ODOL(Online Dutch Oldschool League) November
New month, new league! This month Mishra's Factory has been released from its chains and were back to normal swedish rules with reprints allowed. I had a good run last month with my "serious" deck, and this month I wanted to try something else. Well, not really that different because I still don't own that many cards, but I tried to mix things up by building around some new cards in my collection, mainly Yawgmoth Demon and Mana Vault. These two cards seem to fit each other rather well, as I can use the Vaults to ramp into the Demon which then can eat them to save me from any damage. This is the deck I chose to play:
The deck is really un-tuned, and this month will be used for testing as I think I might be on to something with the Vault and Demon "combo". Thing I want to change came clear pretty fast, more on that later.
Match 1 vs GWU Midrange
In my first match I luckily get to play Bas who got sick last month so we couldn't play our match then. His deck of choice is a GWU midrange deck, which had some Adventure Island elements. From what I saw, he played quite a few Sylvan Librarys and Sindbads, which can be a really great engine when it gets going. Here is his deck:
Match 1 vs GWU Midrange
Game 1: Bas gets to go first and on turn 2 he plays a Sylvan Library, a card that seems really good vs all decks I play, lol. I Sinkhole his Factory on my turn, expecting his Library to find him a new land which it does, but at least I get rid of that pesky Factory. Turn 3 I play my own Factory and goes Dark Ritual into Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore to start the beats, he finds a land next turn and Psi Blast the Factory when I animate it. I actually made a mistake here that cost me a land, because I couldn't have attacked with the Factory anyways because of the Evil Eye. He plays an Ernham on his turn while I play an Ancestral Recall which I tutored for the previous turn, and destroy his lone Plains with another Sinkhole, but the Library finds him a City of Brass this time. He plays a Serendib Efreet and attack me down to 16 with Ernie, but the Evil Eye relentlessly drops him to 9, and a Triskelion joins the board. The Eye then dies to Swords to Plowshares, and he attacks me down to 12, but Serendib damage and an attack and three pings from Trikes ends game 1 in my favor.
Game 2: I don't sideboard much vs him, but I bring in 2 Plains, 2 Disenchants and a Terror. I have to mull to 6, and Bas starts off with a Strip Mine, while I play City of Brass and Black Vise. City gets stripped but I play Underground Sea and Mana Vault on my second turn. The Vault gets disenchanted, and he follows up with a Sylvan Library. A few turns later I have a Su-Chi in play, but he puts Spirit Link on it, so it has to stay home. He also plays a couple of Sindbads, and can start some real card advantage along with the Library. I finally dig up a Disenchant, choose to destroy the Spirit Link to start attacking with the Su-Chi and a Factory. Sindbad nets him a few extra lands, but thanks to the early Vise and a few attacks, his life-total is so low that he can't afford to use the Library to draw even more cards. He disenchants my Su-Chi, and play one himself to start attacking me. He's at 6 life and I'm at 26 because he has sworded a Yawgmoth Demon and 2 factories, but he attacks me down to 14, and Psi Blast me to 10, but at the end of his turn I play my own Psionic Blast to end the match:
2-0 Win
Match 2 vs UW Skies
The second match is due, and this time I play vs Patrick and his UW Skies deck. This is the 75 he chose to play:
This deck looks really good, wonder if I can beat this?
Game 1: I get to go first, and my turn 1 play is swamp, ritual, Sol Ring and Su-Chi, pretty sweet. He plays Tundra and has the Swords for my Su-Chi when I attack, I Sinkhole his Tundra and pass. Library of Alexandria hits the board, but I take 5 cards from his hand thanks to a Mind Twist off a Dark Ritual. He stumbles on lands, and with him playing from the top of his deck, I end the game rather quickly with a Su-Chi and a Triskelion.
Game 2: For game 2 I bring in Disenchants, Plains and a Terror. He takes a mulligan, and his turn 1 Factory gets stripped. Both play some land, and when he taps out for a Serendib Efreet, I take out the rest of his hand with another Mind Twist. The Efreet hits pretty hard though and when another Factory joins his board, I need to play the Yawgmoth Demon with only two Mana Vaults as food for him. I have a Disenchant in hand though, so if he animates the Factory, I can deal with it. With so few artifacts on the board I want to race his team, and the Demon starts attacking. It beats pretty hard, and with damage from his own Efreet, he drops to 12. He attacks with the Efreet and the factory like I wanted, and I Disenchant the man-land. In the meantime I've drawn a Su-Chi, and can attack another turn with the Demon to bring him down to 3. He draws no answers and eventually dies to his own Efreet. Pretty unlucky for him to get Twisted both games, though.
2-0 Win
Match 3 vs Erhnam on Ice
In the 3rd round I play vs Robbie who has already gone 5-0 in this months league, wow! This means that if I'm still going to have a chance for top8, I need to beat him. Here's a picture of his deck:
Awesome deck, one of my absolute favorite non black decks in old school.
Game 1: He goes first and plays a forest, while I play swamp and Black Vise. He then plays a Sylvan Library which is becoming sort of a nemesis for my decks, lol. On my turn I go land, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual and a Yawgmoth Demon. Woot! My first turn 2 Demon. I have 2 artifacts to feed to it, and an Ancestral Recall in hand to hopefully draw into more gas. He plays a plains and Ice Storm one of my lands, while the Demon eats the Vault in my upkeep, Ancestral draws me three fresh cards, but no artifacts, just a couple of Rituals and a land. I attack him down to 11, and on his turn he disenchants my last artifact meaning there's no attacks for me this turn. I just drew a Trikes however, so if it lives to my next turn, I can shoot him for three and feed it to the demon. He has another Disenchant ready though, and he just takes 3 from Trikes and 1 from City of Brass to put him on 7 life. Things are looking rough for me now, and I see the need to play Timetwister on my next turn to draw a fresh hand. Not much gas there either, but I do play a Factory which can be fed to the demon next turn. He has a Disenchant ready for it though, and I take another 2 from the demon putting me on 9. I eye an opening when I play a Mana Vault and Mind Twist his hand the next turn, but the Library find him an Icy Manipulator which he can use to control the game and eventually beat me down with an Erhnam Djinn.
