Grim Longing in Virginia – A Report *T8*

Yesterday, I presented a rather lengthy presentation of the first half of the SCG P9 Richmond double-header. Today, I present my Day 2 tournament report playing Grim Long, a deck I piloted to top 4 at the previous StarCityGames.com event I attended.

Saturday Night — Tuning Grim Long

After the tournament on Saturday, we all went out for drinks. On the way back we walked by a martini lounge called the “Cherry Bar” in downtown Richmond… and man, oh man, there were some beautiful women in there. If you live in Richmond, I suggest you check it out. We got back to the hotel room late, and Randy had already gone to bed. I wanted to discuss with him the build of Grim Long we would run on Sunday. I find JD and am informed that they have made some changes to my list. They settled on Sacred Ground in the sideboard as a Stax solution. More problematic, I felt, they removed the Elvish Spirit Guides, the Hurkyl’s Recall, and the Windfall for Mox Diamond, Burning Wish, a second Xantid Swarm, and Chain of Vapor.

Mox Diamond is a card that I did run in original Long, but perhaps mistakenly. Original Long would frequently turn one Yawgmoth’s Will because of the high frequency of Lion’s Eye Diamonds. It only took Mox, Land, LED, and Burning Wish to play turn 1 Yawgmoth’s Will. If you go:

Turn One
Mox, Mox Diamond, LED, Burning Wish, Yawgmoth’s Will, you can replay the land you discarded to Mox Diamond immediately.

However, I think that Mox Diamond is a pretty dreadful addition to Grim Long.

I tested Burning Wish quite a bit, but Grim Long already has a threshold number of conditional cards. Imagine you fan open a hand with:

Regrowth,
Hurkyl’s Recall,
Burning Wish,
Mox,
Dark Ritual,
Land,
Land.

I’d be pretty irritated.

Here is the decklist I played…

I only made one change from my Chicago list:

– 1 Gemstone Mine
+ 1 Underground Sea

The reasoning behind my land mix is as follows:

City of Brass is the best land in your deck. It is the most stable mana source and the only land you want to see in multiples. Three Cities of Brass can be problematic and really constrain your options, but that rarely happens.

Two Gemstone Mines is also problematic. Playing a turn 1 Gemstone and then a turn 2 Gemstone against a Control Deck forces you to play more aggressively than you otherwise would. Ideally, you want turn 1 City of Brass and turn 2 Gemstone Mine.

I tested with Forbidden Orchard, but Orchard is also a card that is problematic in multiples. However, Orchard is a card that you never want to see in multiples. You can see two Gemstones and still be okay, and two Cities are fine… but two Orchards is a real problem. Finally, Underground Sea. I ran one Underground Sea in Chicago, but I felt that the marginal utility of the fourth Gemstone Mine was less than the marginal utility of the second Underground Sea, so I made that switch.

A conversation with Steve Houdlette of Team Hadley, that took place at the previous SCG Richmond last September, stuck in my mind. He warned me not to play Grim Long at Chicago because it didn’t permit me to maximize my skills like a control deck would. The variance is too wide. I understood his point. He was arguing that Grim Long will give you hands that are essentially puzzles. You have to figure out how to crack the puzzle and play optimally. What I think he was missing, and what most players miss, is that although Grim Long is a puzzle, it is an interactive puzzle.

I feel that of all the decks in Vintage, Grim Long is the only deck that permits me to maximize my skills. I feel fairly invincible when playing the deck — so much so that I don’t mulligan as much as I probably should. With MeanDredge, I feel as if, in some games, I have no real control over the course of the game. Grim Long comes right out of the gate and starts crashing down doors. The other decks must force Grim Long to interact, or else they lose. Belcher is a deck with a huge variance, but Grim Long does not seem that way. Any inconsistency is essentially resolved by a single mulligan.

