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    Prospero

    @Prospero

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    Best posts made by Prospero

    • RE: Turbo Xerox and Monastery Mentor

      Rich, an excellent post, as always. Very well constructed, and considered.

      Before addressing things, I'd like to just point out that I believe there was a fundamental change in philosophy back in January 2015, when we saw the restriction of Treasure Cruise. Treasure Cruise was exceptionally powerful as a four-of, but this was the first major domino to fall in this chain that continues on today. First Treasure Cruise, then Dig Through Time, then Chalice of the Void, then Lodestone Golem, then Gush and Probe were restricted, and I don't think any of us think we're done.

      From the June 2009 restriction of Thirst for Knowledge through the January 2015 restriction of Treasure Cruise, we had a format that was defined by new printings and unrestrictions, not restrictions. It is my personal opinion that the metagame probably reached its apex around 2012, when Martello Shops, Grixis Control, Oath of Druids, Dredge, Delver, and several other decks were all serious players capable of adjusting for, and winning, any given event. I know that this was probably around the last time that I had a lot of fun playing the format.

      Was Treasure Cruise too good? It was clearly very powerful, but this is a format of powerful cards. I was not one of the voices campaigning for restriction, because I was concerned for two reasons:

      1. The axe that cut down Treasure Cruise could certainly come back to hit my pillar.

      2. While the stated desire was clear, it was impossible to know the actual effect of the restriction.

      I am a peacenik in general, and this bleeds into other areas of my life. What I define as fun is not necessarily something that others may enjoy, and I both respect that and understand that they should not be coerced to live in a world where they must conform to my standards of fun. I thoroughly hated Blightsteel Colossus, I didn't enjoy being Vault/Key'd, I loathed how little I could do against Dredge (while operating within Mishra's confines), and I had a deep-seated loathing specifically for Oath of Druids.

      I had difficult problems thrown at me, and I adjusted. I worked with Forino a lot, and we worked together in building decks that addressed those problems as best we could. Having something new thrown at you, reacting, and throwing something back at them was much of the fun in playing the game.

      The philosophy change, in believing that restrictions are the path towards a healthier metagame, has robbed me of much of this enjoyment. I did not celebrate when Cruise, or Dig, got hit because I knew that my time would come. As we reflect on the metagame now, I believe that we're coming back to that point again. Will Mentor be restricted? Will Misstep? Will Thorn? Will Workshop? Who knows?

      The point is, before we start thinking about what's going to happen next, shouldn't we be asking ourselves if we're even using the right tools to get us to the balance that we claim to be looking for? Is the metagame better now for having had all the restrictions we've had in the last two and a half years? To reiterate, I don't think any of us think we're done here. I think we all think that more restrictions are coming.

      There are many things that factor into attendance at an event. I have more than 15 years worth of experience as a tournament organizer for this format to know that.

      I swear I'm not puffing my chest here, but the N.Y.S.E. Open is a lot of work, and a lot of risk. There were several salient issues with N.Y.S.E. Open IV, most notably the interminable heat at the venue. I know that I lost some number of players for the event this year because of that issue last year. The number of players who travel long distances to the event is considerable. I know that many of the attendees leave very early in the morning, play all day, have dinner with friends afterward, and then have a long drive home ahead of them. Sometimes it's a bridge too far for those who would otherwise have been interested. The entry fee for the event is considerable, even if the prize support, giveaways, staffing, and venue all warranted it (and, sadly, should have warranted more) this year.

      I sincerely believe that a major factor in us having lost 27 players, going from 157 to 130 (all while having eight players make the trip from Spain - which effectively means we lost 35 players from last year before we start accounting for other first timers who make up for those who decided not to play this year) players from one year to the next is the state of the format. I'd rather not speak of my own personal disenchantment with the state of things. It should be noted that the state of the format has very real effects on tournament organizers, vendors, judges, staff, et al in addition to showing distorted top eights. This is how you drive players away from the format, and how you hurt the format in deeper ways.

      Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that "my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins". My definition of joy in this format is not yours, as yours is not mine. But weren't we supposed to live and let live? Are we in a better place now than we were just a few years ago? When does this end?

      If we're operating under the paradigm that we fully know what restrictions are going to do to the format (which is foolish, because none of us can say with authority that we do; we can watch, and wait, and see), then yes, Monastery Mentor and Mental Misstep should be restricted. But what happens then? If Workshops continue doing what they're doing, they will be hit again. Then what? Thorn? Sphere? Shop itself? And what does the format look like when a combo deck like Paradoxical Outcome has seen its most serious enemies nerf'd? Will we have hit the point where we took a balanced metagame, and turned it into the coin flip format that we should never want to see?

      I'd much rather see us start peeling back some of the restrictions, and seeing what could be done to get us back to where we were. Maybe Gush never should have come off the restricted list. In a world where Chalice of the Void and Lodestone Golem are restricted, using the paradigm that restrictions can be used with foreknowledge as to what will happen, I see no reason why Gush should be unrestricted.

      Some iteration of this fight has been going on for a long, long, long time. I know the world I live in, I think I have a pretty good handle on the landscape ahead. I don't like what I see. I believe that a misguided, albeit well-meaning, few are taking us down a path we would have done best to never trod.

      With work being what it is for me, and everything else in my life up in the air right now, I have no idea when I'll play again, or if I've played my final match. Vroman was a hero from afar for me, and I remember how he just kind of disappeared. I top eight'd the last event I played in, back in April, and, like every event I've played in of recent memory, I remember wanting to go home nearly the entire time. This was an uncommon rejoinder from me back in 2012.

      I sold my Moxen a few weeks ago, I sold my Lotus last weekend, I'm selling my Shops soon. I'll keep the core of my collection, so that I can power up again and play when I want to, but when is that going to be? I feel like others have been pushed away from the format because of the decisions that have been made regarding the B&R list. While work constraints certainly preclude me from playing as often as I could, I've had the option to buy into MODO and play more often, and I haven't felt like it. I would like to think that I'm going to come back to playing at some point in the next few years, perhaps in some limited fashion, and that I'll feel the draw to compete at a high level, and not just show up at events and occasionally embarrass myself with bad plays. If I'm going to come back and play like I did at Champs last year, or Waterbury this year, there's really no reason to come back and play at all.

      To try and get back on point, and wrap this up, I'd just ask that people really think deeply about when Vintage really was balanced in the last few years. Maybe we could start taking steps back towards a metagame where players could play with more of their cards, and we weren't looking to just hit everything that ran well for a while, but looked to develop new strategies to combat new problems. Everything in life isn't a nail, and we have more tools at our disposal than a hammer. Terra Nova was built as a rebuke to a comment that no new innovations were possible in Shops until new cards were printed, or new restrictions/unrestrictions took place. Maybe before we take away someone's right to play their cards we can go to the drawing board and work towards addressing the problems at hand in new, unseen ways. This current philosophy is exhausting, and awful for the long-term health of the format.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Handshakegate

      I think one of the fundamental reasons why people often exhibit bad sportsmanship is because they haven't put Magic in its right place. Magic is a game.

      When a lot of us started playing Vintage, we were teenagers, or in our early 20's. Even though the cards were significantly cheaper then, I know that (for me) the money was a lot harder to come by. Buying a Mox in 2003 or 2004 was tougher for me than buying a Mox would be today, and I think that's true for a lot of the people who played back then.

      The crux of this was that even though we were working, we weren't making all that much money, and many of us were looking for a way to make a few extra dollars here or there; it would help expand our collections, maybe it meant we weren't strapped for cash that week. In order to buy my first set of Beta Moxen, I had to work out a deal with a store owner who was willing to take $100 a week for me for several months. I couldn't afford to buy them otherwise. When you're in your early 20's, potentially still in college, you're not going to be making the kind of money that leaves much disposable income.

      I picked up a lot of shifts working security (graveyard shifts) to be able to afford my first set of power. When I finished my first set of Moxen, I carried them all with me, in toploaders, for a week or so. I would lay them out as I sat in my security booth; I felt pride in having put a set of Moxen together (an aside; Alpha and Beta power will always, always, always look nicer, but Unlimited power will always be special in its own way, as it was what we could afford, and there's a magic in your first piece of power that a gem mint Beta Black Lotus will never have).

      Many years later, upon meeting Raffaele Forino, he made a point of noting that if money was an issue for him, he'd just work instead. If you're showing up at tournaments with an expectation of making money, just how much money are you really going to make? Pro-rate that out over the number of hours spent, and then think about how much you'd make if you just spent that time working instead. And if you're not working a job where you can make the kind of money to afford the things that you want, what are you doing to ensure that this is no longer the case in the future? How much do you really want the cards? Are you willing to work a second job for them? Are you willing to make sacrifices in other areas of your life for them? I was broke for the better part of two weeks after I picked up a Mox Ruby from Dave Kaplan back in 2002 (I couldn't have put $20 together). Worth it. The barrier to entry now is obscenely high, and I wish they'd axe the Reserve List, but it's still possible to slowly buy in. If it's important enough to you to do it, you'll do it. And if it's not, it's not; the key is knowing where you stand.

      I bring all of this up because it's so easy to look at the prize support, not really have all your priorities in order, go out, play in an event, and maybe take those losses a little harder because your house isn't in order. I don't think I was ever a 'bad sportsman', but I definitely beat myself up harder after losses than I should have back then, when the money was so tight. I could see how that would cause people to lash out, transfer some of that anger that they may subconsciously feel about things, and direct it at whomever they have sitting across from them. It sucks for everybody involved.

