Manalink Vintage Competition (winners posted)

[thedrigo]

FUN FUN FUN!
I think and EDH tournament would be AMAZING! Thanks everyone for the nice comments for when my deck bombed...
I really enjoyed the anticipation of seeing how my build had fared against all of your decks and all your comments on it more than seeing the results at the end!
Thanks again for this awesome experiment, Jatill!


PS.

final results in

nyktorian zoo went 10-0. don't have the notes anymore but since it didn't lose there are no 5 points to dish out)

green force went 1-1 win versus blue4u and loss versus juzamjedi
juzamjedi in turn went 2-1 with wins versus affinity and kakodrilo while losing to thedrigo after a double mulligan
kakodrilo went 5-1 losing to slivers after taking down haterator, green force, blue4u, imperial zoo and warrior stompy

scoring!

nyktorian zoo 10 (undefeated) + 5 (win versus quirion cognis) -> 15
juzam kakodrilo 5 (5-1) + 5 (win versus blue4u) + 5 (win versus monty muck) -> 15
thedrigo zoo 10 (undefeated) -> 10
imperial zoo 10 (undefeated) -> 10
warrior stompy 4 (4-1) + 5 (win versus Yggdra) -> 9
Yggdra 4 (4-1) + 5 (win versus affinity) -> 9
blue4u scores 6 (6-1) ->6
affinity 6 (6-1) -> 6
juzamjedi 5 (5-1) -> 5
quirion cognis 4 (4-1) -> 4
monty muck 1 (1-1) -> 1
green force 1 (1-1) 1 (bit confused here. I remember losing to this deck once while testing. maybe it was before I did the proper testing according to jatill's rules)

did not include the +5 points for wins to jatill's decks since I did not test them (except for stax). do you want me to?

Quick question: (I don't wanna sound greedy but) Don't I get another plus 5 for my deck defeating Juzamjedi?

[scherbchen]

Quick question: (I don't wanna sound greedy but) Don't I get another plus 5 for my deck defeating Juzamjedi?

absolutely correct. thanks for pointing that out. edited my post.

did the same to juzamjedi I now realize who defeated green force.

bit of a sloppy bookkeeping there on my part. got so caught up in rechecking my previous posts that I did not take into account the results I posted for the last matches together with the scores. should have been two posts

[discoransom]

My Results

25 Nyktorion Zoo 10 + 15

17 Yggdrasil B/G Aggro 7 + 10

15 Imperial Zoo 10 + 5

13 thedrigo Zoo 8 + 5

12 Jatill STAX 2 + 10

9 Awwfinity 4 + 5

9 JuzamJedi Zoo 4 + 5

7 Kakodrilo Juzam 2 + 5

7 Monty Muck 7

5 Jatill Haterator 0 + 5

5 scherbchen Blue4u 5

3 Greenforce 3

2 Cogis Quirion 2

1 Jatill Slivers 1

1 Warrior Stompy 1

[discoransom]

This tourney was a lot of fun- I would definitely do another, so great idea!

Some decks that stood out to me were: Nyktorion Zoo- for putting up a list that the AI played very well, without losing any of the power of Zoo; Yggdrasil- for making some great meta decisions that I would have never considered (Ravenous Baloth wtf? ), and Monty Muck for being a good brain-testing build, and my favorite. Every deck was fun to play.

cheers

[EviL_CLonE]

Dude, my deck sucks! Just grabbed a deck from my pool and send it to Jattill... I can't build T1 decks

[Yggdrasil]

Yggdrasil- for making some great meta decisions that I would have never considered (Ravenous Baloth wtf? )

I also made very poor decisions (Beacon of Unrest, so lame ). Ravenous Baloth is usually well-played by the AI, that's the main reason behind this choice. And it's a multi-usage card like the Gatekeeper of Malakir or Shriekmaw. Often useful.
However, with more time to elaborate my deck, I would have replace it by 4 Wall of Blossoms.

@EviL_ClonE : next time will be better. But I guess every other player will improve his/her deck.

[jatill]

And the winners...

