Serious Champ - NA Vintage 2022

This report was originally posted on themanadrain.com.

Intro

This write up is for me and also for my friends. It is very long and I don’t expect folks to get through the whole thing. I have broken it up so hopefully people can find the bits they are most interested in.

While I have tried my best to get it right, I know some details will be wrong. I hope that the report is accurate in the things that count. For matches, I admit some details might be wrong and I’m happy to correct it if you want to reach out. Please do. Eventually this will get mirrored to my own site, digitalmeh.net.

For some of the last games, many of them were on camera, and I tried to reconstruct my thoughts and do the play by play as best I could with the help of the coverage.

Enjoy!

One Week Out

Event Prep Going into EW I wasn’t stoked for any particular deck like I was in 2019. I was testing with the Hexdrinker Bazaar deck and one week out, had put it together. I like artist signed and altered cards and this deck has a bunch. I could have played a full signed 75, sub-optimal Tinker or Breach pile. And while I consider myself a proficient enough pilot for Blue piles, the added expectation for an over-represented Bazaar meta meant Blue just sounded like a bad time.

Just the two weeks before, White Initiative made the top 8 of EW Asia, with Joe Dyer (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/vintage-101-asia-eternal-weekend-2022) talking it up in the Deathstar, as he is wont to do. I just assumed it was some kind of fluke, but was impressed by the power of the cards. In all honesty, I didn’t really fully understand all the implications of Seasoned Dungeoneer at that point, not having seen it in actual play.

My friend and 2019 NA Vintage T8 competitor Bryan “Brian” Hockey from Romancing the Stones crew won their Invitational crown while playing the deck and I got a chance to view the deck in action via their amazing stream: http://twitch.tv/romancingthestones. Bryan is a very good player and I was turned on to something new watching the deck in action. “Stuxnet” Stu Ziarnik was also high on the deck, being a long time Eldrazi player, he understood well the power of the white deck.

I kept talking to Hockey and StuZ in chat about the idea of the deck that Saturday night and I was sold. By Sunday night, I sat down to try to find a store that had all the cards I was missing on TCGPlayer. I found that store called LastSavePoint on TCG https://store.tcgplayer.com/sellerfeedback/fc3df419 / https://www.facebook.com/NextLevelArcade. I placed an order for the missing Vintage (and Legacy) cards I would need for the decks, basically every white card. Thanks to Hockey for going back and forth with me in chat all the way up until the event.

I sent a message to Next Level Arcade and asked if they could somehow overnight the cards, since I wanted them for EW. They said it would be no problem, they could do it. So I figured, if the cards actually came in time, I’d give it a go. Monday, I got the tracking number and it would be delivered Tuesday! I got a message back from the store because I want to add them to some write up some day. Nick, who I was communicating with at the store let me know his favorite format is Legacy! Maybe he was tuned in to the stream? What’s up Nick and Next Level Arcade crew! Big thanks!

While finishing out testing Bazaar on MTGO, I met up with a really sweet Fastbond deck that utilized Tameshi, Reality Architect and Teferi, Time Raveler. I messaged my opponent to get the list and they (SchulzCubed) sent it over. If I had seen this one a few weeks before, this may have been my deck of choice for the event, because I love Fastbond. Vintage is so great.

The Crew Assembles

When the announcement for EW 2022 came, the M30 event just recently passed and several folks who might be EW attendees used their “family travel credit” on that event already. Add to that the plethora of other adulting going on, with children and careers and such, I didn’t know a ton of people who could commit to going with the notice given.

I hemmed and hawe’d for several weeks. Usually we try to get some team AirBnB; in Pitt the last few years I just drove down. I wasn’t sure I could commit to Philly and a whole weekend but something I kept coming back to was a very portentous musing by my friend Jason Jaco. Back in 2018, I was traveling as much as I could to go to Old School events. We had a carload from Ohio and we met up with Jaco in Virginia for the return of SCGCON, where he was running the Old School event. I was getting deep into the format and the community, and I was having a blast! I remember Jeff Laubenstein was just starting to come to Cons and we hung with him and played trivia; he actually recognized me at Eternal Weekend this year! I played a fun Brasscity Vault deck with Voltaic Servant and Traxos. One evening after the event, Jaco and I were chatting and I don’t remember my exact words, but I talked about the bright future of playing old cards. Jaco said in his Jaco way, something like, “You don’t know when the ride ends, baby, just enjoy it.” About 20 months later, the world shutdown and paper magic events stopped.

With that sentiment in mind, I was going to try my best to make it to Eternal Weekend 2022.

It looked like Caffrey might come and do kickflips and also play Middle School maybe? Duane said he was interested. Finally, on 11/16, I booked a room at the Home2 attached to the Convention Center and asked for people to share the room. Duane signed up. And Brassman did soon after. I was hoping to get 4 people, since the room was mad expensive.

In the end, it was just me, Duane and Brassman making the journey from Team Serious, and only Duane and I were planning to play; Andy was hoping to just be a Robot and enjoy the gathering. As the event crept up he was agitating about coverage and it ended up that the coverage team would be remote, with Anurag on site. It seemed logistically to make the most sense for Andy to stay home and do the coverage remotely.

So our on-site team was now down to 2. Add to that, Duane had to leave Saturday after the Swiss, so not a lot of time to be dudes after the event. I queried the Lords of the Pit crew, home to several known associates of the Vintage world, including Brandon “DDFT” Adams, Bob Agra, Eternal Central’s Jason Jaco and several more. Any attendees? None.

I was happy however, to know that our new friends, Romancing the Stones out of Austin would be sending 3 solid agents: Stu “Good Stu” Ziarnik, Brian “Goo Goo Doll” Tweedy, and Mike “No Shrooms” O’Malley would be making the trip. I had gotten to know StuZ and Mike at TSI: The Land 3 and they definitely would be solid crewmates. After some discussion with them, I moved our reservation to their hotel, so as to increase hangout possibilities for our trio (that would become duo). This move also proved insanely portentous. Looking back now, my luck for the weekend started way earlier than the Swiss rounds.

Testing?

Everyone is busy. Many Seriousos don’t do non-paper magic. My long-time digital testing partner, Angelo Kortyka was down to help me via our Cockatrice/Discord call testing method. Our cadence for this type of testing is pretty good; we became good friends during the Covid times via online webcam leagues and brewing janky Middle School decks. We are also both night owls; we have played hours and hours of after-midnight magic since 2020.

I got a hold of Angelo early in the day Tuesday and he told me to send him the decks I wanted to test against and that he would try his best. A very good player and creative deck builder, Angleo does not claim to be a Vintage specialist, but he does love putting Paradoxical Outcome on the stack.

These are the decks I sent him:

1. [Tinker] (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5269831)
2. [Hogaak] (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5269833)
3. [Dredge] (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5267811)
4. [PO] (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/5269649#online)

I tested with this list:

1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
7 Plains
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas

1 Chalice of the Void
4 Archon of Emeria
4 Solitude
4 Seasoned Dungeoneer
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 White Plume Adventurer
1 Kaldra Compleat
2 Loran of the Third Path
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Mental Misstep
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth (would be cut)
1 Umezawa's Jitte (would move SB)

SB
4 Null Rod
1 Trinisphere (would move MD)
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Containment Priest
1 Palace Jailer (would move MD)
2 Swords to Plowshares (would be cut)
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale (would +1)
2 Kataki, War’s Wage (would be added)

We got together on 12/5, Tuesday night a few minutes before midnight. Right on time heh. We warmed up with PO if I recall because he is most comfortable with that deck. Chat log says at 12:08 AM, I sent him the picture of the Undercity. LOL. We figured out that you could create a token in Cockatrice called “Undercity” and it would render the correct image. I didn’t really track the PO testing games, I don’t recall Angelo winning except maybe once. In one SB game, I recall he might have been able to get out of Null Rod plus Archon plus Thalia but the three together meant he could only remove one thing and if it was Archon then he was still out of white mana and could not cast Fragmentize.

We then switched to Tinker I think? Same outcome, I think maybe Sphinx got there once. We tried Hogaak, I think I had Archon to turn off the Vines and won before Hogaak came in. Also, I had Stoneforge Mystic into Kaldra a lot of games, not just against Hogaak, and that was enough pressure often.

Finally, we tested Dredge. I felt like this deck was super soft to the Dredge mechanic, and I was right. Dredge destroyed the White deck generally. I never drew Containment Priest or Tabernacle, but only Containment Priest would have saved me. The version he played had Contagion too, so post board, he could have killed a Priest even.

We were able to test a few hours and I got some great insights into how the deck worked. I also had some concerns about the various Bazaar decks I expected to see. I didn’t know what Explore was exactly (I thought you only got the counter if you milled the card) and I definitely didn’t know what Goad was.

Further chats with Tom Basketball post testing yielded good information and I continued to settle into a list. I decided to weigh my sideboard more against Vengevine, to make sure I can put those games away. The Tabernacle was for T1, 13 power. Because of amazing friends like Nam “nartman” Tran (Seriouso and 2018 NA Vintage T8 Competitor) I have access to basically any card I might need. In this case, I have had a Tabernacle on semi-permanent loan from Nam since the last Hazard Serious Invitational in FEB 2020. I played with it and had much fun and success in the Old School Derby playing “The Trap ‘94’: https://digitalmeh.net/summer-derby-2020/

So we go up to 3 Tabernacles in the sideboard. I think 4 might be overkill and I also probably don’t have time to drive out and get it, though Nam would meet me in the middle I’m sure, if I asked. Thanks Nam! wafwhf

As for the rest of the sideboard, Hockey assures me that I don’t want to cut Aven Mindcensor, it’s almost always good against Blue, so keep them. I was very happy to have had them against Doomsday. Mindcensor would end up doing a lot of work out the sideboard.

Palace Jailer as a Swords to Plowshare with insane upside seems great and ends up as one of the flex cards; there isn’t much room. We consider Mental Misstep, Palace Jailer and Trinisphere as the “flex” and in testing, only the Palace Jailer slot really was open.

After cutting all the Saga’s, Spirit of the Labyrinth was just a liability. It would always be the target for Force of Vigor; I agreed we should remove all targets. The main deck, besides fast mana and 3 Ball, can’t be Vigor’ed. We wanted to blank all of those and also not setup to lose that much tempo.

“I love Thalia” Ziarnik ended up here: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263764

I settled on this: https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263746

Other Decks and Gear

I started to stage the other gear I wanted to bring through the week before. First, I packed all the cards for the legacy Initiative deck too. Maybe I would enter the Legacy event? I packed the Bazaar Deck too, in case I wanted to play more Vintage and I’d enter the High Roller event on a different deck? I packed my Old School deck components for Storytime, since there were some 93/94 side events. If I played Old School I wanted to play some unique OS effect. I also packed a Middle School RDW deck, I figured StuZ and I could jam some mirrors ha.