      Before Magic was anything else, before it was a collectible, before it was about the art, before it was about the tournaments, before it was anything else, it was a game. A game. A recreation that you enjoy in your spare time, and that you play because you enjoy the game itself. Visna Harris is one of the best men I know, and he's having a good time no matter what his record is. He's kind, generous to a fault, and always laughing as he's trying to win with whatever crazy concoction he brought that day. I love this and I wish that everyone was like this.

      One of the things that has always bothered me was about players discussing the E.V. of tournaments, and pushing tournament organizers to commit more support than could be reasonably expected. When we all flew to GenCon to play in Vintage Champs, there was the flight, hotel, food, entry costs, etc. Who came out 'ahead' in that calculation? The winner, and...? The tournament isn't being framed the right way by those who would view it through those parameters. The tournament is a vacation. Yeah, I want to win. Yeah, I'm going to test, I'm going to play my best, and I'm going to try to drive you into the ground (while never sacrificing my integrity), but this is a game. The person sitting across from me is a gift, I owe the tournament organizer, judges, and assorted staff my thanks for putting together an event that gives me a chance to play a game I love, I am lucky to be able to play that game and I should be thankful for that. I shouldn't be showing up with an expectation of the 'value' I can gain on the day, because the value I do gain from it all has nothing to do with money, even when I win.

      Human beings are complex, and when you show up anywhere, you're carrying things with you. There are always other aspects that factor into how we react to the people around us, how we feel, etc. We don't always react the way that we should. When we don't , we should acknowledge it, own it, apologize for it, and try to be better. Reading about Brian becoming better is heartening. The primary emotion that we should all derive from this game is gratitude.

      posted in Off-Topic
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Theft in Ohio - Four Collections Stolen

      Incredibly, it looks as though everything that was stolen may end up coming back to Tom, Mike, Brian and Shawn.

      The thieves showed up at The Soldiery in Ohio yesterday, with all the deck boxes and binders thrown in Shawn's duffel bag, which had Shawn's name on it. The employee on hand knew about the missing collections, and called the police. There was an altered Lotus in the collection, which is unique, and will also help cement that this was their stuff. Everything is now sitting in a police evidence locker room right now, but we hope for some kind of resolution to all of this in the next week.

      Everyone who donated will be made whole, and the four guys will post a more complete rundown of what went down (in addition to a thank you) in the coming days.

      This made my day yesterday, and I hope it's a bright spot in your day as well!

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: B&R Update

      @Soly If you're going to make the 'fair and balanced' argument, then you're going to lose a hell of a lot more than Workshop and Lodestone Golem.

      Do you really think that cards like Gush, Mentor, et al, are fair?

      They're not. Fair and balanced isn't part of the equation. We all accept that there are games that we lose because this is the format that we play in. Some examples include:

      Lotus, Vault, Key, land, GG
      Lotus, Mentor, Mox, Preordain, anything
      Mox, Orchard, Oath
      Land, Ritual, Necro

      Are you really making the argument that a turn one Lodestone Golem, off the back of a Mishra's Workshop, is fundamentally different, and significantly more powerful than any of those plays?

      Let's leave aside the propriety of restrictions for a moment, and consider something that people haven't been talking about much lately. The amount of money spent by Magic players in order to play Vintage is considerable. Shop pilots spend less than many other pilots, but they still spend a significant amount of money to play Vintage. If I were to look to replace my Workshops with another nice set, right now, it would run me around $3,000. This says nothing about Tabernacles, Karakas, and the myriad other necessary expenditures in order to play Shops. The average Shop deck will run less than the average blue deck, and it will still run well over $10,000, and likely more like $20,000.

      What would it say about Wizards for them to tell players who've spent $3,000 on a playset of Workshops, in addition to however many thousands extra on Workshop-centric cards that they can't play with those cards? Lodestone Golem is not an expensive rare; restricting Lodestone Golem, as abhorrent as that would (will) be, is not a major financial hit for the players involved. Restricting Workshop is enough to disillusion players with the game, and the company.

      To get back on the verity behind the assumed necessity of restricting a Shop card; the results aren't there for it. Steve and Kevin's most recent podcast cites seven wins for Workshop decks in 2016. These include events of eight through twelve players. How ridiculous would it be to restrict a Workshop card on the back of results like these? An eight man tournament may be the death knell of Shops? Get the hell out of here.

      To the opportunists who think that this will provide you with the blue field that you've always dreamed of; caveat emptor. Do you think Dredge will be able to survive when sideboards are no longer split between Shops and Dredge? Bazaars and Workshops exist in harmony with each other. What hurts one hurts the other. I have played in the ridiculously heavy blue fields that existed from before the unrestriction of Workshop. When Sam Black says that this Vintage is not his Vintage, what he's saying is that he yearns for the days of Keeper vs. Blue Bullshit vs. Old School Expulsion vs. the early Landstill variants vs. infinite other forms of blue.

      Do you remember the decks from the first trimester of the first season of the VSL? Please, check this out:

      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GbSEeQpH8sV-cfUDVd-8CAlSAQwCR-jeNuPOIucvGx4/edit?pref=2&pli=1

      For a moment, let's talk about the nine blue decks that were played. Realize that these players came into this format with, for the most part, virtually no recent experience in either paper or pixel Vintage. LSV is a Vintage pilot, and he should be afforded that respect. Dave Williams and E-Fro were as well. But what you see is nine interpretations of blue, and various ways to one-up the blue mirror. Do you really think that Merfolk should have been 30% of the field? Even after Joel Lim won Vintage Champs, was Merfolk even half that?

      Now, let's come to Chris Pikula. Chris asked me before the event what I thought was worthwhile. He knew that I'd suggest a Workshop list, and he knew that I was used to playing against blue decks. Blue is the fastball of the Vintage metagame. Chris tore through his opponents in his first trimester, as well he should have. Chris playing Workshops meant that pilots had to be honest with their deck selections moving forward; they were not able to run greedy blue decks without paying a cost.

      We have seen what the pros believed Vintage was, and I believe that we see what they want Vintage to look like. No Dredge, no Shops, blue on blue.

      To Sam Black; unlike nearly everyone else who currently plays this format, I played in your halcyon format. It was fun, but it is nothing like the complex, demanding, worthy format that we have now. The incredible arrogance in championing blue to the detriment of myriad other Vintage pilots who have chosen something other than Force of Will and Mana Drain as the cornerstones of their decks should make entirely translucent your objectives. The garbage that you spew about restricting Lodestone Golem, Mishra's Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, and anything that does not conform to your view of what the format should be shows monumental ignorance and arrogance, a deadly combination. That a man who does not play the format, does not test the format, and hasn't done so in years should have influence over bannings and restrictions is some of the most stupid nonsense I've ever seen. If you were so emotionally wedded to this format, you'd play the damn format. If you valued your invitation to the VSL, you'd have tested. You walked in, unprepared, and expected to get by on the back of experience in other formats, and your name. You were wildly mistaken. You earned your losses in the VSL play-in tournament. Own them. Or be a child, and complain about the nature of the game, until you receive the trophy you feel is your birthright, and not something worthy of effort, time, and dedication.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • N.Y.S.E. Open IV Official Tournament Report

      N.Y.S.E. Open IV has come and gone. And it was a hell of an event.

      For starters, with 156 attendees, N.Y.S.E. Open IV doubled the attendance of N.Y.S.E. Open I. As a tournament organizer, especially a Vintage tournament organizer, I cannot begin to adequately express how rewarding it is to see that so many people felt the event worth attending. We are a community built format, and to see so many members of our great community rally behind this event, and all the people who put in a great deal of effort to make it a success, is something that I will treasure. Thank you.

      Many members of the community contributed their time, effort, and skill in order to make this event a success. I owe a debt of gratitude to Nick Coss, Calvin Hodges, Greg Fenton, Aaron Rubinstein, Mike Lupo, Visna Harris, Paul Baranay, Brian Paskoff, Mani Cavalieri, Adam Shaw, Gil Rappold, and the countless others who ensured that N.Y.S.E. Open IV was a success.

      The top eight for this event was one of the most legendary top eights I've ever seen, as we mixed some of the old giants with the new pixel greats. Anytime you get to see Roland Chang and Andy Probasco in a top eight, it's a good event. That we also got to see many of the newer members of the community, including Andy Markiton, Hank Zhong and Tom Metelsky, was a great thing. Congrats to Montolio, and all of my top eight!