The trick with Grim Long is knowing what to bait, how to bait, and knowing how you need to win. One of the things I discovered is that you cannot play Grim Long without a deep knowledge of how other decks operate. You may be an objectively skilled Magic player, but you can’t evaluate decisions without knowing what your opponent is going to try to do, how fast they are, and their tactical weaknesses.

Gifts does reward my strengths as a player, but it exposes me to weaknesses that are exploited by Fish and other surprise decks. Grim Long gives me the most raw power in the format, maximizes my advantage of format knowledge, and gives me a sense of control over the game despite not having Force of Will.

Grim Long requires a great deal of focus. You need to be able to think clearly and simply. It is easy to start over-thinking yourself, or getting confused in lines of thought. You need to be able to think schematically and have available to you the full panoply of options. You cannot play Grim Long unless you are intimately familiar with the entire contents of your deck. Every tutor you draw is potentially anything. For example, when you look at Imperial Seal, you can’t look at it as Imperial Seal. You need to learn to see that as some other card, otherwise you won’t be able to play this deck efficiently.

Sunday Morning

I woke up on Sunday, and I just wasn’t feeling it. The only other tournament Magic I’ve played all year before this event was a 36-man Mox tournament in Cleveland. I played Grim Long and went 4-0 in the Swiss, and then drew into top 8 when I decided to leave. The top 8 was starting around 9pm and I wanted to go home to get a good night’s rest for work the next day.

After playing a long day of Magic on Saturday, my endurance was pretty much spent. I needed some physical exercise, which I hadn’t gotten in a while since I spent eight hours in a car on Friday and twelve hours in a tournament hall on Saturday. I’ve heard that Chess masters spend a good deal of time running to burn off excess energy. I’ve found that working out also helps my Magic game, since it burns off excess energy and makes it easier to focus.

So, by this time I was tired, burned out, and not really interested in playing Magic, let alone the most complicated viable combo deck in the format. Why do I do this to myself?

I decide that I’m just going to play this deck by ear and try to have some fun. Another important motivational difference between Saturday and Sunday is that on Sunday I really didn’t care. I already made top 8. I did what I felt I came to do.

On the other hand, I was really hoping that my teammates would do well today. Paul Mastriano and JDizzle were psyched to be playing five-color Grim Long. Kevin was playing Stax, and I could tell that people were excited and confident. Before the round began, Paul told me that he really hoped for a soft opponent so he can get his sea legs. Unfortunately, the pairings go up and he is paired against Andy Probasco, the Gencon Championship finalist this year. So much for soft opponents. Fortunately, Paul beat Andy, and doing so served Paul well by forcing him to get focused in the first round.

Round 1: Control Slaver

I take my seat when pairings go up, and I’m sitting across from an Aryan looking Canadian named Arend.

Arend wins the dice roll. Arend indicates that he’ll keep his hand.

I look at my hand and it has some good stuff. It’s got some tutors, mana, and a Brainstorm. It’s nothing explosive, but it looks like a solid turn 3 win, and possibly a turn 2.

Arend drops Mana Crypt, Mox, Tolarian Academy, and Tinkers up Sundering Titan on turn 1.

I scoff inside.

If I were truly focused here, Arend probably wouldn’t have a shot. Turn 1 Titan is a three-turn clock, giving me all the time in the world.

Unfortunately, he still has gas left and my Brainstorm gives me utter crap. I’m forced to Imperial Seal for something that doesn’t really do much for me. He draws Time Walk and we shuffle up with about thirty minutes to go.

Arend seems quite sure of himself. I’m a little mystified by his cockiness, but whatever.

I sideboard:
+ 3 Xantid Swarm
– ?

Game 2:
Arend leads with Mox Emerald and Tormod’s Crypt, but no land.

I open up with Ritual Necro, which is Force of Willed. Arend takes his turn and fails to see a land. He appears quite dejected… which I should suspect as an act.

When a control player misses land drops, that means they have spells and thus it means they probably have more Force of Wills than they otherwise would.

I Regrow the Necro and play it a turn later off of Mox and Cabal Ritual, but he has another Force of Will.

