I am going to start this off with a brief personal anecdote before diving into my deck, card choices and a brief report of my fun (if not somewhat disappointing) experience at NYSE.

In late April, the day after attending the Waterbury tournament in CT, I received what was easily the worst phone call of my life on what was an otherwise beautiful Sunday afternoon. My parents had been involved in an incident while riding their 3wheel motorcycle and my Mother had been thrown from the bike and was in critical condition. While I am beyond grateful that my Father (who was driving) and Brother (who was riding his own Harley with them) were completely unharmed, we were forced to make the impossible decision to take my mother off life support once the doctors told us she was in a Persistent vegetative state and would never recover.

Needless to say, I was crushed. My mother supported me in everything I ever did, and even threw me a hundo when my dad wasn't looking back in 2003 to help me purchase one of my first moxen. In addition to my amazing wife and beautiful son, without whom I would be completely lost today, I was able to use Magic as an outlet. Between the support of my friends from my Local Vintage scene, my regular EDH group, and the generally great competition on MTGO, I was able to return myself to a functional state. I may bash the content of this website sometimes, but the fact is that this community is fantastic, and I cannot really say where I would be today without it or this crazy game we all love.

Anyway, thanks for listening (reading), now onto my deck!

I do not consider myself any great vintage brewer, but I have always enjoyed playing weird shit. If am going to commit to 10+hrs of IRL Vintage, I am most certainly going to play something I would have fun with:

4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black lotus
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Dack fayden
1 Jace TMS
1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Dig Through Time
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Thoughtseize
4 Force of willl
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Crucible of Worlds

SB:
4 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Mountain
2 By Force
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Murderous Cut
2 Null Rod
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Pyroblast

In testing, I found this list to be extremely consistent in the Shops and Outcome match ups, and had 50/50 results vs Mentor. Knowing that we play in the Northeast, I chose to over-prepare for Shops, hence the MB ancient grudge and Crucible over additional Abrupt Decays...In hindsight, this choice probably left me too soft to the Mentor match up.

Thoughtseize over MB Pyroblast/Flusterstorm was something else that shook itself out in testing. I found myself always wanting some sort of impactful t1 play, and since 4 Shaman felt like 1 too many thoughtseize really fell nicely into that spot. I had a feeling that blue mages would be prepared to play around Pyroblast, and (as alluded to earlier) Pyro/flusterstorm are nearly dead in the shops match.

Deathrite Shaman clearly plays well in a 4C approach, and Leovold was fantastic when cast, even in the Shops Matchup where it netted me cards vs their waste effects and Ballista's.
Consecrated Sphinx is an amazing card, often locking up games after just a single opponents draw step. I resolved in 4-5 times throughout the day, and was undefeated in games where it hit the table.
Three Snapcaster mage were also fabulous for me, allowing me to ambush any number of shops creatures and even a dark confidant in Rd 2, in addition to the flashback shenanigans that it naturally lends itself to. I never once wished it was baby jace.
Three Dack Fayden were also really strong for me all day. I stole at least two Inspectors and it really is the lists most consistent card selection engine. I feel like three remains the right number going forward. Ob Nixilis was a last minute suggestion over Jace TMS #2 by local legend JP Kohler. I only got to cast it 1x in a game I already had well locked up, but the look on my opponents face was worth it by itself

For the SB, Pernicious deed had one shining moment in my Rd 5 Win over Dan Nelson, but aside from that one instance this probably should have been an abrupt decay. I went with Murderous cut over Fatal push or Dismember/snuff out, and was generally happy with them.

Here is a brief report from NYSE:
Rd 1 - Cosmo on Paradoxical Outcome storm w/Defense grid 2-0:
G1 He forces my t1 thoughtseize to protect his defense grid RFGing his Chain of Vapor. I am able to drain the grid anyway, resolve a consecrated sphinx and take control of the game. I was pretty sure RFGing Chain of Vapor killed his only out vs Sphinx, and he showed me the timetwister he drew the turn after sphinx resolved.
I board in both null rods, 1 by force 1 grudge & 1 pyroblast.
G2 I do not remember super well aside from a Snapcaster mage and null rod doing a lot of work, as well as an ancient grudge and late in game thoughtseize. I believe I dacked his grim monolith at some point

Rd 2 Ben on Leovold BUG w/Dark Confidant's 2-0

G1 - He Decay's an early DRS I cast and resolves a Confidant. I had moxen in my opener, and am able to get down Jace TMS, bounce Bob and took over from there. I believe I won with Leovold/Snapcaster Beats.
I board in Decay, Cut's and Pyroblast
G2 - We misstep each other's early Shaman's but I am able to stick Dack Fayden and bury him in card selection. Consecrated Sphinx come down off of a drained Leovold, and he has no answer.
After the match he actually comments that he has no, single card answer for Sphinx, as he was on a single dismember only.

