So Many Insane Plays – Windows of Opportunity

Last week I really enjoyed showing you a match: Vintage horror Reveillark Flash in a fully fledged contest against a premiere competitor, Tyrant Oath. Last week’s match whetted my appetite for the strategic intrigue and tactical delicacy required to pilot these decks against each other. The games, unfortunately, were more lopsided than I had hoped, due to unusually strong draws from the Oath deck in the first game. The games were still interesting from a tactical perspective, illustrating and demonstrating the important early game decision-trees that these decks face, often involving the interaction of Ponder, Duress, Thoughtseize, Brainstorm, Merchant Scrolls, and Fetchlands with pitch counter-magic that so often define a large portion of the Vintage metagame. I also enjoyed showing you some technological developments for the Oath and Flash deck, sharing the proper sideboarding plan for Oath and an updated Flash option in Bile Urchin, both of which have generated quite a few questions.

Apologies are also due to Rich Shay. After my article last week, Rich chastised me for publishing his sideboard plans. He had not intended to inform me of his plans for public consumption. Fortunately, I had guessed and deduced 90% (exactly!) of his plans. The only sideboard switch I had not thought of was the second Orchard for the Empty the Warrens. So, at least the article last week was interesting for those reasons, even if the games themselves were less interesting at the strategic level.

Today’s match is much more strategically textured. I think it illustrates a fuller range of options that both decks have at their disposal, and what’s more, the truly beautiful and elegant tactical displays and skirmishes that set Vintage apart from other formats, particularly more creature-based formats. I suggest you print this article up and take it to work for bathroom or lunch breaks. If you are a student, take it to the library to scour over on a study break.

Here are the competitors:

For notes on these decks, please review last week’s article and my archive.

Let’s begin!

Game 1:

Flash’s opening hand:

Island
Ponder
Brainstorm
Misdirection
Force of Will
Pact of Negation
Pact of Negation

Oath’s opening hand:

Underground Sea
Forbidden Orchard
Flooded Strand
Fastbond
Brainstorm
Force of Will
Force of Will

Flash rolled a 12 to Oath’s 2. Flash elects to play.

Turn 1:

Flash begins the game with Island, Ponder, seeing:

Carrion Feeder
Vampiric Tutor
Underground Sea

Vampiric Tutor is the best spell, but we can’t play it just yet. Ordinarily, turn 1 Brainstorm or Ponder followed by Vamp on the second turn upkeep is a great play. But we only had one mana source on turn 1: a basic Island. We need a Sea before we can play Vamp, and since Vamp is our best business spell, it makes sense to hide it on top of the library, safe from a Thoughtseize.

I set the Feeder on the bottom, the Tutor in the middle, and the Sea on top. The Sea pops into my hand.

Oath draws Island.

What should Oath do?

Clearly, Oath should try to play Fastbond. There are four lands in hand and a Brainstorm. However, only two of the lands can play Fastbond: The fetchland (which can find a Tropical Island) and the Orchard. If we play the fetchland first, we lose the ability, potentially, to shuffle away the cards we put back with Brainstorm. Orchard, on the other hand, is a play that will cause us to lose more life in the long run, and if the game goes long enough, lead to a loss, but it’s a play that will maximize the effectiveness of turn 1 Fastbond if it resolves.

Oath plays Forbidden Orchard, Fastbond, giving Flash a spirit token.

This is an intriguing question: Should Flash counter the Fastbond?

It’s a question of role and context. In general, it is better for Flash to use its counters to protect its own combo. However, there will be instances where opposing spells, such as Yawgmoth’s Bargain, are so powerful as engines that they are able to stop the Flash pilot from winning. The so-called Gush-Bond engine is just such an engine.

Flash plays Force of Will, pitching Pact of Negation.

Oath plays Force of Will, pitching Force.

I’m confident that the right plays so far have been made, but the most difficult question is the next one: Should Flash counter again? If it doesn’t, there is a chance that Oath will just win right here. All it might take is a Gush to start going off. On the other hand, Flash has already accomplished something: it has drawn out Forces. If it can assemble the combo quickly, it could win before the Gush-Bond engine takes off. But it’s a risk, one that’s inherently difficult to calculate with hidden information.

Flash plays Misdirection, pitching Pact, targeting Force of Will.

Fastbond is countered.

Turn 2:

Flash draws the Vampiric Tutor and plays Underground Sea. Flash attacks Oath with the Spirit token and passes the turn.

Oath draws an Underground Sea. Oath taps the Orchard, giving Flash another token, and plays Brainstorm seeing: Mox Sapphire, Ponder, and Krosan Reclamation, putting back Island and Underground Sea.

Oath plays Mox Sapphire and Flooded Strand and breaks the Sea for a Tropical Island (17 life).

Ponder?

No, because we want to keep mana up for Krosan Reclamation to disrupt the Flash combo.

On Oath’s endstep, Flash has to decide whether to make a play. We can play Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, or both.

If Flash plays Brainstorm first, what could happen? Well, we could see one or both combo parts, or tutors to find the combo parts. If we find both combo parts, we’ll probably keep one and then Vamp Tutor for the other and just untap and win. That’s the ideal scenario.

