JD and Tasigur's Excellent Adventure: A Double Vintage Report

Hello. My name is EyeOfTheStorm. And I'm a comboholic.

I play a lot of Legacy. When I play Legacy, I play to win. My goal going into every tournament is to win. I'll play whatever deck I think gives me the best chance of winning. In Vintage, on the other hand, I just want to make crazy things happen.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play in two great events. The first was my first trip to The Player's Guild where Shawn Griffiths made me feel quite welcome. I sleeved up my take on Samoht's four color Gush PyroBond deck:

Winning the game (5):
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Fastbond
1 Tendrils of Agony

Interaction (12):
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Fire // Ice
1 Toxic Deluge

Drawing cards (22):
4 Gush
4 Preordain
3 Dack Fayden
3 Dig Through Time
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Making mana (21):
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Lotus Petal
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tropical Island

Sideboard (15):
4 Ingot Chewer
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pyroblast
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nature's Claim
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Mountain

The weakest card in this list is the Toxic Deluge. I wanted an answer to Mentor decks, but this deck is pretty greedy with life and the one time I needed Deluge I'd boarded it out. Lotus Petal is way better than Mox Pearl, by the way; this deck can't really use one colorless mana particularly well and Lotus Petal counts double for Dig Through Time and Yawgmoth's Will.

14 players came out, so we played five rounds and cut to top four.

Round 1: Rob on Show & Oath
In game one, Rob keeps a hand without Oath. I have a Fastbond and a Recall, but I start with turn two Pyromancer. Rob has Mental Missteps for my Fastbond and
Recall, but I decide not to fight back. Young Peezy and Dylan Donegan finish Rob off while my hand becomes Force, Force, Flusterstorm. This game really
highlights the power of Young Pyromancer in the build.

I take out Toxic Deluge, Fire//Ice, Ancient Grudge, Preordain and Dack Fayden for 2 Cages, 2 Pyroblast and Nature's Claim.

In game two, we trade resources early but this time I do not have Pyromancer. I Demonic for Lotus so I can hold up Dig Through Time plus Flusterstorm, but Rob
has Decay to make me look silly. I Dig and take a Nature's Claim and a green source, even though I have a Cage in play, passing up on much more powerful
spells. Because I don't have Flusterstorm up, I let Rob's Recall resolve. The result of playing too carefully is that Rob finds two Show and Tells, Iona,
Shield of Emeria, and Flusterstorm. He ends up with Iona in play to my board of Cage, lands, and Nature's Claim in hand. I draw a Vampiric Tutor, but the Deluge
is in my board, and I'm dead.

I put Deluge back in my deck. We both mulligan for game three. I keep four lands, Mox, Cage, but Rob's hand is way better and he quickly Shows me a
Griselbrand. Unsurprisingly, my Deluge is countered and I lose a game in which I never really had a shot. Should have won game two, I guess.

(0-1, 1-2)

Round 2: Keith on U/W Mentor Bomberman (BomentorMan?)
Game one is relatively straight forward: Young Pyromancer and friends get in some damage, I resolve Fastbond and go nuts.

Game two, however, is very interesting. After trading resources early, I establish Pyromancer but Keith has Swords. We both find Library and work towards
getting it active. When Keith gets to six cards, I Dig, which he lets resolve. Keith gets to seven cards first and deploys Mentor. I untap, draw, Gush to seven
cards, and activate Library. Keith Forces my Gush. I Pyroblast his Force. He Missteps. I Flusterstorm. Keith now has Mentor and a handful of disciples, but
my Gush and Library activation resolve and I'm able to Gush again, play Sapphire and Lotus, Scroll for Dig and Dig for Tendrils. I don't find it, but I do find
Jet and Ponder, and since I have a black source up I crack Lotus for blue and Ponder...into Tendrils! Better lucky than good!

