Rocky Mountain Yetis

A Spectacler 13-2 Month with TwiddleVault

I first saw Glasses of Urza in my friend’s 4th edition starter deck. It looked so elegant and powerful. The ancient Urza reminded me of Da Vinci. He crafted these simple spectacles for a clear reason. Not just to see, but to see into others’ minds. Whoah. They had such a refined and lightweight design. Clearly he was a powerful artificer. I needed them. As a newbie, playing magic was hard because I never knew what my opponent was going to play next. I didn’t know all the cards; I didn’t even know half of them. My opponent’s cards were constantly a surprise. How much better would it be to know what my opponent was going to do before he did it! I had to have them. Of course my friend wouldn’t trade them to me. I had to admire them from afar. I never got to harness the power of the glasses created by Urza. Until today.

In Alpha, Urza’s backstory was a complete mystery. There were only teasing, suggestive references to these powerful wizards like Urza, Mishra, Nevinyrral, and Chatzuk. We knew Urza had both regular glasses and sunglasses. Not until a year later when Antiquities came out would the pieces be put together into a story about the Brother’s War. In Alpha, there was nothing more to go on. I didn’t start playing until 1995, but accurate information about magic was maybe even harder to come by then than the cards. I heard rumors of lore of who these guys were but it was all third and fourth hand. Of course one of my schoolmates claimed to have a 12/12 flying trampler at home and I obviously believed him. As the magic story evolved, Urza developed into the protagonist that has probably had the biggest impact on plotlines. But in the beginning, there were only his glasses. 

For me, TwiddleVault started as a chance to play all the old cards that I wanted to but never could. At first this meant Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall. But as I played more Old School, the cards I got really excited about were Twiddle, Mana Short, Hurkyl’s Recall, and basic Island. Those were the cards I had back in the day that I thought were so strong, but they never really did anything for me. Twiddle, for only one blue mana, can tap or untap any permanent! Any permanent! That had to be good. Hurkyl’s Recall can empty a board and Mana Short drains all your opponents mana and stops them from doing anything. So strong. In reality, these cards did nothing for me for a long time. I put them in decks and Mana Short maybe bought me a turn at the cost of the card. Then the opponent went, untapped, and did whatever they were going to do anyway. But in TwiddleVault, these cards were playable, even good. Removing interaction for one turn was all you needed when your deck is stocked full of restricted cards. As I played with Hurkyl’s Recall and Mana Short, they were great in some situations, but other times did nothing as they always had before. I went searching for other answers. 

The core of the TwiddleVault deck in my mind is pretty locked. It’s the same that Felipe Garcia put together and that Danny Friedman has played to a Noobcom win. However, there are 6 or 7 slots that could be a lot of things. The alternatives answer some decks but not others. It’s the recurring joke that Old School decks start with all the restricted cards and 20 land and then you spice out with the last few spots. There are a few more spots when I’m not trying to fit 4 strips into the deck. That is very true here. Of course these last few spots only matter sometimes in a match or in an event. Plenty of games are won by Ancestral, Black Lotus, or Library of Alexandria. But the margins matter and they are easily the difference between going 3-3 and 5-1. So I tried a bunch of options and I really liked Glasses of Urza. I knew after playing it once in ODOL in September that it would be making a comeback. I really wanted one in my 75 and the best place for it is in the main, so in it goes. 

Glasses came back this month with a roar. I played in two leagues, NEOS and ODOL, and ended up going 13-2 (29-11 in games). Glasses of Urza figured prominently in several of the wins. If you are looking for something new to play in Old School, I highly recommend TwiddleVault with Glasses of Urza. It’s a blast to play and Glasses helps a lot to let you know what to play around.

Here is my story of artificer glasses powering up TwiddleVault. 

Jon Hamel on UW Aggro (NEOS Match 1)

I start with an early howling mine. I counter a dib and transmute out a time vault and twiddle it. I play a string of twiddles and get what I need to go off. I saw UW cards but I didn’t know how to sideboard, so I left in the glasses. Game 2 I learn he is on an aggro plan. He counters my turn 2 chaos orb, which opens the way for his turn 3 serra angel. I resolve wheel. My glasses reveals his new hand has disenchant, BEB, and a mana drain that stops my last hope of resolving timetwister. Serra angel and a lion do me in. Game 3 he can’t find a second blue mana source despite casting ancestral. So I’m able to resolve and recall time walk multiple times for the win.
1-0 in NEOS, 0-0 in ODOL

Kjell Aker Weisser on UW Aggro (ODOL Match 1)