However, the further we wait, the less likely it is that we can just combo out without being disrupted. The question here is one of role. Do we play the control role or the aggro role? So far, we’ve played control, countering Fastbond. Do we have to commit to that role? One way to play control here, from what I can see, is to tutor up Ancestral Recall. But how is that playing “control” any more than just going for the win and hoping that they can’t Force our Flash? The result is the same: you’ve played a spell and they’ve played Force of Will to counter it.

Patrick Chapin and my teammate Matthieu Durand are fond of explaining that you don’t have to win with Flash until just before your opponent can win. So, how does that apply here? It’s a good question. Does that mean doing nothing? Is that sensible? Should we just draw more cards so that we have more cards to put back with Brainstorm when we actually go for the win? More importantly, do we need more mana in play to execute that line of play? Every land we play now means one less card in hand.

If I were to Brainstorm into a Flash, a Protean Hulk or both, it would seem that there is a very good chance I could just win right now by Vamping for the other combo part, untapping and playing Flash.

On the other hand, if I Brainstorm and miss a combo part, it will take more time to win and then Oath will have another turn, unmolested, to build its board position.

The next option may be to split the difference. If we Brainstorm first and miss a combo piece, we could just Vamp for Ancestral Recall instead. That line of play actually makes a lot of sense. The only downside that is visible to me is this: Brainstorm is a much stronger card when you have more cards already in hand. If we are going to Vamp for Ancestral, why not just Vamp for Tutor first and then Ancestral and then Brainstorm?

Well, because we have a chance of “just winning” here and we should take advantage of that possibility. Windows of opportunity open and close in Vintage. They are small portals and they may never reappear. You have to take advantage of them when they arise.

I tap the Island and play Brainstorm on Oath’s endstep. It resolves. I draw into:

Merchant Scroll
Mox Sapphire
Brainstorm

We hit our worst case scenario. No combo parts. What should we put back and what should we keep?

Our plan, as described above, is to now Vampiric Tutor for Ancestral Recall. We will obviously be putting back Mox Sapphire, but which should we keep: Brainstorm or Merchant Scroll? If we draw a Flash off an Ancestral Recall, Merchant Scroll only gets us to the other half of the combo through an awkward tutor chain: Scroll for Mystical, Mystical for Summoner’s Pact, Pact for Protean Hulk. I’m thinking that keeping the Brainstorm is the best idea, but this could be wrong.

I’ll put back Mox and Scroll. Then I’ll tap Sea and play Vampiric Tutor (17 life).

I put Ancestral on top.

However, Oath still has a trick up its sleeve. It was holding Krosan Reclamation. What better time to use it? Oath taps the Mox and the Tropical Island and plays Krosan Reclamation on the Flash pilot, shuffling in the Misdirection.

Turn 3:

Flash untaps and draws… Mox Emerald.

Flash attacks with two Spirit tokens. Oath is at 15 life.

There is no chance that we can win right now if we Brainstorm into Flash and Protean Hulk. The loss of Vampiric Tutor for Ancestral to Krosan Reclamation is a pretty stunning development that takes away a critical margin of card advantage that we attempted to build.

If we wait to Brainstorm, we’ll be facing the same problem, except that we may be lacking a shuffle effect as well. We have to wait.

Oath untaps and draws… Underground Sea, a weak topdeck for a tense position like this.

Oath taps the Mox Sapphire and plays Ponder, seeing:

Gush
Gush
Oath of Druids

If we take the Gush, we can play a land, tap it, Gush into the Oath and another Gush, play the Oath and still have another Gush in hand when (or if) Tyrant rears his ugly head. It sounds like a plan!

Put a Gush on top, pop the Gush into my hand.
Play Underground Sea. Tap Sea and a Tropical Island for GU and play Gush, drawing Gush and Oath. Play Oath.

Turn 4:

Flash draws Flooded Strand.

Flash attacks with two Spirits, sending Oath to 13.

Flash taps Island and plays Brainstorm, drawing:

Polluted Delta
Tropical Island
Merchant Scroll

Grah! Those aren’t the cards we were looking for. That’s not very good.

On the upside, we can put back two lands, Scroll for Ancestral off a land and a Mox, and play it off another land.

That’s what I do. I put back the Tropical Island and the Delta. I play Mox Emerald, and Flooded Strand into Tropical Island. I play Scroll and cast Ancestral. Ancestral resolves, drawing:

Force of Will
Protean Hulk
Summoner’s Pact

Argh! We need another Blue spell!

Now things could get ugly.

Oath untaps and Oaths away 17 cards before hitting Tyrant.

This will be interesting.

We Oathed away:

Black Lotus
Gush
Merchant Scroll
Oath of Druids
Duress
Gush
Mox Pearl
Brainstorm
Tropical Island
Mox Jet
Ponder
Ancestral Recall
Polluted Delta
Demonic Tutor
Yawgmoth’s Will
Underground Sea
Merchant Scroll

Tyrant enters play.

Oath draws: Force of Will for the turn.

Oath is very close to being able to go infinite here. If it had drawn a Mox, it could have bounced the Mox Sapphire infinitely and even hardcast Gush, easily.

However, it can’t go off just yet.

Oath could play Krosan Reclamation here, but bouncing Flash’s lands doesn’t make much sense. It makes more sense to wait until Flash tries to combo out and then use the Reclamation to disrupt that and use the Tyrant to bounce a critical spell at the same time.

