Updates and a deck

Prague eternal weekend was played a couple of weeks ago.
Their homepage is updated with both lists and videos. Go check them out! Link
I really like what Dack Fayden and Treasure Cruise is doing to the format! I was totally wrong about the Dig Through Time vs Treasure Cruise powerlevel! I should have known because vintage is always about the mana, and TC is one mana less..

Theres been a couple of smaller tourneys but Ive missed them because of real life.
There was also a pretty decent sized tourney at BSK. BSK stands for Borås SpelKonvent and is a -con in the city of Borås. That one I missed because of who ran it! Prizes were really good there this year. They seem to have improved lots since last year.

Ive been working on UW, UR and UB lists exploiting Treasure Cruise to the maximum. They have all got their pros and cons and unfortunately I this the UGx-lists work best. As in a Gush/fastbond deck that splashes either black for tutors (and Darkblast!!!) or red for Young Pyromancer and/or bolts+grudge. Their all decks that can run low numbers of P9-cards and turn any match around in their favor in one lucky turn. The only must-have that I cant find a replacement for is Library of Alexandria. If the meta is going to be blue control and aggro decks with counters library is going to be a house! And seeing as UR hoses workshops.. Im thinking we can get a blue xmas, or a blue 2015 unless wizards brings out the banhammer for the next release (B&R-list updates every new release now).


Sorry about all the ramblings.. here's your list!:

4 Worldgorger Dragon
4 Hermit Druid
1 Reveillark
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Flame-Kin Zealot

4 Entomb
3 Careful Study
2 Dance of the Dead
4 Animate Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Crop Rotation
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Thoughtseize

4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Bayou
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Piranha Marsh

How the deck works:
With a Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard you cast Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead. WD will exile the enchantment as it ETB, sending WD to the graveyard. When WD hits the graveyard it returns the exiled enchantment which will want a target.. and so the loop is set.
With the loop set you have the following wincons. Piranha Marsh on the battlefield as you loop & loop as many times as you want then reanimate a Reveillark who will reanimate Caller and Flame-kin for combat damage.

Hermit Druid speeds the deck up by milling you in one turn. Crop Rotation fetches Bazaar or Piranha when needed.

Remember you dont need to mill your whole deck. You want just need a key combination and then you can go off. Also there are times when you may aswell just play your green critters and turn them sideways.


Abrupt Decay is a must in the sideboard.
You should be able to replace Bazaar with a draw&discard-spell for budget reasons but the bazaar wins are wicked sweet!
You can also replace all the duals and fetches with Scars-duals or modern duals. Life is not a factor. You either win or lose depending on if you can combo or not.

UB Maniac

I wanted a deck that plays full power (Im really not counting Twister as power any more.. Library or Time Vault has taken its place), is really quick and stable. The deck also should have few bad draws. The obvious choice for me is a deck with lots of cheap cantrips and a cheap "combo" to go off quick. Blue and black combined gets all the defensive spells needed against opposing combo decks and also has the cantrips.
Night's Whisper is a card I really hadnt thought a lot about before it won a tournament a month or so ago but it does almost everything you want. At two mana it is a bit harder to counter and since you draw two cards it cant be misdirected. (I think Misdirection is one of the best cards in the whole format)
The 3 Jace are there just as a backup plan and some times you just autowin having a first turn Jace. It is also a wee bit easier to cast then Doomsday.
Doomsday.. yea you lose lots of life.. but you play it as a tutor for the next 4-5 turns. Once cast you should have your whole gameplan there. Drawing Shelldock Isle hides a creature away and the rest of the stack should be defensive spells and or card draws depending on what your opponent is playing. Yes a Wasteland + removal is death but that is something you should be able to handle with all the reactive spells and discard.
The mana base is a land or two more then the other combo decks but the gameplan of casting a BBB-spell kind of forces you to have access to black mana. I opted to not play Dark Ritual and tendrils for their "looseness". Stability is the way to go imo.
Mana Leak could be Duress or Spell Pierce but I wanted a cmc2 counter and felt Leak is best with that many colorless sources.

You can play this deck powerless too. Playing more lands and Dark Rituals replaces the lotus/moxen. YawgWill/Ancestral/Thirst/Tinker becomes Preordains. Blightsteel -> Emrakul. Library becomes whatever you feel could be good.


3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Laboratory Maniac

4 Thoughtseize
2 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
4 Doomsday
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Night's Whisper
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker

1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Shelldock Isle

UW Stoneforge

Less time playing HS = more mtg!

