GP Melbourne Vintage Winning Decklists

On the third of March 14 brave souls made their way to the GP Halls to compete in the “Big Tix” Sanctioned Vintage event. This was an extremely disappointing turn out as the previous Melbourne GP event had 50 players. As the event was only Swiss + 1 with no top 8, was poorly advertised, and had no guaranteed prizes this was not as surprising as it may have been otherwise. Having the event of day 1 of the main event did not help matters. As it was, the Vintage stalwarts prepared their Moxen for what would be an exciting event.

As the event was Swiss + 1 there were 5 rounds of Magic to be played. At the conclusion of the event, it was Graham King who stood unopposed with a 5 – 0 record on BUG fish. Graham has been a huge force in the Australian Vintage scene for many years and adding another major event to his title only cements him as one of Melbourne’ best.

As we could not receive the final standings from the organiser we only have the final results.    
     1)      Graham King – BUG Fish (15 points)
     2)      Luke McCoy – Dredge (10)
     3)      Socrates Stavropoulos – Suicide Tendrils (10)
     4)      Joshua Butler – Urb Painter (9)
     5)      James O'Rourke – RW Beats (9)
     6)      Sarven McLinton – Gush Control (9)

          7)      Timothy Tai – Survival Mask (9)

          8)      Nicholas Zappacosta – BUG Fish (9)

          9)      Nicholas Chmielewski – Grixis Control (6)

          10)   Ben McCoy – Tezzeret (6)

          11)   William Wong – Grixis Control (6)

          12)   David Brotchie – Standstill (3)

          13)   Jeremy Kajfes – Dredge (3)

          14)   Corey Elliot – Mentor Salvagers (0)

X – 2 or better decklists

Graham King – BUG Fish (15 Points)

1 Island

1 Polluted Delta

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Underground Sea

2 Tropical Island

1 Bayou

4 Wasteland

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

4 Deathrite Shaman

4 Dark Confidant

3 Trygon Predator

2 Vendilion Clique

2 Tarmogoyf

2 Snapcaster Mage

 1 Notion Thief

1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

4 Force of Will

3 Mental Misstep

2 Spell Pierce

3 Stifle

4 Abrupt Decay

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Brainstorm

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void

1 Grafdigger’s Cage

2 Yixlid Jailer

2 Mindbreak Trap

2 Seeds of Innocence

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Forest

Luke McCoy – Dredge (10 Points)

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

2 Dakmoor Salvage

1 Petrified Field

3 Mana Confluence

4 Undiscovered Paradise

4 Serum Powder

4 Bridge from Below

4 Leyline of the Void

3 Ingot Chewer

3 Golgari Thug

1 Flame-kin Zealot

4 Golgari Grave-Troll

4 Narcomoeba

4 Stinkweed Imp

4 Bloodghast

1 Fatestitcher

3 Ichorid

2 Dread Return

4 Cabal Therapy

Sideboard:

2 Serenity

2 Wispmare

2 Petrified Field

1 Ingot Chewer

3 Nature’s Claim

4 Barbarian Ring

1 Riftstone Portal

Socrates Stavropoulos – Suicide Tendrils (10 Points)

2 Underground Sea

2 Swamp

2 Island

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Bayou

4 Polluted Delta

1 Black Lotus

1 Lotus Petal

2 Chrome Mox

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mana Vault

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

1 Necropotence

1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

4 Gitaxian Probe

1 Mystical Tutor

4 Pact of Negation

1 Preordain

2 Quicken

1 Timetwister

4 Ad Nauseum

3 Cabal Ritual

4 Dark Ritual

1 Demonic Tutor

4 Duress

3 Tendrils of Agony

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard:

2 Chain of Vapor

2 Extirpate

3 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Praetors Grasp

2 Slaughter Pact

1 Tropical Island

4 Xantid Swarm

Joshua Butler – Urb Painter (9 Points)

4 Scalding Tarn

1 Polluted Delta

1 Misty Rainforest

3 Island

3 Volcanic Island

2 Underground Sea

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

2 Grindstone

3 Painter’s Servant

1 Blightsteel Colossus

2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1 Dack Fayden

4 Force of Will

4 Pyroblast

3 Mental Misstep

3 Thirst for Knowledge

2 Gush

1 Misdirection

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ancestral Recall

2 Thoughtseize

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Treasure Cruise

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

Sideboard:

1 Mindbreak Trap

1 Duress

1 Toxic Deluge

1 Shattering Blow

1 Shattering Spree

3 Ingot Chewer

1 Mountain

2 Grafdigger’s Cage

4 Leyline of the Void

James O’Rourke – RW Beats (9 Points)

