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 3

Welcome back folks.

When we last left our intrepid hero he was 1-1 going into round three after a killer second round which included a 25 minute game one. Having picked up a round I was ready to go and feeling over the moon. My next opponent would be Jeremy Kajfes. I had run into Jeremy a few times in the past but did not have him pinned down on any particular deck. Going into the round I had no idea I was playing against the bogeyman of Vintage; Dredge. I have done poorly against Dredge in past tournaments. Whilst I have been generally fortunate in testing with most of my decks I have lost at least one round to the deck in nearly all of my major tournaments.

Joshua Butler  - URb Painter

Jeremy Kajfes – Dredge

All was revealed when on the play Jeremy announced a Serum Powder and I took a quick check of my hand which included a Painters Servant, a Grindstone, and two lands. I saw my opportunity to possibly steal a game if I could draw some acceleration or perhaps he had a slow draw.  I felt that my deck was quite weak to dredge (even more than blue decks in general) due to the lack of Vampiric Tutor and to a lesser extent Mystical Tutor. This would mean that unless I drew Tinker or Demonic Tutor in my opening hand, my main combo would have to do.

Luckily for me he did indeed have a slow draw. He found the Bazaar in his opening hand but did not have any dredgers. I did play a turn one Grindstone and a turn two Painters Servant. On his third turn after once again failing to find any card with the word Dredge on it he managed to Nature’s Claim the Grindstone. Lo and behold my next draw was the land I would have needed to combo out but alas I had no Grindstone. Instead I followed this up with hitting his Bazaar with a Pyroblast with the help of my Painter’s Servant which meant that Jeremy was in top deck mode.

(Lachlan) "Pyroblast your Bazaar." Just a regular old Vintage match. pic.twitter.com/qwIOh2Ppxx

— Magic Judges (@MagicJudges) March 5, 2016

 Jeremy did find the dredger the next turn and I also drew my second copy of the Grindstone and he was not able to deal the 13 points of damage required to kill me and I simply milled his entire library the following turn which was enough to earn me the concession.

This game I had been incredibly lucky. I was lucky that my seven included a combo kill, lucky that my opponent stumbled on finding a dredger, and lucky that I drew the only other copy of my Grindstone the turn after one was destroyed. I had fully expected to lose this game, as one often does game 1 against dredge, and hurriedly began to sideboard.

My sideboard going into game 2 was:

Removed:

 

Added:

This was a pretty self explanatory sideboard. I had chosen Leylines and Grafdigger’s cage to be my general Dredge answers as I was running a full complement of Forces, Missteps and a Misdirection which gave me great hope at being able to fight off Jeremy’s anti-hate cards. I had originally had Yixlid Jailers in place of the Cages but felt that my Oath matchup needed some work so I took the overall weaker Grafdigger’s Cage rather than the stronger Jailer to the event.

Game two was an interesting game in which the balance of power seemed to tip back and forth between Jeremy and me, always teetering on the edge of the precipice which would end the game in our favour.

Once again both Jeremy and I kept our sevens and I opened with the Leyline. I had an early line to Tinker which I took but Jeremy was able to remove my Leyline with a second removal spell after I had countered the first. I Strip Mined his first Bazaar of Baghdad but he had a second.  I still had a Grafdigger’s Cage in play but with no more permission to stop a potential Ingot Chewer or Nature’s Claim. Jeremy put some dredgers in his yard and removed my Cage with a Nature’s Claim spell. Feeling flustered I cast a Yawgmoth’s Will just to get back the Strip Mine and cast a Tinker (sacrificing my Painter’s Servant) to put Blightsteel Colossus into play. I was feeling good that I had removed two Bazaars and he that had only a single draw step to find something relevant against my Bightsteel.

It was not to be my game however as Jeremy played Bazaar of Baghdad #3 the following turn and summoned enough creatures to make my Blightseel irrelevant to the outcome of the game. He did block with only a single creature which put him to 9 poison counters but his last turn just exploded with an army of hasty 2/2s killing me in short order.

I chose not to change the sideboard as I felt that I did not see any new or interesting features that would warrant the return of a Thoughtseize etc.

Game 3 I opened with the following cards after my mulligan.

On the play I saw that I would be able to have a Leyline in play and would be able to protect it so I kept. Jeremy exiled 20 cards or so finding a suitable hand. Within these 20 cards he exiled a number of important cards including multiple dredgers, two Bridge from Below, two Cabal Therapies, and a Narcomoeba. I played the Leyline and waited on casting the Ancestral Recall until after he played Bazaar of Baghdad for turn. Jeremy unfortunately was very light on answers for my Leyline as he dug deep through his deck to find additional answers after I had cast Force of Will of the first. A second Leyline came down on turn 4 but by turn 6 they had both been destroyed.