(1-1, 3-2)

Round 3: Shawn on Control Oath
Shawn mulligans and keeps a hand that doesn't do much. I establish an early Fastbond. I have Force for Shawn's first Oath but merely Flusterstorm and
Misstep for his second, and suddenly I'm in trouble. I Merchant Scroll for Gush and then Vamp. I should have gotten Will and tried to get there with Gush, Will,
Will back Gush and Scroll for Gush, but instead I Vamp for a second Gush and miss. Shawn's Oath finds Progenitus, but I don't have ten life for Deluge and I
lose another game against Oath I probably should have won.

In game two, Shawn misses on land forever, allowing me to crawl back into a game where I flooded. At one point, I hard cast Gush while Shawn only had one land. Eventually he resolves Oath and then plays Orchard, but I have Tendrils in hand. I Brainstorm, Gush and Dig, but can't get to a lethal storm. I offer Explosives as a Decay target, which Shawn takes. I Scroll for Recall, locking me out of casting Tendrils unless I find Lotus, which I don't, but I do find Time Walk. On my Time Walk turn I DT for Will and win easily. Escaped a close one! Let's hope I can tighten up and get game three. (Spoiler: I won't.)

I keep a very sketchy hand of Mox Sapphire, Mox Ruby, Preordain, Cage, Lotus, Vampiric, Gush. Shawn has Mox, Orchard, Oath, but at least my Cage resolves. I
find a Force, but not until after Shawn DT's for what I assume is Decay. Shawn has a brainfart, though, and activates Oath with my Cage in play. I get greedy,
though, and rather than break Lotus for Vampiric for the second Cage, I just draw. I finally find a land, Vamp for Cage, spend Lotus on Gush and draw the
Cage, but I'm now out of mana and can't cast it. Shawn Decays Cage, the second Griselbrand is not in the bottom two cards of his library, and I die to
Vault/Key on turn four of turns.

This loss really stung. Based on Shawn's hand (Decay, Griselbrand, Yawgmoth's Will, Force), had I Vamped for the second Cage I probably could have just
attacked with my Spirit token eighteen times.

(1-2, 4-4)

Round 4: Nathan on Some Kind of Shops Deck
This deck really doesn't want to lose to Shops. In game one, Nathan has double Mox, Chalice for one on the play, but no other land, so my land, Mox, Time Walk,
land, Dack Fayden steal your Mox effectively ends the game. Then I bring in 4 Chewers, a second Grudge, a Nature's Claim and an Engineered Explosives and
destroy or steal every artifact Nathan puts into play.

(2-2, 6-4)

Round 5: Bill on Landstill
The top 4 happens to be locked, but we play it out anyway. In game 1 Bill mulligans and I resolve an early Fastbond. I take some Factory beats but counter
a Jace and GushBound him to death. Then in game two I have Library on the draw and Bill has...three Factories and a Pearl. Rest in Peace and Stony Silence are
annoying, but without blue mana there's not much Bill can do. Library provides approximately a million cards and soon I have two Pyrmancers and a literal dozen
friends.

(3-2, 8-4)

I finish 7th. My only losses on the day were to Oath, and in three of those four games I think I probably should have won, or at least been much better
positioned, with optimal play. I love this deck and intend to keep working on it moving forward.

But that's not all!

On Sunday, I made my way out to 5D's for their Vintage event, this time sleeving up my take on KanaKaishou's Tasigur Bomberman list:

Humans (9):
3 Trinket Mage
2 Auriok Salvagers
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Notion Thief

Interaction (16):
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Mana Drain
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flusterstorm
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Steel Sabotage

Drawing cards (9):
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

Bad cards (2):
1 Noxious Revival
1 Unburial Rites

Making Mana (24):
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Plains
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard (15):
4 Containment Priest
2 Disenchant
2 Devout Witness
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Path to Exile
1 Rest in Peace
1 Swords to Plowshares

Hey, did you know Tasigur is a Human? It turns out Monastery Mentor may only be the second best Human in Fate Reforged. A quick explanation of what Tasigur does in this deck:

