It’s been some time since I Iast wrote a tournament report. Actually I hardly wrote one before, if ever, but I guess there is always a first time (and don’t expect this to be detailed or anything, it took me more than a week to write this
).
Let me start with an introduction… the long and grindy way to finally play some cards!
Like not so many stories in this forum, my story starts on Magic Online. Before Vintage came out on Magic Online I had no interest in the format. The cards were too expensive and there wasn’t a scene to play with. Aside from watching the yearly Championships I didn’t have any contact to the format, and just until a couple of years ago it felt „retarded“ to me to put that much cash into pieces of cardboard.
Then I joined Modo. Early on I met some guys from the now defunct „Clan Magic Eternal“ and we were pushing ourselves for Vintage. Finally, Vintage came, but with it a new version of Modo as well. Our clan went pretty much extinct and then a tension between some remaining clan members and Montolio happened, making him leave the clan.
I was all in between and proved to be quite opportunistic. With a blatant act I put a lot of tension between me and Montolio, leading him to reveal my dubious past to Wotc which in turn threw me off Modo. The loss of my cards and a few thousand Dollars didn’t struck me much, more so did losing a friend and the ability to play Vintage whenever I wanted. At least I was „smart“ enough to sell some of my Modo inventory months before that so I could at least afford the pieces of power needed to play Delver.
So I was without Modo, but who cares? Daily Events didn’t have the thrill they used to have anyway and there was a Prague Eternal tournament to be scheduled soon anyway. Just a couple of days after pre-registering for that event though I received a letter that some important final exams would take place the Monday after the event, so instead of slinging cards I had to learn.
But as you know, after the tournament is before the tournament! So I made plans to attend the Vintage at MKM Prague, I even took off a couple of days to make it fit my schedule. Guess what? Sometimes even departing early doesn’t help. A couple of problems during that ride accumulated and at the end I arrived 20 minutes too late fort he Vintage main event. I wasn’t even salty, rather felt like I’m destined to not play Vintage, EVER.
Luckily there was another tournament scheduled on site, a small trial for the following MKM in Madrid. Finally time for Vintage, and finally time to end this lengthy introduction
Time to start with what everyone came here for, a decklist!
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
2 Flusterstorm
2 Spell Pierce
3 Pyroblast
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Gush
1 Dig Through Time
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Dack Fayden
Sideboard
4 Grafdiggers Cage
2 Containment Priest
1 Stony Silence
4 Ingot Chewer
2 Pulverize
1 Pyroblast
1 Mountain
I apologize if anyone came here for innovations – just a plain old Delver list. I guess it is still worth to talk about a few cards that didn’t make it.
Baby Jace: To be fair I’d have really liked to try some copies, but I just didn’t feel like spending money on an untested tech. I didn’t miss it much over the course of the day but it would have been quite useful in a couple of situations. Well, next time I will def have my set of it.
Since I couldn’t get any Jaces I opted to play Mystical Tutor instead. It was nice to have in a game or two, but mostly it was just Force pitch fodder.
Strip Mine: I’ve never been a fan of a random Strip Mine. Being a land is actually disadvantegous (can only play one per turn, doesn’t help with Delver and Pyromancer) and the moments where it shines are few and between. As a 1 of the card is not reliable enough to beat a Workshop / Bazaar / Library / Cavern and the hope to manascrew someone is more than random. I like to construct my decks to remove as much variance as possible and I feel this card adds more variance than it defeats. Most of the time I’d rather have another removal, threat, counterspell, or cantrip.
Gitaxian Probe: Without Jace or delve spells to fuel this card is not necessary. It’s quite cute with Pyromancer, but I prefer my cards to have a real effect, real impact. Too many Probes also often lead to flood and to be honest, in this deck I’d rather have more action than just information. There is no combo to protect or anything and let’s be honest, most hands in Vintage are so random that they are rarely amazing anyway. Only in a drawn out blue mirror where both players have equal resources I’d want to have a Probe.
Now let’s get to a round by round re-narration of what happened.
R1
Luckily for me I saw him sleeving up his deck before round one, so I knew he would be on BUG Fish. It’s one of the best matchups for Delver, even though it got more balanced with the restriction of Dig. He was playing it with a twist though, and added red – for Lightning Bolt of course, and probably some numbers of Dack Fayden and Pyroblast.
