Team Vintage Super League: Week 8 - Team Cardsphere vs The Hornet Queens!

Joseph Dyer II • June 12, 2018

Howdy folks, it's Joe again here with another recap of this past week's TEAM VINTAGE SUPER LEAGUE!

This past week's episode is the HOME TEAM! Team Cardsphere (consisting of Reid Duke, Randy Buehler, and Eric Froehlich) vs The Hornet Queens (consisting of Athena Froehlich, Rachel Agnes, and Erin Campbell)!

As always, you can find this week's decklists right over here.

Week 8 Recap - Team CS vs Hornet Queens

 
You can watch the vod for this week here:

Right off the bat we've got Reid Duke on Yawgmoth's Bargain Storm vs Athena Froehlich on Survival Salad!

Athena kicks things off right off the bat with a Turn 1 Basking Rootwalla

and passes turn. Reid goes with a Turn 1 Brainstorm
 off a Mox Sapphire
 and kicks double Dark Ritual
 into Yawgmoth's Bargain
. Reid's Bargain draws pull him into several mana sources and a Vampiric Tutor
 to Tendrils of Agony
 for a TURN ONE KILL.

Athena starts on the play with Survival of the Fittest

on Turn 1. Reid opens on a Turn 1 Preordain
 followed by Black Lotus
 for a second Preordain
 and Time Walk
. He manages to cast Yawgmoth's Bargain
 on his extra turn and starts drawing. Unfortunately he does not find a kill, and discards 8 cards. Athena windmill slams a Kambal, Consul of Allocation
. Reid lives through his Mana Crypt
 trigger and casts a Dark Ritual
 to kill himself with Kambal trigger.

Game 3 shows Reid keeping a sketchy keep on 7 and Athena mulling to 6. Reid starts with a Brainstorm

off a Lotus Petal
 with intent to be able to Vampiric Tutor
 on Athena's end step. Athena casts a Turn 1 Stony Silence
 and Reid casts the Tutor as planned on the end step, getting a Tolarian Academy
 to cast Time Walk
 out of sheer desperation. Athena Bazaar of Baghdad
's into a Survival of the Fittest
 to cast a free Basking Rootwalla
 and a Deathrite Shaman
. Reid gets an Ancestral Recall
 on board to go Dark Ritual
 into Necropotence
. Reid draws 7 cards off Necropotence
 and draws 7 mana sources straight. Athena activates Bazaar once more, finding a Ravenous Trap
 and a Wonder
. Reid casts a mini Tendrils of Agony
 to buy him some time and life to continue to gain value off Necropotence
 into Timetwister
. The Timetwister
 draws Reid into a Vampiric Tutor
 and a Brainstorm
 giving him the win off a second Tendrils of Agony
 to take the match!

Team Cardsphere up 1-0!

Erin Campbell, our much beloved Dredge Queen, takes the stage on her most favorite of decks: DREDGE. She kicks off things off with a mulligan to 6 and then Serum Powder

aways her 6, then mulligans again to 5 to find a Bazaar of Baghdad
. Reid's hand has a lot of mana sources and a Gitaxian Probe
 but a dead Duress
 and no good action. He dumps a Black Lotus
 and a Sol Ring
, while Erin spins up the Dredge action. She hits up a Narcomoeba
 and an Ichorid
, as well as managing to establish triple Bloodghast
. She flashes back a Cabal Therapy
 to try to hit Dark Ritual
 but doesn't hit. Reid draws and casts Necropotence
, drawing three cards off of it at end step. He finds no action and loses to combat the following turn.

Reid mulls to 6 with a decent opener. Erin mulligans to 4 and finds a keepable hand with Bazaar of Baghdad

. Reid leads on Preordain
, finding a second Dark Ritual
. Erin plays a Bazaar and passes. Reid goes through a Yawgmoth's Will
 chain and finds a Tendrils of Agony
 off of a Demonic Tutor
 and storms out.