1 Mountain

2 Plains

1 Karakas

4 Arid Mesa

1 Marsh Flats

4 Cavern of Souls

3 Plateau

1 Strip Mine

3 Wasteland

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Pearl

1 Umezawa’s Jitte

4 Simian Spirit Guide

3 Prophetic Flamespeaker

4 Containment Priest

4 Leonin Arbiter

3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

4 Spirit of the Labyrinth

3 Phyrexian Revoker

3 Mother of Runes

1 Hammer Mage

1 Gorilla Shaman

4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Sudden Shock

Sideboard:

4 Grafdigger’s Cage

3 Ingot Chewer

1 Hammer Mage

1 Phyrexian Revoker

2 Kataki, War’s Wage

1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

1 Sudden Shock

2 Red Elemental Blast

Sarven McLinton – Gush Control (9 Points)

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Flooded Strand

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical island

3 Island

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Time Vault

1 Voltaic Key

1 Fastbond

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Blightsteel Colossus

1 Snapcaster Mage

1 Trygon Predator

4 Force of Will

2 Mana Drain

2 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

4 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

2 Preordain

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Steel Sabotage

Sideboard:

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Grafdigger’s Cage

1 Ravenous Trap

1 Yixlid Jailer

2 Trygon Predator

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Forest

1 Notion Thief

1 Mental Misstep

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Illness in the Ranks

Timothy Tai – Survival Mask

2 Bayou

1 Tropical Island

1 Taiga

1 Forest

3 Verdant Catacombs

2 Misty Rainforest

3 Mana Confluence

2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2 Dark Depths

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

2 Illusionary Mask

4 Phyrexian Dreadnaught

2 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

2 Vengevine

1 Basking Rootwalla

3 Vampire Hexmage

2 Deathrite Shaman

4 Dark Confidant

4 Survival of the Fittest

4 Thoughtseize

3 Mental Misstep

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

Sideboard:

1 Chains of Mephistopheles

3 Red Elemental Blast

4 Nature’s Claim

3 Artifact Mutation

3 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Yixlid Jailer

Nicholas Zappacosta – BUG Fish

4 Wasteland

3 Polluted Delta

1 Forest

1 Island

3 Verdant Catacombs

1 Tropical Island

1 Misty Rainforest

2 Underground Sea

1 Bayou

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Sapphire

2 Null Rod

4 Dark Confidant

4 Deathrite Shaman

2 Trygon Predator

2 Jace, Vryns Prodigy

2 Snapcaster Mage

1 Notion Thief

4 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

1 Steel Sabotage

1 Spell Pierce

4 Force of Will

1 Brainstorm

4 Abrupt Decay

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Time Walk

1 Ponder

1 Dismember

Of note in this tournament is the complete lack of Workshop decks.  I personally put this to the lack of players in the event. I chose to not play workshops due to my unfamiliarity of the environment and other may have had similar thoughts. What do you think was the reason for the lack of Workshops?

GP Melbourne Vintage: Round 5

Howdy Folks,

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out guy/gals but I have spent some time refining some things elsewhere and I am back here. I competed in a Highlander event where I came in the top 8 with my Channel-Mirror deck. I also was interviewed for a job for my first job since becoming sick so I am very excited at the prospects and have lots of ideas for the place. I hope to hear back from them soon.

But when we last left our intrepid hero I was 2-2 in the GP Melbourne Vintage event having just lost to Socrates on his UB Suicide tendrils list. Having lost two rounds I was out of contention for first place completely so was just playing for the points. My final opponent for the tournament was Ben McCoy on a UB Tezzeret list. Ben looks like he had taken queues from the 2011 Bazaar of Moxen winning decklist with some updated cards to include the now unrestricted Thirst for Knowledge.

Ben's List:

My List:

Going into the round I was not sure what Ben was going to be on (I had sneaked enough of a look to see that he was on a blue deck but not much more) so I kept a pretty open hand which Missteped his Voltaic Key and laid down a Painter's Servant. I elected to not counter his Time Vault as I was leading toward an early Tinker for Blightsteel which resolved through his Force of Will. Blightsteel however, was not fast enough as the Trinket Mage in play bought Ben a turn on 9 Poison

Ben casually played the Tezzeret in hand to untap the Time Vault in play and I was left feeling very silly.

For this matchup I sideboarded the same as my round 1 opponent.

