GP Portland 2017: Vintage Side Event

I just got back from Vintage at GP Portland 2017. I walked away at 1-3, but my 1 "win" was a bye. That's right: I didn't win any matches in 4 rounds of swiss. In fact, I did even win any games in all four rounds. But, it was so worth it.



I cast Ancestral Recall on myself in competitive play for the first time in forever!

The grand plan to go into the day with underpowered Fenton Oath was, upon reflection, maybe not the greatest idea. I thought slamming down Griselbrands with Oath or Show was going to get there. It's just such a powerful thing to do. But, my match ups didn't give me many windows for that.

Round 1 vs. Adam
He's on Paradoxical Storm Tendrils and wins both games with it. Game 1 was pretty quick. Game 2 was interesting. I kept him off the storm kill with lots of strategic countering, but never drew a way to get the demon into play. We were 10+ turns in before he finally put it together.

Round 2 vs. Eric
There was another guy there named Eric, who was also playing Oath. He had the bomberman combo in there, along with some other spice. I saw the Scarab God at one point, too. We had the typical Oath-on-Oath battle of keeping creatures at parity. Game 1 and 2 played out similarly. He had the edge and stopped me from Showing out the demon. We both had to mull to 5 on the second game. I finally get an Oath into play with 4 cards left in my library after he hits me with the Jace ultimate.

Round 3 vs. Bye
A bye in this kind of event is no fun. I was there to play, but we had an uneven number of players. I think the count was 13 or possibly 15. I sat this round out and watched a few other games. I saw a sweet Skullclamp Elves deck, Tangle Wire Shops, Grixis, and a couple of other Oath decks. As it turns out, the guy I got paired up with in Round 4 provided at least 3 of the decks I saw at the tables. Deep collection, I guess.

Round 4 vs. Tim
Tim seemed like a really cool guy that I had played some Legacy against on a visit to a local game store. He had loaned out his Shops and Oath deck to some other players so that they could enter Vintage. His deck was a Grixis Thieves/Big Blue monstrosity. 2 Dacks, 2 JTMS, 1 Tezz, 2 Snaps, Vault/Key, Tinker/Blightsteel. That kind of stuff. Plus, it just looked cool. He had spent quite a lot of time (and probably money) on putting these cards together. Game 1, he plays a land, some moxes, and a crypt, then passes. I drop a Library and pass back. On his upkeep, I activate Library to draw. He responds with Notion Thief. It got worse from there. He ended up Twisting us and drew 14 cards because of Notion Thief. Game 2 was just value town on his side, resulting in Tezz for Vault/Key and Snapcaster beats.


Vintage is still my favorite format, and I'm glad for the times I can play in person. The things that happen are so silly that you can't help but laugh. I think I heard more laughter from this group of Vintage players than any other time I've played competitively.

When I get the chance to play again, possibly at GP Seattle next year, I will likely sleeve up a UBr list. I have better cards for it and it couldn't hurt to play a Mana Drain or two.

GP Vegas 2017: The Dinner Bracket, Legacy UB Reanimator, Artist Signatures, and Old School Magic

Just got back from GP Vegas 2017. Good times!

So many Magics, So many Vents

Ben, Drew, and I made the trek to GP Vegas this year. Spirit Air FTW. I played 7 rounds of Legacy with UB Reanimator against a massive field of players, going 4-3 drop.

I'm calling it the Dinner Bracket.

You know, when you drop so you can go get dinner. The dude was throwing shrimp tails up onto his hat and made a volcano out of onion slices.

Round 1 - Delver (Brian)
Record: Win 2-1
Notable: I showed up late and was given a game loss. Show up on time, kids.

Round 2 - Sneak n' Show (Rik)
Record: Win 2-0
Notable: Game 1 was an early Griselbrand. Game 2 we locked each other out. He had two Cages in play. I had a Needle on Sneak and countered all of his Shows. Ended up winning with a hardcast Grave Titan.

Round 3 - Storm (Ross Merriam)
Record: Loss 1-2
Notable: Beat him game 1 with a triple Force of Will turn, which is apparently the level of craziness needed to beat Storm because I lost the next two games.

Round 4 - Stoneblade (Brandon)
Record: Loss 1-2
Notable: Screwed myself Game 1 when I didn't draw 7 in response to him killing Griselbrand.

Round 5 - BUG Delver (Stephan)
Record: Loss 0-2
Notable: Got hosed here. Really, really bad.

