Road to MOCS 2014 Day 18 (13 QP)

Thursday - Played in a VMA Limited champs qualifier, 1-2 drop.
Played Legacy 0-2 drop.
Round 1 vs Burn
Round 2 vs something I can't remember
Friday - Nil
Saturday - Nil
Sunday - Played Tweaker's Oath list in the morning but ran into 2x BUG.
I lose a game where my Misdirection fails to do its job because v4's blown up cards need not necessarily refer to the card in choice.
Played in a VMA limited champs qualifier, 0-2 drop to a mulligan button bug.



Played Legacy 1-2
Round 1 vs BUG (lose)



Round 2 vs Miracles (win)



Round 3 vs Painter (losing to time out - was winning already)

For Vintage, I figured out an answer to blue decks by playing Tweaker's Oath deck.
I shall use and reveal this secret tech next week when I run it in the VMA constructed qualifiers.

In Legacy, I swapped out the maindeck Darkblast for a Dimir Charm.
Dimir Charm's drawback is its colored cost but overall, it kills what Darkblast kills and can be used against Miracles. I used to like Izzet Charm but its Spell Pierce mode was not particularly useful against Miracles.
Dimir Charm is almost the same thing (without the looting mode) and can be used vs Storm's Infernal Tutor/Burning Wish, Show and Tell, Miracles and is an additional removal for non-Goyf creatures.
I'm not sure how it would go but I will try it for now to make the deck more balanced (but more at risk to mana issues).

I want a life gain card but I can't really think of a good card to use. The ones I am thinking of are: Bow of Nylea (may have problems casting), Umezawa's Jitte and plain old Zuran Orb.

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 13 (13 QP)

Last night, I came out with nothing from a Legacy (0-2) and a Vintage DE (1-2).
At this point I am rather worried about the outcome of my Vintage deck as I am not performing at all and the Vintage Championship constructed qualifiers are 2 weeks away.
For my legacy deck, I feel that I am about 95% at where I want to be in terms of deck construction. The deck fares well against the more popular decks and has game against the less popular ones (meaning not outright blown out of the water).

Legacy:
Round 1 vs Dredge
Game 1, my opponent does not get the key cards in the graveyard so I manage to beatdown with Vendillion Clique.
Game 2, I try to stabilize but I get destroyed by Ichorids.
Game 3, I use Surgical Extraction on Narcomoeba but Ichorid + Bridge from Below means trouble and he goes for the Zealot kill.

0-1

Round 2 vs UR burn
This is a bad matchup as I do not always have the answers and I cannot answer his burn well, not to mention the counter magic from the other end that can mess with my development. I can probably only win on Marit Lage.
Game 1, I get hit a few times by a flipped Delver of Secrets, and get burned out of the game.
Game 2, I stabilize at a 14 life but he resolves a 10 point Price of Progress and cleans up.

0-2

Vintage:
Round 1 vs Oath
Game 1, an Abrupt Decay keeps the game in check and I search/replay Abrupt Decays for the win.
Game 2, my opponent has a Jace in play and I have a Spirit token. I am far behind on resources and I scoop.
Game 3, Abrupt Decay does wonders and keeps the game in check.

1-0

Round 2 vs Bant creatures
Game 1, I won with Fastbond + Gushes + Yawgmoth's Will playing Time Walk and Tinker.
Game 2, I get beaten by a lack of mana after my Blightsteel Colossus gets Swords to Plowshares-ed and I have only 1 Underground Sea and double Gush in hand. Trygon Predator comes down to eat my mox and I'm pretty much screwed.
Game 3, I get Gushbond going but am not far. I have a bunch of lands and a Force of Will which I can lay to cast but I choose not to to have more life for the Gushbond Engine. Unfortunately, my opponent drops True-Name Nemesis and knocks me down. I have Time Vault + Voltaic key but need an answer to the Stony Silence in play but I fail to find it. I probably should have dropped all my lands and kept counter mana up.