      Top Eight Decklists:

      Andy Markiton - Ravager TKS

      4 Mishra’s Workshop
      4 Ancient Tomb
      4 Wasteland
      4 Eldrazi Temple
      1 Strip Mine
      1 Tolarian Academy
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mana Crypt
      1 Sol Ring
      1 Black Lotus
      1 Chalice of the Void
      4 Phyrexian Revoker
      1 Lodestone Golem
      4 Thought-Knot Seer
      4 Arcbound Ravager
      4 Triskelion
      3 Hangarback Walker
      4 Sphere of Resistance
      4 Thorn of Amethyst
      1 Trinisphere
      4 Tangle Wire

      SB:

      4 Grafdigger’s Cage
      2 Relic of Progenitus
      2 Tormod’s Crypt
      3 Crucible of Worlds
      2 Dismember
      2 Witchbane Orb

      Tom Metelsky - Grixis Pyromancer

      2 Baleful Strix
      3 Young Pyromancer
      1 Black Lotus
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Ancestral Recall
      1 Brainstorm
      4 Cabal Therapy
      2 Flusterstorm
      4 Gitaxian Probe
      4 Mental Misstep
      1 Ponder
      3 Preordain
      1 Demonic Tutor
      2 Sudden Shock
      1 Time Walk
      2 Dack Fayden
      1 Yawgmoth’s Will
      1 Jace, the Mindsculptor
      4 Force of Will
      3 Gush
      1 Pyroblast
      1 Treasure Cruise
      1 Island
      3 Polluted Delta
      4 Scalding Tarn
      3 Volcanic Island
      1 Strip Mine
      2 Underground Sea

      SB:

      1 Dread of Night
      3 Grafdigger’s Cage
      1 Pyroblast
      1 Shattering Spree
      1 Null Rod
      1 Dismember
      1 Mindbreak Trap
      3 Ravenous Trap
      2 Ingot Chewer
      1 Murderous Cut

      Hank Zhong - Esper Mentor

      4 Monastery Mentor
      3 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
      1 Snapcaster Mage
      4 Force of Will
      4 Mental Misstep
      1 Flusterstorm
      1 Thoughtseize
      3 Swords to Plowshares
      4 Gush
      1 Dig through Time
      1 Treasure Cruise
      1 Jace, the Mindsculptor
      1 Demonic Tutor
      1 Demonic Consultation
      1 Ancestral Recall
      1 Time Walk
      1 Ponder
      1 Brainstorm
      3 Gitaxian Probe
      1 Preordain
      1 Black Lotus
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mana Crypt
      3 Tundra
      2 Underground Sea
      1 Island
      4 Flooded Strand
      1 Misty Rainforest
      1 Scalding Tarn
      1 Polluted Delta
      1 Library of Alexandria
      1 Strip Mine

      SB:

      2 Disenchant
      1 Swords to Plowshares
      1 Balance
      1 Engineered Explosives
      4 Containment Priest
      1 Rest in Peace
      1 Ravenous Trap
      1 Energy Flux
      1 Plains
      1 Ethersworn Canonist
      1 Thoughtseize

      Ryan Glackin - Amalgam Dredge

      4 Narcomoeba
      4 Bloodghast
      4 Cabal Therapy
      3 Golgari Thug
      3 Ichorid
      4 Bridge from Below
      4 Leyline of the Void
      4 Stinkweed Imp
      4 Unmask
      4 Golgari Grave-Troll
      4 Prized Amalgam
      4 Serum Powder
      4 Bazaar of Baghdad
      4 City of Brass
      2 Dakmor Salvage
      4 Undiscovered Paradise

      SB:

      4 Barbarian Ring
      4 Ingot Chewer
      3 Serenity
      4 Wispmare

      Vito Picozzo - Jeskai Mentor

      4 Force of Will
      4 Gush
      4 Monastery Mentor
      1 Young Pyromancer
      2 Dack Fayden
      1 Jace, the Mindsculptor
      4 Preordain
      1 Supreme Verdict
      1 Pyroblast
      1 Flusterstorm
      2 Gitaxian Probe
      2 Snapcaster Mage
      2 Swords of the Plowshare
      1 Mindbreak Trap
      3 Mental Misstep
      1 Ancestral Recall
      1 Time Walk
      1 Brainstorm
      1 Wear/Tear
      1 Black Lotus
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Island
      1 Snow-Covered Island
      4 Scalding Tarn
      1 Misty Rainforest
      1 Flooded Strand
      1 Library of Alexandria
      3 Tundra
      3 Volcanic Island
      1 Treasure Cruise
      1 Dig through Time

      SB:

      4 Rest in Peace
      2 City in a Bottle
      2 Ingot Chewer
      1 Wear/Tear
      2 Containment Priest
      1 Mountain
      1 Swords to Plowshares
      1 Flusterstorm
      1 Supreme Verdict

      Brian Kelly - Minus Five

      1 Black Lotus
      1 Mana Crypt
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Lotus Petal
      2 Monastery Mentor
      3 Dark Confidant
      1 Snapcaster Mage
      4 Force of Will
      3 Mental Misstep
      2 Flusterstorm
      3 Gush
      1 Ancestral Recall
      1 Brainstorm
      1 Steel Sabotage
      1 Swords to Plowshares
      3 Gitaxian Probe
      3 Preordain
      1 Ponder
      1 Time Walk
      1 Merchant Scroll
      1 Demonic Tutor
      1 Yawgmoth’s Will
      1 Tendrils of Agony
      2 Jace, the Mindsculptor
      3 Polluted Delta
      3 Flooded Strand
      2 Misty Rainforest
      3 Underground Sea
      2 Tundra
      1 Island
      1 Library of Alexandria
      1 Sensei’s Divining Top

      SB:

      2 Tormod’s Crypt
      3 Containment Priest
      2 Rest in Peace
      2 Swords to Plowshares
      1 Balance
      1 Karakas
      1 Disenchant
      1 Steel Sabotage
      1 Ethersworn Canonist
      1 Mindbreak Trap

      Roland Chang - Ravager TKS

      1 Black Lotus
      1 Chalice of the Void
      1 Mana Crypt
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Sapphire
      2 Hangarback Walker
      1 Sol Ring
      1 Umezawa’s Jitte
      4 Arcbound Ravager
      4 Phyrexian Revoker
      4 Sphere of Resistance
      4 Thorn of Amethyst
      1 Trinisphere
      4 Tangle Wire
      1 Lodestone Golem
      4 Thought-Knot Seer
      4 Triskelion
      1 Strip Mine
      1 Tolarian Academy
      4 Ancient Tomb
      4 Eldrazi Temple
      4 Mishra’s Workshop
      4 Wasteland

      SB:

      3 Crucible of Worlds
      3 Dismember
      3 Grafdigger’s Cage
      2 Karakas
      4 Tormod’s Crypt

      Andy Probasco - White Eldrazi

      1 Chalice of the Void
      3 Containment Priest
      4 Eldrazi Displacer
      1 Lodestone Golem
      4 Phyrexian Revoker
      4 Reality Smasher
      3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
      4 Thorn of Amethyst
      4 Thought-Knot Seer
      2 Vryn Wingmare
      1 Black Lotus
      4 Ancient Tomb
      4 Cavern of Souls
      4 Eldrazi Temple
      1 Karakas
      1 Sol Ring
      1 Mana Crypt
      1 Mox Pearl
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Mox Jet
      3 Plains
      2 Snow-Covered Plains
      1 Strip Mine
      4 Wasteland

      SB:

      2 Aegis of the Gods
      1 Dismember
      1 Containment Priest
      2 Disenchant
      2 Grafdigger’s Cage
      2 Umezawa’s Jitte
      2 Tormod’s Crypt
      2 Swords to Plowshares
      1 Rest in Peace

      With eight pieces of power given out, a playset of Workshop given out, a playset of English Mana Drains given out, sealed boxes of EMA and MM2 given out, and more than a thousand dollars extra in additional free giveaways, N.Y.S.E. Open IV came to an end.

      Thank you all for your support. This series has been tremendously demanding in both time and effort, but seeing the community response makes it feel worthwhile.

      See you all around!

      posted in Tournament Reports
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: MTGO July 2016 Power 9 Challenge

      An updated Terra Nova list performed well for the Forinos and I at Champs last year, but was an alteration or two away from putting us in contention. I picked up my second loss at 6-1, I'm not sure when they picked up theirs. If the deck had Lodestone Golem, it would be able to be adjusted, and be a player. It doesn't, so it sits on the sidelines.

      The token generators have been brutal to Smokestack in general. The last iteration of the deck that was successful was a list that I played that had both Ratchet Bomb and Steel Hellkite main. Without both Chalice and Lodestone, the deck sits on the sidelines.

      While I was not a fan of the Chalice-less list that Nick DiJohn was piloting to successful results, the deck was still successful in that incarnation. The loss of Lodestone Golem was brutal to that deck.

      Forino put in some work in the pillar in the spring of this year, but the results weren't there with the new list at the N.Y.S.E. Open.

      My Dark Depths list was absolutely crutching on Lodestone. It was critical, as it provided a reasonable clock, and also pushed the opponent to respect you with artifact removal while you had the backup plan of assembling a 20/20. Without Lodestone Golem, the deck has no clock, and thus, no distraction from the 20/20. It doesn't help that there are infinite Swords to Plowshares in the metagame right now. I can't speak for anyone else's results, but I split a top eight, split top four twice, and split a finals with the deck. Every time that I played it, I won with it. That deck is done without Lodestones, and seeing Bob Maher pick up the list for the VSL play-in was weirdly disappointing, as I don't think he realized that the deck is garbage now.

      As an aside that is totally irrelevant now, I had taken to offering splits as soon as I was in top eight/top four/the finals of every tournament that I did well at because I knew that when I performed well with a Workshop deck, the commentary wouldn't be "wow, Detwiler did well" but rather "Workshops are dumb/oppressive/need to be restricted out of existence". Playing with that over my head at every event that I played in for the last three years has been ridiculous, and exhausting.

