I just acquired Defense Grid by Mark Tedin. Stunning piece in person. I'll be sure to show off the frame job once it's done.

@CHA1N5 I hadn't seen what the new Plateau looked like yet, that's a beautiful piece.

@garbageaggro Is there a photo of the sketch? That would be cool to see.

I'll second the recommendation for a jeweler's loupe. You can get some that also have an LED flashlight built in, so you have the tools to do two authenticity tests in one palm-sized device. There are a number of easy tests you can perform that will tell you right off if something doesn't seem right.

First, run your finger over the surface, does it feel like a Magic card should? Most fakes are either too smooth or too rough.

Second, check the printing. On a legitimate card, the black layer is the last layer printed, and so appears crisp and on top of the other layers. On many forgeries, all of the ink was applied at the same time, so the blacks appear muddied. Here's an example that I received from Pucatrade last month:

Notice all of the black text appears pixelated in comparison to a real card. You may have to zoom in to see it clearly.

Third, shine a light behind the card and see how much light passes through. A real Magic card is somewhat translucent. (You'll need a real card, preferably from the same set, to compare to.) Most fakes can't get it quite right. In the case of the Elspeth example, the card stock used was too opaque:

Those three tests can be conducted anywhere, and should tell you with a fair amount of certainty if the card is legitimate. Another you can do is the blacklight test. Shine a black light on the card in a dark room and see how luminescent it is. Check against a real card.

Oath’ing to Top 4 in Denton, TX

Here we go, the first local Vintage tournament I’ve gotten to play in Texas since returning from college last June. After some extensive testing of the Oath vs Mentor matchup during the week leading up to the event, I feel confident enough in my board plan to think I have game against all the major archetypes. I played a main deck almost identical to the one Joe Fiorini (IslandSwamp) shared on facebook shortly before the Lodestone restriction. The exception being the swap of the maindeck Hurkyl’s Recall for a Misdirection, as I happened to know that most of our local Shops players were choosing to explore other archetypes in the wake of the restriction, and wanted one more protection spell in its place. Here is the list I registered:
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
4 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Oath of Druids
3 Show and Tell
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Dig Through Time
3 Griselbrand

Sideboard:
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Nature’s Claim
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Arcane Laboratory
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

A fairly standard list. I’ve been a fan of the streamlined 3 Griselbrand version with as much acceleration as possible to enable a turn 1 Oath since I switched to it a few months ago. Without further ado, on to the matches:

Round 1: vs. BUG Mentor – Daryl

This was Daryl’s second Vintage event. He borrowed a deck at Grand Prix Houston and got hooked. Not much to say about game 1. I stick an early Oath and deal 7 damage per turn until there is no more to be dealt. I bring in Abrupt Decays and the Elesh Norn. In game 2, I mulligan to 5, but I may have the best possible 5 if he didn’t keep a hand with Force of Will. Orchard, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Oath, Abrupt Decay. I keep, planning to play Oath turn 1 with the option of Decay’ing a Grafdigger’s Cage with my Oath trigger on the stack. My scry reveals a Black Lotus, which lets me decay on his turn for extra style points. My gamble paid off, as he doesn’t have a Force for my Oath, and I Oath up a Griselbrand. A large percentage of my library is gone however, and after looking through the revealed cards, the only permission left in my deck is a single Force of Will. Both Time Walk, Vault/Key, and Yawgmoth’s Will are gone as well, meaning my plan is to hope the three creatures in my deck are enough to get there. He has the Swords for my Griselbrand, and I conclude that it would be better to let it happen and hope to Oath into the other one I have available instead of Elesh Norn. I do so, but a few turns later he has Snapcaster Mage for his Swords. I draw 7 hoping to hit my one Force of Will, but miss. On my turn, I Oath hoping that Elesh Norn isn’t too deep in my library. I get her into play with just barely enough cards left to win the game. 1-0

Round 2: vs. UWr Mentor – Alex

I come in with a pretty good sense of how this match will go, as Alex and I had tested the matchup extensively earlier in the week. I take game 1 rather easily. In game 2, he has too much permission in addition to 4 Containment Priests for me to fight through. On to game 3. He land 2 early Containment Priests, meaning my path to victory involves drawing 2 of my 3 Abrupt Decays. I wait several turns without hitting anything relevant, eventually finding Yawgmoth’s Will. This seems like my best path to victory, so I activate Oath at 9 life, hoping that the Will can take me to victory. I mill quite a few cards, and have a very impressive turn ending with a Time Walk. On my Time Walk turn, I complete the Vault key combo. It’s not over however, as I had to play Mana Crypt on the previous turn. At only 9 life, my odds aren’t good, as he played a third Containment Priest with the Oath trigger on the stack. I go for it, and win a statistically unlikely number of rolls before succumbing to the Crypt. In retrospect, playing Mana Crypt may not have been necessary, and I could have won had I been more cautious. 1-1

Round 3: vs. Painter – (I forgot to write down my opponent’s name)
This round isn’t terribly exciting, as I land an early Oath in both games and things progress as one would expect from there. 2-1
Round 4: vs. UWr Mentor – Joe

Prior to this round, my teammates had been discussing the math for drawing into top 8. We determined that the 3 undefeated players could double draw into the Top 8. Unfortunately, Joe got paired down against me, and we had to play it out. I take the match in 2 games. 3-1

Round 5: vs. Dark Petition Storm

My opponent is the first seed, and we agree to ID. 3-1-1

Quarterfinals: vs. Petition Oath – Andy

Andy had shown me his deck at the start of the day, and I was excited to see it in action. The centerpiece combo involved putting Laboratory Maniac on the bottom of the deck using Wordly Tutor and Opt, and winning on the same turn as the Oath activation. I take game 1 in fairly uninteresting fashion. In game 2, neither of us does anything for multiple turns, as we seem to be quite adept at drawing mana. Throughout, we grind tokens so that no one can successfully activate Oath. Eventually, I find a second Orchard, and the game ends from there. 4-1-1

The Top 4 agrees to a prize split, and most of us trade our store credit to Greg so he can buy one of the store’s neon signs.