This is a tough matchup because he has a lot of interaction. Game 1 I play an early howling mine and glasses of urza. The glasses show me he has some good threats and mind twist. No good. I cast a time walk and timetwister to get the twist out of his hand. If he didn’t have anything, I could have waited before casting timetwister. With a new 7, he plays 2 suchis. I play ernie to block. He swords my ernie. I chaos orb a suchi and drop a second djinn. He adds a dib. Glasses lets me know he has 2 counterspells in hand, but only 2 untapped tundras to cast them. I twiddle down one of his tundras and take him off counterspell mana. Then I’m able to go off. Game 2 I am taking heavy beats from his army. I block a lion with ernie and hurkyl a suchi and a factory to stay alive at 1 life. He has two untapped mana and I’m going to have to go for it and hope that he’s only holding lands. On my turn, I draw a recall, which lets me tutor for time walk instead of time vault. Then he needs a counterspell to stop me. He doesn’t and I recall the time walk and regrowth enough times to attack for lethal with erhnam.
1-0 in NEOS, 1-0 in ODOL

Karl-Heinz Purrio on Goblins (ODOL Match 2)

Game 1 on the draw I have a great start. Library, draw, mox, and our hero Glasses of Urza. It shows me he has 11 direct damage in hand. Ouch.

Now I know what to play around. He draws strip mine for my library, and attacks me to 15 with 2 goblins. I play howling mine. This will go fast. My turn 3, I know I can’t be burned out immediately because he only has 1 mountain after that strip, so I play another howling mine. I have a counter but I can use that later on one of his goblin grenades. He plays a mountain, attacks, and double grenades me to 3. He has two chain lightnings in hand and can play both. I have to win this turn. I ancestral into time walk and win from there. Game 2 I get great cards. Turn 1 library, turn 2 time walk, then time vault, twiddle, and recalls. I win turn 2 on the draw. 
1-0 in NEOS, 2-0 in ODOL

Koos Cramer on Field of Dreams (ODOL Match 3)

Koos is avoiding playing The Deck this month but still has a strong deck and is a very strong pilot. Game 1 we go back and forth but I eventually get through a mind twist and attack with ernie for the win. Game 2 I get a turn 1 glasses which helps substantially. He’s got the goods, but I’m able to resolve a demonic tutor

.

He has counters and BEB but only enough blue mana to cast two. I have my own counter and REB so tutor resolves. I debate a lot over getting ancestral or library. Cards now, or inevitability later? I think we’re going to be here awhile so I go for the uncounterable library. Next he plays a chaos orb, which I counter uncontested. Five turns later library is active and with glasses I can work through the 4 counterspells, mana drain, BEB, and two disenchants he has to go off. 
1-0 in NEOS, 3-0 in ODOL 

Matt Cutbirth on Trick deck (NEOS Match 2)

I’ve played Matt on a near TwiddleVault mirror before, so I know he knows the deck. I’ve never played a pure mirror, but that would change this month in the ODOL finals. Trick Deck is of course a tough matchup with underworld dreams. Game 1 he hymns me but I rebuttal with a howling mine and time walk. I drop ernham. He hymns away my second mine and second erhnam. Ernie attacks him to 4 before he finds a fourth mana. He can play hippie or juzam, which I know courtesy of glasses. Juzam isn’t so good when you’re at four life. He plays hippie but I recall twiddle to tap his blocker and get in for lethal. Game 2 he starts by ritualing out a hymn and sinkhole for my land. Hymn hits my demonic and howling mine. I tap out to cast chaos orb since I don’t have enough mana for anything else. He plays underworld dreams into my chaos orb. Interesting. I have timetwister in hand. I could blow up the dreams before my draw step, and not take damage. But I might need that mana if I draw a land to cast timetwister this turn. I don’t like being so low on cards. He could have two chaff in his hand but I don’t know. I wish I had glasses. I decide I don’t want to take that chance. I draw mana and decide to twister with dreams in play, taking 7 to the face. Matt tells me he had something juicy in hand that would wreck me. After twister, I don’t have much so I orb his dreams and pass. With a full grip, he plays blood moon, then rituals out underworld dreams. Oof. However, I am lucky to draw tranquility, clear both his enchantments off my emerald, and go off. Tranquility was clutch. I did have a wheel and island in hand, so I had some plays under moon and dreams but clearly tranquility was a sight for sore eyes. 
2-0 in NEOS, 3-0 in ODOL

Marc Flore with Goodstuff (NEOS Match 3)

I had ernie and chaos orb and was facing down sol kanar, factory, and sedge troll. Ernie feels so good against 4/4 robots but the reverse is true against 5/5s. I could have gone for it and recalled time walk twice but I really wanted more out of my recalls. Instead I play my golden Glasses of Urza. It shows me he has swords, balance, and bolt, which isn’t too scary. Balance is bad, but he’d wipe his own board. I pass. 