Oath plays Tropical Island and passes the turn.

Turn 5:

Flash untaps and draws… FLASH

Flash’s hand:

Flash
Summoner’s Pact
Protean Hulk
Force of Will

Flash’s board:

Underground Sea
Underground Sea
Mox Emerald
Island

Of course, Flash can try to Flash here, but even if Oath doesn’t have a Force, they can Krosan Reclamation.

So, how will that affect us?

Now things get very interesting.

Hypothetically, we Flash, Protean Hulk dies; with the Hulk trigger on the stack, Reclamation can shuffle the Hulk back into the library so that the Body Double can’t copy the Hulk when it comes into play.

At this point, there will be no creatures in any graveyard, and Body Double will die.

However, we have a trick up our sleeve. After the Krosan Reclamation has shuffled the Hulk, but with the Hulk trigger on the stack, we change our minds about what to get. We can fetch out Body Snatcher and Carrion Feeder instead, with the Body Snatcher Comes Into Play ability on the stack, cast Summoner’s Pact for Protean Hulk. Discard the Hulk to Snatcher and sacrifice the Snatcher to Carrion Feeder to bring new Hulk into play, bust the Hulk to the Feeder and then go through the combo as normal.

So, it just so happens that the Summoner’s Pact in hand acts as a tactical counter-solution to Krosan Reclamation here. However, there are other complications. Tidespout Tyrant is in play.

Is there a point at which the Oath player could play the Reclamation and cause the Tyrant trigger to frustrate Flash’s ability to actually win the game? Fortunately for Flash, it has the mana to replay a Carrion Feeder if it is bounced.

If the Oath player waits to Reclaim, what’s the weak point in the combo? Let’s walk through it.

The Hulk will find Feeder and Body Double, at which point the Body Double will immediately copy the Hulk.

At this point, the Flash player will have priority and will move to Sacrifice the Body Double to Carrion Feeder to find Bile Urchin (could be Mogg Fanatic, if you’d rather run that) and Reveillark.

At this point, with the Body Double’s Hulk trigger on the stack, if the Oath pilot plays Krosan Reclamation on Body Double and Protean Hulk, the jig will be up. Reveillark and Bile Urchin will enter play, but they will have nothing to do. They will be sitting there like lame ducks. Furthermore, although this, by itself, doesn’t matter, the playing of Krosan Reclamation means that the Tyrant will bounce something, probably the Carrion Feeder.

Normally, the Krosan Reclamation wouldn’t be a threat. Flash could sit there with a Body Double copying Hulk and a 6/6 beater. The problem is that Oath will untap and be able to play more spells and then bounce a whole slew of permanents. For instance, assume that the Oath pilot does not play Krosan Reclamation with the first Hulk trigger on the stack. Then the Flash player can find Body Double and Feeder and just sit and wait. Normally, at this point, the Flash player would wait until the Oath pilot goes to play Krosan Reclamation and respond by winning the game. However, Oath can untap, draw, play a single spell and try to bounce the Body Double or the Feeder. At that point, the Krosan Reclamation can follow up the attempt to go off and turn off Flash’s combo.

Note that Sliver kill would clearly not work here either. The Tyrant could bounce the Heart Sliver and then deal with the rest on the following turn.

So, what does all of this mean? I think the first thing you have to realize if you’ve just read through the last page and half of tactical analysis is that this is a very complex situation that depends upon a lot upon the knowledge and sophistication of the pilots. Here we are assuming that the players fully understand the situation, given the visible information they have.

It’s also important to note that normally the place to disrupt the Flash combo is with the first Hulk trigger on the stack. If Oath were to play to form here — doing what is generally supposed to be done — it would fall prey to the Summoner’s Pact in hand. However, the fact of the matter here is that the beating threat of Body Double as a 6/6 is really a non-threat here with active Oath and a Tyrant in play, which means that Oath’s optimal response is to wait until the second Hulk trigger is on the stack.

So, what should Flash do?

I think the key lesson here, a lesson that I have left implicit, is that timing can both be an advantage and a disadvantage for Flash. In order for Flash to optimize its chances of winning, it may simply have to bank on Oath doing something on its turn and then trying to win in response.

For instance, if Oath goes to play a spell — perhaps the only playable spell it has in hand, Flash may be able to just win in response. Second, if Flash can draw just one Blue spell, it can play Flash with Force of Will backup. That would stop the Krosan Reclamation from interfering entirely.

Flash will pass the turn, but first, it will attack with two spirits. Oath takes two damage, going to 13. Flash passes the turn.

Oath does not play anything on Flash’s endstep.

Oath moves to its upkeep.

Oath oaths away:

Force of Will
Ponder
Polluted Delta
Forbidden Orchard
Merchant Scroll
Island
Ponder
Mox Ruby
Thoughtseize
Brainstorm
Time Walk
Brain Freeze
Oath of Druids

And then sees a Tidespout Tyrant

Oath then draws… THOUGHTSEIZE

Interestingly, Thoughtseize’s effect upon the game will be more like a trigger than anything else. The rest of the game will be played under the shadow and the stack on top of Thoughtseize.

