I’ve been out of the Magic loop for a number of years and was looking forward to playing Vintage at Gencon. I usually like to play Storm combo but there had been a great deal of MUD lately so it seemed like a bad idea. Because there had been a lot of MUD as well as creature decks like Delver and Mentor, I decided to play Oath. I started with Rich Shay’s Oath list (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=47680.0 ) and made a few changes, basically cutting 2x Flusterstorm, 1 Dig Through Time and 1 Misdirection for 1 Ponder and 1 Rebuild and 2 land (Volcanic and Forest). In the sb I ran more Dredge hate and a couple REBs. Here’s the list:
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
4 Preordain
2 Thoughtseize
1 Misdirection
1 Rebuild
4 Oath of Druids
3 Show and Tell
3 Griselbrand
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Memory’s Journey
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Forest
5 Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Nature’s Claim
1 Sol Ring
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Abrupt Decay
I played in 5 tournaments over the course of three days so my memory is not as clear as I would like. I welcome any corrections or details from my opponents if you happen to read this.
I think there were 28 players or so. The tourney is five rounds of Swiss (no cut). 4-1 gets tickets as prizes and 5-0 gets tickets and byes at Vintage Champs.
Match 1: Dair with Snapcaster Control Deck[?]G1: I don’t remember this game very well. I eventually Oathed up Griselbrand and won.
G2: I drew 3 Oaths within the first couple turns of the game. He Spell Pierces the first one, Fows the second one, and for the 3rd one he Snapcasters his Spell Pierce—I Fow the Pierce and my 3rd Oath resolves. On his turn he kills his Snapcaster with the 2B pay X life –X/-X sorcery, to prevent me from Oathing. But on my next turn I Demonic Tutor for Orchard. On his turn he casts Dig Through Time into Grafdigger’s Cage, but I’ve been holding Abrupt Decay from the start. I Decay his Cage and Oath into Grisel for the win.
Match 2: Shawn with Planeswalker Control[?]G1: He plays first and lays down Academy, Ruby, and Sapphire and passes. On my turn I play land, Mana Crypt, Mox, Vault, Key (holding Vampiric Tutor which I could use for Rebuild to bounce Mana Crypt if necessary). He has no answer and scoops.
G2: If I recall correctly, I mulled to 5 and lost in short order.
G3: He mulls to 5. On his T1 he casts Lotus and Ancestrals himself. I Fow his Ancestral; he Fows my Fow and his Ancestral resolves. Then he casts Preordain, Preordain, plays Volanic Island, casts Ponder, and passes. It seems grim for me. Eventually he resolves Dig Through Time and gets Jace into play. For his first Jace activation he fateseals me and puts REB on the bottom. Luckily for me, I then topdeck Oath and resolve it. On his turn he Jacestorms but doesn’t find an answer. On my turn I oath up Griesel and activate it, then cast Yawg Will. He Fows it but I Misdirect his Fow and he scoops.
Match 3: Justin with Storm ComboG1: I play first, T1 fetch Underground Sea and Thoughtseize him. He has Lotus Petal, Mystical Tutor, Preordain, Dark Ritual, and lands. I consider taking Preordain or Mystical, his only business spells, but I don’t have a quick follow-up threat. I take the Dark Ritual to try to bottleneck his fast mana. I am holding Oath. His Preordain is useful and I am slow and have little gas. He ends up casting Mystical-->Yawg Will-->Probe-->into a Yawg with Lotus and Dark Rit, so he easily casts Tendrils for the Win. Unfortunately for me I did not have Misstep.
G2: Unfortunately I don’t recall the details. I think that I shipped back a hand of 7 which had only mana, 2x Fow, and misstep, into an OK 6-er. I had a fairly early Oath and he didn’t do very much—perhaps no business. I win with Grisel.
G3: A very long game. We have a war of attrition. He probes me and then he gets early Defense Grid down but doesn’t have a quick follow-up. By the time he goes for it I have drawn into 2xFow and have 3 lands untapped. He Mysticals for Yawg Will and casts it; I tap 3 and Fow his Yawg Will, pitching the second Fow so I can hold on to my Show and Tell. After this he beats me down for 7 or so turns with 1 Spirit token. Eventually my hand is Fow, Time Walk, Misstep, and Show and Tell, at which point he casts the 5 mana sorcery which tutors a card and gives him BBB with Spell Mastery. I think for a little bit because I am unsure whether to Fow the tutor or to wait to counter the spell he gets. I eventually decide to err on the side of caution and Fow the tutor, pitching Walk. I draw Griselbrand and Show and Tell it into play (I actually could have hardcast it because I had a lot of lands, but I was low life so didn’t want to give him extra Spirit tokens). I think we are low on time at this point, but Grisel wins it.
