Australian Vintage Review January-June

Edit: Damn Brian De Mars stealing my fire (even if he did the same thing last year). This was mostly written before his worldwide article came out today.

Well another year has come and gone. 2013 was a great year for Australian Vintage. We had a record number of events, both large events and monthly events. We also had record numbers of people at many of the events and we saw the introduction of an even bigger Vintage Series for 2014. This post will be a reflective piece, taking the reader through the 2013, the big events, the winning decks and the evolution of the Australian Metagame. To do this I will be going through all of the results available on The Mana Drain and will attempt to identify trends as they appear. I hope that in future this task becomes even more difficult as the number of events increases. Obviously this review will have a strong Victorian presence as Melbourne held the biggest number of events recorded so some statistics may not reflect the Australian average but the concentration of Victorian events also allows us to see an ever changing metagame.

The results I will use for this will be:
A person/deck who makes top 4 in any event with fewer than 20 players but greater than 8.
A person/deck which makes top 8 in any event with 20+ players.
That generally falls into the smaller monthly events’ top 4 players/decklists and the GP’s/Masters having a top 8.

I understand that this may be very dense with a heap of lists but 2013 is really the first year that we have 12 good months of data with something all year round.

Where better to start such as review than the first tournament of the year with Next Level Vintage: January Edition. January saw 10 players making their way out to Next Level Games, Dandenong with Burning Tendrils defeating Cobra Gush in the finals. Burning Wish was unrestricted the preceding September but took a full 5 months before it actually won an event in Australia.  This seemed like a bit of a changing of the guard as Cobra Gush had been popular throughout 2011 and into 2012 but was eventually usurped as the combo deck of choice.  Both lists were fairly standard affairs with little/no breakout technology giving them the edge. Cobra Gush was just outmoded by the sheer brutality of Griselbrand.

1) Joshua Butler - Burning Tendrils

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

2) Tim Dolphin - Cobra Gush
Lands
1 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Creatures
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Lotus Cobra

Enchantments
1 Fastbond
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Planeswalkers
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind's Desire
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Nature's Claim
1 Rebuild

Rounding out the top 4 of this event was Merfolk and Mono R Shops

Late January saw Top Deck Events running the first GP of the year which was held in Sydney. GP Sydney saw a whopping 26 players make their way to the side event to get come card slinging action happening. That’s 26 players out for Sanctioned Vintage while there was still a GP going on. That’s just awesome. In the end, the grand final was not played out due to time constraints, only partly due to a marathon Semi-final between RUG Delver and Burning Tendrils. Regardless of the split, the finals was awarded to Lachlan Saunders on his classic 5C Control list he had been working on and tuning since early-mid 2012. His opponent was newcomer James ‘Jimbo” Dowling who had only had his first taste of Vintage the month before.

Were the finals to be played out the decklists would have been:
1) Lachlan Saunders – 5c Control

Lands (18)
2 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tundra
1 City of Brass
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (11)
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Sensei’s Divining Top

Creatures (6)
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Trygon Predator
1 Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries (6)
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll

Instants (17)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Fire//Ice
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Mana Drain
2 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pernicious Deed
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Tormod’s Crypt

2) James (Jimbo) Dowling – RUG Delver

Lands (14)
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Snow-covered Island
1 Forest

 Artifacts(4)
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

Creatures(11)
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Vendillion Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Tarmogoyf

Sorceries(5)
3 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder

Instants(26)
3 Flusterstorm
4 Gush
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Snare
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Stifle
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ancestral Recall

Sideboard (15)
1 Stifle
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Ingot Chewer
3 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Mountain
3 Nature’s Claim
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pithing Needle

Rounding out the top 8 of this event were:
Ritual Oath
Martello Shops
Grixis Control
Aggro Shops
4c Control
Grixis Control

This tournament was a complete blast. Not only was it a large sanctioned event for Vintage but it also was the first instance of a recurring theme with large Vintage events in Australia. Large Australian Vintage events throughout 2013 all had a very heavy Blue Based Control emphasis with Shops and Dredge lacking in numbers and support. We all understand that this is Vintage and Blue decks are everywhere but the amount of blue decks seen in many of our larger tournaments is bigger than what would be suggested as the worldwide standard.

February saw our first Vintage Masters Qualifier come and go and to everybody’s surprise it was the Fish who came out on top. The mixture of clock, resilient dudes and impact upon the opponent caught a super sweet spot where we had an all Fish final. In the end it was Andy Horne’s Walking (Junk) Fish who emerged victorious defeating Bill’s Noble Fish list. Both lists had disposed of their much more broken brethren in the semis in the form of Turbo Tezzeret and Grixis Control respectively.

Andy Horne (Walking Fish)

Lands
1 Tropical Island
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Windswept Heath
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal

Creatures
2 Kataki, War’s Wage
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Dark Confidant
1 Mayor of Avabruck
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Noble Hierarch

Sorceries
1 Time Walk

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Mental Misstep

Sideboard
2 Path to Exile
2 Wall of Denial
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Kataki War's Wage
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Mayor Avabruck

P.S. Check out Wall of Denial in the board !!!

2) Bill Murphy (Noble Fish)

Lands
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
1 Forest
1 Island
2 Tundra

Artifacts
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus

Creatures
4 Dryad Militant
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Quasali Pridemage
4 Trygon Predator
3 Ethersworn Cannonist
3 Meddling Mage

Enchantments
3 Stony Silence

Sorceries
1 Time Walk

Instants
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm

Sideboard
2 Dismember
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Tropical Island
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Stony Silence
1 Tropical Island
1 Wasteland
2 Path the Exile

Fish decks and the null rod pillar had an awesome start in 2013 with high placing’s in all the events thus far. Nobody was expecting an all Fish final and it was really great as it provided a great capstone to the first quadrant of 2013.

