The Long & Winding Road - Zombie Apocalypse: A Victim's Diary

It’s amazing how much work other people will do for you, as long as you’re willing to look in the right places, and keep an open mind.

Last November, when I was discussing the merits and weaknesses of Iona Oath compared to Dragon Oath, I was excited to find a Vintage top 8 in Manila, where Dragon Oath won a 46-player Vintage tournament; just as eye-catching, however, were three very similar Dredge decks that made the Top 8, piloted by Sho Sato, Marco Deligos, and Ron Mallari. As this was before the printing of Nature’s Claim, Dragon Oath (which played Strip Mine, Wasteland, Firespout, Leyline, Ravenous Trap, Tormod’s Crypt, and Red Elemental Blast) had a strong post-board match-up against Dredge based on finding and protecting Leyline (including use of Red Elemental Blast against Chain of Vapor) supported by a fast clock via Oath, so it wasn’t surprising to see an Oath deck win a tournament with this top 8. What was interesting to me was the similar make-up of these Dredge decks, which were moving in a different direction than the ones in my metagame.

In the mid-Atlantic, there was a brief period last August / September where a slower Dredge deck with no Dread Return and main-deck Force of Will won back-to-back tournaments; after that, players like Mark Hornung and Jake Gans began to have success with a more explosive version of Dredge, using Breakthrough and Iona to wrap up games with blistering speed and without the vulnerability to Wasteland inherent in running Fatestitcher, and adding Bloodghast to support Narcomoeba and Ichorid.

These Dredge decks from Manila were different; they weren’t built for speed, but instead were maximizing their disruption and resilience. Because some of the lists were posted with incomplete sideboards on Morphling, I’ll go with this one as an example:

Dredge

Ron Mallari

Test deck on 07-18-2010

Vintage

Creatures (24)

Lands (10)

Spells (26)

Sideboard

As you can see, there’s a lot here that I used when I built my Dredge deck for the February Philly Open, despite the fact that this design was running counter to the successful Dredge decks in my metagame. What these decks had, when Nature’s Claim was introduced to the mix, was incredible resiliency in the face of opponent’s hate along with a strong game one against opposing Dredge, due to the use of maindeck Leyline of the Void. I didn’t really have to change much outside of adding some more lands to get better use from Bloodghast, and more ability to cast Nature’s Claim after sideboarding.

With the other Dredge decks being built for speed, they were highly vulnerable to Ravenous Trap; I believed a slower, steadier build with resistance to hate would be able to flourish in a meta where many of the best players were using Tezzeret and Oath of Druids, and banking on one-shot hate effects instead of Leyline of the Void or Yixlid Jailer. Testing immediately showed how valuable Chalice of the Void could be, especially in game three scenarios when on the play.

Unfortunately, the technology I borrowed from Manila spread quickly throughout my metagame, with unexpected consequences.

There are a few Dredge masters operating in the mid-Atlantic. Sam Berse has made the finals of three Blue Bell tournaments already in 2010. Mark Hornung has been a constant top 8 fixture for almost a year at the Blue Bell and NYSE events. Jake Gans seems to be in the finals of every Vintage tournament on the east coast over the past four months.

Mark in particular is extremely adept at finding the right cards to add to an existing Dredge deck to push it to the next level; right now, Serenity out of the board is doing a lot of damage with its ability to sweep away multiple on-board hate pieces; it is obviously ridiculous against Shop decks provided you have the mana to play it.

What we’re witnessing is the maturation of the Dredge deck and, finally, a group of players who are dedicated to the deck and to refining it, and evolving it. If you’re in a metagame where Dredge has not yet had a major effect, don’t make the mistake of believing it is because Dredge is weak, or that it has been hated out.

Maybe the players trying to use it aren’t masters yet, or they’re not using the right version of the deck, or maybe it just isn’t being played at all. That is likely to change.

You need to be prepared. No one can say that I haven’t warned you.

It’s only a matter of time.

Trapped in your house, you can hear the whispers on the wind, in the cool of the midnight air:

We cannot get out.

A shadow moves in the dark.

We cannot get out.

…

THEY ARE COMING.

Blue Bell Gameday 6: July 3, 2010

“The fortress of ultimate darkness. We’ve made it, lads, we’re here!”