1-1

Round 3 vs Blue with Abrupt Decay and Deathrite and Dark Confidant
Game 1, I got Gush bond going and I get far ahead.
Game 2, I tutor for Library of Alexandria to try to take the long game but it was not a good plan. He gets Jace in play and I can't really come back into the game.
Game 3, my key spells get countered and I can't really get into the game while my opponent resolves Ancestral Recall twice.

1-2

Overall, I still like Gushbond as an engine but I am running many fair cards in hopes of beating Workshops (which I am not encountering) and I lose to blue decks holding these fair cards. Ultimately the format seems really centered on Ancestral Recall which is incredibly hard to beat. Classic was never this "single card centric" and I could easily play decks that build up advantage to go into the mid game. Perhaps I should do a Countertop and mess these blue decks up. =/

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 11 (7 QP)

Last night I got into a Vintage DE. I changed the deck a little, removing Edric and adding Gush.

I threw in 2x Extirpate into the sideboard, replacing a Yixlid Jailer and removed a Mental Misstep.

Round 1, I face Wizards.

I lose game 1 when my hand runs out of steam. I try to hang around as long as I can to figure out what my opponent is playing, thinking that it is a Esper wizards deck.
Game 2, my opponent uses Black Lotus to summon a Magus of the Future.
I can't beat that at all.

0-1

Round 2, I faced a BUG deck.

The games were all very close (as I had very bad hands) and we were basically playing off the top of the deck once everything we played got hit by Abrupt Decay. Fortunately, game 2 I had Darkblast to deal with the opposing Dark Confidant and I had that advantage throughout the game.
Game 3, we attacked each other's mana and I resolved and manage to draw a few cards off Dark Confidant. My opponent's got hit by Darkblast which essentially means he would never ever get to come back on a Dark Confidant.

Round 3, I faced a Bant deck.

I lose game 2 as I have only 1 mana out after getting heavily bombarded by Wastelands.
Game 2, I manage to get out a Trygon Predator which eats his 3/1 enchantment creature (very funny to see) and I manage to win via a creature beatdown.

Game 3, my opponent gets a turn 2 True-Name Nemesis. Unfortunately, this deck is not designed to be able to handle that and I have zero outs, not to mention that I cannot even race it.

1-2 drop

A fruitless day, especially when I failed to join the Legacy DE as the client went down a few minutes prior to the event starting time. =/

I'm not sure if I should make changes to this deck from Legacy standpoint to make the deck more resilient to general threats or just to focus on the key matchups in Vintage. I will have to think about the directions for this deck. 

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 10 (7 QP)

This morning, I woke up at 6.30am and managed to get into the Vintage DE, spotting a mesh of the 2 BUG lists I saw on eternalcentral.com.

Round 1, I face Pyrogush, losing game 1.

Game 2, Wasteland forcing him to Gush pushes him into an uncomfortable position as I establish a board position. Darkblast helps to makes things very manageable.

Game 3 is as below. He opts to kill Deathrite Shaman over my Dark Confidant (hoping to race me) but I think that ultimately backfired with me getting enough pressure to come on top.

1-0

Round 2, my opponent does not show up.
2-0

Round 3, I lead off with Dark Confidant and I end up facing an Oath of Druids on the other side. Thank goodness I had Abrupt Decay in hand. He does not draw much and 2 damage goes all the way.
Game 2 comes down to me protecting my hand with Mental Misstep while he does not have any visible plays. The spirit tokens he gives me pressures him all the way from 20, joined by a friendly spirit token and a Snapcaster Mage eventually.
3-0

Round 4, I face a weird dredge build and I scoop game 1 when he has the second Bazaar of Baghdad after I Wasteland his first. Game 2, he tries to Thespian Stage plus Dark Depths but I protected a tutor for Wasteland and had Jace in hand.
Game 3, I keep a subpar hand that has Yixlid Jailer with Force of Will backup, hoping that it would go the distance but he has his own Force of Will and the game spirals out of control from there.
3-1

So I looked up what he was playing and identified his deck's weakness or rather what I should do to attack his deck. From what I see, I only have to resolve double Extirpate/Surgical Extraction on his Ichorid and Narcomoeba and he will have no game left from his maindeck. If I manage to extirpate Dark Depths for his transformational sideboard, that itself should be good. It's much easier said than done but at least I know what I can do against it. Not gonna lose to him a second time.