March saw only 8 players make their way out to NLG (The smallest event that fired) for their Vintage fix. This time the broken decks fought back with Burning Long once again taking down the tournament, this time defeating the all new Tezzeret’s Picnic in the finals. This pairing was the start of a couple of things for the NLG community. Ben Kearney would go on to become NLG’s resident Combo pilot for his tenure there, frequently making appearances with his combo deck. Tezzerets Picnic would also pick up some steam in the coming months and would eventually be picked up by a couple of players overseas and see some success in both America and Europe. This was the first time a “new” deck attributable to an Australian has had success overseas to my knowledge.

1) Ben Kearney - Burning Long

Lands (11)
2 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (15)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Opal
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Memory Jar

Creatures (2)
2 Griselbrand

Enchantments (6)
4 Oath of Druids
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Instants (9)
4 Dark Ritual
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall

Sorceries (17)
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
4 Burning Wish
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Tinker
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister

Sideboard
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Thoughtseize
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Show and Tell
3 Ancient Tomb
1 Empty the Warrens

2) James 'Jimbo' Dowling - Tezzeret's Picnic

Lands (14)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
5 Island
1 Swamp

Artifacts (18)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
3 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Vault
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Nihil Spellbomb

Creatures (1)
1 Myr Battlesphere

Planeswalkers (7)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Karn Liberated

Enchantments (2)
2 Back to Basics

Instants (14)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Darkblast
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries (4)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard (15)
3 Yixlid Jailer
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Trinisphere
2 Mental Misstep
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Dismember

The semi-final opponents of these decks were Strixis Control and Espresso respectively.

April saw the number of players at NLG spike back up to 12 for their Vintage monthly. At the end of the day it was old stalwart Weng Cheong who took down the event with Forgemaster Shops, marking the first win for a Shop deck in 2013. This pre-New Phyrexia deck went undefeated on the day defeating the new and improved Tezzeret’s Picnic in the finals to take home all the marbles.

1) Weng Cheong - Forgemaster Shops

Lands (17)
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void

Creatures (18)
4 Metalworker
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Sundering Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Duplicant

Sideboard (15)
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Steel Hellkite

2) James 'Jimbo' Dowling

Lands (15)
5 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts (17)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
3 Grim Monolith
3 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Sensei's Divining Top

Creatures (1)
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Enchantments (2)
2 Back to Basics

Planeswalkers (6)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 Tezzeret the Seeker

Sorceries (5)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Instants (14)
1 Ancestral recall
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard (15)
2 Dismember
2 Flusterstorm
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Mental Misstep
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Trinisphere
2 Yixlid Jailer

Rounding out the rest of the top 4 were:
Burning Long
Grixis Control


By this point of the year, the creature renaissance that had been so apparent in the early months seemed well and truly over with the first Fish deck barely making the top 50% in 6^th place.

At the end of April, the unrestriction of Regrowth was announced and on the very first day of its unrestriction it made its presence known 4-0ing NLV: May Edition. The winning list was a Gush list toting 4 Regrowth along with the full cantrip package. Forgemasters once again reared their head as the strongest shop deck in the environment, however this time it was the more mana punishing Martello variety. Of note is that this is the last instance of Martello as it gives way to other shop strategies in the coming months.

1) Joshua Butler (Gush Tinker)

Lands (14)
2 Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifacts (6)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures (1)
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Enchantments (1)
1 Fastbond

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries (15)
4 Duress
4 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Empty the Warrens

Instants (21)
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
2 Mana Drain
2 Far//Away
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard (15)
3 Trygon Predator
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Yixlid Jailer
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Fire//Ice
2 Mindbreak Trap

2) Gavin Kroeger (Martello Shops)

Lands (19)
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors

Creatures (17)
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Sundering Titan
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Duplicant

Artifacts (24)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere

Sideboard  (15)
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Duplicant
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ratchet Bombs
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Wurmcoil Engine

Filling out the top 4 of this event was:
Burning Long
Dark Times

Unfortunately we only had 9 players for the June NLG event, though it was the week before a larger event and was at the very beginning of the largest month of the year and was not expected to fire. Given that, having the 9 players make it out was awesome as we had two different Vintage events on the same weekend. For this event it was Espresso Shops which actually taking out the smaller of the two events on the weekend defeating the first instance of a dredge deck in a top 4/8 of the year, nearly a full 6 months into the year.

1) Joshua Butler – Espresso Shops

Lands (18)
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

Mana Rocks (7)
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Peal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

Artefacts (25)
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Thorn of Amethyst

Creatures (10)
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Duplicant

Sideboard
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tabernacle at Pendral Vale
1 Maze of Ith
1 Wurmcoil Engine

2) Ben McCoy – Dredge

Lands (14)
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 City of Brass
2 Dakmoor Salvage

Artefacts (4)
4 Serum Powder

Creatures (27)
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
3 Ichorid
3 Fatestitcher
1 Flamekin Zealot
1 Woodfall Primus

Enchantments (4)
4 Bridge from Below

 Sorceries (7)
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return

Instants (5)
4 Ancient Grudge
1 Darkblast

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Petrified Field
4 Nature’s Claim
1 Darkblast

This event was also the first appearance of Armadeus Kurz’s BUG Fish List which would ultimately be the very influential and popular in the months to come. In fact both BUG Fish and Espresso decks represented here would become staples of Australian tournaments in the months ahead.

