So Many Insane Plays – Third Place at the Waterbury

There are few people on earth with whom a two-way eight-hour car ride is non-stop laughs and adventure. Paul “Mr. Type 4” Mastriano, the 2008 Vintage Champion, is such a person. Just when the road trip is supposed to reach peak tedium, somewhere between hour six and seven, that’s just when the laughs hit their highest, most hysterical frequencies with Paul. I get how Paul can convince people to ride with him to Magic tournaments five hours away when they don’t even play Magic.

The prospect of traveling to 13th Mana Drain Open, a.k.a. the Waterbury, sounded like too much. My boss sent me to both coasts in January, and with Grand Prix: Chicago and a family reunion of sorts in Virginia in March on top of my birthday, a trip to Connecticut would mean that I’ve only had a few weekends home so far this year. Flying was out of the question. The first Waterbury I attended, January of 2004, was a nightmare. I flew into Bradley International airport and drove a rental car through blizzard conditions, two hours of driving for what should have been 40-minute travel.

A number of factors converge to convince me to go. This might be one of the largest Vintage events I get to play in this year. I won’t be able to compete in the Vintage champs on account of my sister’s wedding. StarCityGames hasn’t announced the dates for any Power Nine tournaments this year either. Those are the three biggest Vintage tournaments of the year. Despite being so close to Grand Prix: Chicago, and jammed in the middle of an already very busy schedule, I had to go. A bonus was Ray Robillard’s free entry to current and previous Vintage Champions. It wasn’t the money so much as the symbolic gesture. It meant that Paul would probably want to go. When Paul agreed to go, that pretty much cinched it. I could drive to Pittsburgh in under four hours, and he would drive us to Connecticut.

The trip was just like old times — Paul and I together on the road back in our college days. What I expected to be a bore was something of an adventure. The only difference between 2009 and 2001 is being saved from getting lost (both Paul and I are navigationally challenged) thanks to the GPS. The first couple of hours on the road flew by as we talked about Vintage, Watchmen, and women. We had our first pit stop at possibly the worst Quiznos in America, a Roy Rogers’ cubicle spot that resembled a prison cell or a bathroom stall more than a sandwich lobby. The cashier bit her nails, handled my money, and checked her text messages all while wrapping up my food. I’m pretty sure my Quiznos dining experience has been spoiled forever. Our dinner experience was undeniably superior as we stopped at an excellent Zagat-endorsed Chinese restaurant, featuring the award winning “Chef Pam.” Although our hostess was ADD, the food was amazing. After filling our bellies with General Tso’s chicken and vegetables, Paul and I had trouble controlling our laughter, as we joked about everything from Sacha Baron-Cohen’s upcoming film about his HBO sketch “Bruno,” to reminiscing about some of the craziest college experiences, many of which we shared.

Finally, after making our way through the Bronx and a brief stint past New Haven, we made it to our hotel. The Karaoke bar was packed, and we figured we’d grab a few drinks after putting our bags away but before testing. By the time we got back to the lobby, the bar — which had been packed only 30 minutes earlier — was closed and locked. After getting bad directions from Gary (the concierge), we found a local bar where Paul immediately started hitting on women, and a cute girl named Anna introduced herself to me. We put our change on the pool table. I told Anna that one of the guy’s playing pool had too much bravado, and couldn’t possibly win. Turns out that was Anna’s drunk brother. He creamed some dude, and Paul and I grabbed pool cues to alternate taking shots. Paul and I were keeping up with Anna’s brother when mid-way through the game some angry, drunk chick came up saying that it was her turn. She pointed to a tiny blackboard in the corner with her name written in chalk. How were we supposed to know that the sign-up was on a chalkboard in the corner of this bar? Although her boyfriend tried to stop her, she knocked most of the balls into the pockets. Anna and her brother tried to persuade us to stay, but we had enough. We went back to the hotel room to test a few games before crashing.

Here’s what I had sleeved up:

So, why on earth did I choose Grow? The DCI tried its very best not just to weaken Grow, but to expunge it entirely. It wasn’t just Gush and Scroll that got restricted, but Brainstorm and Ponder got the axe as well. It wasn’t a castration; it was a decapitation. The entire Grow concept, which has been reiterated many times, was premised on the idea of building a very light manabase with a bunch of cantrips. Now the very best cantrips, Ponder, and Brainstorm in particular, were restricted. How could Grow possibly retain the mana base advantages and function in any real way? After all, it wasn’t just the inability to build a light mana base, the entire Gush-Bond engine was gone as well.

