120+ players showed up for Vintage on Sunday at Tales of Adventure in greater Allentown, PA (North of Philly, Southwest of New York) for Eternal Extravaganza 2, managing to attract more entrants than the companion Modern event on the same day. Go Vintage. I played the following list, going 5-0, ID-ing into the Top 8, winning the first single elim match and then agreeing to split with Chris Stagno (Oath), Greg Fenton (Oath), and Nicholas DiJohn (Shops). We were going to play it out for the valor though it ended up getting late and two people had extremely long drives on a Sunday (including a five hour drive to Pittsburgh) so the big three archetypes of Vintage (Shops, Oath, Gush Ag'Gro) each succeeded in producing undefeated decks.
UWRb Mentor
Artifacts:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Creatures:
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Notion Thief
1 Snapcaster Mage
Instants:
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
3 Gush
3 Dig Through Time
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Repeal
1 Fire // Ice
Planeswalkers:
3 Dack Fayden
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sorceries:
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
Land:
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Library of Alexandria
Sideboard:
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Containment Priest
1 Rest in Peace
1 Aegis of the Gods
2 Steel Sabotage
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Wear // Tear
1 Sudden Shock
1 Supreme Verdict
The list differs from other Mentor approaches by using the card not as a 4x build-around gimmick but simply as the finisher in a heavy card advantage Planeswalker control shell. I also think it's important particularly in the Northeast to not cheat on land despite the fact that in a vacuum, Gush is a "mana source." I've experienced and witnessed more game losses due to not finding that second Island not only against Wasteland decks but also in blue mirrors, so the philosphy here is "Get those Islands, let Dack get rid of the excess, and heaven forbid, worst case scenario, use the mana to chain Dig Through Times." Merchant Scroll is a reasonable candidate for being the best card in the deck. It does everything, finding whatever draw spell the situation calls for (fantastic after Probing), Flusterstorms for blowouts, either of the maindeck removals (Repeal, Fire//Ice), or Gush to rescue Volcanic Islands (we all know why). The quasi-four color mana base was made workable by not running Demonic Tutor, Will, or Vamp since they seduce you into fetching Underground Seas and don't do too much in a non-Tinker/Oath list that isn't already accomplished by Dig Through Time. Notion Thief has been preferable to the third Mentor because it gives you more game against decks that try to Vintage you and it's a total finisher unto itself with Dack Fayden. I don't like drawing early or multiple Mentors against things like Tendrils, Vault, Oath, Doomsday, et. al. or even Shop where 2W can be an issue and the first 3-CMC spell you want on the table is Dack Fayden, not Monastery Mentor. Going up to 3 maindeck Dack Faydens has been fantastic. A final notable feature is the lack of non-card advantage removal. I hate having dead Swords to Plowshares or Lightning Bolts in hand at any time; those cards put your opponent's choices in the driver's seat. Instead of obsessing over grinding out a creatures deck, this list prefers to just draw a million cards and put itself in the position where that card advantage and Digging enables you to "deal with problems" via broken Vintage shenanigans like taking three consecutive turns, making a million Monks, tutoring up Fire//Ice and flashing it back, Jace-bouncing and Dack-Thiefing something away, etc. One of the funniest episodes in testing was using Dack-Ultimate and Fire//Ice to steal an Omniscience. I still can't believe that happened. Go to hell, Boseiju.
Report:
Round 1: Seth Zulinsky on TV/Key/Top Gifts Control, Win 2-1
Game 1 I lost the die roll but fanned open a 7 that looked like heaven to me. Delta, Mana Crypt, Ancestral Recall, Probe, Flusterstorm, Jace, Dig Through Time. He played Flooded Strand, Mox, Sensei's Divining Top, pass. To make matters even better, my first draw was Mox Sapphire. I Probed him and saw Land, Brainstorm, Gifts Ungiven. "What a blowout," I thought. He Brainstormed, it seemed harmless, I didn't fight. To my abject horror, on his next turn he played.... Counterbalance. "Wait a minute, what?" I Recalled in resp, he Forced pitching Gifts. Next turn I drew Dack, played Dig Through Time and found another Dack and a Mentor. He did not have an 8-CMC handy. The only spell I ever resolved for the rest of the game was a single Dack Fayden, that died to a Snapcaster Mage flashing back Brainstorm, putting Gifts Ungiven on top of library to counter my Jace.
