all your report are belong to us

Hello All,

I wanted to do a tournament first tournament report ever for vintage so I feel
that a report from the non-proxy vintage tournament that Tales of Adventure had
over the weekend was great time to start.

As most post start we need to do a quick rewind prior to the tournament
beginning. During the week leading to the tournament I like most of us... spent
time thinking about the Eastern Vintage Game Play.   Since workshop is
typically, a staple in the east coast I always keep it in my mind when building
sideboards/main decks and the like.  However, I felt it may be less conducive as
IMO it is one of the most expensive decks to build w/o proxies.  So going with
that theory I felt that Delver/Monk, Oath, Fish and Dredge would be the backbone
to this tournament. 

Well....I was partially correct, there was an abundance of Oath and Dredge but
there was more workshops than I gave credit!!! Which means that the East Coast
Vintage peeps undoubtly love their shops no matter what the cost.
GGGGRRRRRR!!!!!

Anyways during this particular week I was unusually busier than most which made
it harder to get a deck built than most.  I like to try different things in
vintage.  In general I have an infinity for control or combo.  Since the
printing of Dack Fayden my affection for control has vastly stolen my heart with
the combination of Notion Thief its just absurd.  I have made T8/T4 many
tournaments and won a few along the way with the two greatest thieves.  However,
since checking the latest threads on the TMD I reviewed a deck from across the
pond called "The Answer"  I immediately, enjoyed the design of the deck because
it ran Dack and Magus of the Moon.  When you see the decklist it looks
underpowered but it runs Dack and instead of Notion Thief it has Consecrated
Sphinx.  I really loved that it removed another color out of the Grixis Color
scheme and functioned basically the same way as Thief but with a much larger
threat that was out of Bolt/Dismember Range.  Additionally it runs a much more
robust mana base against wasteland/strip mine decks with 7 basic lands.   The
ever eventful sideboard was built into simplicity. 

Fastforward to the night before the Tournament I sleeved the deck up at midnight
and got 3 games in with my testing buddy Nick Playing Gifts Ungiven.   Then hit
the sack at 1:30AM knowing I have 3hr drive ahead of me coming from Baltimore
and a unwavering 4yr old
getting my old sorry butt up at 6:45AM cause that is his schedule.  -Shout Out
to my Son "I love you bud"

Well Saturday Morning 8:30Am arrives and Nick and I hit up Mc D's for coffee and
breakfast prior to venturing off to Pick up Mike Scheffenacker who without
surprise was still in bed when I called him at 9AM.

Well 9:30 on the clock we hit the road and off to the great North we come.

2 Ancient Tomb
6 Isand
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Magus of the Moon
2 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Dig Through Time
1 Echoing Truth
2 Fire//Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
2 Mindbreak trap
2 Misdirection
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Volcanic Island
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

SB
4 Ingot Chewer
2 Sulfur Elemental
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Ravenous Trap

Before we get to my RND 1 I wanted to say that variance pulled my cars number as
both of My team mates Nick and Mike get paired up against eachother out of the
32 Attendees. BOOOOO

Anyways Rnd 1 I get paired against Mark who was playing Oath&Show.

Game 1. I land and early Chalice @ 1 with a barrage of counterspells and a
Magus.  Mark's hand is crippled early as his preordains, spell pierces, and
probes were now shut off and Magus was landed which turned his lands into
mountains.

Game 2 I sideboard in cages and pull out the chalices on the draw.  We play a
good bit of draw/go and counter wars until pivitol turn resolves us both blowing
all of our relevant spells with him winning the counter war however it was over
my spell which was magus.  He has a empty hand draws and passes and I play Jace
the next turn which takes over the game and lets me resolve Sphinx by the end of
it.

RND 2 variance strikes it ugly face again....I get paired against my team mate
Mike who was just paired against our other team mate Nick so there you go 1/32
then 1/16 chance.  I mean what am I even doing here writing up this
report....These stars are not even close to aligned unless you bet on long
shots!!!

