Results from 9/9 sanctioned Vintage Trial (23 players) at RIW Hobbies in Livonia, Michigan

[Shaman Ben]

We had 23 Players show up for Sanctioned Vintage.

Final Standings after 5 rounds of Swiss and 3 Elimination rounds:

1st: Kevin Cron (@CHA1N5) BUGstill
2nd: Jim Hall UR Delver
3rd: Marland Moore (@moorebrother1) Saheeli Oath
4th: James Crouch BUG
5th: Paul Blakeley (@Prkchpsndwiches) Red Deck Wins
6th: Justin Waller (@SpellBombFTW) Bomberman
7th: Jon Johnson 4 Color Control
8th: Charles Rolko (@Rolko) Turbo Depths

9th: Colin Wu (@tofuicecream) Esper

10th: Duane Haddix (@cutlex) Shops
11th: John Poggemeyer Jr JacoDrazi
12th: Aaron Katz (@methaloam) BUG
13th: Kyle Lenox JacoDrazi
14th: Michael Tabler Outcome/TPS
15th: Marcel Moore Eldrazi Shops
16th: Jon Wilkerson Dredge
17th: Nam Tran (@nartman99) 2 Card Monte
18th: Mark Kubiak (@mdkubiak) 2 Card Monte
19th: JD Williams 2 Card Monte
20th: Kevin Reinke Dredge
21st: Mike Rogers (@biggysmallz77) 2 Card Monte
22nd: Andrew McLennan JacoDrazi
23rd: Michael Stewart Eldrazi Shops

Top 8 Lists:

# BUGstill (1st)
## Kevin Cron

Main Deck:
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Leovold Emisary of Trest
1 Ramunap Excavator
3 Jace the Mind Sculptor
4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm

1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Null Rod
1 Dismember
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Toxic Deluge

4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Mana Drain

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Treetop Village
1 Mishras Factory
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
	
Side Board:

1 Null Rod
2 Natures Claim
1 Dismember
1 Enginnered Explosives
3 Energy Flux
1 Wasteland
1 Trygon Predator
1 Grafdiggers Cage
4 Leyline of the Void

# UR Delver (2nd)
## Jim Hall

Main Deck:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Null Rod

1 Ponder
1 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Preordain
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep

2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Delver of Secrets

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
4 Volcanic Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Side Board:
3 flusterstorm
4 grafdigger's cage
4 ingot chewer
4 pyroblast

# Saheeli Oath (3rd)
## Marland Moore

Main Deck:
4 Oath of Druids
4 Saheeli Rai
1 Dack Fayden
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Dig Through Time
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Sylvan Library
1 Memory's Journey
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Preordain
2 Flusterstorm
1 Blood Moon

2 Sun Titan

1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn

Side Board:
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Nature's Claim
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Show and Tell
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

# BUG (4th)
## James Crouch

Main Deck:
4 deathrite shaman
4 dark confidant
3 leovold, emissary of trest
2 jace, vryn's prodigy
1 trygon predator

4 force of will
2 flusterstorm
2 mental misstep
2 jace, the mind sculptor
2 abrupt decay
1 fatal push
1 snuff out
1 time walk
1 demonic tutor
1 ancestral recall
1 ponder
1 brainstorm

2 null rod
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire

4 wasteland
1 strip mine
4 polluted delta
3 misty rainforest
3 underground sea
2 tropical island
1 bayou
1 snow-covered island

Side Board:
3 grafdigger's cage
3 ravenous trap
3 nature's claim
1 null rod
1 energy flux
1 fatal push
1 dismember
1 toxic deluge
1 engineered explosives

# Red Deck Wins (5th)
## Paul Blakeley

Main Deck:
4 simian spirit guide
4 magus of the moon
4 scab-clan berserker
2 phyrexian revoker
1 ingot chewer
4 blood moon
2 eidolon of the great revel
1 pyrostatic pillar
4 lightning bolt
1 price of progress
1 abrade
3 chandra, torch of defiance

4 null rod
3 ensnaring bridge
1 trinisphere
1 chalice of the void
1 lotus petal
1 mox ruby

10 mountain
4 ancient tomb
4 city of traitors

Side Board:
4 ravenous trap
4 grafdigger's cage
2 ingot chewer
3 by force
1 abrade
1 ensnaring bridge

# Bomberman (6th)
## Justin Waller

Main Deck:
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 sol ring
2 sensei's divining top

1 monastery mentor
1 auriok salvagers
2 trinket mage
2 jace, vryn's prodigy
1 walking ballista
1 snapcaster mage

1 jace, the mind sculptor
1 dack fayden

3 counterbalance
1 abrade
1 gush
1 time walk
3 preordain
3 mental misstep
1 ponder
1 brainstorm
4 force of will
1 dig through time
1 ancestral recall
1 flusterstorm
2 swords to plowshares
1 balance
1 engineered explosives

