Black Magic Sanctioned Trial T8 with "The Answer" Report

[Cripson]

Hello All,

I wanted to do a tournament first tournament report ever for vintage so I feel that a report from the non-proxy vintage tournament that Tales of Adventure had over the weekend was great time to start.

As most post start we need to do a quick rewind prior to the tournament beginning. During the week leading to the tournament I like most of us... spent time thinking about the Eastern Vintage Game Play.   Since workshop is typically, a staple in the east coast I always keep it in my mind when building sideboards/main decks and the like.  However, I felt it may be less conducive as IMO it is one of the most expensive decks to build w/o proxies.  So going with that theory I felt that Delver/Monk, Oath, Fish and Dredge would be the backbone to this tournament. 

Well....I was partially correct, there was an abundance of Oath and Dredge but there was more workshops than I gave credit!!! Which means that the East Coast Vintage peeps undoubtly love their shops no matter what the cost. GGGGRRRRRR!!!!!

Anyways during this particular week I was unusually busier than most which made it harder to get a deck built than most.  I like to try different things in vintage.  In general I have an infinity for control or combo.  Since the printing of Dack Fayden my affection for control has vastly stolen my heart with the combination of Notion Thief its just absurd.  I have made T8/T4 many tournaments and won a few along the way with the two greatest thieves.  However, since checking the latest threads on the TMD I reviewed a deck from across the pond called "The Answer"  I immediately, enjoyed the design of the deck because it ran Dack and Magus of the Moon.  When you see the decklist it looks underpowered but it runs Dack and instead of Notion Thief it has Consecrated Sphinx.  I really loved that it removed another color out of the Grixis Color scheme and functioned basically the same way as Thief but with a much larger threat that was out of Bolt/Dismember Range.  Additionally it runs a much more robust mana base against wasteland/strip mine decks with 7 basic lands.   The ever eventful sideboard was built into simplicity. 

Fastforward to the night before the Tournament I sleeved the deck up at midnight and got 3 games in with my testing buddy Nick Playing Gifts Ungiven.   Then hit the sack at 1:30AM knowing I have 3hr drive ahead of me coming from Baltimore and a unwavering 4yr old
getting my old sorry butt up at 6:45AM cause that is his schedule.  -Shout Out to my Son "I love you bud"

Well Saturday Morning 8:30Am arrives and Nick and I hit up Mc D's for coffee and breakfast prior to venturing off to Pick up Mike Scheffenacker who without surprise was still in bed when I called him at 9AM.

Well 9:30 on the clock we hit the road and off to the great North we come.

Before we get to my RND 1 I wanted to say that variance pulled my cars number as both of My team mates Nick and Mike get paired up against eachother out of the 32 Attendees. BOOOOO

Anyways Rnd 1 I get paired against Mark who was playing Oath&Show.

Game 1. I land and early Chalice @ 1 with a barrage of counterspells and a Magus.  Mark's hand is crippled early as his preordains, spell pierces, and probes were now shut off and Magus was landed which turned his lands into mountains.

Game 2 I sideboard in cages and pull out the chalices on the draw.  We play a good bit of draw/go and counter wars until pivitol turn resolves us both blowing all of our relevant spells with him winning the counter war however it was over my spell which was magus.  He has a empty hand draws and passes and I play Jace the next turn which takes over the game and lets me resolve Sphinx by the end of it.

RND 2 variance strikes it ugly face again....I get paired against my team mate Mike who was just paired against our other team mate Nick so there you go 1/32 then 1/16 chance.  I mean what am I even doing here writing up this report....These stars are not even close to aligned unless you bet on long shots!!!

RND 2 Mike and I decide to ID even though we knew it would make it tough for us both.  However, the sandwich's we just procured were undoubtly making it an easier decision.

RND 3 David....I think with Oath.

Game 1 I land Mox/land Chalice at 1 and pass holding FOW, FOW, Mana Drain, Echoing Truth. David Plays  Mana Crypt, Orchard, Oath.  I Force and it no contention hits the Yard.  T2 I draw Recall booo but have Force Bait still.  David bolts himself with crypt plays a trop and cast Oath #2 I force pitching recall he cast swan song which gets countered by chalice.  T3 I draw Force of will #3 and pass David plays a fetch and plays his last card Oath #3 and It meets my last two cards Force/Drain.  Eventually I draw a magus and put the game away.

Game 2.  I board out chalice x 3 and Fire/Ice x1 and bring in 3 cage. David mulligans and keeps 5 David plays a turn 1 REMORA.... I was shocked as Remora and Orchard can be anti-climatic with eachother.  Truthfully, I am a slow deck anyways so Remora was the last of my problems.  We play draw go and he ticks up remora and taps out.  I have Misdirection/FOW +2 blue cards and 3 Lands on board I cast magus he forces and it gets misdirected and magus & jace take over the game.

RND 4 Will with Terra Nova.