Rd 3 - Travis Laplante on Uba Mask Stax 2-1
I've known Travis for the better part of 15 years, and am always thrilled to run into him at these events. He plays cool decks, and gives 0 F*cks.
G1 I think I wasted his lands two straight turns, and then proceeded to draw 0 lands of my own. He locks me down with Uba mask and Stack on 1 by about turn 6.
I board in all my shops hate.
G2 was very long, and featured him neutering the Mana dorking of my deathrite with a Metamorph'd deathrite on his side. I don't recall the exact turning point of this game, but I believe it involved a By Force and Dack fayden.
G3 Travis resolves an early thorn, and then made a slight error that ultimately cost him the game. I have a shaman in play, and he goes to waste my land. I am holding drain, so i float blue in response. Instead of moving phases, he attempts to jam defense grid which I drain with exactly 3 mana available. I drop my land for turn, play consecrated sphinx and it gets fairly academic from there.

Rd 4 - Nick DiJohn on "mustard shops" 2-1
Nick is a very well known player in the NE, so I am 99.999% sure he is on Shops but fortunately no one has heard of me :).
G1 I force his T1 trinisphere, get down a Dack and take control of the game. I do not 100% recall, but I think Sphinx sowed this game up.
G2 my had is COMPLETELY INSANE but he plays perfectly around my hate and wins on just about exact damage with a combination of Revoker, Ravager, and Ballista. Had i gotten another turn I think I would have been able to wipe his whole board.
G3 I push a big by force through a Sphere, counter a Cruiser and take over with Dack.

Rd 5 - Dan Nelson on Shops 2-1
Dan ultimately T8'd and we played 3 fun games. We were one of the last matches to end, so we ended up with quite a crowd.
I recall I won an extremely long G1, involving me dacking him with Sphinx in play to draw 4 cards, and then countering a Metamorph.
G2 I got run over pretty fast.
G3 was the really fun one...He is able to get down an early lodestone and foundry inspector (maybe turn 2 or 3) that took me down under 10 life. I am able to stabilize by resolving a dack + time walk (he didn't have any other spheres in play). I am able to hold him off, and ultimately resolve a big by force and am able to win from there.

At this point i am 5-0, flying high. I go into round 6 tied for first.

Rd 6 - Jose Antonio Alascio Lopez - Jeskai Mentor
These games were over before they started
G1 - I have no idea what my opponent is playing, so keep (what i think) is a solid had on the draw featuring thoughtseize, wasteland and a turn 2 dack fayden, but no FoW. He goes turn 1 Lotus Mentor mox preordain and thrashes me from there.
G2 - I play library and pass with Force up. He strips my LOA and i counter his Baby Jace. His card draw is better than mine, and he resolves mentor and time walk.
Both of these games took about 10 total minutes.

Rd 7 - Will Magrann on Super Aggressive Shops (on stream)
We pull the feature match, so my one major mistake was broadcast on twitch for all to see Everyone can watch this on the twitch video (I believe it starts at around 2 Hrs 30 min in) but i fully admit that the way I played Explosives on 0 on t1 cost me the game.
G2 He has like 12 power on the board by turn 4 and that was that

Needless to say I was pretty crushed dropping 2 straight like that, but was in 10th (top seeded 2 loss player) going into round 8, confident that a W would have me most certainly taking home a shop, if not sneaking into the T8.

RD 8 - Vito Picozzo on Jeskai Mentor
Vito had watched one of my earlier matches so he knew what to expect.
To be honest, my memory is shaky on these games except that I lost both, and that the Judge made the super odd decision to give us both warnings for failing to maintain game state for forgetting Fetch land and then FOW damage. I will call this odd only because he made the decision with Vito actively swinging with more than lethal damage with awesome Foil Charizard Mentor Tokens. Again, at least G2 was captured on stream, so feel free to go back and watch.

I ended up in the t25, but ultimately out of the prizes. Despite losing 4 not super close games to Mentor, I really do feel like this deck is right there. I am planning to test a tweaked version on MTGO when I have time.

