Since the last time I was at the Sunken City cup was a great experience, I thought I would go again this year. As always, you have to start off somewhere when choosing a deck. I was thinking about playing with Evil Eye of Orms by Gore, since I had recently gotten a playset. The deck looked funny enough, but was unfortunately very thoroughly trashed by pretty much every deck I ran in to while doing a couple of testruns at kitchen tables. To fair, the level of spikeness was very high, so pairing a deck that is supposed to do something a little different is bound to end up in failure in those settings. But it did demotivate my quite a lot.
 |
| I mean, I thought it looked kinda cute |
Perhaps my ambition of not playing blue and depending mostly on playing spirit link on an evil eye while not trying to die from other creatures by putting wall of swords in the way of attackers was a bit to spicy to actually work. So I tried adding a little blue, to try of that did a bit better. At the time I was still going for playing something powerless.
I tried adding some clones to have more evil eyes, or be able to block big creatures my opponents might play. But it was still a bit too gimmicky to have a real chance. Even playing against less than tier 1 decks made me lose in spectacular ways. And as much as I hate to admit it, I do like being crushed. Losing after a really tight match is perfectly acceptable, but being crushed over and over again is just not something I like when I play magic.
And, also, even though I had not planned it, I ran into these. To be honest, I did not think I would actually do this to my wallet. Just the weekend before, while I was talking to Eric, I was talking about how I would like to have played all the different sorts of decks one can play in oldschool, I said that some might always just be an ambition. Mainly because of the cost. But also because I am a bit scared of having really expensive cards mailed to me, because I have had some pretty lousy experiences with the mail, including have a beta card delivered to me with a 90 degree angle in it, right through the middle. And it was not even the senders fault. The package it was send it was actually mangled in such a way that the card, which had been between to cardboard plates in a toploader, was bent pretty badly. So I could just not see myself ordering expensive cards with the risk something like that would happen. And then, out of nowhere, these were there, in a row, in one binder.
I was telling myself it was a bit insane. But I had also sold some cards that I did not use in the last year (I know, never do that! But they were spare copies, I still had others) so I could afford it. And a chance like this would not present itself anytime soon. I asked the seller for a good price for these three, and it was acceptable enough that I bought them, even though it is still en ridiculous amount of money. But now I could add the "time vault deck" class of decks to my Oldschool bucket list.
Having played against twiddle/vault, that was not immediately what I wanted to try, I wanted to try different ways of playing these things. Stasis was also something I did not want to start with. So, I made something else. To be fair, I have no idea what it is to play a deck with 4 Time Vaults. I had only once before played my single Time Vault which I have had for 30 years or so, in a deck that was very much looking to get that single card into play, then make use of it to get infinite turns. I did manage that a couple of times, but playing with just one always felt way to fragile. But now I had 4. So I could try it. I felt that taking infinite turns could be pretty powerful and I did not want my opponents to feel like they did not have a chance. Also, I wanted to play something I felt would be cool to watch. So I started off with this, a mono black version. I later added a fourth Xenic Poltergeist on loan from Arno, since I appear not to own 4. Not even a single chronicles version, even though I am pretty sure I had plenty of those in the day.
 |
| Horrendously expensive, still pretty bad, but cool! |
I tried some rounds of this against Peter. Who crushed me with mono green over and over, then crushed me with mono blue. And with blue/white. All of them powerless.
 |
| I can tell you, one feels pretty dumb having 3 of these, but no poltergeist.. |
So, I had to have 4 poltergeist then. And I gave in, and added blue power to increase the odds.
Peter then proceeded to kill me over and over again, with me winning 1 single game, and that was with Guardian Beast/Chaos Orb. Time vault did not even play a role in this game. So, still not what I was looking for. The mono black, or black/blue versions look funny, but they end up making the player look like an ass for spending all that money on a deck that does not do anything. Well, with only a day to go before the tournament I was going to, that was not what I was looking for.
Still not wanting to go for a tier1/2 like version of twiddlevault, I tried doing something else, and built an animated vault version. I did some games of playtesting, in one of which I ended up with 4 time vaults in play, and still was not able to win on that turn, because I simply did not draw anyting useful that would make me win. What was clear though, was that it was a better concept than the black/blue version, because I actually won some games. The birds of paradise were not really working though, I had a lot of draws with birds in my opening hand, but no green mana, so these needed to go.
The first match I actually managed to win a game. Even though I was wondering why I was passing the turn with the above boardstate.
So, I revived an age-old tradition, built a new version of the deck without the birds of paradise, and took that to the Sunken City cup. Arriving there, there were lots of familiar faces, and some new ones. After I said my hello's to some of the guys, I did some scrounging in the enormous amount of cards Wijnand from Power9 had brought to sell. Unfortunately, there were neither AN, nor revised, nor FBB versions of Jandor's saddlebags available. There were some 4th edition though, so I took those to try if a deck with more Saddlebags and xenic poltergeists wil work. I have a suspicion it won't, but I want to try anyway. When it was time to be paired for the first round, I was paired against Tum, who plays a very aggressive tier 1 armageddon deck with dust to dust in the sideboard. That was not a good pairing to start off with, but what can you do. I had good opening hand which I kept, even though it would be kind of slow.
