This is the complete metagame breakdown and tournament analysis of the 347 player Bazaar of Moxen 4 Vintage Main Event that took place a month ago in the city of Annecy, in France. The biggest Vintage Tournament of the year, and the most important of the european Vintage scene.

Intro

In the Legacy focused BoM analysis I gave much more importance to the numbers than to the analysis, but this being the most important Vintage event of the year all over the world, I thought that some analysis would also help people to understand the tournament and the format. This article took me longer and harder than the Legacy one because I did something that I didn’t for the first one, I analysed some of the most important points of every deck. If you click in a Spoiler named [Card Choices Useful Information] in any deck’s analysis and breakdown you’ll find choices such as powered/unpowered, Null Rod use, Number of Spheres, Trinisphere, Robot choice, Draw Engine choice, Oath creatures choice, Jace use, and every counterspell used by a controlish deck… and more important, its combination.

While I was writing the article I also realized that it might be very useful for Vintage players all over the world, and that’s why I translated it from the spanish version, also published today, that you can find in the next link if you are an spanish main speaker:

Desglose Completo y Análisis de Barajas y Torneo - Evento Principal de Vintage del Bazaar of Moxen 4

You can also read the Breakdown and Analysis of the Legacy Main Event if you missed it in the next link:

Complete Metagame Breakdown and Tournament Analysis - Bazaar of Moxen 4 Legacy Main Event

Now, this is not my first article in English, just the second, but don’t be too cruel with me given the fact that I’ve given more importance at how fast I could do it. I hope this article shows as much information as you might want to have.

I also want to note that, for the vast majority of decks, I choose not the talk about hybrids, but to name it for its main game plan. This way, you won’t find TezzOath, or Oath/TPSs, TezzPainters, TezzBomberman or things like that because it will make even harder the analysis. The good point is that the Useful Card Choices Spoiler will show you some of this decks perfectly, as in the Oath or TezzOath case.

And a little point before begining, is anybody spots a relevant mistake in the article (A decklist with less than 60 cards, a link not working or things like that) feel free to contact me or leave a comment, and I’ll correct it as soon as possible. The article is done as best as possible but with more than 3000 lines of text and 16000 words I don’t feel happy enough to re-re-read the article and find out more mistakes. Thank you very much.

A Brief History of Coverages, Breakdowns, this Tournament and me

Since 2007 I’ve done Metagame Breakdowns of many events. Some examples are the UAL Power 9 Series, the MTG Gamblers 2007 and the UAL Eternal Weekend 2009. But I felt like something else could be done.

During the last year I’ve been live covering every tournament that I have attended, with my iPhone 3G and through my blog, La Universidad de las Artes Lúdicas. Some examples are the Live Coverage @ Ovinogeddon 4 Vintage and Legacy, any of the Liga Madrileña de Vintage Events, the Live Coverage @ GP Madrid 2010 (Faster than WotC Twitter!) and obviously the BoM 4 Vintage and Legacy. You can also find a Photographic Report of the Bazaar of Moxen 4 in my blog, including a lot of photos of the event, the spanish players and the city of Annecy.

I finished finding out that people really love and enjoy this kind articles, and for me, it will be interesting to know if somebody around the world also does this. I understand that Covering the event, or even your own matches while you are playing is a huge sacrifice, but people LOVES that kind of reports/coverages. Is anyone out there doing this?

Index

The article is really extensive, and although I think that all the information that you can find here is interesting, some of you might just be willing to know something about your favourite decklists or how your country performed. In this index you’ll find the links (And Spoilers that hide links to Decks and Countries). Just click and find out.

··· Useful Information ···

··· Results and Performance by Deck Category ···

··· Results and Performance by Deck Genus ···

··· Results and Performance by Deck ···

Index Spoiler - Decks

··· Results and Performance by Country ···

Index Spoiler - Countries

··· Interesting Information ···

Creative/New Decks
Best performing Unpowered and Budget Decklists
Decklist Related Things to Avoid

··· BoM 4 Vintage Top 8 - Photo Essay ···

··· Top 8 Decklists ···

··· Gratitude and Farewell ···

And here it comes the article!!!

··· Useful Information ···

Tournament Data

Number of Players: 347 Players
Number of Rounds: 9 Swiss Rounds + Top 8 (For a total of 12 rounds)
Location: Annecy, France
Prizes: Can be found here.

