Sunday 27 March 2016

GP Melbourne Vintage: Round 5

Howdy Folks,

Sorry for the delay in getting this post out guy/gals but I have spent some time refining some things elsewhere and I am back here. I competed in a Highlander event where I came in the top 8 with my Channel-Mirror deck. I also was interviewed for a job for my first job since becoming sick so I am very excited at the prospects and have lots of ideas for the place. I hope to hear back from them soon.

But when we last left our intrepid hero I was 2-2 in the GP Melbourne Vintage event having just lost to Socrates on his UB Suicide tendrils list. Having lost two rounds I was out of contention for first place completely so was just playing for the points. My final opponent for the tournament was Ben McCoy on a UB Tezzeret list. Ben looks like he had taken queues from the 2011 Bazaar of Moxen winning decklist with some updated cards to include the now unrestricted Thirst for Knowledge.

Ben's List:






My List:





Going into the round I was not sure what Ben was going to be on (I had sneaked enough of a look to see that he was on a blue deck but not much more) so I kept a pretty open hand which Missteped his Voltaic Key and laid down a Painter's Servant. I elected to not counter his Time Vault as I was leading toward an early Tinker for Blightsteel which resolved through his Force of Will. Blightsteel however, was not fast enough as the Trinket Mage in play bought Ben a turn on 9 Poison

Ben casually played the Tezzeret in hand to untap the Time Vault in play and I was left feeling very silly.

For this matchup I sideboarded the same as my round 1 opponent.

Removed:


 Added:




Game two was a rather quick affair in which I Strip Mined my opponent early and he was unable to recover as I had the countermagic to hold him off any relevant plays. He got stuck under a Mana Vault which dealt 6 or so damage to him during which time he did not draw any mana sources and I was easily able to resolve my combo to go onto game 3.

I kept the same sideboard going into game three.


During and after game three I felt really sorry for Ben. We are good friends and I felt bad that siding out half my combo really lengthened this game to a point where it was almost unbrearable. Both of us kept permission heavy hands and it was really touch and go for quite a while as we were jockeying for permission with Force of Will and Mental Misstep being the main culprits of our early game interaction.  Over 7 life was depleted between both parties in the opening turns. Where the tide turned in my favour was the resolution of a Painter’s Servant which really allowed by 4 Pyroblasts to go up in value. It was in this position where I had a slight advantage over Ben the whole game for nearly 20 turns as I was always a card ahead. I drew the Blightsteel early and whenever I got rid of the card I would draw it within a turn or two. This meant that Tinker was out and I needed to combo other ways.

The problem was that I had discarded the Grindstone to a Thirst for Knowledge very early on so I knew that my only out to actually win the game besides Tinker or Painter beats was to find my Yawgmoth’s Will which was hiding in the deck. After 30 or so turns I finally found my Dack Fayden with only 12 cards left in my library. I used Deck Fayden to cycle through the last cards in my library to find the Yawgmoth’s Will the second to last card left.

I resolved the Yawgmoth’s and took a long but unexcitingly boring game. It was a good choice to keep in as much permision as possible; it was just unlucky that the game did not end sooner.

It was a great match but being caught at the tail end of the tournament and a long game three put a bit of a dampner on the whole thing. As the tournament structure did not have a top 8 there was very little we were playing for so it did seem to drag on a bit. It would have been a lot more exciting if there were a top 8 because we would have been potentially on a win and in but it was not to be.

In the end I finished on equal 4th place on 3-2. I felt like I had a list that was worthy of a better record and it was my play that let me down. I will have to put in a bit more testing for the next tournament. I would be happy to continue playing this list for the host of reasons I have written about.

Until Next time.

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