Game 2: I take a mulligan and play Underground Sea, Vault on my first turn, and Ancestral turn 2. Pretty nice mulligan. The Ancestral is crap though, netting me 2 lands, and a Dark Ritual. He plays a Preacher for his turn, and I use the ritual to power out a Trikes to shoot down the Preacher. He slams the Sylvan Library again, but I have a sideboarded Disenchant ready for it. Trikes eats a Disenchant too, and I'm left with 4 lands and a ritual in my hand. He then plays a Serra Angel, which I can Psionic Blast two turns later, but the Erhnam he has deployed in the meanwhile ends the game in his favor. 6-0 for him, and a well deserved top8 locked already.
0-2 Loss
Match 4 vs Fish
So I'm already out of contention for top8, but that doesn't mean I still can't have some fun.
Time for the 4th match, this time vs Fulco and his monoblue Fish deck:
Another sweet deck that seems to be really aggressive and fast, backed up by countermagic.
Game 1: He wins the die roll, and goes Island into Flying Men. I play Factory, Sapphire, Time Walk, then Mox Jet and attack with the Factory on my extra turn, great start. Attacks go back and forth a few turns, before I can land a Triskelion to shoot his flyer. He Psi Blasts the Trikes and play a couple of merfolk lords, but I play a pair of Evil Eyes which eventually seals the deal.
Game 2: He sadly has to take a mulligan, and I play a Library of Alexandria. He has a Strip Mine ready for it though, but it draws me a card first. He plays a Dandan, but I go double Vault into Trikes and shoot it down. He has nothing but a couple of Unsummons for the Trikes though, and it shoot him for 3, and comes back. He then tries to take control of it with Control Magic, but it just shoots him for 2 and itself for one to prevent that. He plays a few merfolk, but a Demon joins the party and quickly wins me the game.
2-0 Win
Match 5 vs WR Tron
Match 5 is against Koendert and his WR Tron deck:
Game 1: He gets to start and when he plays a Urza's Tower turn 1, there's no doubt about that he is playing some sort of costly spells. I have a nice start again, with turn 2 Time Walk and Vault, Su-Chi on my extra turn. He has a Plateau and Swords ready for it though, so I go to plan B and start attacking his land base with Sinkholes and Chaos Orbs. Funny enough, I choose to go for the tower, and he just plays a new one every turn, haha. Creatures are played on both sides after a while, Su-Chi for him, which gets blasted, and an Eye for me. He has another Su-Chi though, but if I can avoid the x-spells he surely is packing, I can win the race. Su-Chi number 3 joins his team, but a timely Demon can hold the fort, while the Eye chips in for the win. Close race.
Game 2: I side in some Disenchants for game 2, and he has to take a mulligan. I ramp into Su-Chi with a Vault while he seems to be missing colored mana. Thanks to a Sol Ring he can play an early Trikes, but I have Psionic Blast ready for it. Su-Chi and Mishra's Factory then beats him down fast, and he can't find colored mana in time to deal with my creatures. Pretty unlucky draw for him, but sometimes that happens when you have to play that many colorless mana sources for tron.
2-0 Win
Match 6 vs UR Stasis
4-1 after 5 matches, with only 2 game losses (at the worst possible time), and on to the final match. Here I played versus Clovis and his UR Stasis build:
Game 1: After winning the die roll, I play a Library of Alexandria, and on turn 2 I draw a card and Strip his Island. He also has a Strip Mine, so no more extra cards for me. A couple of factories comes down for me alongside a Black Vise, and he stumbles on land, ouch. He plays Alexandria himself the next turn, but the Vise and factories quickly eat away on his lifetotal. He finds a Lightning Bolt for one Factory, but it's too late and he dies to Vise in his upkeep.
Game 2: He starts off with a bang here, going Island, Mox Jet, Time Walk. and on his extra turn he plays two Black Vise. Holy moly, I need to empty my hand as soon as possible. A few turns pass, and when I finally can get my handsize down to 4 and his to 0 with a Dark Ritual and Mind Twist, my lifetotal has dropped to 4. He plays a Howling Mine, and I need to play atleast two spells a turn to stay alive. Demonic Tutor finds me a Time Walk, and I use the extra turn to play a Mana Vault and a Demon. I have lots of artifacts available, manage keep him off his third land with Sinkholes to stay out of Psionic Blast range, and the Demon and a Factory ends the match with a couple of swings, phew!
2-0 Win
5-1 in matches, 10-2 in games
Another league comes to an end, and yet again it was a blast. My homebrew worked like a charm, putting down a better result than i had hopes for. In hindsight the Evil Eyes probably could be switched with the likes of Tetravus, but I don't own any of them yet. The Vault/Demon combo seemed really powerful, and Black Vises were perfect for early damage and demon-food later. I would like the deck to be a bit more grindy at times, but it was amazingly lethal versus slow and clunky draws. Maybe this deck could actually be really good with some fine tuning? I will surely be working on it from time to time, because it was really fun to play, and felt very powerful at times. Next month I will play something different though, and let the Demon rest in the underworld for some time.
Thanks to Henk for organizing as always, and to my opponents for nice matches and cool decks which I luckily was allowed to post in this report. Hope to sling some magic spells with you again soon!