An Opinion about the Tournament

Prizes were impressive, and that’s a reason why each year more players travel to Annecy to feel the Spirit of Eternal (That’s the logo of the event!). But that was just one reason why people keep coming every year. An excellent organisation, an enormous and well-trained judge staff, a perfect venue for tournaments, side events, and the delicious pancakes with chocolate are some of the other reasons.

The truth is that this event is not just a tournament, it’s an excellent weekend to travel with your friends, discover a new country, eat in different places and enjoy the real spirit of the format. When you come to BoM you really feel The Spirit of Eternal, as the organizers announce.

Position and Points Relation, and Prizes

I thought that it might be interesting to also know the position awarded for the best performing players, and this shows the position and points relation.

From 1st to 1st - 25 Points (8-0-1)
From 2nd to 4th - 24 Points (8-1)
From 6th to 7th - 23 Points (7-0-2)
From 8th to 10th - 22 Points (7-1-1)
From 11th to 26th - 21 Points (7-2)
From 27th to 26th - 20 Points (6-1-2)
From 29th to 37th - 19 Points
From 38th to 67th - 18 Points
From 68th to 70th - 17 Points
From 71th to 78th - 16 Points
From 79th to 110th - 15 Points
From 111th to 347th - 14 Points or Less

The prizes were impressive, the same as in the Legacy main event. The point is that this is by far the Vintage event which award the best prizes in the world.

If you win, you get back home with a full Power 9, that’s something that most Vintage players didn’t win in a whole life, and it takes months or years for some of the best players in the world. That’s definitely a reason for coming back… forever! Anyway, if you don’t get to win, the consolation prize are the 5 moxes, and in case you didn’t get to the finals, there were 40 Dual Lands waiting for you. Top 8 was awarded pieces ranging from a Black Lotus to other moxen.

But only 8 people could pass to Top8, for the other players there were also some consolation prizes. One Mox for each player from 9th to 12th, and there was a Bazaar of Baghdad for the rest of the Top 16. A Mana Drain prize range was given to the players ranked 17th to 20th. For those finishing 21th to 32th a Dual Land was awaiting.

Excellent Performance Explanation

Below you will find a reference to “Excellent Performance”. With that two words, what I want to cover is those players or decks that performed 6-3 or better. I could have used Good Performance or Fine Results or whatever, but “excellent performance” sounds good to me.

In this tournament, 18 Points means Top 64 or almost (Up to Top 68), that’s definitely not the best result, but it’s an excellent record for sure. The point is that Top 32 didn’t let me analyse too much of the results, as this covers more players, and when I decided to analyse Top 64 I found hard to tell why finishing 67th with the same points but a lower tiebreaker was not in the same line of results.

But I think 6-3 is enough as a cut. Cutting for 18 points or better means that only 19,30% of players did it, which means being better than 4 of each 5 players in the event.

Average Points and Mean Result

When reading all the info about the average points of each deck and country you might ask yourself what the mean result of all the tournament was. That was easy. Summing up all the points of the tournament the arithmetic mean was 10,8 points.

What means that mean? It means that any result above 10,8 points is also above the mean and it’s an overall good result.

Preprocessed Data

Just in case someone wants to mine more data than me, I will leave here the links for downloading the Excel archives that contains:

Final Standings (Deck - Country - Points - Name - Card Choices) - BoM4 Vintage

Breakdowns by Deck/Country and Analysis

Good Luck!

··· Results and Performance by Deck Category ···

For me, one of the most successful points of the event was how they managed to get 96 Unpowered and Budget Players. That’s what Vintage really is, because not everyone has a Power9, but some players might still want to participate in this kind of events. Assuming that the exclusive prizes for Unpowered and Budget players cost between 1600€ and 2000€, and the total amount payed by Unpowered and Budget playing was 2880€, they payed for their for their exclusive prizes, and they also payed for the part of the regular prizes they won, organisation, and combined prizes of the main events. A complete success. This link will lead you to the best performing Unpowered and Budget Decklists and the prizes they won.