Of course I had the list of artists, but I could not find all the cards I wanted to get signed, as is always the way. I was able to bring the Mark Poole Secret Lair for signing as well as some Jeweled Amulets. I brought a Dark Ritual that I intended to have Ken Meyer Jr. alter.

Importantly, I needed to pick which shirts to wear! I settled on “1000% Serious: Full Warning” for the Swiss, then I also had “Serious Vintage: Seriously (Cannon Girl)” and “Force of Love”. Ready to represent!

Day 0 - Anniversary and Travel Day

My plans for the event were a bit different had it been October or first week of November; December 8th, 2022 was my 10th wedding Anniversary. When the event was announced, I immediately tried to make plans with my family to go, to make it work. In the end, the family would not be heading to Philly for the weekend, but I would be able to make the journey out solo. What a great wife!

The only stipulation was that we HAD to do our annual tradition–yearly couples photo shoot ON 12/8. It is probably one of the few traditions we have actually been able to stick to. This year, we took over my mom’s house for the location.

The schedule for the day ended up looking like: 6AM-10:30AM - Work 11AM - Photoshoot 1 PM - Parent / Teacher Conferences 2 PM - 430 PM - Work 5 PM - 6PM - Indoor Soccer Practice (I’m coach for my 6 and 8 year old kids) 630PM - Drop off kids with Kim at Cheertime 8PM - On the road to Philly

This is all to set up the fact that I have had a very awesome and packed day before I finally hit the road for Eternal Weekend. It was bittersweet to be traveling across PA alone, even though it was not a hard drive, just straight across the turnpike, I would have loved some company.

Travel

I recently got hipped to a local maker, Pocket Rugs Hanky Company (https://www.etsy.com/shop/PRHCProductions), and this shirt really has a big mood for me and as such was my chosen garb. Feeling Death Proof, took a selfie. <3

The drive to Philly was uneventful and that’s not a bad thing. I listened to some underground rap albums on the way across for the first half. I suggest The Saturday Knights - Mingle as well as Candy’s .22 - Livin’ La Vida Boo Hoo. Good listen through albums.

Duane messaged me he had landed at 11PM and by midnight, he was at the spot, which was “pretty nice”. I sent him a message asking for food and then I didn’t look at my phone again until I was in Philly.

I switched it up with one of my favorite classic rock listen throughs, Rush - 2112 and then Grateful Dead - Truckin’ to stay in the right mood at midnight. Midjourney or so talked to the wife and got gas. I did a book on tape for the last half of the drive, I’m listening to the Foundation series again, and I’m on one of the prequels (Robots universe retcon stuff).

Arrival

Upon arrival in Philly, here’s how it went:

After hoofing it from my parking deck (Love Park Garage) with all my bags, which is about a half mile, in the middle of the night, I get to the Sonder. I passed several cops on my walk and felt pretty safe overall.

First, I tried to get into the wrong room, punching the code into room 1010 several times and probably scaring someone inside. I finally found the correct room but it seemed that Duane had bolted the door to the room from the inside, from force of habit, and was passed out AF. But also good to know they can’t key in over top of that, as I had summoned the desk guy to help me. Probably there is some higher level keyfob that could be used for fire purposes, but who knows? Duane was safe and snoring anyway.

Sleep

Enter Tweedy, looking like my Savior! He randomly messages me at about the time I’m about to give up and sleep in the hallway. He’s still up! And in rare form after the Old School event on Thursday.

So I end up calling him, finding the Austin boys and begging for a spot on their floor. They do me one better and offer me half a couch. We are up for another couple hours bullshitting, visiting and figuring out Tweedy’s Polaroid. I help them register their decks on MTGMelee and we finally lay down at 4AM, planning to rise at 7AM and get ready. The blinds in the room are missing from one window and the neon white of the street light blazes through into the room. I lay down and pass out.

Day 1 - Swiss

I woke up and saw that Duane had called me probably 20 minutes after I passed out. I hope he has gotten enough rest. We posse up early to make sure we are on time.

We note passing about 7 cops on the short walk over to the Convention Center and we arrive with much time to spare overall. I think we were there 45 minutes prior to 9. Duane and I got a coffee at Starbucks.

I also had some time to drop off my Dark Ritual to Ken Meyer. Then, all of the sudden, we started. They had us sit down for Round 1 and I assumed they would be doing the Player meeting and then repairing us. I was at table 2 and made a joke about it being the highest I’d be all day. They did not do pairings again. We were off!

Round 1 Tom Dahl Esper Combo

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263617

R1 G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

Tom was great to play and a nice way to open up the day. I brought out the Rock, Paper, Scissors game and he chuckled. He was interested! He picked a card and I told him to pick one for me too. We flipped up and I won, so I elected to go first.

I don’t recall exactly my T1 but I imagine it was something like Thalia into Archon/Wasteland. The life totals are marked 20/18 me, I won.

R1 G2 - M: OTD, 6 Cards, Y: 4 Cards

SB: Unsure.+2 Mindcensor, -2 something I go second and my opponent mulligans to 4. This puts me in pretty good spirits about closing things out in 2, until he starts his opener. Land, Pearl, Ancestral leaves him with Swords mana. Seeing his list now, with a full 4 StP, I don’t know that I had much chance here.

I resolve Archon which gets plowed. On his turn, he tinkers for Citadel and immediately has to cast Dig Through Time off the top to go to 10 life. He finds a Vault / Key line with Urza’s Saga tokens to close things out.

R1 G3 - M: OTP, 6 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: No Changes. I make creatures in a reasonable fashion but don’t have Solitude. He goes for a Tinker/Blightsteel line around Turn 2 or 3 with I assume Force backup. I don’t have it anyway. After the round, I finally got to meet Zias (Gregory Hughes) in person. Cool suave dude, I hope he had a blast! Should have gotten a picture.

Games Y N N Rounds 0-1 RPS 1-0

Round 2 Obert Chen Colorless Shops

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263611

Another stellar opponent, Obert was super nice and he was playing some great spice with Metalworker Shops. IIRC, he was on the fence about playing until just that week. I’m glad he decided to play. He was stoked to play Rock, Paper, Scissors and he even messaged me after the tournament to congratulate me!

R2 G1 - M:OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

I don’t have notes on my 7, but it must have been something like T1 Thalia because his life is marked at 18.

He opens on T1 Metalworker, to which I have no answer. I must not have much to do and I remember he has 8 or so mana and makes Steel Hellkite. I die very fast after this.

R2 G2 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

SB: +4 Null Rod, +2 Kataki, -4 Some Initiative Guys, -1 3 Ball, -1 Something else

My 7 has Null Rod and Ancient Tomb, so that is my open. He starts with Ancient Tomb and plays Revoker on SFM. I play Cavern on Cleric and make White Plume and the game ends soon after that.

R2 G3 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: No Change Same thing except he opens with Workshop/Metalworker. I open with Mox, Land Null Rod. I go aggro soon after, and close things out. Null Rod OP vs. Metalworker.

Games N Y Y Rounds 1-1 RPS 2-0

Round 3 Mark Hornung Mono-Green Aggro

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263383 https://twitter.com/womba_

Before the round, I noticed that the person sitting next to me was THE Vintage streamer, Justin Gennari. I was able to give him a pound and say, “Hey Justin, we are Twitter mutals!” He thanked me for my use of real-picture-as-profile-picture and that he actually recognized me from that 🙂 He was nice, I hope he had a blast at EW.

I sat down across from Mark and I admitted to him that his name sounds super familiar, and I begged forgiveness for not remembering. He humbly stated that he used to do the coverage for several years, knows my friend Brassman and, oh also, is 2011 Vintage World Champ. So I’m a bit intimidated but quip ‘Vintage is a bit different from back then, right’? He laughs and is down to Rock, Scissors, Paper, commenting about the memories. ‘Push one and pull one’, I encouraged him. I win again! I start to think that this will be my winningest game of the day, just Rock, Scissors, Paper. Heh.

R3 G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 1 Powder, 7 Cards

Notes have me from 20 to 16 to 10. I think this was from a Hollow One crack and and then a Double Rootwalla, Hollow One attack. I’m soon dead. In the future, I will note the cards exiled with Powder.

R3 G2: M: OTP, 7 Card, Y: 1 Powder, 7 Cards

SB: -4 Thalia, -1 Chalice of the Void, -1 White Plume Adventurer, +3 Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, +3 Containment Priest

I had adjusted my sideboard from the Hockey’s to add one Tabernacle. From strategizing with him, this card was there for the busted T1s from Bazaar. With this logic, if 2 was good, 3 was better!

Looks like my life went from 20 to 17, off a Mana Crypt I assume. I recall I Wrathed his board via Tabernacle. He goes from 20 to 13 to 5.

R3 G3: M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

I opened a hand of 7 with two Tabernacles, a Wasteland and some other business. It’s a keeper.

He opens with Bazaar, discards 2 Vengevines and only one Hollow One comes down. I take two cracks from the Hollow One to go to 12. I had to Wasteland the Bazaar first, since I didn’t want to allow another activation. So then I played a Tabernacle, and his guy died.

We play draw go for a bit, while I make an Archon and start the aerial beatdown. I feel safe from his Vengevines.

I’m winning the race with my Archon, but can’t really advance my board because I have to continue to pay for the Tabernacle. He gets to 7 cards and discards a Blazing Rootwala to Madness, with a Cradle in play.

I attack and pass. He fails to pay for Tabernacle and goes immediately to his draw, at which point I point at the card and announce “This Rootwalla is dead”. He looks down at his Cradle and looks at me, then taps it, then looks back at me. I say, “I’m gonna get you on it next time”, feeling like I can’t lose.

Plus, if I’m gonna win, I don’t want to win on some technicality; I think if we call a judge here, he gets to pay anyway? Being the very Serious player I am, I am obliged to grant him his “Sam Krohlow Actually Phase” play.

He draws up to 8 cards again, and now discards a Basking Rootwalla. I’m still feeling pretty good about my Archon of Emeria’s ability to hold off the Vengevines in the graveyard; I can’t lose! The next turn he find a Bazaar of course, and starts activating it but can’t increase his clock.

I end up making another guy, to increase my clock, looks like Thalia from what I can tell, and attack him from 16 to 12, then make something like Aven Mindcensor or I figure bc he was at 4 and I must have assumed lethal or he was getting Trapped on my upkeep? In the future, I will track the Dungeon in my notes. He had made Yavimaya on his turn, getting up to two total mana between his non-Cradle lands, and Dismembers my Archon! My stomach drops but I’m thinking it is still fine…

As I pass the turn I realize; my stomach drops but that was his last card. I have 1 blocker, 6 life and he has 3 Vengevines in the yard at this point.

