X and Owen – Winning Vintage Worlds 2010

For my latest article I’m excited to write about how I recently won the Vintage World Championship at GenCon Indy 2010. I’ve played in the event the past 3 years now, with a Top 8 appearance the first time, and some poor play leading to a loss while playing for Top 8 last year which was pretty disheartening, to the point where I didn’t even want to play in the tournament this year. But thanks to David Ochoa for providing me the decklist and to my amazing friends for lending me the cards. Without further adieu here is the decklist that I (along with Bob Maher and David Williams) ended up playing.


Confidant Jace Control, by Owen Turtenwald - 1st Place 2010 Vintage Champs

Business (36)
Force of Will
Spell Pierce
Mana Drain
Thoughtseize
Nature’s Claim
Sensei’s Divining Top
Brainstorm
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Merchant Scroll
Tinker
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Inkwell Leviathan
Dark Confidant
Trygon Predator
Yawgmoth’s Will

Mana Sources (24)
Black Lotus
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Tolarian Academy
Misty Rainforest
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
Scalding Tarn
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Volcanic Island
Island
Forest
Sideboard (15)
Leyline of the Void
Nature’s Claim
Red Elemental Blast
Pyroblast
Sower of Temptation
Yixlid Jailer
Pithing Needle

As I said, I got the original list from David Ochoa, which I believe he even put in his last article (suck it, deck secrecy!), and some minor changes from Dave Williams, which boiled down to:
-1 Tezzeret the Seeker
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
-1 Island
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+1 Nature’s Claim
+1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard -3 Tarmogoyf
Sideboard +3 Red Elemental Blast

I was pretty satisfied with all these changes, with the possible exception of maybe the 1 Nature’s Claim, which I rarely used. The REBs were awesome pretty much all day for giving me an out to an opposing Jace or Sower of Temptation (which I never used, but Bob used to great effect against me in the Finals) and overall just being powerful against control decks.

Round 1 vs. Hiromichi Itou, Mirror
He wins the die roll and starts with Underground Sea, Mox, Dark Confidant. I play land, Mox, Confidant as well. He untaps and reveals Time Walk and without pause attacks me with Confidant and I trade, and he wraps up his turn by Time Walking.

I understand he’s the previous year’s Vintage World Champion and all, but that was just very poor play. He knows based on his hand that he is going to cast Time Walk this turn, so why not just wait a turn to attack me, collect a free card off the Time Walk turn Bob flip, and then attack and try to squeeze in 2 damage on the Time Walk turn?

The rest of the game is pretty unexciting as he tries to sculpt a winning hand with Sensei’s Divining Top leading up to a Yawgmoth’s Will turn where I have Mana Drain and Force of Will, and he just has a Force. After this I resolve Jace and it quickly runs away with the game.

Sideboarding:
-1 Tinker
-1 Inkwell Leviathan
-1 Forest
-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 Nature’s Claim
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast
+2 Sower of Temptation

In hindsight siding out Tinker and Inkwell was likely a mistake since it can trump Jace, but I like to just have normal cards in these kinds of matchups because I feel like unless I get buried in card disadvantage with stuff like Vampiric Tutor and my tutor target getting countered or my Tinker getting countered early I should win pretty easily. I didn’t see Trygon Predator but I suspect now that he had them, but seeing his Confidants was reason enough to side in my Sowers.

Game 2 my hand was pretty powerful, with something like Underground Sea, Sol Ring, Misty Rainforest, 2 Sower of Temptation, Force of Will, and Spell Pierce. I end up drawing a Thoughtseize, and run it out there and find his hand is very defensive with just Force of Will, Mana Drain, Spell Peirce, and lands. I run out Sower on turn 3 and eventually topdeck a Jace which resolves. I Fateseal him every turn and leave him with Hurkyl’s Recall, Mana Crypt, and basic lands, while both my Sowers eat away at his life total. On the last turn he is at 4 I Fateseal and leave Darkblast on top, he draws it and concedes even though he could have made one Sower a 1/1 and gone to 1. Granted he was in awful shape anyways and I was going to Fateseal again next turn, but why scoop when you can get an extra draw? After all this is Vintage and crazy stuff happens.
Matches 1-0, Games 2-0

Round 2 vs. ?, Mirror
I open with another sick hand this game. Turn 1 Thoughtseize, followed by turn 2 Ancestral Recall + Spell Pierce backup, and at this point I’m so far ahead on cards I win in a pretty uneventful manner just playing out a Trygon that eats up his mana and a Dark Confidant.

