn announces the first round pairings, I'm up against some guy named Joe Brown. I had no idea who he was until he sat down across from me. We rolled to see who would play first and I won, seems like I'm doing well already!

Game one:

I draw my opening 7 and decide to keep, putting 2 Leyline of the Void into play. I then play Swamp, Dark Ritual, Sadistic Sacrament, which Joe allows to resolve. I search his library and find out he is playing TPS, I take Mind's Desire, Tendrils, and Inkwell Leviathan, he pauses and says "ok game 2." Sweet a turn 1 win, I love Vintage!

Game two:

I keep my 7 again, and yet again place 2 Leyline of the Void into play. Joe starts and does stuff in his turn, but nothing back breaking. I draw for my turn, play Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Land, Demonic Consultation, which resolves, name Helm of Obedience, put it into my hand, play it, it resolves then use the last mana to activate it. Joe asks me if this mills him to clarify, I say yes and he scoops. Two turn 1 wins in a row, in my first round of my first Vintage tournament, now that's something I will always remember!

Other memorable moments:

Using Helm of Obedience on Vito Picozzo to steal his Myr Battlesphere after he put it on top of his library with Jace.

Playing Thoughtseize turn one against Bela Ball and seeing:
Land, Land, Land, Land, Land, Steel Hellkite.

Playing Painter against Josh Butker, having both Painter and Grinstone out, and him Metamorphing my Grindstone and activating it on me, I was about to scoop then realized I play Blightsteel Colossus and win.

Playing White Trash against John Jones, in Game 3 I have lethal on board, he Dismembers my Leonin Relic Warder holding his Time Vault, he goes to untap it with Key and I discard a Plains and Abolish it! (This was the birth of White Trash!)

Playing Dredge against Chris Varosky playing Show and Oath, I mull to 4 he is on the play he plays turn one Show and Tell, I put Bazaar into play he puts Griselbrand into play, draws 7 plays Time Walk. Takes his next turn attacks and draws 7 more, plays some stuff and Yawg Will into Time Walk. Takes another turn, swings draws 14 more passes. I activate Bazzar at EoT. Get an Ichorid into play and some Bridges, and a Narcomoeba to block. I eventually win this game!

Playing Turbo Tezz against Kevin Mekee resolving a turn one Jace for his Oath creature. He then precedes to Oath into Sun Titan, getting back Time Vault, enchanting Dragon Breath and attacking bringing back Voltaic Key.

Punting my chance at the Finals in the Top 4 of the Winter Grudge Match IV against Mark Hornung. Here is a link to his report:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/23611_I-ve-Got-99-Problems-But-A-Cage-Ain-t-One.html

And finally:

Getting Natural Order killed turn 3 by Craterhoof Behemoth through 2 Thorn of Amethyst and a Wurmcoil Engine for exact damage!

I hope you enjoyed my memorable moments as well as my most memorable match! I'd like to read other people's moments and matches, so please provide.

[xouman]

Well, I have poor memorable moments. Best moment probably was when Thada Adel was released. I was playing merfolks with faeries at that time and I borrowed one Thada. In the second round or so I faced a friend. He played a tarmo, and I played thada. Tarmo was only 2/3 but quickly grew to 3/4, and I attacked him, taking vault and playing it. Then in his upkeep, he played vampiric tutor... and after attacking with 4/5 tarmo, he plays another. So, I'm at 7 or so, but attack with thada nevertheless. I search his library... and i find a key. I tell him I'm playing the key, he agrees. I say I pay one, to untap the vault. Just them he realized what I was trying to do... but too late. Next game he did'n mulligan a hand with just 1 fetchland and my stifle got him. I never played thada again (lodestone made merfolks+faeries a bad deck), but that game was quite commented.

One day playing TMWA I faced a mud that opened with mox, crypt, mws, cotv1, cotv2... and I just played ancient tomb, exile simian -> viashino heretic, followed by T2 magus of the moon. That was a win and in game for top8

My first day playing power I played tezzeret. In the first game of the first round I kept a hand with T1 land, lotus, mox, vault, key, fow+blue card (and probably ancestral). He had double fow after a brainstorm! 3 or 4 turns after I drew regrowth. I went undefeated until top 8, just to lose because I played a merchant under a sphere trying to fetch tinker (yes, I tried). I lost the other game because I was high on library but kept drawing lands instead moxen and discarded 2 lands. Then he drew 3 wastes in a row and played a trinisphere...

