The Daily Show (and Tell)

Hello and welcome to another exciting trek through the Vintage wilderness. I'm your host Islandswamp, and I'll be your Simian Spirit Guide for this cosmic journey. Last week, I didn't have any tournament results for you, because I didn't get to play in any. Technically I did start one, but the program gave me fits, and I ended up dropping and filing for reimbursement. That's not the type of result people like to read about, so I just glossed over it.

This past weekend, I was finally able to play in a tournament, and everything ran as smooth as butter. The night was a welcomed reprieve from the previous attempt at a Daily Event. I ended up playing well, and my deck ran hot, so I'm pleased with the results. I played Oath again, because I like the deck and I've been doing pretty well with it.

Here's what I signed up with:

Since I've been playing almost exclusively Oath decks lately, and I've written about it on four separate occasions, I'm not going to go over all the minutia. I will mention the few changes that led me to the list I played with, as those are the only real changes.

First of all, I'm not 100% on any of those cards. I wanted to try them, and I hadn't had much time to test these cards out. I knew that playing the list was a bit of a risk, but I figured it would also give a clearer picture of whether or not these cards should be played in the deck.

Tezzeret

I've always had a soft spot for Tezzeret the Seeker, even though I have never done much of anything with him. I've tried him out in various Grixis Thieves decks, and he always ends up cut. The few times I've cast one and had it resolve have ended in the Tezzmanian Devil taking a Pyroblast to the face. I've noticed that a lot of blue mages aren't cramming as many Pyroblasts into their decks these days, likely due to the insane number of Mishra's Workshop decks on Magic Online. So, I feel that Tezzeret is slightly safer than he would have been in the past.

Tezzeret adds another "counter this or you lose immediately" type of threat to the deck. Oath already has plenty, but having different angles of attack can spread your opponents resources thin, which in turn can create an opening for the Oath deck to initiate its ultimate game plan unimpeded. Cards like this can force your opponent to blow all of their Force of Wills early, which is almost always what we want to happen anyway.

Another reason that I included Tezzeret is that planeswalkers can be difficult for an Oath of Druids deck to deal with. Other than Dack Fayden which costs three and dies to Abrupt Decay, most 'walkers can cause this deck headaches. I felt that Tezzeret would be good in the mirror as a way to try to threaten the Time Vault plan. I haven't been able to test it out yet, so it's just a theory.

I've also tried playing my post-sideboarded games under the assumption that going for Key/Vault might be easier than the Oath plan, as my opponent will be so concerned with getting a Grafdigger's Cage into play that they'll not have the answer to Time Vault when they'd need it. Tezzeret's tutoring ability can also get other artifacts, like the one Tormod's Crypt I added to the sideboard. Five mana to nuke a graveyard is a ton of mana, but I like having that option should I need it someday.

Beast Within

This is a brand-new card in my list, and I haven't been able to use it enough to be absolutely sure about it. The theory behind this is that Beast Within can kill things that Abrupt Decay or Maelstrom Pulse can't, namely lands or permanents with a converted mana cost higher than three. This instant also gives your opponent a creature, which is obviously necessary to trigger your Oath. Dream scenario is to kill your opponent's only creature, perhaps a Containment Priest, and leave them something to trigger your Oath of Druids.

I'd been having some trouble with Notion Thief, due to the fact that I can't easily remove one from the battlefield with my old Oath lists. This only ever comes up in longer games, but it is still an issue. It's easy to blow a Force on protecting your Oath of Druids and not having one when a Notion Thief shows up. The plan of staying in control with the draw-seven ability can be hampered by Notion Thief, and that's just a headache I don't need!

Then there are the few utility lands that might cause the deck trouble. Karakas is a card that I've not had to face in a long time, but it's really a card that can give my deck fits. My sideboard has three outs to the legendary land, Pithing Needle, Strip Mine, and now Beast Within. That's plenty of slots to combat what is a potent but fringe sideboard card.

I think that Beast Within could be good in the mirror as well. It kills any permanent, from Griselbrand to Oath of Druids itself. Oath mirror matches often come down to "Orchard Wars" where the players are trying to give each other more creatures so that they can be the one to get the first activation. Beast Within can cut off one of their Orchards and give them a token, not too shabby at all!

