I got paired down once and my opponent playing for no incentive scooped to me. It put me in the top 8. It was bittersweet because I got the win but I knew that doing this would knock other people out of contention.

First off, I had a blast at RIW Hobbies a couple Saturday’s ago. I drafted this report a few days ago but had a vacation in-between so there was a small delay with finishing the write-up. This was the first tourney Solemnity was legal. It was a sanctioned event for Eternal Weekend and thanks to Ben Perry for judging the event. I never write tournament reports, ever. I thought I would try something new. For those of you who do not know me I am from the Cleveland area and play with the Team Serious folk 1000% of the time. I am a Civil Engineer during the day and a dad to 2 boys at night. I am an Ohio State alum and a big fan of Disney. I really only like to play Vintage, but sometimes a game of Old School or Legacy will sneak in from time to time. I have been playing Type 1 on and off since Mirrodin but started to play more competitively in 2013.

Trying to round up some Serious folk for the trip to Michigan wasn’t too hard for the Cleveland group. It’s over a 3 hour drive from Cleveland to RIW. Nam Tran @nartman99 , Kyle Lenox @zodiacboyscout , and I started the journey Michigan, which is enemy territory for me with my Buckeye blood. I don’t want to step foot in Michigan or breathe the contaminated air, but once you get there it isn’t as bad as it seems.

We made the trip with enough time to get a bite to eat at the local deli. It was perfect timing because we ran into to some familiar faces, being Kevin Cron @CHA1N5 and Aaron Katz among a few others. It was good to see those guys. We got to talk about family, life, kids and other stupid stuff to calm the nerves before the tourney.

I went to this event playing White Eldrazi. I have been on the Eldrazi plan since the deck was created over a year ago. My play style is one where I like to attack with creatures. I played U/W Fish with Meddling Mages, Stormscape Apprentices, and Ninja of the Deep Hours back in the day and this love for creatures has led me to these style decks ever since. I have never played in this area before so I was not too sure of the meta and the exact 75 I would need. For White Eldrazi, the deck has 56-57 cards the same. Some decks like Sol Ring, more Thalias, less Smashers, no Wastelands, or whatever the pilot feels they want. My list is here:

# White Eldrazi - Steven Sasala

## Creatures (25)
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Containment Priest
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth

## Lands (23)
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Plains
2 Karakas
4 Ancient Tomb

## Spells (12)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst

## Sideboard (15)
1 Trinisphere
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Null Rod
1 Containment Priest

My sideboard is where I was getting the most heart burn. I was expecting combo to be present. Ben Perry has been brainwashing people in this area to play 2- Card Monte. Plus I was pretty sure Nam was playing 2CM as well. Paradoxical Outcome is common online and is powerful and fun to play. I was anticipating Dredge to be present because this was a sanctioned event. My next thought on the meta is Blue. And by Blue I mean Mentor. And by Mentor I mean Jeskai Mentor. No surprise here. To some people playing a creature that’s better than Tinker, playing spells, drawing cards, attacking for an insane amount of damage, having access to Force of Will, Ancestral, Time Walk, etc. is fun. Whatever. Not my cup of tea. I have to plan for this deck obviously because the lemmings just want to play the best deck.

Shops was the archetype that was up in the air for me. I was not expecting a lot of Shops whether Ravager or Precursor Golem. Sanctioned does factor in again here. My last thought to the meta were the new cards. All Wild cards. Hollow One, Solemnity, Abrade, and the rest of Hour of Devastation could be played.

With a deck like White Eldrazi it is a big-creature, hatebear deck. Hatebears are meant to prey on a defined meta. This was anything but defined for me. My deck is basically a 59 card deck with one flex spot. I don’t like Sol Ring ever. Opening hands of Temple, Sol Ring and Thorn are just opening yourself up to Misstep and FOW. I would rather just play against FOW. If your only source of mana to ramp is Sol Ring, getting it Misstepped is terrible.

