Keeper, Vintage for Cash @ Mirkwood (2nd!)

-or, "killing the jace game"

Hi everyone.  It's been a while.

Since this blog has been updated, I've moved across the country- from the gentle hills of the Piedmont to the wintry highlands of Seattle.  For me, that means playing a literal SSD is going to be more challenging. (Luckily, my Demonic Tutor is awfully Shitty.)

But! 

I can still tell you the stories of the card shops and tournaments where I now find myself. 

And if you can overlook the fact that I haven't posted in a year.. Thanks.


In any case, here's what I played today.

also includes 1 toxic deluge

ghetto power, w/e

the board

Having been picked up and driven to the venue by coolguy Matt, who is perennially early, I leisurely wrote up a list and attempted to draw multiple Leyline of the Void with Sharpies. (This was challenging.) Thanks to the TO who printed them out for me.

And getting started with our 14 person tournament, we find..

Round 1: Randy Buehler w/ Burning Oath

 "That guy looks familiar. Actually, he sounds familiar.."
In our first game, Mr. Buehler took 4 mulligans. His only play was a Tolarian Academy. I killed him to death with a poisonous robot. 

Because I'm romantic, I thought he might be playing the mono-blue Belcher deck, so I boarded in my REB and Mindbreak Trap.

In the second game, I kept a loose-ish one with Snapcaster and Misstep, but no Force. That hand didn't last long- he went City of Brass, Mox, Mox, Timetwister.  My new seven featured two Forces, a Time Walk, and two other blue cards with two other lands. 
I recall saying, "I'll keep."

The game continued slowly- I got both of my lands in play, Forcing a draw seven and a Defense Grid as they came up. The game ended when he stuck another Grid and then an Oath of Druids, which let him tutor up a Griselbrand. He only drew seven cards with it, but he had a Burning Wish for Yawgmoth's Will, which was sufficient.

Our final game had a lot of interaction. I mulliganned into Academy, Voltaic Key, Time Vault, Mox Ruby, and Yawgmoth's Will. In order to bluff Mana Drain, I ran out Mox Key Academy, but he is not a coward and cast Windfall on his first turn. I sheepishly discarded my turn 2 win, and drew Red Blast, Mindbreak Trap, Force. (You may have noticed, but I drew pretty well this match.) After laughing at my graveyard, he played additional mana and went for a Timetwister with RU floating. That spell activated my Trap card. His look was of puzzlement, then confusion, and finally frustration as he placed his Timetwister in the graveyard. Since I'm a pedant/judge, I let him know he was off by one zone. 
His RU, unsurprisingly, turned into a Burning Wish which found him a Yawgmoth's Will, then he passed the turn.  Clearly an Ancestral Recall was on top of my deck, followed by a land and a Tinker.  I thought about leaving some mana up, but summoned the robot from my library anyway.
Randy tanked, tanked, then played an Academy, but he couldn't figure out a way to turn his Yawgmoth's Will into anything good. The Windfall in his graveyard wasn't a combo with my hand of two cards, his Timetwister had been cleverly exiled by yours truly, and he died to my Colossus.

Round 2: Lance w/ Control Oath

Lance was a pretty cool dude. He Negated at least 10 Jaces over the day.

In our first game, I kept a hand of Deathrite, Bolt, Jace, and some fast mana. He hit my Deathrite with a Misstep, then countered every other spell I played. After he played an Oath of Druids, I stuck a Jace to deal with his inevitable Griselbrand- but he looped Time Walks for the rest of the game, restocking his deck with Gaea's Blessing and its interaction with Oath of Druids.

He also played a Tenth Edition Island, which made me feel bad.

For the second game, I got an early lead by resolving a turn 1 Recall with Mana Drain up. Then I discarded that lead by Draining an Impulse. Literally no idea what I was doing.  That error was compounded by my Vampiric into Jace, so that I could use up the mana, but he just Negated it and landed an Oath. I had a turn to draw Toxic Deluge, but I didn't, so I died.

Round 3: Trent w/ Dredge

Game 1 was pretty close- I kept a hand with many counterspells, and he didn't play any spells. Neat. My notes have only the phrase "zzz".

For the second, I brought in my eight hate cards. 

Since I'm a sack, my opener in game 2 had a Leyline and a Cage! So lucky!
He goes turn 1 Wispmare, turn 2 Ingot Chewer.
Well, it was real, guys.. It's all up to you, Deathrite Shaman that I topdecked. 
Fortunately, Deathrite Shaman is a hard carry (and I drew another pretty soon after).
The game was actually quite close- he had an Undiscovered Paradise and had found a lot of Bloodghasts in the time it took me to stick some hate. Luckily, he didn't locate any Therapies until I had padded my life total with his graveyard creatures. His library ran out with me at thirty.