A freshly drawn Yawgmoth’s Will put one of the Leylines back into play and Jeremy was once again forced to exile multiple cards to dig through his library with Bazaar  to find an answer. I was low on threats myself and was not able to stop a Wispmare but having destroyed his only Bazaar just a turn earlier meant that once again he was drawing off the top rather than dredging. Jeremy did find another bazaar but had only a single activation before I was able to tutor for and play my fourth Leyline for the game. Leyline of the Void #5 quickly showed up and from there it was a simple matter of finding the Tinker before my opponent extended his hand in defeat.

It was a rough game 3 for Jeremy, having had to exile so many important cards early, and then having to exile even more must have hurt. Not to mention having your opponent play 5 Leyline of the Void (4 of which were hard cast) in a single game. I got lucky but I was able to beat my curse and was happy to move into round 4 with only a single loss.

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.

Masters has been announced

The dates have been announced and Next Level Games will once again be hosting Eternal MASTERS in 2016. From June 13, hundreds of Magic players will be descending on Dandenong for the largest Eternal weekend of the southern hemisphere. Since 2010, MASTERS has consistently held among the largest Legacy, Vintage, and Highlander events in the county.

Whilst I no longer run these events due to my health I take great pride in what this annual weekend has been able to achieve. Each year has been a improvement over the last and the movement to the Queens birthday weekend was inevitable with its rising popularity. I have managed to attend all of the events held in Dandenong and don't plan on shopping anytime soon. I hope to see the streaming facilities back as they were a fantastic addition last year. Who knows, you may even see me in front of the camera again if I can wrangle it. I thoroughly enjoy proving coverage for eternal Magic events and to have three in a row, all broadcast to the world is a great thing.

Unfortunately we do not have a final dates for these events but I will be letting you know as soon as we have that information. I suspect that we will once again have Vintage on the Saturday (as is tradition), with the Legacy and Highlander on the following days respectively. I must stress that this as only my assumption and we will know for sure closer to the event. We may even be able to organise a change from the usual FNM to something a little more in theme like we did last year.

One pleasant surprise that was not expected before this announcement was made is that the weekend of the event marks the release of Eternal MASTERS the supplementary Magic set. Naturally WotC stole our name and are running with it. I have no doubt that many packs of the new set will be cracked over the weekend in honour of the event.

I hope that I will see as many of you there as possible.  The more people we get the bigger and better the event is and the ledger next years is by proxy. If you have never attended a MASTERS before I can assure you that they have all been among my favourite tournaments ever. If you have any questions about the events or local facilities feel free to let me know in the comments.

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.

Thoughts on the change of ownership of TheManaDrain

For those who may not be aware, themanadrain.com is a forum dedicated to the Vintage format. For many years it has been held up as “the” place to discuss Vintage with the worldwide community. It is certainly the largest English speaking Vintage forum. Other forums around the internet do have Vintage sections but they are generally quite small, or at worst, really misinformed about the format. 

I personally started using themanadrain back in 2011, shortly after becoming interested in Vintage. It has been a great place for me personally as I was able to see how other Vintage players, including the adepts such as Menendian or Elias viewed the format, and in many cases exchange ideas with people around the world.

Themanadrain has changed hands a number of times and until most recently it was owned by Starcitygames.com who has used a very “Hands-off” approach to the organisation and running of the site for many years. This has led in part to the deterioration of the forum over the past decade or so. The forum software/interface looks old, the forum itself seems to go through seasons of activity, and many of the old sections are defunct. The mana drain is not as relevant as it once was.

Changes in how people talk to each other online have also affected the old powerhouse. The addition of Facebook, Twitter, Twitch to peoples online communication, has crept in at the edges of themanadrain’s sphere of influence. Facebook especially is littered with thousands of Magic groups, including Vintage focussed ones. All in all, themanadrain was in need of a makeover.

Recently Andy Probasco purchased themanadrain off its previous owners and this is what he had to say about it:

Hey guys, it's Andy Probasco, your friendly neighborhood Brass Man - new owner and operator of www.themanadrain.com. I'm sorry for the delay in putting up this message. There was only expected to be a short downtime, and this message was going to be delayed until a redesign in a few weeks. Some technical problems made that impossible, so I wanted to let everyone know what's going on. 