RND 2 Mike and I decide to ID even though we knew it would make it tough for us
both.  However, the sandwich's we just procured were undoubtly making it an
easier decision.

RND 3 David....I think with Oath.

Game 1 I land Mox/land Chalice at 1 and pass holding FOW, FOW, Mana Drain,
Echoing Truth. David Plays  Mana Crypt, Orchard, Oath.  I Force and it no
contention hits the Yard.  T2 I draw Recall booo but have Force Bait still. 
David bolts himself with crypt plays a trop and cast Oath #2 I force pitching
recall he cast swan song which gets countered by chalice.  T3 I draw Force of
will #3 and pass David plays a fetch and plays his last card Oath #3 and It
meets my last two cards Force/Drain.  Eventually I draw a magus and put the game
away.

Game 2.  I board out chalice x 3 and Fire/Ice x1 and bring in 3 cage. David
mulligans and keeps 5 David plays a turn 1 REMORA.... I was shocked as Remora
and Orchard can be anti-climatic with eachother.  Truthfully, I am a slow deck
anyways so Remora was the last of my problems.  We play draw go and he ticks up
remora and taps out.  I have Misdirection/FOW +2 blue cards and 3 Lands on board
I cast magus he forces and it gets misdirected and magus & jace take over the
game.

RND 4 Will with Terra Nova.

Game 1 Will plays mox, workshop and a T1 Golem, I play an Island and Pass.  T2
He Plays Factory and a Thorn swings and passes.  T2 I play Island pass with no
Dack in hand.  T3 Metamorph by Will and I conciede.  He announces that he thinks
im on landstill and we go to sideboard.

Game 2 I play land mox holding force, hurkyl's, magus, land Jace.  He plays T1
Thorn off mox and factory.  I play magus on T2 and that was wrapped up the game
with my hand full of goodies.

Game 3 He boards his dismembers back in and does kill a magus but I landed a
Sphinx and had Jace on the board which kept my hand fueled with answers.

RND 5 ID with the Top Seat

Here's the interesting part my team mate Mike was playing Shops and had the same
record as I did at RND 5 which was unbelievable the way our day started and also
made T8.

T8 Can you say VARIANCE AGAIN!!!!!

YOU BET!!!! Mike and I get Paired against eachother LOL.

Im on the play with better breakers.

G1:  My opener against shops.  Was Island, Ancestral, Force of Will, Mox Ruby,
Chalice, Jace, Magus....Ask yourself would you keep this hand on the play.....


Damn Right!!!!!

I play land mox recall chalice @ 0 Pass

Well it turns out that Recall didn't find any lands and after Forcing his T1
play wasn't good enough as I didn't see anymore lands that entire game. 
WoW/Pout....Grrr

G2: I mulliganed this game and My opener was good no Force though but had lands
and chewer.  I chewer his T1 Golem and draw a mox  played land and mox pass. He
plays Trinisphere. Pass.  I draw Dig and pass.  He plays tangle wire I get
tapped out. I draw merchant scroll play my land and pass.  He draws another wire
and plays thorn, wire, Academy. Ugggg I draw magus for shiggles and stay tapped
out.  He draws Blightsteel and hardcast.  I untap Island and draw a Tomb during
his upkeep I cast Ice to tap blightsteel.  That turn he metamorphs another
tanglewire which unfortunately was the final Nail.  That essentially was the
only card I needed to fade so I could have cast Scroll into Hurkyl's but that's
the ballgame for me.  GG Mike


Extended Magical Play!!!!

After the match I had a good bit of spectators whom of which wanted to see the
deck and I got a few games in with Matt Murray--Never Met him but awesome guy!!!

He played Bomberman and we played 4 matches no sideboard 3 of which I won and
the 4th was a bomberman doing what a bomberman does.  GG--Matt


Thanks For Listening

~Mercer