Playing elves I win a game being at 1 and facing wurmcoil and batterskull, with just 1 card in hand. and 5 elves in play Oh, it was a genesis wave, so I proceed to reveal lots of critters in play and win in the spot.


And finally, I won a game against dredge after doing nothing. He attacked for 1 with narco and next turn, after he dredged all his deck, attacked for 18 with flamekin, putting me on 1. He lost  in his next draw step.

[TheWhiteDragon]

I played an old friend of mine with a sutured ghoul, dreadnaught/mask reanimator deck back in 2005.  He is playing sligh.  I win the roll and open with swamp, ritual, ritual, buried alive (drednaught, drednaught, sutured ghoul on top) shallow grave and swing for 24.  Next game he plays mountain, tap, bolt me, pass.  I play lotus, ritual, buried alive, shallow grave - hit for 24.

He says "thanks for letting me draw 7" and promptly quit magic, never to sleeve a deck again - literally.  Gotta love vintage!

[personalbackfire]

The most memorable vintage match I've played involved a pretty big blunder on my part against Paul Mastriano. He was most likely playing some Dark Confidant Jace Vault deck and I was playing a UW Landstill deck I had brewed up a year or two ago. To the best of my knowledge it was Game 2 and I was in dominating control. I had a Jace out, a Standstill, and maybe even a factory (though not sure). I drew and immediately slammed Ancestral Recall on the table, which triggered my Standstill, Paul drew 3 cards, countered my Recall and I lost a few turns later. I went on lose game 3....

Edit: Actually that was probably the second most memorable.

The  most memorable for sure has to be playing in my first finals match of a vintage tournament.
I was on TPS, my opponent was on FOW Dredge (the first tournament that it was played on the East Coast to me knowledge).

I went for a turn one Necro (in game 2 I think), my opponent Force of Willed it, I forced back, he forced back. He then top decked a Bazaar and I lost.
Game 3 he had another timely Force for me to lose. I walked away with a Drain though, so it worked out okay.

[John Cox]

I played a lot of hermit druid back in the day. The most memorable was the first game of a tournament that was about three hours from home. I had a hand or ESG, hermit, Force, misdriection, mox, blue card, land. I dropped a first turn hermit, he tried to swords it (which met force). The next turn I activated. He asked me to show him the win condition and we would go to game two.

I looked for my dread return and could find it, -confused we both looked through the deck. I called the judge for a deck check (on my self). We checked the deck and the pre typed list from the night before; long story short, I showed up to a tournament as a scrub.

Also the most epic punt of that round wasn't me but a guy who died to his own mana crypt on infinite turns.

[xouman]

If we are speaking of memorable mistakes, I can remember a match where I played brainstorm, keeping 3 force of will in hand, 2 blue cards and a non-blue card in hand and one blue card among the two I put on top. Of course, my opponent played tinker, i fow, he counters, i fow again and then he counters again. Yes, that was a bitter lesson.



Oh, and I remembered another quite memorable match. In my first ever vintage tournament, first game of first match, i opened with kataki. I didn't know why, but my opponent didn't much that match. I supposed he was unlucky drawing lands, but later I realized he kept a hand high on moxen. Second round was pretty similar. He was on painters and MD kataki destroyed greedy hands. It's weird when you don't know much about a deck (and a format) and you win without understanding why.

[DuKeLiO]

Some years ago, in the second GroAtog era I was playing a gush deck which "only" could win with Tinker-Colossus or Cunning Wish into Brain Freeze, with only one wish.

In the first game I won with tinker + colossus with a lot of counters.
In the second game he won, but I see Jester's Cap and change my side plan, bringing in Brain Freeze to forcing him to take Wish, Freeze and Colossus if he cap me.
In the third game he plays a Smokestack in his first turn and I had to play the Force of Will in my hand. In the second turn I couldn't counter a Jester's Cap, so he activates it taking away the three cards, but I had a plan. I prepare myself for a long game, countering or destroying everything until I could assemble a good Yawgmoth's Will to remove a lot of cards from my deck. When I played Yawgmoth's Will I didn't played some of the better cards on my graveyard like Time Walk or Ancestral Recall, but I played a Extirpate on my own Mana Drains and played throug Fastbond every land in my deck. After Yawgmoth's Will the cards on my library and graveyard were 2 Brainstorm, 2 Gush, Ancestral, Walk, twister, 4 Fows, Hurkyl's Recall, Rebuild, Fire/Ice and Regrowth. I passed the turn after Will and start the loop next turn, playing Fire/Ice + cantrips + Twister + Regrowth->Twister eight times to play the Fire/Ice eight times and won the game!