I didn’t see the second Force coming, but I should have expected it since he didn’t play any lands. Eventually, I resolve a Draw7 and Brainstorm into the Tendrils, which I play immediately for the win.

Game 3:
I keep a bad hand that has:

Underground Sea,
City of Brass,
Dark Ritual,
Cabal Ritual,
Mind’s Desire,
Mana Crypt,
Tendrils of Agony

If I get one more land I’ll have an unstoppable turn 3 Mind’s Desire. Mind’s Desire is one of the strongest cards you can possibly get against Control. However, I fail to draw the third land and he Mindslavers me on turn 4. He plays a second turn Thirst discarding a Platinum Angel into his graveyard as if I’d be afraid of it. I have Hurkyl’s Recall in this deck for a reason.

I drop second turn Xantid Swarm and swing. I swing with Swarm on turn 3 and do nothing.

He Slaves me.

On his Mindslaver turn he plays all of my acceleration and then drops Tendrils targeting myself. What he doesn’t realize is that that is my only win condition.

Because of his Tormod’s Crypt I begin to devise a scheme for tricking him into letting me have my Tendrils.

I reason that the only card that will enable me to get Tendrils back is Timetwister. If I try to Regrowth it, he will surely remove it from game. If I play Yawgmoth’s Will, it will definitely get removed from game.

We play draw-go for a couple of turns and time is called.

Finally, I draw Brainstorm and play it. I draw well and face the possibility of resolving a Mind’s Desire for five or a Timetwister. If I Twister, I’ll have UUBB floating with plenty of untapped land and no land drop for the turn. Notably, some of that excess mana comes from a Cabal Ritual with Threshold that he could have mitigated by Crypting me.

I reason that the Mind’s Desire is more likely to make him use Tormod’s Crypt on my graveyard at some point, but if I Timetwister, I’m virtually certain that he won’t crypt the eight cards in my graveyard, which are just mana and the Tendrils. I am right. As soon as he says that Twister resolves I slap my graveyard onto my library and pray.

I shuffle up and he cuts me into:

City of Brass,
Underground Sea,
Tolarian Academy,
Gemstone Mine,
Hurkyl’s Recall,
Duress,
Xantid Swarm

I use up my mana, but it is clear that it is all futile. He uses his new hand of seven to go nuts and kill me with Time Walk and Sundering Titan.

Le Sigh. Xantid Swarm is goggles off a Draw7.

0-1

At this point, I’m just ready to go home. I’m tired and I have a throbbing headache. I just want my next opponent to take me out of this tournament. Unfortunately, my next opponent is my teammate, the lovable Ashok Chitturi.

Round 2: Meandeck Gifts

Ashok wins the dice roll.

Game 1:
He mulligans to six and plays land, Mox, go.

I keep a mediocre hand but play turn 1 Ancestral Recall. In response, he Brainstorms. It resolves.

I suddenly realize that I can overpower him this game.

He drops a land and plays an Ancestral Recall of his own, after Merchant Scroll. I Duress his hand and take his countermagic. He gets to four mana and plays Gifts for Merchant Scroll, Mystical Tutor, and two other cards, but I give him those two.

I bait with a Timetwister, but then resolve Tinker. I Tinkered up Jar, Imperial Sealed for Black Lotus, broke the Jar and won.

Game 2:
Ashok mulligans again and I keep another mediocre hand. I honestly don’t remember much of this game, except that Ashok makes a misplay because he thinks an Emerald is a Sapphire. He doesn’t have Drain up and his Scroll for Ancestral is the wrong play as I go off next turn.

After the match I tell him how angry I am that he didn’t beat me. Now I have to play all day.

1-1

Round 3: James Yang playing Flame Vault Gifts

This guy was very nice. I was hoping he might put me out of this tournament. Unfortunately, I think I won on turn 2 in the first game.

I mulligan to six in game 2 and keep a mediocre hand. James goes like this:

Turn 1:
Land, Brainstorm. Mox, Mox, Time Vault.