He plays juzam off the top so I know he can’t stop time vault. I tutor for one, play it and go off. Game 2 I keep a risky 7 with no land, but it has lotus, sapphire, howling mine, mana drain, and 2 ernies. If I draw a land in the next two turns, I’m good. Even better, I draw library. I can draw with library and play lotus to keep up mana drain. I win on turn 3 through a REB. 
3-0 in NEOS, 3-0 in ODOL

Nic Scar on TwiddleVault/Stasis (NEOS Match 4)

I’ve played against the stasis version of TwiddleVault a few times, but never tested stasis myself. It seems good, I’ve just never found the slot for it. Glasses of Urza keeps rising to the top I guess. Game 1 he plays a black vise but I counter it. He plays a stasis which isn’t much better for him than me because of the matchup. He gets down to two mana and I recall my counter. He could counter, but then can’t pay for stasis. It resolves. He then goes for the time vault, but I counter it. I untap and win. Game 2 he plays his stasis and his islands tick down. He goes to boomerang it, but I REB the boomerang. I get to untap first and win.
4-0 in NEOS, 3-0 in ODOL

Vincente Romera Giron on TrollDisco (ODOL Match 3)

I start with another library. He plays black knight and sedge troll. I play ernie to block. I block, but he bolts the ernie to death. He adds a hippie, and tutors to shatter a howling mine. I untap and library plus vault and twiddle gets it done. Game 2 he shows a shatterstorm then decides not to play it. Oof. Well now I know what’s coming. Despite that, I have to go for it. I play my time vault, another mine, and twiddle. On my next turn I play mind twist for 5/7 and hope to get the shatterstorm. I luckily do. Maybe I should have kept up a counter here instead but there’s lots of other things he could do. I was hoping to ride the double ernie in my hand to victory. On his turn, he drops a disk I can’t counter since I tapped out. That also blunts the ernie plan. He wipes my board. I play twister but don’t get anything and go down to beats. Game 3 I start with sol ring and howling mine. I get a turn 2 library and turn 3 braingeyser up to 7. He plays a sedge troll and passes with 1R up. I’m able to time walk and counter his REB and go off from there. 
4-0 in NEOS, 4-0 in ODOL

Nick Mitchell on Robots (NEOS Match 4)

I go off a bit but not fully. I’m at 8 but have an erhnam and a full grip. He’s at 16. I can’t take another turn but I do mind twist his hand before passing. He draws 5 cards from my 4 mines. I have one counter. He plays a dude. It resolves. He plays blood moon. Interesting. I have islands in hand, so I could be okay. I decide to counter it because I couldn’t counter his next spell anyway under blood moon. His third spell he casts is… timetwister. Let’s do this. He has 1C left after this. Timetwister doesn’t give him what he needs but favors me, in addition to my 4 howling mines in play. That’s what happens sometimes. Game 2 he starts with a fast suchi and trike. I have erhnam but he double bolts it. I’m facing lethal so I have to go off. I time walk twice then wheel. Then I time walk again and wheel again. But then even with drawing 8 more cards my next turn I don’t get what I need and die to robot beats. Game 3 he starts with lotus, pass. I play T1 library, lotus, pass. He plays workshop, suchi. I play ernie. He plays a second suchi, attacks, and bolts my ernie dead. He shatters my sapphire, my only artifact. I have transmute in hand but can’t use it without an artifact. I opt to hurkyl’s recall myself, saving my sapphire. I feel pressure to go off when he’s tapped out, but hold off one more turn. I play mine, keep up a counter, and pass. He attacks me to 4. I opt to go off library to play a mana to be able to counterspell. I play transmute for time vault. He does have the REB. I counter that, twiddle into another twiddle and win from there. Whew. 
5-0 in NEOS, 4-0 in ODOL

Tim Moran on UR (NEOS Match 6)

I’ve never gone 6-0. Starting 5-0 means I’ll make the playoffs but it’d be sweet to stay on this hot streak. This is a tough match. Game 1 I get a fast library, which lets me play ernie and some counters and overwhelm him with cards. Game 2 is super grindy and takes forever. At the end, he has 7 cards in his library and I have 11. I had 2 ernies and 2 recalls left in my library. I was hoping to get a djinn, or maybe recall a wheel and kill him with that.  He started with an early library and is on that for most of the game. We do have a heated counter exchange I messed up. I have time vault in play and twiddle it. He has lotus and a land untapped. He taps lotus to counter it. I twiddle it again and in response he shatters it. I should have gone to attacks, let him shatter it, and twiddle it in response. I had the recall to get it back so probably would have won with the extra turn with him tapped out. 