      I have tens of thousands of dollars into cards that I can't play, because the pillar I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on can't compete like it could a year ago. Attendance at local events are generally down, people who have been stalwarts of the community are gone, and all I see is a few different variations on blue decks win ad nauseum. The B&R list is a personal thing for a lot of people, mostly because the barrier to entry to Vintage is so high. If I was going to play a tier one deck right now, I'd need duals, fetches, and a lot more. There was a point in time, recently, where the only pillar that was weak was Storm. The argument can be made that the only pillars that are strong right now are Null Rod and Force of Will. That's bullshit.

      I have let loose a few times in the last few months, and I have quickly backed off, because this whole conversation is 100% poison, and all it is guaranteed to generate is bad emotions. Nothing I say will impact the B&R list (I devoutly believe this), and yet someone like Sam Black (who doesn't play the format, and didn't even know that Bazaar hadn't been restricted as he made his ridiculous "restrict Bazaar & Workshop" argument") can influence what happens, because he's a Magic celebrity, and thousands of people who don't play the format assume he's right about things they remain ignorant of. Sam took a generic Mentor list to the VSL play-in, got beaten up, and was upset. Names don't matter here; under the right circumstances, I'll take any number of our Vintage aficionados over the PT guys. But the PT guys have megaphones, and we do not. Perhaps it's supremely arrogant on my part, but there is a part of me that believes that I bear some responsibility for Lodestone's restriction; not for results that I have put up, but for losing my match to Ochoa in the play-in finals. If I had won, I would have spent the entirety of that VSL season arguing against the Lodestone restriction, and doing it with results. Maybe that would have tipped the balance. At this point, it's another moot point in a sea of moot points.

      Gush is dumb. Gush was dumb in 2003, and Gush is dumb now. Gush never should have been unrestricted, and yet I held back my opinion on it because I knew that other people enjoyed playing with it, and because Vintage was the format where we were supposed to be able to play with our cards. What's the alternative? Be vocal, demanding, and rock the boat until somebody at the DCI gives me what I want? This game is a hobby, not a job. This game is supposed to be a release, not a stress.

      I have spent more time, effort, and money building the community in the last 15 years than just about anyone else in the world, and Vintage is sickening right now. I want nothing more than to be excited about the format. I want to build decks, loan them out, spread the gospel of the format, and further proselytize. I can't do what I want to do right now, because the format is not exciting, because a few very vocal people warped the format in ways they didn't understand (and don't really care to), and because as much as the salt is flowing now, I don't want to keep doing this, having this conversation, letting all of this out. I love the community, and my love for the community made me do things I didn't really want to do. When the Lodestone restriction was announced, part of me wanted to refund every N.Y.S.E. Open entry fee, sell the prize support, and be done with it. Spending over 100 hours putting together a tournament that makes no money, year after year, while you hate what has been done to the format was not an appealing prospect. Do I take the Lodestone restriction personally? Absolutely. It violated my basic standard philosophy about what Vintage was supposed to be. I started the process of selling off cards, and sold off a little over $6,000 worth before I stopped, because I know that once I sell my power and Shops that it really is over for me (and I'm not going to buy back in).

      I don't want to pay the bill that was handed to me (a bill for duals, fetches, Flusterstorms, etc.) in order to keep playing Vintage, and I don't want to walk away from the game entirely. You could make the argument that Classic is nothing more than me running away from Vintage, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Maybe what I need is someone to just tell me to 'man up' and sell everything, take the money, walk away, and do something else with my time. But with the amount of time, effort, and money that I have spent on this game, and this format, that's a galling proposition. Workshops aren't fine, and they're not going to be fine until something is done, but the majority of Vintage players play blue, so it's only ever going to be an unpopular position among a few people while we watch the rest of the format play their blue spells.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Let's Talk About Stax (Maybe)

      As long as Mentor is a legal four-of in the environment, every potential Smokestack deck must start with three Tabernacles in the main. Mentor, and Pyromancer before it, made Smokestack significantly worse. In order for Smokestack to be worthwhile, it needs to be hitting opposing lands, which means that you need to do all you can to complement what Smokestack does. Tabernacle clears away creatures, potentially leaving their opposing mana bases exposed.

      But the uptick in tempo strategies, beginning with the Delver/Pyromancer lists, culminating in Mentor, and its response, the various Ravager Shop decks, means that you have to accomplish a borderline impossible feat; gain control of the game quickly enough with your four mana Smokestack (which will take 2-3 turns to start doing real damage) before your opponent is able to hit you for a crippling, potentially lethal, amount of damage.

      It pushes you to want to run cards like Tabernacle, Smokestack and Ensnaring Bridge together, which leads you to running a bad control deck that can't tutor for the pieces that it needs. Null Rod also belongs in that list, which is unfortunate, because Null Rod and Smokestack are not friends. You don't want your opponent sacrificing Moxen that have been turned off; you want that Null Rod to be doing something else that otherwise impacts the game. Also, that Null Rod doesn't stack well (that you never want to see multiples), all while you're forced to run 3-4 in order to, hopefully, see one, puts you in a position where a deck that can rarely afford bad topdecks has guaranteed some number more bad topdecks than it would like.

      Singletons in Shop decks that don't have Kuldotha Forgemaster feel random. You're not guaranteed to hit them, which means that you want to take a step back and consider what they generally do (i.e., Walking Ballista as a threat, Karn, Silver Golem as a threat, etc.) in lieu of looking at what specific effect they bring to the table (i.e. Karn, Silver Golem as Mox control, Walking Ballista as creature control, etc.).

      To address the larger points:

      A lot of things pushed the Shop decks to where they're at right now. The token generator strategy was a stake through the heart of Smokestack builds because a quick Pyromancer/Mentor meant that an opponent wasn't sacrificing mana (either Moxen or lands), but was instead sacrificing tokens generated from their instants and sorceries. Smokestack, one of Shop's few true card-advantage engines, was suddenly potentially a card-loss engine.

      The rise of Swords to Plowshares, from a sideboard option that usually only saw two or so copies being played, to a maindeck four-of, punished Shop decks for investing mana in expensive threats. A six mana Wurmcoil Engine could be flicked away with a one mana instant. This pushed Shop decks to run cheaper, more efficient threats. The restriction of Chalice of the Void further pushed this home; Shop decks that wanted to try to run cards like Kuldotha Forgemaster weren't able to protect their threats, which meant that even if they were ready to try and establish threats on the board to end the game, the opponent could easily collapse their strategy.

      Dack Fayden is silently responsible for much of what we see today with Shop decks. A Shop deck must be able to answer a resolved Dack Fayden, which changes how Shop decks are built. Phyrexian Revoker is a necessity in all modern Shop decks. The restriction of Lodestone Golem, which, when paired with cards like Chalice of the Void set to zero, helped ensure that an early Dack wouldn't happen, further powered up Dack. Cards like Smokestack and Crucible of Worlds become far worse, as your opponent can easily steal them, and negate any advantage that you had hoped to gain from them. Cards like Arcbound Ravager become more powerful because of their ability to negate Dack's theft ability.

      Decks with fully developed fast mana bases, and a healthy dose of basic lands, were being run over by Gush decks. Gush decks weakness to Sphere effects, especially multiple Sphere effects, demanded that Shop decks max out on Sphere effects.

      Suddenly, you were looking at the cards that you needed to run, with your rough mana base, your fast mana, the full resistor package, and the creatures needed to combat Dack Fayden, and you didn't really have many open slots. Consider this:

      1 Black Lotus
      1 Chalice of the Void
      1 Mana Crypt
      1 Mox Sapphire
      1 Mox Jet
      1 Mox Ruby
      1 Mox Emerald
      1 Sol Ring
      4 Arcbound Ravager
      4 Phyrexian Revoker
      4 Sphere of Resistance
      4 Thorn of Amethyst
      4 Tangle Wire
      1 Trinisphere
      1 Lodestone Golem

      1 Strip Mine
      1 Tolarian Academy
      4 Ancient Tomb
      4 Mishra's Factory (Or Eldrazi Temple, or Cavern, or whatever, but four more lands)
      4 Mishra's Workshop
      4 Wasteland

      That's 48 cards before we decide what we want to be. I also don't think an argument can be made for running anything less than four Walking Ballista right now, unless you want to try and be some kind of Null Rod hard control deck (which I think is terrible). Add those in and we're at 52 cards.

      This sucks.

      There is little room for innovation because there's so much pressure to answer the problems at hand. Speaking as a Shop pilot who has had Crucible, and Smokestack, stolen by Dack Fayden, it's a miserable world.

      There was a real point in time back in early 2012 where you could run Espresso Stax (Smokestacks), Martello Shops (effectively Tinker), MUD Marinara (Welders) and be justified in deciding to run any of those decks. The token generators killed Espresso. The last time I ran the list to a successful finish, I had to switch out Karns for Steel Hellkites in order to try and make up the slack from Pyromancer/Mentor. The restrictions to Chalice of the Void and Lodestone Golem killed Martello Shops. The modern demands on a Shop deck's mana base (maxing out on Ancient Tombs) and the printing of Walking Ballista, I believe, finally ends the notion that a successful Shop/Welder deck can be constructed again.

      All the aforementioned strategies are outdated. We had a point where the various parts of 5C Stax had been taken apart and reassembled into their own full decks:

      Espresso Stax - Smokestack deck
      Martello Shops - Tinker deck
      Terra Nova - Sphere deck
      MUD Marinara - Welder deck

      Those decks are all in the past.