Turn 2:
Land, Flame Fusillade.

I was setting up a turn 3 kill, but he got me before I could get him.

Game 3:
This wasn’t really a game. James mulligans to six after getting no lands. He then mulligans to five. No lands. He mulligans to four and keeps in disgust.

I win before he sees a land.

2-1

I look at the clock and realize that if I lose the next round, we’ll still have plenty of time to get back to Columbus.

Unfortunately, I get paired up against Rich Shay, the Atog Lord, in a feature match.

Round 4: Rich Shay playing Control Slaver

The last time Rich Shay and I played in tournament I was playing DeathLong at the Waterbury of January 2004. He, of course, was playing Control Slaver. We were both 4-1. I made some really bad mulliganing decisions (i.e. failure to mulligan) and Rich wrecked me knocking me out of my first Waterbury after a solid start. It was also the first time I played a Long variant after the restriction of Lion’s Eye Diamond and Burning Wish.

Last summer, Rich came to Columbus to play at Origins. Origins offered a Vintage Championship Preliminary tournament where the winner was awarded two byes at the Vintage Championships at Gencon. I went 5-0 in the Swiss rounds of that tournament with Meandeck Gifts. Rich made top 8 as well. Rich and I were on opposite sides of the brackets. I couldn’t wait for our epic battle — a control mirror. But it was not to be. Rich lost in the semi-finals to a multi-color control player, and I took the byes.

About nine months later, we face off: Team Reflection versus Team Meandeck.

I win the dice roll and elect to play first.

Game 1:
I stare at my hand of seven that involves a Mox Jet, Vampiric Tutor, and expensive spells. I mulligan to six, and play as follows:

Mox
Sol Ring
Land
Timetwister with two cards in hand.

My Timetwister resolves. This is the strongest play you can make with a Draw7. The hope with a turn 1 Draw7 (Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, or Timetwister) is that it will force your opponent into a hand they can’t mulligan out of. This is best when they haven’t had a turn yet. Draw7s are much worse when they go land, Mox, Mox, go. This Timetwister gave me seven new cards for free, but did nothing for him.

I drop Mox Jet and play Duress. Rich plays Force of Will and pitches Mana Drain. He either doesn’t want me to have information or he is protecting something. I entertain the notion that he has a second Force of Will, but you can’t play under that assumption unless you really think he does have it.

Here my memory is a bit fuzzy, but here is what I know:

I played Grim Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will and resolved it after playing Cabal Ritual, which was played, in part, off an Elvish Spirit Guide. I believe I Brainstormed before playing Grim Tutor and I also had Lotus Petal and Black Lotus. After I resolved Yawgmoth’s Will, the last card in my hand was Hurkyl’s Recall. I replayed Black lotus, Lotus Petal, and Cabal Ritual and played Grim Tutor for Tendrils of Agony. I then played the Hurkyl’s Recall to bounce the Sol Ring, Mox Jet, and off-color Mox to generate the final mana I needed to play the Tendrils.

Turn 1 kill, with Duress to clear the way.

Game 2:
Unfortunately, Rich gets to play some spells this game.

Turn 1
Rich drops:

Mox Sapphire,
Off-color Mox,
Volcanic Island,

He taps all three to cast Thirst for Knowledge, to which he discards an Island and a Blue card.

As he taps his Sapphire, I remark that I’m happy that he won’t have Drain mana up. I ate my words as he plays Black Lotus and passes the turn. He says: “I end my turn with Drain mana up.”

My hand is a turn 1 goldfish.

I play turn 1 Brainstorm.

I have two options as I see it. I can play Mana Crypt and Memory Jar, or I can play Grim Tutor for something. I think about it. The problem with Memory Jar is that it is horrible bait here. If he Drains it, he gets a million mana. I Brainstorm the Jar and Mana Vault back on top of my deck.