I was expecting the Ancestrall recall to provide me with more lands. Which it did not, by the way. And Tum was off to a very quick start with 2 moxen, which made it possible for him to play a very fast Erhnam Djinn.
I tried starting up the engine, but it was bit slow and even though I got out howling mine and time vault, and even another howling mine, I had to pass the turn, unfortunately.
As was to be expected, my opponent played Armageddon, which was quite a big problem for me. I had kept my chaos orb in my hand, and thanks to my moxen I was able to play it to get rid of the Djinn. That gave me some more time.
Slowing him down a bit more with a mana short, I was stalling for time, but my opponent was able to play a Serendib Efreet anyway. I played another howling mine, and another time vault in case of a disenchant.
The disenchant was fortunately absent. That meant I was able to get a twiddle eventually, and when that was not meant wit a disenchant, I could try for the living vault combo. And that worked. It took a moment to let what I was doing sink in for my opponent, but when he realized he would never get another turn, he conceded the game so we could play another game. Not that it would have taken long, I had out the hive, which meant I would do 1,2,3,4,5,6 damage in the following turns, so it would have been done in less than 5 minutes.
The second game went more as I had feared earlier, with a very early dust to dust, plenty of disenchants and divine offerings, all within the first 5 turns or so, followed by armageddon. And another armageddon.
Oh, and I was then also mind twisted, which made me lose pretty much everything I would be able to use to get out of this, like recall and wheel of fortune. There was no coming back from something like that, so I lost game 2. Game 3 had an opening hand which seemed fine enough.
I wanted to play carefully, and not give away that I was holding moxen, just in case I would draw into the vault and instill energy in the next turns. Maybe my opponent would tap out if he would not see it coming. It turns out though, he was going to be doing something else on turn one, dropping a mox, a land, a sol ring and a black vise. I knew black vise would be a problem when I built this deck, so I should not be complaining, but it was a bit disappointing to see he would be able to play armageddons from turn 2.
The vise meant I would have to be going for another strategy, so even though that would mean risks if he had dust to dust again I had to play the moxen to not die from the vise, and I just went for taking some more turns with time walk, regrowth, time walk. That did not do much, since my deck refused to get going in those extra turns. I got an ancestral recall though, but I decided not to play it to keep 2 blue mana open, hoping to suggest a counterspell, but that did not keep him from playing another mind twist.
Sigh. I played the ancestral in response, but still lost some good cards in the process, including a time vault.
This was followed up by Armageddon, so I would not be doing much anyway. This also stalled the game for a couple of turns, which eventually led to the game ending in a draw. To be fair, I probably would have lost that match, but you never know. I have played some games with the deck after the tournament, and have more than a handful of games while on 2 or even 1 life.
For round 2, I was paired against mister Bonthuis, a veteran oldschool player I have met on many tournaments. He was playing a lion/dib/serra triple S type deck. Not a great matchup because of the swords to plowshares and disenchants, I figured. But my opening hand was not bad when I looked at it. All I needed to happen is that Peter would tap out. That might happen in the first couple of turns I figured, so a small window in which I might go for it.
He put on the pressure early, with a quick Serendib due to a mox in his opening hand.
I tried twiddle on time vault pretty early on, and that was not followed up by a disenchant. I tried again. No disenchant. That is when I went for it after I drew into the instill energy I needed, and I managed to piece the combo together.
I played another instill energy on the time vault, so I could attack with it and take an extra turn. Peter gave up after a couple of those turns.
I took a mulligan to 6, and kept a hand of which all the cards are visible in this picture. Well, not the instill energy, I drew that from the top. I kept my plan in place, and tried for a quick advantage with wheel of fortune.
Sort of furtunately, Peter tapped out on turn 2, playing 2 extra savannah lions, which meant I would not have a lot of time. But he was tapped out, so if I drew anything decent, I would be able to just go for it.
Unfortunately, the early howling mine had not given me the extra cards I needed, and neither had the ancestral recall so I would have to take the six damage from the lions, which I did. Technically, I was drawing great cards, just not the correct ones together.
I countered a serendib efreet on that same turn, and then played balance in my turn.
After drawing some more lands, I played recall on the ancestral recall, played it, and still ended up with this hand. Well, maybe next turn then?
But no, I was mind twisted, and Peter got the 3 cards that might have done something together.
And a land. But that was not the issue here. And he also strip mined my library, while he was still drawing cards with his.
Even with 2 howling mines and sylvan library in play, my deck produced nothing but lands and a mana short, so I just lost. I had drawn a lot of power, had mines in play, but the mind twist killed my deck just in time.
So it was up to the last game then. Again, plenty of restricted cards on my side here.
I got what I needed pretty early, but this time Peter did not tap out, and when I tried to go for animate artifact on my time vault, he disenchanted it.
Oh, and he disenchanted the second one as well.
