Gush Tendrils @ Top Deck Games Winter Open, T4 Split

[Samoht]

We had 55 players show up to fight for the Winter Open. I recently sold all of my cards and so I had to borrow a deck to play today. Matt Murray (Chubby Rain), who is a gentleman and a scholar, not only offered to lend me a deck but also showed the courtesy of building it for me too! He sent me the list on Facebook and I decided to follow his lead. Matt is a very strong deck builder and has provided me with some top flight builds in the past, so I trusted in his skills explicitly. Matt was running a little late to the event (though he still made it on time) so I ran around and borrowed cards from other people to get there. Going from 0 to 75 in 20 minutes was very gratifying. Special thanks to Roland Chang for the bulk of it, but also to Chris Pankeiwicz, Hank, Nick DiJohn and someone who wishes to remain nameless. Their help didn't go unnoticed and is just a hallmark of what makes Vintage in the NE so awesome.

Gush Tendrils + Young Peezy:
3 Dack Fayden
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Fastbond
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Brainstorm
3 Dig Through Time
1 Fire/Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Island

Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mountain
4 Ingot Chewer
2 Nature's Claim
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Engineered Explosives

Round 1: Bye! Having won an event at TDG earlier in the year let me take round one off. I used the time to go grab lunch with Keith Seals and we talked about our families and the recent kinship we've struck. It helped center me and reminded me to focus on the task at hand.

Round 2: Patrick Morris - Martello Shops
Game 1: Pat had to mulligan a little but but he has Chalice 0 and a Sphere effect off Workshop on t1. I respond with Library. He has an additional Sphere but no land drop or pressure. It is another 3 turns before he finds a Wasteland to eat my Library, but at this point I am well over his Spheres to keep Force live. He draws a second Shop and puts down more Spheres. However, I never miss a land drop and am able to FoW his Forgemaster. Eventually I find a Pyromancer or two that dodge the Thorns and close the game. At one point I had all of my lands in play. Pat later told me he was holding a Sundering Titan that would have wrecked me (would have eaten 4 lands) but he never got above his Sphere of Resistance's.

Sideboard:
-3 Mental Misstep
-2 Flusterstorm
-1 Tendrils of Agony
-1 Yawgmoth's Will
-1 Preordain
+4 Ingot Chewer
+1 Mountain
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Nature's Claim

Game 2: I am able to land Dack Fayden after protecting myself with Chewer's, Grudge's, and Claims. Pyromancer finishes the deal along with my new Forgemaster that Dack acquired. I make an interesting play where I throw away 2 tokens to get him to animate his Factories so that I can take them with Dack Fayden.

After the match Pat tells me that he thinks I'm on Delver and that he sideboarded according to that. I tell him that I'm actually on Gush Tendrils. He remarks that it's pretty crazy that I didn't see a Gush in either game considering they were both pretty long. I agree with him and count out my deck. It's 56 cards. Apparently in my borrowing frenzy there was a mistake in the clerical department. I called over the Judge and explain the situation to him. Having checked the lists he knew that I had registered a 60 card pool and that Gush was supposed to be there. He advises us that they don't retroactively punish for such errors and advises me to find Gush before round 3. Michael Savage and Roland both rush over to get me squared away. It was pretty embarrassing, but I definitely wished that I had the Gush's in my deck for the match. I apologized to Pat throughout the day.

Round 3: Michael Savage - 4c Keeper
Game 1: I find Library on the draw again so Mike has to try to win quickly. He has a fast Voltaic Key. He casts Time Walk which I force so that I can get a blue source down so that I can use the Flusterstorm in my hand. I also make sure to go to use library before casting FoW so I +1-2+1 to keep Library online the next turn. He casts DT which I let through because he can't put down Vault and use it and I have Dack in hand. He just passes the turn. I get to make a second U drop and Black Lotus and use LoA again, so when Mike tries to cast Time Vault I am able to respond with Gush + Ancestral + Dig Through Time which finds me Ancient Grudge for the Key. He had a Flusterstorm for it but so did I. We each had one mana available so my Flusterstorm trumped his. From there Mike sees the writing on the wall as I untap and play Dack to take his Vault and have 7 cards + LoA to his 1 card and 3 land board. This interaction of Flusterstorm is something I see commonly misunderstood by players. Flusterstorm doesn't trump Flusterstorm directly. Simply paying for a copy of your opponents will resolve one of your copies and thus defeat the opposing spell you initially tried to Flusterstorm. If mana is even it likely won't matter, as they can react to you paying for theirs by then paying for yours, but oft times I see people erroneously binning spells that they could easily have resolved.