The tournament was dominated by the Powered Decks and that’s not only because those decks were Powered but also, I supose, because those decks were piloted by the best players. With this fact I want to encourage people wanting to participate in a non-proxy Vintage event with a Budget deck to play. In the end, it’s true that a Full Powered Vintage Deck is possibly the deck to beat, but the fact Budget Decks averaged less points is because most of them were played by Legacy players attending the other main event, people with a lower knowledge of the format and the metagame, or at least that’s what I think. Here in Spain we have a known example of this fact, a player owning a full Power9 that loves playing Goblins, a Goblins deck metagame focused… and he Top8s a lot… and he won most of his Power 9 pieces playing goblins. But he’s a Vintage player that follows the format and the metagame, that’s the point to success in Vintage with a Goblins, Dark Times or Meandeck Beats deck.

Powered

Percentage of the Field - 71,7%
Number of Decks - 249
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Powered Total) - 56 (22,4%)
Players in Top 16 - 16
Average Points - 11,5 points

Standings Information - Powered

Unpowered

Percentage of the Field - 11,8%
Number of decks - 41
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Total) - 7 (17,7%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 10,6 points

Standings Information - Unpowered

Budget

Percentage of the Field - 15,8%
Number of decks - 55
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Total) - 4 (7,2%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 8,3 points

Standings Information - Budget

··· Results and Performance by Deck Genus ···

To begin with, I think that the best option is to explain how I divided the different Deck Genuses, and it’s like this:
Deck Genus Considerations - Spoiler

Control continues being the most played Genus, but that’s just because Control is shown in many ways. Control decks range from Tezzeret to Remora, with decks like Almost or Drain Tendrils in the middle. Playing Control seems to be the most popular choice.

The next image shows the winners and losers (By percentages) of the event. Aggro, which were mainly Budget Decks, was undoubtly the less effective deck. The big loser among the main deck genuses was Fish. Fish was the second most played deck at the beginning of the tournament, but it finished with half its percentage of players in the Top 67. Basically, all the other Genus were represented by the same percentage in the Excellent Performance chart, but then there are the Workshops Decks. They upgraded their percentage of appearance in the best positions from 15% to 25%. Now that’s a good result.

Aggro Decks

Number of decks - 42
Percentage of the Field - 12,1%
Excellent Performance - 7,1% (3/47)
Average Points - 8,2 points

Combo Decks

Number of decks - 35
Percentage of the Field - 10,0%
Excellent Performance - 22,8% (8/35)
Average Points - 11,8 points

Control Decks

Number of decks - 76
Percentage of the Field - 21,9%
Excellent Performance - 21,0% (16/76)
Average Points - 12,0 points

Fish Decks

Number of decks - 57
Percentage of the Field - 16,4%
Excellent Performance - 10,5% (6/57)
Average Points - 9,6 points

Ichorid Decks

Number of decks - 33
Percentage of the Field - 9,5 %
Excellent Performance - 21,2% (7/33)
Average Points - 10,4 points

Oath Decks

Number of decks - 48
Percentage of the Field - 13,8%
Excellent Performance - 20,8% (10/48)
Average Points - 10,7 points

Workshop Decks

Number of decks - 54
Percentage of the Field - 15,5%
Excellent Performance - 31,4% (17/54)
Average Points - 12,4 points

··· Results and Performance by Deck ···

The most played decks were those packing 4 Oath of Druids in their maindecks. The strategy is far better than a year ago, and that’s thanks to the great “fatties” being printed during this last year. Creatures like Iona, Terastodon, Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Emrakul could be seen in many maindecks, and vintage players weren’t inteding to pay their casting costs.

Closely following the leader is MUD. Even though I prefer to play my deck I have to admit (And many players will confirm this words) that the monobrown Workshops based deck is the best option in this metagame. The printing of Lodestone Golem supossed the beginning of a new era for this strategy, and I’m sure that some MUD players still can’t believe why his best beater and the bastard son of Sphere of Resistance got melted and the new Golem got printed. I think that this reaction was similar to how Drain Control players were building their firsts Time Vault/Voltaic Key decks and saw how Tezzeret was printed.

There’s no doubt that MUD and Oath decks are better than ever, but Fish is no exception. With creatures like Qasali Pridemage, Tarmogoyf or Trygon Predator, Fish is also better than ever. Curiosly the feline creature has the key to beat both Oath and MUD players, a good beater and pumper that can also destroy our worst fears is good enough to pump Fish to victory. It also the key to close the Time Vault combo of the Tezzeret players.