Best cards of the day - Thoughtseize, Dack, Sphinx, DRS
Worst cards of the day - Crucible, Demonic Tutor

Thanks for Reading everyone!

@kenan I finished top 25 with a 4c build that I genuinely feel is right there. I did get rolled by Mentor 2x, but going into round 6 was 5-0 with wins over Outcome w/defense grids, Leovold Bug, and shops x3. All three losses were to eventual t8'ers, but the wheels really came off on me rds 6-8. I can really only point to a single brutal missplay all day (on stream, vs Will Magrann). It does nothing fancy (except consecrated sphynx...was undefeated in games where it resolved) and rewards tight play. Will post my decklist, and am hoping to play my latest edition in the daily tonight.

Ill leave this here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/magic-online-format-challenges-2017-05-04

@bop Nah, I can read the names of every card in my Hearthstone collection, these are like a yugioh card and post 2010 pokemon card had a baby

I have stated this in other similar threads but will reiterate my feelings here....In other formats (standard and modern primarily) when the DCI bans cards, there is always a segment of the player community who's pet deck gets nerfed, and they throw their hands up, put their cards in the closet and say "I quit!". Maybe this hits some local scenes harder than others, but when it comes to larger events, the impact of these folks no longer wanting to play is almost meaningless, there will "always" be more players who want to play these formats (especially standard).

This is very different from Vintage, where the player base is significantly smaller and not growing at any recognizable pace. Restricting something like Workshop, whether validly based on data and statistics or not WILL cause people to quit the format, plain and simple. If your response to that is good riddance and grow up, fine; I personally do not see how a format that struggles to meet attendance floors for its most prestigious events can possibly withstand a restriction that would alienate a whole segment of players.

Maybe the critical mass of artifacts that suck in every other format but are mega playable with a 4-of-artifact-only black lotus that never goes away is real, but I do not think the impact of players that will literally stop playing vintage can be ignored. Is it fair for these folks to hold the format hostage...no of course not, but I do not think that a Shops restriction is the way to go right now. I would rather see sweeping restrictions of Sphere, Ravager, and Revoker, In addition to Mentor, Preordain, and Mental Misstep.

I am going to keep this short, since I feel the argument is a simple one. Now that there is an official policy on Proxys for foil only cards like Kess in Legacy and Nexus in standard, I believe it is time for Wizards to extend the policy further to include CE/IE cards in the Eternal Formats.

I have no idea if this somehow infringes on the reserved list (not sure how it would...) but the merits of this have to outweigh the negatives. Access to cheaper duals for legacy, and additional power for Vintage players. This would add approximately 14,000 copies of these cards into the pool of available duals and power, and could help facilitate additional sanctioned Eternal events in the future.

Thoughts?

Nick, I would follow you into the Mists of Avalon, if that is what you mean.

In all seriousness though, despite my 95% being in just for the chance to play some vintage, please don't try to stretch for a Mox just for the sake of doing so. It creates these really huge drop off's in EV between 1st and 2nd place...forget about the rest of the top 8.

When I lost in the finals at the last "Clash at the Cradle" event, my opponent took home a pretty clean Ruby and I basically complained my way to $100 Credit (it was supposed to be only $80). It looked worse because of the reserved list spike that happened literally weeks after that event, but a $1300-1500 drop in value b/x 1st and 2nd is a bad look for me. If you can find a way to run a cash event, I believe your name/brand attached to the event will be enough to get bodies in the room without risking your own wallet unnecessarily.

I am always weary of hard and fast rules around real vs fake when looking at the pixels through a jewelers lens. I had acquired a revised scrubland before eternal weekend from a reputable shop local to me. Maybe a month later I go to another local store with the intent to trade said scrubland toward an underground, and the owner immediately noticed something "off" about the card and busted out his Jewelers lens to inspect. Within about 30 seconds he said the card was a fake (a great fake, but fake none the less).

Obviously angry, I intended to return to the store that sold me the card and demand my $$ back, then another patron of the store who claimed to know a thing or two asked to look at the card (I took his word based solely on my personal knowledge of his extensive collection) and he stated that the card was not a fake, but more likely from a different printer/print run from Revised. He and the store owner argued a bit and agreed to disagree. PS I decide to take this card to Eternal Weekend knowing that with the shear number of Dealers down there I would get my answer. I show up Friday early afternoon and immediately start going around telling each dealer that I have this card, don't know if its real or fake and want an opinion and a potential trade assuming its authenticated. Without naming names, I went to 6 dealers, and 4 said its real, agreeing with the gentleman who stated that it was from a different printer/print run, and two agreed with the store owner that the pixels were wrong and that it was a really good fake.