Sideboard:
-1 Island
-1 Dack Fayden
-1 Ancient Grudge
+2 Pyroblast
+1 Engineered Explosives

Game 2: I have an early Young Pyromancer while he has Welders and Key. He thinks about attacking at one point but chooses not to. I cast Brainstorm and laud his decision to not trade a Welder for a token. I attack him with Pyromancer and 5 tokens while he is at 14. He elects not to block and go to 7, signaling to me that he has some tricks for his next turn and wants both Welders. I cast DT -> Fastbond -> Yawgmoth's Will -> DT -> Tendrils for lethal Storm with no back up.

Round 4: Shawn Griffiths - Martello Shops
Game 1: Shawn has to mulligan to 5 and is controlled by Force of Will on his Sphere while having Strip Mine into Sol Ring to pay for it. I follow up with Fastbond into Dack Fayden taking his Sol Ring. Shawn has seen enough so we go onto game 2.

Sideboard:
-3 Mental Misstep
-2 Flusterstorm
-1 Tendrils of Agony
-1 Gush
-1 Preordain
+4 Ingot Chewer
+1 Mountain
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Nature's Claim

Game 2: Again, the slew of hate from the sideboard really controls the game and Engineered Explosives clears the Sphere effects and I am able to Hardcast Ingot Chewer and then Dack Fayden.

Round 5: ID w/ Jake Gans

Round 6: ID w/ Joe Milia

Top 8: Patrick Morris - Martello Shops
Game 1: Pat advises me hasn't lost all day to a 60 card deck. I laugh sheepishly and tell him that I'll try to avenge my error in Rd 2 by winning again. He laughs and says he hopes not. We have a fun and engaging game in which we jest quite a bit. Pat lands a Sphere and a Tangle Wire, but I manage to play through it and keep FoW live. I am able to stop the first Forgemaster with it. Later, I grudge a second Forgemaster before it gets active. Eventually Pyromancer find his way to the battlefield and closes the game in a few turns with Dack Fayden menacing.

Sideboard:
-3 Mental Misstep
-2 Flusterstorm
-1 Tendrils of Agony
-1 Gush
-1 Preordain
+4 Ingot Chewer
+1 Mountain
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Nature's Claim

Game 2: We both mulligan, but I stop at 6 while Pat rides the frowntown express to 5. I have everything I could need while Pat is stuck on mana again. In order to keep Dack Fayden's loyalty up I target Pat with the looting as I don't want to discard any of the cards in my hand. I show him that the jig is up and we shake hands. Our matches were both one sided because of mana issues, his poor draws and my successful ones.

Top 4: Shawn Griffiths - Martello Shops
We all decide to ID and prize split. The deck was running great for me and it was nice to wield Blue again, but I really wanted to get out to the post event celebration considering it was my Birthday party. Plus, Brian and Shawn are friends of mine and Joe probably will be too soon. Seeing as you have to win out to beat a t4 split we all agreed. I was very happy with the deck and grateful to everyone who lent me cards!

The event was awesome and I look forward to seeing everyone next year! Even though I'm moving to Connecticut shortly I'll still do my best to be at all the TDG events and major ones in the area while trying to make a few trips down to PA to support those guys there too. Vintage is awesome and I relish the privilege to keep playing it.

[Chubby Rain]

Congrats on top 4'ing Tom and great write up.

Edit: Happy Birthday too.

[EyeOfTheStorm]

Loved the report, but was less of a fan of getting crushed by this deck in ChubbyRain's hands the next day.

Any thoughts on the list? I'm not sold on the Pearl (vs., say, Sol Ring), I'm intrigued by Merchant Scroll over Mystical Tutor, and I think the Red Elemental Blasts should be Pyroblasts, what with Promancer and Tendrils in the deck.

Congrats on the finish!

[Changster]

Congrats on the win, Tom!  Glad I could help out 

...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, old man!

[Samoht]

Any thoughts on the list? I'm not sold on the Pearl (vs., say, Sol Ring), I'm intrigued by Merchant Scroll over Mystical Tutor, and I think the Red Elemental Blasts should be Pyroblasts, what with Promancer and Tendrils in the deck.

100% should be Pyroblasts. Roland didn't have them on him so they were REB's for me but your reasoning is correct.

I actually didn't think much about Pearl vs Ring and I'm not sure how much Matt did either. In short, I'd say that Pearl enables Pyromancer faster and encourages Chalice 0 which is easier to fight through than Chalice 1. Most of our spells are colored so Ring doesn't help us do much else than pay for Spheres. I'd definintely play Pearl over Mana Crypt because of potential losing of flips/rolls. That said, it might be right to board out the Pearl over the Island in the blue mirror.