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 8 (5 QP)

Last night, the 7pm Legacy DE failed to fire and I got into the Vintage DE at 8pm and double evented the Legacy DE at 10pm. I ended up going 2-2 in Vintage, 3-1 in Legacy. I need to quickly figure out a good Vintage build as I have not been making the money for some time and it does not help that the payout sux.

Vintage DE:

Round 1, I face a Bob deck.

I'm not sure if I won a game but the 2 games I lost came down to Voltaic Key and Time Vault and me not being able to do anything. Game 2, he had a low life count and Dark Confidant out but he had Snapcaster Mage for Vampiric Tutor into Lightning Bolt. Game 3 I did not have enough to fight its resolution.

0-1

Round 2 was against a BUG deck with Mystic Remora.
Wasteland and Standstill went a long way in this matchup. I do not recall much other than that but Remora isn't very strong against a deck that runs under Standstill.

1-1

Round 3 was against Oath of Druids.
Surprisingly I won game 1 on the back of Mishra's Factories facing an active Oath of Druids.
Game 2 was more stable as I managed to keep Oath off. I use spirit tokens and factories to beat down.
We fight over Time Vault but it does not really matter as I have Engineered Explosives for 2 in play.

2-1

Round 4 vs Dredge.
My maindeck does not have any outs vs dredge so I scoop game 1.
Game 2, he has double Ingot Chewer (1 of which I have Force of Will) but I can't stop #2 and he went all the way.

2-2

For the legacy portion, round 1 I faced Zoo.
I won game 1 on the back of Wasteland plus Life from the Loam, locking him out.
Game 2, I deal with the creatures on the board but I get hit by 3 damage burn spells.

Game 3, I control most of the game quite well but I get hit by a 12 point price of progress.

0-1

Round 2, I face BUG with Hymn to Tourachs, Tarmogoyfs, Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay.
I don't recall much of the game because I was toggling between the Vintage and the Legacy DE and playing on an autopilot mode. In any case this matchup can be closed up easily with Marit Lage since it's uncounterable and they do not run Far/Away like I do.

Round 3, I face Omnitell.

I lose game 1 with a hand with creature kill spells. I side in my boatload of hate.
Game 2, I have 2 Intuition and I get one countered, and resolve the second, getting a plethora of discard spells which ultimately go a long way.
Game 3 was in a similar fashion and I had the natural Dark Depths + Thespian Stage to end the game.

Round 4, I face UWr Counterbalance (with MD REB?!?!? (what a bad move -_-"))
It is a good matchup but it usually takes a lot of time to play out.

Game 1, my get into a very advantageous position but I do not have counters.
I end up using Marit Lage and I managed to use Jace's Brainstorm ability to find Counterspell.
When I attack, he Tops for Entreat the Angel but I stop it.

Game 2 is as below. I get out 2 of my "good vs UW" cards but they meet Council's Judgment plus Snapcaster flashback. Otherwise, I would have gotten very far.
In any case, I manage to stick Isochron Scepter down with Counterspell on it. I mess up some Intuition picks (MTGO v4 problem) and I end up having to do it again with Snapcaster Mage to find my Marit Lage kill. In any case, I end up with just about 5s left on the clock as I beat for 23 points.

3-1

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 4 (2 QP)

I couldn't make it at night on Saturday so I tried waking up early instead. Unfortunately, I suppose many of the players were at the PT or something for there to be so few players in the morning timeslot that used to fire frequently. I joined and the count dwindled down from 12. I have no idea why people just cannot seem to wait for 20 mins before leaving to see if people would fill up. The legacy DE following that had 15 people (I could not play in that) and it too dwindled into oblivion.

In any case, I managed to get into a Vintage DE at night.

Round 1, I am facing a blue deck and I win game 1 on the back of Library of Alexandria.