Removed:

 Added:

Game two was a rather quick affair in which I Strip Mined my opponent early and he was unable to recover as I had the countermagic to hold him off any relevant plays. He got stuck under a Mana Vault which dealt 6 or so damage to him during which time he did not draw any mana sources and I was easily able to resolve my combo to go onto game 3.

I kept the same sideboard going into game three.

During and after game three I felt really sorry for Ben. We are good friends and I felt bad that siding out half my combo really lengthened this game to a point where it was almost unbrearable. Both of us kept permission heavy hands and it was really touch and go for quite a while as we were jockeying for permission with Force of Will and Mental Misstep being the main culprits of our early game interaction.  Over 7 life was depleted between both parties in the opening turns. Where the tide turned in my favour was the resolution of a Painter’s Servant which really allowed by 4 Pyroblasts to go up in value. It was in this position where I had a slight advantage over Ben the whole game for nearly 20 turns as I was always a card ahead. I drew the Blightsteel early and whenever I got rid of the card I would draw it within a turn or two. This meant that Tinker was out and I needed to combo other ways.

The problem was that I had discarded the Grindstone to a Thirst for Knowledge very early on so I knew that my only out to actually win the game besides Tinker or Painter beats was to find my Yawgmoth’s Will which was hiding in the deck. After 30 or so turns I finally found my Dack Fayden with only 12 cards left in my library. I used Deck Fayden to cycle through the last cards in my library to find the Yawgmoth’s Will the second to last card left.

I resolved the Yawgmoth’s and took a long but unexcitingly boring game. It was a good choice to keep in as much permision as possible; it was just unlucky that the game did not end sooner.

It was a great match but being caught at the tail end of the tournament and a long game three put a bit of a dampner on the whole thing. As the tournament structure did not have a top 8 there was very little we were playing for so it did seem to drag on a bit. It would have been a lot more exciting if there were a top 8 because we would have been potentially on a win and in but it was not to be.

In the end I finished on equal 4^th place on 3-2. I felt like I had a list that was worthy of a better record and it was my play that let me down. I will have to put in a bit more testing for the next tournament. I would be happy to continue playing this list for the host of reasons I have written about.

Until Next time.

GP Melbourne Vintage: Round 4

Heading into round four I was 2-1 and looking to win my way out from there. There was no cut so final standings would be based solely on the Swiss +1 standings. 14 players meant that I only had to win two more rounds to easily be in the top end of standings. This round I was paired against the one and only Socrates Stavropoulos. Socrates is the best cook on the barbeque that I know having stayed at his house some 4 years ago for my first interstate Vintage event where he put on a Greek barbeque that I would go back in time for. He also defeated me in the top 4 of that event so like my opponent in my previous round I was out for revenge.

Socrates was on a new deck and obviously looking to cash in on the new Dark Petition craze. His list was different from most and looks more akin to the old Suicide Tendrils lists than the current Petition storm lists. The list he played was: 

My list:

Our game one was not close at all. I hit his only land with a Strip Mine and he never recovered. He cast a Sol Ring only for it to be Pyroblasted thanks once again to my Painter’s Servant and I won the game via Tinker on turn 5 or so.

Against Socrates I boarded in the following manner.

Removed:

Added:

Game two was an interesting game where Socrates commited his mana to the board early and I Mental Misstepped his opening relevant plays. I eventually drew a Thoughtseize when he was low on cards and took an Ad Nauseum leaving him with only a second Ad Nauseum and a Cabal Ritual. Two turns later with only a Mental Misstep in hand he resolved an Ad Nauseum and immediately hit two more Ad Nauseum’ putting his life total in a precarious position. He stopped drawing cards at 4 life having only drawn a few cards he cast a Quicken which I countered. I had figured he needed something else to win as I had seen that he could have Duressed me, cast Vampiric Tutor for the Tendrils and drawn it with the mana he had open. It turned out that it was simply bait for my Misstep and he simply had not seen the line before hand. After having got rid of my last card in hand he tutored for the win and we were off to game 3.

Having seen no draw sevens I assumed that his deck leant very heavily on Dark petition and I sided in 3 Leylines for two Painters and a Grindstone.

