I participated in Card Kingdom's Vintage event for a Timetwister yesterday. I was a bit unsure about what to play, but I ended up settling on TPS after the success that Eric Froehlich had and I preferred to be more proactive in Vintage because I am not aware of all the subtleties of every deck the way I am in Legacy.

I declined to make the suggestions he considered on VSL (-1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Chain of Vapor) as I have a lot of respect for the Shops deck, and hatebears have pretty much been non-existent in the Seattle metagame. I also made the minor tweak of substituting two Mindbreak Traps in the sideboard for two Sadistic Sacraments as I wanted something more proactive in the mirror, which I expected to become more popular with the recent success, and finally, took out the Bloodstained Mire for Verdant Catacombs in an effort to represent that I was back on BUG Fish, which I didn't think fooled anyone.

4 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Dark Petition
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 4 Ancient Tomb
SB: 3 Defense Grid
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 3 Ravenous Trap
SB: 2 Sadistic Sacrament
I slapped together this deck 6 hours before the event started, went to bed, and then woke up feeling groggy but otherwise ready for battle! Twenty-two other powerful planeswalkers showed up to duel in the grandest format of them all, which is a pretty reasonable turnout for a non-proxy event, but could have been higher if there weren't so many scheduling conflicts.



R1 - Shops

My opponent for R1 is one of the strongest Shops players in the local Vintage scene, although recently, he's gravitated towards 4c Stax. Either way, not an ideal pairing, but I win the all-important die roll and keep a strong seven, leading with turn 1 Sol Ring. He plays a turn 1 Sphere of Resistance, and I follow by casting Cabal Therapy, blind hitting two copies of Lodestone Golem, leaving him with a bunch of lands (including Strip and Waste) and a Crucible. Luck is a skill! I follow that up with a Ponder, setting up a turn 3 Hurkyl's Recall into Petition for Necropotence, which killed him on turn 4.

SB: -4 Duress, -3 Cabal Therapy, +4 Ancient Tomb, +2 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Empty the Warrens

My opponent mulls pretty aggressively but is only able to come up with a Grafdigger's Cage on turn 1. This game is pretty uneventful, with me punting my way into making 8 early Goblin tokens instead of 10 and getting aggressive against two Lodestone Golems. End step Hurkyl's Recall results in a concession, as I had the ability to put together a lethal mini-Tendrils.

R2 - Belcher

I have no idea what my opponent is on, and I lose the die roll. He leads Tropical Island into Mox into Mana Vault and plays a Belcher. My hand is slow, and I have the option of casting Ancestral Recall or Duress on my turn 1 and I go with the former since it seemed unlikely to me that he wouldn't be able to find a mana source. I chain a few Probes together, and I'm forced to cast a weak Yawgmoth Will's that needed to hit pretty well off the flashbacked Probes, but I didn't get there.

SB: No changes. Too bad I took out those Mindbreak Traps!

I mull my seven into a sketchy six that has no land, but with a Lotus Petal, Probe, Duress, Dark Ritual and a draw 7. Scry a blank to the bottom. Probe doesn't hit land, but I see a hand of Gitaxian Probe, Land Grant, Chrome Mox, Living Wish, Mox Pearl, and two Force of Wills. My opponent casts a few Probes, casts Living Wish for Tolarian Academy, finds a Charbelcher and plays it before passing the turn. I draw a blank and die.

R3 - Planeswalker Control

My opponent for this round is a Portland-based superhero who has a gazillion Vintage decks and took a carpool of players up north for the Vintage event. I'm excited to do battle!

We both keep our sevens, and my opponent leads with Mana Crypt into Tinker for Blightsteel. I cast Gitaxian Probe and see Force of Will in his hand. I consider conceding to preserve information, but I can still get there if he doesn't counter the right spells in my sequence, which is possible since he doesn't know the contents of my hand. Mox Jet resolves. Mana Vault resolves. Land, Demonic Tutor. Resolves, find Black Lotus. Resolves. Duress (with two Therapies in hand) the Force, Dark Petition for Yawgmoth's Will. Gitaxian Probe hits what I needed (either fast mana or the natural Tendrils, I forgot), and I'm able to chain the rest of my graveyard into a lethal Tendrils.