Speaking of Tezzeret, MUD and Fish are doing a good job on keeping it away of the good rates of victory from the beginnings of 2009. Tezzeret players, unlike Oath, MUD and Fish players, not only didn’t receive new cards, but saw some of them restricted, and never unrestricted back. Tezzeret continues being a good deck, but it is far from what it was. Control players opted to test some new deck ideas or recover old ones, showing how Almost or Remora can perform well.

Ichorid is highly played also, and one of the main reasons was that incredible prizes were awarded in this tournament for Unpowered players (More than in the vast mayority of Vintage tournaments) and the fact that it is still the best cheap deck convince players to do tricky things with the graveyard based strategy.

TPS is a good old friend, better sometimes and worst others, but it seems that while MUD keeps controlish decks back and they can Hurkyl’s Recall the opponents table to win in one turn… they are on his mood.

See the chart for the exact quantities of each deck.

In the following graph it is shown how many decks were played by France or the sum of all the other countris attending. Take into account that unlike in the Legacy Main Event, this tournament France wasn’t more than half the attendance.

Tezzeret Control, TPS, Steel City Vault and Drain Tendrils where mostly played by non french players, and MUD and Oath where also played much more from outsiders. It’s curious to see how Noble Fish and Ichorid were played by more or less the same number of players from each part of the analysis.

The most interesting cases where Remora and Almost, spanish designed decks that were mostly played by players from Spain or non french individuals. In the other hand it’s Jace Control and two of the Bazaar Control variants designed exclusively by French players for the event.

I paired in the same group some decks that had a game plan very similar and some key elements. As they were packing also Bazaar of Baghdad in the maindeck of a controlish deck I called the group Bazaar Control, and leaded by the french Mickael Lellouche (Which topeighted both in the Legady and the Vintage event) they were also leaders in the average points chart, with 7 points over the mean. From what I know, the french players piloting the Bazaar Control and the Bazaar Control madness oriented, were good players, and no other players except from myself, were playing one those variants. This decks were highly metagame oriented, just as good as a control deck can do. Adding that to the surprise factor, could explain the excellent overall good results of these five decks, none of the players got less than 15 points. You will find the three different decklists in this link to the Creative/New Decks point.

Remora decks got also a ver good ranking in the Average Points run. With three points over the mean, Remora represents the other not highly played controlish deck with good overall results. On the other hand is Almost, not far from the mean, but lower than the 10,8 mark. The case with the other Creative Deck, Jace Control, is the opposite to what happened to the Bazaar Control decks, piloted by pro players Antoine Ruel and Guillaume Wafo Tapa, it got the worst result in this chart, with hald of the points required to reach the mean. The last of the lowly played decks, Steel City Vault, was on the mean.

For the part of the most played decks, Oath, Ichorid and Noble Fish, represent those which didn’t reach the mean line. Anyway, they weren’t also far with more or less mean results. TPS is on the other side. It is the best ranked among the most used decks with three points and a half over the mean. MUD, Tezzeret and Drain Tendrils aren’t too far away with a total average of more than twelve points

The average mean is very important, but the Excellent Performance Percentage is no far away. I find this chart interesting for the most played decks exclusively, and that’s why it shows how good TPS, MUD and Drain Tendrils performed. It seems that the only decks that can consistently outplay the Workshop Decks are those that can win out of a Hurkyl’s Recall.

In the next chart, entitled Robot Fight!, its shown the dominance of Sphinx of the Steel Wind as a Tinker target. There’s no doubt that when controlish decks want a Robot now, they are also looking for a resource able to win a Lodestone Golem/Tarmogoyf rival plan.

And this includes the creatures played in Oath decks. Darksteel Colossus has nothing to do with Emrakul while beating an opponent to victory, while the multicolored Sphinx is a resource.