A Friday evening rolled around mid-February and I was still in the office wrapping up my work for the day when I started to brainstorm Vintage article topics for March, after all of the Legacy interest subsided again. After about 30 minutes of deep thinking, I had developed a list of 12 or so really interesting article ideas, one of which was discussing design options in Vintage, with a particular emphasis on looking at the best unrestricted two casting cost spells in the format. As I was looking at this list, I realized that a Grow-like deck might be able to abuse most of them, with Strategic Planning and Dark Confidant in particular. I quickly drafted a Grow list around Strategic Planning. Some testing that weekend confirmed that the concept was viable, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion that Sleight of Hand could just be better. Too many of my hands with Strategic Grow were one-landers that needed the second mana to get Strategic Planning, Dark Confidant, or Goyf online. I put together a Sleight of Hand list, and was pleasantly surprised. It still felt somewhat mediocre, but I thought it could be a powerful weapon for the Waterbury, in which Grow had always seemed to do well. I drafted an article in early March suggesting it for Vintage players who might be interested in playing in the Waterbury. That weekend Paul Mastriano gave me a call telling me that he lost to a Grow deck in the finals of a local tournament. Although I had finished the article, mid-week that list was published, and I felt like my initial work had been validated, and I included that list in the article that went live a few weeks ago.

Fast forward to Grand Prix: Chicago. I played TPS in the Grand Prix side event, and knocked myself out on account of play errors. I decided to run an honest gauntlet. I had a buddy come over and I play tested my teammate Jimmy McCarthy’s Tezzeret deck, TPS, and Grow against Matt’s gauntlet of TPS, Fish, Mono Red Workshop Aggro, and Belcher. Then, I tested Grow against Tezzeret as well. The best performing deck against the gauntlet was Grow. Grow smashed Fish and Workshop Aggro, beat Tezzeret pretty well, and split against TPS and Belcher. Most importantly, given how down I’ve been on my ability to play magical cards recently, Grow was by far the deck with which I most quickly intuited the best lines of play. I settled on Grow for the Waterbury myself. However, further testing indicated the need for a few tweaks. First of all, the Fastbond plus Tendrils of Agony plan was just too optimistic. In running the gauntlet, I quickly discovered that I’d rather have Tinker and Leviathan. Then, my teammates mocked me for running Tinker with only 4 maindeck artifacts, one of which was Black Lotus. However, my testing indicated that this configuration worked well. By the time you had the mana and inclination to play a three-mana spell, the top of the deck’s curve at Yawgmoth’s Will and Tinker, you’d have the Mox you needed. My teammate Jimmy played the deck in a local tournament but found that he really wanted Fastbond. I did some further testing and my results confirmed my earlier conclusion that Fastbond was not very good. But his tournament experience did give me pause. Finally, with Leviathan, I cut a Goyf and had room for three other cards. I started with the mix of Disrupt, Daze, and a Stifle in the three random slots. Part of the value of running singletons is that your opponent does not know how many of each you run, and once they’ve seen one, they will have to assume you have others. On the flip side, if they haven’t seen each one, you are more likely to get them to walk into one of them, and steal a game because of it. Stifle was terrible. Daze tested well, as did Disrupt. I swapped in 1 Quirion Dryad because I wasn’t honestly sure which was better: Goyf or Dryad. The Pittsburgh Grow winner ran 3 Dryads. Owen Turtenwald made the point that Goyf is rarely more than 4 power in Vintage, since there are so few creatures in Vintage that hit the yard, and usually there is only either an artifact or a creature, but not both. Goyf is better against shops, but Dryad is probably better in the Drain infested metagame. However, Duresses/Thoughtsiezes might change that equation. So, I decided to split the difference. A Dryad would randomly allow me to win Goyf stalemates and produce a larger win condition with going off with Yawgmoth’s Will. In my testing notes, I indicated that I’d like to test a Top, but I never got around to it.

The night before the tournament, Paul and I were sitting in our hotel room making last minute tweaks to our decks. I tested my Grow against his “Mystic Grow,” which had Mystical Remora and a larger manabase, and we split the match 3 games apiece. However, I wasn’t feeling very confident in my deck choice. Jimmy’s tournament experience suggested that maybe this deck was too much wishful thinking. I resolved just to have a good time, and try and learn from the event if my Grow list didn’t perform very well. In testing with Paul, I decided to just bite the bullet and go for all three Disrupts. I also had to physically build my sideboard. Paul argued that my sideboard had too much anti-Shop cards, with 3 Islands, 2 Rebuild, and 2 Hurkyl’s Recall, on top of 2 Seal of Primordium. Based upon his comments, I cut the second Rebuild for a third Yixlid Jailer, a move which I was glad I made. But the irony is that Paul wishes he had my anti-Shop sideboard in retrospect. I wish that I had pulled up the list I ran in my article, as I probably would have ran 4 Leyline and 3 Jailers. Instead, Paul sort of persuaded me of the need to run Pithing Needles and Tormod’s Crypts instead, which I supported since they worked better with Dark Confidant.