      The future of Workshop decks came when Javier David took the first of his 'Mudhoney' Ravager decks to play in the LCV in Spain. Several Americans played with iterations of his build, First they (/we) played with a Ravager/Lodestone deck (Rich Shay at Champs, Brian Schlossberg/Will Dayton at local events, me in the VSL play-in that I participated in). Then the restriction of Lodestone Golem saw the build get adjusted again, this time swapping in Eldrazi Temples for Mishra's Factories, so that the deck could run Thought-Knot Seers.

      Everyone is always hunting for their edge. I decided that I wasn't willing to quit playing Vintage over the restrictions to Chalice of the Void and Lodestone Golem back in September of 2016, which led me to see what I could do to attack the metagame from a different angle. I put together what I believe to be an advancement to the second round of Ravager decks (both the Thought-Knot Seer builds and their cousin, the Fleetwheel Cruiser builds), running a lower curve with Steel Overseers.

      Even if you believe that Steel Overseer isn't the best route for Shop decks, currently there are really only three variants that make sense (if your goal is to play competitive Vintage, and not just have a good time (which is fine; knowing what we want out of the things we do with our time is critical, and having fun is a good thing)); Car Shops, Ravager TKS and Blitzkrieg Shops (Overseer Ravager).

      I've droned on long enough.

      Good luck with whatever you decide.

      posted in Workshops
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • NYSE Open VI - T/O "Report"

      Traditionally, the T/O report featured a quick rundown of the day, decklists, a top eight breakdown, a few thanks, and an 'until next time'. You can call this a report, but it's really just my reflections on the day.

      There were players who flew from all over the U.S., and even from Europe, to make the event. I am humbled and honored that you came to play in my event.

      I mentioned this when I spoke to everyone at the beginning of the day, but it is impossible for me to run an event like this without relying (at times heavily) upon the friends I've made through our shared love of this game, and this format. Nick Coss and Calvin Hodges were absolutely instrumental in making NYSE Open VI possible. Without them, this event doesn't happen. This community has survived for more than 20 years on the backs of independent store owners, vendors, and tournament organizers, and unless we witness the death knell of the Reserved List, that is unlikely to change. These two men are pillars of the community for a reason; their dedication to the format, and all its adherents, has helped keep this format, and this community, alive. They are pillars in the truest sense of the word; they hold us up, and make our time away from work, and the rest of our lives, that much better by keeping something we love alive. I can't thank them enough.

      There are many, many others whom I need to thank. In no particular order: Visna Harris, thank you again for your help with the trophies. I firmly believe that the NYSE Open trophy is the best trophy in Magic, let alone Vintage. This happens because of you. Greg Fenton, thank you for lending your considerable talent to creating an indelible image that we are lucky enough to now carry around as a playmat. It serves as a reminder of a great day, and the better community behind it. David Tao, thank you for coming through in the 11th hour, and saving the video coverage. This event will live on, in part, because of you. To Lupo and BrassMan, thank you for helping share the NYSE Open with all of those who could not make it that day. Hundreds of people watched the event on the day, and thousands more will enjoy it online as time goes on. Thank you to Dave Kaplan, a friend of more than 20 years now, and his company, AltFest, for providing a Library of Alexandria, among other raffle prizes; you added a nice bonus to the event that helped make it just a little more special for the players who attended. Thank you to Jason Jaco, for keeping Eternal Central updated throughout the day, and for completing the thankless task of providing us with all the lists from the event. You are a historian for the format, and the format is better for it.

      There are a few others whom I need to thank, but it's best to work my way through the day, before I finish up with those few people.

      The first time that you run a tournament, you're surprised at the things that go wrong. Or, at least, I was. In the beginning, you plan out all the things that you know you have to improve. And don’t get me wrong, there is always room for improvement, and it is possible for an event to run relatively smoothly. That said, there are always going to be issues.

      I’ve run a fair number of Vintage tournaments at this point in my life. I’ve been T/O’ing since 2002, when I was just 19 years old. NYSE Open VI was beset by problems from the outset of the day, and it felt like every iteration of a T/O problem that could crop up did at some point during the day. That event was easily the most trying event, from a logistics standpoint, that I have ever run, and it started taking a toll on me as the day progressed. A special thanks goes to Nick Coss here, as Nick saw the problems, and helped attack and resolve all of them.

      When things started going wrong that day, I had the support that I needed in order to help keep the event running, even if it did feel like the event was teetering on the edge at times. Looking back at the absurdity of the day, I cannot believe that all the things that happened happened, that we got through all of it, and that the response from the players has been as positive as it has been. Thank you all.

      When I showed up at the venue that morning, I showed up with most of the rest of my cards, as it was my intention to sell nearly all of them, and make NYSE Open VI my last Vintage event. I’m beat. The leadup to this event was, in many ways, as absurd as the event itself, as I found myself working a very heavy load of hours at work, and then found that complemented with a half dozen serious issues outside the office. The month before the NYSE Open was one of the most stressful months of my life; I have had many difficulties thrown my way, and it has not been easy fighting my way through them. Resolving all of them will take months.

      That the day was what it was, that it felt like I was constantly running from one fire to another for the better part of 12 hours, meant that I didn’t have the time that I had intended to take to sit down with Nick and Calvin to sell off the vast majority of my Vintage cards (with a few exceptions; a set of Mishra’s Factories that were once part of my original collection, a Beta Sol Ring that was a gift from a dear friend, a German ‘winter’ Tolarian Academy that I had Earl Grant DeLeon do, and a few others).

      I was affected by the hearty round of applause that I received after I welcomed everyone to the event. It would not be the only time during that day. Sean Came organized having all the players sign one of Greg Fenton’s incredible NYSE Open VI playmats, which means a great deal to me. I will treasure this. I had many people approach me throughout the day, bringing up a meaningful interaction between us, and I appreciated all of them. Each of these moments helped keep me powered up, and motivated to keep fighting through the waves of problems that besieged the event.

      At the conclusion of his top four match, JP Kohler was headed out the door. I congratulated him on an incredible performance on the day, and remarked that it was something that he should be deeply proud of. To start your day 7-0, in that room, is nothing short of remarkable. As he walked out the door, he told me that he was leaving his Underground Sea, his prize, with me. He knew that the event had gone negative on the day. I didn’t have the chance to argue with him before he was gone. I intended on returning the Sea to him at a later date, when the noise of the moment had settled.

      Joe Brennan and Vasu Balakrishnan sat down to play the finals, and I left the coverage room with the trophy in hand. The trophy is always placed on the table with the last two competitors, as a reminder of what they came there for, and what is so close to being achieved. As I walked into the room, and was noticed, Joe Brennan faced me and told me that he and Vasu had both agreed that they did not want the Workshops, and that they wanted the Workshops to remain with me.

      I have run six NYSE Opens. The NYSE Open has never been run to turn a profit. My goal, year after year, was to break even. I took losses several of those years. Sometimes the losses were considerable. It deeply, deeply pained me to have to reduce the prize support for this event, but I literally didn’t have the money to lose, as I couldn’t cover the gap between the registrants, and the cost of the event. I had mentally prepared to lose a couple of thousand dollars on the event, but couldn’t cover where we were.

      I wanted the prize support for every NYSE Open to be the same as the first, but the world at large caught on, and the cards that I had given out had soared in price. I kept the prize support, and the entry fee, the same for as long as I could, first sacrificing with the venue, then the support. You have to walk the line between the entry and the support, balancing the costs of judges, security, giveaways, alters, et al, and it’s oftentimes difficult to call it correctly. That I had to cut the prize support for this event felt like a failure on my part. That it wasn’t the prize support from NYSE Open I felt like an unavoidable failure.

      In my head, in that moment that Joe told me what they had agreed on, I reflected on all the things that had gone on that day. It was an emotionally tumultuous day, as it was my intention that this be the last NYSE Open, and probably the last major event that I ever run. I thought about all the things that had gone wrong that day, and I thought about how I wasn’t able to offer the support that I had wanted to the community that was the source of great memories, and greater friendships. I thought about my intention to sell out again, this time for the last time. I sincerely believed (and still believe) that I did not deserve those Workshops. I immediately declined, thanked them both, and then declined again.

      I was too shocked by it to really process it fully in that moment. It was an obscenely generous gesture. I have not owned Workshops for a while now, as life’s demands made their sale a requisite move in the grander scheme. I walked back into the coverage room to finish up with what needed finishing, and found myself repeating Joe’s offer to the coverage team. I wasn’t thinking about the effects of repeating that. I took the team trophy, and headed back out to the main room, running into all the friends who had remained. I was told by many to take the prize, and it still felt anathema to me to do that. It wasn’t mine to take. Joe offered again when I put the team trophy on the table, and upon pushing, I didn’t have it in me to respond again, and left the room.

      It's too much.

      It continued. Upon discovering that there were plans to do something that would have made me deeply embarrassed, I agreed to accept the Shops.

      Thank you is something that’s said for holding a door, for letting someone go ahead of you in a line, for a moment’s kindness or decency. Those two words buckle under the weight of the action that Joe took on Saturday. I don’t really know what to say to him. It is a deeply appreciated kindness that still makes me feel uncomfortable.

