Heya,
I got some really bad news over the weekend (I'll share in a minute), so this won't be my normal set review style.
SoM, I think, is a hard set to review right now. Many of the best cards like Wurmcoil Engine, Steel Hellkite, and Prototype Portal are very mana intensive. Actual play will be needed to see if they are any good or not. All of them are powerful. But are they useful? Testing is needed.
I do have a few cards that I see as standing out:
Ratchet Bomb- This card is good in Shops and against Shops. In fact, I think this will be the standout rare for the set in all formats. It is, IMHO, an upgrade to Powder Keg and a thumb in the eye to the Reserve List. The price should come down, especially if SoM turns out to be a popular set.
Liquimetal Coating- I'm excited about this card. I think it will be fun. I don't have much more to say right now, but I will.
Leonin Arbiter- Hate Bears are great. Green and White have been getting lots of great utility creatures for the last six or seven blocks. This just continues the trend.
Nihil Spellbomb- The obligatory Dredge hate card of the block. Throw it on the pile with the gazillion other GY haters that have been printed since Ravnica.
Mox Opal- I like this card at $15 but not at $40. I think a lot of decks like Time Vault, ANT, TPS, Oath, Elves, and 5c Stax will want one, while other decks like Gro, Fish, MUD, and Dredge won't even though it could conceivably fit. It'll make its way into the format as a one-of, but it won't revolutionize the mana bases of Vintage.
The two featured mechanics (Infect and Metalcraft) are interesting. I went to my local pre-release and felt I learned a lot about them. First, they're both all-in mechanics. They're not like Scry, or Buyback, or Flashback, or many other mechanics. Infect works only in a deck dedicated to it and it must have some kind of evasion or the big fatties just wreck the strategy.
I played a W/B Metalcraft deck and was fairly successful with it (4-2 match record, 10-5 game record). But my opponents weren't so lucky. Metalcraft was easy to disrupt. A well placed creature kill spell here, a nifty combat trick there, and their whole plan went down the toilet. It is such a fragile mechanic, that I think anyone playing with Pyroclasm in Standard can take down the strategy easily. Memnites and Myrs just aren't strong enough to rely on to get the effect consistently, IMO. We'll see.
Anyway, about the bad news. I'll reference my earlier article, The Stagnation Continues. My local game shop has been a haven for Vintage for years. It hosts a Vintage State Champs for Kentucky annually that usually has a pretty big draw. All that ended this month.
I showed up Saturday with a well tuned Shop deck to find that the weekly Saturday Vintage tournament has been replaced by a weekly Legacy tournament (not surprisingly, the top 2 decks from the week prior were Merfolk). I was shocked and dismayed. The guy who runs the place, a man I have immense respect for, told me that everyone just got tired of the three way battle between MUD, Time Vault, and Oath. Apparently, I was the only one who ever brought Dredge to the table. Anyway, the overall sentiment of the group was that the stagnant metagame- which I still maintain has been largely unchanged since fall 2008- has driven away a huge amount of the player base and made the format un-fun.
As I reviewed the tournament logs, I had to agree. During the Golden Age, the weekly tournament there pulled in 20+ people easy. It was an excellent melting pot of Storm, Control, Shop, Agro, and Rogue decks. The last Vintage tournament there had 6 people. The week before that had 7. It's a sad moment for me.
As I talked to the former Vintage players who came for the pre-release, a lot of them expressed a feeling of futility in facing Time Vault decks and a feeling of fear that SoM would unleash unbeatable MUD decks. I pointed out that Gush and Frantic Search were just unrestricted, but there wasn't much faith that those cards would change anything. One guy who sat across the table from me said, "Vintage is dead. There's only three good decks [meaning JaceVault, Elephant Oath, and MUD]. Fish can't keep up with MUD's fatties and no one plays Dredge cause it's not any fun. It's over until they fix Time Vault and Workshop."
I have no idea what he meant by "fixing" those cards. Presumably banning Time Vault and printing some decent artifact kill. Who knows? But the reality is, a once great bastion of Vintage in Kentucky is no more. Sad really.