The other consideration I had is that Beast Within isn't susceptible to common answers like Mental Misstep, Pyroblast, and it's kills a lot of random things that perhaps you weren't thinking of that happen to pop up. There's a lot of space to work with "destroy target permanent". In a pinch, this can just be your fifth Forbidden Orchard, so that's always a potential upside. Swan Song was a card I considered as well, but realistically Swan Song is a worse Flusterstorm much of the time, thanks to the ubiquity of Mental Misstep. If my opponent plays Force of Will, and my one-mana answer isn't Flusterstorm, there's a decent chance I'll be left to feel foolish.

I've been playing this Oath list a lot, and winning the majority of my matches, both in tournaments and in the tournament practice room. I still haven't drawn Beast Within enough to get a read on whether or not I should replace it with something else. I haven't felt like I'm wasting the sideboard slot, but every time I've thought of using it, it's turned out I didn't need it as I had another answer. Still, I've drawn it and considered using it, and I still see a potential place for it in my sideboard. As a brief aside, I'd read about people using the card in forums, and the general consensus was that the card has been supplanted by Abrupt Decay. That's mostly true, but sometimes you just need to kill a four-drop or a Maze of Ith.

The converted mana cost of three isn't exactly cheap, but this deck is built to get up to three or more mana very quickly. The single green makes Beast Within easier to cast than Abrupt Decay much more often than one might think. The only time that the card is just going to be bad is when you need it to kill something to avoid dying, but you're several turns away from sticking an Oath of Druids or Show and Tell. That's just something that happens with this deck every so often, it's possible (but unlikely) to die to Orchard beats.

The Daily Event - 9/20/15

As you can see, the event was small, but it went as well as I could possibly hope for. That Sunday night, I was playing a match against 2014 Vintage Champion and all-around nice guy Mark Tocco and I remembered that there was a Daily Event about to start. As Mark destroyed my Oath list with his Storm deck, I checked to see how many players were in the event. I noticed that it was close to the time for the event to fire, and there were not enough players. The Atog Lord was streaming the event, so I decided I should take the opportunity to play, and I'd be helping the event to fire. I entered the event, and we were still short a couple of people. I mentioned to Mark that we needed more players, and he (fake.out) decided he could make time for a quick three-rounder and he signed up. So, although we had a small event, there were at minimum two Vintage Champs top eight competitors. That's not too bad for a little event.

Delver - Round One

The event started, and round one had me paired against MasterNunez. MasterNunez was playing a Blue/Red Delver of Secrets deck, circa 2014, complete with main-deck Steel Sabotage. I'm not sure if he was splashing a third color, as the games didn't really go all that long.

Anyway, game one had me casting a quick Oath. Based on my Force in hand and my opponent's board state and hand size, I knew it would resolve. As anyone will tell you, it isn't easy to beat a Griselbrand, and this game was no exception. Delver and Young Pyromancer have a much harder time racing the lifelink of a Griselbrand than a Monastery Mentor. Still, there was enough of a board presence on my opponent's side that I preferred to keep my Griselbrand back to block with. Luckily I didn't have to choose between attacking and blocking because I employed my pseudo-vigilance tactic. What I've been doing lately when the situation calls for it is to attack with Griselbrand, draw cards the life I gain if needed, and then I'll Show and Tell another Griselbrand in play to give me another blocker (sacrificing the tapped one, of course). This isn't always the correct play, depending on numerous factors, but it's a play that's worked remarkably well as of late.

The second game was similar, in that I wound up with a flying, lifelinking, Yawgmoth's Bargain in play early in the game. Sealing the deal was elementary once "Big G" crashes the party.

Dredge - Round Two

I was paired against Dredge in round two. This was the "Pitch-Dredge" list pioneered and popularized by kingneckbeard. As soon as I realized that I was facing Dredge, my game plan shifted to trying to get a Time Vault going as soon as possible.

I managed to resolve an Oath on my first turn, and that set me up and allowed me to win on turn two with Time Vault. To be honest, I had a really strong draw. I rarely end up beating Dredge in the first game of a match, their deck is so incredibly consistent and hard to disrupt pre-sideboard. Unless you're one of the few decks with incidental main-deck Dredge hate, the game-one win percentage is abysmal.

