*SPOILER WARNING*

Some people have asked for a way to follow the Vintage Super League without watching all the matches every week. These match recaps are for them.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

LSV vs Dave

Dave showed up with a mono-blue control deck and seemed to be in decent shape in game 1 with an early Back to Basics, but Luis drew both his basic Islands, plus Mana Vault and Voltaic Key so he was able to shrug off the mana denial and play out a Tezzeret. One Time Vault later they were off to game 2.

Luis brought in a 3rd basic land for game 2 and Dave’s two copies of Back to Basics added up to just one Stone Rain. The game became a control war, and a super interesting exchange happened when Luis forced through a Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus and Dave pointed a Steel Sabotage at it, trying to bounce it on LSV’s end step. Luis had Force of Will, Misdirection, and two other blue cards but he let the Steel Sabotage resolve (rather than Misdirecting it to a Mox) because he just wanted to make sure Dave couldn’t untap and stick Jace the Mind Sculptor. Dave had nothing and Luis was able to force through a Jace of his own shortly thereafter, riding the Jace to a huge advantage and eventually Snapcastering back the Tinker to get the Colossus that he had put back in his library with Jace.

The win dropped Dave to 1-3 and puts Luis into a tie for 2nd at 3-1.

Efro vs Randy

Randy is running a Burning Oath deck full of maximum brokenness while Efro is running the same mono-blue control deck as Dave. Randy’s opening (6-card) hand allowed him his choice of Ancestral Recall or Wheel of Fortune on turn one. After resolving a Sol Ring he figured there was no Mental Misstep coming and went for the Ancestral, which worked, loading his hand with even more gas. Turn 2 he went for Dark Ritual into Demonic Tutor into Yawgmoth’s Bargain, which was sure to win the game if it resolved but Efro had his main deck Mindbreak Trap! Even worse, he untapped and dropped a Back to Basics which deprived Randy of colored mana for the rest of the game, stranding both Wheel and Burning Wish until Efro was able to Jace his way into total control.

Game 2 saw Randy go for a turn 2 Grisbrand (off 2 Dark Rituals and 2 Moxes), but Eric once again had the free counterspell, this time in the form of Force of Will. It took a while for Eric to actually win the game, but he was in total control for the rest of the game, putting himself into the tie for 2nd at 3-1 and dropping Randy to 2-2.

Bob vs Tom

Both players came in at 0-3 and the gloves were off. Tom had been threatening to play Dredge all week and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Bob showed up piloting Mishra’s Workshop for the next three weeks. Game 1 saw Bob cast a turn 1 Steel Hellkite, but Tom had an Ingot Chewer to buy himself enough time to turn his Bazaar into a horde of hasty zombies.

Game 2 saw Bob’s sideboard show up, with both Tormod’s Crypt and Grafdigger’s Cage coming down on turn 1. It also gave him a chance to show off the explosiveness of his deck with Metalworker powering out a hasty Kuldotha Forgemaster (thanks to Lightning Greaves), which immediately fetched a Blightsteel Colossus that also put on the Greaves to attack for the immediate win.

Game 3 looked good for Bob when his Wasteland destroyed Tom’s only copy of Bazaar of Bagdad, but Tom was able to use his draw phase to dredge a couple of times and get out a couple of free creatures. Two Bloodghasts and a Narcomeba wasn’t going to beat Wurmcoil Engine, though, so Tom went into the tank and figured out that his only chance was to take one draw step off and hope to draw a land so he could cast Chain of Vapor. He hit the ~20% shot and drew the land he needed! It wasn’t enough to win on the spot, but it turned the game into a very close, very complicated race that Tom was able to win when Bob failed to draw any reasonable follow-up plays.

Wrapter vs Rich

Josh shocked everyone by brewing up a Vintage deck around Modern staple Pyromancer’s Ascension. His combo fizzled in game 1, but he got enough value to win in the long game anyway. In game 2 it was the other Pyromancer – the Young one – who carried him to a relatively quick victory. It was Josh’s first win in league play, and the loss dropped Rich to 2-2.

Steve vs Chris

It’s a round-robin schedule, but it worked out that the only two players at 3-0 happened to be paired in week 4. Chris stuck with his Terra Nova ‘Shops deck while Steve changed away from Doomsday and is now running Delver. Game 1 saw Chris string together enough Spheres of Resistance to prevent Steve from doing much, and when Steve picked up his dual lands with Gush to save them from Wastelands, it meant he couldn’t cast any spells while Chris whittled his life down from 20.

After sideboarding Steve cast seemingly every anti-Shops card in existence: Ancient Grudge, Shattering Spree, Ingot Chewer, Nature’s Claim, and Trygon Predator all put in an appearance. Despite all the hate, Chris almost won game 3 by racing with a pair of Darksteel Juggernauts (one courtesy of Phyrexian Metamorph), but Steve had the Lightning Bolt he needed to win the race with his (flipped) Delver and one leftover token from an earlier Young Pyromancer.