Oath plays an Underground Sea and then Oath attacks with a Tyrant sending Flash to 12.

Oath taps the Sea and casts Thoughtseize. With Thoughtseize on the stack, the Tyrants trigger, targeting Flash’s Underground Sea and Tropical Island.

Flash floats a Black mana from the Sea and a Blue from the Tropical Island and the Mox and plays Flash with a Black mana floating.

Flash is on the stack.

What should the Oath player do? Oath is holding Force and a Gush. If the Oath pilot Gushes in response and draws a Blue spell, all is well. However, the safer play is just to Force the Flash pitching the Gush.

It would be a more interesting game if the Oath pilot didn’t have Force here. Oath would still have the trump card with Krosan Rec. If the Oath player waits to reclaim in response to the second Hulk trigger, then Oath almost assuredly wins as the Flash player will be holding junk. But it’s not over yet! Watch!

Oath plays Force of Will pitching Gush, and the Tyrant triggers target the Flash player’s Island and its own Mox Sapphire. Oath is at 12 from Force. Flash is countered.

Thoughtseize resolves, taking Force of Will. It doesn’t make much sense to take a Hulk or a Summoner’s Pact since they serve the same role here, right?

Oath is at 10. All of the Tyrant triggers have resolved and all of Flash’s lands have bounced to hand.

Turn 6:

Flash draws Brainstorm.

Watch this: Flash plays Underground Sea and casts Brainstorm, drawing:

Black Lotus
Protean Hulk
Merchant Scroll!

Incredible! Flash can actually Flash out right now!

Flash puts back Island and Tropical Island and plays Black Lotus.

Before trying to go off, Flash attacks with two Spirits. Oath blocks 1 and goes to 9.
Flash breaks the Black Lotus for UUU and taps the Mox Emerald to play Merchant Scroll and Flash.

Unfortunately, as we know, it’s not going to work.

Flash goes to play Flash to see what happens. Flash resolves. Oath is out of countermagic. A Protean Hulk slips into play and then into the graveyard, a mess of goo. The Hulk trigger goes on the stack… and… The Oath pilot lets it resolve. This is critical.

From the Flash perspective, is there any value in getting Feeder and Body Snatcher first? Put another way, is there a reason to want a second Hulk in the graveyard? Maybe. Since we are facing Krosan Reclamation, we could imagine that having a second Hulk in the graveyard could be a benefit. However, I don’t think it makes sense at this moment.

I think the deciding factor here has been the presence of the Tyrants. The Tyrants choked off Flash’s mana and will prove decisive even if the Krosan Reclamation was countered.

Flash finds Feeder and Body Double. With priority, Flash sacrifices the Body Double to Feeder. Feeder gets a counter and a Hulk trigger joins the stack.

Oath taps Forbidden Orchard (giving Flash a Spirit token) and Mox Sapphire and plays Krosan Reclamation on the Flash player, with Tyrant triggers targeting Carrion Feeder and Underground Sea.

Oath has the Flash player shuffle a Body Double and a Flooded Strand into the Flash player’s library.

Reveillark and Bile Urchin enter play. Flash can at least prevent Oath from Oathing again by sacrificing spirits to Bile Urchin.

Oath untaps and draws Brainstorm. That will be just about all she wrote.

Oath taps Mox Sapphire and plays Brainstorm. Two Tyrant triggers on the stack: targeting Reveillark and Bile Urchin.

Oath draws:

Chain of Vapor
Flooded Strand
Volcanic Island

… Putting back Volcanic Island and Underground Sea.

Now the way is clear to attack. Swing with two of the Tyrants, sending Flash to 2 life.

Oath plays a Flooded Strand and passes the turn.

Turn 7:

Flash draws a Force of Will and then scoops.

There were plenty of interesting interactions to work through this game. Even after Oath Forced the Flash, Flash was able to scrape together another attempt with Black Lotus. At that point, knowing how to use Krosan Reclamation most effectively made all the difference in the world.

This game was far from clear in terms of proper plays. There were plenty of options and options mean opportunity for error. The fight over Fastbond stands out.

It does appear that Oath could have potentially comboed out on turn 2. The Ponder that was delayed until turn 3 revealed two Gushes and an Oath. A turn earlier it would have revealed at least a Gush and an Oath and could have dug into the second Gush which would have taken us even deeper.

There is one nuance to the analysis of that battle: Flash could have Forced the Fastbond just to draw out Oath’s pair of Forces, which is what happened. Oath loses cards it can throw back to Brainstorm as well. But more importantly, Oath loses the ability to stop Flash. At that point, the Fastbond would have resolved, but it would have been a race. Flash would have still had a Misdirection and a Pact of Negation. Those components may have proved crucial later in the game. Flash’s turn 3 Brainstorm would have been much more potent. Flash could have put back the Misdirection and kept Scroll and Brainstorm instead of just the Brainstorm, and still had Pact of Negation in hand. That right there could have swung the game Flash’s way. On the other hand, it’s far from clear that Oath couldn’t have won first. With double Gush and Oath on top in a Ponder, it is very likely that Oath could have comboed out — or at least generated a lot of resources to stop Flash — had that Fastbond resolved.

In any case, there is one thing I think that this game helps support and which last week’s match suggested: card advantage matters a lot. Although it might not have been as good in this situation, the lone Misdirection should probably be a Thoughtseize.

