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

Next Level BUG

Well this will be my last post for the year unless I decide to do another one today which I find highly unlikely. Next saturday marks a year of this blogs existance and as I am still writing I guess I am barking mad. Many of the posts have a fat 0 views, though my Vintage guest post has 100 views I suppose. It must speak to the awesomeness that is a new player coming in and doing well. Aiden has not played again but I hope he did enjoy is short tenure as a vintage mage.

At the moment we have a few newer players in the dandenong area who have expressed some interest in playing. One had allready played in Vintage Masters but the others have taken interest by either seeing the proxy decks in action or been suckered into joining a tournament to make even numbers :) I firmly believe that the proxy decks I made really were a good thing and I am glad I spent the time I did to create them. I hope that these newer players do keep coming back and I will assist them as much as possible over the new year.

However, if you are here; you are not here to watch me pat myself on the back, you are here for some vintage news, brews and musings.

NEWS

Our next vintage tournament will be held on Saturday, January 5th at Next Level Games Dandenong. I hope everyone who can make it will try to attend so we can have an awesome event. I am hoping to talk to Ben/Adam about prize support to have a newer player friendly prize this month. As will be a recurring theme with prizes this year there will hopefully  always be the option of credit/cash instead of the card prizes. I will need to talk to adam about that but that is my hope.

Burning Long decks are now official; while my build has not been represented, the Team Serious Open has been taken down my a Mr S. Menendian piloting an updated version of his list which includes the Oath of Druids/Gristlebrand plan. There has been no decklist published or any additional information available at this time but now we can say that we are piloting real decks. The closest any Burning Long list has come before this was Mühltal with 3 lists in the top 8 taking 2nd, 3rd and 8th and my exploits here in Australia

Deathrite Shaman is getting more attention. Brain De Mars posted a Grixis list on Starcity Games, another player has developed a 4 colour control deck using Deathrite Shaman and Guttersnipe as pinging damage and I have developed a list of my own. One of the defining features of these lists is the return of Strip Mine and Wastelands into traditional blue shells . The offshoots of this could become very important if any of these decks become popular. Will we see Crucible of Worlds also make its way back into the Blue decks to both help and hinder how effective these plans are? If the format is slow enough that a U deck can really threaten you with a strip lock then that opens the door even further for faster decks such as burning Long and Belcher to compete. It will also lessen the effectiveness of Shops Wastelands and we may see some maindeck graveyard hate such as Tormod's crypt to fight the strip lock if it gets really bad.

BREWS

How can I tease you about my own deathrite shaman brew without revealing it. Due to my promises to other players about loaning cards for the 5th I cannot play this list but may pick it up in the future. I have built it with shops in mind but I believe that it is a strong list whose only real weakness would be dude decks, it has not got a great game vs Fish. It can certainly beat them but having tested against Andy's Walking Fish list it seemed like a pretty poor match up.

NEXT LEVEL BUG

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sol Ring

Lands
7 U Fetches
2 Island
1 Strip Mine
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Wasteland

Creatures
1 Blightsteel Colossus
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Trygon Predator

Enchantments
1 Fastbond

Planeswalkers
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Gush
1 Mana Drain
2 Mental Misstep
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Natures Claim

Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
2 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will


Sideboard
2 Natures Claim
1 Trygon Predator
2 Mental Misstep
3 Flusterstorm
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Pithing Needle

I have only actually IRL tested this list vs Walking Fish and Dredge. Walking fish seemed like it was hard but it was certainly winnable as your nuts hand beats theirs everytime. The only problem is the lack of creature removal can be a problem if they can get multiple creatures into play. Cavern of Souls is very good your missteps etc and forces become only good vs swords and their 1 ofs like Recall.

Dredge seems insane. Not only do you have the MD Nihil spellbomb and 3 Deathrite shaman (who I seriously underrated as dredge hate, it's amazing), you have up to 12 cards you can side in depending if you are on the play or the draw. In addition to the 4 Leylines, 2 Jailers, Pithing Needle, Nihil Spellbomb and 3 Deathrite Shamans you have a full set of Missteps and 3  Flusterstorm to protect your hate.

While I have not tested IRL among other decks my conclusions are:

 Oath is certainly beatable because you have answer to all of their kills and get more of them post board. You have Natures Claim (to a small extent Trygon) which is an all star killing both the Time Vault and the Oath kills and creatures that can attack Jace directly.

The addition of the strip package as well as the Natures Claims, Trygons, Grudge and Shamans means that you can often answer their first couple of threats before you can take over the game.

Storm is pretty bad for the MD but the post board 4 Mental Misstep and 3 Flusterstorm as well as Natures Claims and needle can really slow your opponent down.

 The lack of Cage is possibally wrong but I have had to lend them to another deck for the coming tournament. If I could, I would probably take this to the tournament next weekend.

MUSINGS

I think 2012 has showed a real change in the Melbourne Vintage Scene.

 Whereas in 2010-11 there was only really Metagames holding Vintage tournaments (while it was open RIP Meta Games), now there are two stores that hold monthly tournaments (Games Laboratory and Next Level Games). However the roles of the two stores have changed over the course of the year. In early 2012 it felt that Games lab has having regular events thatat least semifired whereas NLG (or GG Dandenong as it was known) would struggle to get 4 players for a monthly. Coming to the end of the year and things have turned around and I have not attended a Games Lab Vintage event with more than 1 other person in the last 4 or so months (attended 3 im pretty sure) while NLG has had 8, 12 and 14 at their most recent events from memory. I think this has been due to a push in different directions by the stores themselves and the players. Games Lab now has a thriving Legacy scene with many players and tournaments organised both by the store and the players themselves. Alexander Johnston especially deserves credit for his tireless work in starting a Legacy community there.  NLG has really turned a corner and started pushing for player acquisition. What started earlier in the year with Lee bringing a friend along as turned into a small but definative "new player" base which is exciting and hopefully promises further growth.