Moral of my story, to this day I have no idea if this scrubland was real or fake...all I could go by was the majority opinion and I ultimately traded it toward some blue duals. I should add that I feel no guilt regarding this...I was honest and up front and each dealer did their due diligence. Be an informed consumer, and don't be afraid to do your homework before investing $1000's in cards but I am hesitant of hard and fast rules surrounding some of the more intricate aspects of card design and printing.

The Hermit Dredge list is awesome.

@The-Atog-Lord @wappla perhaps my perspective is just off here and I missed the point . Hardly expecting a blow by blow on what to do vs Mentor. I'll give it another read.

Although I still will when the time comes, it's a crying shame that I have become totally disincentivized from ever shuffling reserved list singles into a deck again. I should really slab all my duals, CE p9, ect...and commission a set of high end hand drawn proxys.

As to the long term future of vintage, the reserved list is a secondary concern to me. The primary concern is the shear volume of product released annually. The likelihood of 10-12 new narset/mentor/lurrus ect... power cards entering the format over the next 5+years and pushing vintage closer and closer to a homogenized singleton format. This doesn't even need to be the result of B&R activity, merely the gravity of bomb printings combined with existing hyper efficient engines of various colors and ilks.

As an aside, Moxfield has a very robust goldfishing tool that I've seen utilized on YouTube EDH video for gameplay. I doubt sitting across from someone on a tablet with such an app would be enjoyable, but what do I know?

This card is really amazing. Steals the draw AND makes a bunch of future Elks!? Sign me up.

Nick, I would follow you into the Mists of Avalon, if that is what you mean.

In all seriousness though, despite my 95% being in just for the chance to play some vintage, please don't try to stretch for a Mox just for the sake of doing so. It creates these really huge drop off's in EV between 1st and 2nd place...forget about the rest of the top 8.

When I lost in the finals at the last "Clash at the Cradle" event, my opponent took home a pretty clean Ruby and I basically complained my way to $100 Credit (it was supposed to be only $80). It looked worse because of the reserved list spike that happened literally weeks after that event, but a $1300-1500 drop in value b/x 1st and 2nd is a bad look for me. If you can find a way to run a cash event, I believe your name/brand attached to the event will be enough to get bodies in the room without risking your own wallet unnecessarily.

Pioneer will float MTGO, dont you worry.

No CMC restriction on the returned instant or sorcery? Pretty nutty that you can cast an early dig through time, then late game get it back, forget the obvious ancestral/timewalk/PO shenanigans. This also has super interesting interactions with Gush since it is an island itself.

Yay for another card that will lead to countless judge calls. I guess at least its symmetrical? I don't know, just chalk it up to another in the long list of cards that say "lets play less magic for a more protracted period of time".

I think it's easiest application is in PO. You draw then search and have this in hand. If you hit a 2nd PO with the draw, great, tutor resolves and you get your academy, mana vault, whatever and win the game. If you dont, get your 2nd PO and still probably win the game. Finding a deterministic win is obvious when the situation calls for it.

I'm with @Serracollector on this one. The interaction with painter is way to significant to ignore. It may only see play in 1 deck but may push that deck from relative obscurity to a deck that can steal weekly challenges and league 5-0s.

Once Upon a Time is another boon to the Painter Archtype as well serving as painter copies 5-8.

This card will prove to be bananas in multiple formats, possibly even ban worthy in Modern. Not having a color restriction on the creature is huge imo.

@vaughnbros said in The Restrictions Are Just a First Step Toward Fixing Vintage: Brian DeMars:

Without Workshop, Forge is on a similar power level as other Future sight effects. If just having the effect with more colorless in its cost was strong enough, we’d have seen more impact from experimental frenzy getting printed.

If only I could just put 7-10 cards in my sideboard and near autowin a matchup against decks like BUG, Shops, and Xerox. Dredge is the weakest of the big 3. Restricting Troll changes basically no part of this.

Island and Force of Will are responsible for a number of restrictions. Gush being a big one, but also Brainstorm, Library, Ponder, Dig, TC, Scroll.

Don't blame little old island for the sins of Fetchlands, which made brainstorm playable (and ultimately, restriction worthy) and fueled delve spells into restriction. Forget the zillions of additional hours spent shuffling since Onslaught block in vintage, legacy and extended/modern, not to mention the bans these cards have led to in other formats (DRS, Divining Top, ect...).