Game 3 I mulligan to 6 with time vault, lotus, BEB, braingeyser and 2 land. Not amazing, not bad. It’s good if I can resolve a big braingeyser but that won’t be easy. I play my vault, pass. He plays land, pass. I play a land and pass. The next time he passes, I untap my vault and give the turn back to him. On his turn, he shatters the vault. I BEB it. He counters the BEB, tapping out. With the shatter uncountered, I tap the vault to take 2 turns in a row. I untap, play lotus and a  and mox I drew, and braingeyser for 5 which draws me into library. On my subsequent turn, I can play and use library, then pass. He has the orb for my library. I have wheel and twister in hand, but I’m not ready to go for it. I play a howling mine and pass. I try to cast transmute artifact. He REBs it. I BEB. He counters and the transmute is canceled. I have a volcanic untapped and 2 twiddles in hand. I plan to use twiddle to take him off UU end of turn and play the red wheel to avoid REB. He instead taps out for a dib. I then get a fully unrestrained turn to play mine, wheel. It gets me demonic tutor for time walk. I can cast recalls and go off. 
6-0 in NEOS and 4-0 in ODOL

Playoffs

Will Parshal on LionDibBolt (Top16 in NEOS)

He disenchants my howling mine. I regrowth it. He disenchants it again. I chaos orb his dib. He mana drains my time vault and uses the mana for a big braingeyser. That leaves me a tiny window. I think I have to go for it. I pay 8 life to sylvan, going to 1. I find a twiddle and a howling mine. Which finds me another twiddle and another mine. I then draw a recall and can go off. Game 2 I stick an early erhnam and have counter backup. That’s pretty good against a deck full of tiny creatures. I counter a balance and recall my counter. He casts wheel and I counter it. Maybe I should have let it resolve since I get 7 new cards and get to untap first, but I think I’m in a winning position here. I discard one of my two ernies in hand to recall back the counter. I play chaos orb and attack my 4/5 into his factories. He double blocks. I orb his factory. He responds by disenchanting my orb. I counter it. But he has one more divine offering for the orb, taking out my ernie, and gaining 2 important life. 

He goes to 9 instead of 7, and my last ernie in hand can’t outrace his beats by a turn. Game 3 I stick an early ernie. We trade cards then I play timetwister. It’s a gamble, but this time it gives me what I need and I can twiddle a time vault and go off.
7-0 in NEOS and 4-0 in ODOL

David Simons on White Weenie (Top8 of ODOL)

He plays a bevy of tiny white guys and attacks with his army. I’m facing 5 white critters for lethal, but I draw 5 cards thanks to a mine, library, and sylvan and can find the pieces I need to win. Game 2 I have ernie, mine, vault, and twister in hand. I want to play all the things, so I play the ernie, then the mine and vault, before playing twister. He plays dust to dust on my mine and vault, undoing my great work. My twister is okay but not good enough and his army comes in for the kill. Game 3 I get a turn 1 mine, turn 2 vault and twiddle into wheel, twiddle, and ernham. On his second turn, he does disenchant my vault. But on my third turn I play another and go off.
7-0 in NEOS and 5-0 in ODOL

Koos Kramer (again) on Field of Dreams (Top4 of ODOL)

I get Glasses of Urza which is good for this rematch where he has so much interaction. Glasses reveals that he doesn’t have disenchants, but he has 3 answers for erhnam. So I ditch the creature plan and draw cards with mine and time vault and go off. Game 2 he is stuck on 1 island, lotus, and sol ring for a bit. He gets 2 millstones out with field of dreams and is using them effectively with sol ring, but is still off counter mana. He smartly mills his own mana drain pre-draw which gets him another land to go live with counters and both millstones. Later, I’m showing a wheel on the top of my library, so he EOT mills that. Then he mills the regrowth that is revealed. He untaps and mills my revealed mana drain thus tapping out. I draw chaos orb and resolve the timetwister I’ve had since the beginning into a time walk and win from there.
7-0 in NEOS and 6-0 in ODOL

Jason Seaman on Troll Disco (Top8 of NEOS)

I’ve played Jason a few times and it is always a tight match. He offers if I want to play 5 games instead of 3, and with time to kill and some guaranteed good games I take him up on it.