One final, hail mary Bazaar activation; Will my run end here? If 2 of the top 3 are Rootwallas, I die. He taps, draws two, shows no action, and extends his hand.

At this point, I start to feel a little better about my day and that maybe luck was gonna be on my side for more than RSP. Good Karma flowing.

Games: N Y Y Rounds 2-1 RPS 3-0

Round 4 Doug Miles Four-color Planeswalkers

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263847

In hindsight, this is actually where my battle cruiser mode began, but of course, I didn’t feel that way going through it. Doug was cool and ready to RSP. I lost my first RSP game to Doug but I would not drop a game of Magic again until Round 8.

R4 G1: M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

This was the wildest T1 opener of the tournament: Wooded Foothills, Fetch Taiga, Deathrite Shaman, Go. Not clear how I made it through the game exactly, I see his life going from 20->19->18->13->15->10->4, where he must have gained life to eat one of my creatures with Deathrite Shaman.

R4 G2: M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: No Changes I still wasn’t exactly sure what Doug was up to but I suspected some kind of Wrenn and Six deck. Nothing I could do if he gets going Vintage style, so just try to kill him fast. That plan starts off well. Not sure the exact sequence of my creatures, but he went 20->18->17->16->11->6 which implies something like Thalia, into fetch, into Archon getting Forced, into White Plume, into second initiative creature causing a Trap. He does end up casting W&6 and Oko in this game.

During this round, I met Dave (I think Crowley from looking at the lists). He saw my shirt and wanted to let me know he was a big fan of the Serious Vintage podcast (https://www.eternalcentral.com/seriousvintagepodcast/) and that he loved the White Hatebears deck that is so near and dear to our hearts. Big up to Nat Moes, Geoff Moes and Josh Chapple for creating the pod and spreading the Vintage Love. Also shout out to Jake “GarbageAggro” Hilty for pioneering the (usually unpowered) archetype within the team. I benefit from the goodwill you all have created and we pose for a picture.

I also got to pick up my alter from KMJ, so I’m feeling pretty good after this round.

Games: Y Y Round 3-1 RPS 3-1

Round 5 Rodney Bedell Mono-Green Elves

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263749 https://twitter.com/RodneyBedell

Seemed like a cool person. I thought I remembered the name as a card dealer; we are friends now on Bird app and I have verified this. Go get your cards!

Down to RSP for sure. I found out later that his deck was fully unpowered and I believe one of the top performing unpowered decks. Looking at the list, I really like it!

R5 G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

I open with Archon. He opens with Bayou into DRS. I play White Plume into his scoop phase.

R5 G2 - M: OTD, 5 Cards, Y: 7 cards

SB: +3 Containment Priest, -3 Some Cards

I SB as if he is a Bazaar deck with DRS, which makes our Tabernacle less good overall, so I skipped that. He opens with Once Upon a Time into DRS and plays it via a fetchland. I open with something strong enough that he concedes? Possibly Kaldra? I only track his life from 20 to 19 before the match is over.

Games Y Y Rounds: 4-1 RPS 4-1

Round 6 Lucien Longlais Dimir Control

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263184 https://twitter.com/LucienLonglais

Lucien had a name that I thought I recognized? IIRC, I didn’t try to make much small talk beyond offering to play PushMePullYou. At this point in the tournament, I think we were both a bit punchy, but he was down for Rock, Scissors, Paper. I won another RSP game!

R6 Game 1: M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

I have some very fast kill off fast mana, with his life going 20->19->13->8. Looks like a tinker deck to.me.

R6 Game 2: M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: +4 Null Rod, +2 Kataki, -3 Stoneforge, -1 Kaldra Compleat, -2 White Plume Adventurer

Up a game, I feel good about guessing his list. Tinker requires keeping all the Plow creatures in the deck, but if I’m wrong, Null Rod isn’t horrible against a Blue deck usually. I don’t think I’m losing much by shaving the Stoneforge Package, a fast clock doesn’t necessarily help here.

This game, it seemed fatigue was heavy on both sides of the table; at least I felt it on my side. We both keep 7 and his opener is a ton of fast mana and pass. I am seemingly paid off for my SB guesses and open on Ancient Tomb -> Null Rod, which my opponent is not happy about resolving.

I produce an Archon via a Cavern of Souls. He proceeds to top deck more artifacts, and I Wasteland his newly built Tolarian Academy. He does keep making land drops and eventually gets to cast a Fatal Push after a few attacks, and removes the Archon, stopping the bleeding at 10 life.

This is where things go off the rails a bit and I received my first Game Rules Violation on the day. Hopefully I get this sequence right but of course we are a few days out; details get hazy. After topdecking back and forth for a while, I finally topdeck a White Plume Adventurer, and excitedly tap my Chrome Mox to cast it. My opponent is in a haze, wondering why his deck keeps providing him artifacts off the top, when he clearly needs action. He allows my spell to resolve and I take the Initiative, entering the Secret Entrance and searching up a Plains.

At this point I see movement behind my opponent, his friend astutely recognizing my illegal play. I look down at the board, and realize why the friend is moving to the judge, at which point I call the judge on myself.

The judge comes over and asks a few questions about what happened. After backing things up, we both received GRVs, he for ‘letting me do it’ and me for ‘doing it’ (I don’t know the actual names, but they had categories. Very Serious Indeed).

After the rewind, I show the Ancient Tomb in my hand, so I play it and then try to do the same play again, and my opponent agrees, except…my Cavern is on Archon, not Cleric. The judge is walking away and Sullivan Brophy sitting next to us says, “Isn’t your Cavern on Archon?”

Yes, yes it is. At this point we put the Plains back in the deck, shuffle, then I pick up my hand and pass. We both already have gotten GRVs for this play, so no further punishments.

The game ends in concession soon after when I finally do draw a Plains and take the Initiative.

Games Y Y Rounds 5-1 RPS 5-1

Round 7 Adam Prusa Paradoxical Outcome

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263064 https://twitter.com/adamprusa

Both nervous and tired, both 5-1 and trying to keep things rolling, we sat down and played some good, old-fashioned Rock, Paper, Scissors, shadow signed by Heather Hudson. I win and elect to go first.

R7 G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 6 Cards

The life totals indicate that this game went exactly to script for me. The notes say, “Chalice 0, Archon”, likely with Turn 1 Chalice and Archon into T2 Thalia, as he goes from 20 (fetch)->19->17->13->12 (fetch) -> 8.

R7 G2 - M:OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Kaldra Compleat, -2 White Plume Adventurer, -2 Seasoned Dungeoneer, +2 Kataki, +4 Null Rod, +2 Aven Mindcensor He opens one Land and Mox, I have an opener with Null Rod and lead with that off Ancient Tomb, which shuts down all his business. I am then able to find a few more lands and make top-decked Kataki and Wasteland his only land. I pass the turn and his board of artifacts is wrathed on his upkeep. He draws a card and passes the turn.

Hopefully I describe this correctly, I believe this was the situation but the notes just say “GRV: Draw with Trigger”. I wish I wrote down the GRV name. After having Kataki and Null Rod in play, I went to my turn and drew my card immediately without paying Kataki or acknowledging it. I was genuinely so gassed and trying to keep it in, his board was empty!

I had not looked at my card but had drawn it. When I realized this happened, I called the judge on myself.

The ruling was that since it was my trigger that we skipped, it was missed. My opponent was then allowed to choose if he wanted the trigger to go on the stack, which he did. In which case, I wanted to pay, and did. Then I looked at my card, which wasn’t impactful that turn.

I then beat down with Kataki for 4 turns, electing to pay for Null Rod each turn, until I finally found 3 more lands and played a White Plume Adventurer, getting my Kataki removed in the process by a well timed Fatal Push, but Forge allowed White Plume to rumble for 5 the next turn and facing down Trap next turn, the game was over.

As this game ended, I felt amazing. The day had not started as planned but I had not dropped a game since Round 4. It was like a blur, but I never remember feeling behind, or that I wasn’t executing my plan. Each round, I was dropping updates into the Deathstar. The good vibes were flowing. I had opened so many keepable hands on the day with a deck that I knew was susceptible to bad mana. I had gone first 6 out of 7 rounds. Everytime it got dicey, when things seemed like they could go off the track, with Dismember, or Bazaar, or Fatal Push making a window, it simply felt like my force of will blanked their next line or provided me with an answer. Fate did not want my opponent to have it; and they didn’t. Everything was coming up Rajah!

From my run in 2019, finishing 16th, I knew that you need so many things to align in order to make it deep. You need to not make play mistakes. You need to dodge bad matchups as much as possible and even better, get favorable ones. All these things were happening for me. I said before I came that I would really love to do better than my last time out, but that I knew it would be hard. So my real goal was to get on camera again. Maybe I could do both at this point? I thought back to my Round 3 Tabernacle play against my humble opponent Mark Hornung, I thought back to my roots of how and why I got into Vintage, the boyhood dream of owning a Black Lotus (let alone the Power 9!), and joining up with Team Serious crew only 6 short years ago. I felt all the positive Magic energy I had ever put into the world coming back to me at this moment and I felt like I was gonna do it. I could visualize it.

Games Y Y Rounds 6-1 RPS 6-1

Round 8 Benjamin Lukas Doomsday

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263635

Going into this round, some of the top players were able to draw into the Top 8. I wasn’t one of those players. At this point, I’m back up to table 5 I think. I sit down and the table next to us is waiting to start, assuming that they will be called up to the feature match area. My opponent sits down and doesn’t unpack, he’s also pretty sure we will be called to the feature area. On the other hand, I am not getting my hopes up and assume we won’t be, and I start setting up.

So of course, then a judge came over and told us to come to the feature match area. I was pretty excited now that I could hopefully achieve my goal to get on camera. Things are coming up Rajah again. I’m feeling like I can’t lose.

So we sat down in the feature area and I got to meet Anurag finally. They explain how the stream will run, how to use the life pad, and to ask for any tokens we need. As we start to shuffle up, I pull out the Rock, Scissors, Paper cards and offer them to my opponent. “Do you wanna play?”

He must be able to see they are signed copies, I thought. Probably he’s gonna ask about them, maybe he likes signed cards too? My shirt proudly proclaimed “1000% Serious: Full Warning” so he should know who was dealing with, right? A Serious friend, a 1000% buddy who will high five your turn 1 Vault / Key and shuffle up! He looks at my gorgeous Unglued beauties and says to me, with a straight face, “No, thanks. I’m more of a traditionalist. Let’s just do a high roll.”