Sideboarding:
-1 Tinker
-1 Inkwell Leviathan
-1 Forest
-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 Nature’s Claim
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast
+2 Sower of Temptation

Game 2 is a little more interesting despite me again resolving a quick Ancestral. I end up jumping out way ahead with a Trygon on board with both Spell Pierce and Force of Will up. But since he didn’t do much in the early turns his hand was stacked with restricted cards. He goes for a big Yawgmoth’s Will which I Force, he Forces back, and I Spell Pierce it to try and bottleneck his mana and slow him down. This works well enough because all he does is replay Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Voltaic Key, and Demonic Tutor for Time Vault before passing. After the match he admitted that this was a mistake as he simply forgot I had Trygon Predator in play and could attack and kill his Voltaic Key, leaving him with a useless Time Vault in hand. I play out a Jace, use the Brainstorm ability looking for more counters, Spell Pierce the Jace he casts on the next turn, and that was the game.
Matches 2-0, Games 4-0

Round 3 vs. Rich Shay, Oath
Game 1 I start out with a Thoughtseize and see Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Vampiric Tutor, Terastadon, and mana so I take the Spell Pierce. He plays a black mana and passes and I use my turn to Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. We both knew what would happen, but I can’t fault him for gambling here as he Vampiric Tutors for Ancestral Recall which I Force of Will, and he passes the turn back to me making it obvious he didn’t draw a Blue card on his 1 draw step. I untap and resolve my Ancestral and the rest of the game is a walk in the park.

Sideboarding:
-4 Dark Confidant
-1 Tinker
-1 Inkwell Leviathan
+3 Nature’s Claim
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast

Terastodon OathGame 2 I keep a solid hand with no Force of Will on the draw, and he starts with Lotus Petal, Forbidden Orchard, and Oath of Druids. I simply play a Polluted Delta and pass. He Oaths up a Terastodon and declines to use Terastodon’s comes into play ability, draws, and passes. I end his turn with a Brainstorm into Nature’s Claim. I use my turn to kill his Oath of Druids and play out some artifact mana so its me at 18 with a Saproling vs. a 9/9 elephant and a Forbidden Orchard. He attacks and I chump block, then passes the turn back again. I spend my next turn casting some card manipulation/tutoring that I can’t remember and pass it back to him. He attacks me with Terastodon down to 9 and I take my turn to play Yawgmoths Will with 3 mana open and Force of Will and Pyroblast in hand. He casts Force of Will which I Force. My Yawg Will is pretty busted and I end up casting Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor (for Vault and Key). On my Time Walk turn I play out Vault and Key, but he has Nature’s Claim off his Orchard which really surprised me. I felt I had the game won because if he had any relevant card he would have used it to fight the Yawgmoth’s Will so when he had no response I put him on total air in hand. I still had Pyroblast in hand but that didn’t help against Nature’s Claim. I understand hindsight is 20/20 but if I had considered Claim I would have Pyroblasted his Force and kept Force when fighting over the yawg will but my rationale at the time still seems legit (that my Force is free, vs. the mana cost of Pyroblast when I want to be able to save my mana for brokenness when Yawgmoth’s Winning). Anyway my Time Vault is destroyed, I go up to 11 life, and have another saproling token facing down a 9/9, but I’ve drawn some extra cards off the Ancestral and he still has nothing. So the game plays out for a couple more turns as I again take a hit from Terastodon going to 2, chump it with the token, and had played out 2 Trygon Predators by that time that I could also chump with. I eventually draw Jace, the Mindsculptor with a couple turns left to live, to bounce the Terastodon and Rich is out cold.