Peace,
-Troy
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Winners and Losers in the 3rd Gush Era
Heya,
Welcome back to 2007! (sorta) There’s no Flash and Time Vault is playable. But still, we’re at least back to where we should have been after the 2008 B/R decision. Two years to wait for a correction isn’t bad in my opinion. So let’s examine the initial ramifications of the B/R announcement that unrestricted Gush and Frantic Search.
First, the Potential Big Winners:
-Grow Decks: Obviously…. The thing is, though, I’m not sure they’re the best place for Gush now. A light mana base is very vulnerable to Spheres and I’m not sure it stacks up well against Trygon Jace. Regardless, Grow is a more viable strategy than it was a month ago.
-Shop Decks: There is nothing Shop players love more than decks that want to play a lot of spells. 13 Sphere effects + Tangle Wire means they are well prepared for any Gush archetypes that show up- with the possible exception of one.
-Tyrant Oath: At least initially, I think this will be the Gush deck to rise to the top. It’s easy to build in that you don’t have to change the current shell a great deal to take advantage of Gush. It can get around Spheres easily enough and can bounce a board vs. Fish. Its strength vs. Trygon Jace and Dredge will be tested, but clever pilots will find success at least in the early months of this new meta.
-Rogue Decks: The 2007-2008 metagame was a rogue decker’s paradise. R/G Beatz, Gob-Lines, WGDx, Bomberman, Elves! and several others all were viable thanks to the blanket of protection Gush and MUD gave them. Look for rogue strategies to flourish and then fall in a never ending cycle of innovation over the next six months.
-Slaver Decks: Anymore, this may count as a rogue deck. But with Frantic Search now legal as a 4-of, it could replace TFK in that build. And there’s a new spiffy version of the namesake for this deck in Scars of Mirrodin to boot!
-Gaddock Teeg: Our favorite hobbit suddenly looks crazy strong in this new meta. It all depends on whether or not Gush decks really find an archetype that can survive in the Vault vs. Rod vs. Shop meta we now have. If Gush only makes up 10% or less of the field, he’ll be a sideboard card- much like he is now. If Gush rises above that, look for Fish pilots to dust off their foil playsets.
-Qasaili Pridemage: Already a great card, he gets better now that decks will play more enchantments.
-Ethersworn Canonist: Hatebears everywhere love this decision. It comes down to, though, if they can find a winning strategy against a field that will become more diverse.
-Leonin Arbiter: Not even out yet and he’s a winner! Gush decks love Fetches (especially now w/ Misty Rainforest) and Tutors (don’t be surprised to see an increased use of Imperial Seal). Toss him on the pile of G/W creatures who are feeling the love.
-Tunnel Ingus: Speaking of cards not out yet. Tunnel Ingus could become the Red Mage’s best sideboard card if Gush gets too far out of hand. His application is narrow, so don’t look for him outside of burn decks featuring Ankh of Mishra and Runeflare Trap unless things get really serious.
-Blood Moon Effects: Historically, Gush decks have relied a great deal on non-basics. If that tradition holds true, Magus and his enchantment friend will make their way back to the tournament scene after a two year absence.
-Red Blast Effects: Already pretty strong, these will become important sideboard cards in the near future.
-Disenchant Effects: How good will Nature’s Claim, Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Krosan Grip be now? Yikes!
-Mystic Remora: Where was this thing three years ago? This is the Mana Drain Player’s key card if Gush really takes off…. well, along with Trygon and Nature’s Claim, of course. Look for Remora Jace/Tez decks to emerge if Gush decks become a significant player.
-Trinisphere: I think the debate over whether or not Trinisphere belongs in Shop decks along with Thorn, Resistor, and Golem is over. It’ll be too important to get a spell hoser out on turn 1 now.
-Doomsday: Or at least, I hope. This was my favorite iteration of Gush back during the Golden Age. Here’s to it rising once again.
-Lotus Cobra: He was just starting to emerge his head from the ground in Time Vault decks. Now, Gush decks may be well poised to take advantage of his ability. I think after the initial dalliances with Tyrant Oath, Serpent Gush will be the next big archetype.
-Tropical Island: Most important land in Vintage now?