Almost

Percentage of the Field - 2,0%
Number of decks - 7
Average Points - 10,4 points
Excellent Performance - 14%
Highest Ranking - 52th

Best Ranked Decklist

Deck Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Almost

Bazaar Control Variants

Percentage of the Field - 1,4%
Number of decks - 5
Average Points - 17,4 points
Excellent Performance - 20%
Highest Ranking - 5th

Best Ranked Decklist

Deck Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Bazaar Control Variants

Drain Tendrils

Percentage of the Field - 4,3%
Number of decks - 15
Average Points - 12,4 points
Excellent Performance - 33%
Highest Ranking - 14th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Drain Tendrils

Jace Control

Percentage of the Field - 1,7%
Number of decks - 6
Average Points - 5,1 points
Excellent Performance - 0%
Highest Ranking - 184th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Jace Control

Ichorid Variants

Percentage of the Field - 9,5 %
Number of decks - 33
Average Points - 10,4 points
Excellent Performance - 21,2%
Highest Ranking - 18th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Ichorid Variants

MUD

Percentage of the Field - 13,5 %
Number of decks - 47
Average Points - 12,4 points
Excellent Performance - 31,9 %
Highest Ranking - 1st

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - MUD

Noble Fish

Percentage of the Field - 9,5 %
Number of decks - 37
Average Points - 10,4 points
Excellent Performance - 16,2%
Highest Ranking - 7th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Noble Fish

Oath Variants

Percentage of the Field - 13,8 %
Number of decks - 48
Average Points - 10,7 points
Excellent Performance - 20,8 %
Highest Ranking - 13th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Oath

Remora

Percentage of the Field - 1,4%
Number of decks - 5
Average Points - 14,2 points
Excellent Performance - 40%
Highest Ranking - 6th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Remora

Steel City Vault

Percentage of the Field - 1,7%
Number of decks - 6
Average Points - 10,6 points
Excellent Performance - 16,6%
Highest Ranking - 42th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Steel City Vault

Tezzeret Control

Percentage of the Field - 9,5%
Number of decks - 33
Average Points - 12,3 points
Excellent Performance - 18,1%
Highest Ranking - 10th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Tezzeret Control

TPS

Percentage of the Field - 5,1%
Number of decks - 18
Average Points - 13,3 points
Excellent Performance - 33,3%
Highest Ranking - 9th

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - TPS

Aggro Decks

Percentage of the Field - 12,1%
Number of decks - 42
Average Points - 8,26 points
Excellent Performance - 7,1%
Highest Ranking - 20th

Deck Breakdown - Aggro Decks

Best Ranked Decklist

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Aggro Decks

Other Combo Decks

Percentage of the Field - 2,3%
Number of decks - 8
Average Points - 9,75 points
Excellent Performance - 12,5%
Highest Ranking - 3th

Deck Breakdown - Other Combo

Standings Information - Other Combo

Other Control Decks

Percentage of the Field - 2,3 %
Number of decks - 8
Average Points - 12,1 points
Excellent Performance - 12,5%
Highest Ranking - 16th

Deck Breakdown - Other Control Decks

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Other Control Decks

Other Fish Decks

Percentage of the Field - 5,7 %
Number of decks - 20
Average Points - 8,1 points
Excellent Performance - 0%
Highest Ranking - 77th

Deck Breakdown - Other Fish Decks

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Other Fish Decks

Other Workshop Decks

Percentage of the Field - 2,0%
Number of decks - 7
Average Points - 12,2 points
Excellent Performance - 28,5%
Highest Ranking - 59th

Deck Breakdown - Other Workshop Decks

Card Choices Useful Information

Standings Information - Other Workshop Decks

··· Results and Performance by Country ···

In this first chart you’ll be able to catch the countries with a higher attendance. Along with France, the three old Vintage countries in Europe; Italy, Germany and Spain, showed up in numbers higher than a 10% of the event total.

The following graph is much more important, because it shows the penetration into Excellent Performance and Top8 of each country. Taking the countries with a higher percentage Germany and Spain were the half that improved its percentages, while France and Italy didn’t mantained its percentages. Curiously, off of this chart, we can tell that Italy really maintained the numbers as Antonio Pinto lost a Top8 spot with the same points as the 8th swiss ranked player.

In this last chart of the country analysis, its shown how Germany stands out as the best of the main four countries. Spain is far from Germany but far from the other contestants, and Italy is exactly on the mean. United States (With the best Average Points mean), Belgium and Ireland stand out as the other three countries above the mean.

