Hello and Welcome! Click the links above to read about VSL, the schedule, and the standings. Click here if you want decklists. If you want to watch the video archives you can click here. Meanwhile, if you just want to hear about this week’s matches then read on.
*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*
Rich v Chris
Chris took the interesting line in game 1 of doing almost nothing for the first few turns while he slow-rolled several moxes and a Time Vault. He knew Rich played Dack Fayden in his deck and there was no reason to risk getting anything stolen. Rich did have exactly Dack Fayden in his hand, and eventually used it to steal a Chrome Mox, but by then Chris had found an Academy and a Voltaic Key, all of which he deployed on the same turn, winning the game without ever exposing anything important to Dack.
Rich used artifact removal cards in from his sideboard to slow Chris down in game 2, and Rich was able to Dig Through Time to find Force of Will and another Dig Through Time before Chris could even get to 4 mana to attempt his Diminishing Returns. It took Rich a while to actually win the game, but he had a grip full of counters the whole time and there was never any real danger of Chris getting back into it.
In game 3 Rich was able to Force of Will both a Timetwister and a Diminishing Returns, but then both players were out of gas and the game turned into a top-deck war (with Chris racing his Mana Crypt in addition to Rich’s draw step). Rich Gushed into another Gush and finally found a Delver of Secrets, but Chris promptly top-decked a Tinker. Bang. All Rich was holding was a pair of Missteps so Charbelcher was immediately lethal on the spot (much to the surprise of Chris who didn’t realize Rich’s 6 cards were all worthless).
Chris wins 2-1
Bob v Kai
Bob was able to assemble his entire Rube Goldberg contraption in game 1 against Kai’s Delver list. It took a bunch of Gushes, a Yawgmoth’s Will, and a Time Walk (in order to turn off the Yawgmoth’s Will exile effect), but he finally had Crucible of Worlds plus Zuran Orb plus Fastbond, which allows him to sacrifice land for 2 life and put them back into play for 1 life. That’s infinite life. You can also tap the lands before sacrificing them. That’s infinite mana. Bob also had a Sensei’s Divining Top and a fetch land so he was able to look at the top 3 and then reshuffle for however many times he needed to reshuffle in order to find a Kaervek’s Torch to sink all that mana into. Once Bob demonstrated the Top/reshuffle loop, Kai conceded rather than make Bob actually find it.
In game 2 Bob was on the Library of Alexandria plan, but Kai had Young Pyromancer and enough permission to build up a lethal army of tokens before Bob could use the card advantage from the Library to pull ahead.
Bob once again had a Library in game 3 and Kai once again had a Pyromancer, but this time Bob was able to run Kai out of permission and resolve a Demonic Tutor. He found Slice and Dice, which he cycled in order to kill all of Kai’s creatures (and draw a card). A second Slice and Dice dealt with Kai’s next Young Pyromancer and Bob’s Library gave him enough cards to keep pulling farther and farther ahead. Eventually Bob resolved a Yawgmoth’s Will with 20+ cards in his graveyard and Kai conceded rather than make Bob play it out.
Bob wins 2-1
Randy v Eric
Randy kept 2 moxes, 2 counterspells, and a Timetwister in game 1 but he didn’t draw the 3rd mana until Eric had his shields fully up and Randy wasn’t able to resolve anything meaningful before the end of the game. In game 2 Randy had a potential turn 1 kill, actually playing and activating Goblin Charbelcher on his first turn but the Tolarian Academy was still in his deck and it turned out to be about a dozen cards down. Normally the Belcher deck just shrugs and then reactivates the Charbelcher on the next turn, but Randy had used Black Lotus to cast it and Lion’s Eye Diamond to activate it so he only had 2 mana available. It took a couple of turns but he was eventually able to resolve a mana source and win the game on turn 3 or 4.
In game 3 Eric mulliganed into a mediocre 6 card hand, but decided Delver, Black Lotus, Pyroblast was better than going down to 5. Randy’s draw was great, but the net result was forcing through a Timetwister on turn 1 with an Academy and a bunch of other mana in play. Randy’s 7 cards off the ‘Twister had no action: Force of Will, Mental Misstep, and 5 mana sources. Meanwhile, Eric’s new hand was great. Eric had actually declined to Pyroblast the Timetwister because he was hoping for exactly this scenario. Randy eventually drew a Diminishing Returns, but Eric had plenty of permission and the undefeated reign of the Blue Belcher deck was finally over.
Eric wins 2-1
David v Steve
David had to mulligan down to 4 before he found a Bazaar of Bagdad, but Steve’s Delver deck doesn’t really have any way to interact with Dredge in game 1, and isn’t all that fast at dealing 20 so David was able to build a horde of zombies and attack for lethal in about 4 turns or so. In game 2 Steve drew his Strip Mine and David did not have any dredgers or a 2nd Bazaar in the top 10 cards of his deck. Steve didn’t have much of a clock and David did have time to eventually draw another one, but he still couldn’t find any dredge cards and Steve was able to attack 3 times with Young Pyromancer and some tokens. In game 3 David mulliganed all the way down to 1 card and still couldn’t find a Bazaar of Bagdad. The deck can’t operate without one (as we saw in game 2 when Steve had his one Strip Mine)
Steve wins 2-1
Luis v Tom
Well, it took a whole season before we had our first turn 1 kill, but it only took 1 week before we got #2. Luis started with Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Fastbond, Merchant Scroll (for Gush), 2nd land, Gush, Dark Ritual, and Doomsday. He used Doomsday to stack his deck as follows: Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Gush, Laboratory Maniac, Force of Will. He still had a Brainstorm in his initial hand, which he used to draw the first three of those. Then Ancestral got him the Maniac, which he could cast off the Lotus. Then Gush drew more cards than he had in his library, thereby killing Tom via the Laboratory Maniac! Tom had gotten to keep 7 cards with his Dredge deck, but he never got a turn.
Game 2 was almost as fast. Luis led off with a Leyline of the Void on turn zero. Tom has to exile some cards as he used Bazaar to find mana for the Chain of Vapor he was holding. He found it, but before he even had time to cast a Chain Luis played turn 3 Doomsday (off two land and a Mox Jet). He was holding a Gush so he was able to stack his deck as Mox Sapphire, Ancestral Recall, Laboratory Maniac, Black Lotus, and Gitaxian Probe. Gush gave him the first two, which gave him the Maniac plus the mana to cast it, and then Gitaxion Probe let him draw a card without needing any mana so that was game. Tom used his Chain to attempt to bounce the Maniac (which would have resulted in Luis dying from drawing off his own empty library), but Luis had had a Force of Will ready to defend himself the whole time. All Luis needed was 3 turns to win the entire match!
Luis wins 2-0
Vintage Super League 