There were some plays on the part of Oath that could be revisited as well. I played turn 1 Orchard on the assumption that it was the best play if the Fastbond resolved, and probably marginal if it didn’t. That may not have been the case. It may have been smarter to play a different land first. Life attrition matters.

Another possibly wrong play was setting up the Gush to Gush into Oath and Gush as I did. Perhaps the right play actually was to just have the Ponder pop the Oath into hand and then shuffle away the Gushes. Why would this play be right? Well, it might not be in this situation, but if instead of the third Tyrant we ran the Flash of Insight, we would have had enough mana to Reclaim the Yawgmoth’s Will into the library and then the Flash of Insight to pop it into hand and then we could have played it. How? We would have had four lands in play and the Mox. We could play Reclamation, bouncing the Mox and replaying it. Then we could play Flash of Insight, bouncing the Mox again and replaying it. Then we would have two lands left and the Mox to cast Yawgmoth’s Will — exactly enough. From there, we just play a Mox to bounce the other Mox and get as much mana of any color that we want (Black Lotus was in yard).

I guess that leads me to a related point: I’m skeptical of Shay’s most recent move of Flash of Insight to 3rd Tyrant. I think I prefer having Flash of Insight in here. I think it’s important that you combo out as quickly as possible once you’ve Oathed, and decks like Flash make that ability more urgent than might normally be the case.

Then again, there were some very good plays to be had here: Krosan Reclamation after Flash had played Vamp worked brilliantly. Flash was also set up for some amazing tricks had Oath gotten the timing off.

Sideboarding.

Rather than present a full blown discussion of the sideboard plans here, I’ll direct your attention to my article last week, which covered this issue in fairly extensively detail. However, I am going to modify my Flash sideboard plan slightly. Since Flash is on the play, I’ve decided to keep the two Thoughtseizes in. Therefore, I will be sideboarding in three Reverent Silences for 1 Misdirection, 1 Summoner’s Pact, and 1 Pact of Negation.

Game 2:

Flash’s opening hand:

Flooded Strand
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Brainstorm
Bile Urchin
Flash
Summoner’s Pact

Flash will keep this hand. It has a combo part and an instant speed, zero casting cost tutor for the other. Brainstorm will help it dig to find protection. This is definitely a keepable hand, even if our opponent opens with Leyline.

Oath opens with:

Underground Sea
Black Lotus
Tendrils of Agony
Gush
Force of Will
Force of Will
Brainstorm

This hand lacks Leyline, but it makes up for that shortcoming in two critical respects. First of all, it has two Force of Wills. This means that we can hopefully stop Flash from going off even if it has protection on turn 1. Second, the presence of Black Lotus means that even if we draw into Leyline we will be able to play it very quickly. In addition, the Brainstorm will help us search for more mana and spells and shuffle away the dead Tendrils. In any case, is Oath likely to find a better hand with a mulligan to six?

Both players will keep their hands.

Turn 1:

Flash opens with Flooded Strand. The only question is whether play Brainstorm now or later? In order to win now with protection (to save us in case the Summoner’s Pact resolves but they have a Force of Will for our Flash), we’d need to see 1) two Moxen (one of which produces Blue) and a Pact of Negation, 2) a Black Lotus and Pact of Negation, 3) Black Lotus and Force of Will and another Blue spell. Those don’t seem like likely outcomes. However, Brainstorming later could also lead the Oath player to Red Elemental Blast our Flash. That could be a good thing, but it’s unlikely since we have so many dead cards in hand.

Brainstorming now looks like a more attractive option.

I sacrifice the Flooded Strand for Underground Sea (19 life) and find Underground Sea. Flash taps Underground Sea and casts Brainstorm.

The Oath pilot thinks for a moment. The Oath pilot would be more inclined to counter that spell if there were a Thoughtseize or Duress in hand, but there is not. Plus, countering it here would involve great cost, either pitching a Force, a Brainstorm or a Gush — all valuable resources.

Brainstorm resolves, seeing:

Flash
Pact of Negation
Thoughtseize

This is a very strong Brainstorm! At this point, I will put back the Urchin and the Summoner’s Pact. If they Duress me, then they would see that the Pact is the combo part that I do not have duplicates of, and possibly the correct Duress target.

Pass the turn.

Oath draws another Underground Sea.

Oath plays Underground Sea and Black Lotus.

The big question for Oath is: Brainstorm now or wait? If we Brainstorm now, there is a risk that we won’t see a shuffle effect. In terms of shuffle effects that can be used now or next turn, there are 5 fetchlands, 3 Merchant Scrolls, 1 Vampiric Tutor, and 1 Demonic Tutor. In addition, there are 4 Ponder, although it isn’t optimal to follow up Brainstorm with Ponder.

I think there are enough shuffle effects to justify Brainstorming now, for reasons similar to the reason that Flash Brainstormed immediately, and others beside.

Tap Sea and play Brainstorm, seeing:

Ponder
Vampiric Tutor
Merchant Scroll

It seems that immediate Brainstorming has paid off for both decks. The problem here is that there are many potential lines of play, with the correct line of play far from evident.