[psyburat]

I was playing a Key-Vault player with Noble Fish.  I land a turn two Qasali Pridemage.  On his turn he takes a few lands and Moxen and establishes Key-Vault combo with one mana open.  I Daze, he groans and pays with his activation mana, I blow up the Time Vault after attacking the next turn.  Two turns later, I've tapped out for another Qasali Pridemage.  He casts Yawgmoth's Will, and recasts the Time Vault.  I Daze, he groans and pays with his activation mana again, and I blow it up once more.  Shawn Tappen could certainly have benefited from this story at SCG Phily.

[Wagner]

I was playing Bomberman vs Slaver in a SCG tournament.

Game 1 he slaved me while I had Trinket in hand and Salvager on board, he could have comboed out and decked me, but instead just used Tormod's to remove my graveyard, preventing me from going off. A few turns later he resolves Welder and manages to Slaver me 5-6 more times without doing anything really good (my deck is mostly counters and guys at this point). I slowly beat him down and counter stuff and he slaves me one last time, I now have 2 cards left in my deck, one being a Brainstorm. He draws the other irrelevant card and does nothing. I draw my last card and attack with 2 guys for the exact life total winning with no library. That game lasted over 40 minutes. Game 2 was obviously a draw and I got the match.

[Nefarias]

Win: Playing Dragon way back when, crushed game one, opponent boards in 11 cards and makes a big deal of this fact. He draws about half of them and wins game 2. Game three goes to time, and he has lethal on board for turn five. My turn four I comboed out with Necromancy on Dragon with a Bazaar, City of Brass, Mox Pearl, and Mox Sapphire at one life, so I couldn't gain infinite colored mana, just infinite white (colorless) and blue and mill my whole deck. The wincon at the time was Eternal Witness, returning another animate effect, then going off again and returning Ancestral each time, milling out your opponent. So I mill out, gain infinite of UW, and stop the loop by returning Witness, and sit there for a minute thumbing through my graveyard looking for a target. With a smug look on his face my opponent reminds me that I need another B to go off, which I can't produce without dying. I'm aware, but it's untimed turns and doing my due diligence of mapping out all the options, when inspiration strikes. I return Echoing Truth to my hand. I Echoing Truth, targeting Necromancy, putting the "When Necromancy leaves play, sacrifice enchanted creature" trigger on the stack, then respond to that by tapping CoB for B. I respond to the "Whenever CoB becomes tapped, it deals one damage to you" trigger my casting Necromancy targeting Dragon. The loop starts again, but this time with an Eternal Witness (still waiting to die from the Necromancy trigger) in play, allowing me to return my entire graveyard to my hand as many times as I wish. The Sapphire provides me with the U needed to mill him out and he dies with my lethal CoB trigger still on the stack. This was at the Beanie Exchange.

Lose: At the last legal Brainstorm tournament, Traviscon, I was playing some sort of Painter deck and my (known) Dredge opponent mulls to 1. Meanwhile, I have the nuts. My options are Painter Grindstone him turn one, or wait until turn 3 so that I can Merchant Scroll for Ancestral and kill him on the spot (the fast mana included Vault and Lotus, hence the big turn difference). While I am apprehensive about putting Dredge's entire deck in their graveyard, I figure a Cabal Therapy is much more likely to ruin Plan B than Dredge being able to kill me on their upkeep, so I just try to end his misery quickly. I have chosen...poorly. He ran a random maindeck Darksteel Colossus, so that shuffled back and he drew it for turn. To add insult to injury, for some reason he couldn't kill me that turn despite having his entire deck in his graveyard, so he even had to Cabal Therapy himself for one more go at it. On the plus side, whenever some kid at FNM gets all mad when he mulls to 5, I get to say "Hey, I've lost on turn 2 when my opponent mulled to 1."

Draw: Knowing I couldn't win, I was once able to take all five extra turns to force a draw. I did it without Regrowth or Yawgmoth's Will, and before the Time Vault errata, though my method is no longer possible with current rules. I'll leave the details to your imagination. What's even more memorable was that this was at an ill-conceived Monday night power tournament in Brockton MA. Around 30 people ended up showing up, and the tournament didn't end until like 4am (on a Monday! well, Tuesday...)