SB: I'm still not entirely sure what the deck has in terms of disruption, so I swap in the 3 Cabal Therapies for 3 Defense Grids.

I don't remember the details of this game, but my opponent had a lot of mana rocks and tutors and played a turn 1 Timetwister. My turn 1 Duress gets Forced, he plays a Notion Thief at the end of my second or third turn and then follows that up with a ridiculous turn that involved Black Lotus, Yawgmoth's Will, and a flashed back Timetwister. He lands Jace and assembles Vault/Key, so I'm hoping he dies to Mana Crypt flips, but eventually, he has the Tinker to seal the deal.

SB: As it turns out, my opponent is capable of some pretty busted plays himself, so I take out a Defense Grid and a Hurkyl's Recall from last game and put back in two Therapies.

I lead with a Duress turn 1, which gets Forced. I'm holding a Petal and Cabal Therapy, but I'm hesitant to burn two cards to play the Therapy Roulette Game, although for some reason I think I'm about to get Tinkered again. In fact, he plays two Moxes into Tinker for Blightsteel. I skillfully rip Ancestral Recall off the top, which finds me more mana and a Wheel of Fortune, and my new seven is enough to get there as he was tapped out and only managed to hit Flusterstorm off his new seven.

R4 - Dredge (camera match)

I know my opponent's on Dredge, which he borrowed from phazonmutant. I win the die roll to a strong six that contains Mana Crypt and Wheel of Fortune, which seemed really good against an opponent who was mulling aggressively to presumably find his Bazaar. Even though allowing Dredge to discard to Wheel may be a liability, they're too slow to kill you without a Bazaar, and the further he mulliganed, the less likely he'd have strong dredgers in his hand to discard to my wheel. So as my opponent spent a few minutes to find his Bazaar, I was feeling really good. Only one problem as he announced a keep on his 5...

"Before you begin, Leyline of the Void"

I stared awkwardly at the Wheel of Fortune and the lone copy of Tendrils of Agony in my hand. I pretty much do nothing but land-go for a few turns while I get wrecked.

SB: +3 Ravenous Trap, -3 Cabal Therapy

We both keep our sevens. I have fetchland, Mox Pearl, Mana Vault, Ancestral Recall, Demonic Tutor, Dark Ritual, and Black Lotus. Ancestral Recall hits Gitaxian Probe and some more mana, Gitaxian Probe confirms the coast is clear, and my opponent dies without taking a turn. I have the option of killing him via a natural tutor chain, but I go for Yawgmoth's Will anyway to maybe induce my opponent into overvaluing gravehate for game 3.

My opponent begins game 3 on a mull to 3 that consisted of Bazaar and Mental Misstep. Mine is Gitaxian Probe, Duress, Mox Jet, Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, Dark Petition, and Yawgmoth's Bargain. I draw Mind's Desire for Turn, Lotus Petal off Probe, Duress his Mental Misstep, and kill him.

R5 - R/W Hatebears (camera match)

Unfortunately, I'm the lowest 9-pointer in seventh place, and I get paired down so I'm forced to play this out, but I know what my opponent is on.

I win the die roll, and we both keep six card hands; mine is Underground Sea, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Cabal Therapy, Dark Ritual, Dark Petition. I play land, pass. He plays Ruby into Spirit of the Labyrinth, to which I respond with an Ancestral Recall, finding Mana Crypt and Cabal Ritual. I cast Duress to ensure he doesn't have something like Mental Misstep or a maindeck Mindbreak Trap and cast my fast mana into Dark Petition with Spell Mastery into Necropotence. I "draw" 10 cards, while conveniently getting around Spirit of the Labyrinth, untap and kill him with Hurkyl's Recall and natural Tendrils.

SB: -3 Duress, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Ancient Tomb

I keep a strong seven that has a Hurkyl's Recall and the ability to win immediately, so I'm feeling pretty great as my opponent mulls to 5. I even have the ability to a ton of Goblins with Empty the Warrens in case he lands Aegis of the Gods! Unfortunately, he goes Black Lotus into Eidolon of Rhetoric. I consider my outs: I can potentially make two Goblins with Empty the Warrens, Timetwister into Empty the Warrens later, and then make two more Goblins before I'm completely out. I'm pretty sure he can beat 4 Goblins but I play it out for information. At some point, my opponent drops a Magus of the Moon to triple the clock.