The vision that was so clear just moments before, me defeating Ben triumphantly in two Restricted card fueled games, this vision faded. I started to see black. Who was this machine that refused the game? Surely some breathing Momento Mori sent to humble me, to remind me that life is short yet sweet; that we must enjoy the ride while we can. The path was no longer clear. The vision was blurry. I lost the die roll. I was lost.

R8 G1 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

This game is a blur, I’m sure some details are wrong. I try to shake off the die roll and I see I marked my life from 20 to 14 in increments of 2, Ancient Tomb mana. He starts with Land, Lotus pass and I progress my board with Archon then later 3 Ball. Turn 3 or so, he casts Doomsday from 17 life off Lotus, and I have Strip Mine and Wasteland in hand. He has to make a pass-the-turn pile because of Archon in play. If his pile is mana light, I can simply strip him out, preventing him from winning, but I needed to add to the clock if he had accounted for 2 strip effects; I thought there was a Lotus in the pile, but that wouldn’t make much sense.

On my turn, I attack him from 8 to 6 and play out my White Plume Adventurer, which will seal things up on my next turn. Taking the initiative, I search out a Plains from the deck…and drop it into play. Seeing this, and knowing I can only cast one spell, my opponent asks if I am done, at which point I realize my fatal mistake. So I say, “well, I actually didn’t mean to play that Plains. I’d like to play the land I intended to play instead; Can we back up?” He examines his cards for just a second, maybe thinking about the Vision that he has of himself winning this match; he sees it, I think. The lost feeling I had at the beginning of the match returns to me.

Quietly, he says, “I mean, it is really high stakes. I’m sorry, I don’t think I can let you take it back.” The Vision was engulfing him; this was a win-and-in match. Did I hear, perhaps, a hint of regret in his voice? Sorry for my mistake? Or maybe, sorry that he couldn’t be in that moment like I was, enjoying it to the level that I was? Sorry, maybe, because he knew that even if my run ended here, because of this mistake, that I have the greatest community of underground nerds in existence to come home to, that would still be cheering me on like idiots? That I have something that cannot be bought or sold or even won through tournament play and I am 1000% happier having that, than I would be with any trophy or placing? Maybe I just heard what I wanted to hear.

No matter. I accepted, in the instant of that moment that my tournament might be over but that would be ok; I had made it on camera and I should hopefully meet or beat my 2019 placing too. I reminded myself in that split second again, who I am and where I come from. I would win and I would lose the same way: 1000% Percent.

So I pass the turn back to him. He adds a third land to the board and plays Time Walk. On his next turn, he draws, then cycles Street Wraith to draw and cast Oracle to, unsurprisingly, win.

Before shuffling up, I look at my cards. Again, in the breath of an instant, I think, “I need to help this man. If he defeats me, he cannot win with this attitude. He has to beat the best hands, played by the best players, correctly. Getting through this way will be tainted and he will not prevail.”

Those who don’t know me, they might think what I did next was salting or bullying. Those who do know me, they know that I high five you when I get T1’d.

I showed him the two lands that I might have played instead of the Plains. “This is your Karma,” I said. He saw them and by his face, perhaps he knew he should have lost. Did it tilt him or teach him?

R8 G2 - M: OTP, 5 Cards, Y: 7 cards

SB: -4 Solitude, -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Kalrda Compleat, +2 Aven Mindcensor, +4 Null Rod, +2 Kataki

The epiphanies I had just experienced seconds ago leave me in a surprisingly good mental state going into Game 2. Lightspeed introspection, followed by peace. I think of Shahrazad and decide to have fun.

Camly, I go to the sideboard. The cuts were easy enough. I figured he might board some creature package, but Solitude doesn’t fight Oracle unless things have gone very sideways and they resolve Oracle with too many cards in the library. I don’t expect to win this way, and cut them all.

I open a serviceable 7 with no disruption and ship it back. The 6 has white cards and Ancient Tomb. I know that there are a lot of powerful 5 card hands in the deck, but the thought creeps in, “Maybe I’m not meant to win this one?”

My 5 is good and I don’t remember which 2 I put back. I think I was worried about keeping the Cavern vs. a Plains to cast both things. The coverage reminds me of the 5 I kept. Mox Emerald, Cavern,Thalia, Mindcensor and Wasteland.

On the play, I lead with Mox Emerald, which meets Force of Negation, pitching Time Walk! I might lose this.

This scenario had come up in testing with Angelo and I discussed it with StuZ and Hockey. We all agreed, a good combo player will, and often the control player should, counter the fast mana out of the White deck. You don’t know if they will lay Cavern and you want to kill them or have time to set up before you need to find out. Ben has the Cavern of Soulread on me; he is good!

So, I play Wasteland and pass. If I recall, his opener is only mana now; he planned to cantrip with Time Walk off perfect Moxes, Sapphire and Jet on board as shown in coverage. Instead he simply plays them all out, casts Demonic Tutor and passes the turn with no land drop. I fear I will die.

I draw for my turn 2 and pick up another Wasteland. If I can live, and get a white source, I can cast Mindcensor for the first time today against a Blue deck and it is the deck it can do the most work against. Hopefully it can resolve when we get to that point, as I lay Cavern naming Human; I need Thalia to resolve now, or else I may not live to cast Mindcensor. And will Thalia be enough? Eot, he casts Fatal Push sending Thalia to the graveyard. GG?

On his turn 2, he adds a Lotus Petal but no land drop. He fears a pass-the-turn pile if the remaining card I have is Archon, I think, based on having Wasteland in play.

In hindsight, the original line was likely DT for doomsday, with the plan to cast dark ritual next turn, and blue mana open to dig into the pile, plus Lotus Petal for the Ancestral off the top of the pile. He had it all, but needed a way to dig in, I think, and didn’t want to pass the turn. Lots of ways for his pile to be wrong. I am not a Doomsday expert.

At that moment, I just knew whatever he had found off Demonic Tutor meant I was probably dead.

On Turn 3, I rip Thalia off the top and to the board she goes.I now have two Wastelands, one up.

Another turn of draw, go from Ben for Turn 3 and I finally rip a white mana source in the form of Karakas on Turn 4. I play Karakas, attack and pass. I plan to play the Bird in his upkeep, waiting for him to possibly announce an EOT instant tutor. He does not, and so I flash in the Mindcensor during his upkeep of turn 4, with a Wasteland up. He does not have a Force of Will.

He plays a Polluted Delta and passes. On Turn 5, I draw a card for turn, and it is the White Plume Adventurer, which resolves, and I fetch a Plains from the Secret Entrance. I miss my untap trigger in his upkeep.

On his Turn 5, he casts Preordain off his Moxes, top / bottom, then passes.Not dead yet, but I can’t close it out this turn without help off the top. Another Initiative creature will Trap him dead after attacks.

On my Turn 6, I Forge. I put the counters on Mindcensor but this is probably wrong. My thought is that he might have a Hullbreacher to block with, and I wanted to get damage in. He could cast it off Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal but not a high likelihood. It would be a Hail Mary play.

I draw a land for turn, attack him to 3 and pass. On his Turn 6, he draws. Then fetches. He doesn’t find the land he was looking for and concedes to damage on board.

R8 G3 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: No Changes

Here we are. Last game. I had avoided Doomsday all day, and it came down to Game 3 of Round 8. Winner would be on to the Top 8.

Nothing in my deck could really save me from getting Vintage’d by the Doomsday deck, like in Round 1. I could have had the Solitude for his Blightsteel then. With Doomsday, it has Blue power and lots of potential ways to win on Turn 1. I have no ways to disrupt that except possibly a well-timed Mental Misstep.

I vowed to myself that I would high five him if he Turn One’d me, the Jerry Yang way, and hopefully he would be Serious enough to triumph in Top 8.

I opened a 7 that is very interesting. He keeps a hand of 7. After peeking a Mox Pearl and a Cavern of Souls, the two cards I keyed in on were Thalia and Null Rod. This hand could do a couple different things, if I lived to do them. Having a Turn 1 play said I keep.

His Turn 1 was Fetchland -> Underground Sea -> Dark Ritual -> Doomsday. So he starts to make his pile. As he does so, I start writing down the cards I should check in his exile after the pile is done. I wrote down: Lotus, Street Wraith, Ancestral, Force of Will, Force of Negation. He resolved his pile, leaving him at 9 life. As I start to check the pile, he plays Mox Jet. I pause and he lets me continue to look. Lotus must be in the 5 or in his hand. I should have also counted the lands but I’m not sure how many total Doomsday plays. I get ready to high five him but he passes! No high five for you!

In reconstructing his line of play, he likely made a pile based on having creature disruption. With the Mox Jet, he could Fatal Push a Thalia, and cast Ancestral to draw through the pile, using Lotus to cast Thassa’s Oracle.

On Turn 1, I play Mox, Plains and then Null Rod. He appears a bit shaken up. The Null Rod resolves. I pass the turn.

He draws his card and plays an Island for his turn, then passes.

On my turn, I draw a Wasteland. I have 3 Ball and consider my play for a moment. If his pile has another land, then Trinisphere does nothing. I glimpse a Vision of myself winning the match and I decide to Wasteland his Underground Sea. With that, he extends his hand and concedes the match.

I have advanced to the Top 8! I hug Duane excitedly and he reminds me to be humble. I sincerely hope that Ben and all my opponents in the Swiss had fun playing that day.

Games N Y Y Rounds 7-1 RPS 6-1

Celebration

Round 8 was also a win-and-in for my crewmate Mike O’Malley. He was coming off a banner year, claiming runner-up at the recent RtS invitational. He had been able to fight for a draw in his Round 7 against a RG Hollowvine mirror. This put him in a position to make Top 8 but it would come down to his breakers most likely.

So we kind of milled around waiting to hear the announcement after the round ended. The announced read off, I had the 3rd seed. When he got to 7th, he announced that 3 players had 19 points… someone was going to be left out, 9th on breakers.

7th place, Peter Coloyan. 8th place, Mike O’Malley! We screamed like idiots. 2 of the crew were on to the Top 8!

Where there’s a Bar, There’s a Way Now for the real, best part of Eternal Weekend. I didn’t expect it to be, but Friday night turned into a celebration night. Tweedy, being the owner of Austin night spot Hotel Vegas, was enamored with a place he had been years before; it was still around!

So he had locked in our plans for drinking. Duane had agitated about a Philly Taco, whereby one would get a slice of pizza from a pizza vendor, and then take it to the cheesesteak vendor and have it filled with cheesesteak innards.

Sadly, we didn’t execute the Philly Taco play. We did go for a many blocks walk to Bob and Barbara’s: https://www.bobandbarbaras.com/ The walk home seemed way shorter.

I’m not sure which but during the walk someone who needed food decided we had to go into a pizza shop. We all got a slice and then kept walking. It was aggressively medium.