The Vintage metagame has been healthy, if steady, during 2010, with a few top-runners jostling for position from tournament to tournament. I took a break from it for a while, but lately, some version of Oath has been my weapon of choice. This one in particular has really been testing well:

Oath of Druids

Matt Elias

Test deck on 07-18-2010

Vintage

Creatures (3)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (17)

Spells (37)

Sideboard

This deck is exceptionally powerful, there’s really no other way to describe it. Among the often laser-focused decks that constitute the Vintage metagame (MUD, Dredge, TPS), it doesn’t do any one thing the best; unless you include winning. It does that very well. The multiple avenues of victory make you hard to stop at each point of the game, and the ability to engage your opponent offensively and defensively across multiple angles of attack and resistance challenges you as a player but gives you an ability to out-play your opponent that is lacking in a more linear or dedicated approach, such as Dredge, MUD, or Storm, or even Fish.

This deck has enough counters to keep up with Workshop decks, and for the Aggro Shop decks without Smokestack, it has a powerful two-mana crutch in Oath of Druids that wins basically every pre-board game if it resolves. Against Tezzeret decks, it has a quick-win potential in Orchard, Mox, Oath that they cannot match, although Tezz is probably slightly favored in the long game as it has less dead draws off the top of the deck and generally has more draw capability. When pitted against Storm decks, Oath is harder to disrupt because it has so many paths to victory and has a fast clock of its own, and this version packs more hard counters and more Mindbreak Traps; Storm had been one of my softer match-ups but I am more than prepared for it now. Noble Fish, previously a tough match-up, is definitely easier with this build of Oath as it can protect Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and also has Jace and multiple sweepers out of the board; Red Elemental Blast has been, and remains, the key to my success, letting you add counters against Tezz and TPS, countering Mystic Remora, destroying or countering Jace in the mirror, murdering opposing Trygon Predators and Meddling Mages, and on and on.

Utility cards like Red Elemental Blast and Krosan Grip are usually among the first cards that people who use my decks will cut. Those cards are there for a reason.

Outside of Dark Times, which is a powerful anti-Oath deck but is not widely played, the only match-up that’s really been a challenge for me with this deck is Dredge. In fact, after going undefeated against Vintage Dredge in 2009, I’ve really been hammered by it in 2010. I beat Dredge playing Two Card Monte, but otherwise had a record of 0-5 against it in tournaments this year despite usually packing a minimum of 7 anti-Dredge cards in my board; three of my past six match losses with Oath were to Dredge. I wanted to push up to an eighth Dredge card in my board for this tournament, but I knew that several strong players were likely to play TPS, Bob Tendrils, or Drain Tendrils and wanted to be ready this time.

As far as this specific deck: the only card I’m not sure about is the second Mindbreak Trap in the sideboard, which should possibly be a Wasteland. Wasteland could come in against Dredge and the mirror, and would also be another mana source against Workshop decks. However, access to three Mindbreak Trap gives you an exceptional match-up against Storm decks given the number of counters already in the main.

So, Blue Bell Gameday 6. The TO provided free BBQ. Seriously. Free. BBQ.

There ended up being 34 players in this tournament, including 4 who were on Dredge, all of which were pretty much easily identifiable.

Round 1 — Lose 1-2 versus Dredge (Jake Gans)

Nothing like starting off the day against a Dredge master.

In game 1, Jake went down to six, but I had to mulligan to five, and got smashed. I sideboarded out seven blue cards: two Mana Drain, two Jace, Mindbreak Trap, Merchant Scroll, and Hurkyl’s Recall.

For game 2, my hand was very strong and had multiple hate cards paired with an immediate Oath of Druids. I had this game locked up before Jake was ever in it.

Game 3 was interesting. I snap-kept a strong hand with two hate cards, Tormod’s and Ravenous Trap, while Jake went to six and kept. The key play in this game was a Tinker I ran out a few turns into the game. I had the option of getting Sphinx to set up a clock, knowing that Jake had Serenity and probably Chain of Vapor, or I could get a third hate card (Needle) to supplement the Crypt and Ravenous Trap. I went with the Needle. Jake forced me to use my Ravenous Trap, and then used a Nature’s Claim from his hand plus another he drew to clear my other hate cards off the board. I had a few turns to draw some action, but failed. In the end, Sphinx would have probably won the game for me.

