It all started when my teammate Ashok Chitturi first posted a Vial/Chalice Fish deck on the Meandeck forums, a list that eventually evolved into what he ran at Waterbury:
While he was testing that list, I noticed the strength of Vial and Chalice. As with any innovation in Fish lists, my mind immediately jumped to Worse Than Fish (abbreviated WTF for the remainder of this article). Chalice addressed all the problems I'd been having with Rod: it comes out much sooner, doesn't run into Drain (and they don't get mana even if it does), and it stops Goblin Welder and Tinker brokenness. The reason Fish stopped working, besides Trinisphere, was that the control decks it was supposed to beat just had to find and cast Tinker to win the game. With a Chalice for zero on the table, they have only one or two cheap artifacts to Tinker away instead of eight or nine, making that game plan significantly less potent. Vial was also very strong, dodging countermagic, accelerating the deck (it produces three mana by turn 3 if you use it), offering extreme synergy with Ninjas and Standstill, and just being an all-around good card. The power of Vial should come as no surprise to people who play other formats, but many vintage players still underestimate the card.
At this point, I knew I wanted to run Chalice, Vial, Standstill, Ninjas, and Green creatures. River Boa was unfortunately too vulnerable to Lava Dart, so I had to look elsewhere. I wanted at least one cheap creature to return for my Ninjas, ideally one that was a powerful threat, hard to block, and cost zero mana. Basking Rootwalla fit the bill perfectly, and has amazing synergy with the best two-drop in the game, Wild Mongrel. With those two creatures, I wouldn't have to worry about my opponent drawing outs while my creatures struggled to amass 20 damage; I would simply win the game too quickly for that to happen.
At this point, I needed a fourth creature, and it had to be blue, since I was running low on cards to pitch to Force of Will. I settled for the old Fish standby, Spiketail Hatchling. It was okay, but in the future I'll probably run Gaea's Skyfolk or Waterfront Bouncer, depending on the metagame.
Force of Will, Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk were obvious inclusions, but that left me with only three more slots. I still had no real removal (although my Green creatures outclassed almost anything that wasn't 11/11 or 12/12), and I didn't want to splash another color, so I went with the absurd Umezawa's Jitte. This card is utterly amazing. It removes troublesome creatures like Goblin Welder, helps speed up my kill, and comes down quickly while Vial gets out my creatures. I ran two and a Black Vise, although in the future I'll likely just run three.
The manabase for the deck was fairly straightforward. Factories, Wastes, and Library have synergy with everything else I'm doing, and let me play my spells early and still have useful lands later on. Five fetches supported my sideboard conversion, and I never needed the fourth Tropical or any additional basics. The two Moxes and the Lotus are obviously off the charts broken, especially in a deck like this, but if you're playing without proxies, they can probably just become lands.
For my sideboard, I wanted a strong answer to an early Oath, since I found I could often race if Oath came down late in the game. That meant that I couldn't expect to draw more than a single copy of the hate I sided in, so it had to be potent. I went with four Ray of Revelation, plus a Tundra and a Plains. With Lotus, five fetches, both white lands, and Mongrel/flashback, I was almost always able to cast a Ray when I needed to. The flashback is key in dealing with counters, or with ridiculous double oath openings. It's especially good because Oath often has to mulligan into their namesake enchantment against Fish, leaving them with fewer resources to fight my Rays.
I also ran some Oxidizes, because Richmond is well known for being a Mishra's Workshop heavy metagame. Oxidize is also particularly solid against Fish, where it hits Rod and Factories. Phyrexian Furnace added some graveyard hate, although they probably should have been Tormod's Crypts, since I had a different sideboard plan for CS/Gifts: Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. Kira is the best defense I've found against Old Man of the Sea, and against targeted removal in general. An extra Jitte rounded out the sideboard.
So, that left me with this list for Richmond: (insert list from deck database)
Well, that spoils the surprise a bit, but most of you probably already know that I made Top 8 anyway. Let's see how I got there.
Round 1, Ian.
I kept a fairly solid but not particularly memorable hand game 1 that turned out to be terrible when he opened with turn 1 Mox, Forbidden Orchard, Oath. I held back all my Green sources and spells, and fortunately for me Akroma was his last card, so I got to see his whole deck. He didn't have any Drains. Game 2, he mulligans into no colored mana. I have a ridiculous opening with Factory, Sapphire, Spiketail, Tropical Island, Mongrel, Walla, Standstill and another Factory all hitting the table by turn 3. I win the game in short order. Game 3, he's forced to spend several Wastelands on Factories, which lets Rootwalla go the distance, as he can't find an Oath. His life total goes 20, 19, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3, lose.