-Extirpate: What happens when all the top decks switch from Highlander to 4-of’s? Extirpate gets really good. Don’t expect this card to matter right away. Check back in four months or so.
-The 6th Pillar: Yes, Gush itself is a winner! After two years of heavy lobbying by myself and others, it’s back. While the DCI may regard Fish, Mana Drain, and Gush decks as one Pillar under the ubiquitous Force of Will, the Vintage community sees it differently. For those who like deckbuilding choices and diversity, they win big with this decision.
Now the Potential Losers:
-Mana Drain Decks: I still think they’ll be the best deck in the meta, at least for a while. But now they’ll have two equals- MUD and Gush. It’ll be a three way battle at the top. But the era of Mana Drain’s sole dominance ends today.
-Dark Ritual Decks: Gush crowds in on the Tendrils Combo design space for decks. There’s a lot of incentive to run lots of blue cards in Vintage. If a Gush Tendrils deck shows promise, I think a lot of those still playing TPS will switch. It’s been a long drought for Dark Ritual, and it seemed as if GenCon ’10 was the beginning of a renewal in Ritual combo. But alas, it may be short lived.
-Terrastadon: Iona and Tyrant will probably become the Oath creatures of choice. There may be some room left for him, tho.
-Emrakul, The Aeons Torn: Nobody’s gonna mess around with him in Oath now that better options are available.
-Null Rod: If Gush makes a significant move to the top tier, then Null Rod becomes less attractive. It already is marginal vs. Oath and MUD and useless vs. Dredge. Gush decks run light on artifact mana, so it could mean that Fishy decks have to look elsewhere for their disruption package. Pithing Needle, maybe?
-Juggernaut: Just not playable anymore. Not disruptive enough in this meta. We’ll have to move on to something else.
Finally, those Who Aren’t Really Affected:
-Dredge Decks: Dredge doesn’t care. It’s gameplan is the same almost now matter what the rest of the meta is doing. It could be a borderline winner if people move towards stacking 4 Leyline of the Voids in their SB to deny Gush a big Yawg’s Will, but I see that as unlikely.
-Belcher: Never really a player anyway. Still can have a good time, though regardless of who’s at the top.
-Hurkyl’s Recall: Everyone’s favorite mass artifact bounce will still be as good going forward as it has been recently. Despite the fact that Gush doesn’t play a lot of artifact mana, Shop and Drain decks still will. I do expect some more experimentation with Echoing Truth or Rushing River, but Hurkyl’s will remain a sideboard staple for at least the next four to six months (not to mention we’re smack in the middle of a new artifact block).
-90% of Magic Players: Many of whom have never even heard of Vintage.
It’s not certain yet, at this very early stage, that much will change at all. I suspect Gush will be good, but I have no proof. It could flop. The standard tools that we loved in the second Gush era like Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are all restricted. Preordain is a very slow and weak replacement for them. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.
Peace,
-Troy
Welcome back to 2007! (sorta) There’s no Flash and Time Vault is playable. But still, we’re at least back to where we should have been after the 2008 B/R decision. Two years to wait for a correction isn’t bad in my opinion. So let’s examine the initial ramifications of the B/R announcement that unrestricted Gush and Frantic Search.
First, the Potential Big Winners:
-Grow Decks: Obviously…. The thing is, though, I’m not sure they’re the best place for Gush now. A light mana base is very vulnerable to Spheres and I’m not sure it stacks up well against Trygon Jace. Regardless, Grow is a more viable strategy than it was a month ago.
-Shop Decks: There is nothing Shop players love more than decks that want to play a lot of spells. 13 Sphere effects + Tangle Wire means they are well prepared for any Gush archetypes that show up- with the possible exception of one.
-Tyrant Oath: At least initially, I think this will be the Gush deck to rise to the top. It’s easy to build in that you don’t have to change the current shell a great deal to take advantage of Gush. It can get around Spheres easily enough and can bounce a board vs. Fish. Its strength vs. Trygon Jace and Dredge will be tested, but clever pilots will find success at least in the early months of this new meta.
