all your report are belong to us

There comes a time in every Vintage player's career when they have to reassess
their strategies.  That happened for me at Waterbury, after being completely
destroyed while running Remoratog into a field with better disruption, better
draw engines, and infinitely superior threats.  During Remoratog's heyday, its
main advantage was its superior control resources; it ran 11 counters to most
decks' 7-8.  In addition, 3 of Remoratog's counters, Commandeer, served
offensive purposes.  But, with Commandeer's potential applications as a threat
came significant drawbacks.  After getting 3-for-1'd twice after my Commandeer
was REB'd twice in the same matchup, I decided it was time to move on.  Seeing
that even standard Tezzeret lists now ran more counters that were cheaper and
more efficient than Remoratog's resources made that decision even easier.

There was the usual process of investigating cool, tricky concepts revolving
around unexplored or newly-printed cards like Esperzoa, but at the end of that
process, there was no denying that Time Vault/Key was just better than any other
archetype in Vintage today.  As I play the deck more and more, I'm starting to
wonder if it's better than any archetype in Vintage history (with the exception
of the stupid days of unrestricted Urza block cards like Tolarian Academy).  At
the end of the process, I joined the growing ranks of Tezzeret players in Type
One.

Fast forward to ELD's Mox this past Saturday.  I'd had 1 moderately successful
outing with Tez, taking Top 4 at Myriad Games shortly beforehand.  Having a
model I felt comfortable with meant I didn't need to do much testing the night
before to refine my list; instead, I spent more time thinking about what to put
in the sideboard, since long-absent deck types are seeing a resurgence in the
current metagame, i.e. Long.  The morning of the event, I was left with this:

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Night's Whisper
2 Tezzeret, the Seeker
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Rebuild
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Merchant Scroll
Brainstorm
Ponder
Tinker
Fact or Fiction
Gifts Ungiven

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
5 Mox
Sol Ring
Lotus
Crypt
Vault
Library
Academy

SB:

2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Pyroclasm
1 Trinisphere
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 The Abyss
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Energy Flux

Round 1 vs. Bomberman

I never do find out what deck my opponent is playing, but he tells me after the
fact that he was running Bomberman.

Game 1.  My memory of this match isn't very clear.  I remember Trinket Mage made
an appearance at some point, but it might have been in the second game.

Game 2.  In this game, I Yawgmoth's Willed into Ancestral, Time Walk, and
hardcast Darksteel Colossus from Academy and a multitude of artifacts.  He
attempted to bounce the big man, which I allowed to happen and then replayed him
next turn.

Round 2 vs. Andystok, Tezzeret

Andystok was my first opponent in competitive Vintage, back in the summer of
2005 during one of the last big events at the store in Centerville.  Slaver was
just ganining ground back then, and we were both playing our own versions.  Now
in 2009, we're paired again, each with our own version of the dominant Vintage
concept.

Game 1.  He opens with Library of Alexandra and I know I don't have long before
I get buried.  I have 2 lands, a Mox, a REB, a Time Walk, Academy, and a DT in
hand.  I want to set up DT/Walk, Tinker with REB backup to either try to steal
the game on a DSC, or at least knock Stok off LoA long enough to pull back into
the game with draw spells.

Problematically, Stok plays Gorilla Shaman and eats my Mox, ruining that plan.  
My Academy does nothing for me and I draw dead for at least half a dozen turns
while Stok goes crazy off his Library, and builds an enormous board.  I succeed
in drawing one additional land during this time.  He plays FOF at the end of my
turn, and my hand is Drain, REB, Force, Gifts, DT, and Key.  I let it hit,
wanting to conserve all my resources for the futile counterwar when he made his
move.

He revealed Ancestral, Lotus, VT, DT, and something else.  I think it might have
been Will.  I give him the tutors and whatever the 5th card was, knowing my one
hope is to bottleneck his mana to get either one last turn to do something or,
less likely, win a counterwar with triple counter up.  As it turns out, that's
just what happened.  He burned a lot of his cards setting up and then went for
YawgWill.  I Drained, he Drained, I REB'd, he Forced, and I Forced, getting
ready to scoop 'em up, only to hear those magic words, "What did I do wrong?" as
the Will was placed into his graveyard.

On my turn, I used the Drain mana to drop Key and DT for Vault, playing it with
1 mana still to spare.   Wow.   Usually this stuff only happens to my teammate.

Game 2.  I don't have as good a recollection here.  His Gorilla Shaman plus five
mana presented an annoying obstacle to what would have otherwise been a swift
win with Tezzeret.  Instead, I went the roundabout way of setting up a huge
Yawgmoth's Will, dropping Moxes the turn beforehand to fuel TFK's.  Some cards
were discarded, but all that stuff came roaring back the next turn when I played
Time Walk.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Stok destroyed some of my artifacts on the
ensuing turn after Will resolved, but in doing so he took himself off the 5 mana
needed to neutralize my Time Vault.  I played Ancestral, Night's Whisper, 3
Moxes, Academy, Walk, Vault and then dropped Tez the following turn.  In
fairness to Stok, if he'd kept the 5 mana up, I was prepared to go the Tinker
route.

