1st/2cnd at vintage champs trial 2015

Going into this years vintage championship, the field seemed wide open. Dredge was sneakily steamrolling along, monastery mentor was putting up results online and in smaller events, while many people thought martello shops was enemy number one. Lets not even talk about oath/bomberman (congrats Brian Kelly!) Having no idea what to play, I decided on a shop list with the best sphere effects (sphere of resistance, trinisphere, lodestone), blowout potential with metalworker, and some card draw/ping action with staff of nin. Here is the list:

Metalworker/Staff of Nin MUD
16 LANDS
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland
2 City of Traitors
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

17 CREATURES
4 Metalworker
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Steel Hellkite

27 OTHER SPELLS
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Staff of Nin
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Trinisphere
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

SIDEBOARD
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Wurmcoil Engine

I apologize for any inaccuracies in my report. I don't have my notes anymore so feel free to correct me if you were an opponent of mine and are reading.

Rd1: Nick on workshop mirror 2-1, 1-0 matches
We are both on metalworker. He also has some large bots and forgemaster.
G1: I get there with lodestone and chalice.
s/b: -4 tangle, -4 chalice, -4 sphere, -1 trinisphere
+3 wurmcoil, +2 relic of progenitus, +2 ghost quarter, +2 ratchet bomb, +1 crucible of worlds, +2 grafdigger's cage
G2: I get a first turn wurmcoil with shop lotus after a mull but he quickly stabilizes with a metalworker. He then dumps a few large spells on the table which included a hellkite, revoker, and metamorph. I make a mistake here by not writing down his hand because he flashed it to me very quickly. He would not reshow me his hand on my turn when I asked but it most likely would not have mattered.
s/b: no changes. I like to keep the deck strong vs. shops for the late game and not have chalice and tangle wires be dead draws later.
G3: He mulls, I keep, and he goes first turn lotus, shop, hellkite
I suspect a shaky mana situation, so I just waste and pass. He misses a land drop and attacks me down to 15. I play mox, tomb, metalworker, pass. He misses a land drop and attacks me down to 10 and blows up my mox. I untap and dump a crucible, hellkite, metamorph hellkite and that goes the distance.

R2: forgemaster workshop 2-0, 2-0 matches
My opponent was a very pleasant fellow from the west coast I believe. Sorry, I do not remember your name!
G1: I get a couple of staffs going while we one for one each other with lodestones/revokers. The staff card advantage is overwhelming and I ended up winning by swinging in with 3 animated staffs plus karn.
s/b: same strategy as Rd 1
G2: I get a metalworker into play turn 1. On turn 2, the unmolested metalworker then dumps a staff of nin and metamorphed staff of nin. another staff joins on turn 3 with the help of double shop/academy and I'm able to pick off a lodestone with triple staff. He scoops on turn 4 and I apologize for having super busted draws both games.
G3 for fun: We have a long drawn out game where we both have a million permanents out and he has an active forgemaster. He makes the mistake of forgemastering on his turn for a sundering titan so I know to not just attack in with animated staff of nins. I crash my hellkite into his and the card advantage from staff of nin takes over. He would have won if he holds back forgemaster, because this makes attacking in on the ground unpredictable. If he then forgemasters in a hellkite or metamorph for hellkite EOT, he can swing in and activate for X=6. this would have destroyed my staffs and hellkite and it would have been pretty even from there.