Only 7 days later, 23 players were battling it out for a Mox when Good Games Melbourne held the first Moxalicious tournament of the year. This was Melbourne’s first large event and we had a bunch of players down from NSW and Canberra which made the atmosphere great. At the end of the day, it was Grixis Control in the hands of Isaac Egan who reigned supreme overcoming Martim Fernandes on Terra Nova in three long games.
1) Isaac Egan – Grixis Control

Lands (16)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Island
1 Swamp

Artifacts (10)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key

Creatures (7)
4 Dark Confidant
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Myr Battlesphere

Planeswalkers (3)
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorcery (5)
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker

Instants (19)
4 Force of Will
2 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Drain
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Gift’s Ungiven
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Sideboard (15)
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Yixlid Jailer
1 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Mental Misstep
1 Lightning Bolt

2) Martim Fernandes – Terra Nova

Lands (20)
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 Mutavault
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine

Artifacts (25)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere

Creatures (15)
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Porcelain Leigionaire
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Karn, Silver Golem

Sideboard (15)
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Sculpting Steel
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Tormod’s Crpyt
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Porcelain Legionnaire

At this point of the year, Grixis was pushing its way back to the top of the control heap in the hands of a few key Melbourne based players. Isaac Egan and Daniel Unwin, who also made top 8, (among others) have become poster children for the archetype and regularly place highly with it.

BUG Fish and Dredge also made their way into the top 8 but ultimately did not make the finals, Glenn Shanley’s staple “The Wheel”, Mono Red Shops, and Metalworker also made top 8. Lee Greaves, you did it!!!

But June is not yet over.

The Queen’s Vault in Sydney also drew in 11 players that month competing for a Time Vault. This time it was the BoM Fish list which had been seeing increasing amounts of play since it won the BoM which took down the event cementing its place as a tough contender, edging our Sydney stalwart Robert Bartlett on his wacky Grixis brew. Also of note is the TPS deck piloted by Dion Wong in third place. The final member of the top 4 was Francis Lam on U/W Bomberman.

1) Justin - BUG Fish

17 LANDS
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Wasteland
1 Bayou
1 Strip Mine
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest

16 CREATURES
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Trygon Predator
2 Scavenging Ooze

22 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flusterstorm
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

5 OTHER SPELLS
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet

SIDEBOARD
1 Wasteland
1 Trygon Predator
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Null Rod
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Swamp
4 Snuff Out

2) Robert Bartlett – Grixis

1 Badlands
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brainstorm
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Goblin Welder
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Imperial Seal
1 Island
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mana Crypt
2 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Polluted Delta
1 Ponder
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Volcanic Island
1 Voltaic Key
2 Wasteland
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard
1 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Rebuild

We finally closed out the first half of 2013 with the Brisbane based Librarypalooza tournament which drew a further 10 players for some Vintage action. U/R landstill was apparently the place to be for this tournament for it was David Brotchie who defeated Martello shops. While that may seem a repeat of 2012 Vintage Champs, the rest certainly were not. The remaining top 4 slots were double BoM Bug Fish lists.
1st Place - Landstill - David Brotchie

4 Standstill
4 Jace, the Mindsculptor
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Mental Misstep
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Red Elemental Blast
4 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mountain
3 Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Flooded Strand

1 SB:
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Bojuka Bog
2 Yixlid Jailer
4 Ingot Chewer
3 Smash to Smithereens

2nd Place - MUD - Nicholas Chmielewski

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Tangle Wire
3 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Duplicant
1 Staff of Nin
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Sundering Titan
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Trinisphere

4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

1 SB:
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Tormod's Crypt
4 Grafdigger's Cage

Six months into the year and we had seen some definite changes in the Australian metagame. The early months saw eclectic swings between Combo and and the rest of the metagame but as we approached the middle of the year the combo-control decks such as Grixis had started to really pull ahead of the pack.  Workshops had also started appearing with more consistency though there had not been any one archetype predominant. After Bazaar of Moxen, Armadeus Kurz’s BUG Fish list really put a name for itself as over 4 tournaments it placed in top 4/8’s 5 times.

2013 has been a big year for Eternal Magic in Australia. We saw our first year in a long time with multiple non-GP Sanctioned events for Vintage. We saw MASTERS attendance increase to over 120 people over the weekend and attendance has been up all over the board. We have had events in QLD, NSW, ACT and Victoria and multiple Leagues have sprung up. More people are buying Power and people are getting excited…and they should be.

Because 2014 is going to be EVEN BIGGER.

With so many players, store owners and TO’s working together; 2014’s schedule is bursting at the seams and ready to rock. Starting in December 2013, and rocking around the year, we will have non-stop Eternal action until December 2014. All of these events will have awesome prize support, not everything has been worked out in this area but it’s looking good.

First up on the list:

Next Level games will be hosting an awesome Eternal Weekend on the 28th/29th of December (It’s close enough to 2014). We will be holding Highlander on the Saturday and Vintage on the Sunday. We will have some awesome prizes up for grabs. Mark the date on your calendars and prepare your travel arrangements because you will want to be there. 

This event will act as the entry event to 2014. 10 Proxies will be allowed in the Vintage event and I am sure it will be a huge success. 

Late January will find us in Canberra at Can Con. This will be the standard Can Con affair. I am sure the organisers will make this the Can Con you know and love. Keep your eyes peeled for the guys organising that.

Early March is none other than GP Melbourne. The Team at Top Deck Events are working on making their events bigger with every GP and Melbourne is going to be no exception. Dates/Prizes/Structure will be announced on their page so keep a look out for that.

In May, Good Games Town Hall (Sydney) will be stepping onto the scene with their first event and this event is going to be HUGE. This event will be taking place on May 2nd/3rd. This event will be a Sanctioned No-Proxy affair with humongous prize support. Allen is holding nothing back and running this back to back with a Legacy event. Be sure to be there to welcome Good Games Town Hall into the National Vintage Scene. 

August follows shortly afterwards with GP Brisbane. Keep an eye on the lookout for information from the team at Top Deck Events regarding this event.

