The Long & Winding Road - Vintage: Old Favorites, New Tech

As promised, this week is entirely about Vintage. I’ll look at the Oath of Druids deck I played on 8/29 and 9/5 with a full tournament report from the N.Y.S.E. II, and present an alternate version of Oath that takes the deck in a slightly different, and promising, direction. I’ll then review some emerging technology from these tournaments, including a new take on Mana Ichorid that won back-to-back tournaments, as well as a look at Counterbalance in Vintage.

First, though, an observation… I hate to disappoint the naysayers, but as a format, Vintage seems to be picking up some steam. Since GenCon, there have been Vintage tournaments local to the PA/NJ/NY player base on 8/29, 9/5, 9/12, and 9/19. While no TO is running against the pre-release on 9/26, there is another Vintage tournament on 10/3 in Blue Bell, and other Vintage tournaments coming throughout October and November. That’s an awful lot of tournaments for a format that’s supposed to be on life support! Further, attendance at Blue Bell, PA increased to 52 players last Saturday, up from just over 40 in June and 33 in May; attendance at the N.Y.S.E. II was also up, from 31 players in July to 39 in August, and another tournament is planned for October that I expect will have over 50 players.

If anything, we seem to be experiencing a resurgence of interest in the format, at least on the east coast. I probably should have called out the changes to the Vintage Banned & Restricted list last summer on my list of Wizards of the Coast’s successes in 2009. Personally, I attribute much of this revival to the opening up of the metagame and, at least in this geographic area, the increase in the number of tournaments being run, making the format more appealing in terms of return on investment; this combination of factors is pulling some semi-retired Vintage players back into Vintage. Regardless, the ultimate goal of having a few tournaments a year that approach or break the 200-player mark still needs to be achieved, and sadly still seems like a challenge at this point.

In any case, this is what I played on 8/29 and 9/5:

Double Dragon Oath

Matt Elias

Test deck on 09-20-2009

Vintage

Creatures (3)

Lands (17)

Spells (40)

Sideboard

This is the same list I discussed last week. It is very similar to the lists I played in early 2009, including the return to Null Rods in the sideboard (which I played at the side event at GP: Chicago), but this version uses Leyline of the Void as a flexible answer to both Ichorid and Steel City Vault, and has no Gaea’s Blessing.

Tournament Report:

Round 1 – Win 2-1 versus Gro (1-0)

I’d never played this match-up before.

Game 1, things seemed to be going to plan; at the time, I thought he was on Tezzeret with Red, or Steel City Vault. I had an Oath out and was one turn from winning off my second Oath activation. Instead, I lost to Quirion Dryad, Time Walk, Yawgmoth’s Will, Time Walk, and a host of other spells fueled by the Will which grew the Quirion. Obviously this clued me in to the fact that he was actually playing Gro. The list was not unlike Stephen Menendian from the Waterbury, and packed Ancient Grudge, which I think is a solid addition.

Game 2, I play Ancestral Recall on my first turn. He Misdirects it, and I Force of Will the Misdirection; the resolved Recall gives me enough gas to get there pretty quickly.

Game 3, he plays Ancestral Recall on his first turn; I counter it with Force of Will. On my turn I Thoughtseize away Yawgmoth’s Will, and the rest of his hand is just mana. A resolved Oath with Orchard ends things from there.

Round 2 – Lose 1-2 versus Steel City Vault (1-1)

Game 1, I mulligan to 5, but my hand is still very good (as it has Thoughtseize, Oath, and Orchard) and I top-deck an Ancestral Recall on turn 2 and win from there.

Game 2, I mulligan to 6, but the game still seems to be going well enough; I Strip his land and play Null Rod, and he’s sitting there with just a Key and two worthless Moxes in play. I have a Leyline in play as well (which I hard-cast) so the game seems to be more or less going my way. However, I can’t draw either Oath or a way to find Oath. Instead, I draw five consecutive lands / Moxes at one point, and this allows him too much time to get back into the game. Eventually he hits a land and plays Ancestral Recall; I hardcast Force of Will. Then he draws another land and plays Ancient Grudge on Null Rod, which frees up his artifact mana, and things go downhill from there quite quickly.