      I honestly felt lost at the end of the event. The meaning of the word ambivalent seems lost on most of the world today, as they have confused it with the word disinterested. I was ambivalent about NYSE Open VI. The difficulties in the leadup to the event, specifically the week of the event, made me doubt whether I was going to be able to pull it off. Only by heavily relying on my friends were we able to. The day of the event was more difficult than the leadup to the event. And yet it was met with moments of incredible generosity, decency, and love. I didn’t expect any of those things. I am, in many ways, ambivalent about NYSE Open VI, because I don’t like thinking that this was the way that I was due to go out as a T/O, not with a bang, but with a whimper. But it wasn’t quite that, was it?

      I headed upstairs from the conference rooms, intending to find a friend who was staying with me, as it was finally time to go. Sitting by the bar, I found Jon Geras, Jeremy Beaver, Dom DiFebo, Travis Compton, Jim Sharkey and Nils Thiim. It didn’t take long before we were all reliving stories of Vintage tournaments past. Without knowing what had gone on with Joe, or JP, Travis said that he had something for me, and it was another dual, the Badlands that had been given away in a raffle. I stopped fighting it, and I thanked him.

      Thank you, Joe Brennan. Thank you, JP Kohler. Thank you, Travis Compton. Your generosity was unexpected, unnecessary, and deeply appreciated.

      The generosity, and the love, from that day will be what, through some wonderful alchemy, eventually turns my ambivalence about NYSE Open VI into love.

      I don’t know where I go from here. I know that I have quite a few problems that demand intense effort, and I hope that I prove myself able to solve them all to my satisfaction. But when I was thinking about what it would be like to sell out, and move on, finally, completely, the community was there for me, unknowingly pushing me to stay close. How can I ever sell out and move on? My best friends are all here.

      So, thank you. Thank you to Nick Coss, and Calvin Hodges. Thank you to David Tao, and Greg Fenton. Thank you to Mark Hornung, and Visna Harris, and Dave Kaplan, and Will Magrann, and Jason Jaco, and David Ata, and Sean Came, and Jackie Fenton, and…

      Thank you all, for forgiving its failings, and for making NYSE Open VI a day I’ll never forget.

      posted in Tournament Reports
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • Masticore Article

      I was the beneficiary of help from friends in Italy, Singapore, Croatia, Japan and the U.S. recently, and it resulted in me being lucky enough to add Paolo Parente’s Masticore to my art collection.

      I wrote a nostalgia trip/thank you/article about it, which can be found here:

      http://www.eternalcentral.com/no-man-is-an-island/

      posted in Art and Collecting
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • Multiple Vintage Champions Per Year

      Today a major distinction was made, as we were told that winning the Vintage Championship does not make one a Vintage World Champion.

      This year, for the first time ever, there will be two Vintage Championships. One will be held in Paris by the tournament organizers who were behind the Bazaar of Moxen, Europe's most prestigious Vintage tournament, and the second will be held by Nick Coss, who has run Eternal Weekend since its move from Pastimes/GenCon.

      To start, the organizers behind the Bazaar of Moxen are genuine champions of Vintage. They are responsible for countless Europeans playing the format, and they helped turn Vintage into what it was a few years back in Europe. For years, Americans envied the attendance (and prize support) of the Bazaar of Moxen. If any European T/O were to get support from Wizards of the Coast for Vintage, it should be them. They deserve all accolades sent their way, and my future points in this post are in no way meant to detract from the tremendous work that they have done in championing the format, and creating the once thriving European Vintage community.

      With all that said, and keeping that respect in mind, this change is a truly awful one.

      Since 2003, we have referred to the victor of the Vintage Championship as the Vintage World Champion. Carl Winter, Mark Biller, Steve Menendian, Mark Hornung, Joel Lim, Brian Kelly and all others were received as the champions of the format. The distinction of the victor as Vintage World Champion is now impossible, as there are multiple champions when there can only be one.

      What does this do?

      For starters, European Vintage pilots who were interested in the title of world champion now have no incentive to fly to the United States to play. A statistically significant percentage of the competitors traveled to Eternal Weekend 2015 from Europe. Lacking the incentive to travel to the U.S. to play, I'd imagine that they won't.

      Secondly, for those of us who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on cards, prepared, tested, and flew around the country to attain the title of the sole Vintage champion, the meaning of our quest is now significantly diminished, if not entirely removed. In running multiple Vintage Championships, there is no longer one acknowledged champion. Vintage Championships is no longer special. It is no longer the opportunity to compete against the best and claim your victory for that year, it is now just another large Vintage tournament. In running Vintage Champs in the U.S., and Europe, what's to stop there from being an online Vintage Champs? A Vintage Champs in Japan? If there is a Vintage Champs in Japan, and it nets 60 players, is it now more prestigious to win the N.Y.S.E. Open than to win Vintage Champs (because this one just so happened to be run in Japan)?

      There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into running a large event, and it takes months upon months to organize. I know the amount of work that goes into Vintage Championships because I've seen it firsthand, and had an incredibly tiny role in it a few times. Nick Coss has done more for this format than any other T/O currently active. He has staked tens of thousands of dollars on the format and its community. He has run Vintage events through the dark times. He has promoted the format and the community at every opportunity. If there was one member of the Vintage community whom I'd deem absolutely critical, it would be Nick Coss. Everyone here owes him a debt of gratitude, either directly or indirectly.

      The last Vintage Championship, run by Pastimes, had 187 players. It was the biggest attendance that they had ever had. Nick Coss, in his first year, surpassed that attendance by 50 players, with virtually no notice. In his second year, with notice, Eternal Weekend had 320 players. To my knowledge, no other American Vintage T/O can claim to have run a 300 man tournament, unless we go all the way back to before Magic rotated, and events were held in hotels. The most well-attended Vintage tournament I have ever seen was a Bazaar of Moxen several years back that had 382 players. In his third year, Nick had 482 competitors for Vintage Champs.

      Nick's love of the format, work in sharing it, and tremendous efforts in running the best event possible, combined with the efforts of myriad other Vintage T/Os has helped to create a Vintage tournament that is more vibrant, better received, well-attended than anything that had existed before it. Consider that, at 482 players, Nick managed to nearly triple the attendance that Vintage Champs had just four years prior.

      When you see success, you try to encourage it further. Wizards should be helping him here, and yet this will undoubtedly hurt him.

      Vintage in Europe is ailing. America has achieved supremacy in terms of the best attended events, something that I wasn't sure I'd see anytime soon, let alone see at all. I love the format, and the community, and I am all for helping the Europeans rejuvenate their community, and return to where they were. But to destroy the title of Vintage World Champion, to make the title of Vintage Champion worth so much less, is at the very least odious, and at the most, offensive.

      There is a way to do this. If you believe that the Vintage World Champion should be a product of a global community, you could run Vintage Championships once a year in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. You could run an annual World Championship once a year in one of those three places. You could alternate between continents. Would it be more difficult for American players? Yes. It would be more fair to the rest of the world though, and it would not deny us our champion. To run multiple Vintage Championships each year removes the incentive for many players to compete. It removes the incentive for many others to travel. It will take the efforts of Nick Coss, in particular and squander them.

      I urge you to reach out to Helene Bergeot on Twitter, and to ask her to work towards solving this problem. We have had a Vintage World Champion since 2003. Will that title die this year? Please help us ensure that it doesn't.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero

    Latest posts made by Prospero

    • RE: Price Spikes & Paper Vintage

      @hrishi I had forgotten about that conversation.

      It feels like whenever somebody asks when the best time to buy into Vintage is, the answers are “right now, before the next spike”, or “in 1993”. Given that time travel isn’t an option, right now seems best.

      Even if right now is positively insane.

      I’m really glad you still have your cards, Hrishi.

      I wish I had done more to help friends get in, and could do more now to make the format affordable for them.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Price Spikes & Paper Vintage

      @vaughnbros If I ran NYSE Open I prize support, and had NYSE Open VI attendance, entry would be about $650 per player.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Price Spikes & Paper Vintage

      @brass-man A lot of good points here.

      The last being that running unsanctioned Vintage events with many more proxies is something of an answer. Not the answer any of us would like, but...

      I remember ELD getting a cease and desist letter over the proxies he made/sold.

      For whatever it's worth (and it isn't worth much!), I was pissed more than anything else while writing this. This has been a longstanding problem, and we're well past the point when action was needed.

      That said, I think we're all aware that we're getting nothing from WotC here.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • Price Spikes & Paper Vintage

      Hey, TMD. It's been a while. I've just now finished writing this. I don't know how long this is, but it certainly feels long enough.

      Please forgive me if there are errors in here. I haven't edited it, and I would honestly rather not.

      Edit: I’ve lied, and have done some light editing to correct errors I found embarrassing.


      While we've all been bunkered down through this pandemic, the paper Vintage world has been experiencing the tremors and the aftershocks of the seismic shifts that have been occurring with paper pricing lately.

      This is all stream of consciousness writing, but it feels like this is going to be a long post, so please forgive me. I think in stories, narratives, so it seems best to start with that, and then wind back to where I want to go.

      Back in high school I had a friend who started playing Vintage. Christian loved the game, but instead of just buying packs, boxes, he'd take his money and buy singles. While it's commonly accepted now that if you need cards, you just buy them, back then I remember everyone just opening a lot of product. We weren't looking for specific cards per se, we were just looking for things we hadn't seen, and would be able to unleash on unexpecting opponents. Opening product was a real rush.
      You'd see something that you thought was cool, and you'd throw it in your 80+ card deck.