-Rogue Decks: The 2007-2008 metagame was a rogue decker’s paradise. R/G Beatz, Gob-Lines, WGDx, Bomberman, Elves! and several others all were viable thanks to the blanket of protection Gush and MUD gave them. Look for rogue strategies to flourish and then fall in a never ending cycle of innovation over the next six months.
-Slaver Decks: Anymore, this may count as a rogue deck. But with Frantic Search now legal as a 4-of, it could replace TFK in that build. And there’s a new spiffy version of the namesake for this deck in Scars of Mirrodin to boot!
-Gaddock Teeg: Our favorite hobbit suddenly looks crazy strong in this new meta. It all depends on whether or not Gush decks really find an archetype that can survive in the Vault vs. Rod vs. Shop meta we now have. If Gush only makes up 10% or less of the field, he’ll be a sideboard card- much like he is now. If Gush rises above that, look for Fish pilots to dust off their foil playsets.
-Qasaili Pridemage: Already a great card, he gets better now that decks will play more enchantments.
-Ethersworn Canonist: Hatebears everywhere love this decision. It comes down to, though, if they can find a winning strategy against a field that will become more diverse.
-Leonin Arbiter: Not even out yet and he’s a winner! Gush decks love Fetches (especially now w/ Misty Rainforest) and Tutors (don’t be surprised to see an increased use of Imperial Seal). Toss him on the pile of G/W creatures who are feeling the love.
-Tunnel Ingus: Speaking of cards not out yet. Tunnel Ingus could become the Red Mage’s best sideboard card if Gush gets too far out of hand. His application is narrow, so don’t look for him outside of burn decks featuring Ankh of Mishra and Runeflare Trap unless things get really serious.
-Blood Moon Effects: Historically, Gush decks have relied a great deal on non-basics. If that tradition holds true, Magus and his enchantment friend will make their way back to the tournament scene after a two year absence.
-Red Blast Effects: Already pretty strong, these will become important sideboard cards in the near future.
-Disenchant Effects: How good will Nature’s Claim, Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Krosan Grip be now? Yikes!
-Mystic Remora: Where was this thing three years ago? This is the Mana Drain Player’s key card if Gush really takes off…. well, along with Trygon and Nature’s Claim, of course. Look for Remora Jace/Tez decks to emerge if Gush decks become a significant player.
-Trinisphere: I think the debate over whether or not Trinisphere belongs in Shop decks along with Thorn, Resistor, and Golem is over. It’ll be too important to get a spell hoser out on turn 1 now.
-Doomsday: Or at least, I hope. This was my favorite iteration of Gush back during the Golden Age. Here’s to it rising once again.
-Lotus Cobra: He was just starting to emerge his head from the ground in Time Vault decks. Now, Gush decks may be well poised to take advantage of his ability. I think after the initial dalliances with Tyrant Oath, Serpent Gush will be the next big archetype.
-Tropical Island: Most important land in Vintage now?
-Extirpate: What happens when all the top decks switch from Highlander to 4-of’s? Extirpate gets really good. Don’t expect this card to matter right away. Check back in four months or so.
-The 6th Pillar: Yes, Gush itself is a winner! After two years of heavy lobbying by myself and others, it’s back. While the DCI may regard Fish, Mana Drain, and Gush decks as one Pillar under the ubiquitous Force of Will, the Vintage community sees it differently. For those who like deckbuilding choices and diversity, they win big with this decision.
Now the Potential Losers:
-Mana Drain Decks: I still think they’ll be the best deck in the meta, at least for a while. But now they’ll have two equals- MUD and Gush. It’ll be a three way battle at the top. But the era of Mana Drain’s sole dominance ends today.
-Dark Ritual Decks: Gush crowds in on the Tendrils Combo design space for decks. There’s a lot of incentive to run lots of blue cards in Vintage. If a Gush Tendrils deck shows promise, I think a lot of those still playing TPS will switch. It’s been a long drought for Dark Ritual, and it seemed as if GenCon ’10 was the beginning of a renewal in Ritual combo. But alas, it may be short lived.
-Terrastadon: Iona and Tyrant will probably become the Oath creatures of choice. There may be some room left for him, tho.