(Quick example, opening 7 – Plains, temple, Wasteland, Sol Ring, Thorn, Thalia Heretic Cathar, Thought- Knot Seer. Absolutely great hand other than Sol Ring. Against and unknown opponent you play Temple, Sol Ring (Misstep) pass. Turn 2 Thorn (FOW’d). Now imagine if Sol Ring is a Mox Jet. Turn one is Mox, Temple, Thorn. (FOW’d) Then Turn 2 is Plains, Thought-Knot Seer. You have two back to back threats when you have a Mox over Sol Ring.)

My choices for the last maindeck spot are either Aegis of the Gods, Containment Priest (#3), Eldrazi Displacer (#4) or Spirit of the Labyrinth. Aegis would have been picked if I felt that Oath & Paradoxical Outcome decks would be popular. Aegis – out. Containment Priest #3 was considered only if I felt Dredge and Oath would be popular. Priest – out. Eldrazi Displacer was not chosen because I like it in Shops matchups which I was not expecting a lot of. Displacer – out. I chose Spirit of the Labyrinth because of Blue decks and Paradoxical Outcome. I felt like my hardest matchup is Mentor. An early Mentor hurts; but Spirit will slow down the token generator from getting out of hand. Spirit can make the opponents first STP hit itself rather than hitting Thalia. Definitely a win for my deck.

To the sideboard. I put 15 cards in my sideboard that will try to give me an edge against the expected meta. I am planning for Mentor, PO, 2- Card Monte, and Dredge.
2 – Null Rod – I never leave home without my favorite magic card. Shops, Outcome, Oath.
1 – Containment Priest – The extra Priest from the maindeck that I passed on; Dredge and Oath.
1 – Trinisphere – For the Mentor and Outcome decks.
1 – Grafdigger’s Cage – Dredge, Oath, Yawg Will decks.
2 – Kataki, War’s Wage – Shops, 2-card Monte, Outcome
2 – Swords to Plowshares – Mentor, Shops, Oath, creature decks, mirror match
4 – Leyline of Sanctity – This was the first time I played with Leyline other than in testing. MVP for this meta. Would have been even better if Oath would have been represented. Many people are trying Gift Ungiven style decks now and this stops that too. Gifts targets an opponent.
2 – Ghost Quarter – This was my last card chosen for the sideboard. It was between this and Pithing Needle. I wanted a card for Shops and Dredge which both cards fight against, but Needle can be underwhelming at times. Needle would have come in against 2-card Monte decks. I did take a gamble with choosing Ghost Quarter because I was anticipating someone trying out Solemnity/Dark Depths which can be stopped by this card.

I wanted to try out a Balance in the board but I ran out of room. I have heard too many times lately, “well, maybe if he has Balance in his deck maybe he can get out of this situation.” I know that I play creatures which is not good with Balance, but sometimes Balance is Mind Twist, Stone Rain, and Wrath of God all in one.

When it was time to shuffle up we had a total of 17 players competing for the Bye at Eternal Weekend. My intention for the event was to get the Bye. I wasn’t really wanting to split prizes or anything; I was focused on getting the Bye. And after over a 3 hour drive to the event I did get the Bye… for round 1. So I had some time to kill and was admiring the new location for RIW Hobbies. Their card selection is pretty deep. Case upon case of eternal cards, modern cards, etc.

Round 1 – BYE
(1-0)

Round 2 – Will – 2-Card Monte
I didn’t really do too much scouting. I wasn’t certain what Will was on; however, he is Ben’s brother so there was a chance he was on 2CM. I think he has played White Eldrazi before as well. My opening hand was pretty good having fast mana, Ancient Tomb and turn 1 Revoker on Helm of Obedience because his Turn 0 Leyline was already on the battlefield. Will played Mox, Ancient Tomb and Painter’s Servant. I play Mox, Mox, Ancient Tomb and TKS. Will said his hand just went to crap. Which it did. He had Gemstone Mine x2, Wheel of Fortune and Demonic Consultation. I exiled the Wheel. Smasher then makes quick work of the game.
After I counted up the cards I wanted in, it totaled 10. I didn’t even realize it was that many cards. Everything but Containment Priest, Trinisphere, Ghost Quarters, and a STP comes in. Maybe the second STP would have been good.
All I wanted was a hand with Leyline of Sanctity. Pretty simple. I would like Tomb and Null Rod as well. My 7 had a Leyline so I was in business. My notes said I gained 4 life so I believe my Leyline was Nature’s Claimed. His life total went 20-16-8-0. I exiled another Nature’s Claim with TKS and failed to exile having only lands with the second TKS.
(2-0)