Round 3 vs. Jeff Carpenter, Selkie Strike Fish

Game 1.  Turn 1 or 2 Null Rod with counter backup is difficult for most decks to
recover from.  Throw in some strip effects and mine is no different.

SB: -1 FOF, -1 Gifts, -1 Drain, -1 Thirst, -1 Tez +2 Pyroclasm +1 The Abyss +2
Pithing Needle

Game 2.  He's stalled early on but keeps blue sources up, leading me to expect
Stifles.  Eventually I make my move into an Aven Mindcensor, which I'm able to
later remove with Pyroclasm.  I then try to get there with Tinker, but due to my
own exceedingly poor planning, it doesn't work.

Round 4 vs. Jesse Martin, Combo

ID.

Top 8 vs. John Longo, Tezzeret

Game 1.  I see myself as in pretty good shape in the early turns.   I have Top,
2 lands, and a Mox in play, with 2x REB, Night's Whisper, and Drain in hand.  
He goes for Ancestral, which I REB, which he MisD's pitching Thirst, which I
REB, which he Forces pitching Tez.  I don't feel too badly about losing that
counterwar since he's already given up most of the card advantage the AR
generated.

I go to my turn and play Night's Whisper.  My thinking is that John just
expended massive resources over an Ancestral, he doesn't have too many cards in
hand, his mana resources are still small, and if I hit any lands off NW, I'll
have Drain online.  He Drains the NW and on his turn, drops Crypt, Mox, Tinker
for Lotus, DT, Will, win.  Welp.   Game 2, I guess.

Sideboard: -1 VT, +1 REB

Game 2.  We go back-and-forth for a while, with a counterwar breaking out over
(I think) his Tezzeret, which I win.  I go to my turn and Tinker with 2 cards in
his hand and him tapped out.  I'd seen REB out of him before so I don't want to
go for Tez.  Instead I get DSC, figuring he has between 0-1 direct answers and
fewer cards in his hand than I have in mind to allow him to try to mount a
comeback.  He doesn't get there and it's off to Game 3.

Game 3.  Night's Whisper lets me set up some very smooth plays, like FOF with
REB backup at the end of John's turn, followed up by TFK with Drain backup the
next turn.  I push through Key/Vault with double counter backup while he has
half the combo on the table.

Top 4 vs. Jeff Carpenter, Selkie Strike Fish

This is my chance at redemption after the Swiss.

Game 1.  Qasali Pridemage turns out to be a huge obstacle for my main avenue of
offense, but I eventually get Tezzeret up to 5 counters and attack with several
5/5's, leaving Jeff at 3 with no creatures.  I then play aggressively with my
life total, chaining Night's Whispers and fetchlands/Top activations down to 1
life, before finding Tinker which brings this close game to an end.

Game 2.  I get a stable manabse underneath me and get The Abyss into play.  Jeff
needs to expend a lot of resources to get rid of it and I follow up by playing
draw spells into a red source which puts Pyroclasm online and wipes his board. 
From there I'm too far ahead for him to catch up.

Finals split with Rich Shay, Thoughtcast Tezzeret

Without much time to reflect on my recent experiences, I rushed home from work
in Boston the following Monday to attend the weekly Vintage event at Scholar's
in Bridgewater.  The event was heavily promoted, and so presented the
opportunity to accumulate Vintage Rankings Points.  More importantly, the event
would provide my first chance to meet TMD/TMC's own marske, who was looking for
a sample of the competition at American Vintage events.  I was happy to oblige.

My maindeck changed by 1 card, as I dropped Gifts for a third Tezzeret.  My
build wasn't really designed to use Gifts, anyway.

Round 1 vs. Goblins

Game 1.  On the play, my opening was Underground Sea, EOT Vampiric Tutor for
Tinker, Mox, Sol Ring, Tinker -> DSC.  I had Time Walk in hand the turn DSC came
online.  I think my opponent played a Goblin Lackey in the interim.

SB: +2 Pyroclasm, +1 The Abyss, -1 FOF, -2 REB

Game 2.  My opening is far less explosive, but features a DT along with 2 lands
and a solid array of card draw.  Unfortunately my draw spells propel me in
counters, which aren't as useful when Lackey is on the board and putting Goblin
Ringleaders into play each turn.  I hold on in the hopes of using Pyroclasm to
knock out his board if he overextends, but once he drops Earwig Squad I decide
to just move this match along.

Game 3.  As ridiculous as my opening in Game 1 was, my opening in Game 3 was
even better.  I opened with land, Ancestral, discard DSC.  Next turn, Academy,
Crypt, Lotus, Sol Ring, Tinker, Tezzeret -> Time Vault.  Again, I think a Goblin
Lackey made an appearance in the interim, but I had Mana Drain online in case he
could have handled DSC and Tez.

