*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*

Chris vs Rich

These were the only two players who ran back their decks from weeks 1-3 and both were 0-2 so far in the second set. Rich won the die roll and sacrificed a first turn Black Lotus to put Jace the Mind Sculptor into play. Chris didn’t have any of his creature lands to attack Jace with so the game was essentially over before Chris even got started.

Chris was on the play in game and had a good draw so the game was probably going to be a blowout versus most of Rich’s draws, but when Rich took a mulligan all the way down to 3 cards things were over in a hurry. Game 3 was quite close and interesting. Chris seemed to have it with a Lodestone Golem and two Phyrexian Revokers, but Rich drew Shattering Spree the turn before he was going to die and was able to follow up with a Myr Battlesphere. Chris used Sculpting Steel to make a Battlesphere of his own and when the dust finally settled from several messy combats, the Spheres cancelled each other out and Chris was able to win with his other creatures.

The win moves Chris up to 4-2 and drops Rich to 2-4.

Randy vs Dave

Randy had a turn 1 Oath of Druids in game 1 and then top-decked the Forbidden Orchard he needed to turn it on. Dave had no answer for either Griselbrand’s ability to attack or Grislebrand’s ability to draw cards so the players were quickly off to game 2. In game 2 Dave was able to fend off an early Thoughtseize into Necropotence (with Force of Will) and then drop a Back to Basics. Randy’s draw was mana heavy so the Back to Basics didn’t really matter much as he was able to build up a hand full of mana spells and eventually was able to generate enough storm for a lethal Tendrils without drawing any extra cards. However, Dave had his one copy of Mindbreak Trap to counter all the copies of Tendrils and force game 3. In game 3 Randy was able to play turn 1 Oath of Druids (off an Orchard), but Dave had the Force of Will. Randy was then able to use Vampiric Tutor to set up turn 2 Yawgmoth’s Bargain, but Dave once again had a Force of Will. Several turns later Randy used a Duress to try to push through an Oath, but Dave had Force of Will #3 plus a Spell Snare.

The loss means Randy was 0-3 with Burning Oath and is now 2-4. Dave went 2-1 with mono-blue control to move up to 3-3.

Steve vs Luis

Steve had an aggressive start in game 1 with 2 Delvers and a Young Pyromancer, but Luis was able to milk a Library of Alexandria for serious value and put together Time Vault – Voltaic Key before Steve could deal 20 damage. Game 2 was a classic control versus control battle. Contrary to what i said in this space last week, Menendian believes his Delver list is just fine against control decks due to his low land count turning into extra business cards over the course of many draw phases, and he actually sideboards out Delver of Secrets so he can better position himself for the long game. Game 2 went super long and Menendian did seem to have more relevant cards, but Luis extracted maximum value from all of his and was actually in position to potentially deck Steve, thanks in part to Steve miscounting storm on one turn and being forced to use a second Flusterstorm to win a counterspell skirmish. A big fight then broke out when Steve went to Ancestral Recall himself and he actually managed to Misdirect Luis’s Ancestral in the same stack and draw 6 cards. However, he had already gone through pretty much all the permission in his deck and Luis was still able to resolve a lethal Yawgmoth’s Will thanks to a Red Elemental blast off the top. The win left Steve very impressed by Luis’s Vintage chops, saying afterwards “LSV is a master and he outplayed me.”

The win leaves both players 5-1 and tied for first. Luis went 3-0 with this deck while Steve went 2-1.

Tom vs Efro

Both players were 2-0 with their current decks. Efro drew his one Strip Mine to destroy Tom’s Bazaar of Bagdad in game 1, but Tom was able to use his draw phase to extract value over the course of several turns. Efro used Trinket Mage to find his one maindeck Grafdigger’s Cage to stop the Bloodghast recursion, and was almost able to play enough blockers, but Tom hard-cast a Narcomeba plus a Golgari Thug to force through the last few points of damage.

In game two Eric was able to Trinket Mage for Grafdigger’s Cage on turn 2 and had Back to Basics to attempt to shut down Tom’s Bazaar on turn 3, but Tom’s drew the perfect land: an Undiscovered Paradise which both turned on the Nature’s Claim he needed to blwo up Cage, plus Tom was even able to do that as a response to a pair of Bloodghast triggers. Undiscovered even comes back to hand rather than getting locked down by Back to Basics. Tom then used it to cast a second Nature’s Claim to free his Bazaar and was quickly able to dredge up a Dread Return and a Flame-Kin Zealot that allowed him to attack for exactsies.

Efro falls to 4-2 (2-1 this set) while Tom came all the way back from 0-3 to get himself to 3-3.

Bob vs Wrapter

Bob led with Chalice of the Void on 1 thanks to a Mishra’s Workshop in game 1.  Josh has 24 1-mana spells in his deck, including every non-mana spell he drew in this game.

In game 2 Josh used his pair of Lightning Bolts to kill off two Lodestone Golems and without much pressure on his life total Josh was able to wait out a Tangle Wire, play Pyromancer’s Ascension, set up a turn where he could Demonic Tutor for both Yawgmoth’s Will and Black Lotus (thanks to the extra copy of Demonic Tutor from the turned on Ascension). From there he played 3 Young Pyromancers, made 20-some tokens, and cast a Time Walk so he could untap and attack for the win.

That turned out to be all the spells Josh was going to get to cast in the match. Bob curved turn 1 Thorn of Amesthyst into turn 2 Lodestone Golem and turn 3 2nd Lodestone Golem.

The win is Bob’s first of the season and pulls him into a tie for 9th with Josh at 1-5.