Team Vintage Super League - Double Episode Week 4-5!

Howdy folks! It's Joe again and we're here with another sweet recap of Team Vintage Super League! Our good friend Randy Buehler threw a curveball at us this past week with not one, but two episodes of TVSL with the end of Round 1 (Scottsdale Foundation (Paul Rietzl, David Williams, Matt Sperling, Alternate Bob Maher) vs Blue Crab Club (Seth Manfield, Jarvis Yu, Ari Lax)) and the beginning of Round 2 (So Many Insane Plays vs Snapcardster). So of course this week we've got a DOUBLE DOSE of TVSL recap!
As always you can check out the decklists for each week on the Wizards website.
Round 1 - Match 4 Recap - Scottsdale Foundation vs Blue Crab Club
You can check out the VOD for this match here:
The two decks banned on each side of the fence were Dredge and Oath.
Our first round begins with Paul Rietzl (on Esper Paradoxical) vs Jarvis Yu (4C Paradoxical)! Both players start off with a Paradoxical Outcome
Jarvis starts off things with an Ancestral Recall
Game 3 Jarvis goes heavy into an Ancestral Recall line into a Timetwister
The Blue Crab Club is up 1-0!
Matt Sperling takes the stage with Workshops Stax! Matt mulligans down to 4 cards into a Serum Powder
Sperling goes into Chalice of the Void
On the play, Jarvis' sideboarding puts him on the most aggressive form of his deck, and Sperling uses Serum Powder
Seth Manfield jumps in for Blue Crab Club under Jeskai! He starts off with a turn 1 Time Walk
Game 2, Seth mulls to 4 with some draw and a single land, but Matt makes a Turn 1 Trinisphere
Scottsdale Foundation rises to 2-1!
Ari Lax steps into the ring with Dark Petition
Game 2 Ari mulligans to 4 and get punished on two lands, and no blue mana, and Matt makes two Sphere of Resistance
Ari Lax switches decks into Aggro Shops mirroring Matt Sperling's Stax Shops. Ari starts things off with a T1 Steel Overseer
Game 2, Matt keeps a no-land hand with tons of fast mana. Ari starts with a Turn 1 Sphere of Resistance
Game 3, Ari turns into a Turn 1 Sorcerous Spyglass
Notable Decklists - Scottsdale Foundation
Scottsdale Foundation certainly brought the Shops to this week's match, boasting FOUR Workshops lists in their 6 decks. Scottsdale amusingly admitted that they believed that unified construction rules for TVSL applied to sideboards as well, leading to some amusing decisions, as well as over-utilizing Serum Powder
Matt Sperling's STAX | Team Vintage Super League
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Lodestone Golem
2 Metalwork Colossus
1 Trinisphere
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Mana Crypt
4 Smokestack
3 Null Rod
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Sculpting Steel
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Null Rod
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sculpting Steel
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Witchbane Orb
4 Dismember
METALWORK COLOSSUS! THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO BE SAID HERE.
Let's also take a look at one of this team's other Shops variations, since we could look at Paradoxical Mentor all day, but this list has Dominaria cards in it.
Scottsdale's "Doesn't Untap" Shops | Team Vintage Super League
1 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Foundry Inspector
2 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
1 Trinisphere
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Chalice of the Void
2 Serum Powder
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
2 Voltaic Key
4 Mirage Mirror
1 Time Vault
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Inventors' Fair
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Ravenous Trap
4 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Pithing Needle
2 Crook of Condemnation
4 copies of Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
Notable Decklists - Blue Crab Club
On the other side, Blue Crab Club certainly brought some very interesting decks to the table, including a fun Paradoxical Outcome deck and a very aggressive Aggro-Shops list.
Jarvis Yu's 4-Color Paradoxical | Team Vintage Super League
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Defense Grid
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
3 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancient Tomb
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Defense Grid
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Abrade
1 Balance
1 Echoing Truth
2 Disenchant
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Karakas
A very sweet looking Paradoxical list, Jarvis definitely pushed through some of the most interesting games of Vintage I've seen in a long time. Super cool stuff right here.
Ari Lax's Aggro-Shops | Team Vintage Super League
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Chief of the Foundry
4 Foundry Inspector
1 Lodestone Golem
2 Hangarback Walker
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Steel Overseer
1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
4 Walking Ballista
1 Black Lotus
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
3 Precursor Golem
2 Dismember
4 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Null Rod
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
Ari's list certainly focused hard on being heavily aggressive, and for a spot it almost got him there through Matt Sperling's stax variant, but got caught in a bad spot in Game 3 with no mana and a Null Rod
Round 2 - Match 1 Recap - So Many Insane Plays vs Snapcardster!