I had to mulligan a hand of 5 mana sources and irrelevant plays into 4 lands, an Ancestral Recall, a Misdirection. I ummed and ahhed about this hand for a while and figured that it did not have enough interaction and the Ancestral was not good enough a reason to keep it. My 5 was acceptable with Missteps and a Force but I was hit by three Duress effects in the first two turns of the game. It seems Socrates had kept the hand based on that fact and could not take advantage of the free turns it afforded him. I managed to claw my way back into the game with my Painter attacking him down as I was drawing relevant spells off the top to keep him in check as much I could. On my penultimate turn I Duressed Socrates and saw that he had two Cabal Rituals (whilst tight on mana) with a stocked Graveyard and took one. Socrates had bounced my Painter in a previous turn and I had a choice on my last turn. My opponent had a single card in hand (Cabal Ritual). My hand was Yawgmoth’s Will (with a bunch of Countermagic and my Thoughseize), Force of Will, and Painter’s Servant. I am genuinely interested in what your play would be.  Let me know in the comments below.

I chose to cast the Yawgmoth’s Will for the Thoughtseize taking his remaining Cabal Ritual, rather than cast the Painter and expect to exile Yawgmoth’s Will to my Force of Will but was punished by his subsequently drawn Timetwister which ended up in a lethal storm count.

Socrates played really well and took the victory. I had a great time playing against him and I hope to get my now long awaited revenge next time we face. 

GP Melbourne 2016: Round 2

Welcome back everybody.

As requested I have made an image of the decks used by my opponent and me for the round.

Joshua Butler - URb Painter

David Brotchie -  UR Tempo Standstill

Having just lost my first Round to Will Wong I was earnestly seeking a win. Standing in my way was another Brisbanite in the form of David Brotchie. David is famous for playing Landstill in every tournament he is able to. He has been successfully piloting this archetype for as long as I have known him; top 8’ing multiple events including the previous Melbourne GP where he defeated me in the final round in our “win and in”. He has been active on the TMD thread for the deck and is a very respectable player. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be on anything other than Landstill, the only question was which splash he had opted to make. I did ask him before our match but he was not forthcoming with the information.  As I settled in for the match I knew that this would be a tough fight.

As it happened, our first game was an incredibly long affair; taking up nearly 25 minutes of our precious 50 minutes. David unfortunately took a mulligan down to six cards and he was on the play which meant he could not get to his scry card until his second turn. The game started as you would expect with the only relevant fight early was his Lightning bolt on my Painter’s Servant eating a Mental Misstep. Despite me playing a Grindstone, he was able to land a Null Rod effectively shutting down my ability to combo out.

I had no solution in hand to the Null Rod and had to start pressuring his life total with my singleton Painters Servant. Before I had found the Pyroblast for the Null Rod he had found a second Rod and had started swinging back with the Faerie Conclave he had in play. Knowing that I had to keep David on his back foot I broke a Standstill immediately hoping that I would be able take advantage of the mana he had tapped down during his main phase.  Despite this influx of cards, David was not able to remove my Painter’s Servant. A crucial point at this point had me exile a Yawgmoth’s Will to a Force of Will just to stay in the game.

At only 5 life, after having done the math on the situation and seeing that David’s Faerie Conclave would win the damage race by a single turn I gave up hope of finding the right answers to the pair of Null Rods and turned my second Pyroblast to the Faerie Conclave to give me some time. This was where things started to go south for me.

David resolved a mid-counter war Ancestral Recall and followed it up with Crucible of Worlds, starting to squeeze my mana base by recurring Wasteland. I had not fetched my basics early (to keep up Pyroblast) so I had some time but before long I was down to only a single Island. All this time however I had been steadily beating him down, one damage at a time, with my Painters Servant. On only three life, David managed to land a Jace, the Mind Sculptor and a Standstill after bouncing my beater. I was forced to break the Standstill to replay the Painter and we David used the turn of summoning sickness to Brainstorm with Jace.

Thinking I was dead in the water I attacked around the Jace putting him to two. We spent a few turns between with a common theme of me playing the Painter and David bouncing it before Jace was at a single loyalty and David elected to Brainstorm which found the strip mine putting my mana at only a single land. I attacked David down to a single life point and with my final top deck, a fetchland putting me to only two life, cast my second Painter’s Servant.

David drew the card for turn, checked his options and with a second Brainstorm effect he extended his hand.

I was shocked, I thought there was no way that I had actually beat him from 19-0 (including Forces and Fetches). Even when packing up the cards I had to verbally ask him to ensure that I had indeed won the game. I was spent and perhaps he had found the Lightning Bolt for me, I was genuinely so surprised that I had managed to put out from under two Standstills, an Ancestral and a Jace that I had to shake my head a few times.

Trying to get over the shock of having won such a hard fought game one and preparing for game two I made the following changes to my deck:

Removed:

Added

A similar side board plan as the previous round with only the Mountain acting as a replacement for the Shattering Blow.

Game two did not follow a similar path to our first game.