We rolled up to the tournament site and wanted to sign up for the team challenge, but only two meandeckers were in attendance. Eric Dupuis was happy to sign up as our third man. Thanks ELD!

Paul had a bye, but the months of playing Legacy meant that I didn’t qualify for one.

Round 1: Chris Roberts with Tezzeret Control

Ray Robillard set up a webcam to broadcast feature matches. Chris and I were called to play the first feature match. Technical difficulties stymied the project on day 1, but Ray managed captured a small portion of this match, which I’ll like you to.

I’m oddly relaxed as we shuffle up. Chris’s girlfriend is standing behind him, quiet but intent, and curious. I think Paul hit on her in front of him later that day. Word of warning: if you bring your woman to a Magic tournament with Paul Mastriano, if she’s even remotely cute, Paul will flirt with her.

Chris won the first die roll of the day and elected to play. He played a Polluted Delta and passed the turn.

My hand was very strong, with Duress, Disrupt, and Ancestral Recall, but not Force of Will. I led with Duress and saw:

Underground Sea
Tolarian Academy
Time Walk
Tormod’s Crypt
Red Elemental Blast
Force of Will

If I took Time Walk, he’d lose his deck’s best cycler, but he’d probably be able to Force of Will something I want to resolve in the near future. I was sort of mad at myself for not holding up Disrupt, since I’d probably be able to Disrupt his Time Walk if I hadn’t have cast Duress. That would have been a blow out. I didn’t care too much about Red Elemental Blast since so many of my best cards were non-Blue, but I had Ancestral in this instance. I figured that if he played Time Walk, there was a good chance I could get my Ancestral to resolve.

He played Tolarian Academy, Tormod’s Crypt, and passed the turn.

I untapped, drew Gush and debated what to do. I couldn’t play my Ancestral yet since he had Force. But I didn’t want to play a Bob or a Goyf (I don’t remember which I had in hand) since I wanted to hold up Disrupt. I played a land and passed the turn.

He drew a card and played his Sea, and then cast Time Walk. I decided to continue to hold up Disrupt. I wanted to hit something, hopefully a Gifts, Fact or Thirst. Maybe a Tinker. He took a turn and passed.

I untapped and failed to draw a third land. I did, however, see a Sleight of Hand. I tapped a land and played Sleight, failing to see a third land. If I played Gush, I’d have to discard a bunch of cards. I passed the turn again.

Chris drew and played a Mox and passed the turn.

Finally, I drew a pitch counterspell. I threw Ancestral out there, won the battle over it, and took over the game from there. On my side of the table creatures came down in a steady stream, and his life fell from 18 to 16 to 12 to 8 to 2 to 0.

I looked in my sideboard and saw nothing I’d want to bring in. I wasn’t sure what Chris was playing, so I think I brought in a Pithing Needle. I’m not sure what I sideboarded out.

Game 2:

We shuffled up, and once again, I drew a very strong hand, with tutors, Mox Jet, Duress, and good draw.

Unfortunately, Chris had about the best start you can open with:

Mox Ruby, Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Land, Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan with a Red mana floating. I could only stare at my hand in despair that he was running Leviathan over Darksteel Colossus, which I’d be able to easily answer.

This tournament was something of a breakout for Inkwell Leviathan. She was everywhere, and complaints were heard all around about the fact that Wizards printed a shroud Tinker target.

I played Mox Jet and cast Duress, only to see Pyroblast and a land. I took the Pyroblast. I played a fetch, broke it, and cast Ancestral Recall. I drew some insane cards, and passed.

He drew and attacked me with Inkwell Leviathan, sending me to 12.

I untapped and thought about my options. I had Gush and Imperial Seal in hand, in addition to Bob and Goyf. I was trying to imagine how I could set up a Yawgmoth’s Will. If only I could find my Dryad, I could perhaps grow it really large, get lucky, and Time Walk kill him before he kills me. I played Goyf and held up Brainstorm.

