Hello everyone. My name is Hiromichi ITOU, from Japan. I am working as a mechanical Engineer in Hiroshima.

This time was the third time I left Japan to play Vintage abroad. The first time was in december 2006 for the side-events during the Worlds in Paris (I was the only japanese player in the whole room to be there without any relation with the competition of the Worlds!) Then I went to the french event Bazaar of Moxen in May, and to Gen Con this
month.

Unfortunatly, it’s not possible in Japan to take paid holidays, so the summer holidays and the Golden Week are the only opportunities to participate to that kind of event, and I was very happy the tournaments coincide with our vacation. I hope I can participate to the next Vintage Championship and to next year’s BoM too.

I’ve been playing Magic for 12 years, and Vintage for 10. The first time I bought the P9 was in 2001.

I am currently living in Hiroshima, but no one for playing Vintage here, so I go to Tokyo and Nagoya’s tournaments to playtest and play.
I went 3 weeks in a row before GenCon to Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka only to play.

I participated to all the tournaments I was able to from July the 18th. My only playtests were tournaments, but I had no other choices as there’s no Vintage players where I am living. Hopefully these 3 weeks tests allowed me to change a lot my list.

July 19 : I gave a try to AK + Intuition but the engine was too slow for my deck.
July 25 : I cut Thoughtseize
August 1 : Realized Trinket Mage was too slow...
August 8 : Understood that I needed to splash Red against Tezz, Drain Tendrils and Stax.
August 13 (Prelim) : Put Rack and Ruin in main deck. I only used Hurkyl’s Recall for Inkwell Leviathan.

Regarding my deck, 50 cards were net decked, I decided by myself for the other last 10.
I checked Deckcheck.com for the Magus, and noticed there were a lot of decks with one copy of the card on side. I thought this card could be a good answer in main deck to a heavy Stax and Time Vault metagame.
Actually, I only played it one or two times in 10 matches, and was short in mana during theses games so I cannot be categoric about the card. But there were a lot of Fish decks and Darkblast was everywhere (thanks to Dark Confidant) so I guess the Magus was not in his best element to fight. I guess it should have been stronger during the french event
Bazaar of Moxen (I made 7-2-0 but missed the top8).

For GenCon, I used the same 50 cards I was using at Bazaar of Moxen. By the way, I am using almost the same cards for years, as a good Mana Drain player ;p.
I didn’t have access to so many information about the american metagame, so I talked about it with a japanese friend who participated to the Vintage Championship 2006 and checked the decks of the Championshop 2008 and more recent decks with Deckcheck.
I was expecting for Stax and Fish, but I decided to fix my meta during the Prelim to Stax, MUD, Tezz, Drain Tendril, Fish, Dredge and ANT.
Regarding the side, except Leyline, I changed it a lot. I checked the decks during the Prelim and decided to put in about 3 cards for each match-up.

I tried that the following day:
MAIN DECK
Fact or Fiction -> Extirpate.
No real opportunity to play FoF (too heavy) during the Championships, so I tried Extirpate as I wanted to a have a solution to graveyard in my deck, and I was quiet satisfied with it.

SIDE
Arcane Laboratory ->Ingot Chewer.
I was expecting for more TPS and ANT in America, but didn’t see a single one all tournament long. I thought about a solution against artifacts and the only one that
satisfied me to get rid of a Metalworker turn 1 was Ingot Chewer. But I didn’t draw it, and anyway didn’t see any Metalworker :).

By the way, you can find a report in english here on my blog:
http://eroma.diarynote.jp/200908182237016027/


Regarding the decks I am usually playing with:
2005 Oath(Akroma)
2006 Gifts Control
2007 Gifts Control (Until Gifts restriction)
UR Magus Control (UR Control with Magus of the Moon. After Gifts restriction)
2008 Magus Control (Until March)
CS (Until November)
Tezzeret CS (December)
2009 Tezzeret CS (Until the PT Kyoto)
Tezzeret Control (After MArch)

To summarize, I am only playing Mana Drain decks from 2005.

I didn’t play Flash, because I thought I’d better build a deck that could beat Flash
(so many players were playing the deck).
The results:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtgevent/gpshi08/welcome-ja#6
I build my deck with 4 Slice and Dice and 4 Chalice of the Void. Thanks to this, the only match I lost against Flash was when my opponent paid the additional cost of Hulk.

I didn’t play Gush either, because I don’t like to grow Dryad, Tog or Tarmogoyf. I like to play Darksteel Colossus and swing 2 times ftw, I like watching my opponent not able to cast a single spell with Magus of the Moon on the board, I like to have my hand full of cards thanks to Dark Confidant.

By the way, Fujii Takayuki, a Top8 Player from the GP Shizuoka, participated to the Gen Con 2006, and was playing the Oath deck thatTsuyuki Kouichi used.


Regarding the B&R list, I think the restriction of TfK was a good thing to stabilize the power of the Mana Drain decks, but it seems to have been not enough as the two
finalists were playing Mana Drain decks. But anyway, I guess there’s no need to change anything else for the next list. I hope we will have new strong cards for beatdown decks with Zendikar.


The reason I particulary love Vintage, is nevermind the fact you can be about to loose or win a game, you always have opportunity to reverse the situation in Vintage.
A single top deck can end a game in a wink, and I like that unreasonableness / outrageousness.


Compared to Europe and America, the japanese Vintage players are very few but there’s at least one Vintage tournament per month. Moreover, every two months, Vintage from Tokyo, a proxy allowed tournament is organized in Tokyo (Akihabara) by the translator of that text, nicofromtokyo. Tournies in Tokyo don’t gather much more than 20 players and the Vintage environment doesn’t change so much with years here. Everybody knows each
other’s decks and just side in consequence. That’s how I feel the Japanese Vintage scene.



The Worlds will be hold in Chiba next year (less than 2 hours from the NArita Airport), I am sure a Vintage event will be organized and I am waiting all of you there!