I’m not exactly sure why Rich left in Nature’s Claim against me as all it can hope to do is kill Time Vault or Voltaic Key, and to be honest the fact that he had it in hand instead of any card that affected the game like a Spell Pierce, Thoughtseize, Duress, Mana Drain, or Red Elemental Blast was probably the reason it was so easy for me to go off in the first place. In hindsight he would easily have won if he used Terastodon to destroy his own Forbidden Orchard and Oath, but I can understand why he wanted to keep them around to make another token and potentially Oath up Iona.
Matches 3-0, Games 6-0

Round 4 vs. ?, Mono Red Workshops
Game 1 he starts off with Mishra’s Workshop into Thorn of Amethyst, which I Force of Will. I play turn 1 Underground Sea, Mox, Dark Confidant. He plays a land and Lodestone Golem on his next turn, while I reveal Inkwell Leviathan to my Dark Confidant (taking 9 damage) and finish my turn by casting a second Dark Confidant. More bad flips eventually put me in a spot where I play Jace and can Brainstorm to hope to hit two 0 drops on top (I’m at 1), or bounce one of my Bobs and hope to chump block his Lodestone. I have control of the game and would win if I survived but I ended up bouncing one of my Confidants and shipping the turn. He draws and does nothing, I untap my Time Vault since he has no good plays anways and if I miss on Bob then I get to use Jace twice in a row. But I proceed to reveal something that makes me die to my Confidant on my upkeep.

Sideboarding:
-3 Thoughtseize
-3 Spell Pierce
+3 Nature’s Claim
+2 Sower of Temptation
+1 Pithing Needle

Game 2 my hand is the nuts (Mox, Mox, Island, Tinker, Lotus, Force of Will, Merchant Scroll), and my opponent mulligans to 4. I Tinker out Inkwell on Turn 1 having Force backup in hand, and win easily.

Game 3 was really close, and my opener is something like Brainstorm, Force of Will, Mana Drain, Sensei‘s Diving Top, Underground Sea, Trygon Predator, Tropical Island. He starts off with Wasteland, Mox Pearl, Sensei’s Diving Top (keeping Wasteland untapped) before passing. I draw Mana Crypt which I use to cast Sensei’s Divining Top and look, I see Jace, Pithing Needle, and Nature’s Claim. I leave Pithing Needle on top and pass without playing a land. He plays a Wasteland and a Trinisphere which I Force of Will, and I untap, play Pithing Needle on Wasteland and then lay Tropical Island. His turn is very strong with Goblin Welder and Chalice of the Void set to 1. I simply draw Jace, play it, and bounce the Welder locking him out. His turn is underwhelming, I believe just casting a Crucible of Worlds that had no effect on the game. I draw and play Trygon Predator and have the game well in hand, because one of the Workhop decks’ only out to Trygon is Red Elemental Blast, and he already has Chalice at 1 out to prevent that. But things get sticky when I start losing most of my Mana Crypt rolls and can’t just risk trying to kill him with Trygon as he is at around 12 life. Being unfamiliar with my cards I try to kill my own Mana Crypt with Trygon (which doesn’t work), and eventually I’m forced to destroy the Chalice at 1 with Predator so I can Nature’s Claim my own Mana Crypt (in the very near future) and try to deal with all the 1 drops locked in his hand. He Pyroblasts the Trygon and I Force of Will. He untaps and takes a big turn, using Gorilla Shaman to destroy Pithing Needle and both his Wastelands to kill my Underground Sea and Tropical. On my following turn I have a lot of options. The board state is Mana Crypt, Mox Jet, Sensei’s Divining Top, Jace with 1 counter, Trygon Predator versus his Gorilla Shaman and Sensei’s Divining Top. I win the Mana Crypt roll to stay at 4 and consider my options. He has no cards in hand at this point so ideally I’d like to use Trygon to kill his top and Fateseal it to the bottom so I don’t lose to random insane top deck. I have a Yawgmoth’s Will in hand I intend on casting for at the very least a land and Pithing Needle on Gorilla Shaman again. I think for a bit and decide I should Brainstorm with Jace then figure out what’s best with my new cards. Naturally I draw Black Lotus and my decisions become very easy. I cast Lotus and sac for 3 Green mana, Nature’s Claim my own Mana Crypt after floating mana (going to 8 life), tap Mox Jet and use floating mana to cast Yawgmoth’s Will, the replay Mana Crypt tap it and Claim it again (going to 12 life), casting Pithing Needle naming his Gorilla Shaman, play a land from the graveyard, and cast Ancestral Recall. AKA I go broken and win.
Matches 4-0, Games 8-1

Round 5 vs. Jerome Yanchick, 5C Stax
Game 1 I keep and opening hand of Underground Sea, Black Lotus, Dark Confidant, Dark Confidant, Time Walk, Time Vault, Spell Pierce on the draw againt what I know is a Workshop deck. This is a pretty questionable keep because if he has literally any relevant lock piece on turn 1 my hand kind of shrivels up. But if he just plays a Thorn of Amethyst, Lodestone Golem, or Sphere of Resistance I can still play land, Lotus, Bob which is not exactly the worst start in the world. Regardless I kept the hand and he starts off with Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Barbarian Ring, Chalice at 0 (oops) and Goblin Welder. I draw random Moxen until I die to Goblin Welder and Karn, Silver Golem beat down.