Game 3, I mulligan to 6 again; he Tinkers out Inkwell on turn 2, and I can’t answer it quickly enough.

Round 3 – Win 2-0 versus Affinity (2-1)

No offense to my opponent, but this round was more or less LOLs, as the kids would say; it highlights the importance of knowing how to count. Before the game starts, he pile shuffles for around five minutes into the round. I am about to call a judge to force him to play when he finally presents his deck.

Game 1, he fans out his cards for his opening hand, and there are eight face-down cards. Obviously I call him on this. He tries to tell me there are actually seven cards there, but unfortunately for him, I am able to count. He puts one back and we get to play Magic. He plays a first-turn Myr, and I play a first-turn Oath. He then plays a Ravager, which I counter with Force of Will. I Oath out a Hellkite, and then just because I can, I Strip Mine his City of Brass, and then play Hurkyl’s Recall to bounce all of his permanents and destroy his Glimmervoid. Apparently I get a little salty when people insinuate that I am unable to count to seven correctly. On his turn, he replays a bunch of artifacts, and then thinks for a long time. I can’t conceive of any outs that he might have, so I ask if we should head to game two, and he agrees… and then fails to scoop up any cards. So we both sit there, waiting silently for a few minutes. Finally I ask again if we’re headed to game two, and he says, “I’m still thinking”, which clearly signifies he was trying to run the “oops you scooped first so I win!” nonsense. Again, just as I’m about to call a judge, he concedes again and this time picks up his cards.

Game 2, I mulligan to 6 and keep a hand with mana, Oath of Druids, Oxidize and Force of Will. His hand starts very slowly, as he seems wisely afraid to play any creatures; eventually he plays an Ethersworn Canonist, which lets me activate Oath; I Oath out Empyrial Archangel. He plays Skullclamp and starts drawing a bunch of cards, which I can more or less ignore thanks to the Archangel (and Oxidize allows me to ignore any type of all-in attempt using a Ravager). I then Oath out a Hellkite and attack for 13. On his next turn, he plays a lot of guys and Clamps and draws quite a few more cards while I sandbag my Force of Will and Oxidize. Eventually he plays Thoughtcast, draws some more cards with Skullclamp, and then finally tries to play Time Walk with the last of his mana. I remind my opponent that I can, in fact, also count to two, which is one more spell than he can play with his Canonist in play. I untap and win.

Round 4 – Win 2-1 versus Steel City Vault (3-1) [Jeff Anand]

Game 1, he keeps a hand with Ancestral Recall in it but not much other action. I Force the Recall; my hand is already very good (it had Oath, Orchard, and Force back-up) and gets better when I draw a Lotus on my first turn.

Game 2 was a ridiculous game. He plays a T0 Leyline of the Void, and a first-turn Goblin Welder. I get out a Null Rod, and then play Oath of Druids. He destroys the Oath with a Krosan Grip. Before he gets any artifacts in his yard, I play Leyline of the Void. He plays a Helm of Obedience, thankfully shut off by the Null Rod. He attacks me for one damage a turn with Welder for 13 turns until I finally Smother it while on 3 life (from my own fetches and Force of Will). Eventually he destroys Null Rod and I lose immediately. I was significantly mana flooded this game, similarly to game 2 of round 2.

Game 3, Jeff mulls to 4. The 4 cards are land, land, Mox, Mox. My hand isn’t all that great either, having only 2 Forbidden Orchards for land with no Moxes, and no Force of Will, but it has an Ancestral Recall and 2 Oath of Druids and a Time Walk, so I keep. His hand has no action. Obviously, so my Upkeep Recall resolves, and I win quickly.