[vaughnbros]

My most memorable game I've played I was playing a Snapcaster/bob list with a ton of singletons against remora gush.  We split the first two games with a little bit back and forth.  Game 3 he leads with remora turn 1 and turn 2 goyf.  I played turn 1 bob and turn 2 runechanter's pike.  I don't remember exactly why, but on turn 3 I felt the need to play aggressively here with him tapped out.  I equipped my bob and swung.  He blocked killing his goyf (he didn't realized pike gave first strike).  Then I time walked, him drawing a card.  Bob flip, noxious revival my time walk to the top, time walk.  He draws 2 cards and I attack with bob again.  Next turn bob flip, snapcaster my noxious revival for time walk, time walk.  He draws 2 cards again and I attack with bob.  The next turn I snapcaster time walk again him drawing a card.  Finally swinging for lethal on the final extra turn.  The whole time he found no force of wills while I time walked 4 times into his remora.  He tells me he had ancient grudge for the runechanter's pike, which he would have used if he realized it gave first strike.

Another memorable game was in my first competitive vintage tournament.  I was playing the recently printed Lodestone golem against a storm control deck.  I played chalice at 0, 1, 2, and 3 on him all in one game, and honestly didn't realize that his entire deck, sans 1 copy of tendrils and 1 copy of gifts, was shut out by the chalices.

For an epic loss, I ulted Jace with a grip full of force of wills, drains, and swords to plowshares.  He proceeded to play black lotus, which I let resolve thinking he had no outs, which he used to play Thrun and beat my face in before he was decked.

[Eastman]

First tournament win finals.   Game 2 my very nervous workshop playing opponent (this would have been Trinistax pre-restriction) mana burned to death off a monster tolarian academy activation, when he had me locked and had grim monolith in play.  I won the game and, eventually, the match. 

[Prospero]

Win: I was 0-2 against Mastriano up to this point, having been knocked out of top eight contention at one of the first Philly Opens that Nick Coss ran, following that up with losing the finals to him a few months later.  I sat down to play him in the finals for a second time in two months, quickly dropping game one.  I draw a strong hand in game two, play well, and get him.  We move to game three.  I'm slightly ahead, with a Smokestack on the board, but he has a Dark Confidant that's drawing him cards, and I'm concerned.  I draw Vampiric Tutor, which finds Tinker, which finds Titan, blowing up all his lands.  I had ramped the Smokestack up to two, which knocks out all his permanents after his upkeep.  He's on ten life, reveals Time Walk to Dark Confidant, goes to eight, and dies when I swing back for lethal with Titan and a Gorilla Shaman.

Honorable Mention:  I started off that tournament 0-1 and then had to win out to make top eight.  Game three of round five was looking pretty bad for me.  I had just lost a Mana Crypt roll, knocking me to one life and my opponent had three creatures on the board (Trygon, Pridemage and Selkie).  I have a Welder, some lands I can't tap (City of Brass, Barbarian Ring), soime lands I can (Shops and a Bazaar) and the evil Mana Crypt.  I draw Titan.  I land Titan, blowing up two of his lands.  He panics, sacrificing the Pridemage to blow up the Titan.  I activate the Bazaar, draw and pitch Triskelion, weld into Triskelion (killing the evil Mana Crypt), kill the Trygon, block the Selkie, and then stabilize.

Loss:  This was pretty absurd.  I look at my opener and see Lotus, Trinisphere, Welder, Ruby, Ancestral Recall, City of Brass x2, on the draw.  I snap keep.  My opponent opens up on Lotus, Sapphire, Delta -> Island, Tezzeret, Time Vault, go.  I don't draw Tinker to get Triskelion.  

Game two:  I keep a hand with a Chalice, some mana, a Waste and a prayer.  I open up on Chalice at two.  He casts Tarmogoyf.  I point to the Chalice.  He passes, I draw land and pass.  He casts Demonic Tutor.  I point to the Chalice.  I draw more land.  He casts Time Walk.  I, again, point to the Chalice.  I draw more land.  He casts Vampiric Tutor (it resolves!) at the end of my turn.  He untaps and casts Hurkyl's Recall.  I point to the Chalice again...  I eventually Stack him out in a very long game.

