I arrived home hours ago (flying into San Fran), and I'm completely exhausted and drained, physically, mentally and emotionally. But I think it's best to offer reflections when everything is fresh, even if inartful in my description or overly candid.
This event was everything I expected it would be, and in some respects, surpassed.
The Nicks (plural) are now without a doubt not only the premier Vintage tournament organizers in the United States, if not the world. Ray Robillard and Pete Hoefling did a wonderful job with their respective large scale events, but Nick Coss blends what they both bring in a single person: professional TO expertise/skill and community sensibility and respect, along with the understanding of what Magic players really care about beyond just cents and dollars.
The event felt very much like Gencon, but focused around Vintage and Legacy. That's a good thing. Because of my intense interest in Vintage, Gencon became little more than the Vintage Championship to me, so there is little lost and much to be gained by having the Vintage Champs held annually at an Eternal Weekend. I got to hang out with all of my friends and teammates just like Gencon.
And, just like Gencon, there is more to do and more people to hang out with than there is time. That's the only sucky part of an event like this.
The coverage team was superb (it doesn't get better than Randy B as an anchor), and that lent gravitas and exposure to the entire event.
The security was amazing, and reassuring.
It was amazing to see so many old school players come out - folks I hadn't seen in so long like Rich Mattuzzio and Roland Chang. I didn't even realize David Laurence and Stephen Houdlette were there (until I saw Stephen on camera and then saw Eastman's post here). It was also cool to see long time community members like Klep, Ray etc, and more recent folks like Matt Elias (apologies Matt -- when you said Hi to me, I had just tilted from my match loss). It's great also to see so many new faces of folks who I met for the first time at the NYSE Open. Seeing so many great folks was a huge highlight for me. I wish that the old Shortbus guys would show up to an event like this.
Kevin's performance reinforced, for me, the blending of old and new schools. Kevin top8ed the first two Vintage Championships (2003 and 2004) and has joined the 3peaters club (which, I believe, is just me, Paul Mastriano, Brian Demars, and now Kevin). I'm mad proud of my long time friend and podcast co-host.
My performance was devastating, not because I chose the wrong deck or underprepared, but because of a totally non-strategic, mechanical blunder.
I played 4c Pitch Long, and I was super excited to bust it out. I eliminated any deck choice that couldn't compete with Landstill or Workshops. Landstill was one of the best performing decks in my gauntlet, and all of my brews were winnowed down to just a few options, with Pitch Long (with Oath) becoming the clear choice. In 3c versions of Pitch Long, the best tactic against Landstill was forcing through early Tinker. Oath gives you 4 Tinkers for the Landstill matchup. And the Burning Tendrils deck has all of the tools for fighting shops (Ancient Tombs, Hurkyl's, etc) PLUS Forces. I also tested extensively against Grixis, Blue Angels, Keeper, RUG and BUG, all decks I expected to show up.
The only thing that made me nervous is that about 3 weeks ago, Soly told me he was on Pitch Long, so I had to bring him into my circle to shut him up
I was cruising through the tournament at 4-0, and played the Fenton Bot in Round 5. I punted both games 1 and 3, but my punting of game 3 was so egregious that I started to go on tilt. In the first game, we both mulliganed to 5, and I managed to draw out all of his countermagic, and resolve Necro. I just Necroed for 7, and passed. He untapped and literally won the game with an insane topdeck and then Yawg Will. Had I Necroed for 10 or more, as I should have, I would have won because I would have drawn Force. That's all fine.
What derailed my freight train was this: in game 3 of our match, Greg and I had an Orchard war, which I was losing, with my own Oath in play, but neither one of us yet able to trigger it. On the upside, I managed to draw out all of his countermagic, and resolve Burning Wish for Yawg Will to replay a land, Ritual, DT --> Lotus, Time Walk + Ancestral Recall. I could have Natured Claim my Oath here, but decided to go for the Ritual to DT for Lotus to Ancestral + Walk on the theory that if I just Claim, he'll probably topdeck better than me, and I have tons of outs I can draw to just win or destroy the Oath. It goes all according to plan. I draw Griselbrand, and had enough mana to hard cast it if I just play the City of Brass in hand. I had Sol Ring multiple Moxen and 3 rainbow lands in play. I untap, draw Academy, and STUPIDLY play Academy instead of City!!! That meant I couldn't generate the BBBB necessary to hardcast the Griselbrand.
All I could do after blowing it by playing Academy was pass, and he Oathed up his Griselbrand and promptly won. I looked at my top 7, and I would have easily been able to win the game with the 7 cards on top (for example, my top 7 had Nature's Claim and green source to kill my Oath).
I was furious with myself, but was still focused. I felt my deck was insane enough that I should just win out. Then I did something even dumber.
In Round 6 I faced a Keeper pilot that, apparently, had mis-reported a previous rounds match results, and as a result was paired up against me. In any case, I lost game 1 (only becuase I didn't know what he was playing and ran into 2 Mindbreak Traps on my first turn), but won game 2, and was on the verge of winning game 3 when I realized I did something very, very, very stupid.
He had Grafdigger's Cage and Gorilla Shaman in play, and one card in hand (which I knew wasn't countermagic). I had City of Brass and Forbidden Orchard, and Oath in play, and Ritual, Petal, and Time Walk in hand. When he is completely tapped down with one card in hand, I go to Oath. I had sideboarded out my Griselbrands for game 3, to try to catch his Grafdigger's plan unaware. My plan is perfect: Oath up Maniac to the top of my library, draw it. Play Ritual, cast it (to beat MB Trap), then Petal, Time Walk and win.
I start Oathing and the Maniac isn't showing up. Then, after revealing my entire library, it turns out that the Maniac isn't in my deck! I had somehow forgot to sideboard in the Maniac and Chain of Vapor for my 2 Griselbrands. I have played many, many tournament matches of Magic, but this incredibly asinine error has never, ever happened. My tournament was over: I was totally titled after that, and couldn't play well after that.
Like Paul said, it's one thing to get beat strategically; it's another thing to not even be able to compete because of a stupid mechanical error that has nothing to do with the strategy of the game.
FentonBot derailed me, but I crashed the train.
Disappointing finish but amazing event.
The only structural criticism of the tournament itself I have is constructive: the Grinders did not work as envisioned. The idea of grinders rolling all day is great in theory, but didn't work in practice. The Vintage community has so few large, prestigous Vintage events that the prelim touranments at Gencon always served a role beyond simply awarding byes. Single elimination events don't draw players who don't care much about byes, and don't offer that kind of outlet. The grinders could have been larger and more fun if they weren't single elimination. And since only one fired on Friday and two in Saturday, I see no reason why they couldn't just do the same as was done at Gencon in that respect. I hope that in future years, they simply schedule a big Vintage event or two each day that awards byes as a prize among other good prizes. Relatedly, we were told that the Grinder decklists would be posted, but they never were.
I have many people to thank, and I'm sure I'm forgetting people, but I want to be sure to mention John Jones (he knows why), and Justin Frank, my awesome new friend that I ended up staying with Thursday, and Daniel Chang (and Vintagemagic.com), who sponsored me for this event. Also, nice to meet so many new folks and reacquant myself with familiar faces. I'm sorry if you caught me after my encounter with the Fentonbot or after round 6, as I was tilted.
Finally, a big hearty congratulations to Joel Lim, who is a class act all the way.
Peace out.