Round 5 – Win 2-1 versus Mono-Black (4-1) [Max Brown]

I played Max at the Philly Open in June, winning 2-1; I assumed he was on the same deck, which is Mono-black with Leyline and Helm and possibly Chain of Mephistopheles.

Game 1, I win the die roll, which is huge in this match-up. I play a turn-one Oath with Orchard and a Mox, and win. It’s that easy, folks!

Game 2, I mulligan to 6. He plays Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Nantuko Shade, Phyrexian Negator. I play a first-turn Oath, but have to use an Orchard to do it, as it is my only Green source. Max doesn’t have a second land, and attacks & pumps the Shade, putting me at 11. I untap and Oath, hitting a Hellkite, and then draw Brainstorm for the turn. I play Brainstorm and see an Empyrial Archangel. I then debate whether or not to attack. I know Max plays Diabolic Edict, so my concern is that he has one in hand and is waiting to draw any mana source. However, in hindsight that is completely irrelevant. If he Edicts my Hellkite, I still get the Angel, which means I take no damage the next turn and can block his Negator, forcing him to sacrifice his board completely. If he chooses not to attack, I can Oath again and get the other Hellkite, which is a quick clock. Obviously, I incorrectly choose to attack. Hopefully at some point before my 30th birthday I’ll be able to change my default play from “mindless aggression” to “logically and statistically correct”. Max draws for the turn and plays a second Swamp, and then casts the Dark Ritual that was in his hand (third of the game) and pumps the Shade, and wins.

Game 3, I mulligan to 6 again, but my hand is really good – another first-turn Oath plus Orchard. Max also mulls to 6. This time his hand isn’t fast enough, and I win quickly.

Round 6 – ID with 5C Stax (4-1-1)

Quarterfinals – Lose 1-2 versus CB/Top (4-2-1) [Austin Pollack]

Austin played an interesting deck that is more or less Counterbalance/Top from Legacy, with Tinker, Yawgmoth’s Will, Ancestral Recall, Time Vault, and fast mana. Although I think the exact list needs further refining, I was impressed with how well the deck ported over into this format. You can find Austin’s list later on below, along with the modified version my team is now testing.

Game 1, I took a mulligan to 5 (into a hand that had Underground Sea, Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids, Oath of Druids, and Time Walk). I played a Sea and passed. Austin played a land, a Mox, Mana Crypt, and then Trinket Mage for Voltaic Key, played the Key, and passed. Not good. His choice of Key made it pretty clear that he had either Time Vault or a tutor to get it already in hand. I played a 2nd land and cast Time Walk, figuring that he had if he had the Vault in hand, I would need to immediately find Recall, Thoughtseize, Duress, or Negate to have a chance. However, I found none of those cards, so I played Oath of Druids. Austin untapped and played Time Vault, and that was game one. He had Force of Will back-up, so there wasn’t really anything I could have done from that situation.

Game 2, my opener was pretty solid; it had first-turn Thoughtseize and Chalice of the Void on 0, followed by Forbidden Orchard and Oath w/ Force of Will back-up. Austin’s hand was pretty slow, so he was never really in this game.

Game 3, we finally had a good game, and both of us kept our starting seven. He was bashing me down with a Trinket Mage with Aether Spellbomb on the board, and also had Engineered Explosives in hand (which was tutored up by the Trinket Mage, and was preventing me from playing the Oath I had in hand). He played Time Vault; with the Trinket Mage and Spellbomb, this had bad news written all over it, since he could wait, draw counter-magic, then bounce his Trinket Mage and replay it to get Voltaic Key. I played Oath of Druids; my hope was that he’d be greedy. I had a Smother in hand as well as an Oxidize, so had he bounced the Trinket Mage, I could have Smothered it in response and had the Vault covered with Oxidize if he had counter-magic. Instead, he played EE for two and blew up my Oath and his own Time Vault. I had a Hellkite Overlord in hand, but was one mana short of casting it; meanwhile Austin was attacking with Trinket Mage but kept losing Mana Crypt rolls. Eventually when is on 1 card that I am pretty sure isn’t a counterspell, I Oxidize his Spellbomb; if I draw a land, I can get in with Hellkite and put him at one. He sacrifices the Spellbomb and draws a card in response to Oxidize. I drew hoping to hit a land so I could stick the Overlord but I missed, and instead watched helplessly as Austin played the Tinker he drew, upgrading his Mana Crypt into a Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Sphinx killed me two turns later.