Game three.  I have a Stack on board, some pressure on his mana and I'm one turn away from locking him out.  I need him to pass back to me.  He casts the Hail Mary Brainstorm and needs to hit Will, Lotus and Petal.  If he doesn't, he loses.  He reveals his Brainstorm one by one.  Will.  Lotus.  Petal.

I was pretty salty at the end of that.

Honorable Mention:  While in the process of getting blown out by Jeremy Beaver, who had a history of blowing me out in the most ridiculous fashion possible whenever we sat down to play, I ask him to go for more than the typical kill.  He was storming out and could have cast a lethal Tendrils, but where's the fun in that?  I tell him to go big or go home.  He starts storming off, but it's taking a while.  I tag out, having Cruel Ultimatum 'play' for me while I go up and buy a drink.  I stand and watch for a minute or two.  I tag back in.  108 Empty the Warren tokens and 110 Tendrils damage later, I take my loss.

[Samoht]

No mention of the Leyline of Anticipation Prospero?

[Prospero]

No mention of the Leyline of Anticipation Prospero?

That was also quite the beating. 

[Bibendum]

At the last Waterbury I had just been seriously getting into Vintage again after quitting and am in contention for top 8. I play Brian Demars and scrape by with Hex parasite ( yes I played it) doing work. Next round I am paired up against Smennen. He asks if we can draw, I say I am paired up and sadly have to play. I take game 1, typical shop nonsense. Game two I am on a mull to 4 on the draw. I open the best 4 I could think of, Trini, shop, Mox and Wire. I draw smokestack off the top and go for the beating as he doesn't have force. I don't remember what he was on, I do remember it was when Teferi's Realm seemed like a legit sideboard card. Sad end, I lose the next round and end up missing top 8 but silver lining, Ray gave me a playmat since he's the man.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Regrowth->Twister eight times to play the Fire/Ice eight times

That reminds me of my first tourney win: Playing Oath conversion in G3 vs a fish list.  He turn 1 extracts me and I force back pitching Time Walk (thinking nothing of it), but he has misdirection and it gets through, taking my morphling.  So now the only creature left in my deck is spike feeder (my spike weaver hadn't come in the mail yet  ).

I proceed to take almost 90 minutes to infinitely recur strip mine, powder keg and spike feeder to eventually clear the way for beatdown: 20, 18, 16...

[Eastman]

Regrowth->Twister eight times to play the Fire/Ice eight times

That reminds me of my first tourney win: Playing Oath conversion in G3 vs a fish list.  He turn 1 extracts me and I force back pitching Time Walk (thinking nothing of it), but he has misdirection and it gets through, taking my morphling.  So now the only creature left in my deck is spike feeder (my spike weaver hadn't come in the mail yet   ).

I proceed to take almost 90 minutes to infinitely recur strip mine, powder keg and spike feeder to eventually clear the way for beatdown: 20, 18, 16...

What about my first tournament when we didn't know each other and you slow-played me to pull a draw in a game you had no business in?  That wasn't memorable?  

[Grand Inquisitor]

What about my first tournament when we didn't know each other and you slow-played me to pull a draw in a game you had no business in?  That wasn't memorable? 

SOP

[Shock Wave]

Some years ago, in the second GroAtog era I was playing a gush deck which "only" could win with Tinker-Colossus or Cunning Wish into Brain Freeze, with only one wish.

In the first game I won with tinker + colossus with a lot of counters.
In the second game he won, but I see Jester's Cap and change my side plan, bringing in Brain Freeze to forcing him to take Wish, Freeze and Colossus if he cap me.
In the third game he plays a Smokestack in his first turn and I had to play the Force of Will in my hand. In the second turn I couldn't counter a Jester's Cap, so he activates it taking away the three cards, but I had a plan. I prepare myself for a long game, countering or destroying everything until I could assemble a good Yawgmoth's Will to remove a lot of cards from my deck. When I played Yawgmoth's Will I didn't played some of the better cards on my graveyard like Time Walk or Ancestral Recall, but I played a Extirpate on my own Mana Drains and played throug Fastbond every land in my deck. After Yawgmoth's Will the cards on my library and graveyard were 2 Brainstorm, 2 Gush, Ancestral, Walk, twister, 4 Fows, Hurkyl's Recall, Rebuild, Fire/Ice and Regrowth. I passed the turn after Will and start the loop next turn, playing Fire/Ice + cantrips + Twister + Regrowth->Twister eight times to play the Fire/Ice eight times and won the game!