Game 1 Will plays mox, workshop and a T1 Golem, I play an Island and Pass.  T2 He Plays Factory and a Thorn swings and passes.  T2 I play Island pass with no Dack in hand.  T3 Metamorph by Will and I conciede.  He announces that he thinks im on landstill and we go to sideboard.

Game 2 I play land mox holding force, hurkyl's, magus, land Jace.  He plays T1 Thorn off mox and factory.  I play magus on T2 and that was wrapped up the game with my hand full of goodies.

Game 3 He boards his dismembers back in and does kill a magus but I landed a Sphinx and had Jace on the board which kept my hand fueled with answers.

RND 5 ID with the Top Seat

Here's the interesting part my team mate Mike was playing Shops and had the same record as I did at RND 5 which was unbelievable the way our day started and also made T8.

T8 Can you say VARIANCE AGAIN!!!!!

YOU BET!!!! Mike and I get Paired against eachother LOL.

Im on the play with better breakers.

G1:  My opener against shops.  Was Island, Ancestral, Force of Will, Mox Ruby, Chalice, Jace, Magus....Ask yourself would you keep this hand on the play.....


Damn Right!!!!!

I play land mox recall chalice @ 0 Pass

Well it turns out that Recall didn't find any lands and after Forcing his T1 play wasn't good enough as I didn't see anymore lands that entire game.  WoW/Pout....Grrr

G2: I mulliganed this game and My opener was good no Force though but had lands and chewer.  I chewer his T1 Golem and draw a mox  played land and mox pass. He plays Trinisphere. Pass.  I draw Dig and pass.  He plays tangle wire I get tapped out. I draw merchant scroll play my land and pass.  He draws another wire and plays thorn, wire, Academy. Ugggg I draw magus for shiggles and stay tapped out.  He draws Blightsteel and hardcast.  I untap Island and draw a Tomb during his upkeep I cast Ice to tap blightsteel.  That turn he metamorphs another tanglewire which unfortunately was the final Nail.  That essentially was the only card I needed to fade so I could have cast Scroll into Hurkyl's but that's the ballgame for me.  GG Mike


Extended Magical Play!!!!

After the match I had a good bit of spectators whom of which wanted to see the deck and I got a few games in with Matt Murray--Never Met him but awesome guy!!!

He played Bomberman and we played 4 matches no sideboard 3 of which I won and the 4th was a bomberman doing what a bomberman does.  GG--Matt


Thanks For Listening

~Mercer

[Chubby Rain]

Great report and congrats on the finish. The deck was very impressive in our bonus games (Chalice was an all-star) and I look forward to getting some reps in with it on MODO.

[Calvin240sx]

Matt, you had the worst and best run all day bro. It was a pleasure to have you out. I can't help how WER pairs up guys. it's awful when it happens but i had one of those subs later and the ID was easily worth it!!! looking forward to seeing you around at future events


Cheers,
cal

[mmcgeach]

Question to you (or creators of this deck): would you want 4 magus of the moon?  It seems like an allstar across matchups.

[mmmekeel]

Question to you (or creators of this deck): would you want 4 magus of the moon?  It seems like an allstar across matchups.

Piggybacking on this question, why Magus over Blood Moon? Seems like there are more Lightning Bolts, Fire/Ices, Dismembers, Sudden Shocks and Swords to Plowshares than Nature's Claims and Wear/Tears, and Abrupt Decay hits both. It also triggers Oath. Do you just need a beater?

[mmcgeach]

Piggybacking on this question, why Magus over Blood Moon? Seems like there are more Lightning Bolts, Fire/Ices, Dismembers, Sudden Shocks and Swords to Plowshares than Nature's Claims and Wear/Tears, and Abrupt Decay hits both. It also triggers Oath. Do you just need a beater?

I've played this deck and similar, so I can at least answer this: 1) yes, magus beats are the primary win condition.  2) chalice@1 stops a lot of removal that would otherwise kill your dude.  and 3) a blocker is a good thing in this meta.

I can't decide if I want 4 of them, tho.

[Cripson]

Magus is a all-star and chalice usually gets played for 0,1,2

Chalice 0 on the play T1
Chalice 1 on the Draw T1/T2
Chalice 2 at T2-T4

Reminder this deck @ Chalice 1 only stops your Recall as it runs no other card manipulators at that CMC and turns your Flusterstorms into easy pitch cards

Bolt yes can kill Magus but the body is what you need for answers to planeswalkers and blockers.  

Also a good bit of the time and a large portion of my kills are not just brainstorming with Jace but fatesealing with Jace.  So you can manipulate your opponents draws anyways.

I will say that with Magus you open your self up to removal spells but you do play more counterspells than most decks and you also get to play chalice for most of those removal spells.

I had a game in which I played against an oath player where we got into the counter war over my Magus and He won the Battle but not the War and spent his hand doing so. Which I did not mind as I had Jace as a follow-up play and took over the game.

I do feel this deck is a lot of finesse and less brute strength.  You have to decide whats relevant and not relevant to you at specific times.  Especially on the draw.  