Overall, I left NY mostly happy with this version of Oath. The Thirst for Knowledge was good when I drew it; I never played against Stax, so I didn’t get to use Karrthus, but having him in the deck didn’t negatively impact me, either. However, there were several Painter players in the room, so that would’ve been a cruel twist of fate. The Smothers were added to the sideboard because they kill Trygon Predator and Qasali Pridemage; they also kill Dark Confidant, Goblin Welder, and Goyf in a pinch. If you choose to play with this list, sideboarding generally involves moving Chalice out for Null Rod when on the draw (except against decks like TPS where Chalice excels on turns outside of turn one); the most expendable cards from there are Sensei’s Divining Top (which obviously doesn’t play well with Null Rod), Thirst for Knowledge (less necessary if you have sided out Chalice), Merchant Scroll (very good card but not necessary for the deck to function), Negate (which isn’t that good on the draw), and Hurkyl’s Recall (which is irrelevant against some decks). I was also siding out a Duress or Thoughtseize when on the draw in some match-ups.

At Blue Bell on 9/5, I played the same list as I ran on 8/29, and got annihilated, having to play against a parade of friends and teammates. I played against Tezzeret (going 0-2), 5C Stax (going 1-2), and ANT (going 1-0). The Stax results were particularly disheartening considering my general success against Workshops with Oath. Both were three-game matches in which I mulliganed myself out of game three or simply drew a parade of Dragons. I was also roughed up by Chalice of the Void set on two in two different games, which is clearly a problem.

Oath: 2009 in review, and a look to the future

Oath of Druids has had a small but steady presence in the metagame in 2009. I won with it in Blue Bell in April, and Chas Hinkle made the semi-finals with it in May; I also made the top 8 of a tournament in Princeton in April. In July at the N.Y.S.E. I, Josh Lalo was a finalist with Oath, while Josh Barkon was a semi-finalist (both lost to Elves, interestingly enough). James King made the semi-finals of Steel City Day 1 with Oath in August, while I made the top 8 at the N.Y.S.E. II as discussed above, and on the same day TomÃ s Winand was a semi-finalist with Oath at the CVL 8. While not performing in larger events at the level of Stax or Tezzeret, Oath has been a solid role-player in this metagame, and I think this especially notable because at ten proxies, it is one of the more affordable decks in Vintage.

I’ve bounced back and forth between more disruptive lists (such as the list above, which are generally traced back to James King), and lists geared more toward higher power level (such as this list from 5/23 with Tinker and Crucible, or this one from 6/27 with Time Vault and Voltaic Key). Although the disruptive version did well for me on 8/29, I had significant problems on 9/5, drawing disruption at the wrong time, or not drawing it at all, and being all-in on Oath with no back-up plan was problematic in some instances. I grew similarly dissatisfied with the Tinker plan after losing multiple matches when hitting Inkwell with Oath. While my deck had performed against the lower-tier decks in both tournaments, it stumbled against 5C Stax and Tezzeret. These are problems that the following list is meant to address:

Double Dragon Oath

Matt Elias

Test deck on 09-20-2009

Vintage

Creatures (3)

Lands (17)

Spells (40)

Sideboard

Once Zendikar is released, I would make the following changes to better accommodate the sideboard – this list is really designed with these changes in mind, but is still perfectly viable during the month of September:

1 Volcanic Island -> 1 Taiga
3 Polluted Delta -> 3 U/G fetch (spoiled as “Misty Rainforest”)
2 Flooded Strand -> 2 U/R fetch (spoiled as “Unstable Geyser”)