Sideboarding:
-3 Thoughtseize
-3 Spell Pierce
+3 Nature’s Claim
+2 Sower of Temptation
+1 Pithing Needle

Game 2 my hand is pretty insane on the play (Mox Sapphire, 2 Underground Sea, Forest, Mana Drain, Trygon Predator, Brainstorm). I lead with Sea and Sapphire, he plays a Chalice at 0 and Wastelands my Sea. I Brainstorm into Misty Rainforest, Volcanic Island, and Sower of Temptation. I play Misty Rainforest and pass. He plays a Wasteland and has no play. On my turn I sac for an Island, play my Forest, and run out Trygon Predator. Eventually I get out a second Trygon Predator and just deal 20 damage to him with the 2/3 fliers, all the while never killing his chalice at 0 using it to potentially manascrew him.

Game 3 I keep an opener of Mox Emerald, Underground Sea, Dark Confidant, Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Sower of Temptation, and Voltaic Key on the draw. He starts with Mishra’s Workshop and Time Vault with a Chalice at 0 which I Force of Will. I run out Emerald and Confidant. He draws and passes after casting nothing. I’ll take this time to admit I got lucky that he kept such bad hands Games 2 and 3. The only other interesting play of note this game is when he eventually draws a City of Brass he plays it and passes, I flip Jace to a Confidant and quickly put him on Red Elemental Blast. I decide I should run out Jace anyways, I play it, and ask if he has any responses. He doesn’t so I use the Brainstorm ability, he taps his City of Brass and grabs the top card from his hand which was face down on the table and puts it sideways on top of the Jace, then looks confused and says “ok well, I’ll play Vampiric Tutor.” He clearly he meant to Jace with Red Elemental Blast but grabbed the wrong card and rather than take it back he prison rules’d himself. So I Brainstorm into Demonic Tutor into Time Vault and already have Key out, prompting a scoop.
Matches 5-0, Games 10-2

Round 6 vs. ?, Oath
Game 1 he mulligans to 4 cards and I start with a Thoughtseize seeing Forest, Terastodon, Force of Will, Spell Pierce. I take the Spell Peirce and play Dark Confidant with Spell Pierce up next turn, and win very easily from the card advantage of Bob.

Sideboarding:
-4 Dark Confidant
-1 Tinker
-1 Inkwell Leviathan
+3 Nature’s Claim
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast

Game 2 was equally as quick and brutal as I start with something like Underground Sea, Thoughtseize, Mox Sapphire, Sol Ring, Voltiac Key, and Sensei’s Divining Top. Next turn I draw Jace which resolves. But before I can have fun with Jace and Key+Top drawing extra cards, I use Jace’s Brainstorm ability and find Time Vault and Mana Drain to lock up the game.
Matches 6-0, Games 12-2

Round 7 with AJ Sacher, TPS
At this point we can both just draw in, so we intentionally draw (ID).
Matches 6-0-1, Games 12-2

Strip MineQuarterfinals vs. Jerome Yanchick, 5C Stax
Game 1 on the play I mulligan and quickly keep a hand of 4 lands, Thoughtseize, and Black Lotus. I cast Thoughtseize and see Trinisphere, Tangle Wire, Crucible of Worlds, Lodestone Golem, Mox Pearl, Chalice of the Void, and Tolarian Academy. I take the Mox Pearl and play my Lotus. He draws Mishra’s Workshop (obv) and plays Trinisphere, I respond by throwing up in my mouth. I draw Tinker play my 2nd land and pass. He plays a Tangle Wire and Tolarian Academy. I continue to play lands and sit under Tangle Wire. He plays out his Lodestone Golem and casts Demonic Tutor (which I assume was for Strip Mine, because he had Crucible in hand), but he passes without playing a land. I play out a land and Tinker for Inkwell and pass the turn back. He casts Crucible of Worlds and then Strip Mines me. On my next turn I attack with Inkwell and drop him to 13, play a 3rd land, and ship the turn back with Force of Will up. He Strip Mines me and attacks for 5. I attack and pass. He attacks, Strip Mines me down to 2 fetches, but I float a Blue, he goes for Ensnaring Bridge and I Force of Will it, to which he concedes. (Editor’s Note: that’s why you Strip Mine before attacking, draining their mana pool if they float mana, and then on the second main phase ensure that your business doesn’t get countered.)