To be frank, I didn’t have much time to think about what to do. If I could have sat there and analyzed the situation for a few minutes, I think I could have come up with one of the most amazing games of the entire tournament. I think I could have beaten his turn one Leviathan by Tinkering up my own Leviathan, and using Gush to turn off his Islandwalk. The best way it could be accomplished is if I could set up Yawgmoth’s Will, then Gush twice so that I’d have green men on the table to chump so I’d only have to take a few points of damage while my Leviathan ate him alive. If we were using Chess clocks, I’d have taken a good 5 minutes here to figure out exactly how to set that up. I don’t care what Josh Silvestri or my teammate Matthieu Durand say, a minute or two is just not enough time to map out complex lines of play like this one. I had everything I needed to pull it off, I just wasn’t sure how to do it. As it was, he attacked me to 5. I untapped and just Imperial Sealed for Time Walk, Gushed, Walked, played another green man, took my Time Walk turn, drew Yawgmoth’s Will, but it wasn’t enough. I scooped in frustration at failing to pull off one of the most insane wins ever.

Game 3:

I led game 3 with turn 1 Thoughtseize, seeing this:

Polluted Delta
Volcanic Island
Voltaic Key
Engineered Explosives
Underground Sea
Force of Will
Tinker

His hand was strong, but slow. I felt confident that I’d be able to control the tempo of this game, especially with my Disrupts, but the only danger was if he topdecked Time Vault in the first couple of turns. It was a risk I’d have to take. I took either Tinker or Force of Will (I don’t remember which), but I suspect it was Tinker.

Predictably, he led with turn 1 Voltaic Key.

I played turn 2 Dark Confidant.

Chris played a land and passed the turn.

On my next upkeep Bob revealed Gush, sending me to 12.

I played a land and played Sleight of Hand. I couldn’t Gush, just yet, because I’d have to discard cards. Bob was drawing me cards as well. On my endstep, he plays Brainstorm, and I let it resolve. He breaks a Fetchland and untaps for his turn. He plays Sol Ring and Tolarian Academy.

Bob flips a Goyf and Sleighted into the other. I let him Drain the first one, but get the second one to stick through his countermagic by playing Force and pitching a Disrupt. The problem is that he draws too much mana. Within a few turns from turn 2 Brainstorm he has Academy and Sol Ring, and then Black Lotus. I try to bait with Gush, but that resolves. He tries to play a Goblin Welder, but I counter it. He has too much mana and I can’t afford him assembling Time Vault combo. I attack him with my Bob and Goyf, bringing him to 8 from 14. Bob hits me again, as it reveals Misdirection, sending me from 8 to 3.

I play Regrowth on Force of Will so that my hand is Force of Will, Sleight of Hand, Misdirection, Force of Will, Disrupt, and Vampiric Tutor,

He tapped Sol Ring and an Underground Sea to cast Trinket Mage, which I let resolve. He found Engineered Explosives

This is where this video kicks in: (it’s the last video).

He reveals the Explosives.

Chris played Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire and tapped them to cast Engineered Explosives. I sacrificed my Lotus and tapped my two lands to play Force of Will. Then he sacrificed his Lotus (just as the video ends) to play Yawgmoth’s Will. I Force that as well. I survive my Goyf flip when it reveals a land and win the game.

Round 2: Matt Hazard with TPS

Matt has been sharpening his skills with The Perfect Storm, and I put myself at having a 50-50 chance in this match. In our testing the previous weekend, I won two of the four games we played in testing, so I knew this would be a tough one. In testing, I was running 1 Disrupt and 1 Daze, so Matt didn’t know that I cut Daze and upped the number of Disrupts to 3.

My opening hand in game 1 was very strong. It had Duress, Disrupt, and Force of Will. I also had a pair of Sleight of Hands in my grip.

It was foiled by Matt. He played turn 1 Sea, Duress and took my Force of Will.

I returned the favor, and Thoughtseize Matt and see:

Demonic Tutor
Necropotence
Duress
Force of Will
Vampiric Tutor

His hand was just too busted. I thought about it for a while, and just decided to take Necropotence. I’m not sure if that’s the right play or not.

He draws a card and passes the turn.

I play a land and cast a Sleight of Hand into Brainstorm

I made a critical misplay then. Matt just drew a card and passed the turn again. On his endstep, I tapped down to cast Brainstorm. In response, he played Vampiric Tutor. I was furious with myself. I didn’t even want to play Brainstorm, really, as I was going to Sleight anyway. I Brainstormed into creatures, and had no choice by to play a creature and try to beat him down. He Vamped into Ancestral, which he shot off on his turn and it drew him the nuts. He played Demonic Tutor for Black Lotus and cast Yawgmoth’s Will to easily win the game.

Game 2:

Game 2 was a bit more lopsided. I brought in Tormod’s Crypt for a Tarmogoyf. We both mulligan to 6.