After we both kept our seven cards I had Duressed his Force of Will and drawn 6 extra cards before he had played his third land thanks to an Ancestral and a Thirst for Knowledge on my first and second turns. I leveraged this advantage into a Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus on my third turn and despite David putting up some resistance in the form of a blocker to only put him at 8 poison counters he conceded shortly after. He did manage to counter two of my spells but I just had so many more cards at my disposal before he had his late game engines online that I was unlikely to lose from after the first turn or so.

Overall David played spectacularly and I thoroughly enjoyed our match. Our first game went for such a long time it was a pity that our second was so short. Now I had had my revenge from GP Melbourne 2013; I was at peace and ready to stomp into round 3.

GP Melbourne Vintage Event – Round 1

As I wrote a few days ago, going into GP Melbourne’s “Big Tix” Vintage event I had settled on playing a URb Painter list modelled after Andy Probasco’s list with which he made top 8 in a MTGO Vintage Premier event.

It was a tumultuous start to the tournament. The day started with my arrival at the tournament realising that I had left my decklist at home. I borrowed the last cards I needed and after rewriting the decklist I went about the room trying to work out how many players we had for the tournament.

Ten minutes before the event was scheduled to start I met with Nick Chmielewski who cheekily said that he would play if I were to write out his decklist for him. This took longer than expected however there was no cause for concern as the tournament did not actually start until 25 minutes after the scheduled start. The tournament had a disappointing 14 player turnout.This was especially painful as Melbourne’s last GP in 2013 had fully 50 players.

My first round opponent was Will Wong on his Marc Lenigra style circa 2012 style Grixis list. He was running the usual Confidant/Snapcaster/Jace draw engine which was supplemented with additional planeswalkers in Tezzeret and Dack Fayden.  I went into the match blind and kept a disruption heavy had leading with a Thoughseize on the play revealing the following cards:

I took the Dark Confidant  expecting to be able to win the counter war on his turn three Jace. He cast a blind Demonic Tutor on his first turn and passes back to me. As I had surmised earlier, I won the fight over his Jace on turn 3 and also countered his Voltaic Key the same turn which he cast with a Mana Crypt. Unfortunately for me, I did not have any counters remaining for his subsequent Tezzeret which found the Time Vault and took all the additional turns he wanted. Will took some damage from his Mana Crypt but was able to remove it to take game 1.

Boarding for Will I removed:

for

I reasoned that the 15^th land was a little superfluous as I was not expecting my opponent to pressure my mana base. I found myself cutting the first two of the Painter combo quite frequently throughout the day as a way of fitting in more control elements whilst still allowing the combo to remain in the deck.

Unfortunately for me I took a mulligan down to 6 and kept a sketchy:

This hand is keepable and I do not think it was a mistake to keep it. I knew that I had more free countermagic than he did, had Thoughtseize on the play and could protect it from a Misstep or a Force. In the best case scenario I A) thoughtseize a threat, B) Pyroblast another, and C) draw a blue source to draw me back into the game. Whilst I managed to do both A and B, C came a little too late and I was stuck on just Ruby and Jet until turn 3. The turn after I found the blue source and was holding mana for an EoT Thirst he cast a Tezzeret the Seeker. I redblasted the Tezz and Misdirectioned the Force but he still had  a Jace which kept me threat light until it was able to ultimate and win him a important game 2.

I feel that this set of games is not representative of the matchup between the two decks. I had felt that I had the upper hand in any game where he did not lead with an early Confidant. In both games I was able to deny him this but lost to him having a higher density of game winning threats. Perhaps I was incorrect in my assessment of the matchup but I felt that the games we a lot closer than the 0-2 would suggest.

Overall it was two brief games that came down to the wire and were well played by Will. With a round one loss under my belt I headed for round two.

What Catches My Eye

During my preparations for GP Melbourne 2016 I aired a suggestion to my friend and testing partner Graham King regarding potential decks for the event. My suggestion was to try and update a 2011 style Gush list for the current meta game. For those who were not playing at the time, Gush in mid 2011 was a monolithic institution. There was ‘a’ Gush list with and the decklists rarely varied by more than a few cards.  The idea was to abuse the GushBond engine to deliver a lethal Tendrils of Agony or Tinker into the newly printed Blighsteel Colossus. It was even powerful enough for Rich Shay to pilot his version through the Swiss portion of the Vintage World Championship undefeated.

The idea was promptly put into the ‘too hard basket’ but apparently I was not the only one with the idea.