Belgium

Number of Players - 13
Percentage of the Tournament - 3,7 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 1 (7,6%)
Players in Top 16 - 1
Average Points - 11,6 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Benj Van den Broeck (Tezzeret Control - 22 Points, 10th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 76,9% (10/13)
Unpowered: 7,6% (1/13)
Budget: 15,2% (2/13)

Standings Information - Belgium

Canada

Number of Players - 4
Percentage of the Tournament - 1,1 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 9,0 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - David Caplan (MUD - 12 Points, 128th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 75% (3/4)
Unpowered: 25% (1/4)
Budget: 0%

Standings Information - Canada

Switzerland

Number of Players - 23
Percentage of the Tournament - 6,6 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 3 (13,0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 8,4 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Damien Emmenegger (Oath - 19 Points, 32th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 56,5% (13/23)
Unpowered: 8,6% (2/23)
Budget: 34,7% (8/23)

Standings Information - Switzerland

Czech Republic

Number of Players - 13
Percentage of the Tournament - 3,7%
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 9,2 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Martin Usiansky (Tezzeret Control - 16 Points, 73th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 84,6% (11/13)
Unpowered: 7,6% (1/13)
Budget: 7,6% (1/13)

Standings Information - Czech Republic

Germany

Number of Players - 48
Percentage of the Tournament - 13,8 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 23 (47,9%)
Players in Top 16 - 6
Average Points - 14,2 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Fabian Moyschewitz (MUD - 25 Points, 1st)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 72,9% (35/48)
Unpowered: 16,6% (8/48)
Budget: 10,4% (5/48)

Standings Information - Germany

Denmark

Number of Players - 3
Percentage of the Tournament - 0,8%
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 6,6 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Tobias Ciesla (UBG Fish - 10 Points, 185th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 66,6% (2/3)
Unpowered: 0%
Budget: 33,3% (1/3)

Standings Information - Denmark

Spain

Number of Players - 37
Percentage of the Tournament - 10,6%
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 11 (29,7%)
Players in Top 16 - 5
Average Points - 12,5 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Andrés Madruga (MUD - 24 Points, 2nd)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 97,2% (36/37)
Unpowered: 2,8% (1/37)
Budget: 0%

Standings Information - Spain

France

Number of Players - 144
Percentage of the Tournament - 41,4 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 15 (10,4%)
Players in Top 16 - 2
Average Points - 9,8 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Mickael Lellouche (Bazaar Control - 24 Points, 4th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 61,1% (88/144)
Unpowered: 18,0% (26/144)
Budget: 20,8% (30/144)

Standings Information - France

Ireland

Number of Players - 4
Percentage of the Tournament - 1,1%
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 11,2 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Patrick Mc Donagh (Remora - 15 Points, 101th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 100% (4/4)
Unpowered: 0%
Budget: 0%

Standings Information - Ireland

Italy

Number of Players - 51
Percentage of the Tournament - 14,6%
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 12 (23,5%)
Players in Top 16 - 2
Average Points - 10,8 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Antonio Pinto (TPS - 22 Points, 9th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 84,3% (43/51)
Unpowered: 1,9% (1/51)
Budget: 13,7% (7/51)

Standings Information - Italy

Netherlands

Number of Players - 2
Percentage of the Tournament - 0,5 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 10,5 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Bart Verschoor (Oath - 12 Points, 154th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 100% (2/2)
Unpowered: 0%
Budget: 0%

Standings Information - Netherlands

Slovakia

Number of Players - 1
Percentage of the Tournament - 0,3 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 0 (0%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 9,0 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Pavel Sulik (Eva Green - 9 Points, 211th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 100% (1/1)
Unpowered: 0%
Budget: 0%

Standings Information - Slovakia

United States

Number of Players - 3
Percentage of the Tournament - 0,8 %
Players with Excellent Performance (And % Over Country’s Total) - 2 (66,6%)
Players in Top 16 - 0
Average Points - 15,0 points
Best Player (Deck - Points, Results) - Joseph Bogaard (Oath - 21 Points, 19th)

Percentage by Deck Category

Powered: 50% (1/2)
Unpowered: 0%
Budget: 50% (1/2)

Standings Information - United States

··· Interesting Information ···

Creative/New Decks

This is the kind of tournaments where you expect to see a new deck. A big tournament is the perfect place to see how a new tech works. I mean, not the deck that’s not heavily played but was known or a similar variant. Not that, a whole new deck. It turns out that some new decks could be found during the breakdown.