Round 2 — Win 2-1 versus Dredge (Sam Berse)

In the 0-1 bracket, I face another Dredge master. Splendid. I won the die roll but my hand wasn’t fast enough to win game 1. I sidedboarded as listed, above.

Game 2 went similarly to game two in the previous round; I kept an absolute monster hand and ended up winning the game with two Ravenous Traps and a Tormod’s Crypt in my hand after setting up an immediate Oath of Druids plus hate back-up to make sure I won the race.

Game 3 was won using a Tinker into Sphinx with Needle locking down Bazaar and Spell Pierce and Force of Will to protect the Needle. I assumed this would end Sam’s day as he was now 0-2.

Round 3 — Win 2-1 versus Dredge (Steve Silverman)

You might not be familiar with Steve, but he’s a high-level Yu-Gi-Oh player that dabbles in other games, including Vintage Magic.

Are you familiar with Karma? Karma is the idea that you get out of the universe what you put into the universe. Apparently, I am filling the universe with Dredge.

That’s okay when you draw like I did this round. Game 1, I led out with Black Lotus into Jace, and activated Jace. Steve played a Bazaar, and passed back. He never got another turn. I drew, then used Jace again to draw, then played Time Walk. I then used Jace again, followed by Lotus and Yawgmoth’s Will to replay Time Walk. Another Time Walk turn and another Jace activation let me set up Key/Vault, and take all the turns from there.

I sideboarded the same as above, although in hindsight, I know that Steve usually plays Force of Will in his Dredge decks so Red Elemental Blast might’ve been a reasonable card to board in; the problem is that the blue count nose-dives with the sideboard plan I was using.

In game 2, Steve played Bazaar and passed. I played land, Mox, Mox, Tormod’s Crypt, Voltaic Key. Steve forced me to use the Tormod’s Crypt. I untapped, drawing a blue card to support the Force of Will I had in hand, and played a second land and Tinker, getting Time Vault, and used my last mana to untap Time Vault. Steve had the Force of Will, but I Forced back and he didn’t have another answer, so I took all the turns.

As you can see, the key to beating Dredge is just to draw the nut-high hand and start taking all the turns.

Round 4 — Win 2-0 versus MUD (Lucas Siow)

This tournament was not getting any easier for me as far as the pairings. Lucas started out 2-0 playing a slightly modified version of Meandeck’s Aggro MUD, which I personally consider a pretty good match-up; that said, Aggro MUD has serious free-win capability on the play. However, the cards that really scare me in Workshop decks, like Smokestack, are missing from this version. The only bad thing is that the use of Sculpting Steel main and Duplicant out of the board (provided they can actually cast it reliably, which I question) gives them resistance to Tinker. Or, it should.

Game 1 was looking a little bit sketchy, as Lucas set up a Crucible / Waste lock pretty quickly, forcing me to fetch two Islands; he then stalled the board out with back-to-back Tangle Wires, finding himself short on mana. Unfortunately, he couldn’t draw more to develop his board position. When the Tangle Wires faded away, I used Tinker to find Sphinx, and Lucas didn’t have the Sculpting Steel; not even Karn could race Sphinx profitably. I played this game very poorly, missing four mana from Mana Drain, which is something I seem to screw up once a tournament with this deck for whatever reason.

I’d hate to see how much damage this deck would do in the hands of a pro-level player.

Against MUD, I sideboarded out a Jace, a Mindbreak Trap, and a See Beyond for a Rebuild, a Nature’s Claim, and a Firespout.

Game 2 was more of the same, really; Lucas took control early, getting a Lodestone Golem into play and a Null Rod. He played Sculpting Steel looking to copy the Golem, and I used a Nature’s Claim to destroy it, leaving Lucas with two Null Rods. I played a Mox and pulled Sphinx out of the deck with Tinker, and Lucas couldn’t find an answer in time.

Round 5 — Win 2-1 versus Noble Fish (Chris Materewicz)

Chris is one of the best Noble Fish players at these tournaments, and the winner of this match would make top 8. I’ve tested this version of Oath against Noble Fish and felt pretty good about my chances, especially with both Firespout and Massacre out of the board.