Once you establish Black Lotus + Auriok Salvagers, activate Tasigur until you've milled your entire deck. Then continue activating him until your opponent has
given you every non-land card in your deck. Now target your opponent with Ancestral Recall (make sure Notion Thief isn't in play!). Rebuy the Recall with
Tasigur (it's your opponent's only choice) and continue until they die. Should they try to cast a spell, counter it six times and then rebuy all of your
counterspells. Should you find your Recall exiled, cast Time Walk a million times, play out a Tasigur, two Salvagers, 3 Trinket Mages and a Notion Thief,
Swords all of their creatures, and then use Noxious Revival to return Walk to your deck. On your next turn, draw Walk, re-establish
Bomberman combo, Tasigur back both Noxious Revival and Walk, recast Walk and then Revival it on top of your deck again. Attack your opponent to death.

Of course, the rest of the time Tasigur is "just" a one mana 4/5 with Treasure Trove attached.

Only six people made it out, so we decided to play round robin.

Round 1: Brian Kelly on Brian Kelly TasiGush (Tasigur Gush with Talrand. Plus a white splash in the board for Containment Priest. Look, I don't know either
man.)
In game one I mulligan to five on the draw. I have a Library, but by the time I can get it active I'm too far behind. In game two I have a reasonable hand and
Brian has turn one Jace.

(0-1, 0-2)

Yay Vintage!

Round 2: Sean with Mono White Human ScrollTax Prison
I have Library on the draw. I misstep Sean's Land Tax and his Scroll Rack does not find him a third mana source, so Gifts for Gifts, Treasure Cruise, Recall,
Snapcaster puts him too far behind.

In game 2 I have Misstep for Land Tax again and proceed to destroy or exile everything he plays, including Engineering my Explosives to take out both his
Scroll Rack and his Thalia for four mana total. Oh, and I had Library again, but not until after he Strip Mined my Island. Skill game.

(1-1, 2-2)

Round 3: Tom Dixon on the ~70 card mirror
Tom doesn't have Cavern or Cruise, but he has an extra Tasigur and more countermagic. He's also way better at this format.

In game one I bait Tom with Brainstorm, which eats a Misstep, allowing me to draw Recall. I establish Tasigur first and Force Tom's Swords. Tom has Trinket
Maged for Top, though, so I need to close out this game before his card quality buries me. I activate Tasigur and am given a Sol Ring. I have Academy and Mox
Ruby in play and Mana Drain in hand, but one of Tom's last three cards is Misstep and another is Tasigur and suddenly we're even on board and he has Top.
I find a Swords, but he has double Force (both hardcast) to beat my Swords + Drain. He finds Bomberman and I lose.

I wish I'd kept better notes because I feel like I should have been able to win this game with tighter play.

In game two I choose to play and Tom has Library. My hand is mediocre, but has Revival, Salvagers and Tasigur. On my third turn I draw Lotus because I am a
champion. Tom tries to pretend like he has some kind of interaction but SCREW YOU TOM DIXON SNAP CALL, so I jam Bomberman and it resolves and Tom dies and I feel like the girl whose dream guy just asked her to prom.

In game three Tom puts me on the play, but I have True-Name plus Noxious Revival. Unfortunately, Tom has two counterspells and there is no miracle
Bomberman to save me and my prom date ditched me and hooked up with Sarah and she's so much prettier and than me and now I'm going to die alone.

(1-2, 3-4)

Round 4: Keith (of TPG fame!) still on BomentorMan
Keith is out for vengeance, but once again I ignore Keith's Mentor, protect my spells with Cavern and Force and combo off to kill Keith.

In game 2 I open a hand with Lotus, Salvagers, Crypt, Library and Gifts, but no counter magic. Keith has turn one Mentor and I don't care. My plan is to sit
back on Library until I find countermagic. I run out an Engineered Explosives to dissuade Keith from going all in, and it works, but soon I am at fifteen and
still have not found countermagic. I decide to give it one more turn. Keith's answer to that is to draw Brainstorm into Time Walk into untap, Swords my guy,
Misstep my Swords, kill you. Well don't I feel silly.

