awesome report! enjoyed the read.

Cheers @volrathxp - good to meet you as well! Ben was happy to have someone day 2 with his Bazaars, those things get next to no use by him. @13NoVa right back at you! Next time let’s break into Top 8.

@hierarchnoble It is hard to know if the PO opponent is on 1-2 snapcaster or is playing towards a tinker on blightsteel which is very good against shops so i don't mind hedging my deck with 2 cages and cutting the chiefs. My opinion is both chief and overseer in this matchup are low value/ineffective at winning because what i'm trying to do is prevent them from casting their spells with my spheres and null rods. If they can't cast their spells through that disruption, they can't win, and i can close the game with anything at that point. edit: cage is also good against the yawg will versions

And I need to quote Paul Mastriano because this event made me remember why I fell in love with Vintage and the Community: “The best part about Magic is The Gathering”

Thanks for writing this up, it was an enjoyable read

Thanks everyone, I'm a scaredy-cat being afraid of getting greedy with Snapcaster and then end up making a resolved Oath live. I'd even bring in second Minbreak Trap for Thrun or Carnage Tyrant. =D PMs are somewhat broken, but when enlarged it seems to sort of work. I don't have FB, I'll try to get in touch with Mr. Forino via Nick, although my guess would be he's visiting parents in the South of Italy.

Updated Dan's list to reflect the 2nd back to basics. I watched some of his top 8 games and just simply having B2B out changed the flow of every game I saw. Also, we have another top 8 deck - Troy Sands Mono-red Goblins (and actually I wouldnt even call this goblins as it features multiple other creature types for control. Gobbos is just the aggro win-con). #Troy Sands Mono red goblins Lands 19 10 mountains 4 ancient tomb 4 city of traitors 1 strip mine Artifact Mana 3 1 black lotus 1 mox ruby 1 lotus petal Artifact Control 7 1 chalice of the void 1 trinisphere 1 sorcerous spyglass 4 null rod Enchantments 4 4 blood moon Creatures 16 4 magus of the moon 4 goblin rabblemaster 3 dire fleet daredevil 4 simian spirit guide 1 koth of the hammer 4 Chandra, torch of defiance Sorcery 7 4 fiery confluence 2 chaos warp 1 ricochet trap Sideboard 4 leyline of the void 4 ensnaring bridge 1 pyrostatic pillar 1 eidolon of the great revel 1 koth of the hammer 1 sorcerous spyglass 1 abrade 2 by force

@emopizza I also did some testing with song of the dryads and imprisoned in the moon. They seem corny but both offer good options to threats that the deck has issues dealing with like active planeswalkers. I cut them in the end because they didn’t have any interaction once they hit the graveyard and were too much of an investment to have countered. I think they could easily see some play though as an answer to certain blue decks in the right build.

It's finding the 5-6 hours to both play in the event to recoup EV and gather data during/after that is the problem!

@The-Atog-Lord Thirteen--I imagine there were others who felt similarly to you. It was my first time making it out to Gamingetc, so I don't know what's typical for their monthly tournaments. The drive back was more arduous than the tournament itself! @jsakpc Thanks! As for Snapcaster vs Recoup, I would say that the former is certainly a better card than the latter in a vacuum. Snapcaster is certainly more flexible. However, I am running Recoup because it is a single card accomplishing what would take 2-4 Snapcasters. I want Gifts to be able to win on its own given sufficient mana without any help. A lone Gifts can find Lotus, Will, Recoup, Demonic and win with whatever they give you (provided you have the mana). If you substitute that Recoup with Snapcaster, they can bin the Will and Snapcaster and cut you off Will. I think a Gifts deck with Snapcaster can work--flashing back draw spells and counters is very strong. I personally wanted to spend those slots on other cards and play a single card (Recoup) that makes Gifts a one-card combo. You could certainly try this list and sub in 4 Snapcasters in for the Barals and Recoup--and maybe finding another cut to fit in a Merchant Scroll, which would enable casting Ancestral twice a game more often. Such a move could solidify the mana base to UB, if you drop the red splash. That's what's so great about Gifts, you can tailor your list to your preferences and style!

The only changes I'd make is to cut the 3rd Flusterstorm for either the 3rd Duress or the 4th Thoughtseize.

@bobbyvictory I only played against sean o'brien in the main event, but I did enough testing to feel comfortable in that matchup

@themonadnomad Equal parts stupidity and apathy. Ruby’s definitely correct. *Edit: well, it's definitely correct in the abstract. Considering I lost my deck between rounds 3 and 4, there's an argument for not playing your power during an event that encourages drinking.

Congrats! If Hi-Score runs Vintage again I'll try to make it up next time from Iowa.

One of my pals was trying out a BUG Leovold build that used JVP, Squee, and Survival. It was very grindy and did a lot of work once survival hit. You can tutor up Squee, then get as many other creatures as you want until grave hate hits. Getting out Leovold shut down a lot of options in my experience. Squee with JVP was also a nice touch.

@mediumsteve I added it last minute for disruption. I found during testing that more disruption over controll helps the combo element of the deck. I never regretted it and it won me 2 games.

@walking-dude There are stores on Long Island and New Jersey that are not too far away (decent access by car) that hot regular Vintage tournaments. Unfortunately, none within NYC (the five boroughs) that organize it at least once a month, although I've spoken to a few store owners willing to try it. The big issue is parking, as NYC doesn't have stores with access to free parking for large groups of players, and worrying about feeding the meter is a pain when you are in the middle of a round playing. With NYC being so packed and continuously building upward, it pushes parking availability out, which discourages players from out of the area (1+ hours away) from wanting to travel to play. That means lower tournament turnout, which leads to Lower prize Support (the main draw for players) Fewer rounds played (which lowers the justification for paying for parking) Fewer skilled players (the main draw for competitors, and a big way to grow a scene aside from loading upo on prize support) The last tournament I organized was at Kings Games back in 2005 or 6 for a Mox Emerald, and at the time, it only drew 22 players. The main issue was having to pay 8-10 bucks for parking or risk a 3+ hour communte from outside NYC via public transportation to an area not in Manhattan. And Manhattan commercial rents at that time were skyrocketting to the point where if I had to host a monthly, stores wanted me to rent the space for the day to do it. It was unsustainable. Kudos to Nick Detwiler in helping grow a scene in NY. I couldn't.