Erin's opener is an immediate mull to 6, but she finds a Bazaar of Baghdad

in it. Reid makes a Turn 1 Demonic Tutor
 to hit a Tormod's Crypt
. Erin activates Bazaar and manages to dump into two Bloodghast
, using Cabal Therapy
 to probe at Reid's hand. She casts Black Lotus
 and Ancestral Recall
 to simply draw 3 cards. Reid casts Timetwister
 finding a hand with a ton of mana and a Tormod's Crypt
. Erin bashes in with a Bloodghast
 and casts some mana rocks in the form of Mox Sapphire
 and Lion's Eye Diamond
. She throws another Therapy at Reid, naming Dark Ritual
 hitting nothing. Reid hits an Empty the Warrens
 and casts it for Storm count 6 to make 12 Goblin tokens. Erin dumps some more cards into the graveyard, making another Bloodghast
. She tries to make some more cards in the graveyard, and Reid responds by activating the first of his two Tormod's Crypt
. Reid swings for the fences, leaving up a singlular Goblin. Reid takes the win!

Team Cardsphere up 2-0!

Rachel Agnes gets things rolling with "Wut in Karnation"! She kicks things right off with a Turn 1 Sphere of Resistance

followed by a Turn 2 Phyrexian Revoker
 naming Yawgmoth's Bargain
. Reid end step Vampiric Tutor
's for Hurkyl's Recall
. Rachel forces Reid's hand in controlling him to keep him from casting it, and gets in with some beats and makes a Walking Ballista
. She pushes through some attacks, with Reid being forced to play the Recall to live. Reid tries to dig for answers with a Preordain
, finding enough mana to cast a Bargain the following turn. Rachel leads on Phyrexian Revoker
 naming Mana Vault
, followed with Steel Overseer
. Reid draws into a Tolarian Academy
 to be able to cast Yawgmoth's Bargain
 but passes drawing nothing. Rachel gets in with some damage but Reid draws into a Tendrils of Agony
 to kill Rachel from 4 life.

Rachel on the play once more opens on Mishra's Workshop

into Sphere of Resistance
 on Turn 1. Reid makes a land drop, while Rachel makes a Turn 2 Foundry Inspector
. She drops a Sorcerous Spyglass
 naming Bargain into Phyrexian Revoker
 naming Lotus Petal
, all the while carrying land destruction with Strip Mine
 and Wasteland
. Combat damage happens and Reid scoops to Game 3.

Reid starts things off with a Dark Ritual

into Demonic Tutor
, getting a Black Lotus
 and casting Dark Petition
 to get Yawgmoth's Will
, with Dark Petition
's Spell Mastery to cast it and go off into a Turn 1 Storm kill.

Team Cardsphere taking a definitive lead at 3-0!

Rachel jumps back into the fray with a deck called "Jhoira Goes Tinkering"! Reid starts off with a Duress

, taking Rachel's Ancestral Recall
. Rachel plays out a Library of Alexandria
, but with the Duress
 is far off the Library plan. Reid tries for his own Ancestral Recall
, but gets it countered by Force of Will
. Both players dig for a bit, trying to find some action. This continues for a few turns until Reid goes off to cast Timetwister
 finding a Tolarian Academy
 and casting Demonic Tutor
. Rachel draws off Library, but finds no action and dies to a lethal Tendrils of Agony
.

Rachel starts off with a fetchland, while Reid starts of with Preordain

. Rachel casts Merchant Scroll
 for Ancestral Recall
, that gets promptly slapped by a surprise Pyroblast
 from Reid off a Simian Spirit Guide
. Reid casts Duress
 taking a Treasure Cruise
. Both players spin their wheels on action until Reid finds a Yawgmoth Bargain
 to try to jam it into play, getting Force of Will
'ed. Rachel never sees an artifact to sacrifice to Tinker
 while Reid makes a Vampiric Tutor
 to go get a second Yawgmoth's Bargain
. The Bargain resolves, drawing Reid a million cards. He makes the Storm count happen to take the game and the team series!

Reid Duke slams the door, eliminating the Hornet Queens in 4-0!