Game three is my favorite of the weekend. I keep a reasonable hand of Recall, True-Name, Force, Tundra, Cavern, Sapphire, Academy. Unfortunately, I flood
out, drawing lands for five of my first six draw steps. Keith also has a Cavern and resolves a Trinket Mage to find Sensei's Divining Top but fortunately he
does not apply too much pressure.

I end up playing Cavern on Human despite the True-Name in my hand in order to resolve a Salvagers (that gets sent Plowing by Swords).

Eventually, though, Keith plays Ethersworn Canonist and this is where I screw up. At this point my hand is Recall, Drain, and Force with the mana to cast
all three, but the Canonist was cast with Cavern mana, so I can't counter it. I should finally go for Recall in response, but I totally forget how
Canonist works, so I let it resolve thinking my end of turn Recall will be safe. Obviously Canonist is an artifact, so Keith counters my Recall and I fall
way behind.

I draw another Force because my decks love irony as much as I do and fortunately resolve True-Name to stop the beatdown. We both find Salvagers but Keith
finda another Trinket Mage to establish Bomberman and then Top finda him Mentor. He uses Bomberman to make a million dudes and passes.

I declare my only out is Tasigur (through Cavern) into something amazing off his activation, but draw Trinket Mage, who it turns out is much better.
Uncounterable Trinket Mage finds Engineered Explosives, which Keith calmly Forces, assuming the game is over, but I activate Salvagers, rebuying
Explosives, and played it on zero again. Locked under his own Canonist, Keith has to let it resolve. Explosives kills millions of faithful Monks. Keith makes
another million, but True-Name blocks the Mentor and suddenly we are stalemated again. Keith goes for a Dig Through Time, but I have Drain and he
can't fight back because of Canonist.

I draw DT for turn but am unable to protect it under Canonist, so with eight Drain mana, I clear out the tokens and then EE for three, not
realizing that takes out my True-Name in addition to Keith's Mentor (doh!). Keith draws, plays out a land and goes down to one card in hand.

Time is called in the round.

I draw for my turn...Trinket Mage! I Mage for Lotus, establish my own Bomberman combo, detonate Explosives at two, and then DT with Force backup.
I managed to pull out this game!

Or so I thought. Keith's last card is Flusterstorm.

We pause. How does this work? I have infinite mana...but I've also played infinite spells. Okay, time to work this out.

Trinket Mage is storm one. Black Lotus is storm two. Then I sacrifice Black Lotus getting three mana, return it with Salvagers for two mana, and replay it.
That's plus one storm and plus one mana, and I did it, oh, let's say n times. So now storm is n+2 and I have n mana floating. Returning EE costs two, playing it
costs two and bumps up storm, activating it costs two, and playing DT costs two and bumps up storm. All said, I have n-8 mana floating and storm is n+4, plus
the original copy of Flusterstorm, so I have to pay 13 mana for Flusterstorm. Bomberman combo is sorcery speed only, and I only have 10 mana available, so
Demonic Tutor is countered and I pass back with a Force in hand.

Keith spins Top, draws for turn, then draws with Top, uses Bomberman for infinite mana, and plays Pithing Needle. Now this is an interesting one: I'm
thinking Keith is going to name Salvagers, keeping us both off infinite mana, meaning the game will likely draw unless his last card kills me. If he'd found a
Spellbomb or a Tasigur or some other Human or trinket that killed me, I'd already be dead, so I figure I might have to save my Force. Needle resolves and
Keith names Engineered Explosives, then plays a Mentor with Cavern and makes a million guys.

Oops. Hadn't considered that, even though it was the most likely outcome given what I'd seen of Keith's deck.

I am only turn three, so I get one draw step to win the game or I will lose to Pithing Needle with Force in my hand.

I draw card face down. Everyone else, matches finished, is watching us now.

"Bomberman combo. Infinite mana. And..."

I slam the facedown card.

"Snapcaster Mage!"

With a lucky topdeck, I flashback DT for Tasigur and kill Keith.

Neither my misplays nor my slaughter of millions of innocent Monks was punished and Keith's vengeance will have to wait for another day.