Sarven McLinton made equal 4^th position in a Swiss + 1 tournament with the following spicy list:

Sarven McLinton – Gush Control

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Flooded Strand

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical island

3 Island

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Time Vault

1 Voltaic Key

1 Fastbond

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Blightsteel Colossus

1 Snapcaster Mage

1 Trygon Predator

4 Force of Will

2 Mana Drain

2 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

4 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

2 Preordain

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Steel Sabotage

Sideboard:

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Grafdigger’s Cage

1 Ravenous Trap

1 Yixlid Jailer

2 Trygon Predator

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Forest

1 Notion Thief

1 Mental Misstep

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Illness in the Ranks

There is a lot I love about this list. It really is a blast back from 2011. In a world where the combat step has become such a battlefield it is refreshing to see someone want to just go over the top. I am not sure who Sarven faced in his rounds but he only dropped two so there must be something right in the list.

The first thing I noticed about this list is the absence of Red. Quite often these Gush lists would splash Red for Ancient Grudge and Empty the Warrens as well as opening up the sideboard at the cost of weakening the mana base. In a tournament where Illness in the ranks and co. are seeing play Illness in the Ranks really loses some of it’s lustre. Without red he has room for fully four basics in the 75 which is rare to see and gives quite a leg up against the Wasteland decks. He also has the extra land in Library of Alexandria and full acceleration which leaves him with a very solid mana base.

Whilst I can get behind the loss of red there are some decisions that do not sit well with me. For one, Sarven has too many win conditions. For a deck which ideally is seeing 20+ cards in a game should not need Tinker + Tendrils + Jace + Time Vault; leaving aside the question of Jace for the moment, I would not select more than two of the other options. Cutting the Time Vault and the Voltaic Key would allow him to run the missing Preordains which would smoothen out the deck as a whole both pre and mid combo. Snapcaster over Regrowth is another head scratcher as Regrowth can find a second land or a spent Fastbond/Gush making it the clear better choice in this deck over the wizard.

If I were to pilot a variant of this list I would be looking at something along the lines of:

Joshua Butler – Gush

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Polluted Delta

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical Island

3 Island

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

1 Fastbond

2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1 Blightsteel Colossus

4 Force of Will

4 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

4 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

4 Preordain

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

1 Tendrils of Agony

2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Regrowth

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void

3 Yixlid Jailer

2 Trygon Predator

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Forest

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Illness in the Ranks

Overall I feel that this version would be a little more consistent. The addition of the Preordains and the streamlining of both the main deck and side board mean there will be less variation of hands and mana. I also chose to use Strip Mine as the 16^th land as I feel it would be more useful in the Dredge and Shop matchups  than the Library in the mirror. Considering we plan to end the game earlier than most, I felt that this was not too much of a concession.

With a full set of both Misstep and Force, the more traditional dredge hate of Leyline and Jailer seemed more fitting than the various cards in the previous list.

The Vryn’s Prodigy is a testing slot that allows the deck to be a little more consistent when mana hungry and lets us drop the Drains in favour of additional Missteps which are a concession to the Pyroblast heavy meta game. Unfortunately I think this is the reason I would be hesitant pilot this deck in a tournament. There are simply too many red blast effects in the meta for this to truly flourish. It may be as consistent as the current crop of Dark Petition storm lists but fold to additional hate. Either way it was a good thought experiment and you should probably keep an eye out for this deck in the future as it may be poised for a come back.

Friday Highlander - My Story

I hope everyone out there is is resting up from the GP weekend. Overall the weekend was a good one with plenty of Magic to be played. This was the first GP in Australia run by Chain Link Events and was by no means a poor tournament experience. I did have some issues on site but that is for a different post. The next few posts will explore the Highlander event, my role within it, coverage of the final two matches at the top table, and a rundown of the whole event.

I had only decided the day before that I would definitely be playing in the highlander event bar another severe attack of my migraines. I borrowed what I needed from friends and managed to get the deck together. I even had a decklist written out before I was told that the event would be played at Regular REL and therefore did not require decklists. 

I had decided to bring my version of Channel-Mirror to the tournament as my weapon of choice for taking down the tournament. I believed that Channel was one of the best chances for me to take down the event as I had not played much highlander in the weeks preceding the event due to my condition making travel to tournaments not really viable. It had not changed its position in the metagame, nor had its optimal deck construction changed heavily so I knew my previous experience would still be relevant. Channel-Mirror is a rather strong combo deck that can be quite resilient to many of the common avenues of attack against traditional combo decks such as counters or graveyard hate. The problem with the deck is that it can be inconsistent at times, needing to draw the “right” hands etc. I have often said that Channel is the best deck in the format if you are willing to be lucky. In this particular tournament however I was not lucky. I ended my tournament at 1-2 after a nightmare round one and a rather unlucky game three in round two I decided that I would play one final round before dropping to do coverage.