I kept another opener with a Leyline and a Cage, but this time with some protection.  He had a Bazaar to open with, but was under hate until I peeled a Demonic Tutor for Wasteland. Jace hit my side of the field, and I ticked it up to 13, leaving him with useless Darkblasts and Wispmares. 
After the Jace ult, I played a second Jace which drew me into 2 Cages. 
We went draw-go, until I could find some way to actually kill him. My next Brainstorm found me two, but time was called the turn after I cast them.  He was at 16, and I had boarded out my Blightsteel Colossus, the lethal Ancestral was in my graveyard with two Cages in play, and my opponent was clearly happy about eking out a draw from the jaws of defeat. I asked for a concession, and after his hearty guffaw, Lance told him that conceding would be a thing that a cool guy would do. Thanks for being a gentleman.

Round 4: Greg w/ #YoungMoney

Greg is my roommate, and so we have played a few games over our lifetimes.  He is playing a sweet Young Pyromancer deck with Gush and Drain, Time Walk, and multiple Regrowths.
In the first game, we each land our marquee creature- his Pyromancer, and a Deathrite for me. His spells count for a lot, unfortunately, and I can't really interact except for a few singletons. I did forget to remove his Gush in response to Regrowth, but the Gush died in his hand- while I died to the nearly unbeatable combo of Young Money and Time Walk. 

I brought in my Mindbreak Trap and Red Blast. 

In game 2, I locked myself with a turn 1 Brainstorm- my opener had access only to blue and red mana, which didn't cast any of my cards besides the Brainstorm. Greg stuck a turn 1 Young Pyromancer.  That early aggression put me perilously low, but a timely Ancestral gave me a City of Brass which let me cast most of the other cards in my hand, starting with a Deathrite Shaman.  Greg had another Pyromancer, prior to a fight over his Ancestral Recall. He had a Force to protect it, at the cost of the Jace in his hand, but I had a Mental Misstep and my Mindbreak Trap to keep his hand under control. The fight gave him a lot of Elementals, but my opener had a Vampiric Tutor which found my singleton Toxic Deluge. The play put me at 10, but annihilated his army and bought me a lot of time.  His next draw step gave him a Library of Alexandria, which made me burn my Demonic Tutor for Wasteland. That was the last of his gas, and with the game relatively locked up, I resolved a Jace. The plan was to kill him eventually with Deathrite Shamans, but he conceded when a spectator told us there were 15 minutes on the clock.

In the final game, he played Library on his first turn. I responded with land, mox, Time Walk, then land into Tinker for Blightsteel. He didn't have a Force, so I was into the playoffs.

Top 4 Rematch: Lance w/ Control Oath

As the only member of my car to make the top 4, I offered a split but was quickly denied. 
Oh well. We know what happens to chop-blockers.

Lance and I played a very, very long match. The first game is a blur for the first few turns. With the knowledge that his deck was about 40% counterspells, I did what I could do keep Oaths off the table and bait out his spells. At one point around turn 6, we fought over an Oath of Druids, and I won the counter war. Assuming that the Jace I was sitting on would be safe, I ran it out and rode it to victory. I think he conceded at 16 after I had Brainstormed about 8 times. 

As for the second game, I kept an opener with a Force and two Missteps, a Bolt, a Cage, and some mana. The Cage landed early, following his Oath of Druids. After roughly five turns of draw-go, I ran out of lands to play and discarded my Bolt to hand size. Subsequently, he cast a Jace into my Force, but he had the Negate to protect his planeswalker. Following that were a few turns of me casting a Jace into a counterspells as he built up his advantage with Brainstorms off his Jace. An eternity of draw steps later, I peeled a Bolt to axe his planeswalker. The fact that it resolved was hardly believable. He used that opening to hit my Cage with a Nature's Claim, which resolved.  His draw step gave him a Ponder, then a Forbidden Orchard. 
Now, to set the stage here- my hand is a Yawgmoth's Will, a Mana Crypt, and a Voltaic Key. It has been like that for many turns now. There's a Tinker in my bin. 
I draw- Time Vault. Is that good?
So I slam the Will, and he can't do anything about that. I run out my Crypt, the Vault, the Key, and in response to untapping my Time Vault, he blows it up with Nature's Claim. There are, in fact, two Missteps in my bin, so I casually take 2 to protect my Vault, but the last two cards in his hand are Red Blasts. I'm blown away.. but eventually realize that there's a Mana Drain down there too.

Finals Rematch: Randy Buehler w/ Burning Oath

Randy and I set up a prize split, and, to be honest, I kind of check out. There was a clever play where I hit his turn 1 Dark Ritual with a Misstep, keeping him from casting turn 1 Necro, but I do a bunch of stupid things and get killed to death. Game 2 is the same. Sorry I couldn't fight harder, Mr. Buehler!
♣

I have to say, I'm really enjoying Vintage. It's hard, but really rewards the probabilistic thought processes that I enjoy. Also you can keep no landers. 

As for the deck, well, it was pretty sweet. Vault+Key decks seem very strong, at least on paper, and every single card in the deck, including the 1 maindeck Toxic Deluge, really pulled its weight. I'd have a hard time cutting anything besides the Ancient Grudge, but our meta doesn't have a lot of Shops decks.

We hope you enjoyed this little write-up. If you're in the Seattle area, come join us on Sundays for the league!

And until next time, stay broken.
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