Game 1 was quite the weird game. I get an early Delver which he bolts, then decays (Misstep Inc.). I then deploy a Pyromancer while he gets Dark Confidant. As weird as it sounds, but none of us has any removal, so I cantrip through my deck just to find more Delver of Secrets while he is drawing another Confidant and a DRS. I count a bit and decide that attacking him is not worth it, since too much would die for not enough life, but his DRS would remain and give me headaches. Inevitably his Confidants start revealing 3 and 5cc, while my Delvers flip and we are shuffling for g2.
In Game 2 Thomas mulls and starts with a nice collection of jewelry, but no land. His threats get countered and destroyed and at some point Dack appears for me and steals a Mox Jet, which is enough to take out a color and seal the game.
R2
G1 he starts with a Library of Alexandria, I get a Pyromancer into play on my second turn. May the race begin! Despite him drawing a couple of additional cards I was able to keep up with his disruption and when my Pyromancer threatens to kill him he tries to assemble something with Auriok Salvagers, but falls short to my disruption.
Game 2 is similar, except for him not having Library this time with me being able to go Pyromancer into Time Walk. A couple of counterspells later the game is over.
R3
This time my hand in Game 1 doesn’t wield a Misstep or Force but I keep it nevertheless. Being on the draw, that was probably a bad idea. He leads off with blue source into ukpeep Ancestral and all I can do against that is to draw a Misstep off the top. And another one the following turn… he on the other hand baits out a few counters, draws a couple of cards with Thirst and Thoughtcast and eventually Vaultkeys me.
In game 2 I get a pretty nutty hand and start off a Turn 1 Delver which doesn’t take long to flip. I counter a couple of spells and get to resolve Dack while still having Pulverize backup in hand.
Game 3 starts similar to game 2, except for that this time my disruption is weaker. My Delver gets to deal 3 damage before having to chumpblock a Blightsteel Colossus, but Dack Fayden appears to the party and proves why he is the greatest thief in the Multiverse.
R4
Thanks to a high number of unintentional draws we are the only 3-0s and shake hands for an I.D. We still agree to play some (it can never hurt to know what other players are on and how they pilot it) and have some super interactive games of Delver vs. Mentor. In Game 3 I keep a 1 land hand without Misstep and only 1 cantrip, which of course he missteps and then follows it up with Library. Glad I did I.D.
R5
Finally I get to meet Zuzy in person and it starts with me apologizing for registering for a tournament just to not show up. He understood my priorities and told me about hopefully having another Vintage tournament in Prague in early 2016. It is always a pleasure to meet people who are the driving force behind a community. Anyway, I offer him another I.D. which he accepts, but this time we don’t play because he has to manage something and I’m just hungry
Quarterfinals
In my quarterfinals I get the only Shop deck in the tournament. Thanks to being higher seed I may start, which is already a big advantage, but I also get a super nut draw with a turn 1 Pyromancer and double Force of Will backup. Preordain shows me Time Walk and I literally win without giving him a turn to breath
G2 also shapes up to be very fair, as his hand is quite mediocre. He has a lot of mana, some Wastelands and some Invokers, but no real lock piece. Until he finds any I already got an established board and just need to handle his Steel Hellkite.
Semifinals
Time for another match against BUG Fish, this time without any kind of splash, but with several copies of Tarmogoyf in the maindeck.
Again I get to start and I feel favored for some time, until he is able to grind me out while I’m drawing dead. Luckily his Confidants keep him low on life and a turn or two before he would win I find the critical Lightning Bolt.
Game two evolves similar, except for that this time my draw is even weaker and he establishes a superior board state early on. Getting eaten by Gofys in Vintage was certainly unexpected.
Game three made up for it all though as it is his time to keep a weak hand. He soon stumbles on mana while I get pyroboy with a couple of tokens into play. When he concedes, he shows me a hand full of counterspells which happen to do nothing against creatures. Phew.
Finals
Delver was apparently exactly the right choice for the tournament as my opponent also me also with a Delver deck. Again I get to play first thanks to being higher seed, but I’m not sure if it mattered in the end. Going first was good, but having 2 Pyromancers with a hand full of counterspells made it better. The whole match was quite anticlimatic and in each of the three games one of us had to have a Pyromancer with some backup on turn 2. Luckily it was me who got Pyro + Force for g3, which was just enough to force a quick concession.
I still can’t believe that I finally got play in my first paper Vintage tournament – and many more will follow. Thanks for reading, hope to meet all of you very soon. Now I just need another really good tournament finish or an addtional income cheque so I can afford the ticket to Eternal Champs.