October will see us return to Melbourne. It’s the event you know and love. MASTERS is returning to its original time slot and this year will be bigger and better than ever. Each year Masters has increased in size and 2014 will be no different. There will be multiple pieces of power, events for all of the major eternal formats: Vintage, Legacy, and Highlander. This will be one of the marquee events for 2014 and you will definitely not want to miss this one. As per tradition, this will also be a sanctioned affair (for Vintage). The power will be out in force and this will be the biggest weekend of 2014 for your calendars.

Which brings us around to December. On December 6/7, Good Games Town Hall will be hosting their marquee event, “The Grudge Match”. Ever wanted to know which state really has the heart of Vintage? Is it the old school Victorian crew? Is it the up and comers from Queensland or the steady New South Welshman? 

Teams of three from each state (along with any other competitors *cough* New Zealand *Cough*) will compete in an open event and the team with the lowest aggregate placing will be crowned Australia’s Vintage Champions. The hope is for this event to become annual, giving states the chance to claim and defend the title. Allen will be making this event an awesome time so be sure to be there and support your fellow statesmen. Note that this is still an open tournament so everyone is invited to attend and compete for the prizes on offer. This tournament will be back to back with another Highlander event.

2014 will be a fantastic year. The biggest year for Eternal Magic in Australia’s history and we need every one of you to be a part of it. Get talking to your friends; invite them to play some games and invite them along to these events. Each event will have its own page set up as we approach it and prizes etc will be announced there but be prepared to be blown away.

2014 looks like it will be a great ride and I hope to see you all along the way.
All the best

Australian Vintage Team

Well I am back...again. It has been far too long. Life has been busy. Lots of magic, especially Vintage but unfortunately this has fallen by the wayside. But no Longer.

There has been so much happening over the past eight months. MASTERS has come and gone, so has our first Vintage League. Australia has been noted as an "up and coming" Vintage community by Brian De Mars and we have had a bunch of Australian Lists posted on sites like www.starcitygames.com. The names of Dion Wong, Robert Bartlett and me have all appeared in Vintage articles over the past 6 months.

Format changing tournaments and events have occurred. Regrowth was unrestricted earlier in the year, with which I took down the very first tournament post unrestriction. #notsohumblebrag Just last weekend we had both BOM Paris and the world Championship on the same weekend revealing two very different top 8's. Not to mention the influences of all the new sets. Cards like Young Pyromancer and Swan Song have gone on to make huge splashes in the format worldwide.

Looking more toward Australia, MASTERS in July garnered 35 players for Sanctioned Vintage and GP Sydney also received 25 players. That is just huge. It may not sound like much but we are not seeing the fruits of our labour. Pushing Vintage over the past two years has been my goal (and the goal of many others), and this year has been fantastic for that. NLG has fired all but 2 of our Vintage monthlies, with the only two we fizzled on were the week after MASTERS and the week of GP Sydney. We even got 14 players at our most recent event which set a new benchmark for highest attendance at one of our monthlies.

This is going to be a short one but I have some big announcements on the way. Stay tuned in the next week or so for those!!!

Vintage Masters Qualifier 1: Results and Report

Back again guys.

Yesterday (2nd February), we held our first qualifier for Vintage Masters 2013. Overall it was quite a success and we had 4 great rounds with a cut to top four and an all fish final. We had a bigger  prize than normal with a Underground Sea for first and a Force of Will for second as well as the top two players receiving free entry to Vintage Masters 2013. We had ten players show up which was great because I had many people message me back indicating that they were not coming in the couple of days previous to the event which had me worrying. About this time last year we were getting about 4 people for vintage at Next Level Games.

This event makes 4 in a row with 10+ players.  With all the people who said they could not make it (at least 6 players) I think I can classify yesterday as a "bad" turnout. Last year that would have been inconceivable. Vintage has really grown at it really is thanks to Next Level Games, sticking with holding these events in our down time and all the players who are working tirelessly at selling the format to other players and now we are seeing the results of this hard work.

But onto the Results

After 4 rounds and a cut to top 4 playoff our standings looked like this:

1) Andy Horne - Walking Fish
2) Bill Murphey - Noble Fish
3) Joshua Butler - Turbo Tezzeret *
4) Brett Hughes - Grixis Control *
5) Michael Lau - Mangara.dec
6) Luke McCandless - Espresso Shops
7) Zac Crowley - Dredge
8) Jimbo Dowling - RUG Delver
9) Lee Greaves - Cerebral Assassin
10) Graham King - Terra Nova Shops

* Undefeated in Swiss

For Decklists of the top 4 you can go to http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44988.0

While it is still early, I believe that a "Next Level Meta" is forming which is dominated by dudes. Not that the dudes are winning (though they did in this particular event) but they have a much heavier presence than elsewhere.  Out of a possible 20 Decks, (from previous 2 events) 8 are running more than ten creatures (with the deck designed to cast them e.g. no Dredge or Cerebral) and very few with under 4. Graham King's performance in this  tournament really brings to light this upscaling of creatures. He brought a deck which is designed to beat up on the big mana Blue decks and the combo decks and ran into a wall of creatures he was not properly equipped to deal with and subsequently lost pretty hard.

We have many different flavours of dudes in the meta, from mono-coloured (Dark Times, Merfolk, Magara.dec), multi coloured (Walking Fish/Noble Fish) and even non-coloured (Martello Shops) which is good because it means one cannot just put 4 x card N in your board and have the problem dealt with.

This upscale in creatures is coming at the cost of our traditional U control deck with only 3 decks in the past 2 events (Grixis x 3). To that we can add the Delver, Tezzeret and Merfolk decks (though they are hardly traditional control decks) and we still dont achieve parity with the number of Creature decks.