The list I devised and played was not too dissimilar from standard lists for Channel Mirror. The erratic nature of the decks opening hands and lack of great matchups (despite the similar lack of poor matchups) has left few pilots with a great amount of experience with or against the deck. Perhaps the inconsistency of the combo should resign the deck to the annals of history but I do enjoy playing it and it is certainly one of the best decks to goldfish. It’s just so different from every other deck in Magic which makes it refreshing to play.

The decklist I would have registered had the event been Competitive REL would have been:

You will have to forgive missing Duress/Thoughtseize in the mainboard

Bloodstained Mire
Wooded Foothills
Misty Rainforest
Polluted Delta
Verdant Catacombs
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Bayou
Watery Grave
Overgrown Tomb
City of Brass
Mana Confluence
Peat Bog
Hickory Woodlot
Chrome Mox
Lotus Petal
Mox Diamond
Sensei’s Divining Top
Darkwater Egg
Shadowblood Egg
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Kaleidostone
Scroll Rack
Implements of Sacrifice
Pentad Prism
Skyship Weatherlight
Lich’s Mirror
Deathrite Shaman
Wild Cantor
Birds of Paradise
Elves of Deep Shadow
Dimir Infiltrator
Elvish Spirit Guide
Composite Golem
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Eladmri’s Vineyard
Gitaxian Probe
Ponder
Thoughtseize
Duress
Inquisition of Kozilek
Personal Tutor (1)
Regrowth
Channel (2)
Demonic Tutor (3)
Grim Tutor
Fabricate
Rhystic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Increasing Ambition
Dark Ritual
Nature’s Claim
Spell Pierce
Muddle the Mixture (1)
Shred Memory
Abrupt Decay
Cabal Ritual
Into the Roil
Brainstorm

SB: Forest
SB: Shield Sphere
SB: Dystopia
SB: Massacre
SB: Slaughter Pact
SB: Elixer of Immortality
SB: Pack Rat
SB: Planar Portal
SB: Sadistic Sacrament
SB: Heroes Reunion
SB: Unmask
SB: Pernicious Deed
SB: Xantid Swarm
SB: Dark Confidant
SB: Nihil Spellbomb

For those who are not familiar with the deck I will give a quick rundown (I will provide a more in depth review at a later date). The deck’s combo involves finding and casting Channel which gives you the ability to pay one life at instant speed to add a single colourless mana to your mana pool. The important clause here is that you gain this ability until end of turn, you don’t have to decide how much life you want to pay then and there. Once you have this ability you use this colourless mana to cycle through your deck using the tutors and baubles to find a Lich’s Mirror (usually) which has the replacement effect of when you die you shuffle up all cards in play, your hand, and cards in your graveyard, and then you draw seven cards and your life total becomes 20. You then use the new seven cards at your disposal to cycle through your deck once again and repeat Ad Nauseum. Quite often you announce a spell such as a tutor and hold priority and kill yourself using the Channel ability. This lets you draw seven new cards and then resolve the tutor to find the Mirror again.

Once you have enough cards/mana at your disposal you find the Emrakul which triggers and additional turn. If your opponent can answer the Emrakul after you swing (and your opponent does not scoop to the first Emrakul casting) you ensure you can keep going off using the Mirror to gain more and more additional turns. In full competitive mode you can use this to indefinitely prolong the game (particularly if you are comboing in game 1). Because there is no loop happening in this combo you can continue to combo without risking being called for slow play if you continue to make your plays in a timely manner. Each time you mirror (without a tutor on the stack) you are risking that you draw 7 lands and cannot continue the combo.

{Tournament Report}

My first round was against eventual champion Paul Mitchell who was on his U/R Blue Moon list. As with the Modern lists it is a strong control deck which uses Blood Moon as an essential lock piece against many of the greedy 3+ colour mana bases that litter 7pt Highlander. With even some mono Red lists suffering under a Blood Moon it is a clearly powerful play and a great cornerstone for the always powerful U/R shell.

The games were quick, vicious and in my opponents favour. In the first game I kept a decent hand which unfortunately faltered when I played blindly into Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Izzet Charm, and Mana Leak; each time assuming that he must have been spent. Against the blue decks you have to keep throwing bombs at your opponent until one sticks and unfortunately for me after we were both spent my opponents’ deck was much better at recovering than my own. After drawing a few useless mana rocks a Thundermaw Hellkite quickly ended the game.