Game two I opened with my Leyline of the Void, but in the end my opponent killed me with a 20/20 Marit Lage token. This is one of the strengths of this particular Dredge build. Graveyard hate is often not adequate to combat the deck.

I had another strong early game in game three, and I ended up with Griselbrand and Time Vault/Voltaic Key in play. Assembling the combo against this version of Dredge can be a little tricky. This list plays Force of Will, and usually some number of Mental Misstep or Mindbreak Trap. I've taken to siding out some counters against Dredge, but if you find yourself playing against this deck, you should consider keeping more of them in than you otherwise might.

For those interested, the cards I bring in are Leyline of the Void, Strip Mine, Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt and sometimes Beast Within. What I take out varies, but usually I'm siding out the cards that I consider slower. (Jace. the Mind Sculptor) comes to mind, although I brought him back in against the Marit Lage threat. Dig Through Time can also be removed. Basically, I just want to try to be faster than they are, and you'll need to use your sideboard cards as speed bumps. A good Dredge player will make short work of your sideboard cards, so it's imperative to be productive in the window of time those cards give you.

Grixis Pyro-Prodigy - Round Four

When I was paired with my final opponent, I noticed the name and thought to myself that my winning run had just ended. The Atog Lord is a tremendous player, recently making top eight at Vintage Champs. I'd love to tell you that I won by out-smarting him, but frankly I just drew extremely well. I did play correctly, but resolving an Oath against a Grixis-colored deck based on creatures is just very powerful. There isn't a lot you can do to mess it up. Had the match-up not been so slanted in my favor, I don't think I'd have won, he's beaten me every other time. Still, I'm happy that it all worked out for me. The deck has been really good to me, and I'm confident in my build.

The deck he was playing is sort of an updated version of the "Grixis Therapy" lists that were a fad for a month or two. Where that deck had Snapcaster Mage. this list has Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. I've seen a list posted on The Mana Drain and MTGGoldfish that had those basic similarities to Grixis Therapy, and I think this was similar to that.

You can watch The Atog Lord stream on his Twitch.TV Channel, and you can see his side of that Daily Event by clicking here. My match is the last one, if you're interested. I went back and watched the stream recording the next day, to see what his deck looked like. He'd taken the gamble of not playing Grafdigger's Cage, and instead concentrate on match-ups with a better chance of improvement. Cage doesn't make the match-up that much better for the deck, and Oath of Druids isn't widely played online. Sometimes, you just draw the short straw.

I've been sticking with the deck in nearly all of my matches. I think it's a fine deck, it isn't the best by any stretch of the imagination, but it's consistent and does broken things, two attributes which don't always go together in some Vintage decks. It's not the hardest deck in the world to play, but I've certainly become much better at knowing how to play it and how to tune a list.

If nothing else, the deck gives you a great match-up against the various Mishra's Workshop decks in the format. It's a good thing to have a favorable match-up against the most widely-played deck in the format. I know it's not the most affordable deck, but I'd say it's worth the investment.

Vintage Player-Run Events

Steve Johnson (No_Outs) has been running two MTGO Vintage Swiss events a week, and I play in them when I can. You should too, they're free, and a ton of fun. No entry fee means there's no pressure if you're a new player, and there's a prize for best non-powered deck too. If you're solely interested in finding some strong competitors to battle with, I'd say you're in luck there as well. We've had three different top-eight competitors from this year's Vintage Championship play, that's not a group of people that will roll over easily! You'll have to work for your wins just as hard as in any other tournament.

Registration is done via Gatherling. You can either register in advance, or registration is open until just prior to the event's starting time. You'll need to start an account on Gatherling to register, and that's where you'll submit the deck list you'll be playing. If you're considering joining one of these and have any questions about the process, please ask me or anyone else in this Vintage Facebook Group. If you're new to this community, or are interested in the format, please know that these folks are all more than happy to assist you in any way they can. I hope to see some fresh faces next time!

Here are the final standings for the last several tournaments:

Congrats to our very own Wappla, for taking it down with his Delver list!

wolftree went undefeated with Dark Petition TPS!

Bluediamonds takes it down with Dredge (followed closely by yours truly)!