Maybe it is time to start running Pyroclasm as a catch all vs general creature decks or maybe something a little more dedicated like bounce vs Dark Times, Pyro vs Fish  or a variety of Paths and Swords. I am thinking that as we go forward, Bomberman may be a good deck choice as you have creatures to trade with theirs including a 2/4 wall, main deck removal and a combo finish to which they are generally weak to.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My path up until the tournament was a winding road of different decks. I had built in the week previous to the event no less than 3 different decks and was considering asking Andy for a different deck. At first I thought I would be playing the Burning Long deck which I took to 1st place in the January event but my crushing defeat in the early rounds of GP sydney (0-2 in two rounds, 2-2-1 final standings) had put me off the deck and was looking at playing something different. My first thought was Dragon (which I wrote about in the last post) as it would be unexpected and if I bought a few cards I would be able to play it at 10 proxies. I was testing it out and while I was getting decent results, they were not fantastic by any stretch. I did my duty, bought the few cards I needed to make it under 10 proxy and kept on testing until a few days before the tournament when I found out that in addition to shops decks, there would be a Noble Fish player, a Mangara.dec player and this coupled with the universal Dredge hate made for a Meta I did not want to be playing a deck that needed to fight GY hate as well as creature hate and was not the most consistant to boot.

I felt that I did not have the time to design a new deck but knew I wanted basics and did not want to rely on creatures too heavily myself. With all the wastes/strips/ghost quarters I would be facing having a high basic land count would be awesome. However, Landstill was out as the deck loses pretty hard to creatures. I then thought of the 2011 Bazaar of Moxen finalists  (Turbo Tezzeret)  and after goldfishing a few hands I knew that was the deck I wanted to play. I had good game against the mana denial decks and a fast enough clock to beat the onslaught of creatures that would be coming my way.

I bought the Tezzerets I was missing and sleeved up:

Land (15)
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Island
2 Underground Sea

Artifacts (20)
3 Grim Monolith
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault

Creatures (1)
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Planeswalkers (5)
4 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Sorceries (8)
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
3 Thoughtseize

Instants (7)
4 Force of Will
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sideboard
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Steel Sabotage
3 Dismember
2 Mental Misstep
1 Echoing Truth.

This deck, while not perfect suited me very well for the tournament and had what I wanted for the tournament. I had mana stability and a fast clock. The 5 Islands were fantastic all day as I never had to fear a wasteland.

R1-  Lee Greaves-  Cerebral Assassin

I dont really remember much about this round. My only notes are life totals so I will do my best

G1- I win the die roll and thoughtseize him revealing:
Ancestral Recall
Bitter Ordeal
Crop Rotation
City of Brass
Mox Emerald
Mana Vault
Myr Retreiver

Definitely Cerebral Assassin...

I take the Ancestral and he Crop Rotationed to try and find something when I casually cast Tezzeret T2 and take all the turns.

G2- He lands an early Revoker (naming Key) and I catch the early Blightsteel and have the force for his Hurkyl's. I was also holding Hurkyl's  and Tezzeret so I was not worried if he forced back.

1-0 (2-0)


R2 vs Bill Murphey (eventual 2nd place)
This is Bills first Vintage tournament and I know he is on Noble Fish.

G1- I lose the die roll and keep a turn 2 Tezzeret, AoB with a mana vault and key (T1 Land Mox, Vault, Key, SDT, untap vault). He lays a Stony Silence on his third turn and my Tezzeret jumps onto 5/5 Duty while I am on a clock due to my tapped mana vault. We both play dudes (his are creatures and mine are moxen) and I get down to 3 due to beats and Mana Vault but ultimate Tezzeret sending him to 2 life and he scoops.

G2- I do not remember the particulars of this game but I know he choses elects not to attack Tezzeret on his final turn putting me to 1 stopping any Force or Fetch Shenanigans when I rip the key off the top and use Tezzeret to find the Vault.

2-0 (4-0)

R3- Zac Crowley - Dredge

I had scouted the Dredge player earlier and know him quite well (through Dark Times talk) so knew what I was up against.

G1- I mulligan a hand of Force, Tezzeret, some draw and mana into
Mox Ruby
Island
Tezzeret the Seeker
Underground Sea
Demonic Tutor
Thoughtseize

I see the possibility and keep. I won the die roll so I DT for the Lotus and play without playing the mana source. He plays Bazaar and passes. I cast Tezzeret and Thoughtseize (taking Ingot Chewer) and go for the Vault. He Dredges madly for one of his 2 Ancient Grudges, can't find them and I take all the turns.

G2- He cuts me to a hand of 6 restricted cards and I take the turn 1 Key-Vault

3-0 (6-0)

R4- ID with Brett Hughes - Grixis Control

We are not using the play/draw rule so there was little to be gained from playing out the game. I know what he is on and he may at this point be unsure about my deck so we both ask for and receive the ID.

I made it to top 4 without dropping a single game (that mattered) and was feeling really good about my chances. The other pairings are not sure whether they can ID or not and the second table ID while the third table plays it out for the 3/4th spot. In the end the two players who ID'd make it in with the 4th placed player (Bill Murphey) making it in by 0.0001% on breakers.

Top 4 vs Andy Horne - Walking Fish

I know Andy is on Walking fish and while I have not tested the matchup I am still feeling good.

G1- He Mulls to 6... to 5 and keeps a no lander. I won the die roll and start by running out Land,  Ancestral... Misstep...pass turn. He draws and says go. I play Land, Sol Ring... Misstep... pass turn. Andy Draws and plays Scrubland for turn and I cast the Tezzeret the Seeker and find the vault and then the key.

Unlucky on his part, It was a good 5 vs my hand and the double misstep set me back alot.

G2-  I dont do much this game and he smacks me with dudes until I am dead.

G3- I needed to win this game to stay in and I manage a turn 2 Key and vault in play with no mana. He draws the black source he needs for his abrupt decay and my face is smashed in by a mixture of Thalia and Quasali Pridemages.