I totaled the score 2 ways. First, I added my scores to the average of all of your scores. Results were as follows:

Code: Select all

Nyktorian   40.57142857
Yggdrasil   30.85714286
Aww1979   29.14285714
Disco    28.14285714
Thedrigo   24.85714286
scherbchen   20.14285714
JuzamJedi   19.71428571
jatill   19.57142857
Salbei   17.71428571
jatill   17.28571429
jatill   17.28571429
Cognis   14.71428571
Karodrilo   6.571428571
Evil Clone   5.857142857
Brandon   4.285714286



Then I ran the scores again, counting all results equally, and came up with:

Code: Select all

Nyktorian   134
Disco    107
Yggdrasil   96
Aww1979   96
JuzamJedi   90
Thedrigo   84
jatill   61
jatill   61
Salbei   52
scherbchen   51
jatill   47
Karodrilo   46
Cognis   37
Evil Clone   35
Brandon   30


So in both cases Nyktorian is the landslide winner. Congratulations. Please post the tops 3 cards you'd like me to code (in order or preference).

The runners up are discorandom and Yggdrasil. You can also list 3 cards and I'll code the one of my choice.

Nyktorian,Yggdrasil, and aww1979 will also have their decks immortalized by becoming part of the challenge mode gauntlet.

I hope everyone had fun! My results spreadsheet is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/lnk5qjykzte/Scores.xls

Here is my final list of hilights:
Play turn 1 Goblin Charbelchers, and activate it turn 2 for 58 damage.
Attack for 12 on turn 2 with the Affinity deck
Smugly play a turn 1 Blood Moon against a zoo deck only to lost to Figure of Destiny
AI played Platinum Angel + Blanchwood against a deck with no removal. And lost.
Quirion Grow vs. B/G Rock: Game 1 I was going to die to Spiritmonger, only to rip Time Walk on the last possible turn to attack for the win. Next game, I kept au unbeatable hand of 3 Accumulated Knowledge, and proceeded to lose to 2 unkicked Gatekeeper of Malakir.
Having a different Tattermunge Maniacs enchanted with Rancor and Armidillo Cloak… only to get blown out by Maelstrom Pulse.
Got to copy a Chain Lightning using the nearly mono-green Warrior deck
I was just playing JuzamJedi Zoo against Salbei's Belcher deck. Twice I thought I had the game locked up and then lost. The first time I played turn 1 Wild Nactal, turn 2 Loam Lion + Kird Ape. Your deck plays turn 2 Blood Moon. Ouch. Game 3 I have 5 creates in play at 17 life to your 3 lands and 5 life. Lotus + Land + Belcher later, I'm at -5. Oops!
Found a use for an Everflowing Chalice on 0… Tinker!
Monoblue mulls to 4 against Affinity, keeping Voltaic Key and Mana, hoping to get lucky and rip the Time Vault. Instead, I get Mana Vault and Platinum Angel to live forever. AI topdecks Broodstar, so how can I win now? Next turn… Sword of Fire + Ice.
Monoblue actually managed a turn 3 kill (with damage, not Time Vault combo) against Slivers!
Won a game only because Spiritmonger has a creature type of Beast.
Award for worst deck choice (for AI) goes to scherbchen. The AI frequently played Everflowing Chalice for 0, legend-ruled its own lands, and doesn't know how to play Jitte. Despite all that, I was able to pilot the deck to a 10-0 finish, thought 7 of the 10 matches were only won 2-1.

[scherbchen]

wel I shall bear that award with honour

[Yggdrasil]

You're generous, thank you.
In fact, I have only two cards in mind. So if the other players want to submit me a card of their choice, I will choose one of them as my third card.
You'll just have a slightly chance to have your card coded but who know ? It's slightly magic after all.

AI played Platinum Angel + Blanchwood against a deck with no removal. And lost.

Collector ! (AI always play Platinum Angel like a commonplace 4/4.)

Won a game only because Spiritmonger has a creature type of Beast.

I noted the similarity of type with Ravenous Baloth, but I never thought someone would have to sacrifice a Spiritmonger to stay alive.

Edit : I forgot to congratulate Nyktorian for his very efficient deck. Well done.