Sideboarding:
-3 Thoughtseize
-3 Spell Pierce
+3 Nature’s Claim
+2 Sower of Temptation
+1 Pithing Needle

Game 2 he starts with Mishra’s Workshop and Sphere of Resistance, which I Force of Will. I play a Tropical Island and pass. He plays a Crucible of Worlds and passes back to me. I play an Underground Sea and a Dark Confidant. He plays a Gorilla Shaman and passes the turn with City of Brass, Gemstone Mine at 1 and a Mox. I play a Fetch and a Demonic Tutor for Time Vault and ship it back. He uses his turn tapping Gemstone Mine, replaying it from the graveyard to power out a Lodestone Golem, I respond and Vampiric Tutor for Voltaic Key. With a 4th land in hand and Key + Vault being artifacts and immune to Lodestone Golem I take infinite turns. The very next turn I drop Sensei’s Divining Top and he packs it in.
Matches 7-0-1, Games 14-2

Imperial SealSemifinals vs. Jesse Martin, TPS
Game 1 on the play I open with Dark Confidant, Jace, Spell Pierce, Mana Drain, Black Lotus, Volcanic Island, and Underground Sea. I go big and play Volcanic, Black Lotus, and then Jace, which resolves. I use the Brainstorm ability and hide Mana Drain on top of my deck protecting it from a Duress. He goes into the tank and comes out with Underground Sea into Imperial Seal. I untap, draw, and use Jace to Fateseal him and see a Timetwister which made me pretty confident, because if he could have any card in his deck why would he pick one that just resets the game? I put it on the bottom, and between Brainstorming each turn into Thoughtseizes and Spell Pierces and when I was ahead just playing out Bob, it left me to the time start Fatesealing any scary cards away and I take the first game.

Sideboarding:
-1 Trygon Predator
-1 Nature’s Claim
-1 Forest
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast

Game 2 I keep Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Black Lotus, and 4 lands on the draw. He starts with an Underground Sea and a Duress taking my Spell Pierce. I draw Sol Ring and play land, Sol Ring, and Black Lotus with Force up. We both play draw-go for about 5-6 turns and I draw lands and a Mana Drain in that time. He tries to go off but I use both my counters and he has to pass. I draw a land and he plays a Mox and a Mind’s Desire for 2, revealing Force of Will and Mox Emerald. STRONG. I draw a Spell Pierce but he has access to about 8 or 9 mana at this point. We continue to play draw go and I just draw more lands and another useless Spell Pierce, allowing him to casually piece together a winning hand.

Game 3 was close a close one. I start with a Thoughtseize and find that his hand is pretty marginal. I left him with Tendrils of Agony, Mind’s Desire, and a couple other expensive cards I can’t quite remember. He plays out a random Mox and a Sensei’s Divining Top and ships it back to me, so on my next turn I played some artifact mana and a Trygon Predator. I take the next couple of turns to attack and slowly eat his Mox and make his Top worse, and in that time I play an Ancestral Recall, Sensei’s Divining Top, and a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I use Top each turn to stack my hand with counters and use Jace to fateseal and him, leaving him with lands and expensive cards. When Trygon gets him down to 2 life I also have Jace on 13, with 3 counterpsells in hand. It’s now or never so when he goes off he plays a Lotus which I Mana Drain, a Mox Ruby which resolves, and a Tendrils for 8 putting me to 9 and him to 9. I untap and use Jace’s ultimate ability and he concedes.
Matches 8-0-1, Games 16-3