I Duress him on turn 1 and see:

Underground Sea
Swamp
Ancestral Recall
Sol Ring
Chain of Vapor
Yawgmoth’s Will

On his turn, he misplays and doesn’t play turn 1 Sol Ring setting up turn 2 Yawgmoth’s Will to replay Ancestral. I’m actually ready for that play because I have Disrupt in hand again. I played Yawgmoth’s Will to replay Duress to get his Yawgmoth’s Will. I get a Bob down by turn 3 and a Goyf follows and starts to deal him damage. I am able to keep on top of him with my countermagic and my Duress effects, monitoring the progress of his hand and keeping him in check while my creatures win the game.

Game 3:

My opening hand is great:

Mox Sapphire
Force of Will
Force of Will
Time Walk
Mana Drain
Disrupt
Thoughtseize

Matt plays turn 1 Swamp, but no Duress. Phew! I feel like I made it.

I play Mox Sapphire and pass the turn.

A turn late, Matt draws and plays Duress. I play Disrupt on it, drawing Underground Sea. I follow it with turn 2 Bob, rather than holding up Mana Drain. I Duress him and see: Slaughter Pact, Tendrils of Agony, Tinker, and Brainstorm, but Matt has no Blue mana. I take Tendrils of Agony, which can kill me later on. Matt doesn’t find Blue mana for a couple of turns. My Bob flips Gush and Misdirection, sending me to a precarious 3, but my Gush draws me a timely Goyf, which I use to win the game just in the nick of time! I flipped Island and Scroll consecutively allowing me to win the game at 1 life.

Round Three: Justin Rodriguez with Stax

I won the first die roll of the day, and kept this hand:

Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
Tropical Island
Duress
Tarmogoyf
Dark Confidant
Vampiric Tutor

This hand is fine on the play, since no matter the matchup, I have strong plays. If I’m facing a control deck or a combo deck, I have turn 1 Duress, turn 2 Ancestral Recall. If I’m facing Fish or Stax, I have a series of strong men, with a path cleared by Duress. I can even Vamp for Lotus to play turn 2 Goyf and Bob.

I lead with Sea into Duress, and I see this:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Barbarian Ring
Sol Ring
Crucible of Worlds
Chalice of the Void
Memory Jar
Thorn of Amethyst

Another tough Duress decision. I map it against my hand, and decide that nothing there is particularly threatening, but the play that might buy me the most time is to take Sol Ring.

I passed the turn.

Justin played Bazaar, and used it, discarding Memory Jar, Crucible of Worlds, and something else I don’t remember. He then played Chalice of the Void at zero. I realized at this point that he thought I was playing TPS, or perhaps a Drain deck. I was amused.

I untapped and played a second land and cast Dark Confidant.

Justin untapped and played Mishra’s Workshop and cast Thorn of Amethyst, and burned for 1. Imagine his horror when I untapped and played Tarmogoyf, fueled by his Bazaar! Even better, I played a second Bob on turn three. The only play I had to make was to Force of Will his Welder on turn four. His life fell precipitously at that point from 15 to 8 to 1 to death.

Game 2:

I boarded in 10 cards: 3 Island, 2 Hurkyl’s Recall, 1 Rebuild, 2 Seal of Cleansing, 2 Pithing Needle. I sideboarded out 1 Misdirection, 3 Disrupt, 1 Regrowth, 3 Sleight of Hand, and 2 Duress. All of the sideboard decisions here should make sense. You don’t need or even want Sleight of Hand if your opponent is piling on the Spheres. Also, you need it less if you have a lot more lands.

Game 2 was hilarious.

He opens with turn 1 Bazaar of Baghdad, using it discarding The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Smokestack, and Powder Keg. He plays Black Lotus and casts Trinisphere!

I hardly cared! My opening hand had 4 lands, Black Lotus, Imperial Seal, and Thoughtseize. Perfect hand! I think I made 7 consecutive land drops. I played Thoughtseize on turn 3, and took the only relevant card. On turn 4 I played Imperial Seal for Tinker. I didn’t play Black Lotus until turn 6. Then I cast Tinker for Leviathan, and Justin was crushed by my monster, and could only stare at lame Powder Kegs.

Round 4: Arik Progibinsky

Arik has made a name for himself in the northeast playing Fish decks. He’s an obviously skilled player, and a great personality to add to the roster of Vintage characters.

Game 1:

Game 1 is a blow out. I have one of the strongest hands of the entire day, and he makes it only stronger. Arik is greedy and fires an early Ancestral right into my Misdirection, which, of course, draws me my Ancestral Recall. I have no idea what he’s playing, except that I see full power and Drains.