(2-2, 5-5)

One round to go.

Keith (different one this time) on GiftRit Storm
I keep a hand with Force and Drain, plus Trinket Mage, a land and some Moxen. Keith Probes me and passes. I Mage up a Sapphire so I will have Drain mana up
next turn. Keith plays a Dark Ritual. My gut says it's bait, but I bite anyway and Force pitching a second Mage. Trinket Mage beats down for a few turns, but I
don't draw any more protection so when Keith goes for Will and I Drain, his Force is good to go. His Will replays a Time Walk and a Wheel of Fortune. My
Wheel hand is useless. Keith's is not and I die.

In game two I keep two Forces, two Missteps, Steel Sabotage, Tasigur and land. I get greedy and don't Sabotage a Jet which comes back to bite me when my Misstep on Keiths Thoughtseize is met with Flusterstorm. Thoughtseize takes a Force. I find a fetch and pass. I don't repeat my mistake and Sabotage Keith's Misstep a Pithing Needle, but Keith Missteps back and names Tasigur, which I untap and play.

Keith goes for Timetwister and I Force. Attack with Tasigur.

Keith goes for Deluge. I've drawn another Force. Attack with Tasigur.

Keith needs a good one...and draws it. Recall into Seal, Mox, Tendrils to stave off death for a turn.

Attack with Tasigur.

Time to see what Keith Sealed for. He draws and plays...Yawgmoth's Will. What have I drawn for the turn? Flusterstorm, you say? Deal! Flusterstorm taps Keith
out, but he still has land, Recall. Fortunately he doesn't hit and we get to play one more game.

Apparently, Keith's other option was to Seal for Tinker for Sphinx of the Steel Wind. With my removal in the board, that probably would have been game over for
me.

My opener in game three had Lotus and Salvagers but Keith's Duress took my Force, so when my draw step yielded Crypt, I opted to Time Walk, Noxious Revival
Force, and then establish Bomberman even though I had nothing to do with the mana. That went as planned without needing the Force and I attacked for two.

Keith passes. He knows about Force and Drain in my hand.

I draw a second Force. Attack for two and pass.

Keith passes again. I draw Recall, but Recall into two lands and an Explosives. Explosives is nice because it means I won't die to Crypt, but it still isn't a
win. I blow up Keith's Mox Jet and replay my Lotus and Crypt, keeping up hardcast Force + Drain, with another Force in hand, but no blue card.

Keith plays Dark Ritual. Not falling for that again; it resolves. He plays two more spells and then Tendrils for eight, putting me to six, but I have Explosives so I'm not scared of Crypt.

My draw step yields a third Force of Will. Take note, dear reader: this is how to be good at this game.

Keith's draw doesn't help, but I draw Top. By tapping Top and responding by exploding Explosives, I can draw a card without putting the Top on top, so I
draw my deck and put Keith out of his misery.

It turns out Explosives hitting Mox was crucial. Had Keith had the Mox, he could have cast Ritual, then Will, Forced my Force, let my Drain resolve and then play
Mox, Mox, Tendrils for lethal, but blowing up the Mox left him one mana short.

(3-2, 7-6)

Another 3-2 finish on the weekend, making me 6-4 in matches (60%) and 15-10 in games (also 60%), not awful but certainly improvable.

I really like the Gush PyroBond deck. I've played BUG-colored GushBond lists and really disliked them, but Pyromancer adds a very valuable angle.

The Bomberman deck was very fun, but it definitely needs some work. I respect KanaKaishou's vision of a control-combo deck, but many of the interactive cards
like Disenchant and Steel Sabotage feel underpowered too much of the time. I think I'd like to see the deck sped up a little and try to improve consistency,
maybe by trimming on lands and bad interactive spells and playing Preordain or Night's Whisper.

Anyway, thanks to The Player's Guild, 5D's and all of my opponents for making this weekend so much fun. Thanks to Moxxie for proofreading. Finally, thank you, reader; I love feedback, so please leave your comments below.

And remember, until next time, "Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!"