3 scalding tarn
3 tundra
4 flooded strand
2 volcanic island
1 strip mine
1 plains
2 island

Side Board:
2 containment priest
2 grafdigger's cage
2 rest in peace
1 wear/tear
1 terminus
1 mountain
1 pyroblast
1 mindbreak trap
1 engineered explosives
1 pithing needle
1 fragmentize
1 tormod's crypt

# 4 Color Control
## Jon Johnson

Main Deck:
2 dack fayden
2 jace, the mind sculptor

1 blightsteel colossus
1 monastery mentor
3 snapcaster mage

1 demonic tutor
1 ponder
3 preordain
1 time walk
1 tinker
1 treasure cruise
1 yawgmoth's will

4 force of will
1 pyroblast
2 flusterstorm
3 mental misstep
2 mana drain
1 gush
1 brainstorm
1 dig through time
1 ancestral recall
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 time vault
1 voltaic key
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl

2 island
2 underground sea
2 volcanic island
1 tundra
1 library of alexandria
1 strip mine
4 scalding tarn
1 polluted delta
1 misty rainforest
1 flooded strand

Side Board:
2 Pyroblast
1 Balance
1 Containment Priest
3 grafdigger's cage
4 Ingot chewer
1 mountain
2 rest in peace
1 wear/tear

# Turbo Depths (8th)
## Charles Rolko

Main Deck:
4 crop rotation
4 elvish spirit guide
4 vampire hexmage
4 mirage mirror
4 thoughtseize
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic consultation
2 sylvan library
3 pithing needle
1 mox jet
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 lotus petal
3 expedition map

1 sejiri steppe
1 bojuka bog
4 verdant catacombs
4 ancient tomb
1 bazaar of baghdad
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Swamp
3 Bayou
3 Thespian's stage
3 dark depths
1 strip mine

Side Board:
4 Null Rod
4 nature's claim
2 duress
3 surgical extraction
1 pithing needle
1 bojuka bog

Thanks to everyone that came out and played in this great event.

[mdkubiak]

I posted this in the Facebook forum group (highly edited to be more in depth and easier to read), but since this was from the results of this tournament, I feel it's appropriate to put here.

I was on 2 Card Monte, a deck I have played a grand total of 4 or 5 rounds with before. With so little experience, card-for-card I used @Shaman-Ben's list.

Special thanks to @Shaman-Ben and @CHA1N5 for letting me borrow cards to have a completed deck. I'm highly appreciated of these gestures as it shows they both trust me enough with their cards.

Round 1
Opponent: Jon Wilkerson
Opponent's Deck: Dredge
Result: Lost (0-1)
This one stung a bit as this is typically a good match-up for 2 Card Monte and I punted this away. Please don't misunderstand me, I take nothing away from my opponent and he won fair and square. Anyway, I learned a hugely valuable lesson when playing this deck. More on that in a bit.

Game 1 I crushed. Basically a nut draw with having a Leyline of the Void in my opening hand and the combo in my hand. Once I drew the 2 mana (ended up being a Ancient Tomb), I could activate the combo and win. I made a minor mistake and forgot to name a color with Painter's Servant (it would have changed nothing). I was about to call Ben over as the judge, but the opponent told me it didn't matter and I randomly named black (which I should have named blue regardless of the board state). Minor mistakes, but something I need to clean up as this will matter more in the future.

Game 2 I mulled to 5 and never got it together. Unfortunately never saw a Leyline of the Void. I seemed to have 1/2 of each of the combos and the opponent went off. Death by zombies.

Game 3 was interesting and a fun game. I would have made some NFL punters jealous with the punt I made, though. The game had some good play and was entertaining. In a later turn I got into a position where I had a winning line. needed to cast Demonic Consultation for Black Lotus to cast Leyline of the Void (or Helm of Obedience... I forget which... let's just assume Leyline) and activate it. I had a Containment Priest out. However, the next turn I would have enough mana to cast the Leyline and win. I felt safe behind the Containment Priest, so I incorrectly passed the turn. On my opponent's turn he managed to Cabal Pit my Containment Priest and Cabal Therapy me 3 times to strip away all my cards and proceeded to destroy my board with Ingot Chewers.

What this taught me is this deck is not like playing a control deck and I need to be a bit more aggressive. I have very little experience with Combo decks, so I am learning. I also need to pay a little more attention to the graveyard of the Dredge opponent. I got a little over zealous and cocky. In a lot of ways, this was a good loss, because while I was frustrated with myself, I learned something very valuable on how to play this deck. I confirmed my thinking of what I did wrong when I talked to both @Shaman-Ben and @CHA1N5 about the play as I wanted to confirm what I was thinking.

Round 2
Opponent: Marcel Moore
Opponent's Deck: Eldrazi Shops
Result: Won (1-1)
I had nut hands 2 games in a row and he did not cast a Null Rod. Move on.