Game 1, I pushed through an Oath of Druids and found an Iona, naming White, which locked out the majority of Chris’s creatures as well as his ability to play Swords to Plowshares.

Game 2, I thought I had the game under control after I used Firespout to sweep the board clear and set up for an Oath, as Chris had two cards in hand with just an Island and a Tropical Island in play, but one of those cards turned out to be a True Believer, and a Lotus off the top meant the Oath I’d fought hard to get into play was now worthless. Two draws later saw Chris counter my out with his other card, Force of Will, plus the Ancestral Recall he’d just drawn. That True Believer took me from 12 life to 0.

We had another good game to close out the match, as Chris and I tested the water tentatively; stuck without white mana, Chris ultimately burned a fetch to get a Tundra, which meant I was able to use Massacre to clear the board and ride a Tinker / Sphinx for the win. While some Noble Fish decks are focused enough on Oath to squeeze out a positive match-up, if you have a prepared sideboard and are playing Jace and Red Elemental Blast, you have so many lines of attack that I think the Noble Fish match-up starts to tilt the other way.

With an intentional draw in round six, I was in the top 8.

The Top 8 contained the following:

Dredge
Dredge
Dredge
Oath
Oath
Bob Tendrils
Faeries
Mono-Red Stax

Not only had three of the four Dredge players made the Top 8, but Sam Berse managed to make Top 8 after starting in the 0-2 bracket, as both of his losses were to Oath players in the Top 8. Even more disturbing, the way the bracket shook out, there was a chance I’d have to play against Dredge all the way through the finals, beginning with the only Dredge player I hadn’t yet faced:

Quarterfinals — Win 2-0 versus Dredge (Mark Hornung)

Might as well play every Dredge player in the tournament, am I right?

Game 1, I kept a hand with mana, Oath, and most importantly, Strip Mine. Mark led out with Bazaar after a Serum Powder (which Exiled three dredgers) and a mulligan to six. I used the Strip on the Bazaar, and Mark activated it but didn’t have any dredgers. His draw step failed to yield any. My draw step gave me Mox Ruby, so my second turn was Mox Ruby, Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids. With no Dredgers, that was enough to win.

I boarded the same as all the other rounds where I faced Dredge. In my tenth game against Dredge in this tournament, the mulligan bug finally bit, and Mark had to go all the way down to one. My hand was solid and I won easily. I’d now won six straight games against Dredge.

Semi-Finals — Lose 1-2 versus Dredge (Sam Berse)

Sam avenged his round 1 loss in the Swiss and was now greedily looking to complete his mission of revenge. Game 1, he beat me easily by winning the die roll and playing Chalice of the Void on zero. Otherwise, I had a potential first-turn win involving Lotus, Mox, Recall, Time Walk, and Demonic Tutor.

For game 2, I told Sam my hand would involve Mox, Mana Crypt, Tormod’s Crypt, Pithing Needle, and Tinker. I got most of that right, opening on the majority of those cards before exploding into a Yawgmoth’s Will that got Sphinx into play with multiple pieces of hate and protection in hand.

Game 3, I kept a hand with Tormod’s Crypt and Pithing Needle plus Mystical Tutor, but with only one land and with Iona in hand. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any other lands, I was forced to burn the Mystical on a Ravenous Trap to stay alive as Sam was blowing up my hate cards with Nature’s Claim. Sam played a Chalice zero as he was slowly forcing me to use the Trap before starting to go off from there. I drew Lotus the turn after he played Chalice, finally hitting a land and playing Oath of Druids with only Terastodon left in my deck. I made a number of mistakes here. First, I blew up Sam’s Bazaar, and probably should have only destroyed my own permanents as Sam’s library would have been depleted with just a couple slow-dredges anyway. Then, I didn’t block correctly to get rid of Sam’s Bridge from Belows, and ultimately he beat me down with lethal with no cards left in his deck.

I have to teach myself not to tilt when I fail to draw land for a statistically unlikely amount of time; once I couldn’t Mystical for Brainstorm to develop my board because I couldn’t pull a land off the top for four or five turns, I completely failed to adjust my game-plan, ignoring the fact that I mostly played well enough to steal a win despite myself.