Putting back the Tendrils is obvious. But beyond that, what? Put another way, what is it that we want to do? That should be guided, as always, by finding the path to victory. In terms of comboing out, the most obvious line of play is to Vamp for Fastbond and then use the combination of Ponder/Gush and Merchant Scroll to easily combo out. However, the path to victory in this situation, against Flash, is often defined or preconditioned by not losing. Which means that that line of play is not a line that can be banked upon.

With the Lotus, we could:

1) Scroll for Ancestral and play it
2) Scroll for Ancestral and play Ponder
3) Do nothing, and Vampiric Tutor on upkeep for Leyline and play it on mainphase.

I think option 3, while not a bad idea, seems too slow. It doesn’t develop the board state at all. It’s sort of like maneuvering to a castle position in Chess instead of using your resource to both advance your game state and defense from your opponent.

Whichever option we choose, I think we want to be careful to ensure that we have enough Blue spells in hand to play both Forces. If we were to put back either Vampiric Tutor or the Sea and then Scroll for Ancestral Recall and play it, there is a chance that we’d have to discard a card. That seems like a poor option, especially when discarding here is not necessary.

If we are to use the Lotus now, I think the best use of it would be to Scroll for Ancestral and then to use the remaining blue to play Ponder. We could then draw a card we want, and even Vampiric Tutor on our upkeep or after our draw step to shuffle and then play Ancestral Recall. Or, we could combo either card with Gush on turn two, assuming we still have the Gush in hand. That line of play seems to have quite a bit of merit.

There are two drawbacks though: First, we lose Lotus now, and second, we may need additional lands. I’m hoping that the second turn Ancestral will get us there.

Oath puts back the Underground Sea, breaks the Lotus for UUU, and plays Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall.

With the remaining Blue mana, Oath plays Ponder.

I’m delighted at what has seemed to be a rewarding line of play when Ponder reveals:

Force of Will
Mox Jet
Demonic Tutor

By now I’m sure you see that the Mox Jet interacts with the Vampiric Tutor in interesting ways. Nonetheless, I believe that there is a priority on getting four non-Ancestral Recall Blue spells in hand. I will pop the Force of Will into hand and the remaining order probably doesn’t matter. Here’s how it appears next turn will play out, assuming we survive to see it: We draw the DT or Mox Jet, we play Ancestral Recall and hope to draw a land. From there we can play DT or Vampiric Tutor and follow either with Gush. Ideally, we will see a Green mana-producing land in the latter two cards of Ancestral Recall. If we do, then things will get crackling because we can Vamp for Fastbond, Gush into it, and have the mana up to play it.

Oath passes the turn.

Turn 2:

Whew! Those have been some complex and fascinating first turns for both players.

Flash untaps and draws the Summoner’s Pact. Flash plays the Polluted Delta and breaks it for a Tropical Island.

We have two basic lines of play here:

1) Flash (preceded by Summoner’s Pact)
2) Thoughtseize

Which is the correct play? I think this situation demonstrates the strength of the Reveillark kill. We can Thoughtseize here and use Pact of Negation to protect ourselves and stop Oath from doing something, even protecting the Thoughtseize, and then Flash goes off in our upkeep with the Pact triggers on the stack for the win. That, and the fact that Oath just tutored for Ancestral Recall, I think, suggests that Thoughtseize is the safest line of play here.

Flash plays Thoughtseize. Oath is not happy about that and tries to play Force of Will, pitching Gush (because there is a chance that we could Ancestral into more Blue spells to see more Forces, but it is unlikely that we’ll see more Forces later in the game).

Now Flash faces another critical question: Pact or no?

If we play Pact of Negation, there are two possible responses:

First, nothing from the Oath player. Second, the Oath player could have another Force, but it would be aimed at the Flash, not the Pact. If the former happens, we get to see the Oath players hand and take their best card. If the latter happens, we will have to win on our next upkeep or lose to Pact trigger. What if Oath has a Red Elemental Blast up or can somehow counter the Flash? Then we will lose.

From Flash’s perspective, with the tempo advantage of having gone first and the aggressive role here, I think the proper play is to let the Oath player’s Force resolve and save the Pact for a later time.

Thoughtseize is countered. It wasn’t a bad trade. One card for two Blue cards is a fair deal most of the time.

Flash passes the turn.

Oath untaps and draws Mox Jet.

Oath taps Sea and plays Ancestral Recall.

Now we reach a very difficult decision. Flash can Pact it. Should it?

If Flash Pacts the Ancestral and Oath plays land, REB on the Flash, then Flash will lose the game. The same result occurs if Oath can Force the Flash. The risks are evident, but it is difficult to assess the correct play. I will admit that I am just unsure of what Flash should do here. I think the deciding factor for me is the fact that Flash has two Flashes, which means that it should be able to Flash on its next turn and then Flash again on its following upkeep with a Summoner’s Pact on the stack. That should give Flash the most opportunities to win.

Ancestral resolves, drawing:

Demonic Tutor
Leyline of the Void
Mox Pearl

This is not ideal. We were hoping to draw more blue spells or land. Instead, we’ve drawn Black spells, albeit useful ones, and artifacts.