The final and most recent event had nine people, and we were lucky enough to have the best Dredge player I've ever met in the group, Inkmothnexuseternal. That's Sullivan Brophy, winner of last season's NYSE and top eight competitor at Vintage Champs 2015! Personally, I play Magic Online looking for top competitors, and for a relatively small event, we've done well in that regard. I hope this trend continues!

Here's one of the winning deck lists, Dank Petition TPS by wolftree. Complete with the Underground Seas Darkslick Shores and Dark Rituals, to go with the Dark Petitions! This is the most goth deck I've ever laid my mascara-laden eyes on.

Good job on the win wolftree, we're glad to have to back anytime! TPS is a fun deck to wreck people with!

Up next is our budget-prize winner from last Sunday's event. It looks like there's usually only been one deck that qualifies under the budget prize rules, so if you think you can brew something better than just step on up and take a swing! You've got nothing to lose, and there's a good chance your deck will end up posted in my next article.

Brainstorming Force of Will

It's been a while since I've devoted much space to strategy or theory. I've been thinking of topics to discuss, and one thing that I'd been thinking about is the function that a card like Force of Will provides. Counterspells in general are misunderstood by newer players, and Force is no exception.

We're taught to evaluate card advantage early on in our Magic careers. Strictly speaking, the only advantage that a card like Force of Will provides is to your opponent. When casting the Alliances instant. we're actively two-for-oneing ourselves. Blowing too many Forces early will set us way back and dig us into a hole from which we may not recover.

So, if casting a Force of Will sets us back a card, then why is anyone playing it? Most people reading this are probably screaming the obvious to themselves - it's mana-efficient and it is a universal hard-counter! Force allows us to go about with our game plan without worrying about holding up mana for the next most efficient counterspells, cards like Mana Drain or Spell Pierce. This makes Force supremely valuable to strategies that want to resolve bombs as fast as possible. Cards like Oath of Druids, Tinker, or Necropotence want to hit the board quickly and provide a game-winning action before the opponent can stop that from occurring.

We all know that the other reason to use a Force of Will is to STOP your opponent from resolving their bomb before you could otherwise stop it. Mana Drain can counter a Goblin Charbelcher, but chances are it won't happen often. You'll likely be dead to the people's cannon long before you've assembled two Islands.

These are the two most obvious times that someone can two-for-one themselves and feel fine about it. The harder (or perhaps just less obvious) part is knowing when casting a Force of Will is not correct. The following is not an exhaustive list of situations regarding Force of Will, and in my opinion there are always some cases where a player might want or need to make a different choice than the one I outlined.

Ancestral Recall is a great source of card-advantage. So we should always counter that, and we should always protect our own Ancestral Recall with our own Force, right?

Wrong. While it isn't great for us if our opponent is trading one card for three off the top of their deck, in this situation casting Force of Will on the Ancestral Recall is turning their +2 card advantage into a +1, which isn't a significant reduction. It also removes a hard-counter from our hand, which might just cause us to lose. Try to remember that drawing three cards doesn't mean they're always drawing three LIVE cards, one or more could be total bricks, we have no idea. I have even cast my Ancestral HOPING to draw out a Force of Will, and it worked, allowing me to resolve an Oath of Druids and win the following turn.

Please note that I am not saying that you should always let someone's Ancestral resolve. I'd always rather counter it with something like a Flusterstorm or Mental Misstep, there has to be some serious consideration before blowing two cards to counter an Ancestral Recall. While discussing this issue with Steve Johnson one day, he mentioned that he'd be more inclined to automatically counter the Recall if he was already ahead on cards. I agree with that idea - if your opponent is already far enough behind (ideally with very little in their hand), you're more likely to want to spend two cards countering it. In this case, you're not falling behind so it's not really a setback.

Whenever I'm about to cast a Force of Will, I try to ask myself if my opponent is trying to walk me into a (Flusterstrorm) or not. That's another reason to be cautious. If there's a danger of being blown out, but not casting the Force will leave you either dead , then the risk of a Flusterstorm blowout is just the chance you have to take. After all, they have to have it, and sometimes they just don't.

If you've been playing Vintage for any length of time, you're likely already aware of these issues, but talking about the role cards like Force of Will play still helps promote a better understanding of them. If you've got anything to add to the conversation, hit me up in the comments or on Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else I might be lurking on the interwebs.

That's all the time I have for this week. Until next time, speak softly and carry a big Flusterstorm.