Bob and Barbara’s was super unique, with a neighborhood bar atmosphere, in the middle of the city. It really seemed like the people there lived there, like this is where they go to see their neighbors. A great vibe, with some great old-time wall flair. A band with a gray haired drummer and guitarist were setting up inside and some 20-somethings were on the dance floor.

We posted up in the outside patio area to talk.

I was drinking Sea Quench Sours. We had 3 or 4 drinks at B&Bs before starting a walk home. We diverted into some kind of Christmas bar that was very brightly lit and also heated!

After a while here, we find a table and start winding down. Everyone is pretty burnt from the long day and travel the day before. We head back to our spot but soon head back out again to 7-11 for late night snacks. I eat a Ham and Cheese Hot Pocket and head upstairs..

The Austin crew is planning to enter the High Roller event in the morning, while Duane and I make grand plans to “get up early and test the white mirror”. I sleep like a 41 year old who doesn’t drink that much.

About 4AM, I wake up and reverse eat the Hot Pocket, mainly due to the high volume of sour beer in my stomach. I feel a lot better and pass back out.

Day 2 - Rest, Test and Eat Morimoto

Duane and I both had big plans to get up and test before he had to hit the road. We definitely did not do that.

I think we both had offset alarms. His alarm went off, I was snoring, so he went back to sleep. Mine went off, Duane was snoring, so I went back to bed. I think we both were both fully awake around 10AM, and he had to leave around noon. Sleep, not testing, I think, was best for us both.

With a slight hangover at that point, we decided we shouldn’t try to put the deck together for testing that AM. StuZ had most of the deck together from the Swiss and I just planned to wait and test against him. I was not worried about it too much at this time. Duane and I got to shoot the shit while I guzzled caffeine. Soon enough it was time for Duane to depart. We hug it out and he wishes me luck, while I wish him safe travels.

I decided to take a deck picture, took a shower and got ready to meet the Austin boys at the convention center. Hopefully one of them was winning a Mox Pearl. I thought about how ugly my deck was with so many unsigned cards but I was excited to make some more new memories with my Lotus.

I rolled into the convention center and ended up finding the crew. We bullshitted and Tweedy played magic. No one was winning a Mox Pearl.

I bought an Alpha swamp and asked Dan Frazier to ‘do something Philadelphia, with a Monster’. He asked if it should be scary or cartoonish. I said scary, I think, and that I liked the One-eyed Purple monster, that he was cute. “That’s not scary!”, he says.

Testing, but first Lunch

We jammed out of the Convention Center after the High Roller event and headed back to the Hotel. I had eaten a very late breakfast sandwich of little note and was just waiting to eat again.

Stu was waiting to add me to the Morimoto reservation, but they didn’t open until 5. I was truthfully very agitated to get to testing by this point, but also very hungry.

We headed to the Reading Terminal Market https://readingterminalmarket.org/ and did a lap and half, just checking places out. There was an Indian place that we thought about but in the end Mike, Tweedy and I went for a cheesesteak of one type (Spataro’s), Stuz went for a cheesesteak of another type (Carmen’s). I had mine with whiz, onions and mushrooms. Austin builds were suspect. No sandwiches were punched; I don’t think any of them are “in” but they ate surprisingly defensively if not. I didn’t mention the Sandwich Punch game. We got an awesome picture in the ‘photo booth’ area.

Now Testing, but also then Dinner

After smashing cheesesteak, we walked it off back to the spot. After getting StuZ’s cards together, we had all the cards needed to reconstruct the White deck that Somers would play against me. We noticed that Somers was not running full power and wondered if this was due to availability? Importantly, lack of full power enabled his deck to play more creatures than I was, 2 more in fact. When I asked him about it on Sunday though, he said no, it was not due to availability, he just wanted to have a higher ratio of the artifacts in his deck generate white mana than not. We had not thought of this.

As we sat there setting up to test, I was very happy for my friends. I had specifically not brought my laptop with me, but I wondered what I would do to test if these guys weren’t here? I imagined maybe some of my T8 opponents on their laptops, testing the matchup with friends online. I hope they are having fun too.

StuZ and I got down to business pretty quick. Meanwhile, Tweedy had basically all the cards for the Hans deck and Mike worked on putting that together. Tweedy tested the polaroid and provided commentary on what Mike needed to watch out for (Lavinia).

StuZ just finished playing the deck the day before and he had gotten all the bad hands, all day. He was very familiar with the low-end of the deck, where you draw all the mana or all the dudes and mull to 5 every time.

Looking at my deck vs Somers, StuZ had good feedback as we played. We tested a few Game 1’s before I got my pad out. I won 5 of 7 pre board games I recorded. My 5 main deck Swords effects were generally enough to win the race. The games he won generally came from a very annoying name by Anointed Peacekeeper. Kaldra proved to be very good at just bashing through and taking initiative back. As we played, it became clear that the Protection from Creature clause on Seasoned Dungeoneer would be able to win a game on its own almost; it was almost always game over when it stuck around. Anointed Peacekeeper being a Cleric type was good for a target too.

We decided that his likely sideboarding would be:

+2 Aven Mindcensor, +4 Swords to Plowshares; -3 Spirit of the Labyrinth, -1 Trinisphere, -1 Thorn of Amethyst, -1 Chalice of the Void

My SB if on the play was: -2 Thalia, -1 Loran; +1 Umezawa’s Jitte, +2 Aven Mindcensor

Testing postboard, we played 5 games, where I went first, assuming I lost Game 1.

I won 1 out of 5 games. Swords were so killer in this match up. I believe the one game I won, I resolved Chalice on 1, turn 1. We had already decided that this was going to stay in no matter what, to be set on 1 if possible, but this just proved the power.

After testing a bit with StuZ, Tweedy was getting frustrated that he wasn’t beating Mike in testing. So I grabbed the Hans deck and battled for a bit to switch it up.

I go first as the ‘Hans’ first seed. I made a Turn 1 Lavina with Lotus Petal. I then proceed to grind Mike for many turns, fetching Lurrus and doing a lot of things, but not finding a Swords, as we are testing Game 1. Finally, Mike is able to kill me by returning Vengevines and making lethal with DRS.

While playing with Mike, Stu gets me into the Morimoto reservation, and we also get Ty in, who is also at EW from Texas.

StuZ and I then return to testing a potential Game 3 where I would go second. We played 10 games. I won only 2.

From the testing, we learned that the Swords to Plowshares let Somer’s Deck keep a slower hand, especially on the draw. Being able to simply remove the first threat for one white, he can take back the Initiative on Turn 3 without worry. Additionally, by this time, the deck is one or two turns away from hard casting the Solitudes.

The clock ticked away as we got closer to the dinner reservation time. In the “Game 3s”, I mulliganed almost every hand. StuZ kept assuring me that this can happen, it happened to him all day and that the Somers deck had no better mana than mine did. He could mulligan into oblivion also.

I felt like a drunk asking for ‘just one more”, as we kept shuffling up. As we marked down the 10th game, it was time to hang it up. I didn’t feel great but I did know the plan. Win Game 1, then try to dodge the Swords hands or have enough threats to keep going to win a game 2 or 3. Try not evoke Solitude unless you absolutely have to. Hope he has slow hands and/or floods out. It’s time for dinner and I think of Serious Vintage.

Morimoto, Finally

We were way underdressed. Probably some couples were there for their anniversary. They have us wait in the upstairs lounge while our table is prepped. They lead us to a huge 8 person table in the middle of the restaurant. No one really looks at us.

We get the menus and are talked into the Omasake menu. I’m extremely susceptible to not having to think at this point, and this option is a chef’s tasting menu. The price is outrageous but we all go for it. Thanks Ty for capturing the pics of each dish!

Course 1 - Seaweed Flan This was pretty good. Some kind of egg based dish with a seaweed reduction? Also with a bit of nuts and caviar on the top. I liked the taste of that bit but the texture of the egg wasn’t great. I wanted to get the full Omasake experience so I made sure to eat it all. Recommended eating was to take a very small bit of the topping with each bite.

Course 2 - Tuna Tartare This was very good. The tuna was finely diced with sesame seeds throughout. The top was green onion and caviar. The sauce in the bottom was a soy type sauce. They recommend taking vertical bites that include each component.

Course 3 - Rose Fish There was a nice explanation of the presentation which I don’t remember exactly. The Rose color is from beets. The small ‘eye’ is a caper or a berry, I don’t remember. I believe the fish is Escolar. You just eat this one, no special instructions.

Course 4 - Wagyu Beef Amuse-bouche This course is a single bite of Wagyu Tartare, with cilantro and onion. The serving suggestion is to eat as one bite. It was stellar. Yes, Nat, my -bouche was Amused.

Course 5 - Lobster 3 Ways This course was Lobster 3 ways. First, a tail shelled and sectioned, served on an oak barrel. Then a lobster bisque reduction. Then finally a lobster portion served with radish. Serving suggestion was to dip the lobster tail into the reduction, then eat the radish dish separately.

Course 6 - Caviar Encrusted Sea Bass with Lemon Herb This was great as was the rest of the courses so far. A cooked dish that really helped to clear the way in the stomach.

Course 7 - Sushi Rolls I don’t know what each was. Far right was a lobster roll. This was the final savory course and they were all delicious. During this course, Mike makes a big deal about eating all his ginger and loving it. The staff takes note of his ginger love, and asks if we are here for some special occasion. The guys point to me and Mike and say we are in Philly to play Magic cards and we are preparing for the Top 8 tomorrow. She doesn’t know what that is but is happy for us!

Course 8 - Desert - Seaweed Foam Blueberry Cake with Chocolate Drizzle This was very tasty, if a bit heavy. The chocolate drizzle did a lot of the lifting.

Course 9 - Special Ginger Boy Power Desert The server hadn’t heard of Magic but apparently someone in the back had, and this coupled with Mike’s apparent ginger obsession had them bring out one more thing, which was a special Ginger Tea cake dessert, with candles even! Mike and I smashed one each to the face while letting the other guys split the 3rd one.

Feeling great and full of ginger, we all realize it is 12:30 AM! At this point we get a ride back to the Sonder, which takes longer than it would have to walk, but is warmer. We all go to proper beds and sleep.

We have been told to get to the venue by 10. Tweedy’s flight out is early, 9AM. After we get back, I update the check out on my room to Monday morning so we will have a base of operations for Sunday. Mike and Stu were flying out at 7PM. I pass out watching Corner Gas.

Day 3 - Top 8

Morning So we get there at 10. And then we are told that we start at 11. All good, I’m not nervous. I am nervous.

I pass Mark’s booth and Mark calls out to me that Dan has finished my alter. I also pick up some signed cards Mark had brought for me. So that’s something to do. We also got a picture!

Just before 11AM, I got a message from my wife, wishing me luck.

Soon, the Top 8 are gathered together and they take a few pictures of the Top 8 and individuals.