R3: Mith on dredge transform into vampire hexmage/depths/thespian stage combo 0-2, 2-1 matches
G1: He wins the die roll and serums, so I mull looking for a decent anti-dredge hand knowing that I have little chance in game 1. He ends up mulling to 1 while I stop at a questionable 5 which is triple wasteland, revoker, trinisphere. He ends up drawing a bazaar about 3 turns in. I waste right away, but he is still able to slow dredge. My lone revoker as action isn't enough to overcome the free critters and zombies that show up. I know something goofy is up because he has forces and mindbreak traps in the graveyard. I tell him that if he has the transformation sideboard, I will just lose. I decide to board out the revokers and just go all in with the anti-dredge sideboard because who knows, maybe he isn't going for the transformation...
s/b: -4 chalice, -4 tangle wire, -3 staff of nin, -3 revoker, -1 metamorph
+all 15 S/B
G2: He keeps on 7 and I keep a questionable 6 with mox, sol ring, ancient tomb, double wurmcoil, and ratchet bomb. My logic is that if I can just last to turn 2 I can deploy a wurmcoil, then maybe another wurmcoil to stall the game out for a while until I can draw real dredge hate. Unfortunately, my hand is therapied on his turn 2 and I lose my wurmcoils. A small crowd gathers behind Mith looking at his hand and board state. He later says it was probably because they weren't used to seeing the transformational sideboard coming out of dredge. From here, the game is mostly academic. I do metamorph a vampire hexmage and block an ichorid and sac before damage to prevent damage and removing bridges as well but he also just has the hexmage/depths combo on board and makes a 20/20. I'm dead to both him dredging more and making more zombies and the 20/20. Sucks to be me.

R4: ? on terranova null rod / crucible / stax workshops 2-0, 3-1 matches
G1: We aggressively attack each other's life totals and I win a close match
S/b: -4 tangle, -4 sphere, -3 chalice
+3 wurmcoil, +3 relic of progenitus, +2 ghost quarter, +2 ratchet bomb, +1 crucible of worlds
I leave a single chalice and the trinisphere because of lack of better things to bring in
G2: He lands a null rod, some spheres and some manlands, a golem, and a smokestack, but luckily no waste effects. I work my way up to 6 mana and land a wurmcoil engine. This halts all his attacks and by the time I attack in, he has to double block with the lodestones. All the while his smokestack is ramping up. I land a double relic of progenitus just for permanents and he shakes his head. I try my hardest to punt this game by having exactly 6 mana open to cast a staff of nin, but instead cast a mox thinking that it would pay for itself but of course is frozen by the null rod. I am punished by his topdeck wasteland and never get to cast it. Nonetheless, I get there with a karn and life/death tokens and a single animated relic of progenitus (after he sacs his own null rod) to attack for exactly lethal.

R5: UW mentor landstill 2-1, 4-1 matches
My opponent is an older gentleman who is very pleasant to play against. Sorry again, I don't remember your name!
G1: lodestone + tangle wire. Go shops.
s/b: -4 chalice, - 1 staff of nin
+2 wurmcoil, +2 ghost quarter, + 1 crucible of worlds
G2: He leads with a library. I waste. I blind revoke dack. I blind revoke dack again. He lands a monastery mentor, then a jace and makes a bunch of dudes and attacks in for the win after a few turns. I didn't get enough sphere effects to slow his token and prowess triggers so that was very easy for him. Also, double naming dack was probably bad value.
G3: I go first turn shop, mox, metalworker. This of course is a misplay vs. landstill since you probably want to hold moxes in your hand if you play a metalworker. He drops an island. I drop a wurmcoil engine and a staff of nin turn 2. He plays tundra and stony silence. I play a tangle wire turn 3 and he concedes.

R6: gush mentor storm 2-1, 5-1 matches
My opponent was very pleasant to play against and was playing vintage for the first time and was more of a legacy expert. He created his own crazy brew with monastery mentor, all the power and jace, tendrils, and yawgmoth's will. Sounds good to me!
G1: He keeps gushing and really doing nothing relevant. He attempts to hurkyl me EOT with only two mana up and a sphere in play which zips back up to his hand. He does hurkyl me maybe one or two turns later but his gushes keep putting him back on permanents, which I am happy about. He has no fast mana or fastbond to keep up with me dropping my hand again next turn after the hurkyls so he can't cast spells for the rest of the game.
s/b: +2 ratchet bomb, -1 chalice, -1 staff of nin
G2: He is able to go first turn land, lotus, jace. I go first turn revoker on jace. He lands a mentor and three moxes. I metamorph a mentor for fun but know I can't keep up with his ability to make tokens. His mentor does work and runs me over.
s/b: -1 ratchet bomb, +1 chalice
G3: I had a weird play where i tapped for 6 mana, looked at my staff of nin and then dropped the steel hellkite in my hand by accident. I just quickly picked it back up and layed down the staff because I knew an EOT hurkyls was coming my way so I just wanted to get a ping in. I'm sure he could have called a judge but he was a very relaxed guy and ultimately he did not draw anything good and again the gushes kept putting him behind on permanents. To my opponent, sorry I forgot your name but if you are reading, let me know how your black lotus trade went!