You can check out the VOD for this Round here:
This week also saw the start of Round 2 of TVSL with So Many Insane Plays (Stephen Menendian, Kevin Cron, Jason Jaco, (alternate: Andy Probasco)) vs Snapcardster (Andreas Petersen, Michael Bonde, Thomas Enevoldsen, (alternate: Julian Knab))! This special episode was due to scheduling to help wrap things up a little quicker than before GP Las Vegas this year.
Both of these teams are 1-0, so this is huge for both teams to need to push through a win to be automatically qualified for the semifinals! One of the important things to note about Round 2 is that the rules tweaking is so that teams submit five decklists, with no bans at all to decks.
Match 1 starts off with Jason Jaco on Two-Card Monte vs Thomas Enevoldsen on Paradoxical Outcome! Jaco starts off with a T1 Painter's Servant
Game 2 Jaco plays a Turn 1 Time Walk
Game 3 sees Jaco with a Turn 0 Leyline of the Void
Match 2 sees Stephen Menendian taking on the mantle of Jeskai! Stephen makes a Turn 1 Balance
Game 2 Stephen starts things off with a Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Game 3 Thomas makes a Turn 1 Monastery Mentor
So Many Insane Plays goes to 1-1!
Andreas Petersen hops into the fray, piloting Oath, and starting things off with a Turn 1 Oath of Druids
Game 2 opens up with Stephen's 7-hand being very strong on the play, starting with two Moxen and a Volcanic Island
Game 3 shows Andreas starting off with a Turn 1 Black Lotus and Mox Emerald to go deep on a Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. Both players trade Mental Misstep with Andreas winning the counter war. He continues deeper, going into a Turn 1 Dig Through Time, finding a Treasure Cruise and an Oath of Druids. Stephen draws a Library of Alexandria, but opts to not cast it for a more aggressive control plan. Andreas makes dumps the Oath of Druids and Stephen replies at end step with Containment Priest. Both players get in a counter war over a Fragmentize but Stephen wins the war, getting rid of the enchantment. Andreas gets on board with a Treasure Cruise, and Stephen makes a Monastery Mentor. Andreas casts Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Brainstorm's with it, finding no land to develop his board. Jace perishes, but Andreas is able to follow up with Oath of Druids. Stephen attempts to resolve his own Treasure Cruise but get it promptly Forced. Andreas' Oath gets him an Inferno Titan shooting the Mentor and Stephen. Inferno Titan gets in for the beats, taking Stephen down to 4. Stephen uses the Oath trigger getting a Containment Priest, but a drawn Dack Fayden is not good enough to stop Andreas' victory, bringing Snapcardster up to 2-1!
Kevin Cron steps up for So Many Insane Plays, with Paradoxical Mentor! Andreas kicks things off with a Turn 1 Preordain with a double Oath/Misstep hand. Kevin tries to get a Turn 1 Sol Ring but eats one of the Missteps. One Black Lotus into a Ponder gets another Misstep eating it, but he manages to force through a Time Walk. Andreas draws Forbidden Orchard and casts Oath of Druids, giving his opponent a creature to trigger it. Kevin draws a Mana Vault which allows him to Yawgmoth's Will. This lets him rebuy plenty of action, drawing into a Force of Will and Mystical Tutor. Kevin opts to Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus, but Andreas Oaths into Griselbrand, drawing into Dack Fayden with Force of Will backup. Andreas sticks Dack, stealing his opponent's Blightsteel Colossus while casting Ancient Grudge on his opponent's Sol Ring to cut him off of having an Oath trigger. A Time Walk off a Dack activation closes the game out in Andreas' favor.
Game 2 sees Kevin with a possible Turn 1 Monastery Mentor with Gitaxian Probe. He goes for it, getting the Probe taken by a Mental Misstep. Kevin also proceeds to draw a Tinker, going for Sensei's Divining Top over the typical Blightsteel Colossus line. Andres is unable to find an answer for the Mentor team, conceding to Game 3.
Game 3 shows Kevin mulligan to five with a decent setup, but Andreas' hand has a lot of action in it. Kevin forces through an Ancestral Recall but doesn't draw well off of it. Andreas pushes through his own Ancestral, winning the counter war off Flusterstorm, hitting an Oath of Druids off of it. Andreas resolves the Oath, giving Kevin a mere turn before potentially losing the game. Kevin tries to get back into the game with a Yawgmoth's Will, winning a counter-war with a drawn Flusterstorm off Sensei's Divining Top. Andreas Oaths into Inferno Titan, sending all of the damage at his opponent's face. Kevin pushes through, trying to establish something. Andreas Oaths into a Griselbrand, which draws him into plenty of gas pieces. Kevin tries to follow up, but finds nothing allowing Andreas to squeak through a win to get Snapcardster on a 3-1 lead!
