Report - MTGO Holiday Vintage Tournament

[Shock Wave]

4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Mana Drain
4 Spell Pierce
4 Mental Misstep
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Null Rod

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Brainstorm
1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Flooded Strand
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Steam Vents
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pyroclasm
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Flusterstorm
4 Energy Flux

R1: Garlan - Dredge (1-0)
G1: Mull to 1 and scoop
G2: He boards Dredge hate and loses.
G3: Really close. We both mull to 5. I keep a Wasteland hand, he keeps a Bazaar. his first dredge is nothing to write home about. I resolve Crucible, and get Factory + Waste online to stop any BFB shenanigans. I win the long game because my business spells actually do something.

R2: MtgVector - Humans (2-0)
G1: I waste some annoying lands and then resolve Jace to bounce his only threat. He keeps playing into Jace but I bounce and resolve Standstill, and then I am too far ahead once he cracks it.
G2: This game goes the distance. His resolves Bob early and I have Pyroclasm in hand, and I consider sandbagging it in the hope that he walks more threats into it. I end deciding that he is probably a good player and will keep milking it for value, so I cast the Pyroclasm right away. He plays caverns and drops a Canonist and a Thalia, but I have Factories and Conclaves keeping them at bay. I finally resolve Jace and Pyroclasm away his board, but he resolves 2 x KotR and things are looking bad for me. I bounce one and then block the other with a factory on his turn. When he tries to replay the second, I Drain, despite it being cast with Caverns. That gives me enough mana on my turn to Time Walk, Treasure Cruise, Pyroclasm, and Relic.

R3: KDBKGB - RUG Delver (3-0)
G1: the only thing I remember about this game is that we trade a bunch of draw spells (Standstills vs. Gush, Treasure Cruise). Eventually I pull ahead in cards and take it down.
G2: I board in Relic this game and hose his Terasure Cruise plan. On a critical turn, he fetches to get cruise online, but I respond to fetch with Relic and eat his yard. He pauses and then passes the turn, which yields that he has at least one and likely more cruises in hand. That allowd me to resolve the Ancestral I was sandbagging up until this point and take it home from there.

R4: noonesshadow - Big Blue (4-0)
G1: Not sure what variation of blue this is, but I lock him out quickly with Null Rod.
G2: This game goes on for a while, but I shut him down early with Rod again, and resolve draws spells while countering his. He resolved a Trinket Mage, which indicated some sort of Bomberman. I win via Factory beatdown.

R5: WitchKling - Shops (5-0)
G1: I have a sketchy hand with double force but he is light on threats. I force his first sphere, and allow Cotv=1 to resolve. I drain into Jace and take it down.
G2: I lock him out with Null Rod and Wastelands.

R6: Lejay - Unpowered RW Beats (6-0)
R1: I bolt away a few threats and resolve Jace.
R2: He mulls, then Pyroclasm wreaks havoc and I resolve Jace.

R7: EFroPoker - UR Delver (6-1)
G1: He has T1 Ancestral with backup and I can't catch up.
G2: I have 1st turn standstill with backup and he can't catch up.
G3: I draw a bunch of cards but none of them are Pyroclasm, so after we fight over a Pyromancer, I don't have a way to clear the board and it goes the distance.

R8:_qfortier - Grixis Control (6-2)
G1: He has an interesting control build with Gitaxian Probe and broken blue spells. I am able to land a rod but he digs up Tinker and uses Probe to ensure it resolves.
G2: He has Misstep for my Ancestral and FoW for my Standstill, and then does the Tinker thing again.

QF: _qfortier - Rematch
G1: He has an early Tinker that punches through.
G2: He has lots of acceleration but no tinker this time. I land Null Rod and win from there.
G3: My opponent outplayed me this game --- I landed an early cage and was way ahead yet somehow let him back into the game. He eventually resolves Tinker and wins.

The event was awesome and I look forward to more MTGO Vintage. It is getting really good!

[Smmenen]

Very nice report.  

I played Lejay in a few queues, and I faced someone playing his deck today, and I narrowly won.  That deck is pretty annoying.

I hope we get alot more of these big events.

I think the right number is probably 4/yr or 1/quarter.  That will keep the interest high.