The second game was defined by an early Blood Moon and Paul was able to effectively keep me off abrupt decay mana with the help of a Null Rod. I had made an error in sideboarding by siding out my Into the Roil which left me short of an additional out which again in hindsight would have been useful in the situation I found myself in.

0-1 (0-2 games)

In Round two I managed to lose the dream matchup. My opponent, Karill Radvaisky, was running a three colour, no land destruction, no counterspell, and no discard deck. Despite being on the play in game one and three I managed to lose. This match showcases why this deck is not as popular is it could be. I almost considered leaving the tournament after losing this one.

In game one I did go off on my third turn with a rather lovely stack whose first iteration of the combo involved drawing my new hand of seven, drawing two additional cards (plus adding a Blue and a Black mana to my mana pool), and THEN resolving my Scroll Rack ability drawing 5 additional cards making the cards seen total for the new hand 14. With two coloured mana floating and 14 brand new cards there was almost no way I could fail to continue to combo from there. With a single black mana and seven new cards the fizzle ration is roughly 9%. After three or so rotations I tutored for the Emrakul with the intention of continuing to combo as he would have had mana for Council’s Judgement/Oblivion Ring after I had swung but he conceded as soon as the Emrakul was announced.

Game Two was rather unfortunate as I kept a slower hand which needed to tutor for both the Channel and the Mirror (it did have the mana and tutors though) which did not match up well to his hand of Qasali Pridemage into Jitte/Equip. On my final turn I had seven life and channel was cast. I had two black mana but only Diabolic Tutor in hand which left me one life short of tutoring for the Mirror and continuing to combo. Innumerable variable would have changed that game into a win for me but I chose the keep the hand I did and was punished.

Game three was just awful to play. I hand a hand that combo’d on my turn 4 (after his turn 3). It was a land light hand so I was just hoping that he did not have Null Rod etc but I assumed this was not the case because of the Jitte the previous game. Things were going swimmingly until he revealed an Ethersworn canonist to his Dark Confidant on the first flip. My Channel and Emrakul sat useless in hand (I had Muddled for Channel the turn before) and instead of drawing any tutors or creature destruction (of which there were 12) I continued to draw lands and mana rocks. I eventually had to crack my rocks to dig deeper into the deck and brainstorm away the Emrakul after I was below 15 life in order to find SOMETHING but no answer was forthcoming. My plans quickly hinged on his dark confidant flips but it was eventually removed and my opponent won the game handily.

I was shocked, I could not believe that the dream matchup had gone so lopsided but still extended the hand and looked for my next opponent.

0-2 (1-4 Games)

James O’Brien was my third round opponent and we were both tired. These games were a more casual affair (as most are in the 0-2 bracket) which ended in a distinctively different fashion from my previous games. My opponent was on some sort of BR midrange deck (sorry I didn’t take notes on this deck) and he kept a sketchy one lander and I went for an early combo which unfortunately fizzled. I had gone off with just a draw of seven cards (with some spare mana floating) and had drawn 4 lands, a Sensei’s Divining top and a couple of creatures. Even looking at the top three cards with the Top did not allow me to continue to combo. I did have a fetchland so I used that to look again and found the Channel so I cast my creatures and prepared to go off again. It took a few turns to gather the resources again but my opponent did not put up much resistance because of his mana situation putting him in the game too late and I was able to get an Emrakul on the board again.

The second game went quickly with a turn 1 or two channel and an Emrakul after a single Mirror. This game was a quick and brutal as those I had received earlier in the tournament. James was a good sport and we played another match after we had signed the match slip which was a not as one sided as our previous games had been.

1-2 (3-4 Games)

Overall my deck was not as well metagamed as it could have been. I went a little overboard in the anti aggro department with fully 10 or so card choices directly aimed at that matchup. Channel is a deck where you have only a few flex slots to play around with so while you have 8+ cards for the matchup you want the wide variety to ensure you have the right four cards to bring in against your specific opponent. With hindsight I would definitely have made some changes such as bringing in the Planar Portal to the main deck given the metagame in the room.  Other small changes I would make going forward would be the reintroduction of Preordain and a slight shifting of the flex slot configuration between main and side.

I believe Channel-Mirror still has what it takes to be a competitive Highlander deck. Grim Tutor losing a point was a great shot in the arm and made up for the point that Muddle the Mixture had gained a few sets prior. Its inconsistencies can be smoothed out with practice and practice with it I shall.

See you next time when I run down the first match I covered at the top table in the penultimate round of the event.