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22 March Vintage Tournament
Tournament Organizer: Hans “Triple H, Sometimes Y2J” Biasbas
Player turnout: 14
This will be my report for last week’s tournament. I hope the others will pitch in as well. We played four rounds of Swiss. I played “Ocean Puppies” (a.k.a. UB Remora Control). The decklist I used at the time is as follows:
Ocean Puppies (a.k.a. UB Remora Control)
as played by Cyrus Alanis
4 Mystic Remora
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Midirection
2 Repeal
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyll’s Recall
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Mind Spring
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Dimir Cutpurse
1 Tinker
1 Psychatog
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Triskelion
1 Mana Crypt
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Seat of Synod
4 Island
Sideboard:
2 Stifle
2 Extirpate
2 Energy Flux
2 Pithing Needle
1 Back to Basics (this should be at least 2)
1 Darkblast
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Gaea’s Blessing
First things first. Mystic Remora is the s**t, yo! It forces the opponent agonize whether to give you card advantage or taking a turn doing absolutely nothing. The deck is really wanting in jewelry (to pay for the upkeep cost) but beggars can’t be choosers, yes? With Remora in play, I rarely get a hand less than 5 at any given time, which is always a good thing when you’re playing blue. If the opponent waits it out until Remora becomes too costly to maintain, he risks allowing me to build my counter wall. If he breaks it early, I get to draw some answers. Creatures can be a problem but that’s what the 3 Sowers are for.
Round 1 vs. Jong Tabangcura playing UW Fish
Game 1. I play a first turn Remora followed by a second turn Recall and overwhelm him with card advantage. I tinker out a Leviathan at some point which he has no answers to.
Game 2. I have Mana Drain online on the first turn thanks to Sapphire. Next turn I drop Remora. I believe I allowed the Remora to die but played a replacement. After some draw-go, I play FoF EOT, which we fight over with me emerging with a Cabal Ritual with threshold on my next main. I use it to draw lots using Mind Spring. I lock him out with Back to Basics. A stolen Aven Mindcensor, Trinket Mage and a pair of Sowers seal the deal.
Round 2 vs. Mac Capricho playing WUG Dreadstill
Game 1. Come to think of it, I’m not really sure if he did play with Phyrexian Dreadnaughts as I never saw any of them making an appearance. All I recall nabbing is a 5/6 Dinosaur which went to the dome once. He bounces the goyf (saying if he bounced the Sower, I would just cast it again, which also meant he did not have any counter) but I have another Sower in hand with Drain backup.
Game 2. I’m not sure what really transpired but I think I was able to tinker out a Leviathan. I do recall countering with a hardcast Force just by tapping Tolarian Academy and nothing else as I had a lots of artifacts by then. Back to Basics also shut off his Factories and Wastelands.
Round 3 vs Chris Sta. Maria playing Modified BW Deadguy Ale
Game 1. Two weeks ago, Chris and I played it out for the championship. I was lucky to have emerged victorious then, bagging home a set of black Leylines. Chris was the TO at the time so he probably didn’t mind me winning his spare set. Nonetheless, it’s obvious he is itching for revenge. I Ancestral Recall on the first turn and have Drains online on the second. He does manage to somehow control the game with some Smallpox and Balance, I think. He gets to play two Confidants but I tinker out a Triskelion which promptly sends them to the graveyard. A 2/2 Trike and a pair of Cutpurses team up for GG some turns hence.
Game 2. Can’t remember exactly but I believe I overwhelm him with card advantage courtesy of Mystic Remora. Back to Basics shuts off his Factories and Wastelands and Psychatog simply became a formality with all the cards I drew.
Round 4 vs. Jesse Moralina playing MaskNaught
We draw into the top 8. We do play some casual games, though, the highlight of which involved Misdirecting his Recall and digging into my own drawing 6 cards total.