This version does away with Negate, Chalice of the Void, and Null Rod altogether, and instead it plays a host of powerful cards: Yawgmoth’s Will, Regrowth, Vault/Key, and Crucible of Worlds. It also adds red mana for a more powerful and versatile sideboard (including Ancient Grudge and Red Elemental Blast). With no Gaea’s Blessing in the deck, Ancient Grudge and Yawgmoth’s Will both become considerably more effective; ditto Crucible of Worlds, which allows for a Wasteland or Strip Mine lock. Grudge is extremely good in the current metagame and does a decent job of fast mana control when needed, and combined with the Wasteland and Strip Mine plus Crucible package, does an admirable job of mana control when needed. Yawgmoth’s Will often becomes an auto-win if resolved after an Oath activation, and sometimes before — of course, I suppose that statement is blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever resolved Yawgmoth’s Will. Red Elemental Blast is clearly solid against Drain decks, but it is also good against Fish (and even kills Trygon Predator); it should be boarded in against Ichorid as well, because it counters Chain of Vapor (and Force of Will, which may be relevant — see below). I would guess that the above list gives up considerable percentage points against TPS but is much better against a varied field such as what I’m seeing currently.

Time will tell which version of Hellkite Oath is stronger in the current metagame — the semi-finalist list from 8/29 at CVL 8 was based on my list from 6/27 with a modified sideboard, so I do believe there is merit to both styles of Oath deck.

Mana Ichorid with Force of Will

The N.Y.S.E. II was won by Ron Konak, who played a Mana Ichorid deck that doesn’t play Dread Return or traditional disruption like Leyline of the Void, Chalice of the Void, or Unmask. It does, however, run a play-set of Force of Will in the main, as well as two Chain of Vapor:

FOWchorid
Ron Konak

4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Cephalid Coliseum
3 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed
4 Narcomoeba
4 Grave Troll
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
4 Bridge from Below
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Breakthrough
4 Careful Study
4 Force of Will
2 Chain of Vapor

Sideboard:
2 Chain of Vapor
3 Contagion
2 Emerald Charm
3 Extirpate
4 Pithing Needle
1 Ancient Grudge

Force of Will in Ichorid is nothing new; it has shown up at various points in the past, recently being played by Steve Silverman in the Fatestitcher Ichorid list that made the semi-finals at the Philly Open III this past June. However, the list above actually runs enough blue cards to reasonably support Force. Additionally, as with all Mana Ichorid lists, this deck doesn’t need to go all-in on Bazaar of Baghdad. Many games with it are more of a slow grind, since there are no Dread Returns to fuel one all-in turn. Instead, the deck slowly builds advantage using Cabal Therapy and Ichorid.

The fact that this version is less predicated upon finding and using Bazaar obviously has benefits, yet this list suffers from the same drawbacks as all Mana Ichorid lists: it is vulnerable to Duress and Thoughtseize, which are terrible against other Ichorid lists, and it is more vulnerable to various permission spells like Mana Drain and Force of Will. Additionally, it runs fast mana and is therefore also vulnerable to hate like Chalice of the Void (which on zero shuts down fast mana, and on one shuts off Cabal Therapy, Careful Study, Chain of Vapor, and potentially Breakthrough), which normal Ichorid mostly ignores in game one. Because it runs more spells that it actually pays for, it is also more impacted by cards like Thorn and Sphere.

I am still not quite sure what to think of this version of Ichorid — it is more resistant to traditional anti-Ichorid measures, but is much less explosive and less able to contain its opponents using disruption, potentially allowing its opponents more time to develop their own boards. It also is more affected by common cards in Vintage — Duress, Thoughtseize, Force of Will, Chalice of the Void — than a normal Ichorid list would be, despite offering up some resistance by using its own Force of Wills. While I struggle to not be dismissive of this version of the deck, the fact that it won back-to-back events (Mark Hornung won the 52-player Blue Bell tournament on 9/5 with a nearly identical list) does suggest that it’s a deck worth noticing and discussing.