R7: Hiromichi Ito on hangarback stax 2-1, 6-1 matches
I was excited to play Ito because I knew he was a great player and coming all the way from Japan. He is also a creative deck builder and always has some unique tech in his decks.
G1: I keep academy, mox, sol ring, metalworker, staff, chalice, sphere on the draw
He goes ancient tomb, sphere of resistance on turn one. I frown and realize I am getting punished for such a greedy keep. I do not want to play my academy because it just gets wasted. Instead, I draw a metamorph, go to discard and discard a chalice and say go. I believe he plays a manland, and blind revokers black lotus. I draw a karn and go to discard a sphere of resistance. He plays another land and does something irrelevant. I draw an ancient tomb. Play tomb, cast sol ring, tap ring, cast mox, pass. He taps out and plays a smokestack. I untap, play a metalworker, pass. He ramps, plays something else irrelevant. He then cheers me on saying, "time for a comeback!" I untap, sac a mox, and indeed dump my hand which mainly consists of staff of nin, which immediately takes out a revoker, and a karn, which does some work. He sacs, ramps, plays a crucible. He eventually ramps it up to 3 while I'm able to cast another staff and crucible. I'm just drawing so many cards that I get ahead on permanents. Eventually I sac everything except two staff, while he sacs his entire board with both of us with no cards in hand. With me drawing 3 cards a turn to his one, he says, "no chance! save time!" and scoops em up.
s/b: -4 sphere, -4 tangle, -3 chalice, -1 trinisphere
+3 wurmcoil, +3 relic of progenitus, +2 ghost quarter, +2 ratchet bomb, +1 crucible of worlds, +1 grafdigger's cage
I very much doubt he has forgemaster with stax and crucible but I keep a cage in for a low costing permanent and well, just in case...
G2: He gets a quick hangarback, revokers my metalworker, revokers something else, plays a null rod, smokestack, and a crucible and ramps all the way to 3. After I sac my board, I concede. Null rod and hangarback working together, WUUT?
s/b: -1 cage, +1 trinisphere
G3: I go mox, waste, relic, pass. He plays shop, crucible. I sense a fragile mana base with him playing a crucible so quickly. I untap, waste his shop, and activate relic sending the shop to exile. I play shop, metamorph the crucible. He gets a smokestack into play after playing his second shop and I get a hellkite into play after playing tomb. I swing in with the hellkite and activate x=3 to destroy the crucible and metamorph the hellkite. He draws and shakes my hand facing down the two 5/5 flyers. He says, "great games, nice hellkite!!" in a very bright and cheerful voice. Ito was a lot of fun to play against and played very well. I enjoyed him cheering me on as he played and he seemed just as genuinely thrilled with my plays as an opponent could possibly be. I am the number one seed going into the top 8, which means I get to choose to play or draw for all the matches. I chose to play.

Top 8: adrian becker dark petition storm: 2-1, 7-1 matches
G1: I have a slow start of tomb, chalice on 0. He plays Library, go. I simply wasteland instead of playing lodestone since I fear him drawing up to 8, forcing, and then drawing back up to 7 his turn, then 8 with library again. It's a losing battle. Lodestone turn 3. Another lodestone turn 4 wraps it up.
s/b: nothing
G2: I play a bunch of spheres and tangles but no threats and he just patiently keeps hitting land drops. He even wastes and ghost quarters me a couple of times, which really messes with my mana since I'm not expecting several strip effects coming out of a storm deck. Eventually he hurkyl's me EOT and plays dark petition, which fetches a necropotence which he plays. Interestingly enough, he did have a library of alexandria in play and 7 cards in hand after necro but he kept just tapping it to my replayed tangle wire. Not sure if he thought the game was already iced or if maybe he was trying to leave color producing land untapped but I probably would have drawn the free card every time. He keeps hitting land drops and eventually hurkyl's me again at which point he is able to storm and tendrils me out for an easy 8 damage since I had already taken a bunch of ancient tomb damage.
s/b: -2 staff of nin, -1 metamorph, +2 ghost quarter, +1 crucible,
G3: I have a completely unfair double shop, first turn trinisphere hand. Karn and revoker follow while he is missing land drops and discarding. I waste one time and he concedes.