Round 3 – Aaron Katz – Jeskai Mentor
The funniest part of the entire tourney happened at the start of this match. Aaron and I have played a couple times before. Aaron is a great guy. He and I both have a couple kids and are able to joke about the odd things that kids do. We talked about our prior rounds and what happened. We finished shuffling up and I hand him my deck for cut. Then Aaron said that on a scale of 1-10, his last round was an “F”. So I start laughing for a few seconds (Inside Out reference) and I go to cut his deck and then we kind of look at each other like… uh. Aaron was like you just cut your own deck. We kind of just stared at each other for a second.

Both of our decks have black KMC sleeves and we don’t know which deck is whose. Now we are just like what do we do? I call Ben over and explain the situation and he starts laughing too. He picks up one of the decks and looks at a couple cards. He told me later that it took him a couple cards deep to see who’s was whose. I think it was my Jap foil Thalia that made his determination. It was a funny moment for sure. After we laugh that off we shuffle up.

Let me just say this round was definitely an “F” for me. I win the die roll. I know he is on Mentor. I am uncertain if he knows what I am on. It doesn’t really matter when I have to mull to 5. My 5 was good. With the scry, I put Smasher on top. I have Mox, Cavern, Thalia, Tomb, other. I play uncounterable Thalia and pass. He opened on Library. I was like sweet. With Smasher on top if he tried to go the long game I had a chance. I was anticipating “pass” from Aaron. I almost reached for the Smasher on top of my deck. Then I paused. I was thinking say “pass”. Say “pass”. Say “pass” Aaron. He didn’t. Taps Library, plays Lotus into Mentor. “Pass.” Okay. Hopefully Smasher can get there. It didn’t. On to game 2.

I do the best I can to isolate games like that. While I am sideboarding I am trying to let the turn 1 Mentor be an anomaly and can happen 1 out of 20 or so games through a Thorn. I sided in STPs and Trinisphere. Being 5 rounds of Swiss you have to mentally tell yourself to accept it and to analyze it later. Well, my next 7 is terrible. I have to mulligan to 6. It was either great or it wanted more. It was a White hand with Karakas and Plains but had the Colorless monster in TKS. To round out my six was Lotus, Emerald, and Trinisphere. I scryed Thorn to the top. I had turn 1 threat (Trinisphere) and turn 2 threat (Thorn) if Trinisphere gets FOW’d. Keep. I took a deep breathe, played Lotus slowly. Snuck Emerald into play too. Then I played Trinisphere. FOW exiling JVP was his response. Ok; 2 for 2 trade I thought. Karakas became basic Plains now because JVP was in exile. Aaron went Flooded Strand, Mox, pass. Turn 2 Thorn is not bad. I drew Plains. More whiteness is not what I wanted. I play Karakas and Thorn, pass. Aaron starts to pull ahead from this point on. He even taunted me say that having a TKS stuck in my hand sucks. He knew what was up. I lacked a colorless source of mana. My draw was Reality Smasher. Pass. I draw Mana Crypt and play it through Thorn and play TKS. I saw Dig Through Time, Ingot Chewer and Library. Dig was exiled. His draw was Dack Fayden. That sealed the deal. The greatest thief in the Multi-verse stole my Mana Crypt and was now on his side. Back to not having any colorless mana. An alternate casting cost Chewer (full price) came down. Game over. I should have exiled the Chewer in retrospect, maybe, but drawing Dack made my bad choice moot. Mana Crypt was too late to turn the game around anyways.

2-1

Round 4 – Will Rogers – 2-Card Monte
I met Will for the first time at brunch prior to the event. Very nice guy. He carpooled with Kevin and Aaron. He wins the die roll. I know he is on 2-Card Monte. I was searching for a hand with Revoker. I don’t have many notes on this game. He named Blue with Painter and my notes stopped…

Same sideboarding as in Round 2. 10 cards in; Reality Smashers, Containment Priests, and Thorns out. I have a Leyline in my opening 7. Keep. He gets his combo down quick with both Painter and Grindstone in play. Leyline holding down the fort while TKS hits his life total 4 damage at a time. On to game 3.