Oh, before I forget, I made @Shaman-Ben proud when I, this time, cast Demonic Consultation for Black Lotus for the win. He loves that play apparently as it speaks to him as a player (he posted about it on Twitter). Also, what I'm most proud of on that play is that showed player growth with this deck as it is hard evidence of me learning how to play the deck correctly.

Round 3
Opponent: Michael Tabler
Opponent's Deck: Outcome/TPS
Result: Lost (1-2)
My opponent beat me in 2 games . Not much to say, my hands never really came together and he was able to string his combos together faster than me. I side-boarded a bit "incorrectly", because I was expecting since he was running Paradoxical that he would have Force of Will. I found out after the games he played no Forces in his deck. I do not count that as a mistake, just a bad call on my part. Nothing to be ashamed of there, as I playing to my past knowledge of the archetype.

Though, a slightly amusing note. When I died in game 2, the only cards in my graveyard were my 4 Red Elemental Blasts. If he didn't Duress me on his last turn, I would most likely have won the game, as I foolishly looked at my top card (it was Demonic Consultation). That would have been enough to win the game, as I just needed, I believe, Helm of Obedience.

Round 4
Opponent: Kyle Lenox (@zodiacboyscout)
Opponent's Deck: JacoDrazi
Result: Lost (1-3)
Game 1 I had no chance. Null rod turn one, Thought-Knot Seer turn 2, Reality Smasher turn 3, game over.

Game 2 I punted. Kyle played extremely well, don't get me wrong there, but I made a costly mistake. To explain, on turn 0 he got out a Leyline of Sanctity. I had a Nature's Claim in hand and stupidly decided to slow roll it. At one point I drew another Nature's Claim and Demonic Tutor'd for an Ancient Grudge. For some reason, I Nature Claimed his Null Rod instead of the Leyline of Sanctity. After using Ancient Grudge on his Revoker, I had Grudge in the graveyard. In a later turn, I was about to win, or so I thought, as I went to Ancient Grudge his Leyline and quickly realized I couldn't do that (obviously it's an enchantment). If I hit Leyline immediately (as I should have) with Nature's Claim and used Ancient Grudge on Null Rod, I should have won that game, sending it to game 3.

Kyle is a good friend, so we talked all this through after the game and he made some suggestions on my sideboarding. He was on the mindset that I take out Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt instead of my 3 Red Elemental Blasts. I'm still on the fence whether to take out the Red Elemental Blast's or not, as they are dead without Painter's Servant, but really awesome when I have Painter's Servant. I will speak more on my side-boarding woes later.

Round 5
Opponent: Bye
Opponent's Deck: JacoDrazi
Result: Won (2-3)
This opponent never wins against anybody. Why does he/she ever bother showing up? It's like an automatic win or something.

Real Overall Results: (1-3)
In all seriousness, I don't like to include bye's from having a bad record into my record, so I don't include it here. If I got it round 1 when I showed up, I would, but that's a different story.

Overall
I went 1-3 (2-3 if you count the bye... I don't).

No way around it, not a good record. However, I'm a little more spirited then last month when I couldn't win a match with Mentor. This deck, simply put, is fucking awesome. I wanted to this post to talk about what I learned today to improve as a player. Not about my good plays, but my bad plays.

Thoughts On Misplays
Anyway, there is a common mistake I make that separates me from the better players. I rush thinking through things and don't take time to think proper sequencing in magic. I'm a decent/good player, I'm not bad at all in my opinion, but I play against some really good players and my bad habit creates enough space between me and my opponent that it to cause me to lose more often than not. Obviously variance has it's hand in it too, but if I can shore that mistake up, I will start stringing wins together. The gap will start to close.

Another issue I have is, plain and simple, experience with a deck. I have spent the past year trying out new decks almost every tournament to try to learn the various vintage archetypes and to better understand them. Since champs last year, this is only the second time I have played the same archetype more than once. This has caused record suffering, but I do believe it has made me a better player. I purposely did this to better understand the format.

Another huge part that causes me to suffer is the lack of knowledge of what is a keepable hand and how to sideboard correctly. This goes hand-in-hand with my last point of changing decks constantly. There is a lot that can be said on those two things that only come with experience with a deck, which I basically have none. I hope to pick @Shaman-Ben's brain as much as I can for this awesome deck.

Side tangent
@zodiacboyscout (Kyle Lenox) gets the reward for the best play of the evening. I hard casted Sphinx of the Steel Wind and he proceeded to Dismember it. I quietly reminded him that it was a 6/6, but he shrugged his shoulders and said he knows... which immediately made me realize what he was doing... fuck, I know what he is about to do. He proceeded to cast Warping Wail to exile it. So Kyle, bravo man. Bravo.

[BazaarOfBaghdad]

A U/B winning list without Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, or blue Delve draw engine? How exotic is that? Murderous Cut over Dismember makes sense to me if you're not running the other Delve spells. I still feel I'm missing something, but maybe I'm not seeing outside the box.