Quarterfinal - Stu Somers - Mono White Initiative

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263864 https://twitter.com/ssomers55

I had the #3 seed going into the top 8 and would get to go first in this round.

The primary match for stream was my friend Mike O’Malley. As the only Bazaar deck in the Top 8, he definitely deserved it. My game 1 was not on camera, but I assume due to my supporters in the stream asking for it, Somers and I were set up as the backup match. Thanks y’all!

Quaterfinal - G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards; Y: 7 Cards

I open with a 7 card hand with crazy mana, and play Archon on Turn 1. In testing, Archon doesn’t win by itself, but if the opponent has the non-basic heavy hand, it allows you to really slow them down. Playing a tapped Ancient Tomb or Cavern of Souls makes them ripe Wasteland targets. I could hope that his hand leaned this way. Unfortunately, he cast a Solitude on my Archon immediately, pitching ANOTHER Solitude. Exactly what we didn’t want.

He progresses his board and I’m not sure exactly how but I’m sure it ended with a Seasoned Dungeoneer on his side. This is definitely not the script we wrote up.

Quaterfinal - G2 - M: OTP, 7 cards; Y: 7 Cards

SB: +2 Mindcensor, +1 Jitte; -1 Loran, -2 Thalia

Game 2 we do get to see on camera a bit.

We both keep 7 again. My hand can be fast or slow, and I think is the exact hand we will need to win in the postboard. Plains, Wasteland, Karakas, Chrome Mox, Stoneforge Mystic, Archon of Emeria, Seasoned Dungeoneer.

If his hand is very fast, we can get to Dungeoneer by Turn 3. We have a Karakas in case he still has Legends in the deck.

So, we open with a Basic Plains. If he has the Strip Mine, so be it. He opens on a Plains and passes the turn back. We avoid a turn one explosion from his side and assume he is on one or more Swords in hand.

I draw my card for the turn and it is White Plume Adventurer. If he has Swords, this will be a bad play. I want to keep my card advantage here. So I elect to play Wasteland for the turn and deploy Stoneforge Mystic. I search up Kaldra Compleat from my deck and put it in hand, then pass the turn back to Somers.

On his turn 2, he lays an Ancient Tomb and deploys Anointed Peacekeeper. He’s now one mana off casting his own Seasoned Dungeoneer. I feel really good about Somers making a bad choice with this name on Peacekeeper. He could name Wasteland to save his Ancient Tomb perhaps, or name Stoneforge Mystic to stop me from deploying it. I assume he will name Seasoned Dungeoneer, but I’d get to 6 mana eventually.

He takes quite a while deciding. He is doing some Initiative math to figure out what he wants to name. In the end, he wants to tag the White Plume Adventurer. I’m not sure about his math, but I am thinking he must have a Wasteland that he knows will keep me off Initiative long enough to do work.

Now that he has named White Plume, I naturally rip a Seasoned Dungeoneer off the top of my deck. Thank you deck. Now I decide to go for the Initiative with a Dungeoneer. If he does have Swords on his turn, he might have to use it and not have another White mana source, at which point, I can put in Kaldra on my turn. I play Chrome Mox, exiling White Plume Adventurer, play Karakas and tap out for Seasoned Dungeoneer. I enter the Undercity and fetch Plains from the Secret Room.

On his turn, he draws and tanks. From coverage, I can see he has 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, a Swords in hand as well as a Wasteland and Plains. He casts Swords to Plowshares on my Dungeoneer and attacks to take the Initiative. He fetches Plains from the Secret Room, plays it, and then casts Spirit of the Labyrinth. This is definitely the type of card I want to see from him. He’s at 16 life.

On my turn, I draw and then Wasteland his Ancient Tomb. On coverage, I see his Seasoned Dungeoneer in hand. My draw is Mox Jet. I have a choice to put in Kaldra and attack, forcing a double block now, or I can take the initiative back with my second Dungeoneer, and Forge. I decide to cast Dungeoneer, and Forge onto the Stoneforge Mystic, who can now block both his guys profitably. I set up to defend the Initiative.

An alternative play would have been to activate the Stoneforge Mystic and attack, then play Archon, hopefully leaving him with an empty board. I couldn’t predict how he might block.

On Somers’ turn, he draws and coverage shows it is another Plains. He ends up playing the Plains and casting the other Spirit of the Labyrinth, with Plains up.

On my turn, I Trap him to 11 life. I activate Stoneforge Mystic on my turn and put Kaldra Compleat into play. I turn the Dungeoneer and Kaldra sideways and say, “Attack”. At this point, Somers calls for the judge. He nitpicks about the germ token and me not representing it / the trigger. I get it, but state that we were told the tokens would be in the coverage area, and I hadn’t brought my tokens. Additionally, he can respond to the trigger if he wants but I know what is in his deck, so it is either Swords or Solitude. He can do either one before attacks, if he wants, I’m still turning the other guy sideways.

The judge tells me it doesn’t matter what my opponent says, that he will rule on what will happen next. He asks me if I have been representing the Germ today and I say I have been using my Domino Marvel Masterpieces card to do so, but I left the token box in the room. I appreciate the judging that has gone on so far and hope that everything comes out ok. In the end, I’m told that I need to represent the Germ token and be more careful about it next time. I get the Germ, attack with no response from my opponent and he goes to 2 life. I then cast the Archon in my hand or a bomb I just ripped. Somers concedes and we are on to Game 3.

Quaterfinal - G3 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: OTP, 5 Cards

SB: -1 Trinisphere, -2 Thalia; +1 Umezawa’s Jitte, +2 Aven Mindcensor

On the draw in Game 3, I am still alive. My 7 is keepable, and he mulligans to 5. This match is not on camera. I use Ancient Tomb to cast something and that eats a Swords. After that, it looks like I use my Ancient Tomb a lot, while he does as well. I remember fighting it down to the wire.

My deck kept giving me answers and eventually I prevailed.

Games N Y Y

Semifinal - Peter Coloyan - Dimir Sheoldred

This match seemed super fast and it felt easy. I don’t know how my opponent felt during the games. I was super high on the moment and time flies when you are having fun. My opponent was sporting an amazing Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Holiday sweater and def seemed like a dude I could hang with.

Semifinal - G1 - M: OTP, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

I don’t remember a ton from this game. His life points went from 20-> 19-> 17 -> 15. This would mean either Archon or Thalia is attacking. I don’t have notes past this.

Semifinal - G2 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: -3 Stoneforge Mystic, -1 Kaldra Compleat; +2 Aven Mindcensor, +2 Kataki

I went back and forth on putting in Null Rod. I think it would have come in for Game 3 if we went there. It seemed like a bad top deck for me but probably would have done good work. I had really liked the pressure from Kaldra overall.

T1 Peter opens with Polluted Delta into Island..Into Black Lotus, and Sol Ring. Crack Lotus for Brainstorm and take a peak. He finds TInker off the Brainstorm and then plays Pithing Needle. He says, “it doesn’t matter what it is on.” I of course call out “Abandon Hope!”. He agrees with a laugh and Tinkers away the Needle for Bolas’s Citadel, the “worst” Tinker target. I have to hope for help off the top of his deck, e.g. c’mon Land on top!

I shuffle the top part of the deck as I have been doing, just staying consistent. He peeks at it and has to pass! So it is either a Land or Counterspell on top.

My hand is pretty gas, and I hope that my spells can resolve. He has 2 cards left in hand at this point and is at 19 life.

On my Turn 1, I drop Lotus and it resolves. He makes a joke about my “minty” Black Lotus; I agree and laugh. I think and then play Ancient Tomb and then Sapphire. I crack the Lotus for White and add 2 from Ancient Tomb, going to 18. I start off with White Plume Adventurer, which resolves, and I fetch Plains from the Secret Room.

Next I go for Archon of Emeria, which also resolves! So likely a land is on top for him.

After this action, I end my turn with both Orc and Archon on my team.

On his turn 2, he untaps with access to Island and Sol Ring. He draws his card for the turn and takes a peek at the top card via Citadel. He decides to cast his one spell here, resolving Ancestral Recall for one life off the top, leaving him at 18.

From coverage, I see his cards in hand look like Flooded Strand, Underground Sea, and I think Ponder. His 3 drawn cards include a Dismember and a Mox. He lays a tapped Underground Sea for his turn and passes it back.

On my Turn 2, I untap with Ancient Tomb and Sapphire and then Forge onto the Archon. Probably again, not correct to do this, but I’m thinking of the flying damage. Forge counters should have gone onto the White Plume probably. I think that my draw here is Mental Misstep, a turn too late at this point.

I think about it, and then add a Plains to the board and go for Seasoned Dungeoneer, which resolves, putting him into the Trap and leaving him at 13 life. I’m at 16 after 2 Tomb activations. I target the Cleric for the Explore trigger, draw a Plains off it, and get my Archon Dismembered during attacks. He is at 9 life after Dismember, and takes 3 damage from White Plume to go to 6.

On his turn 3, he draws and then plays Soul Guide Lantern off the top of his deck via Citadel, leaving him at 5 life. He takes a look at the top card again and it doesn’t help him. He tanks for a bit and then plays out the Flooded Strand, fetching down to 4 and grabbing an Underground Sea.

He looks again at the top card and goes for Sheoldred from hand, casting it off 2x Usea and Sol ring, leaving him with Island up. He accidentally flashed the Fatal Push in his hand but notably, he can’t kill either of my creatures with the Fatal Push without the Revolt clause. Also he is out of Black mana now after Sheoldred.

He plays the Mox in his hand and cracks the Soul Guide Lantern to draw a card and gain 2 life, still with Island up. He peeks again at the top of his deck and then passes the turn with 6 life.

On my turn 3, I go into the Archive. I haven’t played with Sheoldred, so I don’t remember the triggers on my draw. I then draw for my turn and we missed that one too. I should be at 12.

I think about it for a bit and decided that I want to enter Throne of the Dead Three. This will hopefully hit either a Solitude or Seasoned Dungeoneer; either of which should win. I tap Ancient Tomb and Plains and lay White Plume Adventurer. I start flipping and see White Plume, Loran, Archon, Thalia, Thalia, Solitude and Loran, plus lands and Moxes.

I think for only a second, and grab the Solitude and put it into play. It removes Sheoldred and gets 3 +1/+1 counters. I double check the clauses and then shuffle the deck. He goes up to 10 life, and I attack with White Plume and Seasoned Dungeoneer. Here I target Seasoned Dungeoneer with the attack trigger. Again, probably a mistake on my part, since Hullbreacher can trade with White Plume, I should targeted White Plume to make sure it got through. I was thinking that I could possibly grow the Dungeeoner out of Dismember range if he was able to wiggle out of this. Explore reveals a Cavern of Souls off the top, which we don’t really need.