My opening 7 had Leyline and Revoker with 5 mana sources. Keep. We both play a Leyline turn 0. His was voided by my sanctity. I named Helm of Obedience with my Revoker. Revoker did 16 damage that game. It wasn’t until I played Null Rod that Mike scooped. I did not have another threat the entire game. There was a point in the game where I had to strip his colored mana source which forced him to bounce my Leyline. I was then able to replay the Leyline post combat. Mike said that he had a win if not for strip mine at the right moment.

3-1

I have some down time for a few minutes and talk to Kevin Cron about life and work and magic. The last thing Kevin says to me before the start of Round 5 was, “you know Steve, I have a terrible matchup versus White Eldrazi… except when I play you.” Hahaha, hah, ha…

Round 5 – Mike – Storm
ID
Hand shake. Small talk. And sort my deck for a deck check.

3-1-1

Alright, step 1 accomplished. Make Top 8. I have some fig newtons to keep my energy up and wait for my pairing. My Top 8 opponent is Kevin. Of course. The only way to beat him in the top 8 is to play him in the top 8.

Top8 – Kevin Cron – U/W Mentor-Solemnity

I have not had luck against him in the top 8, ever. Things are good though. I am on the play being 3rd seed. My 7 is keepable. One thing that I have learned with this deck is that it needs a turn 1 play. Simple as that. Tomb x2, Revoker, TKS x2, Smasher, other. This turn 1 play was not exciting. This is the most underwhelming, shot in the dark turn one play you can make. Blind naming Revoker on Lotus into turn 2 TKS is my game plan. I do not want a quick Mentor. Revoker naming Lotus will stop that. Kevin kept his 7 and off we go. I play Tomb, Revoker… and Kevin flinches, then says okay. I still name Lotus despite Kevin’s reaction. He goes fetch, Tundra, STP the Revoker, Lotus, Mentor. Okey Dokey. Here we go again.

At least my TKS is bigger than his Mentor. I play Tomb #2, TKS. It resolves and I see Solemnity, Tundra, flusterstorm, and Time Walk. I exile Time Walk and pass. Kevin draws and passes. I draw Mana crypt. I have taken 4 damage from Tomb (STP +2 life). I have the damage bomb in Mana crypt and he has Mentor in play with Solemnity, Flusterstorm and unknown card in hand. If his draw was STP that’s fine because I can get some of the life back from the Tombs damage. So as long as I can avoid FOW then I am good. I choose to play Smasher over TKS but in doing this I have to play Mana Crypt. Smasher ends the game quicker and I do not want a top deck Dark Depths to end the game. TKS can’t hit lands. I am at 12 life after casting Smasher. He is at 18 life. So as I start writing down on my notepad the 4 damage to play Smasher, he exiles Flusterstorm for his FOW.

I can’t say I was on tilt but this was as close to tilt as it comes. But it happens. I think I attack with TKS which is a mistake because my life total was low. But that wasn’t what caused the undoing of this game.

What if I played TKS instead of Smasher? I still take 4 damage. I would be at 12. I then go to 8, play mana crypt (if I don’t draw a mana source) and Smasher. Start attacking his life total and avoid some mana crypt flips. Maybe that would have been better. But, nonetheless, I continue on playing TKS #2 the following turn. I got hit with Mana Crypt damage. Kevin attacks me to 3 with Mentor and tokens and I die in my upkeep.

On to game 2. Trinisphere and STPs in. Containment Priests and Revoker out. I keep a good 7. Cavern, Thalia, Mox, Displacer, others. This is the typical game White Eldrazi can play. Uncounterable creatures, wastelands, TKS, etc. He plays JVP and I have Karakas – JVP bounced. Kevin’s next turn is unexciting, plays JVP again, pass. There was a turn I had an active Displacer and Karakas untapped. I get to a point to where I can step on the gas and attack for more damage, but I do not know Kevin’s list. It is a new brew with Solemnity/Dark Depths combo. I do not want to get blown out by Balance. I was planning on playing Thalia 2.0, so instead of bouncing JVP to his hand, I blinked the blue creature in and out of play to get some damage in and so that Kevin doesn’t get a free blue card for a FOW. I talked myself out of getting Balanced and stepped off the gas without playing Thalia 2.0. I bounce JVP back to his hand and pass. I win this game playing a bit better than I did game 1 and Kevin not drawing what he needed.