Round 2 vs. Matt Macauley, Tezzeret

Game 1.  He opens with Library of Alexandria and I know my time is short.  I
open with Night's Whisper and start building mana resources.  By turn 3 I can
drop Tez with REB backup, which gets through and he can't put together the win
before I get another turn (and all the others).

Sideboard: -1 Vamp, +1 REB

Game 2.  There's a lot of back-and-forth in this game with neither of us
pressing an early advantage.  I think I had Voltaic Key out early, so I used
that to bluff a threat for most of the game at different points.   At one
juncture, Matt had a Tezzeret on the board, and during my last opportunity, I
dug into DT and REB, needing to use the REB in order to untap and have access to
the mana needed to put this game away.

Game 3 vs. Jesse Martin, Combo

Game 1.  Game one goes quickly as he plays Jet, Sea, Crypt, Timetwister into
several rituals, DT, and Yawg Will.

Sideboard: +1 Sphere, +1 Thorn, +1 Trinisphere, +1 Relic, -1 FOF, -2 Tez, -1
Thirst

Game 2.  Game two goes a little longer but the deciding play happens about as
early when I Force his Lotus and see no followup plays for several ensuing
turns.  I get worried about losing to my own Mana Crypt after resolving a Sphere
of Resistance to keep Jesse pinned down, but eventually Tinker comes along and
saves the day.

Game 3.  This is an intense contest.  I open with Vamp at the end of Jesse's
turn for Lotus into Relic of Progenitus, Trinisphere.  Trinisphere hits, and
rest of the game, past the end of time and into extra turns, is spent defending
the Trinisphere.  I wait on Ancestral until Jessetaps out to play an instant and
can't also Misdirect, and from there I have the counter for anything he tries.

In all, I think he played 2 Hurkyl's Recall and a Rebuild.  There was one point
where I could have backed up my Tezzeret with my lone counter and gambled that
Jesse couldn't steal the game on his next turn, but I opted to play defensively
and let the Tez get stopped.

On turn 2 of extra turns, I hardcast DSC with Jesse at 12 life.  I'm holding DT
in hand at that point and make much of my despair about Jesse being at 12,
hoping to induce him to pass the turn and elect for a draw or for at least
another card before he makes his move on turn 5.  Whether or not that worked,
Jesse does pass the turn to me, and I DT for Time Walk.  He plays Gifts in
response but only has the mana to play one spell under Trinisphere, for which I
have REB.

Round 4 vs. Stefan Ellsworth, Tez/Painter

Game 1.  He opens with Library, and again I need to push through an endgame move
before I get buried under his card advantage.  I set up Tezzeret with REB
backup, but it resolves without the need to play the REB.  On Stephan's turn, he
tries to play Trinket Mage with few other cards in his hand, so I REB that
figuring I won't be able to use it to stop any of his other plays if they happen
to be black or artifact.  He surveys the rest of his hand and we go to Game 2.

Game 2.  He opens with Library and my hand is far less explosive.  I get Top in
play and run out a Tezzeret with counter backup, which Stephan thwarts.  I dig
with Top/fetches/Thirst and find that the top 3 cards of my library are Tez,
Sea, Will.  My hand has a DT, I have 5 blue/colorless mana on the board and no
black sources.  I wait until my next turn and run out Tezzeret while Stefan is
out of LoA range; he has another Force, but pitches something significant in the
process.

He takes his next turn and I draw Sea, Top into Will, play DT for Lotus, and
take things home from there.  Stefan is unhappy with Vintage in its current
incarnation.

Round 5 vs. Bill Copes, Metalworker Stax

I'm the only undefeated, so I'd be happy with a draw and calling it a night. 
Bill has the lowest tiebreaks out of the X-1 bracket (or so he believes) and so
playing it out is the best option for him.  We're off to the races.

Game 1.  I keep a hand with double Force, Night's Whisper, and some lands.  He
opens with double Sphere, and from there starts churning out threats.  I Force a
Metalworker and a Smokestack, and find a third Force.  I Force something else,
but then Trike happens.  I draw my fourth Force and counter a followup, but the
Trike is enough to get Bill there.

SB: Honestly I'm not sure beyond the obvious cuts: FOF, a Thirst, etc.  I
brought in the usual suspects: Chewer, Flux.

Game 2.  I mull to 6 and keep a slow hand with a few mana sources plus Flux.  I
Force something right off the bat but then find myself in a situation where I
need to either Force a Metalworker pitching Energy Flux, or let it hit and hope
the rest of Bill's hand isn't artifacts.  Since I think he had already developed
a solid manabase at that point, I figured if he had other artifacts in his hand,
he'd just play those, so I assumed Metalworker wouldn't matter that much and let
it resolve, playing Flux on my turn.

As it would happen, Bill's hand had several artifacts and Flux wasn't too much
of a factor.  Tangle Wire and Karn emerged shortly thereafter and I just
couldn't get in either of these games. 

I finish out at 4-1 with the best tiebreaks, ending up in 1st place.  Based on
the turnout, I collect around $60 store credit (not bad for a $6 entrance fee)
and call it a night.