And so my tournament ended after I had resolved both Key and Vault and lost. I did conceede at two life and peeked at my next card which was Yawgmoth's will. By then I had packed away my hand and couldn't remember the contents and that may have saved me. I don't know if it would have but I know I conceeded too early.


Overall it was a good day and while I ended up in 3rd place, I was happy with my performance and would happily play Turbo Tezzeret again. I think upping the Agent of Bolas would help vs creatures and possibly adding bobs into it as I felt that if my opening hands play was countered I was up shit creek as I draw so many dead cards when I want action.

Keep Eternal Strong

Choices, Choices, Choices

Here I am, getting ready to go to work and all I can think about is the GP Sydney Vintage side event and what I am going to play. Sure there is a Legacy event and maybe even the main event to play in but it is the Vintage event that interests me the most. I have had the unfortunate news that a group of players I thought would be attending are not so I am really unsure about how many players there will be. I hope that it’s not so small that they have to cut back their prize support even further. With first prize only being ebay fodder (RTR uncut sheet) and second a Timetwister, there is really not much incentive to bring in lots of players and I certainly know of players who are skipping the event to go to Can Con where the prize at 24 players is a Mox Jet and the highlander event has a Ruby. I suppose there’s no way around the fact for either party involved but having two interstate events on two consecutive weeks makes it very hard to justify attending both to work, schooling and partners.

But I am not here to gripe, I am here to run you through my thought process about choosing a deck for GP Sydney.

                                                                                Sanctioned Vintage

First to note is that GP Sydney’s Vintage event is sanctioned, this is a very important to note. Sanctioned Vintage amounts to zero proxies. Zero proxies means that peoples deck choice or build choice will be limited to the power that they own or are able to borrow from other players. This will probably lead to a reduction in the formats most expensive decks. The 10 proxy meta game we live in tends to have people collect many of the cards for their deck and then slowly acquire power as they can. I expect that there will be fewer workshops than “normal” as the deck has a huge barrier to entry in all the mana artefacts as well as 4 Mishra’s Workshop. Other very expensive decks such as Dragon (Power 8 + Time Vault + 4 Bazaars) and storm (Power 9 absolutely necessary) will also have fewer players than normal. I believe that this will lead to more players playing either:
a) unpowered decks
b) decks which require little power or the presence of power is not required to function
Decks which fall under (a) such as Jacob Dunn’s GW deck or any legacy deck that players port over from the Legacy will undoubtable be tier 2 decks but will certainly make their presence known. It does not take much change for say Legacy RUG, Landstill or BUG to become a real contender for top 8. One factor in almost all of these decks will be the presence of creatures. This means three things to the rest of the meta.
i) Decks with lots of creatures and removal can be strong vs the already diminishing number of Shops pilots.
ii) More creature removal will be necessary in the sideboards of the Blue decks
iii) Creatures make Oath a more attractive option.

Decks which fall under category (b) such as Dredge, Dark Times and Landstill will be popular options for the players who already play vintage regularly and do not own the power for a fully powered deck such as Grixis Control or Workshops. Dredge can run as little as 0 pieces of power and the others generally only require a Mox or two. These decks each attack the meta from a different angle making it difficult to meta game against them all. If one of these decks can find unprepared opponents they can go deep.
                                                                                Attacking the meta game
I am viewing the meta for GP Sydney as:
1) Heavy on Blue decks and Dredge
2) A higher number of the decks discussed above
3)Lower on shops, storm and Dragon (e.g. expensive decks).

That is not to say that they will not be present, but there will be less than normal and the chance of running into one is diminished. I will be discussing each of these tiers separately. These are not power tiers but tiered levels of play.
This means to make it to the top tables you need to place yourself in a good position to beat the decks higher on that list and possibly be willing to sacrifice percentage points in the matchup’s vs. the decks lower down. Now obviously you want to be playing the best deck in the room and have awesome matchups around the board but I think by being willing to shave some percentage points vs the decks that have less chance of showing up you put yourself in a stronger position to do well.

                                                                                Tier 1
Decks that have a natural advantage vs Dredge are few and far between but they do exist. Dark Times (especially if you MD leylines) has a natural advantage over Dredge due to the disruption that it has in both MD and SB which generally include some number of:
Leyline of the Void
Extirpate
Surgical Extraction
Leyline of the Void
Pithing Needle
It also has a relatively quick combo kill
Here is my list that took 9^th place at Masters 2011 updated for 2013
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
10 Swamp
4 Wasteland
3 Dark Depths
1 Mox Jet
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Lilliana of the Veil
1 Diabolic Edict
Tendrils of Agony
2 Pithing Needle
Null Rod
Necropotence
Helm of Obedience
Cruicible of Worlds
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Lotus Petal
Strip Mine
SIDEBOARD
2 Emissary of Despair
Snuff Out
Darkblast
Sadistic Sacrament
Engineered Explosives
Engineered Plague
Mindbreak Trap
Ravenous Trap
2 Yixlid Jailer
Diabolic Edict
3 Mental Misstep
Some of the control decks in the format main deck a Nihil Spellbomb or Grafdiggers Cage but generally Dredge has the advantage over most of the format, especially game 1. This makes Dredge a potent deck choice for Sydney however sideboards from previous sanctioned events show lots of anti dredge cards still in sideboards so be prepared to face hate.
The blue (non-aggro) decks generally sit on a continuum based upon how many creatures they are playing. On one hand we have decks like Oath or 5CC (which do not use creatures or only use a small number as finishers) and on the other we have decks like RUG Delver which use the red zone as their win condition and use their control elements to keep their opponent on the back foot. Decks like Grixis control sit in the middle and have Bobs and Snapcasters but can win the game without ever casting one.  Because of blues versatility, there are a number of ways of approaching the blue decks.
Of course you can just hate the blue players off the table…