The first of them is the Bazaar Control Madness oriented deck that played both Mickael Lellouche (To Top8) and Serge Metz.

It was the only new deck to Top 8. This deck was devoted to win two of the most common matchups of the event, MUD and Noble Fish, packing a good manabase, a manadenial plan and some specific cards, such as Ancient Grudge. A post about this deck has been opened in The Mana Drain.

The next two decklists are so similar that their pilots were surprised when they got paired in the first round of a Trial Event and were forced to explain their interests and card choices, a tricky design by two different people. They followed the same game plan completely, and excusing some card choices were more or less a variant of a same new deck.

The first one is the decklist from César Fernández (Hey, that’s me!), who ranked 69th with 17 points. The deck was a mana denial oriented controlish deck trying to soft lock an opponent out of the game, with a lot of elements and answers for different opponent plays.

And I can even hint you the updated version of the deck, which packs among other things the Crucible of Worlds, Zuran Orb, Fastbond and Barbarian Ring combo, with which I Top4ed in the last tournament I played, two weeks before BoM4, and ranking my variant to 2 Top8s out of three tournaments. I really like the deck and I find interesting how it works against all the metagame.

Spoiler - The CHaPuZaS Solution v3 Decklist

The next decklist, by Jean-Baptiste Aymes and Romain Claperon, finished best as 76th, and the main differences with the version from César Fernández is that it focus more on Bazaar of Baghdad by playing Goblin Welder, Sundering Titan and Crucible of Worlds and it packs a pair of additional one mana tutors in order to fin the Time Vault/Voltaic Key combo.

The other new deck was the Jace Control deck which appears at the end of this article by Antoine Ruel (One of the players). It is very similar to the Bazaar Control decks above, but differs in its Draw Engine and pointed tutor: Accumulated Knowledge and Living Wish. It also abuses the new version of Jace, which gives its name to the deck. While I’m pretty sure that AK is not at its bests I have to admit that Living Wish sounds really nice. None of the six players earned more than 10 points, a record by Liking Saiyasely, with this decklist:

Best Performing Unpowered and Budget Decklists

Playing with Unpowered and Budget decks was possible, and wining prizes with them was possible too! Here you’ll find the best Budget and Unpowered Decklists of the Bazaar Of Moxen 4 Vintage Event.

Thomas Kebler, with Mana Ichorid, was awarded a Mana Drain (18th Regular) and a Black Lotus (1st Unpowered)

Giacomo Barberis, with a Meandeck Beats/Zoo Decklist, ranked 21st, and was awarded an Underground Sea (21st Regular) an Ancestral Recall (2nd Unpowered) and a Mox Pearl (1st Budget).

Brian Coval was ranked 25th at the end of the tournament with his Dark Times decklist, and come back home with an additional Taiga (25th Regular), 1 Mox Emerald (3rd Unpowered) and a Mana Drain (2nd Budget).

And finally, among those with great prizes in this category, appears Marco Barbagli, who finished 35th with a Goblins deck to win a Flooded Strand (35th Regular), a Library of Alexandria (4th Unpowered) and 18 Booster Packs (3rd Budget).

Decklist Related Things to Avoid

As the analyser of the 347-decklist event, there are some things that had to be said.

The first one is that it will help a lot in this situations if English is used as the language for the decklist. I know, I’m not the one that matters, but even if it was accepted by the organizer, any situation will be better (In such an international event) if no name has to be translated. The Oracle, one of the most important DCI documents in an Eternal event is written completely in English, and Magic players at this level are supossed to be able to write down most of its decklists in English without help. So this a counsel, write a decklist in English in this kind of events, and the event staff will work quicker. Most of us will thank you.

The second point is the more important, and is highly related with an article that I wrote one or two months ago about the best ways not to lose a game in a tournament. One of the best ways to win a tournaments is to not lose that you could be able to win at home. This is related to decklist errors. Spelling errors such as “Spell Price”, “Thoughsize”, “Gifs Ungiven” or even “Frenetic Search” won’t earn you a game loss, but there are some other mistakes that could take you one game far from your opponent when seating at the table. Think of how much time you take to construct a Vintage deck and understand that writing out the decklist is as important, and then think how much time does it takes to win an opponent… Re-reading and correcting the decklist won’t take you so much… and this game is being played just by you!