This is the only place you can go to play 134 players, including some of the best in the world, without having to get out of bed

These tournaments are exactly the reason I bought into MTGO, and it went flawlessly today, although my performance was terrible

[ErtaiAdept]

Very nice report.  

I played Lejay in a few queues, and I faced someone playing his deck today, and I narrowly won.  That deck is pretty annoying.

I hope we get alot more of these big events.

I think the right number is probably 4/yr or 1/quarter.  That will keep the interest high.

This is the only place you can go to play 134 players, including some of the best in the world, without having to get out of bed

These tournaments are exactly the reason I bought into MTGO, and it went flawlessly today, although my performance was terrible

Best part of an online tournment.  I went 0-2 drop and didn't then have to drive a huge distance to go home.  I simply exited the client and went back to my other tasks.

If they get these things to fire quarterly, I would be very happy. 

[qfortier]

Thank you for your report!
I was afraid to play against you and your 4 null rod md (really isn't it a bit too many? According to http://www.mtgoacademy.com/unlocking-the-vault-81-mtgo-holiday-festival-vintage-championship-analysis/ rod was useless against 50% of the top 32, and even against me if you draw 2 null rod and my only artifacts are 2 moxes - average game - you are losing "mana advantage"), I guess I got a bit lucky.

I don't like the sideboard that much... Do you need 4 cage + 3 relic? Dredge is almost not played at all. I would play few Ingot Chewer for sure, Energy Flux is expensive and Chewer gives you more choices.
I was a bit confused about Steam vents, thought it was a budget choice. Don't you prefer few basics instead?

I saw you played the deck quite a lot, so you are probably right, but I would like to know why 

This is what I played:
http://hpics.li/46b2a27
Gitaxian Probe has been very, very good: to know if I should bait a misstep or play a trall, if I can go tinker, what I need to keep with preordain, delve...
Notion thief has been disappointing, probably too "obvious" (especially against LSV). The singleton daze was nice.

I don't remember all my matches:
R1: UR delver, close
R2: Unlucky MUD, I think he mulled to 4 g2 and I have like tinker turn 1 g1.
R3: Oath, g2 he has nuts (oath + orchard with fow turn 1), g3 I have cage + Notion thief.
...
R5: Lose against Efroelich with UR delver
R6: Win against Lejay. One strange game where I almost lost when he is on mull to 4 and I win by Sowering his Thalia and beatdown.
R7: Win against LSV with UR delver (t2 win with time vault on g3)
R8 & top8: XShockWaveX
Top 4: Lose vs LSV. not especially close, but I would have won pretty easily with a pyroclasm-like in g1 (he commited a lot on the board w/o backup).

Very happy of course to get this VMA set!

I changed my list since then:

No Mana crypt: too dangerous, can lose the game even after a time vault/key, I lose enough hp with probe, I don't need too many colorless mana (especially since I have cut tezzeret), less artifact = less problematic null rod...
0 snapcaster: maximize the efficiency of delve spells (which are very very good now) and of Yaugmoth Will,  cage is less a problem and I can play Engineered Plague on human (insta win against straight UR delver with empty board).
1 Slice and Dice: the slot I am the least sure, could be pyroclasm, toxic deluge, bolt, another pyroblast...at least this one is never really useless.
1 Negate sb: to counter t1 out of a mox, in mirror. Not sure as well, I would like to test other good cards to play on turn 1 in mirror, such as Dark confidant, Young Pyromancer, Bitterblossom... or just another Pyroblast.

[Shock Wave]

Thank you for your report!
I was afraid to play against you and your 4 null rod md (really isn't it a bit too many? According to http://www.mtgoacademy.com/unlocking-the-vault-81-mtgo-holiday-festival-vintage-championship-analysis/ rod was useless against 50% of the top 32, and even against me if you draw 2 null rod and my only artifacts are 2 moxes - average game - you are losing "mana advantage"), I guess I got a bit lucky.

Welcome to The Mana Drain! Thanks for posting a report and congratulations on your strong finish. A few things:

• I actually think your matchup against me is not favorable. In the first match, you had very powerful hands, and in the second match, I played terribly in G3 and what should have certainly been a win.
• Null Rod is the best card in this deck. It is a dead draw against Delver, but really good against shops and anything else blue

I don't like the sideboard that much... Do you need 4 cage + 3 relic? Dredge is almost not played at all. I would play few Ingot Chewer for sure, Energy Flux is expensive and Chewer gives you more choices. I was a bit confused about Steam vents, thought it was a budget choice. Don't you prefer few basics instead?