He decides to cast Hullbreacher off the top for 3 life, to trade with the White Plume. This leaves him at 4 after attacks. I play Wasteland and remove one of his Underground Seas.

On his turn 4, he draws a Mox Jet, thinks a bit and plays it. On coverage, you can see that I have moved one card apart from the others during this turn. I do this so I don’t forget that I have responses; at some point on one of my draws I have picked up Mental MIsstep.

Tanking some more, he ends up casting Hullbreacher off the top, going to 1 life. If he has a Draw 7 here, then he might get out of the lock. Maybe I should have taken Archon instead of Solitude? He has another look at the top of his deck, another look at his hand…and it is over. He extends his hand to me in concession.

Games Y Y

Final - Hans Jacob Goddik

https://mtgmelee.com/Decklist/View/263454

Hans had real end boss vibes. I was not feeling intimidated, but I could tell he was used to being here; he seemed less nervous than I was anyway. When we finally sat down, he had just finished what looked like a very mentally exhausting set against Brian Palus on Doomsday. Hans was in good spirits though and did smile during our pre-game chats. He was human! We made some small talk about Finals.I mentioned that it would be cool for my deck to win because of the new angle, and that this time could be remembered as “White Winter”, a cool storyline, right? He counters that him winning could also be a good storyline because he would be the first person to win 3 paintings! I laughed at that, and was a little intimidated, but nothing could really impact my high at being in the Final and I was genuinely excited.

Final - G1 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

Since I’m the 3 seed and Hans the 1 seed, he gets to go first. Against his deck, this is not as scary as Doomsday or TInker combo; I should get a turn. He shows me ‘his pokemon card’, as he called it (Lurrus) and we are off to the races.

Turn one Hans opens with Flooded Strand and passes. Not dead yet.

On my Turn One, I start with Mox Pearl, the best Mox. This resolves and I’m pretty happy about it. In my Game 2 against Doomsday, I had my worse Mox, Emerald, countered on my Turn 1.

Since the Mox resolves, I assume he doesn’t have counter magic, but I wonder what his hand might have in it that had him keep 7. So I deploy a Strip Mine, in order to cast Thalia. THIS makes him respond and he cracks the Flooded Strand in response to Thalia, fetching Tundra to put Ancestral Recall on to the stack. Vintage me, baby.

He goes to draw 3 and I confirm he’s targeting himself with Ancestral. Gotta check!

He draws 3 and let’s Thalia resolve. He might have a counterspell, but Dreadhorde blocks Thalia nicely, and he’s not trying to combo me, so the Thalia tax could be fine for now.

On Turn Two, Hans tanks for a bit and finally taps Tundra to cast Black Lotus. He thinks further and decides to play Volcanic Island as his land for the turn. Then he has to pass. I feel good about this.

On my Turn Two, draw for turn. I think for a minute and then play Plains, then go for Archon of Emeria. This spell eats a Force of Will, which I assume was found in the last turn’s draw. Hans may have had it for Thalia but judged that Archon would be more punishing.

Turn 3 for Hans, he draws and then tanks again for a moment. He decides to play a Wasteland on his side and takes out my Strip Mine, to defend his own colors and be able to progress his board in future turns; my current board does not threaten him. He then casts Dreadhorde Arcanist with a juicy Ancestral Recall waiting to be flashed back next turn. Hans passes to me.

On my Turn 3, I deploy a Wasteland and decide to cast White Plume Adventurer. I think I must have had that Wasteland in my opener. I take the Initiative and fetch Plains from the Secret Entrance. My thought is that if he has a Swords to Plowshares, I’m getting blown out anyway, but he will spend his turn and mana doing it, and it stops him Ancestral’ing this turn. If he doesn’t have Swords then he will have to cash in his Dreadhorde to draw 3. Then I pass to his turn.

Turn 4, Hans does go for the attack with Dreadhorde and flashes back Ancestral Recall, paying 1 mana. I block with the White Plume, and Dreadhorde goes to the yard. In the second main phase, Hans adds a Volcanic Island and Lavinia to his side.

On my Turn 4, I untap with access Wasteland, Mox Pearl and Plains. I Forge onto Thalia, continuing my ‘probably not correct Forge targets’ but still am not punished for it. Again, I wanted to grow Thalia big enough to block a Dreadhorde and win, but this is probably not necessary.

I play a Plains for turn and think again. I have Seasoned Dungeoneer as well as Palace Jailer. After thinking about it for a bit, I think I’m pretty far ahead, having not seen Swords and no Arcanist on board. I also don’t have Cavern still, so Palace Jailer is good bait. Plus I will get to be the Monarch on camera! Ha. So I go for Palace Jailer. It resolves and I snag Lavinia, clearing the way for my attack for 7, leaving him at 9 life. I end the turn and wait to get the Monarch token in place to draw an extra card, holding my finger on my White Plume Adventurer in order to remember to untap on his upkeep.

On his turn Turn 5, I untap the Thalia, he untaps 2 Volcanics and a Tundra, with Black Lotus up. Hans draws his card and tanks for a minute. I see on coverage he has a Tundra in his hand. On this turn, Hans takes a long time to decide on his play. The judge gently reminds him that he needs to make a play. Hans is facing down lethal damage on board, and heading into the Trap next turn.

Finally, Hans decides that the lifelink of Lurrus might be the only way to save himself. He adds the second Tundra to his board, fetches and plays Lurrus, and replays the Lotus off Lurrus, then passes, with just Lotus up.

On my Turn 5, I draw for turn and then for just a second. I believe I have Solitude but being at 4 mana, I’m very shy of pitching to cast it. Testing indicated I needed to pass. So I cast Seasoned Dungeoneer. If he has to Force it, then he will be at 3 life, which means, he has to block unfavorably against a White Plume solo attack, in order to not die, and lose his Lurrus. This sets up winning the next turn and keeping the Monarch going if not.

All of this was elementary, as the Dungeoneer did resolve, making the White Plume unblockable for lethal damage. Hans concedes and we are on to Game 2.

Final - G2 - M: OTD, 7 Cards, Y: 7 Cards

SB: No Changes

I debate on bringing in Mindcensor and that probably was correct to do so, but I didn’t want to give up the Stoneforge package because of the amount of pressure it applies. With this strategy, I probably should have cut one Loran for the Jitte, which when loaded, can remove most of his team with 2 counters. On the other hand, Loran felt like it could be very powerful based on his Mox light configuration, if it came on time.

From having played the Hans deck and from my Game 2 in the Quarterfinal, I knew I could keep a threat dense hand, even if it was not super fast. He would need a Swords and then an active Arcanist to keep me from progressing, but I could add more threats than he could, hopefully faster.

I open my 7 and see Black Lotus and Trinisphere. This could be a short game if Hans has kept a Swords hand with no Force. Unfortunately, I don’t have 2 plays on Turn 1, but it seemed ok.

We both keep 7 and he starts with Tundra into Preordain. He goes top/bottom and draws. He passes from there.

I start with the Lotus. I expect he will counter this but am surprised when he does not. Lotus resolves, so I crack it for White to cast Trinisphere. Is this lights out?

Hans snaps off Force of WIll pitching Brainstorm. This will be a bit longer than I hoped. I go back and forth on what land I want to expose to Wasteland. I have Cavern, Karakas and Ancient Tomb. I decided to play Karakas, and keep him off a potential Lavian or dashed Ragavan on Turn 2. Also this is the least desirable of the 3 to me, but the juiciest target for him likely; he knows I only have 1. I pass the turn.

On Turn 2, Hans draws and immediately Strips my Karakas and passes. This makes me feel good about my sequence but also worried he has a Wasteland to follow that with. Next I play Ancient Tomb, since I want to keep the Cavern of Souls to resolve a creature. Then I pass.

On Turn 3, Hans adds Polluted Delta on his side of the board and passes it back.

Finally, I am up to 3 mana again on Turn 3. At this point, I need to fix my mana and name Cleric with the Cavern, in order to cast White Plume Adventurer. Hans has no creatures on his side, so I feel safe taking the Initiative here. I am at 18 life, Hans is at 19 from FoW. I enter the Secret Entrance and fetch a Plains. At the end of turn, Hans Plows my White Plume and I go to 21 life.He fetches for Volcanic.

On Turn 4, Hans plays Expressive Iteration, exiling Wasteland with it, then playing Wasteland, taking out my Ancient Tomb. Then he passed.

On my turn 4, I decided to go to the Lost Well and Scry 2. I don’t remember exactly but if I recall the creatures are Thalia and Archon; I top / top, draw for turn.

I play Plains and cast Thalia, not uncounterable. It resolves, and I pass the turn.

On his Turn 5, Hans plays Flooded Strand and fetches for Tundra. After fetching, he is able to Delve away the yard and casts Treasure Cruise, followed by Lavinia. Pretty good turn, but I notice a room of the Dungeon I have not visited yet this tournament.

On my Turn 5, I point to Lavinia and ask, “If I Goad Lavinia, does she have to attack me on your turn?” Hans affirms this is true, so I decided to enter the Arena on my upkeep, to make Lavinia attack into Thalia.

I play a Wasteland and attack his Tundra. I have a Stoneforge Mystic in hand, so I have another 2 drop play. I cast Stoneforge, again without the help of Cavern, and it resolves. I fetch Kaldra Compleat from my deck and pass the turn.

For Turn 6, Hans draws and goes into the tank. He doesn’t want to lose Lavinia. He finally asks me again to read the Kaldra Compleat, which I pull out again and let him read.

He hands it back and decides to remove Thalia with Prismatic Ending, and then he has to attack with Lavinia. I don’t block and let him take the Initiative. He enters the Secret Room but he fails to find an Island in his deck I know one card in his hand now. He plays Misty Rainforest and passes.

On my Turn 6, I draw, and then put Kaldra Compleat into play via Stoneforge Mystic, taking back the Initiative and putting him at 11 life. I enter the Catacombs for the first time today, and I create a 4/1 Black Skeleton creature token with menace. I don’t have this token and neither does anyone else in the coverage area. I am handed a blue sleeved card to use as a token. I pass.

On his Turn 7, he draws and decides to attack with Lavinia, un-Goaded, into the Skeleton. I block to keep the Initiative. I want to enter Throne of the Dead Three on my upkeep.

After attacks, Hans goes for a Wasteland on my Cavern, then fetches with Misty Rainforest for a Tundra, with another in play, and a Volcanic. He taps Tundra and Volcanic and casts Dig Through TIme.

After DTT, he taps out for Ponder, then shuffles. In testing, this means he knows what he needs to win, but didn’t see it. Good players do this. He draws his card, then passes. I’m still hanging on.