Notable Decklists - Team Cardsphere

 

While the home team brought some great lists to the table, it was Reid Duke's Bargain Storm deck that made the grade. Let's take a look at it and another deck we didn't get to see this week.

Reid Duke's Bargain Storm | Team Vintage Super League

 

1 Dark Petition
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
2 Defense Grid
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Necropotence
3 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Badlands
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire

2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Swamp
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Island
2 Pyroblast
2 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
4 Tormod's Crypt

Reid's deck really showcased how powerful of a deck this really is and how it can often scrape wins from seemingly nowhere. The spicy inclusions here were the sideboard Bontu's Last Reckoning

's, which never came up during the night but look pretty powerful in a format with lots of mana rocks.

Team Cardsphere's Helm Rip | Team Vintage Super League

 

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Balance
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
1 Brainstorm
2 Helm of Obedience
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Rest in Peace
4 Energy Field
1 Humility
1 Detention Sphere
1 Back to Basics
1 Propaganda
1 Moat
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
2 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest

1 Moat
2 Energy Flux
3 Containment Priest
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Mental Misstep

One of the decks we did not get to see, but certainly one of the more interesting ones is Helm Rip. This deck takes its name from the namesake combo of Helm of Obedience

and Rest in Peace
, but also includes the additional combo of Energy Field
 (which with Rest in Peace
 in play basically puts the opponent in a position of being unable to actually damage its opponent in any way shape or form.

Notable Decklists - The Hornet Queens

 

If we had to assign style points however for this week, the Hornet Queens would win all day long. Some of their deck names were the best, from Survival Salad to Wut in Karnation 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Erin Campbell's "Stitch Please" | Team Vintage Super League

 

4 Narcomoeba
2 Golgari Thug
4 Bloodghast
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Fatestitcher
2 Ichorid
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Sun Titan
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Serum Powder
4 Bridge from Below
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Dakmor Salvage
3 Mana Confluence
4 Undiscovered Paradise

4 Serenity
3 Wispmare
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Barbarian Ring

I obviously couldn't write this article without mentioning Erin's Dredge list, because it is in fact basically the same list that I myself play on Magic Online (as well as close to the list that I played at SCG Con this past weekend). Erin and I converse a fair amount on the Dredge Discord Server, so it was great to see "Sunny Dredge" (or Fatestitcher Dredge) get some play time, even if we didn't get to see the true power of the Fatestitcher

plan. (Hint hint: It can go off Turn 1 through disruption. Super fun!)

Athena Froehlich's "Survival Salad" | Team Vintage Super League

 

4 Vengevine
4 Hollow One
4 Basking Rootwalla
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Anger
1 Wonder
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Manglehorn
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Dark Confidant
2 Tarmogoyf
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

1 Manglehorn
2 Stony Silence
1 Wispmare
2 Energy Flux
1 Gilded Drake
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Ingot Chewer
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation

Alright, not gonna lie. This deck is super sweet and looks pretty amazing to play. Getting to play cards like Vengevine

and Hollow One
 with some sweet Survival of the Fittest
 action? Sign me up.

Wrapping Up

 
team-vsl

That's all the time we have this week folks! Going forward we'll be looking to the playoffs! The Top 4! Four Teams will enter, and only one will emerge victorious.

Furthermore, I just recently got back from SCG Con in Roanoke, VA where I played sanctioned paper Vintage for the very first time! I played in the SCG Power 9 Series, where I managed to make Day 2, but ended up placing 40th overall.

I am currently working on piecing together something about my experience there, which I am hoping will be submitting to Eternal Central (the guys behind So Many Insane Plays) to have posted there. Regardless, I had a wonderful time, and not only that I actually got to sit down and meet with a few of the big Vintage guys like Stephen Menendian, Kevin, Cron, Jason Jaco, and the Power 9 Series Winner Andy Markiton! It was an incredible weekend, and I had so much fun playing one of the best formats in existence.

Until next time, may all your Magic be eternal!