Ugh. I was amazed. The match was spirited and humorous overall; I joked with him by saying he was "playing a troll deck" and that I would "destroy" him for vengeance.
Game 2, I played a land, pass. He played Mox, Top, Fetchland, Sapphire, Counterbalance; I Forced; He Forced back; I Flusterstormed his Force. "Hell no." He was down to 1 card, I was at 2 I think, but fortunately, 1 of them was Gush. He ended up buried under CA, Digs, Planeswalkers, and Monks.
Game 3, he played Counterbalance but no Top. I found Library of Alexandria early on and may have Gushed up to 7 cards. Because there was no Top, I was able to test the waters of Counterbalance with off-color Moxen. He played an early Ambush Viper Snapcaster, no relevant Flashback. I eventually resolved a Jace and fatesealed his Sapphire to the bottom because I wanted to play my own to hold up Flusterstorm, as his hand was Gifts, Gifts, Drain, Massacre. My Sapphire ended up countered by a Polluted Delta, requiring me to Force his first Gifts, let the second one resolve (X, Demonic, Mystical, Vamp with Counterbalance in play-disgusting!) and then pretend I was depleted when he went for Yawgmoth's, which I ultimately did Force. I played a Monk forcing his hand on the Massacre, which was great cause I wanted his Snapcaster dead. I played a single irrelevant spell to rescue the Mentor by making it 3/3. Then as the match went to turns, I made more Monks and they got there in time. Justice.
Round 2: Brian Pallas on Forgemaster Greaves, Win 2-1
I knew him as a Shop guy, lost the die roll, he played Tomb, Mox, Chalice 1 which didn't match up well with my hand of Fetch, Mox, Dack, Land, Force, Misstep, X. I played fetch pass. He played Greaves, Cavern Construct, Pass. I played Dack and stole the Greaves to keep him off Forgemaster nonsense. I Dacked away useless Flusterstorms and Chaliced out Probes. Played Monastery Mentor and equipped Greaves to it, then in subsequent turns, equipped Greaves to fresh Monks that needed haste. Stole his Mox. We know how this goes.
Game 2, I had Chewer, 3 mana sources (fetch, Island, Mox), Containment Priest, Gush, and Preordain. He played Chalice 1 again. Land Mox pass. He played Revoker, I tapped my Mox for green, he named Dack Fayden. He Equipped Greaves to Revoker, I considered flashing in Priest but waited. I drew a Chaliced out Probe. I was hoping when he tapped all his lands on his next turn that it would be for Forgemaster and I could execute a Containment Priest blowout but unfortunately, it was a hardcast Steel Hellkite with Greaves in play. Gush in response, no Force or Steel Sabotage found, good game.
Game 3, I Probed him, he had Tomb, Mox, Greaves, Spellskite, Golem, Forgemaster, something else. I played Sapphire, Mana Crypt, Land, Jace, fateseal: see Phyrexian Revoker, BOTTOM that trash. He played Greaves. On my turn I Brainstormed with Jace, fetched Tundra, played Monastery Mentor and then made some Monks with actual Brainstorm (the restricted Instant) and another spell. He played Spellskite. I played Dack, stole Greaves, he redirected to Spellskite as I expected, I gladly took Spellskite and attacked for a lot. The situation got out of hand very quickly.
Round 3: Lance Ballester on Punishing Fire Landstill, Win 2-0
Lance Wasted and Strip Mined me aggressively but lo and behold, there's that Polluted Delta and we go Gushing into Dack, steal his Ruby, and suddenly Jace is involved. I Forced his Standstill. We go to game 2.