-Emrakul, The Aeons Torn: Nobody’s gonna mess around with him in Oath now that better options are available.
-Null Rod: If Gush makes a significant move to the top tier, then Null Rod becomes less attractive. It already is marginal vs. Oath and MUD and useless vs. Dredge. Gush decks run light on artifact mana, so it could mean that Fishy decks have to look elsewhere for their disruption package. Pithing Needle, maybe?
-Juggernaut: Just not playable anymore. Not disruptive enough in this meta. We’ll have to move on to something else.
Finally, those Who Aren’t Really Affected:
-Dredge Decks: Dredge doesn’t care. It’s gameplan is the same almost now matter what the rest of the meta is doing. It could be a borderline winner if people move towards stacking 4 Leyline of the Voids in their SB to deny Gush a big Yawg’s Will, but I see that as unlikely.
-Belcher: Never really a player anyway. Still can have a good time, though regardless of who’s at the top.
-Hurkyl’s Recall: Everyone’s favorite mass artifact bounce will still be as good going forward as it has been recently. Despite the fact that Gush doesn’t play a lot of artifact mana, Shop and Drain decks still will. I do expect some more experimentation with Echoing Truth or Rushing River, but Hurkyl’s will remain a sideboard staple for at least the next four to six months (not to mention we’re smack in the middle of a new artifact block).
-90% of Magic Players: Many of whom have never even heard of Vintage.
It’s not certain yet, at this very early stage, that much will change at all. I suspect Gush will be good, but I have no proof. It could flop. The standard tools that we loved in the second Gush era like Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are all restricted. Preordain is a very slow and weak replacement for them. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.
Peace,
-Troy
Friday, August 13, 2010
GenCon Data Roundup
Heya,
Here's ll the major threads and links for the GenCon Vintage Champs. Enjoy!!!
TMD Results Thread
Owen The Champion's Report on CF
The Top 8 Decklists from Champs
GGSLive's Video Archive of Vintage Champs
Vroman's 9th Place Report
M. Sollymossy's 13th Place Report
Matt Elias's Report
Stephen's Report (will update)
Stanley Chen's 1st Place Prelim Report
Eternal Central's Coverage
BC's On-site Reporting
The TMD Trash Talk Thread
Pathetic Excuse for Coverage on MTG.com
DCI Restriction of Preordain and Jace (will update)
Please notify me of any broken links!
Peace,
-Troy
Here's ll the major threads and links for the GenCon Vintage Champs. Enjoy!!!
TMD Results Thread
Owen The Champion's Report on CF
The Top 8 Decklists from Champs
GGSLive's Video Archive of Vintage Champs
Vroman's 9th Place Report
M. Sollymossy's 13th Place Report
Matt Elias's Report
Stephen's Report (will update)
Stanley Chen's 1st Place Prelim Report
Eternal Central's Coverage
BC's On-site Reporting
The TMD Trash Talk Thread
Pathetic Excuse for Coverage on MTG.com
DCI Restriction of Preordain and Jace (will update)
Please notify me of any broken links!
Peace,
-Troy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
GenCon Predictions
Heya,
While everyone else is concentrating on the Legacy GP in Columbus, I’m going to make my predictions for the Vintage Champs at GenCon (which, if you haven’t noticed, is next week already!). For the first time since 2006, we’re going into GenCon pretty much knowing what the format is all about. It’s the first time in four years where the DCI didn’t monkey around with the format in June. So, our options are pretty clear:
Tezzeret Control
Drain Tendrils
TPS
MUD
Noble Fish
Dredge
Elephant Oath
Tez was last year’s winner. I don’t know when the last time a deck repeated at Vintage World’s. It’s been a while, and I think that trend will continue. Tez is being out maneuvered by several decks. I just don’t see it winning. Final Prediction: 1 or 2 in the Top 8.
Storm decks are making something of a comeback. I still believe that they are not positioned well in the format right now. I attribute a lot of their success to the rise of Elephant Oath. Neither Drain Tendrils nor TPS has the starch to win it this year. Final Prediction: 1 in the Top 8.