Vintage was once described to me as "The format where every player in the top 8 gets dinner together afterwards." There are many things I love about vintage but this is the core truth that makes vintage a part of my life. My closest friends are the people I learned the game with, and the people I met while playing.When TheManaDrain.com was founded over a decade ago, there weren't many ways to play "Type 1". There was no Vintage Championship, and if you weren't one of the lucky few players to live near a vintage shop, there was no way to learn about it. The TMD community changed all that, it set a new standard with strategy content and major vintage tournaments like Waterbury and the Bazaar of Moxen. In a few years Wizards of the Coast and StarCityGames picked up that ball and ran with it.Today we have a passionate international community. We just had the largest Vintage championship ever. Players anywhere in the world can play in tournaments every week on Magic Online. There are more Vintage writers, streamers and podcasters than ever before, and the Vintage Super League broadcasts Hall of Fame players battling alongside community pillars.Vintage has never been bigger or better than it is today. But TMD has not caught up. Here's my vision for how we could.

TheManaDrain is the hub of vintage

TMD can't be the only source for Vintage content online - but if you visit TMD every day, you shoudn't miss anything. If there's something going on in Vintage, I want a link to it. If you're producing vintage content, I want to use TMD to direct people to it, whether it's paid or free, even if it's a link to a "competeing" website, because in vintage, the competition should all be willing to grab dinner with each other after the event.

TheManaDrain is the landing page for new players

If you had never played vintage before, and you wanted to learn about it, how would do it? If you google "Vintage Magic the Gathering" today, themanadrain shows up on thethird page, and that result is a year-old thread.The vintage community has been doing a great job getting new players into the format. TMD hasn't been doing as well. If you meet someone who sounds interested in vintage, I want you to be confident that you can give them a link to www.themanadrain.com, and they'll be able to quickly learn the ropes, learn the terminology, and learn what makes the Vintage community so great.This means cultivating a community where new players aren't afraid to ask questions, but it also means designing the site in a way that people can quickly find information that matters to them.

TheManaDrain is the greatest community of magic players in the world

To me, vintage has always been about relationships over cards. Not because "it's only a game." It's been so much bigger to me than a game. Competition is important to me. I love it and I love how it pushes people. But I know that competition with friends is as good at is possibly gets. Some people think that high-level competition and a welcoming community are at odds - but I know nothing could be more complementary.The kind of vintage player I want on TheManaDrain:

• reaches out to new players, is never hateful or exclusionary

• has strong opinions about the game, but expresses them in a civil way

• is happy to post about what they've been playing, but never exaggerates or lies about results

• is gracious in victory and humble in defeat

• contributes to the community at large, by running or attending tournaments, writing articles, producing video content

If that's NOT you? I don't want to kick you out - I want to win you over. Try it out, you might be surprised. I'm going to investigate reputation/karma systems to help the community police itself, but it might be a while before we find the right fit. I'm not going post a codified list of bannable offenses. If those values don't resonate with you, don't worry - there are other places to talk about vintage, and you probably wouldn't have liked this site, anyway.

How are we going to get there?

Together, and probably not without making some mistakes. Over the next few weeks we're going to see some changes. If you don't like the direction things are going, tell me. There will be a metadiscussion board for talking about the direction of the site, but if you have concerns in the meantime you can email me at aprobasco@gmail.com, or message me on facebook as tmdBrassMan.I'll update this page with any new information about the site's status.I'm really looking forward to making TheManaDrain the greatest community in magic againThanks, - Andy Probasco

Andy wants themanadrain to be a signpost. A place for players to meet and if they choose, to go elsewhere together. If this becomes a thing, I would love to be one of those who took part in putting it together. He wants to drop some of the elitist attitudes of the past which made posting a very jarring experience for some. This is a direct contrast to the previous format of the site as it was seen as a place for high-level discussion of the format, where you were expected to know the basics before diving in.

This may be a bit of a culture shock to long term members but I hope it does catch on as Vintage is in need of fresh blood, and the world-wide nature of the internet may cause new pockets of Vintage to rise up in a way that it is not possible at the moment.

To point at another site/forum which I think provides a good roadmap for the site is WOTLabs

Wotlabs (about World of Tanks MMORPG), has many features I would love to see at the new manadrain and I think Andy would also. Links to streamers, articles, defined sections including “Purple player interaction centre” which was similar to the old “Ask an Adept”, new player zones, sections for the various “trees” or Archetypes. This open, yet detailed forum (without the elitist attitude of its users) is a forum done well.

One of the big things I wanted to talk about is the place of a forum within the Magic context. Facebook groups etc are a big thing however a forum does hold special significance for many players. A major factor of this significance is the permanency of a forum. Facebook or Twitter posts fade away into darkness where they can only be found with a herculean effort. On a forum, changes in the format and other things like high level discussion stay where they can be found by others for years to come. Old decklists and comments on the minutiae of card choices etc serve as a reminder and a history of the players passion for the format and its community. This is why Themanadrain.com is such an important site and I hope to see it reborn into a new era of prosperity.  

I wish Andy all the best with the ownership of themanadrain.com. I think he has the best interests of the forum at heart and I am sure many, including myself, are more than happy to help him achieve his vision for the site.