Game 1 I start with 3 moxen and a mind twist for 3 before he gets counter mana up. He starts the beats by playing factory and a troll. I play howling mine. He shatters it. I recall it and cast the howling mine as my last card. Next turn, I draw 2 good ones and I transmute out a time vault and twiddle it. But he attacks me again and fireballs me for lethal before I can get going. Game 2 I start with land, mox, howling mine, lotus for counter backup. He starts with turn 1 library, then next turn shatters my mine. I transmute out another mine. He shatters it with his second and final main deck shatter. I play wheel. No gas, but I play lotus and mind twist 4 of his 8 to take him off library. He comes back with lotus into ancestral and attacks with factory. I drop Glasses of Urza! He kindly lets it resolve. It reveals a book, power sink, and 2 land. I play sylvan. He power sinks it and I counter that. I think it can do work against this control deck to get ahead. I opt not to use glasses, since I want to wheel and use it. I recall wheel and cast it, but he topdecked the counter! I didn’t have a counter so there wasn’t much I could do if I knew he drew it, but it still hurts. Next turn he draws another counter. I can’t stop the factories after that and submit to beats. 0-2 is rough but I have learned to never count this deck out. Game 3 he mulls to 5 and I start with turn 1 library. He tutors for mind twist, but I play a howling mine before he plays it. My mine digs me out post-twist and I get to library range and take it away. Game 4 I start with land, mox, vault. I play a second blue source and when he ends his second turn I untap my vault with UU still ready to go. He drops a land and passes. On my turn, I play twister. He counters but I REB it and twister is good. My untapped vault lets me go again. I can then play and use Library, and twiddle my vault. He REBs it but I have a second twiddle while keeping library active. He’s out of mana and counters and I reveal my hand full of gas and he concedes. Game 5 he starts with land sol ring. I too go land, sol ring, and add a howling mine. He shatters my mine and strips my trop. I play a city and sylvan. Sylvan is good but that city is going to hurt bad over time. He casts demonic tutor and plays ancestral recall. I keep both from sylvan, going to 10 and strip his badlands. He time walks and plays factory. He’s out of answers but hits with factory and casts troll, bringing me to 8. I play a land and I try to live one more turn. I mana short his factory to survive again and crack open a window. Troll takes me to 5. I need to draw a mana. I take a drink and get ready for my last chance. Jason asks if I just took a swig of whiskey. Haha I should have.

I could BEB the troll and tutor for something. My strip mine for the factory is already in my graveyard. I don’t have enough mana to use chaos orb and not die. The only line I find is to tutor up ancestral and really hope to pull something good. I can’t even twister or wheel without taking my final point of damage. I decide I gotta do the ancestral thing. So I cast that, draw, and reveal … time vault, recall, and mind twist. Not what I needed. Great game. Awesome job to Jason switching from control to aggro in the blink of an eye and turning sylvan from a huge leg up to a liability. Knowing when to make that switch is hard. Well done.
7-1 in NEOS and 6-0 in ODOL

Aland on TwiddleVault (Finals in ODOL)

I’d never played or really tested the mirror. I’d only theorycrafted it but I’ve been excited for this matchup for the two years I’ve been playing TwiddleVault. I knew what he was on ahead of our match (and he knew what I was on) so this was going to be a fun one. Game 1 I debate and keep 7 with a counter, time walk, and glasses of urza, thinking it will help a lot in this matchup. He goes first and starts with time walk, lotus, timetwister, library. My keep was irrelevant. Library takes him to victory. This is what some people call getting “old schooled”. Game 2 he mulls to 5 and I play a turn 1 erhnam djinn off mana vault and a mox. Ernie attacks 5 times for the win. Game 3 he gets an early sylvan and vault, holding back the mines until later. I’m stuck on 3 mana. I had sideboarded out an island and if instead of the ernie or hurkyls in hand, I had a fourth mana I might have won. But these are the choices we make and what makes playing this game fun. I can’t afford to play either of my ernies. He mind twists me for hand. I counter but he counters back. He gets going after that over a few turns and it’s over.

Definitely a bunch of busted plays but it was a blast to play. This was Aland’s first ODOL league win so congrats and well deserved! I was so thrilled to get in a TwiddleVault mirror and it is extra special to play it against Aland in the finals of a league.
7-1 in NEOS, 6-1 in ODOL. 13-2 for the month is pretty dang good.

I got to play some awesome magic and had some really close matches. Who knows, there might have even been a “W” in there somewhere if I had played it differently. But that’s the fun. I was thrilled to have such a hot run with TwiddleVault and glasses did great work for me. I’m looking forward to more busted plays next month!