MUD is all the rage right now. Meandeck MUD is seeing play in a lot of tournaments all over the world and doing very well. This deck is easy to play, especially compared to Tez, Drain Tendrils, and TPS; therefore, opportunities for mistakes are minimized. In Vintage World’s, that’s important. MUD is well positioned to beat the Storm decks that show up and obviously has a good matchup vs. Tez. With Duplicants in the SB, it can combat Oath well enough. I think Dredge and a properly tuned Noble Fish can give MUD some headaches. I imagine most MUD lists will have 7+ anti-Ichorid cards in its SB. IMHO, this is the deck to beat. Final Prediction: 3 in Top 8, 2 in Top 4.
Noble Fish has performed well all year, but it’s on the decline at exactly the wrong time. If GenCon had been this spring, I think Noble Fish (or one of its variants) would be the deck to beat. Expect a TON of Fish decks at GenCon. Null Rods, Chalices, Wastelands, Goyfs, and Hierarchs are cheap by Vintage standards. However, I think that Dredge decks Oath decks (especially ones with Show and Tell) will stamp out most of them. Final Prediction: 1 in Top 8 (maybe)
Just as Fish is declining, Dredge is peaking out at just the right time. Terrific new cards like Sun Titan and Leyline of Sanctity are being incorporated into a very resistant, very powerful Ichorid deck. Dredge undulates between 5 to 15% of the metagame in a fairly regular, rhythmic patter. People put tons of Dredge hate in their sideboards, Dredge goes down, they forget about Dredge, Dredge comes back. It’s a pattern than has persisted since Future Sight. However, this year has shown us something different. Dredge hasn’t lost its potency. It’s held its spot in the meta despite new hate cards like Ravenous Trap and Bojuka Bog. I believe that Dredge decks that pack a mix of Unmask, Darkblast, Chalice of the Void, Leyline of Sanctity, Petrified Field, and Sun Titan will do very well this year in World’s. All that being said, almost half of every sideboard will be devoted to beating this deck. The threats are many. I don’t think this is the year of Dredge, but I do think this will be Dredge’s best year ever. Final Prediction: 1 or 2 in Top 8, 1 in Top 4.
Elephant Oath is hard for me to gauge right now. Is it on the decline? Is it just in hibernation? Are the good players who played this deck migrating to MUD? I don’t know. I do know that Dredge decks are well positioned to take out Oath this year. MUD seems to have a favorable matchup. Tez decks dropped their Confidants, so that matchup is a little harder for Oath. Oath and Noble Fish have been locking horns all year. So what to say? Oath could do really well, or it could get blown out completely. Final Prediction: 1 in Top 8, 1 in Top 4.
So I’ve got 10 decks making the top 8. That’s probably a pretty good prediction. I feel pretty confident about my MUD, MUD, Oath, Dredge final 4. From there, it will just depend on who gets matched up with what.
There’s also a chance for a rogue deck to make it in. If I were going to take a rogue deck to GenCon what would it be? Suicide Black. It’s the last thing anyone is prepared for, so I think it would have a chance of at least having a winning record. Here’s what I would build:
Main Deck:
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
6 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Null Rod
4 Phylactery Lich
4 Dark Confidant
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Tombstalker
2 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
1 Necropotence
Sideboard:
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Yxilid Jailer
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Cruel Edict
2 Massacre
3 Ensnaring Bridge
Take into account I haven’t had much time to playtest that list, but I believe that no one would see it coming and it could sneak up on decks very easily. It’s Suicide Black, so there is some risk in every game, but that’s part of the excitement too. I tried working in Sadistic Sacrament and the ole’ Dark Depths/Vampite Hexmage. I didn’t like what they did to the deck, so this is what I’m most happy with.
Anyway, here’s to another year of Vintage at GenCon. Good luck to all participants!