Round 2, George.
I keep an amazing hand with a Chalice, but I've lost the roll, so I'm worried that it won't be effective. He opens with Library, go. How lucky! I drop Chalice 0 and soon Waste the Library, and he just can't get lands out fast enough to stop me. When he finally gets to four mana, he Fact or Fictions into Mox, Mox, Crypt, Mindslaver, and some good Blue card. His life total decreases by five-point increments for a few turns, and I quickly win the game. The second game, he gets an early Tinker->Pentavus, and I can't draw an answer fast enough. Game 3, he warns me not to play Chalice 0 again, but I tell him that it all depends on what cards he cuts me to. I get the turn 1 Chalice, and he groans. Before playing the Chalice, I dropped a Lotus, and played a Factory. Next turn, I drop land, Standstill (I think I got the order of this play wrong in my interview with Bennie). Turn 3, I sac Lotus inside the attack phase to animate and then ninjutsu the Factory, then I replay it. He eventually has to break Standstill for a Tinker->Plat, but by then I have several Ninjas and a Rootwalla out. I swing with both Ninjas, and he thinks for a minute and then blocks one. I draw my card, and it's a Jitte! I play it while he's tapped out. He topdecks and plays a Welder, but has to chump my Jitte'd Rootwalla. I suspect Fire / Ice or something, so when he passes priority I just let damage go on the stack and get my counters, so I can pump Rootwalla if necessary. Next turn, I do the same thing, but I attack with some other creatures too, dropping him to -3 life. My Jitte gets its counters, and I eat Plats, winning the game.
Round 3 Kyle (U/w/b with Exalted Angel).
Game 1, I get some green creatures on the table. He drops a facedown creature, but I Waste his Tundra, and he's forced to chump. I win shortly thereafter. Game 2, he Demonic Tutors for Lotus, and drops Angel on turn 3. I take some hits, but get out a Jitte. I have out Kira, though, so equipping takes 4 mana. I replace Kira with a Ninja, do some math, and then drop Standstill, since I'll get my third Jitte hit in at 2 life. When I swing the second time, he breaks Standstill to tap out for a Cunning Wish, fetching Disenchant (life totals here are 26 to 6). Between the one card I get from the Ninja, and the three from Standstill, I find a Time Walk, which lets me kill the Angel before he can untap and Disenchant. After that, my creatures take him out in four turns, with Kira protecting Mongrel from the desperation Swords he tries to play.
Round 4: Jesse (U/w/g Fish).
I saw a Trop, but no Green cards, so he might have been playing some weird Gro deck or something, but Spiketails made me think it was Fish. Game 1, he gets out an early Spiketail that hits me like 10 times, but I get out real creatures and hit him less than 10 times. Game 2, I open with Emerald, Rootwalla, which gets Plowshared. I drop the Sapphire I was holding, and Ancestral into Factory and Mongrel. Then I rip Lotus to play and equip Jitte. Jitte'd Mongrel goes the distance, as he usually does.
Round 5: Eric Miller (Riddler)
See the excellent feature match coverage for the full details. To sum up, game one his hand couldn't lose, game 2, his hand couldn't win, game 3 I make several small but crucial errors.
Round 6: Kevin Cron (Stax)
We decide to ID to try to get both of us into the T8. He misses out on tiebreakers. He's lost one match in each of the last three SCG events, but has only made Top 8 once. Frown.
Round 7: Chris "StarWarsKid" (Gifts)
He gets insane mana game one and takes three turns in a row thanks to Walk and Will (hint: that means he won). Game 2, he gets Old Man and Tinker->Pent, but scoops since he wasn't in contention for T8 (he was in like 16th place or so after round 6, whereas I was in 7th).
Top 8: Mike Zaun (eventual winner, FCG)
Game 1, I get a quick Jitte'd Mongrel and ride that to victory. Game 2, a Wasteland keeps me from getting Jitte quickly enough, and two Lackeys means Kiki-Jiki hits the table, creating too many Piledrivers for me to handle. Game 3, I start out strong, but when he breaks Standstill by tapping out for a Matron, I fail to Force it. That lets him get Recruiter, drop Food Chain next turn with REB backup, resolve Recruiter, and combo me out. Whoops. He might still have won if I had countered the Matron, but I think that was my real mistake that game (I also goofed up by jumping to Force too quickly, and not activating Library first).
Anyway, I was a bit surprised to pull a Ruby 7th pick, but I'll certainly take it over the Pearl. If I'd beaten FCG, I would have faced off against U/w fish, which Jitte and Green guys would have slaughtered, and then against Workshop Aggro, which can really go either way.
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