Round 6 - UR Delver (Mike)
Record: Win 2-1
Notable: Lost game 1, but came back in the next two games with sideboard cards.

Round 7 - Patriot (Felix)
Record: Win 2-0
Notable: He was Swords-ing everything. But I boarded in the Angels, so I had too many targets for him to control.

Round 8 - Dinner (Benihana)
Record: Win
Notable: Sat with the guys who produced the crazy Hour of Devastation reveal show.

I also got a few cards signed while I was there. There's some real progress happening on my Old School 93/94 deck. I even got the first card at the GP signed by Jeff A. Menges (Swords to Plowshares). Drew Tucker signed the Plateau with the wrong art, with the words, "I didn't draw this" on top of the signature. (He asked me first.) Let's see if I can get the actual artist to sign it, too. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of Old School, I watched the first couple rounds of Old School at the GP. Hippies, Sink Holes, and Juzams galore. Moxes, and Ancestrals, and Time Walks, Oh My! Nothing quite like shooting the breeze with Randy Buehler with $50k+ of cards on the table.

A Long Time Gone: Commander 2016, Deckbuilding Cube, Duel Decks, Legacy, and more!

Commander 2016



The Magical Christmasland Gods have been good to the playgroup this year. Commander 2016 has given us the Atraxa deck (Breed Lethality) and the Yidris deck (Entropic Uprising). These decks play very differently from each other, but both are powerful and fun. The thing I'm most impressed about is how consistent the mana is for casting the four-color commanders. I only remember one game where Atraxa was stuck in the command zone past turn 5. More commonly, Atraxa was on the board on turn 3, 4, or 5! Ydris' Oprah-like granting of cascade to all your spells after he whacks someone makes for some crazy, crazy turns.

Commander Deckbuilding Cube / Aether Revolt



The more I mess around with this idea of a Commander Deckbuilding Cube, the more I like it. I played with the Brago deck for a while. It does some impressive stuff when it gets going! But, as usual, I wanted to switch it up. Boom, enter the deckbuilding cube. I stripped Brago for parts, reached into the box, and slapped together a BR Grenzo deck with artifact-graveyard shenanigans and scrying. Oh, man. It's a whole different kind of fun when it works. There's not much like swapping Scuttling Doom Engine and Spine of Ish Sah with Darreti and Goblin Welder.



We also got the full Aether Revolt spoiler to look at and woah, there are tons of great cards in there for Commander. I added them to "the waiting list," but in a new section. Here's to crossing my fingers that the prices will come down when the cards (Robots!) eventually rotate out of Standard. Patience, padawan.

Duel Decks / Planeswalker Decks



I try to live a simple life. I get it. Friends and family aren't sure what to buy for me. My birthday is mid-October and then there's Christmas. The good news is, Target sells pre-constructed decks. So, that makes it easy. This year, I was blessed to get the Ob Nixilis vs. Nissa duel deck for my birthday and the Chandra planeswaker deck for Christmas. That's a lot of planeswalkers to join my collection of duel decks! We put those decks to good use, facing off against planeswalker decks of Christmas past. Kiora is always a favorite.

Drafting Conspiracy



Finally, finally after a couple of years of half-hearted planning and missed appointments, I had a chance to actually meet up with some of the guys from work to draft. One of the guys bought a box of the Conspiracy: Take the Crown set, so we did a multiplayer draft. I didn't pull anything too crazy, but good times were had by all. I also had the chance to play some co-op Horde Magic while I was there, and we even fit in a game of Commander. If you haven't tried Horde Magic, you should check it out!

Brian Weissman



Shout out to Brian for posting some more Commander videos. Check out his channel on YouTube to watch him wreck people with Nin, the Pain Artist, one-on-one and multiplayer this time.

VSL

If you want to watch more Magic action online, Season 6 of the Vintage Super League is up and running, too. Watch the first two weeks of play-in tournaments on YouTube, then tune-in live every week. If you are a fan of drawing three cards for one blue mana, I can't say enough good things about the VSL series. Watch it!

Legacy Reanimator / Delver / GP Vegas



If the fates are kind, I plan to travel to GP Vegas this year with some friends to play some competitive Legacy. I will likely play Reanimator again because, well, you know, Griselbrand! Good old Scoop Hands himself! But, I've had a chance to play a few games with Grixis Delver, and hope to do some more testing between now and then.

Wow! That's a lot of Magic.