Scroll is required in a Gush deck, especially one that is trying to get to a potentially lethal Tendrils. Chaining Gush with Fastbond down is the easiest way for the deck to win. Additionally, Mystical Tutor loses you a card and traps the card on top of the library. I'm very confident in the set up as is regarding the tutor package.

[Samoht]

Congrats on the win, Tom!  Glad I could help out 

...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, old man!

I really appreciate it Roland!

Thanks! I've been saying I'm old for years, but now it's official.

[Chubby Rain]

Loved the report, but was less of a fan of getting crushed by this deck in ChubbyRain's hands the next day.

Any thoughts on the list? I'm not sold on the Pearl (vs., say, Sol Ring), I'm intrigued by Merchant Scroll over Mystical Tutor, and I think the Red Elemental Blasts should be Pyroblasts, what with Promancer and Tendrils in the deck.

Congrats on the finish!

The deck really isn't built to use the double colorless mana and turn 1 pyromancer draws are so broken in this deck (and most other pyromancer decks) that I think Pearl is right. When comboing I also find that I need colored mana more than colorless mana and having to spend a colored mana to get two colorless back is gernerally worse than getting a colorless mana for nothing else but the card. I'm also in agreeance with Tom on Scroll over Tutor. Tom mentioned the card disadvantage but I would also like to point out that card disadvantage does not synergize well with Dack and Dig. These cards thrive on a steady stream of cards and generate the inevitability of this deck going into the late game. The deck can play control, combo, and tempo effectively depending on draws and matchups and I think that is definitely one of it's strengths.

It's always a pleasure to play against you, JD and I look forward to the next match. We need a tie-breaker as I think we are 1-1.

[boggyb]

very cool. Congrats!

How do you think the list compares to the transformational Oath version from Champs and VSL this fall?

[Samoht]

very cool. Congrats!

How do you think the list compares to the transformational Oath version from Champs and VSL this fall?

I don't think that the change is warranted. There isn't very much effective hate for the MD plan out there that would be bad against the Oath move. I think it just eats SB slots and makes our other MU's worse. At best we're just dodging G2 Cage and playing chicken in G3. I'd rather just play the deck as is, it's super versatile in role assignment as is.

[ShamanBen]

Great write up and very helpful matchup/sideboard coverage. Very much looking forward to giving this deck a run.

[ramrodjon]

Great job, Tom, and excellent write up!  The sideboard choices from a vintage master are very helpful.  I'm interested in seeing the other lists (besides you and Joe M.)  Hopefully TDGs will be posting?

[Samoht]

Great job, Tom, and excellent write up!  The sideboard choices from a vintage master are very helpful.  I'm interested in seeing the other lists (besides you and Joe M.)  Hopefully TDGs will be posting?

It should be coming soon.

[boggyb]

I don't think that the change is warranted. There isn't very much effective hate for the MD plan out there that would be bad against the Oath move. I think it just eats SB slots and makes our other MU's worse. At best we're just dodging G2 Cage and playing chicken in G3. I'd rather just play the deck as is, it's super versatile in role assignment as is.

Okay. It's a little more complex than that, though, since the other version is pretty different. Basically, it eschews Pyromancer, Dack, and Grudge in favor of Abrupt Decay, Jace, and Tinker->Bot, so you're heavier on control, and therefore stronger against Oath/Blue control/combo but weaker to Delver/Shops so you make that up with an overpowering Oath sideboard. That's the idea, anyway.

I think the question hinges on how good Pyromancer is in a given meta, and also on how much "raw power" Dack has in this deck (i.e. how much power it has besides its obvious trump-ability vs. shops), which I'm not sure of, having never played it.

Does that sound fair? Any thoughts?

[Chubby Rain]

1) I voted Young Peezy as the best creature in Vintage and I stand by that vote. The advantage this deck has is that it doesn't need him to win. You still have Tendrils and can pitch him to Dack if needed. I've also sided him out when I think the opponent is bringing in Electrickery or Slice and Dice.

2) Dack is absolutely incredible in this deck - all of his abilities. Looting is synergistic with Gush, Dig and Will. Stealing an artifact is both disruptive and serves as ramp for the deck if needed. And the -6 ability is game ending with Fire/Ice and Pyroblast. I won one game on Sunday when I Iced my opponent's Tezzeret the Seeker and killed him with it. I've also Pyroblasted a Fastbond and used it to combo of, Fired two Pyromancers, let the Dack triggers resolved, the countered the fire, getting two tokens out of it, and there has been several other instances.