No changes for game 3. I have to mulligan to 5. My 6 was oh so close to keeping. It had 2 Mox, Thalia 2.0, TKS, Smasher, others but did not have a land. I could scry for a land. I shipped it looking at the top 2 cards. Cavern followed by Wasteland. Ugh. I would have been in business. My 5 was bad. But it was only bad because it was a virtual 4 card hand. It had Cavern, strip, Displacer, and Thalia 1.0 x2. I scryed Thorn to the top. Committing Cavern to the board would force my mana in one direction or the other (naming Human or Eldrazi) making my hand worse. Kevin started off with Tundra, pass. I play Strip pass. He Ancestrals end step and asks if I change my mind on the pass. Nope. I need the mana. He plays land, preordain (top top) and Mana crypt, pass. Warning flags go up. He is ready for something big by committing crypt to the board. I feel like I can see 20-20 right now. I draw and play Temple and cast Thorn. (I still can’t commit Cavern to the board because of the color restriction. Uncounterable Thalia versus Thorn and at this point if I can get Kevin to remove 2 cards to Thorn I feel that is a win for me.) Thorn resolves and Pass. He plays Solemnity through Thorn thanks to Crypt. Dark Depths makes him hell-bent. There you have it. I could see 20-20. But more like 20/20. At the time I thought my only out was Black Lotus. If I draw Lotus, I can blink the token with Eldrazi Displacer. My draw was not Lotus. I shake Kevin’s hand and wish him luck.

After I thought about it more I did have my 2 Karakas’ as outs as well.

I had a ton of fun. Playing Vintage is the best. We had some great players on hand. My round 4 opponent won the Trial and got the Bye. He didn’t even have a Lotus in his deck. Mike must have played very well to get around the lack of Lotus. Great for Mike!

My carpool guys finished in 9th and 2nd. So good finish for the Serious guys. We hit the road and stopped in Toledo and ate at Tony Packo’s. Good food and beer.

In doing this write-up I analyzed my losses a bit more and thought about match with Kevin a lot. My toughest losses of the day were to turn 1 Mentors. Does this happen more than I am thinking that it does? Was I a bit unlucky? Don’t know for sure, but Mentor is a pretty insane card. Now thinking about my match with Kevin, if you go back to game 3, in the game Kevin asked me if I changed my mind about using Strip Mine. I was so focused on needing the mana that I did not see what was going on. For his hand to line up the way he wanted he needed Strip mine gone. Playing Thorn was meaningless. He had the mana. If he goes Mentor and cantrips I have a chance because I have a Displacer to help fight that. It was the other part of his deck I should have been afraid of; you know… the 20/20. Tapping my Strip Mine gave him the green light for Marit Lage. I should have played against Kevin with how you play against a Dredge Dark Depths opponent post sideboard. Find a Wasteland and never tap it. Ever. Also, I should have prioritized landing the Displacer. Displacer holds off Mentor and stops Marit Lage. Definitely learned from my mistakes. Don't have your Mentor opponent have Black Lotus and Mentor in their opening hands. It happened twice to me that day. Oh well. By the way, Kevin’s alters…

Hopefully there is another trial at RIW soon. I will be there. Thanks for reading. Hopefully some of the animation works. If not... I will try better next time.

Steven

Completely agree. I have been playing White Eldrazi since the restriction of COTV (and Oath of Gatewatch). I used to play Merfolk. COTV getting nuked hurt that archetype. Now Thorn getting restricted killed White Eldrazi. I have been fumbling around to other builds, color splashes, Spheres in place of Thorns to no luck. I have even splashed Blue to play Ancestral time walk and Tinker. No luck. Some one prove me wrong, but White Eldrazi is dead. The mana base was already terrible. Naming Cavern and then having a Human, Eldrazi, AND spirit in your hand was awful. Playing Golem in place of a Thorn doesn't help against PO. Playing Sphere doesn't help when trying to resolve a TKS/Smasher. And of course Thalia is legendary, by design; can't even Metamorph Thalia. So I don't know. Back to the drawing board.