Regarding the Cages and Relics, they are necessary. I cannot win the Dredge matchup without those cards. I would have certainly lost my first round if I did not have them. Also, Relic is very important in many matchups. It is critical to resolve against Delver and anything the relies on the graveyard --- Goyf, DTT, and random cards like KotR and LftL. Cage is also very good against big blue and Oath.

Energy Flux absolute wrecks Workshops. It is not that difficult to resolve, and it combos well with Null Rod. I'm undecided about the Steam Vents. They are there to minimize the probability of being colored screwed. Basics are nice and all, but I'd rather have better access to red mana.

Gitaxian Probe has been very, very good: to know if I should bait a misstep or play a trall, if I can go tinker, what I need to keep with preordain, delve...

Gitaxian Probe seemed very powerful for you. I am surprised that more blue control lists don't use it.

[Cafe_Cafe]

R3: Oath, g2 he has nuts (oath + orchard with fow turn 1), g3 I have cage + Notion thief.

That would be me . I kept a terrible hand in our first game. Our match is here: http://youtu.be/MGo6v7eJfac?t=4m30s

I was streaming and recorded the whole event. http://youtu.be/89lAJCZFxnE?list=PLvtwGAWjORPV6wS87WnKW-wAiNTFoPmtS
Finished 9th with my loses being against you (R3) and LSV (R8).

I can´t wait for the next one.

[Bongo]

4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Mana Drain
4 Spell Pierce
4 Mental Misstep
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Null Rod

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Brainstorm
1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Flooded Strand
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Steam Vents
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pyroclasm
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Flusterstorm
4 Energy Flux

I really like this list, you seem to know what you're doing. A few questions:

1. What's the reason behind 2 Conclaves? Did you never have trouble with tempo when you draw both of them (especially in the early game)?

2. What made you choose Flusterstorm over REB? In long games, Flusterstorm can be played around, whereas REB is always live. REB also handles Delver and Jace, which is a nice bonus.

3. After the tournament, would you still keep 2 Steam Vents? A single basic makes a big difference against all decks running Wasteland.

4. What's your opinion on Vendilion Clique, Fire/Ice, Engineered Explosives and Repeal?

[Shock Wave]

1. What's the reason behind 2 Conclaves? Did you never have trouble with tempo when you draw both of them (especially in the early game)?

2. What made you choose Flusterstorm over REB? In long games, Flusterstorm can be played around, whereas REB is always live. REB also handles Delver and Jace, which is a nice bonus.

3. After the tournament, would you still keep 2 Steam Vents? A single basic makes a big difference against all decks running Wasteland.

4. What's your opinion on Vendilion Clique, Fire/Ice, Engineered Explosives and Repeal?

1. Faerie Conclave adds a significant amount of value to the deck, despite its CIPT drawback. The advantages are:

• It is a manland that creates blue mana and requires only blue mana to activate. No other manland has these qualities.
• It has evasion, which is more valuable than most would expect.
  
• The most important reason for its inclusion is that it makes Standstill more powerful. Often, it simply is not good enough to play a Standstill without any pressure. Without pressure, Standstill can be very easy to play around.

2. Flusterstorm and REB can be interchangeable. Generally speaking, if you're able to reach the long game, you're most likely going to win. Also, Flusterstorm is often a hard counter in the long game. Your opponent should not have a lot of mana at their disposal for long periods of time, otherwise something has gone very wrong. In any case, there are pros/cons for both, so I don't think there's anything wrong with swapping one for the other.

3. I've kept the Steam Vents since I haven't found any other land to be better. Playing around Wasteland has never really been an issue for me.

4. I don't like Clique in this deck. It doesn't provide a function that I've ever felt needed. Fire/Ice is a great card, but ever since Golem was printed, Bolt has gained much more value. EE is a fine card, but I prefer Null Rod, and obviously it doesn't make sense to run both. I've never tested Repeal, so I can't really comment there. It's a good utility card but it doesn't have the best of applications in this deck.

Hope that helps.