Game 2, he kept a get there hand with Grove, Factory, Dack, Notion Thief, and some stuff but it took a few turns to find the blue source. Meanwhile, I got Jace, Fatesealed, and put that Scalding Tarn on the bottom. When he found a fetchland and played Dack, discarding Punishing Fire and setting up a Delve draw spell for the following turn, I did the rudest thing ever which is to Dig Through Time my entire graveyard and follow it up with Rest in Peace. GG.
Round 4: Jonathan Geras on Merfolk, Win 2-1
I didn't know what he was on and with Jon, there's a 45% chance it's Shops, a 45% chance it's Merfolk, and a 10% chance it's something else. It's never Bomberman, cause that deck is irrelevant. Two days before the event while doing work-related research I had terrifying visions in the back of my head all day of getting double True-Named off a Cavern or having my planeswalkers + blocks disabled by a bunch of uncounterable Lords. Sometimes even Elesh Norn is not enough with the 'folk. Balance is potentially a blowout but in practice has been really awkward in a field of Gush, given the land and hand clauses. The existence of TNN and Mentor led to the decision to cut Swords from the SB entirely and just play Sudden Shock and Supreme Verdict. Strangely enough though, neither card came up during the match.
To my horror, he led with Island. I knew that meant Merfolk. My hand was land, land, land, Mox, Force of Will, Force of Will, MM. Not great but had potential if he were on Shop and I drew into any cantrip/business spell, which is like 70% of the deck. Luckily his Merfolk hand was slow and after some Strip effects, nothing happened until a mid-game True-Name
without a Cavern. I tapped out to hardcast Force of Will (a bad card whose impotence is usually magnified by a factor of 10 in the Cavern Merfolk match-up), he Dazed it, I Forced again, and miraculously the True-Name was gone. All I was drawing this game was mana and counterspells. I probed him and saw Wasteland, Time Walk, Master of the Pearl Trident, Island, Island. Not as scary as I would have imagined. Eventually I got Dack who started turning my bad counterspells into real cards. He played the Lord, Time Walked, killed Dack. I don't remember how it all went down precisely, but I ended up with a Mentor in play and Fire//Icing his Lord after he played Silvergill Adept. I Forced or Flustered a Treasure Cruise at some point. Turn 1, when I saw his Island and learned he was on Merfolk, with my keep of counterspells and land, and then drawing more of the same, I thought I was out of the game entirely and was on tilt. I was surprised I ended up winning that game. If he had Cavern of Souls I would have been bloodied.
Game 2, He Merfolked me hard. I was on mull 6, with fetchland, Top, Brainstorm, Jace, Fire//Ice, and Probe. He led on the play with Cursecatcher and Probe revealed Wasteland, 2 Lords, and a Force of Will. By the critical turn during which I was facing lethal, which was super early, maybe Turn 3 or something, I was unable to pay for both Dig Through Time and Time Walk because of the Cursecatcher and he Forced the Dig anyway.
Game 3, I Probed him looking for Force; it was not there. His hand was Cavern, Wasteland, Dismember, Cursecatcher, Lord, and stuff that didn't matter for my intentions. I said, "Ok, you're in trouble." Black Lotus, Monastery Mentor, Emerald, Fetchland, Time Walk. Untap, play Mana Crypt, attack for 7. He had to go to 9 to Dismember the Mentor. I drew blank, attacked for 3 more. He played Cursecatcher, I played Snapcaster Mage, Time Walk, he went to 1 life, the Cursecatcher died, etc.
Round 5: Chris (Sorry can't remember last name) on UWR Cavern Delver.
He wins die roll, plays Cavern of Souls naming Human and taps it. I was thinking it may have been a cool Noble Hierarch Humans deck or a Bob/Thalia contraption but instead, he played Delver of Secrets. The Delver flipped fast and despite drawing a lot of cards, I was down to like ~10 before eliminating the Delver and then he played an uncounterable Monastery Mentor and had found Force of Will off Preordain one turn after a Probe revealed the coast had been clear. He Forced something that wasn't necessarily Force-worthy on its own, but it made a Monk and that sealed my fate.
