BUG Delver

-or, #teammurca

For the foreseeable future, I'll likely be playing “real” decks. (That is, unless our titular degenerate wants to Fedex me something spicy.) In fact, this deck is actually jam-packed with good cards. I hope you don't mind an off-theme post.

Here's the listo. (link)

Two of the Underground Seas belong to my roommate Greg, which he borrowed from his Vintage deck. How do I know this? Well, in a game before the tournament, he played Mox, fetchland, and then I had to unsleeve one of the Seas and hand it to him.

Anyway, pairings are up..

Round 1: David w/ Big Red

I won the roll and lead with a Deathrite Shaman. He responded with City of Traitors and passed the turn. My Hymn to Tourach hit another City of Traitors... and a Worldspine Wurm. (?)

So that was confusing. I had tapped Deathrite for mana, so it got shuffled back in, then I played a Wasteland and passed without killing his City. After playing a Lotus Petal and exiling a Spirit Guide, he ran out a Sneak Attack into my Force of Will. His City got taken out, I played another Wasteland and another Deathrite Shaman, and he didn't get past two mana for the rest of the game. Eventually I killed him with a Tarmogoyf.

The Pierces and a Grip came in at first, but while pile shuffling I realized that my sleeves were sufficiently transparent to read the Insectile Aberrations through them. Nobody had extra checklist cards, so I boarded the Delvers out for Golgari Charms and the extra Liliana. I felt this was an acceptable punishment for having marked cards in the prior game.

A second-turn Blood Moon (rude) off Ancient Tomb got Forced, but a Defense Grid made it to the field. I dug with a Ponder, seeing Deathrite, Krosan Grip, Abrupt Decay. The Shaman hit the table, but he followed up with a Pyromancy. (?)

The Hymn I had been sitting on found his Emrakul and a land, leaving him with one card. It was Worldspine Wurm, obviously, and discarding it to Pyromancy left him with no cards and me at 8. After that, I killed all of his permanents, one at a time, and pinged him to death. rite. Zing.

Round 2: Graham w/ Affinity

He won the roll and started on six. We had played next to each other in the previous round, but I'm not terribly observant- I knew he was playing a deck with Orithopter and Memnite, but that was it. I kept a hand with lots of spells but no creatures, in case he was playing a new-border Cheerios deck. (He wasn't. ☹)

His first turn is a Memnite and a Vault Skirge. An Arcbound Ravager ran into a Force of Will, then my Hymn emptied his hand. My hand continued to have no creatures as the pair of 1/1s brought me down to 12. I ate my graveyard to cast a Tombstalker, but he had peeled well for five turns running. Abrupt Decay and Daze did what they could, but by the time I assembled a defense, he had assembled Etched Champion and Cranial Plating.

For game 2, he assembled a pair of early Vault Skirges off an Ancient Tomb and Springleaf Drum. My opening was much faster, though, with a Deathrite Shaman and early Tarmogoyf. Another Ravager got Forced, but the duplicate the following turn resolved.

I attacked with my squad of two Tarmogoyfs into his two Vault Skirges and Arcbound Ravager. Having audibly verified my Tarmogoyfs' sizes, he blocked both of them and dumped all his permanents onto one of them.. which died Abruptly. RIP.

Hymns had come out for that game, but I brought them back along with two of the Golgari Charms, hoping to mise away the multitude of X/1s his deck features.

We both mulliganned in the final game, and I kept a one-lander with Force, Delver, Underground, Deathrite, Decay, Brainstorm. He led with Darksteel Citadel, Mox Opal.. which I Forced, pitching my Delver. You can call that play dubious (and the spectators definitely did), but I felt like I had the soul read. Maybe keeping the Delver was correct. I'm not sure. Regardless, he had a Vault Skirge to start the clock. Tarmogoyf met me in my draw step, and I cast the Deathrite Shaman. He topdecked an Ornithopter, and ran it out along with a Springleaf Drum. I drew Wasteland, and he somehow mananged to guess what I had drawn. 

I think, though I'm not sure, that it's because I picked up his Darksteel Citadel and read the reminder text aloud. 

Anyway, instead of playing the Tarmogoyf, I kept on with the LD plan and blew up his Drum with the Decay from my opener, exiling the fetchland in my graveyard. Tarmogoyf landed as a 2/3 the next turn. I was taken aback when he played Ancient Tomb into Chalice for one, but I was sitting on a Daze and two-drops and wasn't scared. After I drew another Brainstorm (obviously), his Tomb died to Wasteland and Tarmogoyf #2 hit the field. Having sufficiently shut him down, he drained me for one and passed with only Ornithopter to block, sitting at 16. When I draw Abrupt Decay, I go into the tank for a long minute. If kill a creature, I can attack him down to 7, and he'll be dead on board even with the life gain from his flier. It'll be bad if he draws a land, but what two drop can he play that I'm afraid of?