Game 2:

Arik assembles Time Vault plus Voltaic Key by turn 2, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Game 3:

I keep a very sketchy hand that has Lotus and two Goyfs. However, that’s exactly what I need. I drop two Goyfs on turn 1. As this game unfolds, I have a much better sense of what Arik is actually playing. In the first game, I had him on Tezzeret. Now I realize he’s playing with Mana Drains, the Tezzeret combo, but also Goyfs and Dark Confidants! He plays his own Confidant, and it reveals a Mana Drain. I am stuck on two lands the entire game here and at every turn I debate whether to play a Time Walk or Demonic Tutor, but keep deciding not to since I don’t want to walk into a Drain. It turns out to be correct. He is holding Tezzeret, two Drains, and Yawgmoth’s Will when I finally kill him.

Round 5: Jesse playing TPS

I won the die roll and Thoughtsieze Jesse to see this:

Mox Emerald
Force of Will
Force of Will
Cabal Ritual
Tendrils of Agony
Timetwister
Duress

What a ballsy keep. I’m pretty sure I took Twister, since he’d be able to play Force anyway. He topdecked a Delta and played Sea, and Duressed me. I resolved a Dark Confidant. There as a little bit of terror with each topdeck he made. At the critical moment he tried to kill me with Tendrils, but I successfully countered every one of his Rituals, denying him the mana. My men went into the red zone.

Game 2:

I opened a hand with double Force of Will and Tormod’s Crypt. I tutored up Ancestral and pulled even further ahead in terms of card advantage. However, my Dark Confidant dealt a bunch of damage to me and just at the last moment he topdecked Tendrils of Agony and killed me with exactly 6 storm.

Game 3:

I Thoughtseize him on turn 1 and see:

Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Dark Ritual
Island
Underground Sea
Polluted Delta
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault

Ha! Jesse had turn 1 Bargain, but I foiled it. I countered every tutor he played to prevent him from playing Desire. This game went on for some time, but I finally was able to emerge victorious, at 6 life from Dark Confidant. He Chained my Quirion Dryad at one point, but my Dryad quickly grew to 9 power to allow me to kill him at least two turns before a Goyf would have, helping me save myself from further topdecks. My Bob took me to 6 life and I had him dead on board. In a desperation play, he tapped down to play Memory Jar and broke it. The top card of my library was Inkwell Leviathan, which I pitched to Force his only relevant play. Had he just passed the turn, I would have lost to my Bob.

Round 6: ID

Round 7: ID

I was third place in the swiss at the end of the swiss, which meant that I was paired up against the 14th seed, Nat Moes.

Top 16: Nat Moes, playing Belcher

Nat Moes is one of the recurring characters in my tournament tales. You can find him in my tournament reports many times. Nat has made a name for himself as a Belcher pilot. He’s actually the match I least want to face in this Top 16, since it’s so coin flippy. I’d rather play against almost anything else.

Worse, he wins the die roll.

I wish I could find my notes, because it would allow me to reconstruct this entire match almost play by play. But my notes are lost, and it’s too bad because it was a fascinating match.

I open a hand with Force of Will. He plays Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt, and I Force of Will the Mana Crypt. He removes two Spirit Guides from game and casts Timetwister. My Timetwister hand has a Mox and a bunch of Sleight of Hands. His allows him to play Empty the Warrens for 16. He played a couple of mana sources, removed two more Spirit Guides from game, and Emptied Goblins onto the board.

I untap and Sleight, not finding Echoing Truth.

He untaps and attacks me to 4. I untap, Sleight of Hand again, but only see Time Walk. Time Walk yields a Merchant Scroll, but it’s too late. Nat overruns me with Goblin tokens.

Game 2:

I bring in Pithing Needles.

I open up the god draw. I have a hand with double Force and Ancestral Recall. I fire Ancestral on his upkeep so I won’t have to discard. He uses Elvish Spirit Guide to play Tinder Wall, and I Force his Tinder Wall. He then uses something else to try and play Goblin Welder, which I also Force. I play a bunch of Duresses to keep him off balance. I untap and Duress away a Belcher, seeing Memory Jar, and a pair of Manamorphose. I play Bob and start drawing cards. I get three attacks in and he cycles a Street Wraith. I play Demonic Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will, and sit on it for a few turns. In the meantime, I Duress his Jar, Scroll up Brainstorm and Brainstorm, then untap and play Yawgmoth’s Will. I Duress him twice more, Thoughtseize the Tinder Wall, and finally Tinker for Inkwell Leviathan for the win.