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that!

[Smmenen]

My most memorable matches are always my losses, since those are the matches I remember.  I don't remember wins.

My most memorable recent loss was my loss to Paul Mastriano in the 2011 Vintage Championship Top 4.  

It was game 3, and he had just Tinkered for Colossus.  I had one clean line of play: just DT for Hurkyl's, and pray he didn't have Force.  The other line, with exactly four mana, was to play Vendilion Clique with Spell Pierce protection.  The merit of this play is that I could then block his BSC with my Bob and my Clique (gaining 9 Poison) AND clear out his Force, so that I could DT Hurkyl's next turn (or win, since I had Fastbond in play).  

I went for the DT Hurkyl's play, and he had Force.  Had I done the other, I think I would have won the match and the tournament, since my SB was much better against Mark Hornung's Dredge deck.  

[Samoht]

My most memorable matches are always my losses, since those are the matches I remember. 

My most memorable recent loss was my loss to Paul Mastriano in the 2011 Vintage Championship Top 4.   

It was game 3, and he had just Tinkered for Colossus.  I had one clean line of play: just DT for Hurkyl's, and pray he didn't have Force.  The other line, with exactly four mana, was to play Vendilion Clique with Spell Pierce protection.  The merit of this play is that I could then block his DSC with my Bob and my Clique (gaining 9 Poison) AND clear out his Force, so that I could DT Hurkyl's next turn (or win, since I had Fastbond in play). 

I went for the DT Hurkyl's play, and he had Force.  Had I dont the other, I think I would have won the match and the tournament, since my SB was much better against Mark Hornung's Dredge deck. 

DSC gives poison? /confused.

[Smmenen]

My most memorable matches are always my losses, since those are the matches I remember. 

My most memorable recent loss was my loss to Paul Mastriano in the 2011 Vintage Championship Top 4.   

It was game 3, and he had just Tinkered for Colossus.  I had one clean line of play: just DT for Hurkyl's, and pray he didn't have Force.  The other line, with exactly four mana, was to play Vendilion Clique with Spell Pierce protection.  The merit of this play is that I could then block his DSC with my Bob and my Clique (gaining 9 Poison) AND clear out his Force, so that I could DT Hurkyl's next turn (or win, since I had Fastbond in play). 

I went for the DT Hurkyl's play, and he had Force.  Had I dont the other, I think I would have won the match and the tournament, since my SB was much better against Mark Hornung's Dredge deck. 

DSC gives poison? /confused.

Your confusion is because you should have realized that, this being the 2011 Vintage Champs, Paul was playing Blightsteel, not Darksteel.  I obviously transposed a D for a B. 

[d8dk32]

My most memorable vintage match was a few months ago. I was playing this odd Maniac Oath Doomsday deck I'd had some success with, and my opponent was on Gush Tendrils.

Game one, I'm on the play, and cast turn 1 doomsday, and set up a pass-the-turn pile with Maniac. I had double Force so i was unconcerned. My opponent plays a fetch and a mox jet and passes. I confidently start to play out my last turn, and my opponent Abrupt Decays my Maniac so I lose.

Going into Game 2, I say declare that I'm on the play, but I somehow get it into my head that I'm on the draw as we shuffle up. I look at my opening 7 and it's risky, but it would be a turn 1 win if I drew a blue mana source. I decide to gamble and keep, thinking I'll be on the draw. My opponent reminds me that I'm on the play and I pass the turn without playing anything. My opponent tutors for fastbond and plays it, but doesn't have a second island in hand to go off with, so he passes. I draw a blue mana source and win on the spot through 2 counterspells.

Game 3, my opponent won on the first turn through 2 counterspells.

[Shock Wave]

My most memorable matches are always my losses, since those are the matches I remember.  I don't remember wins.

... so true. I'm sure I have had some interesting wins, but I only remember the losses, especially the losses I earned by clearly misplaying.

(2002) - I had recently got back into competitive Vintage and I was at a Black Lotus tournament in Montreal at a venue called Carta Magica. I was playing UW control vs. Yannick Veilleux's BBS. It was G3 of R7 -- win and in. I resolved a T1 Meddling Mage naming Powder Keg and a T2 Meddling Mage naming Morphling. I punch through a Scrying Glass on T3. He misses his T4 land drop, and another on T5. I activate the Scrying Glass on his T5 EOT, seeing a boatload of counters and a Masticore. On my T6, I draw another Meddling Mage. With complete information on my opponents hand, I chose to walk my Meddling Mage into my opponent's Mana Drain --- and then make matters even worse by walking my Mana Leak into his Disrupt. He resolves Masticore on his next turn and wipes away my threats. The game goes to a draw, but I miss my chance at Top 8. I'm pretty sure this misplay was as close to retardation as I have ever been in my life.