Game 2, I face Library on my side and get whopped when my opponent has a boatload of counters.
Game 3, my mediocre spells do not do much against an unstopped slew of powerful spells.

Round 2, I face a bob deck and I get a landful hand but all my Underground Seas get Wastelanded and my opponent resolves Ancestral Recall and I struggle to do anything.

Next game, I get a Deathrite Shaman out but my land gets Wastelanded and I do not resolve Ancestral Recall. Deathrite Shaman died to Abrupt Decay and I lose in a short order.

0-2 drop.

I then join a Legacy DE with a Punishing Fires-less build of my control deck.

I face merfolk in round 1, losing game 1 without getting my green mana and I mess up game 2 where I would have gotten a turn 3 Marit Lage token if I did not use my Deathrite Shaman. =/

Might be some mental fatigue from losing 2 rounds in Vintage.

Round 2, I face elves which kills me game 1 with a Natural order into a RG guy who deals 6 damage if the opponent casts a non-creature spell. I cast Intuition for triple Jace, went down to 1 life and a Darkblast for his Wirewood Symbiote but he had a Dryad Arbor show up and end it.
Game 2, I have a very strong removal heavy hand with counters. I kill a bunch of creatures and I managed to take the game when my lands miraculously show up at the best possible timings.
Game 3, I use Toxic Deluge twice and my opponent gives up.

Round 3 is against UW miracles and I lose game 1 to 2x Angel tokens.
Game 2, I get to an overwhelming position with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Life from the loam. I try not to reveal my tricks as I easily finish the opponent off with Deathrite Shamans.
Game 3, I lose a counter war for Keranos and I almost lose the game (vs an active Jace) but I draw Maelstrom Pulse and my Isochron Scepter plus Counterspell lets me get back into the game. It drags out to the point where I offload counters of Dark Depths but I need about 2 more seconds to initiate the attack with my Marit Lage token but I time out. Zzz.

Miserable day. I think I would need to relook at my Vintage deck. I do have a Standstill deck on standby so maybe that might do better. =/ Oh well, no returns today.

August is so daunting!

It's a day before August and there is a whole bunch of things going on to make me busy.

There are WMCQs going on in real life (which I am qualified to enter), the is a Legacy big event on the 31st, there is the Legacy MOCS this month and the Vintage Masters Championships. 

To sort things out for myself, I looked at the schedule of things to come.

13 ~ 19 Aug - Vintage Masters Limited Qualifiers

17 Aug - WMCQ (PSB) - Standard

20 ~ 28 Aug - Vintage Masters Constructed Qualifiers

23 Aug - Vintage Masters Limited Championships
30 Aug - Vintage Masters Constructed Championships

31 Aug - WMCQ (SG Cards) - Standard / Legacy tourney (why would the same place organize two supposedly big events??)

3-5 Sep - MOCS qualifiers

6 Sep - MOCS Legacy

14 Sep - WMCQ (PSB) - Standard

That is quite a hectic month if I were to go into the various events.
Realistically, I can try to catch some events at night. Vintage is at 8.30pm if it fires and Legacy is usually 10pm from what I recall. I would not be able to do much Legacy given that it would usually last till around 2am and I wake up at 6.30am on a daily basis.

Starting today is the new MOCS season so I would need to clock 15 QPs if I want to qualify for the MOCS qualifier. 15 QPs means I have to clock 1 QP every 2 days. So far, my Vintage grinding is not going too well. With my recent re-emergence into Legacy, I suspect that the Legacy side is posting better results than my Vintage side.

In a recent Vintage DE, I tested out welder and have some screenshots.
It came down to fighting artifacts against spells.
I lost to the explosiveness of Gush but I have a strong game against fairer decks.
Welder has some strong interactions but it does not have as strong a comeback as Gush decks so I think I would want to go back to working on it rather than to move out and test.