Peace,
-Troy
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
2nd Place w/ Ichorid
Heya,
I took second place in a small tournament last week. Here’s the list I played:
Lands:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
3 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage
Artifacts:
4 Serum Powder
Enchantments:
4 Bridge From Below
Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancient Grudge
Dredgers:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast
Non-Dredge Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Fatestitcher
3 Ichorid
2 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Sun Titan
Sideboard:
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Pithing Needle
2 Darkblast
1 City of Brass
First a report, then my thoughts. It was a small tournament. Just 8 players following the M11 Launch Party. The TO decided to make it 3 rounds of Swiss with the top two players playing in the last round for a small prize. We used to routinely get over 20 players in the 2006-2008 era. The restriction of Flash, Gush, and Brainstorm along with the Time Vault errata really took its toll on the local scene. Anyway, here’s what happened as best I can remember from referencing my notes.
Round 1: John A. w/ BUG Fish
I almost never beat John. Over the last four years we’ve played each other dozens times with dozens decks. I’ve probably beat him five or six times. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this match.
Game 1-
My opening hand was this:
Bazaar
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Grave Troll
City of BrassIchorid
Bridge from Below
I won the roll, so I play first. Drop a Bazaar, activate, draw Bloodgahst and Ancient Grudge. I’m still new to Dredge, so what would be best to discard here? Grave-Troll is obvious. I could do Ichorid and Bloodghast, or two Bloodghasts. It’s game one, so I probably don’t have to worry about Crypt or Trap. I decide to discard the Troll and two Ghasts. I pass the turn.
John plays Wasteland and kills my Bazaar then passes. Discarding the Ghasts looks really smart now. I go to my draw step, dredge 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Grave-Troll, Serum Powder, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. I play my second Bazaar and put 3 Bloodghasts into play. Activate Bazaar. Dredge 6, revealing Thug, Serum Powder, Narcomoeba, Dakmor Salvage, and a Bridge. Dredge 5, revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Undiscovered Paradise, Therapy, and Zealot. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Bridge. I sac a Narco for Therapy calling Force. I get it. Then it’s sac’ing the other Narco and 2 Ghasts for Dread Return on Zealot for the win.
Game 2-
John sideboards in about five or six cards. I bring in 4 Chains, 4 Claims, and 1 City removing 3 Ichorids, 2 Salvages, and 4 Powders. I mulligan to 6. John mulligans to 5. My hand has
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Stinkweed Imp
Undiscovered Paradise
Chain of Vapor
Nature’s Claim
John goes first, plays a Fetch, cracks it for U. Sea and plays Ponder. No Leylines, so that’s good. I play Bazaar, activate drawing Bloodghast and Bridge from Below. I discard Imp and two Ghasts. I didn’t want to risk my Bridges yet incase he had Crypt in hand. I pass. He drops Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar then passes. I dredge for 5 on my draw revealing Narco, Bridge from Below, Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Sun Titan. I drop my Paradise bringing two Bloodghasts into play. I sac them and the Narco to return Titan. No countermagic from John, so Titan returns my Bazaar and I get my two Bloodghasts back. I activate Bazaar and dredge 6 revealing Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Fatestitcher, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Cabal Therapy. I discard Troll, Imp, and Bridge. I tap the Paradise to unearth Fatestitcher, and activate Bazaar again. Dredge 12 total. I get another Narco in play, another Bridge in the yard along with FKZ. I sac my creatures to Dread Return on FKZ and win from there. John showed me his hand. He was holding two Jailers. I guess he went for stripping my Bazaar over neutering my Graveyard. I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made in the long run.
Round 2: Corey w/MUD
Game 1-
I’m on the play. I draw garbage in my opening hand, but I have Serum Powder. I dump what I’ve got and draw a new seven. Corey doesn’t look at the cards I exiled. I was a bit surprised. I keep what I got:
Bazaar
Grave-Troll
Narcomoeba (hate that)
Grave-Troll
City of Brass
Ichorid
Undiscovered Paradise
I lay Bazaar and activate. I draw Ichorid and Serum Powder. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Ichorid then pass. He drops Workshop, Mox, Golem. Yay. During my upkeep, I put the Ichorid trigger on the stack then activate Bazaar. I dredge 12 and get 2 Bloodghasts, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dread Return, 2 Cabal Therapy, 1 Thug, 2 Bridge from Below, 1 Imp, 1 City of Brass, 1 Fatestitcher. I discard the 2 Trolls and my Narcomoeba. I exile a Thug and put Ichorid into play. I put City of Brass into play and then stop to think.