[Nyktorion]

Woohoo!
While I did believe that Zoo would be a good choice in an environment that depends on how well the AI can play your deck (thus cutting down the effectiveness of combo decks considerably), this result surpasses what I had imagined when I submitted my deck.

About the prices: wow, being included in the challenge gauntlet sure is nice! I have thought a little about the cards I should request to be added. Currently, I can think of two Vintage staples which might add a new twist to the game: the first card is Misdirection, and the second card is Null Rod. The mere possibility that this card might be present in the opponent's deck might make the game more interesting. In particular in challenge mode, you might want to be more careful in your first turn, if you don't now which deck you are up against, and at least one deck in the challenge mode would contain this card. On the other hand, Null Rod would be an interesting addition because it gives decks heavily using artifacts like Black Lotus, Moxen, or Mana Vault something new to think about. I am not decided about the third slot yet, so like Yggdrasil, I will also happily take suggestions about what should go here

A few more comments about my deck:

What I find interesting: in the first version of the deck I considered for submission, the very cards in my deck that were specifically mentioned in your playtesting reports were not included yet.
I exchanged some other fatties for the two copies of Figure of Destiny, but I had not thought about countering Blood Moon there, but rather about having a late game finisher (8/8 flying, first strike) in case the ground becomes stalled.
Grim Lavamancer was the very last card I decided to add to the deck, thinking that some reusable burning would be good for a metagame where creature heavy decks are to be expected. A possible alternative would have been Cursed Scroll, but it is slower and causes more crashes in the hands of the AI.
When keeping some of the lands basic, I actually did not really think about Blood Moon. I was rather thinking that some basic lands and Moxen would help me against Wasteland decks (there were not many Wastelands in this tournament, but coincidentally, the same things also help nicely against Moon effects), and having something to search for when hit by a Path to Exile (I was expecting more of these, but just juzamjedi and myself had them).
Another thing I was thinking about for a little bit was something to draw some extra cards once the first wave of attackers loses its steam. I considered Sylvan Library, which is included in some Zoo decks, but I did not want to entrust the AI with the life paying option. Another possibility would have been Dark Confidant, but I did not want to add a fourth color to the deck. For the same reason, I also did not think further about adding a blue splash for some Vintage power cards. So I chose to rely on a single Wheel of Fortune, and the brute force the first 10 or so cards in the library.

Also, congratulations to aww1979 and Yggdrasil, for doing so well in this Zoo heavy metagame In particular, I remember awwfinity to be pretty scary to play against, if mana acceleration (like Mishra's Workshop) allows for some big early artifact creatures, in particular, if at least one of these creatures is a Lodestone Golem.

[aww1979]

Hmm, well I'm pleased my deck did well Was hoping to win, of course, but there can only be one, and congrats to nyktorian for being the winner.

I'm still rather surprised nobody else did affinity. It was one of the first decks I tried when testing, because in the past, I had noticed that the AI always did very well with the affinity decks I'd made before, except when it would sac everything with Arcbound Ravager :p (which is why I didn't include it in the deck) Even then, if I didn't draw removal, it could still sometimes win even playing that badly. Also, the longest consecutive winning streak I ever had in my gauntlet was with an affinity deck (somewhere around 42-43 games) so I reasoned it was a good choice.

And yes, I know it has been said before, but it bears repeating: Where the heck were the baneslayers? :p

Looking forward to the next tournament Time to start planning my Battle of Wits deck...

[jatill]

Null Rod and Misdirection are both uncodable, unfortunately. Next favorite choice?

[scherbchen]

And yes, I know it has been said before, but it bears repeating: Where the heck were the baneslayers? :p

aye, a decent white/splash deck with solid critters, Swords + Paths might have done well I think.

[juzamjedi]

Here are some cards that I would suggest:

Chalice of the Void
Counterbalance
Ad Nauseam

[Cognis]

I'd suggest Haunting Echoes, Patriarchs Bidding, Engineered Plague, Gempalm Polluter or Rotlung Reanimator, what can I say, I love zombies, milling and BU control decks congrats for the win Nyktorian, you're deck was really effective in the AI's hands, although I was secretly rooting for Discos Imperial Zoo who made good work of Imperial Recruiter and Kor Skyfisher