      I don't know what drove Christian to Vintage. We would all go to Neutral Ground for pre-releases, and when we were there we were exposed to parts of the game that we hadn't experienced before. Maybe he found Vintage there. Even still, I remember him going to big events - Pro Tours and Grands Prix, back when none of us did anything like that. Our Magic highlight was kitchen table Magic at a friend's house on a Friday night.

      I loved what I saw of the format, and I got into Vintage because of him. In some measure, every Vintage event I've ever run, ever attended, is due to him.

      I digress.

      A girlfriend in high school gave me an Unlimited Mox Pearl as a gift. I later found out that it was $80. To put this into context, I had a job working on Saturdays that paid $5.15 an hour. During a trip to Neutral Ground at some point shortly after that, I saw Christian trade a very nice Beta Birds of Paradise for an equally nice Unlimited Lotus. Both were valued at $100. Moxen, at that time, were about $80-$90 per.

      You know how some prices are sticky in your mind? I'd listen to my grandmother talk about how she went to the movies, and got change from her nickel, and I wondered what kind of world that was where you could go to the movies, have your popcorn, and come away with change from five cents.

      My junior year in high school, Christian ran a Black Lotus tournament at a local game store. He bought an Unlimited Black Lotus on eBay, and paid a whopping $125 for it. We were aghast. Lotus was $100, solid. Not more. He had very clearly overpaid. I went to Grand Prix New York that year, at The Armory. I met Richard Garfield, I had some cards signed, and I came across dealer tables for the first time. Foil Serra Avatar was $150. Foil Stroke of Genius was $250. Foil Gaea's Cradle was $350. And a Beta Black Lotus was $400.

      You are all acquainted with the mythology behind Black Lotus. By the time I was 17, I wanted to own one. I had a collection worth a few hundred dollars at that point, and I was concerned, because in the spring of 2000 Black Lotus had spiked, and an Unlimited Black Lotus would now run you $300. $300 was a fortune. Again, I was working one day a week, and I wasn't really comfortable with working more than that, knowing my grades would suffer. How the hell was I supposed to come up with $300? I had a mostly middle class life to that point, but things had gotten tight lately, and money wasn't thrown around anymore. As many of you are familiar, the thought of explaining a $300 purchase of cardboard to a parent or loved one was seen as a futile exercise in discussing an obscene waste.

      I went to Mark's Comics, and I traded Mark Aronowitz nearly my entire Type II collection for a very, very nice Unlimited Black Lotus. It is absolutely ridiculous to say this now, but part of me was concerned back then that I would eventually be unable to afford a Lotus, and that if I didn't make a move then, I might miss the chance to ever own one.

      Fast forward to 2002. Revised dual lands were $10, the first three Mishra's Workshops that I had bought were $25, $30, and $35 apiece, Lotus was still $300, and Moxen were $120 or so. I had started running Vintage tournaments at Mark's Comics, and it was easy to come up with prize support. The first tournament I ever ran had a $10 entry fee, 20 players, and gave away a nice Alpha Time Walk, purchased from Mark for $165, to first, with $35 to second. I know how ridiculous that sentence is now.

      Cards started to spike again. Force of Will, a staple of Extended, and Vintage, was $5 for as long as I could remember before I went to Regionals in 2003, and saw that Mike Long (who had a dealer table) was buying Force of Wills for $10. $10 for a Force of Will was pure madness. I know that this seems like I'm revealing my age here, but you have to realize, we had lived with these cards for years, and they had been priced within the same range for nearly the entirety of that time.

      Workshops spiked, and were $100+ per. Blue duals were now $20-$25. Moxen were $175-$200. Lotus was now $400-$500.

      I was 21 when this happened in 2003. I had been a member on BeyondDominia, and was then a member on the original TheManaDrain. I was running events, but we had an issue, where the players were having difficulty getting some of the cards. Yes, these prices look comical now, but remember, how much money did you have access to when you were a teenager, or in your early 20's? $25 for an Underground Sea was a real amount of money to a lot of us. I worked, and by the time I paid for car insurance, gas, books, and whatever other school-related costs, I didn't have much money to drop on cards. I knew what this was like, as I was operating from a firsthand experience with it. I picked up extra hours, worked holidays, did odd-jobs, and whatever else I could to try and make a few extra dollars to help me buy the cards that I wanted.

      In 2003, my Keeper deck was stolen at Mark's Comics. I had gone to an FNM, and, like a fool, I had left the deck out on a table, stepped away, and then come back, not realizing that I wasn't paying attention to where I had left my cards. I went to put my cards away when I got home, and I realized what had happened. Perhaps most crushingly, I had just finished my play set of Winter Mishra's Factories. I was very upset for a few days, and about a week later, I decided that I wasn't going to let this kick me out of the format. I spent the balance of 2003, and much of 2004 working harder, replacing those cards, and eventually rebuilding precisely what I had stolen, sans Timetwister (because who really needed a Twister anyways? And besides, it was the cheapest piece of power - when an Unlimited Lotus was $100 back in '99, I remember Timetwister being $60).

      We traded cards a lot more back in the day. Yeah, you could buy cards from dealers at big events, or you could go to Neutral Ground, or one of the other major stores, and probably find what you needed, but it wasn't a guarantee. I have had an eBay account since August of 2000. For those who don't remember, way back when, you would bid on an auction, hopefully win, then mail the seller a check. You would wait a week for the check to clear, and then you would wait for them to mail you the card(s) you had won - eBay was not comparable to what it is now. We were always asking to trade, in part, because you just might happen to find someone who would have the cards that you had been searching for for God knows how long.

      Those winter Mishra's Factories were rare as all hell. It took me months and months and months to find them. With the release of Odyssey, we had the first printing of Standstill. I loved the card, and wanted to build a deck with Mishra's Factories and Faerie Conclaves, built with a hard control package.

      So when someone who shall remain nameless offered to trade with me back in 2004, it was just another experience. I knew him, he was a regular at Mark's. When I saw the four winter Mishra's Factories that I had picked up back in 2003 sitting in his binder, I knew who had stolen my cards. It turned out that it was him and his buddy, and that they had just seen me carelessly leaving my deck box out, and taken advantage of the situation. They hadn't sold the cards, and, miraculously, nearly a full year after my Keeper deck was stolen, I had the deck returned to me.

      Why this lengthy aside? Well, for the first time, I had more power, more duals than I needed. I had made tremendous sacrifices to replace the cards that had been stolen, so I had rebuilt nearly all of my Keeper deck. I was missing some small stuff, but the heavy hitters were all there. I decided that, instead of just selling the cards, I'd build extra decks, and have decks that I could loan out to anyone (whom I trusted) who wanted to play in the Vintage events I was running, but didn't have the requisite cards.

      I wasn't the only one who had done something like that. People built extra decks, and they lent them out.

      Another major thing happened around that time; Steve Menendian wrote an article for StarCityGames in which he advocated for the use of "proxies". It was a foreign term to me, but (without going back, finding the article, and re-reading it), I remember him advocating for their usage as a means to allow new players to experience the format.

      I knew how tough it was for some of the 20-30 or so players I had to afford some of the cards that they wanted, needed, for their decks. So, almost immediately after that article was written, I instituted a 10 proxy offering for tournaments I ran. Now, instead of needing to spend $1,000, or more, in order to buy the Moxen, Lotus, etc., that you needed, you were able to spend a few hundred, build something that would let you play Vintage with your friends, all while you worked towards removing those proxies, and building a proxy-free Vintage deck.

      Where am I going with all of this?

      Firstly, while the price on cards kept going up (spikes, followed by slight retreats, then a settling towards some new, more expensive, normal seemed to occur every few years), there were those of us in the community who were able to build extra decks, thus allowing allowing friends to join us, and play. Yes, the price was still prohibitive (I couldn't go out and buy a piece of power whenever I wanted), but if you had been around long enough, if you won some FNMs, if you traded, you could eventually pick up the cards you needed to play. It was reasonable to expect that you'd be able to help proselytize, and grow the format.

      Secondly, the introduction of proxies took an enormous weight off the shoulders of new players. You weren't asking someone to spend $1,000 to play a game. You were asking them to spend $200. Then maybe another $100 here and there, as they could, until they eventually built up, and had the means to play.

      And, again, you were able to help them. Underground Sea was $25? Well, maybe you'd use some of the credit you'd won at the last FNM, buy one, and trade it for less than that $25 to someone who was trying to play.

      It was a wildly different time.

      You all know what has gone on with pricing since. I left the format in 2005, and came back in late 2007, and by the time I came back, it already felt infinitely more obscene than it had just a few years prior. I bought a play set of Mishra's Workshops in 2008 for $965. I bought an Unlimited Black Lotus in 2008 for $825. I later traded that Unlimited Black Lotus, an English Mana Drain and $200 for an Alpha Black Lotus, valued at $1,200, in 2009. Dual lands shot up. Underground Sea went from the $25 I remembered to $50. Then it was $100. Then it was north of that.

      I returned to T/O'ing in July 2009. My first event back I gave away an Unlimited Mox Ruby to first, an English Mana Drain to second, Revised Underground Seas to 3rd/4th, Alliances Force of Wills to 5th-8th, and a book promo Mana Crypt as a sportsmanship prize. The entry fee was $25. We had 22 players, a judge, and held the event at a respectable store. I did not lose money on the day.