Creatures (8)

·         1 Blightsteel Colossus

·         3 Painter's Servant

·         1 Goblin Welder

·         3 Trinket Mage

Planeswalkers (3)

·         1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

·         2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Lands (15)

·         2 Island

·         1 Mountain

·         3 Ancient Tomb

·         4 Scalding Tarn

·         1 Underground Sea

·         3 Volcanic Island

·         1 Tolarian Academy

Spells (34)

·         1 Black Lotus

·         1 Grindstone

·         1 Mana Crypt

·         1 Mox Emerald

·         1 Mox Jet

·         1 Mox Pearl

·         1 Mox Ruby

·         1 Mox Sapphire

·         1 Pithing Needle

·         1 Sensei's Divining Top

·         1 Sol Ring

·         1 Ancestral Recall

·         1 Brainstorm

·         1 Fact or Fiction

·         2 Flusterstorm

·         4 Force of Will

·         1 Gifts Ungiven

·         1 Misdirection

·         1 Mystical Tutor

·         2 Pyroblast

·         3 Red Elemental Blast

·         1 Thirst For Knowledge

·         1 Mox Opal

·         1 Demonic Tutor

·         1 Time Walk

·         1 Tinker

·         1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard

·         4 Grafdigger's Cage

·         1 Pithing Needle

·         2 Relic of Progenitus

·         1 Tormod's Crypt

·         1 Hurkyl's Recall

·         2 Lightning Bolt

·         2 Pyroblast

·         1 Rack and Ruin

·         1 Rebuild

Painter is not very popular in Australia. In the past, Painter has struggled with workshop opponents and with proxies making shops an easier deck to get into painter may have seemed like a worse option. However if you don’t expect many workshops and lots of blue decks you can hardly go wrong with packing your Red Blasts. With Painters Servant powering up Red Elemental Blast you get R: Counter target spell or destroy target permanent.  Seems good! Having a base in red means you will always have access to Goblin Welder, Shattering Spree and Ingot Chewer to sure up the Shops matchup, you also have easy access to Lighting Bolt which will become important later.

Being able to out-counter your opponent can be very important in determining the outcome in a blue on blue match. This is why painter has an edge here, it can run up to 8 counters that just say NO to everything the Blue player wants to do. Landstill and Laboratory Maniac Doomsday also use a similar philosophy. By not running “threats” in a traditional sense it can outlast the other blue decks in counterwars.

Discard is also a strong tactic against most blue decks. While it is certainly stronger vs the creatureless builds than the decks packing creatures it can set wreak havoc with your opponents’ plans. Opening the game with a discard spell can shut your opponent off whole lines of play.  Discard is the tool of the Combo. Decks like Ad Nauseum and Dark Times often pack 5-8 discard spells which make them strong choices for the blue matchup. A not often attested to synergy is a discard spell followed by an extraction.



                                                                                                Tier 2
Creatures, Creatures, Creatures everywhere.
While not all the decks in this tier will be running creatures, a great many of them will be. It’s a simple fact that when you can’t have the most broken plays that full power allows you, you have to go with the most efficient, generally that amounts to creatures. Some decks try to create overwhelming advantage via synergy (Goblins) while some just use the best spells in their colours (Noble Fish). In addition to creatures you should be prepared for Removal (Swords, Path), Land Hate (Wasteland, Strip mine), Discard (Duress, Thoughtseize) and Burn (Lightning Bolt).

When lots of creatures are involved you have to meta game in a very different way to the proxy Vintage meta game. Cards like Doom Blade, Lightning Bolt, Swords to Ploughshares all become much better and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Also traditional sideboard cards such as Firespout and Pyroclasm become much stronger when you expect creatures on the other side of the field.

Decks which have a natural strength against creatures usually have a few things in common
1) A fast win condition, whether a fast combo or Dredge. If you can kill them before turn 2-4 (for the faster decks) or put yourself far enough ahead you can sidestep the combat step they are trying to fight you with.
2) Decks with bigger creatures, Noble Fish or Christmas Beatings can generally shrug off some damage before landing a Goyf or Kazuul to stop the bleeding.
3) Oath of Druids, when your opponent is playing creatures you can laugh all the way to the bank.

So you need a way to invalidate creatures or be able to beat them. Short of running a full on combo deck you want to choose between Oath or bigger creatures. With the advent of Grafdigger’s Cage I would be hesitant to be playing a dedicated Oath deck so maybe bigger creatures are the way to go.

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Time Walk
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Meddling Mage
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Trygon Predator
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Swords to Ploughshares

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
4 Wasteland

SB:
4 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Mental Misstep
3 Rest in Peace
4 Serenity

Noble Fish embodies everything you need to do to fight creatures, It has early game removal in the form of Swords and has bigger creatures in the late game. Note that you also get Force of Will and Mental Misstep for the blue matches and Rest in Peace for Dredge.


                                                                                                Tier 3
Shops, Storm and Dragon.
I fully expect these to be the least played decks at GP Sydney. The expense as well as number of power cards needed to build each deck is huge in comparison to the other decks listed so far.

Dragon is another deck that is not very popular in Australia. It’s a deck that preys on the unprepared and uninitiated and can be very powerful and is quick to execute its combo. It is also immune to Mental Misstep, Misdirection and has a transformational sideboard to screw with its opponent. I don’t expect anyone to play Dragon but note that it is a deck and may turn up.

Storm is generally eaten by shops so may be a good choice for Sydney as shops may not be as present as would normally be expected.  In a creature centric meta game Thalia is worse in the Fish decks so it may be not as popular. However the expense of this deck is through the roof as all the power  9 are necessary to its function and therefore difficult to build.