4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Azorius Guildmage
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Vendilion Clique

2 Batterskull
3 Standstill
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Force of Will
3 Spell Snare
3 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Repeal
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Karakas

Swords and Repeal should be enough to fight early aggression.
FoW + Spell Snare should be enough to fight one or two Oath's being cast too early. Repeal and Azorius Guildmage should fix anything after round 3-> .
Black Lotus Im not really sure of. Its really nice with Jace and for shocking a stax-player round one. But if the meta would/should be low in workshop Id run something else in that slot (cantrips!).
Karakas has taken Librarys slot. Not really sure if both should be included seeing as this version has Standstill. Strip Mine is also a possible sweet answer.
Standstill is great with all the instant cast critters and removals.
Stoneforge into Batterskull decimates Stax. If you can keep you Stoneforge alive they dont stand a chance.
Aven Mindcensor & Vendilion Clique are goodstuff but you only really want them cast once each.

RUG Stifle/Waste

I played a turney this past saturday. I got a bit unlucky with the draws and I dont think all the cards that got included in the deck was needed. This is how it looked at the time of the turney (I wanted a anti-stax-deck. Thats where the draws failed me):

2 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Young Pyromancer

4 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Snare
4 Stifle

4 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Repeal

1 Echoing Truth
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Lightning Bolt

1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald

4 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine



Lands & artifacts = great.
Cantrips = should have +1 Repeal.
Utility = Echoing Truth and Ancient Grudge does the exact same thing for this deck so ET should go. Mystical Tutor shouldnt really be needed and it felt.. not as good as a cantrip would have been.
Counters & critters = Stifle was great except when Chalice was set at 1. Snapcaster could go -1. Spell Pierce was great with the land destruction and I wouldnt want less than 4. Not sure about Spell Snares.

Dack Fayden would be great too. Not sure what to replace.

Khans!

Quick, small review on the decent cards of Khans.


Dig Through Time - Gets you two out of the seven top cards of the deck for UU + however many cards you wish to exile from you graveyard. 6 cards to delve shouldnt be that much playing two copies. Its an instant so you can play it EOT on the opponents turn and if it was to be countered you can always Mana Drain it for a huge next turn.

Disdainful Stroke could be good if Tarmogoyf type RUG-decks become good (if we get a decent cantrip in instant form).

Treasure Cruise - drawing three cards is always interesting but delve 7.. and a hostile Mana Drain = win. I think Dig Through Time is better. DTT is a 2off and would just be better than TC in the late game (seeing as vintage is full of bombs).

Murderous Cut - Destroy a creature for B and up to 4 cards in the graveyard. Really seems playable in UBx control.

Monastery Swiftspear - Could be decent in a blue-red deck with lots of cantrips. Kiln Fiend & Nivmagus Elemental are friends here.

Savage Punch is DEFINITELY going up on my fridge. Punching bears is my favorite pastime.


Thats it really.. the rest is reprints, shit cards and modern/standard cards.

Riddlesmith is silly

4 Riddlesmith
3 Goblin Welder
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Inkwell Leviathan
2 Dack Fayden
2 Tezzeret the Seeker

2 Spell Snare
3 Mental Misstep
1 Izzet Charm
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
1 Tinker
1 Thirst for Knowledge

3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Mox Opal
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt

4 Seat of the Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Academy Ruins

So what you want to happen is cast a Riddlesmith on turn one, cast another 0-mana artifact and draw-discard something big. Next turn cast a Welder and just weld the shit out of that match. Or cast a planeswalker because you can draw mana really quick with the Riddlesmith.

Aggro Affinity!

This past saturday there was a vintage turney at my local store. I couldnt play the weekend before but showed up after it had started to talk crap. I saw that there was just one stax and two oath that event so I decided the time was right to play something really aggressive without counters!
So I played:

4 Memnite
4 Signal Pest
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Arcbound Ravager
4 Master of Etherium
1 Blightsteel Colossus

1 Trinisphere
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
3 Skullclamp
4 Cranial Plating

5 Moxen
2 Mox Opal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Underground Sea
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
1 Tolarian Academy

Id cut Tinker and Blightsteel Colossus. Wasteland and Strip Mine are probably also not aggressive enough in the format for this deck (their better with workshops and giant critters). UB Tezz should be good.
I lost most matches because of well timed HurkRecall and topdeck-modes that opponents were luckier at.

It is a really fun deck to play but it is at a huge casual-tier.