I mistakeningly cast Necropotence off an Underground Sea, Swamp, and Mox Jet, with the sole intention of drawing enough cards to find a Probe, Duress, or Therapy that I can cast next turn for information before dying. I brick on the seven cards I draw and also get informed by our spotter that I should not have been able to cast Necropotence. I sheepishly scoop them up.

As luck would have it, I begin game 3 with Gitaxian Probe, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Black Lotus, Tolarian Academy, and Dark Petition. My opponent doesn't get a turn.

I earn the 1st overall seed after having to play out the last round of Swiss, which means I get to be on the play every match with Storm. We all agree to an 8-way prize split for store credit, so we're just playing for pride in the elimination rounds.

T8 - Planeswalker Control (rematch from R3)

I don't remember much about game 1, but my notes show I kept 7 on the play and my opponent kept 6, with both of us going to 18 (I believe off my Gitaxian Probe and his Mental Misstep). I probably killed him on turn 1 or 2.

SB: +2 Defense Grid, -1 Cabal Therapy, -1 Hurkyl's Recall

My opponent plays out land and Mox, and I probe him to see a hand of Timetwister, Time Walk, Mana Drain, Ancestral Recall, and Flusterstorm. My Duress meets a Flusterstorm, and I play out my Black Lotus in case I get Twistered. My opponent casts Time Walk, hits a Library of Alexandria, and waits a turn before casting Timetwister. My seven is much better than his. I upkeep a Vampiric Tutor, which meets Mental Misstep. I then Probe his hand and find he only has a Force of Will left for interaction. I'm able to Brainstorm, cast a bunch of mana rocks, make 11 mana, cast Yawgmoth's Bargain (Forced) and Dark Petition, which resolved with Spell Mastery and finds Yawgmoth's Will. Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor for Tendrils, Probe into Tendrils.

T4 - TPS (camera match)

I keep a mediocre hand with a lot of fast mana, a Duress, but no business. I lead with Duress to reveal my opponent's hand of Underground Sea, Ponder, Cabal Therapy, Hurkyl's Recall, Mind's Desire, and Yawgmoth's Bargain. I play out my mana rocks and pass the turn. His Cabal Therapy blind hits both Dark Rituals in my hand. I rip a Duress and take his Ponder. We play draw-go for a few turns and trade discard, but I rip a Vampiric Tutor, which I cast on his end step. It finds Dark Petition, which chains into Demonic Tutor, followed by Yawgmoth's Will.

SB: +2 Sadistic Sacrament, -2 Hurkyl's Recall

For game 2, I keep a very strong hand that's pretty resilient to discard (Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, Sol Ring, Yawgmoth's Will, Dark Petition, Sadistic Sacrament, Cabal Therapy). Unfortunately, my opponent casts T1 Wheel of Fortune and kills me before I get a single turn. Not all was lost though: he didn't notice the cards I discarded, so he was unaware of the Sadistic Sacrament tech!

For game 3, I keep a hand that was pretty all-in: Mox Pearl, Time Walk, Sadistic Sacrament, Gitaxian Probe, and three lands. It's pretty loose as it goes absolutely nowhere if he has either his Tendrils or Empty in his hand, but Probe reveals that Mindbreak Trap is the only thing I have to play around. I then follow with Mox Pearl and Time Walk and cross my fingers; it resolves, and I rip Cabal Ritual. Land, Ritual, Sacrament you? My opponent reads the card, laughs, and writes it down in his notebook for future reference.

After looking through his deck, I quickly pull out the Tendrils and the Empty the Warrens before deciding whether or not I wanted to pull a third card. I decide he can only win if he plays a Necro or Bargain and decks me by refusing to draw while also eliminating my win conditions, so I pull out the former as it's easier to cast. I take another quick look through his deck and notice he's also brought in multiple copies of Ravenous Trap.

At this point, the game is a bit of a farce, but my opponent still technically has slim outs. I'm drawing like absolute crap, and my opponent's hand is objectively amazing other than the complete absence of any real win conditions. I draw my Tendrils at some point and realized that I am extremely vulnerable to discard followed by Ravenous Trap. Fortunately, I turn up a Brainstorm and decide to use that card as late as possible for the sole purpose of preventing it from being exposed to hand disruption.