Wonderful podcast guys. Keep them coming. Will there be one more before Champs?

I remember reading a @Smmenen article years back about going through hypothetical unrestrictions; maybe from SCG or something. I specifically remember Steve saying Channel is the most dangerous card to unrestrict. I just don't get the fascination with people thinking it is okay. If channel is unrestricted, get your leyline of sanctity, mindbreak traps and the like ready. RG Belcher and Oath will be everywhere.

@stuart I have been playing with 2-3 MD online the last few weeks. I was lucky enough to play against @Oestrus in the Vintage Challenge this past weekend and did get to have the ultimate joy of naming Bazaar with Spyglass game 1 against Dredge. Then Erin proceeded to steam roll me games 2 and 3 with 4/4 and 5/5s. Oh the irony. I am supposed to be the one attacking with 4/4 and 5/5s.

It's hard to evaluate the card still. Besides the best play of naming Bazaar, the fact that it lets you see your opponents hand is critical early on. Waiting to cast uncounterable TKS is fun, but by then you may have already had your Temple wasted or you set COTV to the wrong number. I have named Tarn (hitting 2 tarns) to only have the opponent draw Volc. I have named Dack to have the opponent draw JTMS.

I am still on the 2 MD plan right now. For EW, it is a bit different because of budgetary concerns with players. Dredge will probably be more represented in paper than online. Remember priest and Cage do nothing against Hollow one and Gurmag Angler. Stopping Bazaar does stop both of these cards from landing, indirectly. Spyglass is the best at this.

Remains to be seen if this card is worth it.

@chubbyrain @diophan Thanks as always for putting this together.

I play White Eldrazi and there are 2 stats that you see from the terribly small sample size. Eldrazi got a big fat 0 wins against Shops. Secondly, it's win percentage is second highest overall. If only one could figure out how to beat Shops it may be actually good. But right now, I am still baffled as to how to beat it.

Thanks again.

Steven

Buy a lotus. Then moxen. The next choice is yours. Blue or Shops?? If you play dredge all day, you have found a quick way to trade in your bazaars towards a lotus at the end of it. Dredge is not for everyone. And the stares from your opponent when you have a starting hand of 7 AND a Bazaar is awkward. They will continue to be awkward until you trade the Bazaars towards a lotus.

Tbh, I don’t know if buying RL stuff is good or not. That’s for speculators and such. If you have all the Duals, not all 40 are used in Vintage. Maybe consider trading some of those towards some power. I would rather have a sapphire and Ancestral as my only power playing Jeskai than having 4 Bazaars. But that’s just me. Maybe I am the minority. I hope that you can make the right decision for your situation. Best of luck.

@nartman99 So this is how your evilness comes out... Down play the legitimacy of the tourney, then squash us all in the ground. Well played my friend.

I wonder what @Shaman-Ben thinks of this strategy.

Maybe we should look at it from a different perspective. What if the Shops player put 4 cages and 2 tormods crypts in their maindeck? Isn't that the equivalent of the Blue player putting in 4 MM, flusterstorms, pyroblast in the main deck? The pilot is pre-boarding for a certain matchup.

If the Shops player is expecting a heavy Dredge meta can you blame him for pre-boarding against a certain matchup. But if the Shops player gets paired against P. Outcome decks and mentor decks all day I don't want to hear him complain. He set his deck up for that.

It's the same thing Blue players are doing and then complain about matchups. You are setting yourself up for failure. 6-7 dead cards PLUS the permanents lost when casting Gush just play into Shops favor.

I was always in the camp of only restricting Golem. It was in one archetype. COTV was played in Shops, yes, but was also played in Merfolk and Hatebears.dec. And before jaco.drazi emerged as a playable budget deck, having 4 COTVs was the budget players equivalent to playing moxen.

And the ironic part about COTVs restriction is that decks are now playing less than 5 moxen which has never happened before in Vintage, imo. Meaning that COTV set to 0 is not as back breaking as it once was. But I do understand why it will be forever on the restricted list.

