By Ian Files

I wasn’t able to go to the Hurricane last year because I had already committed to something else the same weekend in San Antonio, but everyone talked about it so much I locked it in for this year as soon as it was announced. I split an AirBNB with 7 other folks from Austin and drove down solo on Friday to hit a couple museums and grab dinner with a friend who lives in Houston before joining the rest of the crew in the evening. Saturday was Old School where I played a 5c Erhnamgeddon pile to a modest 2-3 finish but had a lot of sweet games. We had some good Chinese food and got some last minute testing in for Vintage.

Sunday morning we had donuts and leftover Chinese for breakfast and then headed over to the venue for the comparatively intimate Vintage event (27 versus Old School’s near-50).

In the wake of the Urza’s Saga and Vexing Bauble restrictions, I really wasn’t sure how the format would look. I knew my deck wasn’t directly impacted but I was also afraid there would be a lot of Oath, which I consider to be my worst matchup. I only changed a couple cards from the version of the deck I played at the Oklahoma Land Run, mainly replacing Tarmogoyfs with Psychic Frogs after one of my opponents condescendingly but correctly told me I should:

Round 1: Martin on Wheel Combo

Martin’s deck was super spicy. He had Howling Mine, Library of Alexandria, and Wheel effects paired with Words of Wind, Hullbreacher, and Black Vise. Unfortunately, none of this matched up well against my bears and countermagic.

Match: 2-0 Overall 1-0

Round 2: Eric on Wg Solemnity Prison

It took me a while to figure out what Eric was on and I made some bad plays trying to play around stuff that wasn’t in his deck before I ground out a win game 1. He was able to lock me out of game 2 with Crucible but Frog did a really good job of racing Spirit of the Labyrinth in game 3 and the match came down to me being able to jump the Frog for lethal. The match was super sweet and overall felt really close.

Match: 2-1 Overall 2-0

Round 3: Peter on Oath

My heart kind of sank as soon as I saw Forbidden Orchard. My deck really struggles with the Oath matchup because I’m trying to attack with 2/2s which turn on Oath and get completely bricked by Atraxa. My best card by far is Containment Priest out of the board, but they have Oko as an easy plan B/answer to Priest and there are a lot of cards in my 75 that don’t really do anything in the matchup so I have to walk the line between trying to rely on Countermagic or mulligan aggressively and find the relevant hatebears. Game 1 I had Ouphe + Deathrite in hopes he kept a hand reliant on rocks but he did his thing and I scooped to the Atraxa. Game 2 I was able to stick an early Containment Priest and beat down while he unsuccessfully looked for an answer. Game 3 I wasn’t sure if my opening 6 was good enough, but I didn’t feel like I could mulligan to Containment Priest too aggressively because my hand was functional and had threat + countermagic + fast mana. He tried to Tinker but Flusterstorm meant I was able to answer it even through his Force of Will, and then a turn or two later I found the Containment Priest. He had an Abrupt Decay but Lurrus meant I never had to pass the turn without Priest and that was enough.

Match: 2-1 Overall: 3-0

Round 4: Collin on UB Lurrus

I really don’t remember this match super clearly but I know I made a few bad plays, he drew more removal, and his Frogs were bigger than mine.

Match: 0-2 Overall: 3-1

Round 5: Eli on MonoR Prison

Game 1 he was on the play and had T1 Blood Moon; I almost scooped but decided to stick it out since he didn’t have any real pressure. After a few turns of draw-go I found Lotus which let me play my Lurrus and I was gradually able to establish a board presence via Lotusing every turn until I found Cathar Commando and got rid of the Blood Moon. By the time he found his threats I had way too many answers in hand and pressure on board. Game 2 I had an early Frog that was too big for Fury to deal with and that was that.

Match: 2-0 Overall: 4-1

At this point I knew I was in T8 but we were waiting to see standings. After round 4 there was no one undefeated, but Collin and Peter both had the same record as me and I really didn’t want to test my luck against either of them again. Instead I got paired against Eli again, to his dismay. Since I was 2nd seed, I got to be on the play in all my T8 matches.

QF: Eli on MonoR Prison

This match was even more skewed in my favor than our previous match. I think a deck like mine that can reasonably fight over mana, on the stack, or in combat is MonoR’s worst nightmare. His best plan is to land an early moon, but with Moxen + DRS + FOW it’s just tough. He was a good sport about it though.

Match: 2-0 Overall: 5-1

SF: Rob on RWu Painter

Rob was in my AirBNB and we had been joking all day about getting paired, because my deck looks like a horrendous matchup for him on paper. I actually don’t think it’s as bad as it looks, mainly on the back of Portable Hole, but it’s still not ideal for him. Our game 1 went on for what felt like at least 30 minutes and I got down to about 20 cards in library before I was able to take over the game. Game 2 he got a quick Vault + Key while I was trying to control his board. Game 3 I had a better handle on what was in his deck and what to play around, but we still had a good bit of back and forth before I got there in the end. This match was really fun, I think a definite highlight of the weekend for both of us.

Match: 2-1 Overall: 6-1

F: Dan on Golos Shops

I was pretty sure Dan was on Shops but didn’t know what build. I’m pretty favored against Jewel Shops but the less they rely on artifacts that tap (read: The One Ring, Coveted Jewel) the dicier it gets. Dan had pretty minimal artifacts with activated abilities aside from Moxen and had a lot more prison elements and big scary creatures like Stonecoil Serpent which made this a challenge. Our game 1 was super sweet, I had no lands most of the game courtesy of his Crucible and had to win by converting his and my Wastelands into Deathrite drains (even jamming Ancestral into a Chalice for the final card in graveyard to exile!) Game 2 I Gushed away my lands in response to Golos looking for countermagic and he was able to wipe my board by searching for Tabernacle with the Golos, which was not a line I had considered. Game 3 went pretty long again. He wound up with multiple lethal threats and a Soul-Guide Lantern that was locked under a Collector Ouphe. I wanted to Mystic Sanctuary a Pest Control and then Dig Through Time to draw it. I tried to attack my Ouphe into a blocker to unlock a Mox so I could hold up an extra white mana in case Dig found a Plow in addition to the Pest Control, but I forgot that this would let him exile my graveyard with Lantern before I could play Sanctuary from my hand. I’m not sure how executing this line correctly would have affected the game outcome, but it was definitely a major blunder that closed the door on me. This match, like the one with Rob, was really fun and definitely one I’ll remember for a long time.

  • Match: 1-2
  • Overall: 6-2 and good for 2nd place!

This event was an absolute blast! I’m still on the hunt for my Invitational slot but I feel like I make fewer dumb mistakes with every event which is rewarding on its own. I joke a lot about not liking Vintage much but as long as I get to have long interactive matches like these I’m pretty happy.

Props:

  • Simon, Ben, and all the behind-the-scenes folks that made this event happen
  • My AirBNB crew for being total chillers
  • All my opponents
  • Rudyard’s for hosting us

Slops:

  • Not figuring out that the couch I was sleeping on expanded until the second night
  • Drawing 10+ mana sources in a row in the 4th round of Oldschool
  • Not taking notes and piecing this writeup together from memory (apologies if I misremembered anything)