This was a winnable game, I just didn’t see it.

The finals featured Dredge versus Dredge. I’m not sure which Dredge player won; I left part of the way through. Too much rotting flesh, and moaning and groaning, and chewing of brains, and consumption of the living.

Five rounds against Dredge is enough to wear on the sanity of even the strongest of men.

Prepping for Vintage Champs

Obviously I’ve had a lot of success with Oath, but I believe it honestly is the most balanced strategy in Vintage, especially if you’re not sure what the field looks like. It rewards strong play, and the ability to change strategies on the fly; you can win from almost any game state, and have the ability to play for the long game or the quick win. A lot of the concerns about consistency in singleton-Brainstorm Oath have been addressed through the use of Jace, See Beyond, and the tutors for Brainstorm.

Sometimes, this deck just gives you free win, and has much more capacity to do so than Key/Vault the way Tezzeret does (although it does that, too). Mox, Orchard, Oath with Force back-up is a powerful as it ever was, giving Oath an explosive capability other Mana Drain decks can’t match (outside of Drain Tendrils). This deck is packed full of self-contained bombs; unlike a storm deck, you can just throw bomb after bomb out there without needing to build into it or burn through your resources. Oath wins games, Jace wins games, Tezzeret wins games, Key/Vault wins games, Yawg Will wins games, on and on, this deck is like a best-of the format. Unlike Tezzeret, you don’t need to slowly build incremental advantage. A card like Oath just wins the game when it resolves. While it can be a difficult deck to pilot, it is also powerful enough that you can recover from some of your mistakes. You don’t have the pure draw capability of a full-on Tezzeret or Remora deck, but with Recall, Thirst, and Jace, you have plenty of ability to take on the control role, and actually have more true counters post-board than any deck in the format.

I have a feeling that two Mindbreak Trap might be enough to keep the storm match-up winnable, and an eighth Dredge card is the way to go. Wasteland makes a lot of sense to me, and is probably what I’ll be testing with headed into Vintage Champs.

I am really happy with this deck and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if I bring it to Vintage Champs, unless there’s some sort of major shift between now and then.

A Better Dredge

Speaking of which, Leyline of Sanctity has the potential to be such a game-changer. It shuts down two key cards: Tendrils of Agony and Oath of Druids. Where might we want such an effect and be able to use it profitably? Dredge, of course. Not only can this Leyline help Dredge race two of its difficult opponents, but it also happens to protect the Dredge player against Ravenous Trap and Tormod’s Crypt.

Let that sink in for a minute. You can now race some of the key opposition in the format in a way that fits seamlessly into your deck, and on top of that, you get additional protection against opposing hate cards post-board.

Previous to this card being spoiled, I was excited for Leyline of Anticipation. That Leyline only lets you support Force of Will, play a preemptive Chalice 0 or Unmask when on the draw, and use Cabal Therapy and Dread Return at instant speed to beat hate cards.

Compared to Leyline of Sanctity, that stuff is child’s play.

Leyline of Sanctity makes me reconsider my Oath sideboard, and strongly pushes me to consider playing more Nature’s Claim, possibly even one in the main; I have no ability to race Dredge otherwise, and even post-board I have to reconsider how I’m attacking my opponent’s graveyard because of this Leyline. Even more so than Force of Will, this Leyline is actually what Dredge wants to try and race Storm decks.

Let me put it this way: I spent the better part of a year playing Vintage as hard as I could to win power so I could play whatever deck I want at this year’s Vintage Champs and not be forced into playing Dredge like I was last year, and now that I’m a month out from Champs… I’m struggling to figure out why on earth I wouldn’t want to play this:

Sanctified Dredge

Matt Elias

Test deck on 07-18-2010

Vintage

Creatures (23)

Lands (11)

Spells (26)

Sideboard

Don’t sleep on Dredge. Improbably, despite all the hate cards introduced over the past few years, the deck actually keeps getting BETTER.

Getting ready for Vintage Champs? So are the Dredge players. Their hunger is insatiable.

They are coming…

Matt Elias
[email protected]
Voltron00x on SCG, TMD, and The Source