Buy a lotus. Then moxen. The next choice is yours. Blue or Shops?? If you play dredge all day, you have found a quick way to trade in your bazaars towards a lotus at the end of it. Dredge is not for everyone. And the stares from your opponent when you have a starting hand of 7 AND a Bazaar is awkward. They will continue to be awkward until you trade the Bazaars towards a lotus.

Tbh, I don’t know if buying RL stuff is good or not. That’s for speculators and such. If you have all the Duals, not all 40 are used in Vintage. Maybe consider trading some of those towards some power. I would rather have a sapphire and Ancestral as my only power playing Jeskai than having 4 Bazaars. But that’s just me. Maybe I am the minority. I hope that you can make the right decision for your situation. Best of luck.

White Eldrazi only plays 9ish white sources. I have had STPs stranded in my hands countless times. It will be harder to cast than one thinks. However, this does seem like a powerful card.

I didn’t mean to sway your predictions for Goblin engineer @CHA1N5 @Smmenen

I accidentally forgot my deck box at home. Nam @nartman99 had an extra deck. Turns out it was a Goblin Engineer/ Welder deck. I haven’t played a blue deck in Vintage since I played Lord of Atlantis (which does not count as a blue deck). Turns out it was a pretty fun deck to pilot. It was my first time activating a Welder... wow. I think some minor tweaks are needed to the deck. I don’t recommend netdecking the list lol. More Dacks and Missteps are needed.

@protoaddict

Narset is one sided. Labyrinth shuts off your draws too. So whether Labyrinth is blue or white doesn’t change anything. Heck, if Labyrinth was blue it may never have been played. Or Dack would have been played right along side of it as a 4-of to Hymn your opponent.

Giving this a bump. Hopefully we will see some new faces this weekend.

there might be a scenario where this can be Griselbrand #4. Example, reanimating a Griselbrand would result you at less than 7 life. Your Griselbrand is turned off. Instead, reanimating this card would put you at the same 7 life but it would result you in 8 cards. Maybe too narrow.

Is this a Human? I mean, naming Human with Cavern, the Cavern can’t pay for this correct?

Aside from that, I am thinking of being machine gunned down by a Ballista or wastelanded out of a game. There is a real cost to target anything on the battlefield or the player from your Shops opponent.

I generally play Eldrazi, if this creature was on my side, having this in combination with Thorn effects, my opponents mana gets used up pretty quickly. Turn 1 Thalia, turn 2 this guy; your opponent will have to pay 3 mana to STP your creature. That’s not nothing.

Against Dredge, their therapies target you. If they only have Bazaar, then it gets countered.

Against Oath, Oath targets you .... then they get a Griselbrand. .

Against durdley Blue.dec, Jace Telepath and JTMS can target a creature you control. Bolts and STPs and Probe and Decays all target. However, Decay won’t get countered.

Against PO, the only thing that would target is... Tendrils! Yet another obstacle for the Storm player to remove before going off.

However, I don’t know if the U and W in its casting cost fits into anything directly yet. The U and W make it definitely playable, but there are only so many slots to simply slide this into an existing deck. But wizards in definitely trying to make a UW tribal deck a possibility. Meddling mage, Lavinia, Thalia, THIS, and others are a good start.

If my opponent has 2 planeswalkers on the battlefield... I am losing. And I am probably not resolving this card. Dack and Jace will make it pretty hard to resolve. One of the reasons Abrupt Decay is still good. On the surface this looks awesome but probably won’t see play.

This is an answer to a quick Tinker or Mentor, temporarily. Opp goes Tinker Collosus Go. Aside from typical answers like STP, Dack, or Balance, this prevents Blightsteel from lethal attack. Don’t exactly know where this would fit in with typical Blue decks. however this is another Thorn for White Eldrazi.

Not the best time to be a legendary creature with all the Karakas’s floating around. This still can be bounced by your opponents Karakas.

This does stop the value-Will replay land drop from the graveyard. Also this laughs at the Depths/Stage combo.

I will have to test to see if this is good in a White Eldrazi list. I might have to add Lotus Petal instead of Mox Sapphire.