Vintage Reflections

I've been playing Vintage DEs every third day. So far, it has not been a smooth road. (There is the payout issue where 3-1 used to mean 3 more attempts versus 2 at the moment).
I'm currently tweaking my Gush deck which is currently in its second iteration.

Other than the times where I get bad hands and have to fight through blowout plays, I have had a fair share of unwarranted losses (Was winning my second round, just had to cast a Voltaic Key with Mental Misstep and Mana Drain backup against an already worn out opponent when only WOTC sites and MTGO, both new and old client stopped responding. That guy went proceeded to go 4-0 with his Gush deck that had the 1GG creature from standard. It is hard enough to make it into the money without getting blown out and when I get a legit chance shit happens. =/ ), a couple from not having enough time from being summoned pre/mid game (I gave a game to the humans guy from not being able to do a Yawgmoth's Will turn well due to stress from the clock after coming back from being called out and eventually lost to time out and that Humans player went 4-0 too). (Yesterday I lost to Merfolk due to timeout as well - Tinkered into a Blightsteel Colossus when Time Vault would have sufficed but still lost to timeout anyway).

Surprisingly, my deck seems to go into the late game quite a fair bit and that is where Mana Crypt starts to bite me hard. I lost a couple of games to it being in play. I'm not too sure what to make of this as Mana Crypt is a very crucial component to early turn 1 blowouts. I suspect that I might want to relook at this (or maybe replace it with a Mox Pearl).

In any case, I am tinkering with my sideboard to make it more anti-workshops and I have condensed my dredge hate to 2x Extirpate + 2x Surgical Extraction. Extirpate is surprisingly effective in the current metagame where dredge has evolved to deal with most of the common dredge hate. Unfortunately, Extirpate + Snapcaster mage is very difficult for dredge to beat. The game plan is usually as follows: Extirpate Bridge from below, extirpate Bloodghast. A third on Narcomoeba / Ichorid should seal the deal.
I do not have an exact understanding on whether or not it should be 4x Extirpate or can Surgical Extraction work as well. Some builds do run Mental Misstep and Extirpate cares not about that.
I managed to pull off 2 games with the Extirpate sequence.

I am looking at perfecting the anti-workshop build but I have not come to a point whereby I am unbeatable to shops. It is still very difficult to wade through Lodestone Golem and spheres. Their blowout sequences are aplenty and it is hard to get around them (unless they have a mana-ful hand). I hope not to have to choose to run Ingot Chewers (because I feel that Ancient Grudge is technically superior and Nature's Claim hits Oath of Druids and can be Snapcastered).

I am also looking also trying out the various underplayed powerhouses of the format.
Gifts Ungiven is such a beating when the opponent is light on counters.
Thirst for Knowledge is not bad too. I have not tried Fact or Fiction in Vintage but I did get hit by it against Control Slaver which simply made me split 5-0. So sick.