Game 2, I Jace-Ultimated him. Rumors of Jace's demise are greatly exaggerated. If there's any deck where Jace should have absolutely no chance of survival, it's URx Gush Ag-'Gro where pretty much every card in the deck kills Jace for 1 mana. Throw in Cavern of Souls so I can't even stop Delver/Pyro/Mentor with Force and it should spell doom. But Jace is eternal.
He lives.Game 3, he was beating me down with double Snapcasters but I stabilized at 6 life and played Monastery Mentor. I think the match went to time and I had one of those absurd Vintage Mentor turns where you chain a gazillion spells together, find Black Lotus, chain a gazillion more, then play Snapcaster -> Fire on his blockers and attack for 70,000.
Round 6-ID with Nicholas DiJohn, Forgemaster Shops.
Round 7-Doomsday.
I was a lock for T8 and offered to draw. He was the highest seed X-1 and there was a slim chance that a draw would jeopardize his chances, so he wanted to play. He asked if I would agree to draw at any point in the match if he changed his mind and I agreed, since I was locked no matter what. He mulled to 6. I Probed him g1 and saw Hurks, MisD, Doomsday, Underground, Underground, Tropical. I was soon high on life with a Mentor in play, Merchant Scrolling for Flusterstorm with Force, Fire//Ice, Notion Thief, and Repeal in hand. He Duressed me and conceded. He asked if I'd still draw, I kept my word.
Top 8: David Kaplan on RUG Delver, Win 2-0
He won the die roll and led with a stunning Lotus, Land, Delver, Pyromancer. I Probed him and saw Brainstorm, Land, Dig Through Time. I waited until his upkeep when he played Brainstorm and responded with Ancestral Recall. In the next turns I played Monaster Mentor and Fire//Iced the Delver. I Flusterstormed his Bolt on my Mentor. I was down to 7 and made a decision to stop using Fetchlands even though I could use an expansion of mana base to not lose the token war and to hardcast Mental Misstep. It ended being the right decision because he double Bolted me. I stablized at one life and then had a crazy Mentor Turn culminating in a Snapcaster->Fire//Ice play on his blockers with a subsequent Monk attack for 20.
Game 2, He Lotused out a Pyromancer and played another spell (Probe, I think) and Strip Mine. My Probe on him revealed Preordain, Preordain, Spell Pierce, something else, no blue source. I killed the Pyromancer and quickly took over the game.
Top 4 decided to split. One factor behind the decision for me was the big discrepancy between what was offered as a split ($900 credit) and what would happen if I lost (less than half of $900). The relevant factor was knowing I was on the draw against Nicholas DiJohn's Cavern Forgemaster Shops. This guy knows what he's doing; he'll Sphere me out so fast I won't even cast a Preordain. Cavern Golem, GG. I told him I would destroy him and bring all Shops to justice in the name of The Academy but you know... I'm a blue mage on the draw with 2 maindeck Flusterstorms and 3 Mental Missteps who wants to chain spells. It was just hot air.
Thanks to Calvin for running a magnificent landmark event. The food stand in the back with on-site hot dogs, sandwiches, meatballs, pasta, donuts, and everything, was such a good idea. It was great seeing everyone. Thank you to Matt Murray to running to the refreshment area and getting me an orange juice and then a Pepsi when I was locked in consecutive matches and couldn't leave the seat. Also, thanks to my brother, Magic veteran Michael Kelly (known in the 90's for first turn Sneak Attack Nicol Bolas) who bought me an Underground Sea for Christmas. It arrived and was in worse shape than we expected, but I said I would use that Sea yesterday for good luck and leave the NM ones in the binder.
I look forward to the next event.
-Brian Kelly