We can Demonic Tutor immediately here. An obvious line of play here would be Demonic Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will. However, if we really wanted to play it safe, we could Demonic Tutor for another Blue spell, hope that the Force of Will helps us survive for one more turn, and then Vampiric Tutor for another Blue spell on the subsequent turn. Because that line of play only leaves us with one Force this turn, it seems clear that this line of play is worse than just going for Yawgmoth’s Will.

Oath plays the two Moxen and casts Demonic Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will.

Turn 3:

Flash untaps and draws a Polluted Delta.

Flash plays Summoner’s Pact for Protean Hulk and casts Flash. Oath plays Force of Will pitching Force of Will. Flash plays Pact of Negation. Oath’s Force is countered. Flash runs through the combo and wins on the spot:

Hulk trigger finds Body Double and Carrion Feeder, which finds Reveillark and Bile Urchin, which cycles repeatedly until Oath is dead.

This game was jammed packed with decision-making. There were many options, and what’s more, many seemingly good options. Flash’s basic plan worked very well here. The problem that Oath faced was that it essentially only had two counterspells online from turn one to turn two. Oath needs probably three counterspells by turn 2, or a Duress/Thoughtseize and a counterspell, in order to survive without a Leyline. In retrospect, the correct line of play was almost certainly to just Vampiric Tutor for Leyline and play it off the Lotus and second Sea on Oath’s second turn. The draw, for Oath, really got it nowhere.

Oath could have put back the Tendrils and a Blue spell (let’s say Gush) after the first turn Brainstorm, holding onto Vamp, Ponder, Scroll, Force, and Force. This would have led to turn 2 Leyline with double Force backup. It would not have necessarily stopped Flash from eventually winning, but it certainly would have made the game go longer.

Sideboarding

Now we reach a game 3 scenario. Should Oath bring in the Tormod’s Crypts? Should Flash bring in the Slivers? Obviously, both questions are related. In this match, Oath has seen that Flash kept in the Reveillark kill, which suggests that the Flash player may not have the Sliver kill. That would support the move to bring in Tormod’s Crypts. As the Oath player, Oath will be on the play, so I feel that the Tormod’s Crypts will be less pressing. I don’t feel the need to bring them in. As the Flash player, things seemed to work out very well last game, but we simply do not know if Oath has brought in all of the hate or not. However, at this point, I think that the Flash player would know that this Oath pilot is using Shay’s most recent list. Therefore, I think that the Flash player might be inclined to just keep in the Reveillark combo, which is what I’ll do.

Game 3:

Oath draws:

Forbidden Orchard
Polluted Delta
Ponder
Vampiric Tutor
Merchant Scroll
Leyline of the Void
Tendrils of Agony

Although not very fast, it has a Leyline. Keep.

Flash draws:

Flooded Strand
Mox Jet
Protean Hulk
Protean Hulk
Summoner’s Pact
Merchant Scroll
Pact of Negation

This hand has all of the combo parts or tutors to find it, except for a way to deal with Leyline. It remains to be seen whether that will be an issue this game. I think this hand is good enough to keep, although it, too, is far from perfect.

Turn 0:

Oath plays Leyline of the Void.

Turn 1:

Oath plays Polluted Delta into Underground Sea (because of the Vamp in hand) and plays Ponder, seeing:

Ponder
Fastbond
Merchant Scroll

That is an excellent batch of three cards. Granted, there are no Duresses or REBs yet, and there are plenty of those post board, but that’s okay. The question is: what to do with this Ponder? What are our options? Next turn, we could:

1) Play Fastbond off Orchard and play Ponder off of Sea. If we see another land, we won’t yet be able to play a Scroll for Gush.
2) Play Vampiric Tutor for Ancestral Recall
3) Merchant Scroll for Force of Will
4) Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall
5) Ponder and Vampiric Tutor
6) Play Vampiric Tutor for Black Lotus, Scroll for Ancestral and play it and play Fastbond off of Orchard.

There are lots of options and no clear winner. Six seems like the strongest play, but its strength will almost entirely depend upon what is drawn off Ancestral. We will be trading, basically, our hand in now for three unknown cards. That may or may not be a good deal.

The remaining options are basically modulations of speed. Scroll for Ancestral or Force is by far the slowest option. But that play sets up a more powerful, possibly game-winning turn 3 and turn 4 because you can use your Vamp on turn 3 to combo out with Fastbond and your Ancestraled cards.

The good news is that we don’t really have to decide. At least, not entirely. We can wait to see what Flash does. If Flash seems likely to be able to remove the Leyline quickly, we will need to work on building a defense. However, if Flash seems to be fiddling around on turn 1, then we can go for a slightly slower game plan. We do, however, have to settle on what we want to draw here — that is, how do we want to resolve Ponder? I’m thinking that we definitely want Fastbond for pure power reasons if nothing else. I’ll pop the Fastbond into hand and leave the Ponder on top. Pass.

Flash draws Force of Will for the turn.

Now, Flash has a dilemma as well. It plays Mox Jet, Flooded Strand into Tropical Island, and then Merchant Scroll. But what should it get? It can find Chain of Vapor, Flash, or even Ancestral here. We know that Flash will do nothing without destroying the Leyline first. That seems to rule that out. Chain of Vapor may not get us there either because we’ll need a way to eventually Flash. Ancestral Recall, therefore, seems like the best option. I find Ancestral.