In Legacy, I have been using my "4c control deck" (for the lack of a better name) and I am doing comfortably.
I am testing out sideboard options which includes Keranos, the M15 squid and most recently, Grave Titan.
I figured that Grave Titan would singlehandedly win the Jund matchup once resolved but it seems to only do that (if I do get to cast it). On the other hand, Keranos is wonderful in grindy matchups and squid has its fair share of being good and not so I am still on the fence.
I am losing to outlier decks more than to the established decks but I do not have a good way around that.
In any case, I should be trying to think of how to schedule my time to clock some games in.
I heard that fetchlands are expensive now so I will use my spares as warfunds. =)

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.

Vintage Start!

2x VMA sealed and 1x Vintage DE!

Got a natural 4-0. Did not offer to split this time since it was the first DE of the season. A double Saproling Burst is hard to beat. Too bad Sol Ring did not turn up fast enough to throw games into my favor.

3-1.
Lost round 1 to a play where I had Dack's Duplicante copying a white 2/2 flier at 3 power and Deftblade Elite + Brilliant Halo.
My opponent was at 5 life and I had Solar Blast in hand.
My opponent was wide open and I attacked with only the duplicate which became 4/4 and got hit by a Radiant's Judgment so I missed the opening to win and lost the game.

I had trouble deciding how the deck should be made as red is quite deep as well but white gave more stability. I had games against UW and UR (bounce heavy) where I moved all the white out to go into UR.
I won one game with a Crater Hellion sealing up the game by just coming down into the battlefield.

Classic DE

I went 3-1 with my Gush deck as above.

Won vs Bob. I had a very strong board position (7 card hand with Library of Alexandria with Jace the Mind Sculptor in play) vs a lone card from the opponent. He searched for and cast Ancestral Recall but targeted me. He scooped there.

Lost to humans on the back of time and the inability to process a complicated board state under stress.
Although I had survived to that point on winning the Mana Crypt coin flip twice, I had a big Yawgmoth's Will turn but did not have a way to win immediately. I ended up putting Mana Crypt into play but not Nature's Claiming it away. I had another window to gain life with Deathrite Shaman but I missed that as well.
Was called out in the middle of the game and that time loss made a big difference.
That guy managed to go 4-0 at the end of it. -_-"

Won vs Oath because my opponent's side is buggy.
Made a big mistake playing Brainstorm (and not putting Blightsteel Colossus back). I was probably still affected from the previous game.
In any case, I had a big advantage and he probably just went to claim back entry.
He mulled to 4, and I had Abrupt Decay for his Oath of Druids.

Won vs blue angels on the back of the high powered Vintage spells. Tinker into Blightsteel Colossus after a proper interaction both games. Had Library of Alexandria out game 1 to help with my land-light hand.
Game 2 I managed to go ahead on the back of Gush and Fastbond. Yawgmoth's Will pretty much sealed the game with Time Walk + Tinker.

Predowntime VMA - MOX SAPPHIRE!!!

More Vintage Masters limited~

This sealed I went 0-1 and some error happened and kicked me out of the tournament. I managed to get reimbursement so I was happy.

For once, I managed to win a draft with goblins. It seemed like goblins were underdrafted so I managed to get a more decent deck this time.

So this is my last sealed before downtime (since I would not be able to play tomorrow) and I had 12 QPs prior to this. I managed to go 3-0 and split up in the finals to get my 15 QPs and the promo Gaea's Cradle (and an invite to a MOCS qualifier event). Upheaval did most of the heavy weight and singlehandedly gave me wins everytime I cast it.

I never did manage to cast Psychatog though.

AND I OPENED A MOX SAPPHIRE!!!

Also, this was my transformational sideboard for decks that I needed more meat against.

I could not get my timeslot's Vintage event to fire but we managed to get a 8 man Vintage done. I won my first round vs Oath and lost to Dredge (which I was severely underprepared for compared to my other decks).

VMA limited and Vintage thoughts

More VMA limited!