I drop Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Dark Ritual, Mana Crypt, and play Grim Tutor, which resolves. I search up Mind’s Desire. I play the Mox Ruby.

Rich stops me. He counts up my mana. He looks at me and says, “I’m going to assume you are a good player” and he Force of Wills my Mox Ruby. I’m sitting on a Mind’s Desire and I burn for two Black mana. Boo hoo. Way to spoil my fun, Rich.

I topdeck useless cards for two turns as he beats me down with a Goblin Welder. Then, Rich topdecks and resolves Yawgmoth’s Will, replays the Lotus, and Thirsts a Mindslaver RFG. “I’m glad to see that go.” That is, until he Tinkered up another two turns later. Surprising. The second Mindslaver was a new change to his list.

He Slaves me, but makes a slight misplay and can’t use my Desire. He Slaves me for a few more turns and then is able to seal the deal.

Game 3
I play a land and cast Brainstorm. I quickly get excited. I see Duress off the Brainstorm and put back a Mana Vault and Brainstorm.

My hand becomes roughly:

Land, Mox Jet, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Duress, Grim Tutor, Demonic Tutor.

I drop Mox Jet and play Dark Ritual Duress.

I look at his hand:
Thirst for Knowledge, Brainstorm, and Mana Drain as well as a few accelerants and two lands. Irrelevant.

I play another Dark Ritual and Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus.

I play the Lotus and crack it for black and play Grim Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will.

I resolve Yawgmoth’s Will, and replay my Lotus and my Rituals, and tutor up the Tendrils for an easy kill.

I took Rich out on turn 1 in games 1 and 3. I had a turn 1 goldfish that he stymied in game 2. It must be frustrating to not get a mainphase in two of three games.

I wasn’t into this tournament much… until I was confronted with Rich Shay. The excitement of playing Rich Shay drew me back into the mood for more Magic. I knew that after walloping Rich Shay, it was going to be hard for me to lose.

3-1

Round 5: Stax

I lose the roll, but the Stax player goes:

Turn 1:
Mishra’s Workshop, Black Lotus.

If you are playing combo, that is probably the scariest opening you could possibly imagine. They could do any horrifying play with that mana, and more likely multiple terrifying plays.

My fear turned into relief as my opponent played Crucible of Worlds off of his Workshop. Then I sat stunned as he past me the turn.

I played a turn 1 Windfall for four, seeing that he discarded another Crucible and at least one Welder with two lands. I then tapped my Mana Vault and Tinkered up Memory Jar.

My hope was that he didn’t see a brutal lock component in those four cards.

Turn 2
He evidently didn’t draw too well in those four cards either, because he played Goblin Welder and something else irrelevant (perhaps Smokestack?) and passed the turn.

On my upkeep I broke the Jar and then drew a card on my draw step. This hand had the nuts of Lion’s Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, and a Grim Tutor. That was all she wrote. I tutored up Yawgmoth’s Will, resolved it, tutored up Tendrils and killed him.

+ 3 Hurkyl’s Recall
+ 2 Shattering Spree
+ 2 Elvish Spirit Guide
– 4 Duress
– 1 Xantid Swarm
– ?

Game 2
My opponent, once again, did not do anything significant on his first turn. He played Land, Sol Ring and passed.

I dropped Mox, Land, and Time Walk, and played another land.

He tapped his land and his Sol Ring, and played Trinisphere. He then Wastelanded one of my lands. Fortunately, I was holding Elvish Spirit Guide. I removed it from game on his endstep to play Hurkyl’s Recall.

I don’t remember precisely how, but I know that I dropped Yawgmoth’s Bargain this turn and proceeded to win immediately.

4-1

Round 6: The Perfect Storm with Gifts Ungiven

This was the Canadian I played yesterday. Today, he had switched over to his own TPS homebrew variant with Gifts.

I won the dice roll and elected to play. I think he mulligans to six.