For players it’s a bad situation to receive a game loss of this kind, but you can’t imagine how hard is for organizers and judge staff to award them. Some mistakes can’t be corrected. We understand that 99,9999% of the times you are playing an Underground Sea when you write down “Underground”, and an “Snare” followed by 4 Force of Wills and 3 Mana Drains must be an Spell Snare. But the truth is that the rules are the rules, and allowing this will be unfair for the other players. What if you were playing Underground River in order to avoid your opponent’s Sundering Titan? What if the Snare was a Wing Snare to catch an Iona or a Platinum Angel?

Here are some examples:

And I counted that at least 10% of the decklists contained Spelling Mistakes, and a 5% Mistakes that will cost you a Game Loss. This time you might me lucky and avoided it, but try to focus on the decklist next time and you’ll lose less games!

··· BoM 4 Vintage Top 8 - Photo Essay ···
Click to see BoM 4 Vintage Top 8 - Photo Essay

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··· Top 8 Decklists ···

Champion - Fabian Moyschewitz - AggroMUD

4 Triskelion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Metalworker
3 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Mishra’s Factory
2 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb

SB:

4 Duplicant
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sculpting Steel

Finalist - Carlos Fernández-Baillo - Remora

2 Vendillion Clique
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Snare
2 Mindbreak Trap
4 Repeal
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Mystic Remora
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Meditate
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand

SB:

1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Mindbreak Trap
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Yixlid Jailer
4 Ingot Chewer
2 Pyroclasm
1 Lava Dart
1 Red Elemental Blast

Michael Lellouche - Madness

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Grim Lavamancer
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Force of Will
4 Circular Logic
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Intuition
1 Tinker
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Life from the Loam
1 Crop Rotation
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
1 Riftsone Portal
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Island
1 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Bazaar of Bagdad

SB:

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
4 Nature’s Claim

David Harald - Noble Fish

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Quasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Meddling Mage
3 Trygon Predator
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Stifle
2 Spell Pierce
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Regrowth
3 Null Rod
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
3 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta

SB:

4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Spell Pierce
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Seal of Cleansing
3 Ravenous Trap
2 Nature’s Claim

Max Wilhem Bruker - MUD

4 Triskelion
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Smokestack
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra’s Factory
1 Rishadan Port
1 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb

SB:

3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Powder Keg
3 Razormane Masticore
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pithing Needle
1 Duplicant

Marius Hausmann - AggroMUD

4 Triskelion
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Metalworker
3 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Mishra’s Factory
2 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb

SB:

4 Duplicant
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sculpting Steel

Pedro J. Sánchez - ANT

4 Pact of Negation
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Duress
1 Toughtseize
4 Ad Nauseam
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Necropotence
3 Tendrils of Agony
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Badland
3 Underground Sea
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta

SB:

1 Volcanic Island
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Dark Confidant
2 Extirpate
1 Thoughtseize
1 Slaugther Pact
1 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Empty the Warrens

Andrés Madruga - AggroMUD

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Juggernaut
2 Duplicant
4 Sculpting Steel
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Null ROd
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra’s Factory
2 City of Traitors
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb

SB:

3 Spawning Pit
2 Duplicant
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Powder Keg
2 Duplicant
1 Null Rod
1 Tormod’s Crypt

··· Gratitude and Farewell ···

I want to thank (Again) Lois and Dan, the organizers of the Bazaar of Moxen events, for giving me this opportunity to report and analyse the results of his tournament. And why not… For giving all of us the opportunity to participate in such an incredible event!

I will also like to thank my girlfriend, family and friends for all his support during this month and a half. Believe it or not the double pair of articles took so long and were so difficult that I wasn’t able to go out or even see them half the half times I used to spend. All your support lead to this, and it might perfectly not be worth the time I spent on it, but I realy wanted to do it. Thank you very much, this article goes for all of you.

I wish all of you enjoyed the article… See you next time!!!

Enjoy it!

César Fernández a.K.a. CHaPuZaS
chapuzas@gmail.com