I think I went 2-2 with this. Put in Grizzly Fate over the 3 damage to all spell.
I lost to Time Walk + Rorix Bladewing (twice) and a close game.
Yawgmoth's Bargain isn't too great in limited I guess. =/

This was a VMA draft where my games were very laggy and I missed a few attacks.
Lost but was refunded (luckily). I had screenshots to prove it too.
But the deck itself was not very good as it lacked removals. I'm not doing well in drafts. I'm like 0-3?

I went 3-0 with this, split up for the win. I would always take the easier way to end the game.
The deck itself was alright. Did not have much answers to evasion but Krosan Vorine + pump is very good.

Went 3-1 with this deck, losing to a deck with Library of Alexandria, Masticore and Mox Jet.

Otherwise, double Battlescreech is quite presurring.

Having sold a foil promo Kiyomaro for 200 tix (why would I keep it?), I went to procure my set of P9.
(Opened only 1x power over all this while.)
I was excited to get into Vintage and I have to say that it feels very different from Classic to play.
I made a Bob deck and Menendian's Burning Tendrils deck to test.
P9 really change the fundamental way the game is played and to be honest, I have not gotten the hang of it.
I did get into some mana problems every now so I still need time to internalize the flow of the format.

Workshop decks have lost some steam with the introduction of Moxes on both sides.
They lose out on their threat density in favor of having more mana sources while having moxes on the other side provides more space to work around Tangle Wire and sphere effects.
I suppose having played in an era where you do not get to even cast a 2cc removal has taken a toll on my expectations of the workshops matchup.

The decks I tested did not do too well so in  the end, I took my existing Classic gush deck, moved some cards around and made it into a Vintage deck. It was much more stable with just on-color power and the deck played much more comfortably than anything else I tried. I will try to get into a DE soon (they fire only in the morning timeslots) so hopefully my list would be revealed then.

MOX EMERALD ~~~and more VMA limited

More Vintage Masters limited!

I got this deck for draft but I lost to my friend in round 1 against goblins. Badness.

Another Recurring Nightmare powerhouse. I think I went 3-1 with this. Just won games with ETB effects. Just too unfair. Especially with Predatory Nightstalker recurring another.

I tried going cycling with this pool but it did not turn out very well. I lost to large creatures and not being able to do much.
I believe that I went 2-2 for this.

MY FIRST POWER!!!
This was in a draft PE on Tuesday night where I bumped into my friend Spoony1
(2 64-man PEs in a row?!? U can do the math on the odds. (1/63^2)

I lost to him in both encounters.

Sadness.

In this sealed, I got an insane 4x Mythic cardpool with Mana Drain and SKULLCLAMP (the most unfair card on earth which I would claim can best Ancestral Recall in limited). The meat of the deck is quite good too with Marchesa, the Black Rose who has dethrone (if you attack an opponent with more life the creature gets a +1/+1 counter. If a creature with a +1/+1 counter dies, return it to play at the next eot).

Unfortunately, my decklist did not submit properly (submitted but didn't actually go through) so I ended up with a 100+ card deck and me getting my ass whooped. I dropped from that. Hopefully I get refunded. 45 tix is A LOT of tix. It's so easily 3-1 at least. Urgh. Such agony.

So this is my last sealed for the day. I got a foil Skullclamp and double Flametongue Kavu so I am expecting to do well. Nothing worth much but hopefully it goes all the way.

Vintage Master Sealed =/ where's my lotus?

I'm currently into my third VMA sealed. I have not seen any P9 yet (which is not unexpected).

I went 3-1 in my first sealed. The deck centered around the 2x Elephant Guides and low curve beaters plus removal.

For my second sealed, I started out with this, trying to go cycling and madness but I could not really appreciate it as I had too much cycling and not much action.

 In the last few minutes, I swapped over to the below after I figured that the prior deck was not going to work unless I had Astral Slide. I moved over to a more aggressive double Wild Mongrel madness deck. I went 2-2. I should not have played Armor of Thorns but the AEther Mutation instead (missed it out as I rushed through deck building).

 I went 4-0 in this one mainly riding on the power of Recurring Nightmare and Masticore.
Depending on the matchup only Keeneye Aven goes in and out of the sb to replace Simian Grunts.

Come P9!