So, I Decay his blocker and put him to 7. His next turn is land into Arcbound Ravager. Well, now this is awkward. I can't attack anymore, but I do peel and cast a Sylvan Library. He follows me with a land and an Etched Champion. My Sylvan feeds me a Decay, which I burn on the Ravager in an attempt to get aggressive. He lets it die with one counter, depositing it onto his Champion, and I battle with my Tarmogoyfs, putting him at 4. Unfortunately, this line leaves me with only Underground and Deathrite Shaman untapped, with Brainstorm in hand stranded by his Chalice. On his next turn, he plays a lethal Cranial Plating, but I do what I can to convince him it's off by 1. After he counts his artifacts, and demonstrates that he is not an idiot, I cast the Brainstorm in a desperation attempt to activate the Force and blue card on top of my deck. He forgets about his Chalice trigger, but claims that I had already let his Plating resolve. I don't really know one way or the other, but I concede anyway while vigorously pointing to his Chalice. 

Round 3: Tanner w/ LoamPox

Our first game is quite drawn out. I assumed he was playing a Pox-type deck, so I keep an opener on the draw with four lands, Ponder, Daze, and Tarmogoyf. He hits me with an Inquisition, which is awkward. I draw a land, cast Ponder, shuffle away some lands, and draw a Delver. He kills my land, I play the Delver, he plays Mox Diamond into Smallpox, I consider suicide, but luckily he doesn't do anything but cast Life from the Loam for a few turns. That gives me the time to topdeck and stick a Tarmogoyf, and his hand is all Sinkholes and Wastelands. I even have the Force in case of another Smallpox. Many lands, wow.

In game 2, he has another Inquisition after I lead with a Delver of Secrets. He strips my Tarmogoyf and sees two Abrupt Decays and two lands. I don't draw anything good, and the Smallpox he plays next turn (discarding Nether Spirit) takes me right out of the game.

The last game is equally interactive- I play a turn 1 Deathrite, Waste his first two lands, and drop an early Tarmogoyf. He plays a Smallpox to set me back, but trading his land for my 1/2 keeps him from developing quickly enough to stop my Goyf. Liliana and another Deathrite put the nail in his coffin.

Round 4: Greg w/ Tin Fins

Greg is playing Tin Fins with Show and Tell maindeck. He wins the roll, and my six-card opener has a card from my sideboard. After my embarrassment fades away, Greg starts with Brainstorm off a Lotus Petal. Then he plays Swamp into Entomb, which immediately dies to my Force. He's sad, then imprints a Griselbrand on a Chrome Mox to Thoughtseize me. Stuck with the blanks on the top of his deck, I have time to develop my lands and resolve a Tarmogoyf. Once he's drawn his two blanks, I topdeck a Hymn and get both a Griselbrand and Emrakul, which blanks both his reanimation spells and the Show and Tells which I imagine must be stranded in his hand. Next turn I summon my own Demon, which meets an eye roll and is lethal.

I board in the Spell Pierces and the Cage for two Decays and two Dazes. It's good to hedge.

He plays a Pithing Needle on turn 1, turning off the Deathrite Shaman in my hand. Tough, but fair. I play a fetch and pass, intending to wait and put the Woodland Druid back later with a Brainstorm. After he plays a Lotus Petal and passes, I crack my fetch. As I have no permanents, he can cast a Lim-Dul's Vault with no fear of the Daze in my hand.  The first five are good enough, and I resolve a Delver and pass. Brainstorm in my upkeep ensures that it flips, and the giant Insect goes to work on his life total. Another land lets him resolve an Entomb soon after, but the Reanimate on his Griselbrand drops him to 3, against my squadron of Insectile Aberration, Tarmogoyf, Tombstalker, and Deathrite Shaman. The men of low cost mount an assault, and the blocked one gets Smited. No feeders, please.

♣

Looking back, I'd say this is probably my favorite Delver deck so far this year. (The Naughty Delver deck doesn't count.) If you can stand to play this many good cards, you could do worse than inspiring misery by revealing Hymn to Tourach to a blind Delver flip. Delicious. 

Until next time, keep it tight.
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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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