I was able to play mana short a couple of turns later though, which gave me an option to play mana vault and twiddle, use up the life I could spare from the sylvan library, and manage to get out the combo. Unfortunately, even though this meant I would win given enough time, I did not draw another animate artifact or something like a twister or wheel to speed of the process, and that meant the game ended in a draw :( This was a pretty bad start of the day, 2 draws in a row. That did not bode well for the rest of the day, unless I would be able to get 6 draws in a row, since that is something that never happened to me before.
After 2 draws, I was obviously going down the ranks to the lower tables, so I was hoping to at least make the deck work on the next round. My opening hand contained a library, time vault and a twiddle, so that looked like a fine start.
But, as happend so many times, somehow entropy alligns in such a wach that my library was stripped on turn one. I sometimes happen to have an active library, but somehow when I try to remember how games went, I more often than not end up with a library in de the graveyard or a colorless manasource.
As my opponent started beating with savannah lions and osai vultures, I am not sure what I countered with the manadrain, but I think it was another creature, and I took the mana to use at the best way, by playing time vault, twiddle and timetwister in the hopes it would spiral out of control from there.
Which it sort of did. I needed to transmute another timevault for howling mine to get in to play, and got the combo working after another twiddle turn. I still needed a way to win though, which eventually showed up with another animate artifact which allowed me to attack with howling mine.
By that time, my opponent conceded and we were off to game 2. The second game I was expecting a lot of artifact hate from white, but I still thought that this looked very promising.
I had a complete obscene amount of power in the first 2 turns, and could have played out the combo if I had it. That would have to wait though.
It took a couple of more turns when my opponent was so kind to tap out, which made it possible to take some more risks. I had to transmute a mox into a timevault, then was able to play twiddle, regrowth, twiddle, and that eventually got me the cards I needed for the win.
On the next match, I was greeted by a dragon engine on turn 2 by my opponent. Although that seemed interesting to me at the time, it would be doing quite some damage if I did not do anything about it.
And, not doing something about it was exactly what my deck was feeling like. It produced a chaos orb, thankfully, but even after a timetwister and with a howling mine and sylvan library in play, pretty much nothing happened since I did not draw anything.
I eventually had to play balance just to get rid of an atog that might have killed me. Long story short, my deck did nothing and I lost game 1. On to game 2.
Game 2 I was greeted with black vises. I managed to get COP red out, but the vise was still a pretty big problem, since I would need to be careful what I was playing and keep some mana open.
Even though it was pretty hard work with not one but 2 black vises on the other side, I eventually made it through, and eventually went infinite.
Game 3 however, I was again greeted by a lot of vises, and I could not get out from under them. Damn. Well, on to the next round, against Dominic Finders. He was playing a quick green/blue deck with mana elves and Serendib efreets.
Even though he had the 2 blue mana open, I just had to try it and tried playing out the combo. Which worked. He had no counterspell, lucky for me.
Also, he was kind enough to be the first person to just let me play out this mess of a deck and kill him with attacking time vaults. I did have to twiddle his Efreet first to do that, and this was the first time I actually won a game by damaging someone with time vaults.
I could have also attacked with howling mines. I know. But there was something weirdly satisfying in killing someone with just time vault damage. Another notch on the oldschool bucket list, since I had never done that before.
The second game I was doing my best, but was quickly overrun by creatures before I could go off.
The third game also took a bit longer, but I managed to get out the combo and won by attacking with howling mine and time vault.
The last match of the day I was paired against Remko. Damn. That meant having to play someone from my home town for the last match. Never nice to have to play someone you have to then drive home with :) The first game I thankfully managed to get through before Remko could get out underworld dreams.
The second game I was not so lucky. Even though I had sideboarded in disenchants, I was eventually killed by underworld dreams. It would be down to the last game. Also, Remko had sideboarded in deathgrip. Ugh. That was bad.
The third game, I was fortunate enough to get the disenchants here and there, which kept me alive for some time. There was a weird moment when I was expecting to lose this game, thinking that there would not be a chance for me to win before Remko would kill me, since he would be able to counter the instill energy. This had also something to do with a lack of mana to just "go off" at the time. I was thinking, and figured there would not really be a chance to make it, and I mentioned that to Remko as well. And then, I drew a land, a mox, and a sol ring. That gave me a net boost of 3 mana to spend in one turn, and that was enough to get the combo running while Remko was tapped out. He was tapped out mostly because I tried playing a time vault, then twiddling the time vault, which he countered with red elemental blast. That made sense, considering on the face of things, I was not going to be doing much. I then played the land, the mox and sol ring. With the extra 3 mana , I could play animate artifact and instill energy was well, and get into to infinite turn mode. To make sure I would not lose out because of time, I animated a mirror universe, and started attacking with that, and made some hive tokens as well. This gave me the game. Lucky me.
I ended up 11th out of 35. Not bad for a first time with a deck like thise. Maybe something like this has top 8 potential. Or maybe I should just go for a full twiddle vault version. I don't know yet. We'll see.
This was the version of the deck I played. I might play another version somewhere in the future and see how that works, since this version was not as powerful as I had expected. It was an interesting first time playing with these things. Next time I will be playing something else again, as I tend to do, but I am sure the time vaults will see play again somewhere.