      Part of me wants to keep going on and on with more examples of price memory, but I really do have to stop, and shift, again.

      A few days ago, I saw that a PSA 10 Alpha Lotus was up for sale on eBay:

      Obscenity incarnate (Lotus auction link)

      The Alpha Lotus that I traded for in 2009 wasn't as nice, but it wasn’t that far off. It was beautiful. I later sold it for $3,200 in 2012, because I wanted to buy some Magic art, and I figured that I'd eventually buy another nice Alpha Lotus. That was the last time I owned a nice Alpha Lotus. I later dealt for a beat Alpha Lotus for $7,500 in 2015.

      Magic is advertised as a collectible card game. For the entirety of the game's history there has been a struggle between those words. The collectors and the players fought it out over the same supply. And while the supply was very, very limited, for most of that time, it was reasonable enough to expect people to eventually be able to buy into Vintage if they wanted to. Yeah, it would take time. Few of us were able to buy in overnight. But we were able to slowly make our way in, and those who welcomed us often helped us pick up the cards we needed. In return, we helped those who came after us. I am not burnishing my laurels here, but I've given away a lot of cards, and I have sold cards for less than I paid for them because they were going to players whom I wanted to see join us in enjoying this format.

      Now what? Some of my recent purchases have felt panic-inspired, as I think about the friends I have whom I want to see at Eternal Weekend one day, and I realize that they do not currently own the cards they'd need to play. If I extend myself further now, perhaps I can save them, allowing them the chance to experience Eternal Weekend firsthand.

      Yes, there are myriad other issues in the world today that are far more deserving of our attention than someone's ability to play a collectible card game (health care, financial security, hunger, etc. ad nauseum). But you know - this passion of ours is something that we have dedicated a tremendous amount of time, thought, and effort to. We work, in part, because we want to be able to spend time doing this other thing, experiencing this other passion that we all share. I became a Vintage tournament organizer in 2002 because I wanted there to be more Vintage tournaments. I wanted more people playing. I built decks that I could loan out, and currently have multiple decks built again, expressly for this purpose.

      Life is about more than the work we do, it is also about how we spend the time in which we rest. Vintage events are an opportunity to spend time doing something I enjoy, with people whose company I enjoy. Am I supposed to shut up shop once the prices hit a certain level?

      Two more quick stories:

      I was at GenCon in 2010, and I was sitting at a table, alone. I was listening to my music, thinking, going through my cards, not really paying attention. I was approached by someone whom I didn't know, who knew of me from TMD. He introduced himself as Josh Exe, and I had a really pleasant conversation with him. I kept in touch for a while, and while we haven't spoken in a couple of years, I deeply appreciated that moment, and his friendship.

      The pandemic will end, one day. There will be in-person events again. But are we past ‘peak Vintage’ (to utilize the 'peak oil' term to a different end)? It certainly feels like it. I want to do more - I want to build more decks, get more players in, spread the format, and build up the tournament scene that I miss, and love, so much. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to do that again. And, even if I do end up doing something like that, will it just be a collection of Vintage dinosaurs like myself, lawyers, finance guys, and the children of wealthy parents? Don't get me wrong, I think I now fully understand that I am bound to this format, no matter what my temporary emotional relationship with it is like - I always return. But is this what we're bound to become?

      The second story:

      I came back to Vintage in 2007, and by the time 2011 had rolled around, I had done the same thing I always seem to do; build out a comprehensive collection, take the cards and turn them into decks, and then loan the decks out. I had been loaning one person in particular a Noble Fish deck for a while. He had sold his deck months back. A comment he had made slowly made its way back to me - "Why should I spend money to build a deck when Nick will just build one for me?". It left a bad taste in my mouth; in my mind, the players whom I was supporting by loaning out decks were, by and large, the future players of the format who were just slowly buying their way in. This was the counter, the opposite of that, presented in stark relief.

      Nick Coss is one of my best friends, and I am lucky to have him in my life. He was dealing at one of the events I was running at Brothers Grim, on Long Island, and when he saw me lend that Noble Fish deck out again, he pulled me aside after round one started. He asked some questions that I hadn't really thought through previously. First off, he said, if the deck was stolen, lost, destroyed, would the lendee replace it? I knew the answer to that immediately, and had it confirmed for me later when the individual said that no, he would not replace it if something happened to it. Nick's second question was unfortunately poignant as well - how much was the deck worth? By that point, even with only FBB duals, and played Beta power, the deck was worth many thousands of dollars. What would it mean to me, financially, to have those thousands of dollars taken from me? I was still young enough that it would have really hurt. I drove a beater, I lived a frugal life, and I splurged, when I could, on nice Magic cards. If that deck were to disappear, what was it that had really been stolen? It was the time, the sacrifices that I endured. It was the easier times that I had foregone in order to have that thing, that thing that I was able to, hopefully, use to bring joy to friends.

      So, where the hell does that leave us now?

      I posted on Twitter in the last week that the rising prices on Vintage cards has made me uncomfortable. I had all these things in mind when I wrote that. How many Josh Exes will I not meet because of the price of cards? How many more paper Vintage tournaments will we all be able to play in? I'm a tournament organizer, and I'm sincerely wondering if I should have off-duty armed police at any future event I might run. Whatever a thief could steal at a Vintage event would likely be more than they could get in a smash and grab robbery.

      Am I supposed to concede the war between collectible, and card game? Am I supposed to sell the excess cards I have, continue to keep everything locked away, and only loan cards to those who've promised me organs for cardboard (in the event of a theft)?

      Many of us have been saying this for years, but the Reserved List desperately needs to be killed. It is actively killing Vintage, and I would imagine that Legacy is not far behind us. I was an advocate of killing the Reserved List years ago, when I had a set of Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited power, with all the accoutrements that you'd need to play any deck in format. I am only more resolute in the necessity of its death now.

      We're going to, shortly, come to a place where there is really nothing that can be done. An Unlimited Black Lotus is now hovering around $10,000, a full 100x multiplier over the first Lotus I saw trade hands.

      The only way that Vintage survives as anything other than a niche format played by the lucky, and the wealthy (and I legitimately mean wealthy) is by infusing more cards into the community, or finding some way to let a player with a tablet utilize their MODO collection to play with paper players. I am a technophobe, and couldn't begin to enumerate the difficulties (impossibilities?) with that interface, but I'd imagine they would be considerable.

      It is sheer dumb luck that I got into Magic when I did. That I got in where I did. That I met whom I met. There isn't much that 12 year old me found worthwhile that 38 year old me still does. Magic sits atop that list. How many potential future Vintage players will we lose because of the price of these cards? Magic is an exceptional game, it is my favorite game, and I'd like to believe that in 20 years, 30 years, I'll still be playing. Who shows up to a paper Vintage event in 2050? Will it be me, Brian DeMars, Roland Chang, Steve Menendian, and a handful of the stalwarts, old and gray, battling away, shuffling ancient cards with arthritic hands?

      Enough.

      That isn't a future I want to see.

      It's time to divorce the collectible from the card game.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: 1/31 Mythic Games (Long Island, N.Y.) Vintage FNM

      So, this is tomorrow.

      I'll be there, and I'll likely have a couple of extra decks in case anyone wants to play.

      See you guys then!

      posted in Vintage Tournaments
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • 1/31 Mythic Games (Long Island, N.Y.) Vintage FNM

      Hey everybody!

      The next Vintage FNM on Long Island is on the schedule:

      What:

      $15, 15 proxy, unsanctioned Vintage for store credit tournament.

      When:

      Friday, 1/31, 7:00 pm registration, 7:30 start.

      Where:

      Mythic Games
      2711 Hempstead Turnpike
      Levittown, New York
      11756
      (516) 490-5514

      If you haven’t been to Mythic Games yet, you’re missing out. Its a great space to play, and offers a growing selection of singles, in addition to the best selection of sleeves in the U.S.

      I’ll be there, and I hope to see you there too!

      posted in Vintage Tournaments
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Spring 2020 Vintage Tournament?

      @sock-monkey said in Spring 2020 Vintage Tournament?:

      NYSE is:
      The TO (you!)
      The People
      The Experience
      The Atmosphere
      The State (New York event)

      NYSE isn't:
      The Entry Fee
      The Prize
      The Venue

      You're free to call the event whatever you want, but it's NYSE VII.

      @sock-monkey This reply meant a lot to me. Thank you.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Spring 2020 Vintage Tournament?

      @log Still trying to kill me, eh?

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • Spring 2020 Vintage Tournament?

      Hey, everybody.

      I'm considering putting together a moderately sized Vintage event in the spring of 2020, likely at a local store, on Long Island.

      Roughly thinking that it'd be for a piece of power or two, store credit to top eight, pre-registration, etc., with an entry fee around $75.

      alt text

      Seriously though, would you be in?

      We're in the super rough draft mode of this right now.

      For those of you who have asked/wondered, no, there are currently no plans to do another N.Y.S.E. I'm sorry, but I think the last one really was the last one.

      posted in Vintage Community
      Prospero
      Prospero
    • RE: Vintage FNM Mythic Games Levittown 8/23/19

      See you there!

      posted in Vintage Tournaments
      Prospero
      Prospero