Vintage Counterbalance

This deck made the semi-finals of the N.Y.S.E. II:

Next Level Vault
Austin Pollack

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Academy Ruins
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Counterbalance
3 Trinket Mage
2 Tarmogoyf
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Sensei’s Diving Top
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard:
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Curfew
3 Oxidize
2 Krosan Grip
1 Tolarian Academy

What you see, above, is an interesting blend between a Legacy Counterbalance/Top design and traditional Vintage Mana Drain control. After testing against an updated version of this deck last week, I will admit I was surprised at how effective the Counterbalance / Top combo can be in Vintage. It is especially good against other Mana Drain decks, and decks like Oath of Druids and TPS that are centered almost entirely on one- and two-cost spells. Interestingly, that combo itself never came into play during my top 8 match against Austin; he won game one with a fast Key/Vault combo, and game three with Tinker into Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Essentially, this deck eliminates the draw engine component of Tezzeret, (as well as Tezzeret itself), and replaces them with “virtual” card advantage via the Counterbalance/Top soft lock. Austin’s list wins with either Key/Vault, Tinker, or Goyf beats.

One of my Vintage teammates, Chas Hinkle, has put some time into developing and refining Austin’s design. The notable changes include removing the Goyfs (which seemed mostly superfluous to me), cutting the list down to 60 cards (from Austin’s 61), moving Tolarian Academy to the main, adding an Empty the Warrens, and adding an additional Sensei’s Diving Top. The following list is still a work in progress and has yet to be tournament-tested, but shows considerable promise in testing. It is flexible, and surprisingly powerful:

Next Level Vault
Chas Hinkle

3 Trinket Mage
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Counterbalance
1 Echoing Truth
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Time Walk
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:

3 Yixlid jailer
3 Energy Flux
3 Curfew
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Firespout
2 Relic of Progenitus

Another great feature of this deck is how much overlap there is between this build and Legacy Counter/Top builds. With 15 proxies, a Legacy CB/Top player should be able to run this list with minimal expense, as the Vintage specific cards that cost more than $10 are covered:

1. Mox Jet
2. Mox Sapphire
3. Mox Emerald
4. Mox Ruby
5. Black Lotus
6. Ancestral Recall
7. Time Walk
8. Time Vault
9. Vampiric Tutor
10. Tolarian Academy
11. Mana Crypt
12. Mana Drain
13. Mana Drain
14. Mana Drain
15. Mana Drain

For the price of acquiring Tinker, Sol Ring, Merchant Scroll, Demonic Tutor, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and Voltaic Key (and many people will already have some of these from EDH or similar formats), a Legacy player can have a relatively cheap, familiar, and competitive Vintage deck. Vintage players, I would definitely tuck this information away and use when discussing Vintage in the future.

TPS

To follow-up on Stephen Menendian article on modern TPS last week, Stephen “Tiger” Nowakowski, was a finalist at the N.Y.S.E. II with the following TPS list:

TPS
Stephen Nowakowski

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Grim Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Sideboard:
2 Mystic Remora
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Yixlid Jailer
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 The Abyss
1 Engineered Plague
1 Island
1 Swamp

Tiger followed this up with another finals appearance at Blue Bell on 9/5 running Night’s Whisper Tezzeret. The draw engine of choice in Tezzeret is still in flux; while many have settled on Dark Confidant, it seems likely that there is no longer a singular “optimal” draw engine. Regardless, Tezzeret’s presence in the metagame thus far in the second half of 2009 has been far less dominant than the first half, and Steel City Vault continues to draw some players that would probably otherwise run Tezzeret. Hopefully Stephen Menendian next metagame analysis will show this diversification globally and not just on the Eastern seaboard.

Until next week…

Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x in the forums (SCG, TMD, The Source)