On my turn 7, I have only a Plains in play for mana, with Stoneforge and Kaldra Compleat ready to bash. First, I enter the Throne of the Dead Three, and start to flips cards. I get to card 8 before I flip a creature, Thalia. The 10th creature is Seasoned Dungeoneer. I think for a moment and decide to choose Seasoned Dungeoneer. She comes in with 3 +1/+1 counters. His Swords to Plowshares have gotten very much worse. I shuffle.

I take my draw for turn and attack for 6, leaving him at 5 life. My draw for turn is Strip Mine, and I attack his Tundra, leaving him only one white mana and I pass. Double Swords is how I lose, so I hope he doesn’t have it. I just need to get into the Trap now.

On Turn 8, he plays the Island he has had in hand, casts Dreadhorde Arcanist, then passes.

On my Turn 8, I Forge onto the Stoneforge Mystic, making it a 3 / 4. I draw for turn and play Mox Ruby, then Plains. I have Palace Jailer and I debate waiting around for another mana. I also have Solitude, but would need to pitch the Jailer. I decide to put him to the test here, and go for Solitude pre-combat, targeting the Dreadhorde Arcanist. This results in Hans extending his hand to me; the match is over.

I am the 2022 NA Vintage Champion.

Trophy Plus Serious Connections

Shout out to the judging staff for the event, they were top notch and all seemed genuinely excited to be there. The head judge seemed excited to be able to officially present the trophy. I was excited to receive it!

So I get this amazing painting trophy and then I want to know if they kept the box? I walk around a bit aimlessly, in shock, holding the painting. I am getting daps and congrats. A guy from a sales group on FB comes up to me and recognized my name. He congratulates me! I am then approached by a guy who lets me know he is the man of the hour, and not to worry, he has kept all the packaging, knowing that the winners would want to pack them back up. So he leads me to the area where he stashed everything and we get to talking.

Apparently, this dude Keith Grim is an old guard Team Serious member? And he used to go to our events? No freaking way. Again, I wish I would have taken a picture. I assure him that Team Serious is still around and that he needs to get into the Deathstar! I send Jerry a message to get Keith invited while he helps tape everything up nicely.

Leaving the City StuZ and Mike have to leave Philly by plane at 7PM. We don’t really have time for any proper meal before they will have to leave.

So we trek back to the Sonder, drop the bags. We crack the last 3 beers and they make a toast to my win; I toast to the weekend and the Gathering. We munch the last of the snacks and then make the trek to my car and get it from the parking deck, then back to Sonder to grab all the bags.

By the time we execute all these maneuvers, it will be a hassle to get them a ride, so I make a 15 minute detour to take them to the airport. After I drop each of them off, I put the city in the rearview. I hit Ohio by Midnight and was home soon after.

Closing Thoughts

Is this deck for real? Who knows. It was definitely the right deck for the right moment in time. I expect to see many iterations of this deck as the Vintage meta-game adapts to the oncoming “White Winter”. I doubt the White Initiative deck will remain dominant, as players are very creative in finding ways to adjust and combat new strategies.

Other Media

I will update this section as more becomes available. So far I have recorded two podcasts and one has been published already.

Pitcast - We talk about deck selection and do a live re-watch with commentary of the Finals: https://anchor.fm/pitcast/episodes/With-Rajah-James–Vintage-Champ-e1sdi9n/a-a92q23d

Serious Vintage - https://www.eternalcentral.com/seriousvintagepodcast/ Episode 50: Coming Soon, maybe. We talk about various things related to Eternal Weekend 2022.

Serious Vintage - Look out for uploads of my on camera coverage from 2019 as well as 2022, also coming soon™. https://www.youtube.com/@seriousvintage4067

@anzidmtg on Twitch, Twitter and Youtube - 2022 NA Vintage Swiss Coverage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry0nFCEB2J4&ab_channel=anzidmtg

Thanx

You know the song “Thanx” by Sublime? That is what my list is like. I will forget many but I will say to all in my Team Serious family, if I don’t name you out explicitly here, thank you I love you and you rock. Max for getting me into Vintage. Jake for getting me into the Team and bringing me to Geoff’s. Geoff for my first TSI experience, the plane and pool advice (what not to do), to Josh for his life outlook and gear advice. For Nat, for making this a thing that I could be a part of and to all 3 for the podcast. For G, everyone digs the playmat. And the manifesto! Jaco, you inspired my addiction to personalize my cards. BTFOOC! To Nam for being an inspiration, in cards and hair. Thanks for the Tabby! To Paul and John, Chaos draft crew 4 eva. To Steven, Justin, David for taking care of me at Kumite, ha. Steven, let’s do TSI StevenLand? Yung D Lance, for pioneering the way and breaking the curse, you inspired me man! Beep beep. Justin, my former Warren neighbor, I wish we hung out more when you were here. Serious Dads crew, Nat, Angelo, Rob, Sasala, Hazard, Chad, Soly, Jake, Guhstin, Dave, Paul, Adam, Abe, Phil it is good we can be dudes and Dads. Hazard (Trece) again for your -vitational! We love Hazards. Jerry for your great takes and philosophy of life…I hope to hike the trail someday. Thanks for the Shops. Korak, dragon buddies!! Come hang out man. Revell brothers, what’s up Old School. Dr. Iba da Streama. KNels, the dredge master and creator of the dope Varsity logo. KPoen, man, hope to see you again soon. Klep, come to the Land. Charles and Kyle, thanks for the support homies! See you soon. Caffrey the Middle School mastermind, thank you for your amazing attitude. Jake and Steven for making Middle School! Brassman for philosophy and also as inspiration, what an awesome Robot. Missed you in Philly man. The LawnBoy for alpha chats, go Braves. Jimmy the Lord of Cats for the inspiration, you got there before me and made me want to do it too. Joe Dyer, our community connect. Keep doing your thing man, thank you. JR, another Dragon inspiration to me, your power powered me when I first started. Anthony Michael for the support and battling for the name. Rob Wilson, what a huge dude. BCDL extraordinaire, amazing you are a part. Can’t say enough about you bro. Soly, thanks for your support and hope you can make it out soon. Angelo for the testing help. Roland! Thanx for blessing us at the Land with the g ride, and of course for the Tokens! Mith, it’s cool to know another Brown in the game, inspiring signed collection man. Kevin and Steve for the great commentary, thanks for SMIPing for so long dudes. Forest Bear for spreading the love. Sam Krohlow, he played Doomsday when it was hard to play, aka “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Actually Phase” <3 you. EmoPizza for the Lands / Mustache Inspiration. Randall for the amazing proxies / beard inspiration and Trogdon for the always warm welcome. Freaking Shaman Ben, come around maybe some time? And of course Andrew you too, love you, hope to see you at HSI.

Iceland crew first starting out! Gary the “Phantom Munster”, Bryon “my parents buy me Playboy” L. Charlie, Elijah. Brian Ward, hope you play Vintage with me someday. Of course my brother Krishna, love you brother.

Jordan Baker for taking a bunch of pictures and making them available. Any pictures in this report that are actually good, they were probably taken by Jordan.

To Anurag Das, for coming out and spending the whole weekend producing the stream. Having this on video is priceless. Thank you.

Duane, thank you for being a Colorless soldier and coming out to EW and hanging out. I would have been very lonely if not for you. Keep growing your hair. WAFWHF

RtS Crew, StuZ, Tweedy, MikeO, thank you for allowing me to meld with your crew and supporting me the whole weekend. Stu, thank you for testing with me all those games and helping me with my mental state. You are a baller’s baller. Rob for producing the stream. I wouldn’t have seen the deck otherwise. Hockey, thank you for the list and all the other chats. Mike, the couch was phenomenal, 10/10 would crash again. Kai, I’m coming for that Chain baby. Jake, hope to see ya again next year! Keep brewing those crazy decks. Tweedy, I hope to get down to SXSW and experience the crazy with y’all. See you in the Top8 again next time MikeO, great run.

For Jaco and Nathan and Bob and the network of ballers they put me on to. LOTP crew, too many of y’all to name all of you, David, Ian, Carter, Lorien, Moss, Tyler, Shane, see? I missed a bunch. Shout out to my fellow “Thrulls” and the Lords alike, love you all. Maybe I can get one of those cool patches one day, gotta practice some flips. 3 Rivers Wizards, Bob, JC, Kevin, Twan, love you guys. Music City Old School crew, Casey and Alan, Knights Taplar, Toronto 93/94 crew, Jame, Hacks crew, Tusk Crew and all the crews that let me share the love of the game with them, this is for you all too. Thanx.

To the Old School, Middle School and all other Underground communities and circles I run in, thank you for the support. To DFB and Will Magrann, for thinking I’m good. To all my OH crew, to Kyle Wells and Brne for supporting the TSOs, Dan for the support and the alters, Mike on the FE40 build. Craig for the out and back to Kumite. Ebon Hand, Akron Legionaries, Columbus Kobolds. See you all in 2024! I hope to be a good ambassador for all the formats I play. I love you all!

To the signed, altered and artist-altered communities, thank you! I’m always looking for an Ambassador Laquatus signed, btw 🙂

Warren / NEO crew! Pat Celli, my hype man, thank you. Troy, Darrel, Andrew, Pauper crew, Dom especially for being an organizer, keep doing your music thing. All-American peeps, Greg! Dave, Josh, thanks! Let’s do some more TSOs in 2023. Underground Lounge too, we will back soon. ICG, Sharon Crew, Tom, what up!

SOs and Partners, thanks for putting up with us and all the support. To my kids, thank you for the support! To my wife especially, love you! Uncle Dennis and Dad, thanks for letting us host TSI: The Land at The Land. Coming back for #4 in 2023. To Mom and the rest of my family too, thanks for the support.

Whether you play on paper, with proxy, on MTGO, or whatever, if you play and love the Vintage format, thank you. And if you dream of being the Vintage Champ someday, and hoisting the painting above your head, don’t stop dreaming! Dreams can come true 🙂

Until Next Time I thought about it watching coverage, that this event was missing a lot of big names. Of course there were some amazing players registered for the event, and you can question every Vintage champion ever in this way, I think (well so-and-so wasn’t there so it isn’t legit). Of course, I would love to have prevailed over a larger field that included more of my friends. I mean, THE Vintage duo wasn’t even there competing, they were doing the commentary! But so it goes.

For 2023 and beyond, I hope we see more Eternal magic support from the Mothership. The least thing they can do is provide greater lead time for planning, so more folks who have to Adult can make plans to attend in advance.

On the other hand, one huge thing they could do is to include the World Wide Vintage championships as part of the continued M30 celebration next year. Unify the belt!

No matter what happens with the Mothership, I hope that the stars align again and whenever and wherever the next Vintage Champs is announced, I will be there, slanging spells. Seriously.