Game 3:

I am unbelievably happy to open a hand that has double Force of Will again. The best part, though, is that I only need one. He plays Lion’s Eye Diamond, which I let resolve. He then plays Black Lotus, which I counter. I hold my second Force until almost the very end of the game. I Duress him and see: Channel, Rite of Flame, Manamorphose, Memory Jar, and Belcher (I believe). I took Rite of Flame, which was the inverse of the last game, where I just took the business spells.

I had Drain and Force online (with Echoing Truth in hand as well, just in case he can Empty), and I soon drew Pithing Needle, which I used on Belcher. I wanted him to play something I could Mana Drain to fuel my Yawgmoth’s Will. After filtering for a couple of turns, I found another Force. I used it to counter his attempt to play a Chrome Mox. I waited until I got 6 mana on the table, and then I played the Yawgmoth’s Will I found and used it to replay Duresses and draw spells. I locked up the game and won the match.

Top 8: Bernie with Tezzeret

Game 1:

Bernie keeps a one land, one Mox hand with Force of Will, Mana Drain, Sundering Titan, Echoing Truth, and Thirst For Knowledge. I Duress out the Force and tutor up Ancestral to push ahead of him, but he doesn’t draw lands so this game becomes a blow out. He plays draw, go for the next couple of turns, eventually discarding Sundering Titan, and then he scoops shortly thereafter. He taps down on his main phase to play a desperate Gifts Ungiven for Black Lotus, Time Vault, Voltaic Key and something else, but it’s too late. I untap and kill him.

Game 2:

I Thoughtseize Bernie and see this: Island, Underground Sea, Force of Will, Yawgmoth’s Will, Mana Drain, Fact or Fiction, and Sower of Temptation. I debate what to take, but settle on Force of Will so that I can resolve the Ancestral I’m about to tutor up, which is exactly what I do. Unfortunately, I draw three Bobs. I started with one in hand and drew two more after Ancestral Recall. But I can’t play them so long as he can resolve Sower. I Duress him again to see a Thirst For Knowledge, but take his Mana Drain. He topdecks Mana Crypt, and he suddenly has the nuts. He plays Thirst discarding Voltaic Key, which I let resolve. He then plays Gifts Ungiven for Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Goblin Welder, and Time Vault. I think I gave him Time vault and Ancestral Recall. I did my best to agonize over the choices, so that he’d fire Ancestral into my Misdirection, which is what he did. The problem is that he had Force of Will to protect it. I drew too many creatures this game, and his lone Sower kept me from playing all of these critters.

Game 3:

This was probably the best game I played in the entire tournament.

I led with turn 1 Thoughtseize and saw:

Force of Will
Thirst For Knowledge
Island
Island
Mox Emerald
Vampiric Tutor
Sundering Titan

I think I took Thirst.

Bernie played Island and passed the turn.

I thought I was going to run away with this game after I played turn two Dark Confidant, but Dark Confidant immediately flipped over Inkwell Leviathan, sending me to 7 life. Bernie played two Islands for the next couple of turns and a Mana Crypt. Subsequently, Dark Confidant sent me to 5, then 4. The last flip Bob revealed Black Lotus. In the meantime, Bernie found a Black mana, but he had taken 3 consecutive hits from his Mana Crypt interspersed with attacks from my Dark Confidant. His life fell from 18 to 15, to 13 (my second attack with Dark Confidant) to 10, to 9 (from the Polluted Delta he found), to 7, to 4.

In short, we both fell to 4. Bernie and I were playing the Vintage version of Russian Roulette. With each turn, we were both passing the bullet.

My board: Black Lotus, two lands, and my hand had Force of Will, Mana Drain, and two Disrupts. He tapped down to play Sower of Temptation. This was a very interesting play. Sower would potentially kill him if he lost the Mana Crypt flip and took at least one damage from Dark Confidant. However, it would give him enough damage on board to kill me. I decided to Force of Will Sower rather than play Mana Drain, and I pitched a Disrupt. And in the game ending play, Bernie tapped down to hardcast Force of Will. I tapped one of my two lands and cast Disrupt. That was the brutal, final play of the game. His teammates later said that he should have played Mana Drain. Mana Drain could kill him if he can’t find a use for that mana. I could have, of course, Drained his Drain, but it would have put me even closer to death as well, and I would have had to topdeck a Mana Drain sink. I untap, fail to die to Dark Confidant, and attack him to 2. Then, I pass the turn and we all freeze. I have been calling evens for Mana Crypt the entire game. I call odds, and Bernie rolls a 1. What a great game. Bernie even called this match a “dream come true.”