M4: Sean with GWU aggroG1: He plays first. On his T1 he plays a land and passes. My T1 I Thoughtseize him and take his Containment Priest, leaving him holding Green Sun’s Zenith, Plains, Tundra, STP. I get Oath into play on my T2 but think I might be screwed because of Green Sun’s for Containment Priest on his T3. He does not have another Priest in the deck, however, so he casts GSZ for Qasali Pridemage buts lacks the mana to activate. I trigger Oath on my turn and win with Griselbrand. [edit: as pointed out in a reply, I forgot GSZ could only fetch green creatures.]
G2: He starts beating me down with a Containment Priest. I get an Oath into play and at the end of his turn I Abrupt Decay his Priest, but he just flashes in another one. I die to beats.
G3: He gets Meddling Mage on Oath and starts beating me down with the Mage. I play Time Vault but have no other business. On his T4 he casts a 3 mana 2/2 elf creature which lets him draw cards when a creature he controls deals combat damage to me. I consider Fowing it because I had been thinking about skipping a turn to Time Vault so I could take a double turn later—which obviously would not be a good idea if he has that creature. I decide not to Fow. After the creature resolves he casts Stony Silence, which I Fow. On my turn I lucksack out and topdeck Voltaic Key; we are near time and he scoops.
M5: Paul Mastriano with MUDBefore the match, we agree to split the prizes regardless of the outcome. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend Eternal Weekend, so I ask the judge if we can split the prizes such that Paul receives the byes, and I the tickets—but the judge says that while we can agree to split the tickets, the byes go to the winner.
G1: I play land and Mox Jet before I get buried under Spheres. I can’t do much and die to Lodestone Golem and Factory beats in short order. Very quick game.
G2: I think I had T1 Orchard, Mana Crypt, Oath. Oath into Griselbrand and win in short order. I believe I cast Nature’s Claim on his Trinisphere.
G3: He plays first and on his T1 plays Mishra’s Factory, Lotus, Lodestone, Chalice for 0. I think he had mulled to 6. After getting beaten down to 8 I am able to Nature’s Claim his Lodestone Golem. On my T4 I play Oath of Druids off 4 land through his Sphere and Thorn, giving him a second Spirit token. I fetched so I’m now at 7. On his turn he swings for 4 with Mishra’s and the two spirits, putting me to 3. I oath up Griselbrand and pass. He cannot attack into Grisel, so passes back. On my turn I swing, dropping him to 17 and raising me to 10. After attacking I mess up horribly by activating Grisel to draw. I basically had a massive brain fart and was thinking for some reason that I could pass again at 3 and be safe like I did last turn—I forgot that because I’d attacked I couldn’t block with Grisel, so he would be able to swing back for 4 and kill me. I immediately realize my massive punt after I resolve the Grisel draw. I am holding Vault+Key but cannot play them because he has Sphere and Thorn in play and I only have 6 mana on the board. Fortunately I drew Pithing Needle so I Pithing Needle on Mishra’s Factory, then pass. He swings with the 2 Spirits, dropping me to one. On my turn I can attack with Grisel again. I probably deserve to lose for punting, but the game is mine at this point. Paul asks me to scoop to him so that he can get the byes for Eternal Weekend. We have agreed to split the tickets anyway and the byes are useless to me, so I scoop.
Notes: The deck is surprisingly not as broken as one might expect, in the respect that Griselbrand in play doesn’t usually allow you to win instantly. A lot of games I had to win simply by beating down with Griselbrand. Usually you just try to set up a Time Walk after Oathing up Grisel, and ride her to victory.
Props to my opponents for being such good sports in the face of some ridiculous draws on my part. I certainly didn't play as well as I could, but that's to be expected given that I did no testing and haven't played Vintage in years. This tourney and Gencon were a blast.
