As of Saturday 5th of May, I now have another vintage tournament to my name. I have come second, I have come 3/4th many times but this time I did it again, to make it better, this is the first time I have pulled it off at NLG. I ran 4-0 to beat 9 other players dropping only 2 games over 4 rounds.
I decided a few days ago; as I was not able to build and play the Next Level BUG list due to other commitments that I would be running storm again, however I bought what few cards I was missing in order to play Menendians list featuring Oath of Druids and Grislebrand with a couple of minor changes. Curiously enough, the only other time I have won a vintage tournament was the GG Blackurn tournament where I was running Rich Shay's Griselbrand Oath... I sense a connection. I had been skeptical about the deck in the past as I looked at the list like I would an oath deck. The necessity of Oath in my previous Griselbrand lists was glaring as I often had nothing if an oath got countered or destroyed before triggering. What I didn't think about was how many more hands become keepable vs Thalia/ Workshop decks if you have 4 more cands that are "easy" to cast and put fatties into play.
I still believe my previous list is viable and is probably better vs the mirror and slower U decks while Menendians list is better vs Shops and Thalia decks.
The exact list I ran was:
Lands
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
2 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
Creatures
2 Griselbrand
Enchantments
1 Necropotence
4 Oath of Druids
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Mind's Desire
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
2 Hurklyl's Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Balance
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
I saw Menendians win on the weekend and wanted to run his deck as much as possible, unfortunately I did not get the chance to read his primer on the new sideboard so I just copied it as much as possible (the store had no Shattering Sprees). I also kept Demonic Consultation in over a Ponder as that cards can just win you the game like no other card can. I chose to keep Brainstorm over Ponder in this list due to the possibility of needing to put Griselbrand back into my Library from hand which was not an issue in my lists. I also kept balance in the board because I was expecting there to be dude decks and balance hits dudes hard.
The list itself is not overly difficult to play and I was lucky enough in many cases to get the quick kills when I needed to though I was able to drag out games when I needed to. The list itself is not perfect and it does have some kinks and choke points that may be able to be fixed but I must say that it was very very good at straddling the knifes edge when it had to go off in a hurry.
A closer look at my rounds
R1 vs Grixis Control
G1- We play 5 turns of High roll before I actually roll higher than him and we start the match.
I open with City of Brass, Duress. He plays nothing relevant and I drop my mana artifacts and Mind's Desire hitting plenty of gas and I comfortable cast a Tendrils of Agony for a 146 life swing with Twister left uncast.
Sideboard- Nothing, My maindeck is designed to bash through the small amount of resistance he has and keep going. Withought Xantids, there is nothing I want in.
G2- He opens with Land, Sol Ring, Time Vault. Im scared of a key sitting in his hand so I try and go off and get punished by a Mental Misstep and a Force at the correct times (for him) and fizzle. He has a few more turns before I manage to find a oath and drop it with no creatures of the board, nor an Orchard and he draws into his key naturally with no gas coming from my tank.
G3- I land an oath on turn 1. Oath fetches up Griselbrand on my turn 2 who draws me 14 cards and I go off comfortably.
1-0-0 (2-1 games)
R2 vs Cobra Gush
G1- Game goes very long and involves my attempt to go off forced early (preventing me from gathering momentum) and a cobra on his side of the table. With just burning wish and Grislebrand in hand I go for the balance except that he gushes and MT's in response leaving him with 1 card and 2 moxen to my 4 moxen and Griselbrand in hand. We play draw go for what seems like forever and I eventually draw into Necro, pay 11 life and win the next turn.
Sideboard- Nada
G2- He leads with Land Go and I duress him taking his Wheel of Fortune. He playes Land and I take his gush. On turn 3 I casually cast my own Wheel of Fortune and go off from there
2-0-0 (4-1)
R3 vs Walking Fish
G1- I have to say that this was very much a coinflip round. I won the Die Roll and Windfall for 10 cards on turn one and win with no interaction from my opponent. The lotus that let me win was 8 cards deep in my library so if I had not Ancestral Recalled my opponent he might have had a turn.
Sideboard- Ahem
G2- He opens with a Thalia and I spend my turn playing out my moxen and Lotus. However his turn 2 Waste stops me from Wishing for my Balance and casting it that turn so I decide not to waste my lotus just wishing for the Balance. I had drawn a Land so I played that and passed the turn hoping to rip another mana source but he had a second Wasteland and I am quickly beaten down by an Exalted Thalia and Kataki seals the deal
G3- I waste no time and go off with an turn 1 wheel effect which draws me into a Windfall which draws me into Tinker---> Memory Jar. At each of the points where I wheeled I had only 1 or two mana left over so I was not sure if I should or not. Each hand of 7 for my opponent (he told me later) involved a turn 1 Thalia or Kataki so when I wheel for the third time and set up the win he was pretty pissed.
3-0-0 (6-2)
R4 vs Welder Shops
G1- I win the die roll and Mind's Desire on turn 1 for 4 hitting a VT and 2 Oaths. I play the Oaths and VT for the Orchard. My opponent stares glumly at his cards and shows me his T1 Trinisphere and T2 Wastelock with crucible. I would never have been in this game had he had that start on the play. I give him a dude and Oath up Griselbrand but elect not to draw cards but win via Beatdown due to my opponents Trinisphere and I eventually bash him to death.
Sideboard- HAHA
-4 Duress
- 1 Necropotence
- 2 Griselbrand
+2 Ancient Grudge
+4 Ancient Tomb
+1 Laboratory Maniac
G2- My opponent opens up with a Sphere of Resistance and I play Land, Mox, Mox, Mox and Petal. Resigned to not be sphering me out he playes something and I play the Oath in my hand. Fortunately for me he does not put his Barbarian Ring into play from his GY and elects to play a Bazaar instead. This means he cannot get the Red to activate the Ring on my Maniac which comes into play the next turn and I try and draw a card on turn 4.
4-0-0 (8-2)
Overall the day was a success and the deck was very kind to me. Its sheer speed makes it a dangerous deck for the format and it certainly has good matchups against the popular Grixis deck.We need to find out whether it is resilient enough to beat shops and remain tier 1 in a heavy shop meta. If Null Rod starts to see more play it will have to adapt. It will still need work but today I have taken down my first NLG event netting me a black bordered VT and a couple of other cards to help me build more decks to hand out for people to play.
I hope everyone enjoyed the day
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