Game 1
I Duress him and see:
Duress, Gifts Ungiven, Land, Land, Land, Mox Emerald

I think for a moment. I look at my hand and calculate a turn 3 win. Thus, I take the Duress. I figure that he’ll have turn 3 Gifts, but it won’t be good enough to win him the game. This was a mistake. He manages to Gifts for some cards that win him the game, although I can’t remember what they were.

Game 2
My hand is something like:

City of Brass,
Mana Crypt,
Tinker,
Windfall,
Demonic Tutor,
Duress.

I believe I Duress him on turn 1 and take a Force of Will.

In turn, he Duresses me and (surprisingly) takes the Demonic Tutor. I think my next play was Tinker for Memory Jar, but I can’t be sure. I don’t remember the rest of this game except that I won.

Game 3
My hand has Black Lotus, Mana Crypt, Land, Mind’s Desire, and some other cards that aren’t of note.

My opponent debates whether to keep his hand. He decides to keep it and he plays a turn one Tinker for Memory Jar. I can’t remember why, but something persuades him to use it rather than wait a turn. He breaks the Jar and I see Tolarian Academy as my top card, and I am a bit upset to see that go. He looks at his hand and thinks. He plays Demonic Tutor and drops Tormod’s Crypt. He then remarks that he realizes he could have won. Instead, he chose to not lose by playing Tormod’s Crypt.

I topdeck Brainstorm and play it. This easily permits me to play a turn 1 Mind’s Desire for five.

I begin flipping.

My first card is:

Duress. He has one card in his hand, so this card is virtually worthless.

I start mumbling: big money, big money… I feel like I’m playing Roulette.

I flip over:

Windfall.

I think to myself, well, at least I can get a card out of it…. That’s better than nothing.

I repeat: big money, big money…

Duress.

Le sigh. Two cards left. These better be good.

I flip over:

Mana Crypt

Ouch. Not good. I only have one card left and it doesn’t look good for me.

BIG MONEY:

I flip over:

Yawgmoth’s Bargain.

I stare at the card for a moment. I manage to make a nervous laugh and then I lose it. You gotta love Mind’s Desire.

I Duress his hand and drop Bargain and that concluded our match.

5-1

Round 7: Suicide Black

This guy has a thick New York accent. He introduces himself as “Vin or Vinnie, but not Vince.” I win the roll.

Game 1:

I drop my entire hand on turn 1. I play Land, Brainstorm, Mana Crypt, Elvish Spirit Guide, Mox, Cabal Ritual, and Memory Jar. I pass the turn.

Vince thinks for a moment. He reminds himself that I have no cards in hand. He plays Black Lotus, Mox Jet, and a Swamp and plays Dark Confidant. He evidently had three Cabal Rituals in hand. They didn’t matter much because my Jar revealed plenty of mana and the ability to play either Mind’s Desire for eight, or Bargain with twenty life. I actually don’t know which is the superior play, but I go for Yawgmoth’s Bargain as it’s relatively safe. I win immediately.

Game 2:
I draw my hand face down. I wait until Vinnie decides to keep his hand before taking a look. Vinnie thinks for a moment and then throws it back. He shuffles up and draws a hand of six that he doesn’t seem too happy about. He elects to keep and plays Mox Jet, Swamp, and Dark Confidant once again.

My opening hand has Black Lotus, Cabal Ritual, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, City of Brass Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and one other card.

I actually make a trivial mistake. I play the City of Brass when I can just resolve Bargain off Lotus, Ritual, Sol Ring, and Mana Vault. My third card down was Tolarian Academy. It doesn’t matter though. I handily win this turn by playing Mox Jet, Dark Ritual, Imperial Seal for Tendrils, and draw enough mana to play it.

I am now a lock for top 8, sitting second in the Swiss at the end of this tournament.

6-1

Top 8: GWS Intuition Tendrils Combo

Great.

I get to play Eric Becker again.

This time, however, I’m not playing an aggro deck versus Combo. Instead, I’m playing my monster combo deck versus a slow combo deck.

I feel like I’m walking into a fight where my opponent has a slingshot to my shotgun.