[boggyb]

cool. How do you play vs. UR Delver, usually? I imagine you're usually controlling them but I wonder how you board, what role Pyromancer plays, how you deal with a fast start from them (given your low density of removal and reliance on durdley cantrips), how good Dack is, etc. I played the controlling Gush Tendrils deck for a while and always struggled against UR Delver, esp. once Cruise was printed. Is it a good matchup?

My strong inclination is to try and fit 2 Bolts in there between MD and board. Eh?

How's it fare vs. dredge?

[Samoht]

I'd try to out speed Delver as opposed to trying to control them. They are by nature a stronger control deck than we are. Our biggest leverage points are Will and Tendrils.

[Chubby Rain]

As a follow up to this, I took the exact list to a finals split at TPG in Bloomsburg. We had 23 players in attendance with 5 rounds of swiss. Very briefly...

Round 1 I get paired against Keith on American Delver with Stoneforge Mystics and combo off in both games with little resistance, playing suboptimally to put it nicely but getting bailed out by the power of the deck.

Round 2 I play against Rob Edwards on Oath and he dies to his spirit tokens game 1 and his spirit tokens + a mini-tendrils game 2.

Round 3 I have an interesting and fun match against Alex Mercer on an Oath brew with Wastelands, Terastodon, and Admonition Angel. Manage to take this down in a close game 3.

Round 4 I get paired down against Jon Geras on Terra Nova, win game 1 but keep sketchy hands games 2 and 3 and don't get there.

Round 5 ID

Top 8 Naturally get paired against the Bomberman Justin Kohler and game 1 he Kohlers me with a turn 1 uncounterable Magus of the Future. I get a very narrow window to combo off and am able to take advantage of it and Tendrils him out from a very unfavorable board state. Game 2 I get Kohlered again. This time it was a turn 1 Ancestral and Jace, both of which resolve. Yeah, it was brutal. Game 3 was the opposite of a Kohler in which he misses colored mana for a few turns and I am able to pull away.

Top 4 was against Josh Potuchek on American Bomberman. I recommend checking out his list and write up but we play 3 grindy games with me pulling it out in the end.

Top 2 split with Bill Sees. I wanted to get home and watch the second half of the Steelers game. I regret that decision.

Winnings go towards my second Tropical Island and now the deck is unproxied, along with foil Preordain x 2 because I like shiny things.

Props: Shawn, Calvin, Justin, Brian, Rob, Josh, Jon, etc...

Slops: My crappy immune system...

I definitely recommend giving this deck a try. In the three tournaments Tom and I have ran it in, the deck has gone 15-1-4 not counting Tom's bye.

[Minkar]

Can you explain the reasoning for boarding out Yawgmoth's in round 2 against Martello, but keeping it for round 4 in place of Gush?

[Chubby Rain]

Can you explain the reasoning for boarding out Yawgmoth's in round 2 against Martello, but keeping it for round 4 in place of Gush?

Tom forgot to put Gushes in his deck for Round 2 so that was probably why he didn't side one out.

I normally keep Will in because of the ability to cheaply rebuy Ingot Chewers and Nature's Claims as well as land drops. On the other side, I generally don't want to draw multiple Gushes in the early game against Shops as it makes it hard to outpace their spheres so I go down to three. Tom may have different rationale.

[Samoht]

Can you explain the reasoning for boarding out Yawgmoth's in round 2 against Martello, but keeping it for round 4 in place of Gush?

Matt hit the nail on the head. I SB'd based on what I saw in the deck as the least useful in Rd2. I had erroneously not had Gush's in the deck then as I stated in the report (my first post bye round) and consequently didn't think about boarding them out because they weren't there. I pulled out the obviously bad cards like Misstep, Flusterstorm, and Tendrils but had to make 2 more cuts. I decided that a Preordain on the Draw made a lot of sense seeing as it is not very good against the average Shop deck/hand (gets pushed out by Spheres, turns off FoW under Sphere's, etc.) and then the next least effective card I could think of was Will. We had no backbreaking Will lines that came to mind once we lost Tendrils and so I dropped it. I later thought that if I had a few Ingot Chewer in the GY I could resolve Will and break out of a really bad spot, but that was probably unlikely. After correcting the deck error and talking through my SB plans a bit with Matt over the course of the day, I decided that Gush was not a card I wanted 4 of against Shops anyway. As such, I made the switch when it came time to play Shawn again. It was not a techy move or anything of the sort. I had just never played with the list before and I was focused on making the best decisions with what was in front of me. As I stated in the TR, Matt had done all the heavy lifting regarding deck building and testing. It was my first time ever picking up the deck so I didn't notice things like missing cards from the deck when sideboarding.