After 4 rounds, the top 8 emerged as follows:
Cyrus Alanis – UB Remora Control
Jesse Moralina – Masknaught
Chris Sta. Maria – Deadguy Ale
Agnes Toledo – Sui Black
Randy Rueda – RW Control
Hans Biasbas – Ad Nauseum
Omar Javier – BG Crazy Goyf
Mac Capricho -- Dreadstill
Top 8 vs. Mac Capricho (Dreadstill)
Game 1. I face Mac again in the top 8 but he is not the same person. Weird, huh? Not really. Duty beckons and being the public servant that Mac is, he had to temporarily take his leave and attend to an emergency session (he is also referred to as Kagawad Mac by his constituents). But as per consensus, we allowed his alter-ego, Jose, to pilot his deck. Jose is no stand in though as he can also play.
Game 1 was really close as I get clobbered by two Factory’s. I believe I was down to only 4 life when I luckily rip a Hurkyll’s Recall off the top of my deck. I wait for him to transform his Factories before casting Hurkyll’s. On my turn, I then Tinker for Leviathan, cast Yawgmoth’s Will, Tinker again for Trike, Ancestral and end the turn under the safety of a replayed Remora.
Game 2. I play a third turn Back to Basics off drain mana. His lands comprise of Wasteland, Factory, and two Tundras which were all tapped in an attempt to cast CoW. We draw go for a while but with most of his lands tapped, he is shut off and can’t even play his own Drains. He manages to cast a goyf, which I nab. He sends the Sower to the farm but I have another. He tinkers but after searching over his library he does not find a target, forgetting he never boarded in any robot.
Top 4 vs Agnes Toledo (Sui Black)
Game 1. She has a strong opening of Dark Rit, Sensei, Confidant. On her second turn, she casts Hymn, which I Misdirect (bwahaha!). Eventually, I steal her confidant and cast Mystic Remora. She tries to search for answers with Sensei but whatever she plays yields me a card, which always included a counter. I eventually overwhelm her with Cutpurses.
Game 2. This game ended unfairly as she was unable to draw a swamp for more than 5 turns. Even worse, I had Back to Basics in play.
Finals vs. Chris Sta. Maria (Modified Deadguy Ale)
Game 1. So it’s two weeks ago again. While shuffling up for the finals, in retrospect, I wasn’t really sure if the deck he was using at the time was purely BW Control. Ever since he got his Lotus, he has been experimenting with a build that incorporated Bomberman. I realize this now as I seem to have remembered him playing Pyrite Spellbomb at some point to draw in game 1. He goes first but mulls to 6. I keep a sub par hand that consisted of one land (Seat of Synod), Sapphire and Recall. Naturally, he has Duress in the opening. He wastes my land afterwards. Turns out we both have crappy hands and play for board position for what seemed like forever. I keep drawing nothing of consequence. Meanwhile a Factory joins the fray and it does the beats for a few turns. Finally, he says: “kailangan manigurado nako.” After the Factory attacks, he sacs it for a flashbacked therapy, which I Force. He then plays Nethervoid. He has Cow, Lotus and Sol Ring in play. I carefully weigh the situation. I have another Force in hand, a pitch card, and Hurkyll’s. In response to Nethervoid, I cast Hurkyll’s, bouncing all his permanents, except lands. Perhaps I thought I could cast a Cutpurse next turn and hope to gain some advantage from it so I Forced the Nethervoid. This apparently was a mistake. Had I allowed the Nethervoid, the match would have still gone either way as we would then be in topdeck mode. Eventually he gets to play a Confidant and draw into the nuts.
Game 2. This was a massacre. Whatever creature I play gets nuked by Smallpox. Two Factories whittle my life down to 1. He casts Balance with an empty hand and my jaw drops. I see a glimmer of hope when I luckily topdeck a Pithing Needle, immediately naming Factory. He takes his turn and chants “Smallpox, Smallpox…” He draws a Confidant instead, which all the same prompts me to extend my hand. On both games, Mystic Remora never made an appearance. Booo!
Congratulations, Chris for winning the tournament. Thanks goes to Hans for sponsoring the event, providing the prizes, and making certain we start early and on time. For my efforts, I take home a Powder Keg and a Nev’s Disk. I would probably add more Back to Basics, and am seriously considering including them in the main. I’ll probably remove Tinker and Leviathan (as there aren’t much artifacts in the deck, unless I included Seat of the Synod, which makes the mana fragile) and put in a Meloku to bounce my non-basics. See you next week for the Sanctioned event. Everyone is invited to participate, by the way. We ensure first-class hospitality. You won’t regret it.
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