Finals vs. Bob Maher, 75-card mirror match
Game 1 on the draw I keep a hand of Time Walk, Mana Drain, Yawgmoth’s Will, Mox Ruby, Mox Pearl, Tropical Island, and Scalding Tarn. He lead with a turn 1 Underground Sea and Mox Pearl for Demonic Tutor into Ancestral Recall. I play Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Tropical Island, and Time Walk. I draw Trygon Predator and cast it which met a Force of Will. He untaps and casts a Dark Confidant, missing his second land drop. I draw Black Lotus, play it, sac for UUU and tap Sol Ring and Underground Sea to cast Yawgmoth’s Will for value, which he tries to Force and I Mana Drain. I made a mistake here and should have cast Yawgmoth’s Will in my second main phase so I could have that Mana Drain mana on my next turn when I have colored mana available again. On the Will turn I replay Time Walk, Scalding Tarn , and Trygon Predator. On the Time Walk turn I draw Dark Confidant and attack with Predator, eating his Mox Pearl before passing back. Bob plays Ancestrall Recall, Flooded Strand, and attacks with his Confidant. I block and trade Confidants, which admittedly was a mistake since I had about a 3-1 permanent advantage, and if I draw any gas I can’t. But who needs Dark Confidant when you just draw Merchant Scroll the next turn, tutor up Ancestral Recalll and cast it, and net a Brainstorm, Mox Jet, and Nature’s Claim. I Brainstorm into Spell Pierce, Mox Ruby, and Misty Rainforest. I put both Moxen on top of my library and play Misty Rainforest with Nature’s Claim and Spell Pierce in hand. Maher, seemingly out of gas at this point, plays another land and a Thoughtseize before passing back to me. I crack Rainforest to shuffle my deck and then draw my best possible card, easy as pie: Demonic Tutor. I use it to get Inkwell Leviathan and he scoops a turn later.

Sideboarding:
-3 Spell Pierce
-1 Forest
-1 Nature’s Claim
+2 Sower of Temptation
+2 Red Elemental Blast
+1 Pyroblast

I sided out Spell Pierce here because I felt like it would be weaker on the draw against an opponent who would know to play around it, and it didn’t fight the most important cards in the matchup like Dark Confidant and Trygon Predator.

Game 2 I keep Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Black Lotus, Yawgmoth’s Will, Trygon Predator, Underground Sea, and Tropical Island on the draw. He starts with Underground Sea, Mox Sapphire, Black Lotus, and Dark Confidant, which I Force of Will, and he Forces back to resolve Confidant. I draw Sower of Temptation and play out Sea, Lotus, Sower and take his Bob. He draws does nothing before shipping the turn back to me. I draw for the turn and play a land and have Force active. He draws Volcanic Island and casts Red Elemental Blast targeting Sower. I Force the REB and he Mana Drains my Force. The entire rest of the game he is in control, drawing extra cards with Confidant and I’m 1-2 mana short of playing Yawgmoth’s Will to return Lotus and Sower to get back in it, and after I miss land drops for next couple of turns he has double Force up so I had pretty much no hope. But today was my lucky day because he took 4 from my Confidant + Sower attack, and then his Confidant flips were Pyroblast (1 damage), Trygon Predator (3 damage), Trygon Predator (3 damage), Force of Will (5 damage), and finally a lethal flip of his last Force of Will (for another 5 damage).

Greatness, at any cost?
Dark Confidant
Be careful what you wish for.
Matches 9-0-1, Games 18-3

Did I get lucky to beat Bob? Hell yeah. Did I play perfect? No. Did he play perfect? Probably not. It should be well known by now that it takes luck and skill to win a big tournament (114 people I think; Top 8 decklists), but I do feel like I had one of if not the best deck in the tournament, and I think it’s hard to argue that I wasn’t one of the top 3 players in the event. Going through writing up these games I feel like I played pretty well overall on the day.

If I had to make any changes to the deck I would probably cut the main deck Nature’s Claim for either a Ponder or a Thirst for Knowledge, and dump the Claim into the sideboard instead of one of the Yixlid Jailers. I never played vs. Ichorid so it’s probably for the best that I had a lot of hate for it in my sideboard that I didn’t need. You can’t really have too much Dredge hate.

(Editor’s Note: this article originally appeared on ChannelFireball.com, but has been reprinted with permission of the author Owen Turtenwald here after technical difficulties or something else at ChannelFireball has appeared to have wiped out this classic article from their site.)

Owen’s companion article is now up!