At this point, I was perfectly happy with a proposed top 4 split, especially since I was the only person left in the tournament who placed in the top 4 of the swiss. A split would land me in first. Matt McNally refused the split, which I was ultimately fine with. If he won I’d have to play Dredge and then Tezzeret, two very good matchups.

Top 4: Sean with Dredge

As so it came to pass…

For months and months now, my mantra has been this: If there is even one Ichorid in a Top 8, there is a better than 25% chance you’ll face it. Be prepared. Hence, my TPS list has no less than 8 anti-Ichorid cards. My Grow list here has 7 dedicated anti-Ichorid cards.

Game 1:

I have no chance of winning game 1, but I want to see his deck. He obliges. I keep a junk hand with Inkwell Leviathan on it. He dredges virtually his entire deck in the first game, and I see a bunch of Fatestitchers and Sadistic Hypnotists. He uses Fatestithcer to untap a Bazaar to dredge a bunch more. With only about 8 cards left in his deck, only one Chalice is revealed, which leads me to believe that he only has 1 Chalice in his deck.

Game 2:

I think I boarded out 3 Thoughtseize (since I don’t want to Duress a dredger), 2 Mana Drain (since Disrupt is just better), 1 Misdirection (same reason), and a Quirion Dryad (I think).

My opening hand has both Tormod’s Crypt and Yixlid Jailer. Despite being Thoughtseized and aggressively using Bazaar, he manages to assemble Contagion and kill my Jailer at the one moment when I don’t have a counter available because I just used my resources on other ends, such as Yawgmoth’s Will, which I played to replay my Yixlid Jailer and other draw spells, which prompts scoopage.

Game 3:

I opened this:

Underground Sea
Flooded Strand
Black Lotus
Mox Jet
Tinker
Yawgmoth’s Will
Gush

I stare at his hand, trying to find a reason to keep it, and I miss the most obvious reason of all: Tinker can find Tormod’s Crypt or Pithing Needle. Instead, I keep seeing Tinker and thinking Inkwell Leviathan. I announce a mulligan and look at the top of my deck, which is, in order, Yixlid Jailer and Tormod’s Crypt.

I mulligan into a six card hand with no mana. Then, I mulligan into a 5 card hand with nothing useful. I mulligan to 4 and keep a hand with two lands, Time Walk, and a Duress.

Sean makes short work of me. You can read Sean’s report, including his version of our match, here.

What Paul Mastriano pointed out after the match was that Tinker can find Tormod’s Crypt or Pithing Needle, which is fine since Yawgmoth’s Will can allow me to replay them and the Lotus to Tinker again for Inkwell Leviathan. That option had not even crossed my mind. The only downside is the risk that Sean has Chalice. But we concluded that Sean was not running 4 Chalices since we saw over 90% of his deck in game 1.

This was a very anticlimactic conclusion to a great tournament. I really wanted to play Matt McNally in the finals, since Grow is designed to have a favorable Mana Drain matchup. The greatest irony of all is that I am one of the people who is most prepared for Ichorid, and yet it was my only match loss. I played all of the major players in the format: Tezzeret Drain decks, Workshops, Ichorid, and TPS. Grow beat everything, but I blew it against Ichorid.

Conclusion

After writing this report, the one thing that became glaringly obvious was that all of my close matches except for the Top 4 match would have been blow-outs if I had run Sensei’s Divining Tops in place of two of the Disrupts. Disrupt hung out in my hand far too much, and Top would have allowed me to regulate Bobs. The biggest problem with Bobs is that it’s too risky to play a second Bob if your life is anywhere near ten, and playing a third Bob, at pretty much any state of the game, is out of the question. That’s a problem because you often draw a second Bob. With Top, I think this deck can easily regulate life loss with two Bobs on the table. Also, Top will give the deck more sacrificial lambs for Tinker.

If the Tops really work out well, I’d also consider making the singleton Disrupt a Misdirection. That said, having a single Disrupt is probably fine anyway.

This deck is amazing, and I presume will become a metagame competitor. In some ways its better positioned than GAT was at the height of the Gush era simply because the metagame is so focused on Tezzeret, TPS, and Ichorid. It would be really nice if the DCI would unrestrict one card to give this deck a little more leg strength. There is no reason that Gush cannot be unrestricted. This deck would remain perfectly fair. Although it could then run Fastbond and Tendrils, it won’t be broken. You won’t be able to combo out on turn 1, but it will give the deck a little bit more card advantage.

Next week I’ll share my Day 2 report with Grim Long and other on-site hilarity.

Until then…

Stephen Menendian