Heres a great question to ask yourself in a game I had to think about. Your Opponent is Playing Steel City Vault
 
Your opener is FOW, FOW, Mana Drain, Fire//Ice, Island, Fetch, Magus.

He is on the play with a 5 color manabase w/goblin welders in his deck and is on a Mulligan to 6

His T1 is City of Brass into Ancestral Recall

What do you do in this Situation?

Cheers!!!
Matt

[mmcgeach]

Heres a great question to ask yourself in a game I had to think about. Your Opponent is Playing Steel City Vault
 
Your opener is FOW, FOW, Mana Drain, Fire//Ice, Island, Fetch, Magus.

He is on the play with a 5 color manabase w/goblin welders in his deck and is on a Mulligan to 6

His T1 is City of Brass into Ancestral Recall

What do you do in this Situation?

OK.  force pitching force.  This stops him turn 1.  Presumably, also, he has no turn 2 play, otherwise you would have seen the acceleration on turn 1.  Forcing the ancestral makes the likelihood of somekind of relevant turn-2 play very low.  Then you have mana drain up for his turn-3 play, which you then use to cast your Magus of the Moon on your turn 3.  This shuts off his whole mana base, except for the one red spell in the deck : welder.  But we're holding fire//ice for welder, in case he happens to draw that.  Game over.

[diopter]

How do you win? How does your opponent lose?

- Your deck is built on the one-sided multiple Time Walks of Chalice and Moon. You effectively win because you're on turn 10 developmentally and your opponent is on turn 3. That's how you get away witU hardcasting Sphinxes.

- SCV tends to lose to itself more than anything. The games where they have three mana and a stream of threats, they are unbeatable. They need a certain number of things to go well though - good topdecks or good manipulation or insane card quantity.

You have Moon, but this is not as effective against SCV as it doesn't turn off their Seat artifact type or Mox Opals so they can still function in a lot of cases. On the other hand, he's mulliganed to six so Opals are less in-reach.

Let's also gut-check what our opponent is thinking.
1.) First turn City into Ancestral could be his only play (very possible: they've already mulliganed and SCV has a smaller range of keepable hands).
2.) He could be using it to dig for a third artifact to unlock a Mox-Opal or Seat-Opal in his hand.
3.) He could be baiting you for a turn 2 play. It's probably not Mox-Mox-Draw7 as I would have led with that. He could be setting the table for land-Mox-Draw7, especially because he knows you don't play Missteps so Ancestral draws Force.

Even with double Force, you definitely have to counter Ancestral so that the Moon in your hand has a chance of advancing your game plan. If he makes Opal you're dead. So, do so, pitching Mana Drain.

Then watch if he plays Mox. Since you have Mindbreak Trap, him playing a Mox might signal his intention to explode on turn 2. Though if he's really good or knows you, he could be Inception mind-gaming you, since prematurely playing a single Mox doesn't cost much.

Move to your draw step. Chalice is auto slam at 0. Blue card would be great. Land gaurantees the Moon you're going for on turn 3 but doesn't help in the next critical sequence. Mox would just be better.

1.) If he untaps and does nothing (either because of your Chalice or because he's got nothing) great.
2.) If he has a play not involving Opal and you topdecked blue card, a Force pitching blue card. Then go to your turn, draw, Ice his City on his upkeep and move to the next turn. At that point you've had 3 chances to see Mana source and can destroy him with Moon.
3.) If he has a play and you topdecked land or Mox, Force pitching Ice. If land, you're going to have to go naked for a turn until you can Moon. If Mox, destroy him.
3.) If he has a play involvng Opal, you have to counter the Opal. Remember that Opal is simultaneously how SCV wins (by establishing 3 mana and out-bombing you) and how you don't win (by turning your Time-Walk-on-a-stick into an inconsequential Gray Ogre).

If you end up resolving Moon, then attempt to dig for Dack asap to manage his Moxen and KV pieces. Welder is mostly inconsequential here. If you keep him stunted then Victory is virtually guarantees.

In-game, this basically needs to boil down to an instinctual understanding that you really need your Moon or Chalice to be devastating, that you really need to stop SCV from getting to three mana, and that Ice is awesome at setting Moons up in the first couple turns.

[Cripson]

Thanks for the feedback

My line of play did not result into force and here's why...

I thought about how relevant is it to resolve Recall. My theory is he was digging for mox or land. I wanted to hold up 3 counters to either resolve  magus or two counter his very relevant spells.

So no matter if I draw land, mox, chalice, blue card all advancing my board state.  I certainly don't see force pitching force in this situation as T2 tinker or D7 is now a terrible spot.  I felt against SCV odds are of him hitting a FOW land MOX or MOX land relevant X spell is likely scenario and he probably has another relevant spell to boot.  To me Recall was not relevant as it forces his hand to play into my defense. Although at the end we would both spend our hand and I would resolve a magus plus see at least two more cards off draw steps.

Maybe my line is right maybe it was not but that was line i drew in the sand.

Thanks Matt