2012 has also brough about a change in the Melbourne meta.  Many of the older (read: Metagames) playerbase who were playing when I started in 2010-11 have slipped off the radar or have only attended one or two tournaments this year. Another facet of the changing face of Melbourne is the lack of Dredge and Shops. Traditionally these were very strong pillars of the Melbourne Metagame but now dredge is almost not played and Shops is only really being stuck to by its stallwarts.  Yet even with dredge not being played, players are really hating it out and loading up on sideboard slots in order to be sure vs dredge. I think we are a long way off people turning up with 4 grafdiggers and hoping not to face dredge but that time may be coming if dredge really does continue to show up in these numbers (or lack thereof).

The newer Shops pilots are taking up newer Shop decks. While some of the older players have stuck to their guns and have played similar decks all year, we have seen an explsosion in new shop variants that have been played. Vintage Masters saw the first appearance of Martello Shops which now seems to be a mainstay despite its online bashings from the Australian Vintage Facebook group.

Untill Next Time

December Vintage Landscape

Two weeks into December, Two tournaments in and with one more still to come the vintage bug is going strong. 

Two 14 man tournaments at two different stores is huge... with only one week between them!!! What's even better is the spread of players between the two stores, it was not the same 14 people at both events, there were a few at both events such as Andy Horne and myself at least half of the faces at Good Games were not at Next Level Games the week before. Special props to the Canberrans who were down for the PTQ and came along to play in the event.
Next level games on December 1st had 14 players and 4 rounds with no cut to top x. We never worked out how long we would be playing for and some of our players had to leave at the end of the swiss so we left it at that which seemed fine. Prizes were paid out for the top 4 which ended up:

1) Forgemaster Shops
2) Turtle Dredge
3) Mono R Shops
4) U/W Bomberman

and filling out the rest of the top 8

5) Verbrannte Ranken
6) Affinity
7) Oath
8) Walking Fish

Way to go the pillars of Vintage: 2 Blue Decks, 3 Shops Decks (2 Prison/ 1 Aggro), 1 Dredge Deck, 1 Ritual Deck and 1 Fish Deck. Almost exactly what you would hope to see in a healthy format.

In this event I ran my Verbrannte Ranken list with a couple of changes.

5) Joshua Butler – Verbrannte Ranken

4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

2 Simian Spirit Guide

1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

1 Ancestral Recall
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Chain of Vapour
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor

4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Ponder
1 Regrowth
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall

1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Balance
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Ravenous Trap
4 Xantid Swarm

The addition of Diminishing Returns was something I had been audibling so finally cut the second Tendrils of Agony for it. This meant that I always had a engine in the board which meant that I would hopefully never be short of a source of card draw. An emergency draw 7 is helpful as it turns all your Burning Wishes into card draw if you are in a top deck war.

I also turned the Pyroclasm into Balance as I expected there to be more Tarmogoyfs than usual so I decided that balance is the better card to have in that matchup.  Its also a must counter vs U decks or watch all their lands/hand hit the bin.

I also turned the MD Flusterstorm into a Chain of Vapor. I did this as Dandenong has generally had a very strong Shops presence and Flusterstorm is a very dead card in that matchup. It is also a MD out to Stony Silence which I knew (thanks to arming my opponent) would be making an appearance. 

The list ran well. I lost round 1 due to playing the mull to 5 game. I mull to 5 game 1 and lose. Dan mulls to 5 game 2 and loses and on game 3 I mulled to 5 and lost. Woooo. I won my next to matches and unfortunately draw round 4 due to a stupid mistake when I did not lead my turn with a duress effect and get my mana vault misstepped which meant I was 1 turn too slow and won on turn 6 of time which as we all know, is too late.



Good Games also had 14 players including three guys from Canberra who had come down for the PTQ.  5 rounds were played before a cut to top 4 and a very different top 4 resulted.

1) Grixis Control
2) Walking Fish
3) 5C Control
4) Noble Fish

I cant remember the rest of the top 8 but I finished an unfortunate 9th place after going 3-2 on Martello Shops. Having two Noble Hierarch decks in the top 4 is great. Andy Horne was having a chat with another Vintage player a couple of weeks ago defending the Noble Hierarch decks while this other player kept saying the decks were not very good. Having three in the two most recent top 8's is surely contrary to that view.

 I lent Verbrannte Ranken to Wei-Ning who went 2-3 overall after winning his first two rounds (I think).  The list I played was:

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

1  Duplicant
4  Kuldotha Forgemaster
4  Lodestone Golem
3  Phyrexian Metamorph
3  Phyrexian Revoker
2  Steel Hellkite
1  Sundering Titan

1  Black Lotus
4  Chalice of the Void
1  Mana Crypt
1  Mox Emerald
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Sol Ring
3  Sphere of Resistance
4  Tangle Wire
4  Thorn of Amethyst1  Trinisphere

Sideboard:
4 Grafdiggers Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Razormane Masticore
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Precursor Golem
1  Phyrexian Revoker

Martello shops seems a fine list but I am just not sure that it wouldn't be better without the Forgemasters. I won a couple of games using them e.g.  getting Steel Hellkite vs Merfolk or getting Sundering Titan vs various U decks but I felt that they were largely win more. They did not help locking my opponents out; I never felt "If I just draw Forgemaster here" and they are a pretty big crosses in my mind for designing a shops deck. I'm not calling myself a master at shops decks in any way but I want ever card to be active and sometimes Forgemaster was just not. It's just a threat that's sometimes not a threat.

[To be continued]