Shops will be a poor choice for GP Sydney as it can struggle with creatures (unless you want to play BC’s 2^nd place list from Gen Con 2012) and its prey (Storm) will be less represented than you might expect. It can still eat the blue decks alive but the almost universal adoption of 4x Ingot Chewer can be hard to fight through when you have your deck loaded to fight creatures.

                                                                                                Summary

You need to be able to fight the Dredge and blue decks with a high degree of consistency. Cards like Mental Misstep and Flusterstorm gain value due to being able to fight your opponent (or their counter-hate vs dredge) but these cards are not so great vs the decks in tier 2. It depends on your deck but some number of these cards should make it into your deck. Red Blast is also a good catchall as it can kill Delvers, Trygon Predator and Jaces as well as counter many important spells. You also want a way to beat the creatures coming at you. This pushes the value of removal or creature trumps up.

So what do I think will be good choices for GP Sydney. With infinite time and money I believe storm to be the best choice due to the lack of shops and infighting between the blue decks and creature decks. If by some miracle I can get full power 9 and Burning Wishes before then I will probably play Burning Tendrills.

Being more realistic, I believe the following decks are all strong choices:

Dark Times

Dark Times has a good to great matchup vs the blue and dredge decks and is reasonable vs the creature decks due to first strike and quick combo potential. With its natural predator (Shops) diminished it can really shine.

Bomberman

Bomberman continues the trend of being good vs blue due to the high density of counterspells, has game vs dredge in game 1 and has both swords and big creatures for the tier 2 decks.

Painter

Painter while being weaker against dredge in game 1 makes up for its strength against the other decks. Lightning Bolt, Red Blast and a Combo kill are all good signs for the strength of this deck. Welder + Tormod’s Crypt = Gas. The deck becomes stronger still if people continue to trend of moving away from Emrakul as Oath target to Griselbrand.

Noble Fish
Access to Rest in Peace, swords and very good and efficient creatures with exalted means this deck is a very solid deck for the expected Sydney meta game

Dredge
With more creatures about, Dredge becomes very good. I want to be running both Black and White Leylines in the main and max out on Ichorids, Bloodghast and run some number of Darkblasts/Contagion between main and side board.

Some other points to consider
~I would not run Oath with less than 4 Mental Misstep and some natures claim. Cage will be everywhere and you must be able to answer it.
~ I expect wastelands to be popular, maybe Loam or a Pithing Needle can make it to the main
~Expect Abrupt Decays to make a show. My Next Level BUG list is very good and could easily incorporate Abrupt Decay.
~ BUG overall I think is weaker than Grixis right now. Bolt is better than claim with more creatures around.
~ Landstill is weaker than it was, I will not be bringing Landstill to GP Sydney

I hope some of you found this interesting

Until next time.

Masters is coming!!!

Masters is coming!!!

Ever since MASTERS was instigated in 2010 and held at Metagames (I am not sure of all parties involved) it has become a yearly event bringing in eternal players out of the woodwork and from all over the country. Every year it has had the largest Vintage and Legacy tournaments (to my knowledge) to be held in Australia. Masters holds a special place of my heart as it was the first sanctioned Vintage event I played in. It was the culmination of all the hard work I had put into Magic. I had over the year: discovered the best format, struggled to understand the fine intricacies and interactions found there, pieced together my own deck from working at The Reject Shop and buying the cards as I went and was rewarded with taking a budget deck to what I felt was a high place finish (9^th).  While my Masters 2012 Vintage journey was not as successful I still had a great time playing my favourite format. Masters 2012 also was my first taste of Masters Legacy and Highlander in which I had a ball.

With Masters 2013 a tiny speck on the horizon, I have been asked to organise the event and I have accepted that responsibility. I hope to make Masters 2013 the biggest Masters yet. There will be some changes to the format of the event making it all round a more enjoyable experience.  With the organisation of Next Level Games’ monthly eternal tournaments as well as other events such as the WMCQ side events in addition to the experience of two consecutive Masters I have learnt many invaluable lessons about what is most conducive to a good tournament environment.

One of the changes will be the introduction of the Qualifier series. These will be tournaments held prior to Masters 2013 whose top prizes will include free entry to their respective Masters event. These events will be larger than the regular NLG events will have prize support to match this. 100% of all monies collected will be offered in prize support or go directly to the support of the Masters prize pool. These tournaments will be used to gauge interest in the formats so I encourage you all to attend them and have a great time while duking it out for some awesome prizes and free entry to Masters. There will be at least two of these events for each format prior to Masters so if you cannot attend one it will not be the end of the world.

The first of these qualifier events will be

Vintage Masters Qualifier
When: Saturday 2nd February 2013
Where: Next Level Games
Format: Vintage
10 Proxies will be allowed between main deck and sideboard
Entry: $25
Support:
Top 2 receive free entry to Vintage Masters 2013
1st: TBA
2nd: TBA

Legacy Masters Qualifier
Where: Next Level Games
When: 23rd March 2013
Entry: $25
Prizes:
Top 2 players receive free entry to Legacy Masters 2013
1st: Underground Sea
2nd: Force of Will
Guaranteed


Other changes I have instigated for Masters 2013 include:

The change of Legacy to a Saturday or Sunday DAY tournament. This will ease to travel both to and from this event. I hope that this change is well received and will bolster the already strong attendance of Legacy.

The change of the FNM format of the Masters weekend to Modern. While not a true Eternal format, its non-rotating status suits the nature of the weekend much more than Standard. This I hope will be more accommodating to everyone as it gives a chance for the usual FNM crowd to see all the fun that is eternal Magic.

I hope that everybody will support me as I strive to make this the best Masters possible. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions do not hesitate to contact me on here or E-Mail me at eternal.melbourne@gmail.com and I will respond as quickly as I can.  I hope that Masters 2013 will be as big as it can be and ultimately be a beacon to bring in more players to our favourite game.

Until next time.

Victory at Last

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