I had a great time, and was excited to hear the TO wants to make this a quarterly event on each new set release weekend with plans to stream the next one.

I hope we can get some more Vintage community representatives into the full season instead of more pros who dabble occasionally. As for decks, I hope to see more archetypes represented than VSL's usual Mentor/Shops/Storm Metagame such as Oath and Painter.

Defense Grid came back from framing the other day. I'm very please with how well it came out.

You can get an effective loupe very cheaply. I bought mine on Amazon. It has 40x magnification and a built-in LED light that also helps with testing opacity. It sells for less than $3. Amazon Link

Did I do it right?

GalacticHitchHiker on MTGO, CST Time Zone. I'm almost never online at the moment, but that will change in the next couple months.

Thanks for sharing this. The B&R Thread has already become too long for infinite scroll to be convenient. It would be nice if we could have page navigation at the top of the thread as well though.

I played Vault-Key Oath to a 4-0 finish (3-0-1 officially as we agreed to split) on Friday, and to a 3-2 Finish on Sunday. Here's my list:

2 Griselbrand
1 Emrakul
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
5 Moxen
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Flusterstorm
4 Mental Misstep
4 Preordain
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Voltaic Key
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Oath of Druids
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
4 Show and Tell
1 Yawgmoth's Will / Omniscience (Switch from Friday to Sunday, explained below)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
1 Dig Through Time

4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea

Side:
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nature's Claim
1 Pithing Needle
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Toxic Deluge
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Going into the weekend, I was looking at the success of Eldrazi at NYSE, and decided I needed to tune my deck to take into account the existence of a deck that often ran 4 Containment Priest in the main. I settled on a hybrid of Omni Oath and Vault/Key Oath, with 4 Show and Tells, 1 Omniscience, and a 2/1 split of Griselbrand and Emrakul. In typical fashion, I didn't play against Eldrazi a single time on Friday and sided out the Omniscience in every game 2 and 3. As a result, I decided to move it to the sideboard in favor of bringing Yawgmoth's Will back into the main.

On Friday, I played against Landstill, Mentor, Shops (TKS), and Dredge. On Sunday, I played against Delver, Eldrazi, Belcher, Labman Oathstill, and Shops, losing to Belcher and Shops (TKS). I think I made a critical mistake in Game 2 against Shops that cost me the game when I might otherwise have gone on to win, but I'm happy with my play that weekend overall.

I played Vault-Key Oath to a 4-0 finish (3-0-1 officially as we agreed to split) on Friday, and to a 3-2 Finish on Sunday. Here's my list:

2 Griselbrand
1 Emrakul
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
5 Moxen
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Flusterstorm
4 Mental Misstep
4 Preordain
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Voltaic Key
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Oath of Druids
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
4 Show and Tell
1 Yawgmoth's Will / Omniscience (Switch from Friday to Sunday, explained below)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
1 Dig Through Time

4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea

Side:
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Nature's Claim
1 Pithing Needle
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Toxic Deluge
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Going into the weekend, I was looking at the success of Eldrazi at NYSE, and decided I needed to tune my deck to take into account the existence of a deck that often ran 4 Containment Priest in the main. I settled on a hybrid of Omni Oath and Vault/Key Oath, with 4 Show and Tells, 1 Omniscience, and a 2/1 split of Griselbrand and Emrakul. In typical fashion, I didn't play against Eldrazi a single time on Friday and sided out the Omniscience in every game 2 and 3. As a result, I decided to move it to the sideboard in favor of bringing Yawgmoth's Will back into the main.

On Friday, I played against Landstill, Mentor, Shops (TKS), and Dredge. On Sunday, I played against Delver, Eldrazi, Belcher, Labman Oathstill, and Shops, losing to Belcher and Shops (TKS). I think I made a critical mistake in Game 2 against Shops that cost me the game when I might otherwise have gone on to win, but I'm happy with my play that weekend overall.

You can get an effective loupe very cheaply. I bought mine on Amazon. It has 40x magnification and a built-in LED light that also helps with testing opacity. It sells for less than $3. Amazon Link

That explains why I was sure I'd seen a picture of it from a different angle that I couldn't find anywhere.

@mickey.nobilis Noble Hierarch is in the OMA gallery "Prkchp’s Original MTG Art"

@themanasource I'll be sure to keep an eye out. You've been hunting for him for some time now, right? I had a similar experience with Kev looking for Bludgeon Brawl. The man does so many paintings he doesn't keep records of his sales. Hopefully it surfaces.

Defense Grid came back from framing the other day. I'm very please with how well it came out.

I hope we can get some more Vintage community representatives into the full season instead of more pros who dabble occasionally. As for decks, I hope to see more archetypes represented than VSL's usual Mentor/Shops/Storm Metagame such as Oath and Painter.

If I saw anyone at all playing with gem mint Beta power I'd be suspicious.

Very impressive that you were able to get your hands on the three in only a month. Hope the Island surfaces.

The one piece of art I want and can't find at the moment is Bludgeon Brawl (NPH) by Kev Walker. He sold it at some point in the past and doesn't keep records of his sales.

@Gumgod

That's a beautiful Time Walk. And I agree, we should probably keep proxy discussion to a separate thread.