(2003) - Vintage Worlds Top 4 vs. Carl Winters - In G3, I had resolved Intuition to get Squee x 2 and Ambassador Laquatus. Carl allowed me to enter the Dragon loop, and allowed me to generate X mana. He had 3 cards in hand and one black mana free. I calculated that the only way he could stop me was if he had FoW,blue card, and a Coffin Purge. Instead of playing around this possibility, I opted to bin my Ambassador and attempt to Animate it. Carl indeed had the Coffin Purge + FoW, and I ended up dying to mana burn. The correct play would have been to target a Squee, then hardcast the Ambassador, thereby playing around the Coffin Purge.

(2005) - SCG P9 Syracuse - R6 vs. Jeff Anand - I am playing a homebrew Workshop/Drain control deck vs. Control Slaver. In what was a gruelling match that would come down to a critical misplay in the final moments of G3, I end up losing. I have a COTV=0 in play, and have nuked most of Jeff's board, but he punches through a Tinker for Pentavus. Fearing Rack and Ruin, Jeff creates a bunch of tokens and sends them in. I pass the turn with Engineered Explosives in hand, allowing Jeff to deal the final 5 points of damage. I did not play the EE because I reasoned that it would be countered by my COTV=0, but Jeff points out after the concession that I could have played a Wasteland from my yard and cast the EE for 1 using colorless mana, thereby circumventing the COTV and leaving the EE at 0. Painful.

(2007) - GP Columbus - Day 1 R7 vs. Jeff Folinus - I was playing UW Landstill vs. RB Goblins. It's G3 and I am on the play. My 7 cards are Wasteland, Factory, Pithing Needle, Swords to Plowshares, Brainstorm, Standstill, Counterspell. I am really worried that my opponent has a Lackey hand, and I worry myself into a mulligan. I look at my top card before the mulligan: Tundra . My 6 has STP and Flooded Strand, but nothing else interesting. My opponent mulls to 5, then opens with Wasteland and Aether Vial. My poor decision is even more painfully clear when my opponent misses his second land drop and plays another Aether Vial. My 7 would have certainly won this game, but instead I am crushed very quickly.

[Smmenen]

(2000) - I had recently got back into competitive Vintage and I was at a Black Lotus tournament in Montreal at a venue called Carta Magica. I was playing UW control vs. BBS. It was G3 of R6 -- win and in. I resolved a T1 Meddling Mage naming Powder Keg and a T2 Meddling Mage naming Morphling. I punch through a Scrying Glass on T3. He misses his T4 land drop, and another on T5. I activate the Scrying Glass on his T5 EOT, seeing a boatload of counters and a Masticore. On my T6, I draw another Meddling Mage. With complete information on my opponents hand, I chose to walk my Meddling Mage into my opponent's Mana Drain --- and then make matters even worse by walking my Mana Leak into his Disrupt. He resolves Masticore on his next turn and wipes away my threats. The game goes to a draw, but I miss my chance at Top 8. I'm pretty sure this misplay was as close to retardation as I have ever been in my life.

Rich, I think that was in 2002.  I think I found your decklist in the manadrain archives from that tournament in research for my 2002 chapter.  FYI

Meddling Mage was printed in Planeshift, which was released in 2001.  So it was at least 2001. 

[KingSquee]

Shawn Tappen could certainly have benefited from this story at SCG Phily.

Pretty sure you chose this match just so you could say that, Mykie! Nonetheless, I chortled.

As for my most-memorable matches, I'll start with the entire Top 8 playoff from my first NYSE win. Playing (Mykie) Noble Fish, I landed Turn 1 Trygon Predators both against Raff in the semis and Ashok in the finals.

My second march through an NYSE Top 8 was no less memorable. For starters I lost Game 1 in all three matches. I was on Gro and I played Shops, Dredge, and Shops so that is fairly significant methinks. And had I not won Game 3 against Dredge it may have gone down as my worst punt ever. I managed to miss my opportunity to drop Turn 0 Leyline!