Eventually, my opponent decides to "go off", and I am met by the daunting realization that he could easily hardcast Mindbreak Trap on my Brainstorm if he realized what his outs were. I watch as he generates what seems like infinite mana and at some point, I respond with the Brainstorm which fortunately resolves and tucks my Tendrils away safely. My opponent continues to generate a ridiculous amount of storm while I'm fumbling around with the dice trying to keep track. Then he casts a Mind's Desire, but we're unsure what storm is, so now we have to figure everything out after multiple Hurkyl's Recalls and Yawgmoth's Will enabled several spells to be cast multiple times... and since we're not playing for anything, he considers his outs, believes he's dead, decides it's not worth the hassle, and scoops them up.

I'm not sure whether he realized this, but his out was to chain some draw 7s, discard spells, and Ravenous Traps together so that he can exile my Tendrils, Necropotence, and Yawgmoth's Bargain, while landing his own Yawgmoth's Bargain, to ensure that I deck by naturally drawing. This ridiculous combination could have been made possible with Mind's Desire. Thus, in retrospect, I should have exiled his Mind's Desire to Sadistic Sacrament as the third card. What a weird game!

F - Shops (camera match)

I mulled to 5 to my opponent's 6, keeping a hand of Lotus Petal, Gitaxian Probe, Dark Petition, Sol Ring, and Cabal Ritual. I Probe to see Ancient Tomb, Revoker, and Sphere of Resistance, followed by some irrelevant cards, and peeled the Ancestral Recall that I scryed to the top, which I cast off Petal. That gave me enough to fetch, play a Mox Jet, Sol Ring, two Cabal Rituals, Dark Petition, and then cast Necropotence. Knowing that I'd have to beat either the Revoker or Sphere, I activated Necro 14 times to go down to 3, which would allow me to cast Probe if necessary.

As it turns out, my opponent ripped a Mana Crypt that he scryed to the top and played both the Revoker (naming Sol Ring) and the Sphere. I played my own Mana Crypt, Tolarian Academy, three Dark Rituals, cast Dark Petition to get Hurkyl's Recall, bounced his board, tapped Sol Ring, leaving me with exactly enough for a second Dark Petition. That found Yawgmoth's Will, which flashed back the Lotus Petal and all the Rituals in my yard.

SB: -4 Duress, -3 Cabal Therapy, +4 Ancient Tomb, +2 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Empty the Warrens

We both keep our 7s, and my opponent led with a Turn 1 Witchbane Orb, which left me with Empty the Warrens as my only out, since Tendrils and Hurkyl's Recall are both shut off. To ensure I had enough storm to generate the necessary Goblins, I played a Mana Vault but held the Ancestral Recall and Gitaxian Probe in my hand, and I get punished with the newly restricted Chalice on 1. My outs are further diminished when my opponent has a Wurmcoil Engine, followed by several more sphere effects.

For game 3, I keep an insane 7-card hand with Black Lotus, Timetwister, and Gitaxian Probe. Probe draws into Mana Crypt, which allows me to play Timetwister without sacrificing Black Lotus. I accidentally shuffle that Twister into my library for some reason before a judge points that out. My new seven is a bit unexciting in terms of fast mana, but I'm able to play a Necropotence to draw 9 new cards. My opponent's turn is a Workshop into Tangle Wire.

On my next turn, I'm able to play an Underground Sea, some mana rocks, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Dark Petition to find LED to go with the Yawgmoth's Will in hand. I botch a bunch of operations (accidentally binning the Yawgmoth's Will and Hurkyl's Recall to the LED when Necro was on the battlefield... muscle memory from the Infernal Tutor/LED interaction), proceed to go off, and grossly mismanage the mana while I'm sequencing with the incorrect understanding that I had threshold before I'm informed that two my cards should actually be exiled. In the end though, I had more than enough mana to easily cast Petition into Tendrils and take the game.

A few shoutouts are in order! Props to Card Kingdom for organizing a terrific event, the coverage crew for an excellent job, all my opponents for being awesome, and for the judges for their hard work as I really kept them busy in that last game. Special shoutout to those that lent out decks/cards for this tournament!

Slops to myself for the sloppy play on camera in game 3 of the Finals. I was pretty tired and we weren't playing for anything by that point, but it's a bad habit to get into.