However, Eric won the dice roll. That was unfortunate. The roll is rather important in the combo mirror.

Game 1:
Eric and I shuffle up. I look at my hand, and it’s pretty slow. It looks something like this:

Gemstone Mine,
Mana Vault,
Duress,
Brainstorm,
Imperial Seal,
Wheel of Fortune,
Xantid Swarm.

The hand is pretty damned slow, but I figure I can turn it into a turn 3 win, with disruption, against a deck with a turn 3 goldfish. The critical play will be Duress.

Eric plays land, Mox, and passes.

I play Gemstone Mine and Duress. In response, Eric plays Brainstorm. Once it resolves, I see:

Cabal Ritual,
Intuition,
Brainstorm,
Merchant Scroll,
Tendrils of Agony.

What the heck? What do you take? Any of these cards seem like viable candidates. I decide not to take the Brainstorm because he just Brainstormed. I figure he put his best card on top of his library, but the Merchant Scroll would enable him to find Ancestral Recall. It seems to me the bottleneck here is his mana. He only has a Mox and a land, and it would be totally nonsensical to put a land on top of your library. Thus, I take the Merchant Scroll.

This was precisely what he wanted me to do. He hid Ancestral Recall on top of his library. He played Ancestral and drew three cards.

He then played a Swamp and an artifact accelerant. I knew the contents of his hand save for one card, a card I labeled “mystery” card.

I take my second turn and draw nothing relevant. I Brainstorm into some weak cards: I see Regrowth, and the like. It doesn’t matter.

He reveals the mystery: it’s Vampiric Tutor which promptly retrieves Yawgmoth’s Will. That’s game.

Game 2:

Turn 1:
I keep another slow hand, but I am on the play. My hand had Lion’s Eye Diamond, Gemstone Mine, Mana Vault.

I Duress and see:
Underground Sea,
Mana Vault,
Sol Ring,
Duress,
Intuition,
Grim Tutor.

I analyze his hand. He appears to be mana light, so there is no reason at all to take the Grim Tutor. Taking Sol Ring could slow him down, but I assess the situation and foresee myself winning on turn 3 at the latest. Therefore, I narrow it down to Intuition and Duress. The Intuition is a bit slow and it will put the burden of making a play mistake on him. Plus, the Duress will give him critical information. Thus, I decide to take Duress.

Eric plays Land, Sol Ring, Mana Vault and burns for one. He has one card in hand that I do not know what it is.

Turn 2
I don’t remember the details of this turn, but I believe I am holding Lion’s Eye Diamond, but play a Mox. I think I may have played Mana Vault here.

Eric untaps and proceeds to his upkeep. He thinks for a moment, but then draws a card. He plays a Swamp. He still has one mystery card in hand. I want to know what the mystery card is!

Turn 3
Here I go…

I tap the Mana Vault and my Gemstone Mine for a third time and send it into my graveyard. I play Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus. I tap the Black Lotus and sacrifice it for BBB. I have BBB2 floating. I play Lion’s Eye Diamond. I play Grim Tutor floating B1 and respond by sacrificing Lion’s Eye Diamond discarding Tinker, Windfall, and Mystical Tutor.

With Grim Tutor on the stack, Eric responds. My fear here is that he drew a Blue card on turn 1, and now he can Intuition up three Force of Wills. However, I decided beforehand that this was still the most intelligent play.

He taps his Underground Sea and a Sol Ring and plays Intuition and debates which cards to find.

He ends up presenting:

Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Coffin Purge

He has a Swamp untapped.

If I give him Coffin Purge, he can only purge one card. If I give him Dark Ritual, he can play the Ritual and purge one card. Either way he can only purge one card. However, I’d rather the Dark Rituals were in his graveyard, so I consider giving him the Coffin Purge. On the other hand, if he drew a Ritual on turn one, then he could Purge two cards.

Therefore, I think I ended up giving him a Dark Ritual.