A more recent memorable match that I did not win was me playing Landstill against Andy Happymeal's wonderfully awful Mono-Blue Belcher pile. With two Pact triggers on the stack this lucksack Belches me for exactsies!

[tribet]

2011 Australian Nationals - Vintage side event in Canberra.

My second real Vintage tournament and my very first tournament playing with my newly acquired Power jammed into a homebrew Remora Control/Storm deck.

After 5 rounds, I qualified for Top8! First Top 8 in my whole life, ever ever (I’ve been shuffling Magic since 1994!)

Top8 – Game 3 against Revoker Stax (Lachan Saunders)
I'm on the draw and open a very good hand something like: FOW, Hurkyl’s, Time Walk, Ancestral, Mana, Mana.

He plays his game, lands Precursor Golem x3 and attacks for 9 once. I bolt them away the turn after. I have a lot of resources so I let him play his threats. He casts another Precursor Golem.

I have a Bolt in hand but I’m somehow short on Red Mana. My turn, I Gift for another Bolt + 3 red mana (Ruby, Lotus, Land). He gives me Bolt and Mox. I play the Mox. I only have U&R mana open which is enough for either the Hurkyl’s Recall or the Bolt I’m holding in hand. I’m feeling very good, next turn, I can cast YawgWill with a full graveyard, etc… so I pass turn.

He plays a Revoker. I say “Yes”. He names “Mox Ruby”… I think… The guy sitting next to me points out that it’s too late to think… so I think… Tap my Mox and float the mana in response… The guy says that I cannot answer to the naming ability… I think… I don’t understand... “Mana is the most superfast thing in Magic, right?” … "Tap Mox in response, bounce board, cast YawgWill, go in Top4. Pretty simple, right?"… My opponent says nothing… The judge and spectators sort of have a sad look on their face… I can't answer the 3 Golems so I concede without fully understanding things such as “Static ability”, etc…



I lost zillions of Magic games since 1994 and often because of my trivial mistakes, stupid choices or gambling and I generally thought it was funny. Though, for the first time in 17 years, I lost because I was unaware of a rule. It felt very bitter.

It was very bitter because from my limited tournament/pre-release experience, I've always had the impression that the rules were forgiving. That they were written that way because Magic is a complex game, people don’t read cards, choose "Illegal target", “miss triggers", so from my experience the rules were always forgiving and were making players “rewind” in such situations.

I've played with Clone all my life, never had a problem with it and I certainly never suspected that some obscure rules were written onto it. I know you can't Bolt Meddling Mage once it names “Bolt”. Never had a problem with Meddling Mage. Something faster than Mana!? Never heard of it, sorry.
 
I was really bitter for a while, but then thought it was awesome. Revoker was awesome, Vintage was awesome, Magic was awesome and that's when I started reading a bit more about it. Yeah I remember that game and go to hell Saunders and your stupid Ninja tricks!

[A.-1.]

I'm glad you didn't feel bitter about Revoker's interaction for too long. It happens all the time. To name a couple, I've seen people try to play something in response to Iona being Oathed up and try to activate Bazaar in response to Pithing Needle being Tinkered into play. Just remember to think things through before letting Revoker resolve even if you don't plan on countering it.

[tribet]

I think there are two aspects to this.

First, many players don't know how to recognize a Static Ability. That comes from the fact that there not many cards written with “As this comes into play...” but millions with “When this comes into play”. Also, if you’ve misplayed Static Abilities all your life in casual games, it certainly can go unnoticed without really impacting how the games go.

Then, I think Revoker was that extra notch beyond natural instinct. Until then, I think I had been formatted in such a way that Mana abilities were untouchable. So many cards read:
   - “You can’t do that anymore unless it’s a mana ability” (Pithing Needle)
   - “Mana abilities can't be targeted” (Stifle)

Also, the first thing you get taught is that Mana is the fastest thing in Magic, it doesn’t use the stack, and you can’t answer it. Even Split Second seems to reminds us ”As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.”

So, Static Abilities. Well they exist, but they are a poor cousin in MTG. I reckon they got designed in the first place to answer rules questions about Clones and, then only, R&D exploited this a little further for experienced players. I think R&D acknowledges that casual players can't be expected to naturally differentiate the functionalities between a “As” and a “When” and that’s why they don’t go overboard with the “As” abilities to avoid confusion.

Revoker was definitely something really alien to me when I got mana screwed that day.