Match 4 brings Stephen Menendian back into the fold with Workshop Aggro, on the play vs Andreas Petersen on Oath! A Turn 1 Black Lotus gets him a Turn 1 Steel Overseer into Sphere of Resistance. Stephen gets aggressive, pushing through damage while establishing a second Sphere which gives him the win.
Game 2 sees Stephen Menendian establishing a Turn 1 Sol Ring into double Grafdigger's Cage, but Andreas has a Turn 2 Dack Fayden into stealing the Sol Ring. Andreas Ancestral Recall's into double Ancient Grudge, casting three of them in upkeep to put Stephen all the way down to just a Wasteland. Jace, the Mind Sculptor makes an appearance, pushing Andreas' plan way over Stephen's. Andreas casts Dig Through Time and gets double Inferno Titan, pushing through a win to Game 3.
Game 3 shows Stephen dumping a Turn 1 Chalice of the Void on zero with an Arcbound Ravager into a Turn 2 Grafdigger's Cage and a second Ravager which gets countered. Andreas sets up a Pyroclasm, killing the lone Ravager. Stephen establishes some solid lock pieces vs Oath of Druids but it doesn't matter against Andreas' artifact disruption. A Jace, the Mind Sculptor draws Andreas into plenty of gas while Stephen continues to brick on draws, drawing nothing but artifact mana over the course of several turns. A hard cast Inferno Titan puts Stephen out of creatures entirely while Stephen continues to draw nothing but more artifact mana, giving Andreas the win at 4-1 to take the team series!
Notable Decklists - So Many Insane Plays
For this time, So Many Insane Plays brought some really solid and fun decklists, including one along from their first round in Two-Card Monte. Let's take a look at one deck we saw and one we didn't see.
Stephen Menendian's Jeskai Mentor | Team Vintage Super League
3 Dack Fayden
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Young Pyromancer
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Balance
1 Fragmentize
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Pyroblast
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dig Through Time
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Stony Silence
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
2 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Pyroblast
2 Fragmentize
1 Stony Silence
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Containment Priest
4 By Force
It's not secret that Stephen Menendian decided to play a deck with Gush in it, and the deck did do quite a bit of work, and is playing some sweet options like Balance in the main.
SMIP's Dredge | Team Vintage Super League
4 Narcomoeba
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
3 Ichorid
3 Bloodghast
2 Prized Amalgam
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
2 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
4 Mindbreak Trap
4 Serum Powder
4 Bridge from Below
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Dakmor Salvage
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Mana Confluence
4 Nature's Claim
4 Ingot Chewer
A highly aggressive Dredge list, this one opted to not even bother with the newer sideboard game plan the deck has of abusing Hollow One and Gurmag Angler with Bazaar of Baghdad for a more straightforward approach in the sideboard. However, check that main for the sheer spice of main deck Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Dragonlord Kolaghan!
Notable Decklists - Snapcardster
Snapcardster brought a wide array of lists to the table this week, including their famous Esper Paradoxical Outcome deck that many of the team's members played at the EU Eternal Weekend recently. However it was Andreas Petersen's Oath of Druids deck that really mopped things up.
Andreas Petersen's "Remember the Titans" | Team Vintage Super League
2 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Inferno Titan
1 Griselbrand
4 Preordain
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
2 Pyroblast
1 Mana Drain
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dig Through Time
1 Brainstorm
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Ancient Grudge
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Flusterstorm
3 Pyroclasm
4 Nature's Claim
1 Forest
Andreas' list is pretty standard for Inferno Oath decks with the Oath combo and two Inferno Titan's as Oath targets in addition to Griselbrand. It certainly served him well, taking him to the top of the matches.
Snapcardster's SBUG-Still | Team Vintage Super League
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Flusterstorm
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Consultation
2 Null Rod
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
4 Standstill
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
3 Energy Flux
3 Nature's Claim
2 Dismember
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Grafdigger's Cage
This deck is incredible fun, I can't even believe. This is one I would have liked to have seen because I really enjoy seeing the card Standstill a ton, and this one also comes with a Ramunap Excavator / Strip Mine+Wasteland combo? Gross stuff all around here.
I think I'm in love.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! I know this was a big one with the double week and all, but the Vintage was hot! Congrats again to Snapcardster on their 2-0 into the Top 4! Super cool team, and it's awesome to see you guys kicking butt and doing well.
The rest of the Round 2 Schedule is as follows:
- May 17 - Scottsdale Foundation vs The Academy
- May 24 - Blue Crab Club vs ChannelFireball
- June 7 - Cardsphere.com vs Hornet Queens
Until next time, may all your Magic be Eternal!