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
and then tries to play his own Kambal, getting it countered by Jarvis. Jarvis goes into a Paradoxical, bringing his Kambal back to hand with a backup one in hand. Jarvis casts it again, and Paul promptly Forces it. The counter war continues with Jarvis pushing out Paul's Treasure Cruise
. Jarvis gets a massive Paradoxical which then leads into a lethal Tendrils of Agony
, taking Game 2.
Game 3 Jarvis goes heavy into an Ancestral Recall line into a Timetwister
so that he can go deep into Paradoxical. Matt manages to re-establish his board state of Null Rod and Thorn, forcing Jarvis back into trying to dig for an answer. Jarvis manages to get the Null Rod of the board and gets a Monastery Mentor
. Smokestack wipes Ari's board, but his hand is stacked with mana and other threats, with Matt at 6 life. Matt manages to establish his own Phyrexian Revoker
the following turn. The players continue back and forth through the E-Bridge lock, with Matt establishing more lock pieces and both players stuck at 7 life doing a whole lot of nothing. Meanwhile, Randy Buehler's smoke-stack alarm goes off several times. Both players make Foundry Inspector
, and things continue business as usual. Matt manages to win through the most bizarre game ever.
but gets stuck on no lands, but neither player draws lands either until Matt plays NOT ONE BUT TWOMetalwork Colossus
!!!! Ari concedes, paving the way for Scottsdale Foundation to take the series 4-1!!
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
as a mana rock.
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
makes for a very interesting aggressive build, with all the historic capacity a deck like Workshops has. This looked like a super fun deck.
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
in play.
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
, while Stephen digs his library to try to find a way to get more advantage over the game. Thomas continues to ride the Library train, drawing much greater card quality over Stephen. Stephen attempts a Stony Silence
, putting Thomas into a digging situation with no cards in hand and a Sensei's Divining Top
. Stephen steps ahead of the game, using Dack to filter through his library quickly. Stephen very quickly grinds enough card advantage that puts him way ahead of the game, finding a Monastery Mentor
, but doesn't overly get much in card quality. Both players continue to do their thing, with Stephen continuing to to sculpt his hand, until Thomas realizes he can never come back from it.
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
on the Spirit token, taking Andreas off of an Oath trigger for a turn. Andreas manages to stick an Oath trigger, forcing Stephen to try to STP the Spirit in response, but Andreas is able to give him another Spirit, hitting Inferno Titan
to continue pushing through damage. Stephen attempts to cast Treasure Cruise
but it gets countered as well. Both players continue to blank hard on cards while Stephen plinks away at Andreas' life total with a slow 3 damager per turn clock. Andreas finds no action and draws a late game Griselbrand
to concede to Stephen.
Game 3 shows Andreas starting off with a Turn 1 Black Lotus
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
, 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
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
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
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.