Pass.

Oath’s turn. Oath draws the Ponder.

Since Flash did not destroy the Leyline, Oath commits to the somewhat risky but huge payoff plan of Scrolling for Ancestral immediately. Flash gets a spirit token. Pass.

Turn 2:

Flash untaps and draws: Polluted Delta. It breaks the Delta for Tropical Island. It taps a Trop to play Ancestral. Ancestral Resolves, drawing:

Polluted Delta
Pact of Negation
Merchant Scroll

In a sense, this almost puts the Flash pilot back on the previous turn. You are still confronted with the dilemma of playing Scroll — but for what? Again, if we get Flash, we can’t win until we remove the Leyline. But if we get Chain of Vapor, we can’t win until we find Flash. It’s the same problem. A third option, Brainstorm, seems reasonable, but we will still have to discard a card this turn, an unappetizing reality.

Flash scrolls up Brainstorm, attacks with a Spirit, and discards a Protean Hulk.

Turn 3:

Oath untaps and thinks. We could Vamp here for Lotus. That would give us even more juice to try and go off this turn. If we don’t Vamp, then we will have it for later on. On the other hand, the Flash pilot has seen a lot of cards. Vamping for Force of Will might just be the right play here. That would help us protect the Ancestral as well. That’s the play that makes the most sense to me here.

On my upkeep, I play Vampiric Tutor for Force of Will (16 life) and then plays Ancestral off the Orchard.

The Flash decides to Force the Ancestral, pitching a Pact of Negation. The Oath pilot Forces as well, pitching Ponder. Ancestral resolves, drawing:

Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Polluted Delta

I play Polluted Delta and break it for a Tropical Island and play a Brainstorm, drawing:

Ponder
Gush
Merchant Scroll

I put back Tendrils of Agony and Fastbond, so it can’t be Thoughtseized. I imagine that Oath should be able to combo out next turn.

Flash untaps and draws Reverent Silence. Flash taps a Tropical Island and plays Brainstorm, drawing: Body Double, Force of Will, and Polluted Delta.

We put back Body Double and a Polluted Delta.

The question is: should we play Reverent Silence now, or wait? I think we wait. We have Force of Will in hand. If we play it now, there is a chance that they will just play another Leyline.

Attack with two spirits, sending Oath to 12 life.

Oath untaps, drawing Fastbond and playing it off the Trop.

Now Oath wants to combo out. We know there is a Tendrils on top of the library. We also know that Flash is at 17 life, so we’ll only need storm 9 to win.

However, can we get there?

Ponder + Scroll + Gush + Fastbond + Brainstorm is only half way there. Assuming the Scroll finds another good target and then we can finish with Tendrils, that’s almost there.

However, there is a chance that the Fastbond won’t resolve. If we can, we should try to find a Duress or a REB.

I think the first play is Ponder. I tap the Sea to play Ponder, seeing:

Tendrils of Agony
Underground Sea
Thoughtseize

I pop the Thoughtseize into hand and play it off the Orchard, giving Flash another token. Should Flash counter Thoughtseize? From Flash’s perspective, which is the quickest route to victory? Flashing or beating with Spirit tokens? If the Thoughtseize resolves, Oath will drop to 10 life. If they take the Reverent Silence, we will still have Force online. If they take the Force, we still have the Reverent Silence. I think that we should let the Thoughtseize resolve. They see our hand of: Reverent Silence, Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Protean Hulk, and Summoner’s Pact and they take the Force.

Oath taps the Trop and plays Fastbond. It resolves. Oath plays Gush, drawing the Sea and the Tendrils.

Storm is 4.

Oath plays a Tropical Island and casts Brainstorm, seeing: Time Walk, Force of Will and Mox Emerald.

Now Oath faces a very critical decision: what to put back? It can go for the Time Walk play or it can continue to try to combo out this turn. Oath basically has to go for it here. Flash has Pact of Negation. If it sees or can find Flash, it’s all over. Reverent Silence will take care of the Leyline and then Pact will stop a Force.

More importantly, if we follow the chain all the way through, we have one additional mana right now beyond the mana for Scroll. The Scroll will find Gush, which will effectively unwind itself. So long as we draw one mana off Gush, we win the game. We will be able to play Tendrils for lethal damage.

That means, if we draw, off Gush:

Yawgmoth’s Will
Any other Gushes
Any mana source

… then we win the game.

It’s time to go all in. Oath puts back the Force and the Time Walk.

Oath plays Underground Sea (9 life) and Mox Emerald and casts Merchant Scroll for Gush.

Oath plays Gush (storm 7), returning the Trop and the Sea to hand, drawing Mox Jet and Ponder. That’s game.

Mox Jet, replay the three lands, going to 6 life, and cast Tendrils for 18 damage.

This article turned out to be a bit longer than I expected, but I think it was worth it. It highlights many of the common decisions that are confronted in Vintage. I think that the Flash deck has room for improvement, both in the maindeck and the sideboard. I also think, based upon the anecdotal evidence I’ve seen, that the winner of this match should probably be the player who makes the fewest mistakes. There are enough opportunities for error that it is unlikely that both players will play flawlessly through all of them.

Next week I’ll be reviewing Shadowmoor!

Until then…

Stephen Menendian