He Purges the Black Lotus out of my graveyard.

I know I have six mana between the two floating, the Lion’s Eye Diamond and the Gemstone Mine in my graveyard. This permits me to play Demonic Tutor for Tendrils and win on the spot.

But I have a brainfart and that play would be too easy. So I become fixated on figuring out how to Grim Tutor for Tendrils, which requires one more mana. I Tinker away the Mana Vault into Memory Jar.

As soon as I play Tinker, I realize my mistake. I begin to get frustrated at myself… whatever, I think, I can still win this.

I break the Jar. I draw plenty of Black mana with Rituals, as well as a Brainstorm. On the Brainstorm I see Tendrils, the third card down.

I was thinking that Jar plus Windfall would get me plenty of opportunities to win, but I still made a stupid play that could have cost me the game.

It turns out that the mystery card was Vampiric Tutor. The Vampires are out to get me!

Game 3:
I fan open a hand and sigh as there is no mana in it. I also learned from game 1 that I need to be looking for a slightly riskier, but faster, hand.

I pick up:
Black Lotus
Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Wheel of Fortune
Mana Crypt
Tendrils Agony

This is precisely the hand I was looking for. If I topdeck a land or a business spell I can play my whole hand and still win through disruption. Unfortunately, Becker has the strongest possible start against me:

Turn 1:
Underground Sea, Duress

He looks at my hand and ponders. He notates the contents of my hand and selects Wheel of Fortune. I think this is a mistake. I probably would have taken the Black Lotus. However, there is a good chance that I will topdeck a land, but an even better chance that I’d topdeck a playable card.

I have the following cards in my deck that could enable me to play the Wheel:

Lotus Petal
Mox Ruby
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Forbidden Orchard

Yet, the following topdecks would help me win on turn 1:

1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Grim Tutor
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Windfall
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

And Necropotence would help me go off on turn 2.

Nevertheless, I topdeck Time Walk. I debate whether to play Time Walk, but it seems pointless to blow my Lotus on it. So I pass the turn back to Eric.

Turn 2
He plays Black Lotus, Mox, Mana Crypt, and a land and passes the turn.

I draw Grim Tutor. I may as well go for it.

I play the Lotus. It resolves.

I play Mana Crypt. It resolves. I crack the Lotus for black and play Dark Ritual. I then play Grim Tutor and I look through my deck.

I could get Yawgmoth’s Will here and just try to win. However, between Force of Wills and Remand, not to mention the Coffin Purge I saw last game, the better play seems to be Yawgmoth’s Bargain. If he counters the spell I tutor up, I’d rather it be Bargain. Bargain is a card that is hard to cast and it would be a much worse topdeck than Will. Thus, I’ll still have Will in my deck, but Bargain my graveyard. If Bargain resolves, I win on the spot.

I find Bargain, play the second Ritual and cast it. He taps his two lands, Mana Crypt, and Mox and plays Force of Will.

I pass the turn.

Turn 3
Eric evidently draws Demonic Tutor and remarks that it was a lucky topdeck.

He taps a land and a Mox and Tutors. He then plays Ancestral Recall. I am relieved that he didn’t find Yawgmoth’s Bargain since he could play it off his Lotus. It doesn’t matter however, since he has Ritual and Grim Tutor off of the Ancestral. How lucky!

I extend my hand and offer hearty handshake. Well done.

In the end, I realize that there were decisions that I could have made differently to change the outcome of the match. Grim Long offers up so many decisions at every point of the match that there inevitably will be things that you wish you had done differently. The toughest skill to master is the mulligan. The reason the mulligan is so difficult is because there is a moving target. Your decision to mulligan is based, in large measure, on what you anticipate your opponent will attempt to do to you. My hands against Becker should have been evaluated on the basis of the speed of his deck. I kept two turn 3 hands, and it paid off when I was on the play.

I want to thank my team for being wonderful, and Pete for hosting these events. May Vintage continue to thrive.

Stephen Menendian