Top 4: UWR Control, by Danny Friedman 2-1, 8-1 matches
Danny was super fun and we have a lot of banter during this game like we were playing at home on the kitchen table. Funnest match of the day.
G1: I double mull to mox, waste, revoker, chalice, sphere.
I lead with mox, waste, chalice on 1. He leads on lotus, land, jace, jacestorm
I go revoker on jace. He wear/tears the revoker and fateseals me the rest of the way and I miss land drops for the rest of the game. That was the quickest I have ever died to jace's ultimate. I guess I could have lead much differently with mox, waste, chalice on zero, sphere. Or possibly blind revoker on sol ring or jace or dack so that I can play sphere on turn 2. But the plan was to just get value out of the chalice set to 1 and not lock myself out with my own chalice and sphere.
s/b: nothing
G2: I go tomb, lotus, lodestone, which is force of willed. He plays land.
I go second tomb, second lodestone, which resolves. He plays a land.
I attack, play a third ancient tomb, metamorph the lodestone. He plays a fetch.
I attack, play a tangle wire, play a wasteland, pass. He draws, concedes. I show him the fourth ancient tomb in my hand.
s/b: +2 ratchet bomb, -1 chalice, -1 staff of nin
G3: I keep a 7 card zero lander which is mox, crypt, metalworker, and some bombs. He plays a few moxes and sol ring and a land. I cast mox, crypt, metalworker. He hardcasts an ingot chewer, which destroys the metalworker. I lament that the metalworker never got a chance to do work. I hardcast a hellkite after drawing a wasteland and tomb. He taps for 5 mana and I wait to die and he casts dragonlord oujita. (Danny tells me the next day that because of this exact play, he switched out the dragonlord for Keranos, God of Storms.) I thank my lucky stars and swing in with my hellkite. He is forced to block or I will activate my hellkite for X=5 killing both the dragonlord and ingot chewer. I metamorph the ingot chewer and take out his sol ring. I then play a ratchet bomb and destroy my mox and crypt which had taken me down to 5 life and both of his moxes. I waste his tundra. In one turn, I took out land, sol ring, dragonlord, 2 of his moxes and made myself a 3/3. Suddenly I'm back in! We play topdeck go after that for a while and I draw a shop and two lodestones. He's at thirteen and I can swing in for exactly 13 (2 lodestones and an ingot chewer). He blocks a lodestone and goes down to 5. I play another metalworker just to get a dude on board. I avoid tapping ancient tomb because I'm at 5 and I don't want to die to lightning bolt. He EOTs a dig through time and plucks I believe an ingot chewer and a swords with 2 lands in play. He comments that if he can rip a mox, black lotus, or time walk, he's still in. I say, crazier things have happened! He doesn't rip anything good and that's game! Dave Kaplan, meanwhile had already won his 2 byes and just left and said I could have the points. The judge tells me I win and get the byes. Sweet! I have never even top 8ed and I at least made it to the finals of a 109 person event, so that was pretty sweet. Next day didn't go as well. Got shopped immediately Rd3. I later lost to dredge and merfolk with null rods, good for 35th place.

Changes: would possibly try to run tormod's crypt/buried ruin/bojuka bog for more varied dredge hate. I lost to dredge both matches in the trial and champs so that matchup is pretty scary.

Things to be aware of: dack fayden. I did not see dack fayden at all! And literally every blue deck that made top 8 this year had 2-4 copies of dack fayden. I'm pretty sure it's one hell of a blowout if it resolves since this list has a bunch of juicy targets and does not have manlands. Also, this deck is very weak against null rod.

Thanks to card titan and nick coss and everyone that helped run an awesome event! And to all my super opponents and people I met during the weekend!

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment.obert