I have some choices here. Right now, I’ve got 1 Ichorid, 1 Narcomoeba, and 2 Bloodghasts in play. I’ve basically stopped his attack for now, and I’ll get two tokens at EOT from Ichorid. I could Therapy or I could play Fatestitcher. I decide that I’m in a pretty decent position and don’t need to win fast, so I tap my City and sacrifice Ichorid to play Therapy calling “Sphere of Resistance.” I nab two of them. Holy crap! I also see Null Rod, Juggernaut, and City of Traitors. I pass.
He draws, plays his City, taps it, and puts a Thorn of Amethyst into play then passes. I stack Ichorid and dredge for 12 again. I get enough creatures in play that I can cast Dread Return on FKZ using the mana from my City and Paradise to win that turn. I tell him I was pretty lucky to get three lands in my opening hand.
Game 2-
I side in 4 Nature’s Claims, 1 City of Brass, and 4 Pithing needle. I mulligan to six. My opening hand has:
Bazaar
Undiscovered Paradise
Grave-Troll
Pithing Needle
Bridge from Below
Bloodghast
I figure he’s probably playing Crypt and not playing Leylines. Maybe Relic. So I keep it based on Needle. He goes first, drops Workshop, Mox, and Juggernaut. Then he passes. I draw Nature’s Claim (yes!), play Bazaar, and activate. I draw Bridge from Below and a second Undiscovered Paradise. I discard 1 Troll, 1 Bloodghast, and 1 Bridge. I pass.
He attacks me for 5 then drops Ancient Tomb. To my surprise, he taps Shop and Mox to play Jester’s Cap, then taps Tomb to activate it. He chooses my last two Bridges and an FKZ. He passes. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar. Dredge for 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Bazaar of Baghdad, Grave-Troll, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. Dredge for 6 again putting Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Ancient Grudge, Pithing Needle, Thug, and a Grave-Troll. I discard 1 Bridge and two Grave-Trolls.
I play an Undiscovered Paradise and put 2 Blooghasts into play to add to my 2 Narcomoebas. I’m afraid he’s holding Crypt, so I play Pithing Needle and call “Tormod’s Crypt.” He laughs out loud, not in a “oh crap, I’m screwed” sort of way but in a “bad call, dude” sort of way. So I’m faced with some unpleasant scenarios. 1) He’s holding some way to kill my needle. Maybe he’s playing Red and has a Mountain and an Ingot Chewer in hand. 2) He’s playing Relic and my call on Crypt was useless. 3) There’s something else I’m not considering, which is very likely the case. Duplicant? Nah, why would he side that in? That’ can’t be it.
I decide to establish a strong board position and just let the chips fall where they may. I sac my 2 Narcomoebas and 1 Bloodghast to play Dread Return on a Golgari Grave-Troll. He comes into play with eight +1/+1 counters I believe. Something like that. I also make 6 tokens. I pass the turn.
He untaps, draws, plays a Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar. Then he (you’re not going to believe this) taps his Shop and Mox and plays another Cap! He taps his Tomb, and pulls out 2 Dread Returns and last FKZ. He has to attack with Juggs. So I block with my last Bloodghast and get 2 more tokens.
I untap, put UP in my hand, and Dredge for 6 on my draw. I reveal a few cards. It doesn’t matter. With my Troll and 8 tokens, I attack for lethal. It was a weird game. He did show me that he boarded in Tormod’s Crypts but thought the Caps would get him there.
Round 3 (Finals): Michael w/Helm of the Void combo
I won’t bore you with many of the details. Game 1 he opens with Leyline of the Void and Wasteland. I’ve got nothing for that, so I suggest we move to game 2. Game 2 he mulligans, then opens with double Leyline and shows me a hand with U. Sea, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and FoW. Yeah, so that was that. I get a few M11 packs and crack a Time Reversal, Foil Lightning Bolt, and a Mystifying Maze. Not bad. All he got was $15 for taking first.
Reflection:
I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but…
Regarding GenCon: I would not play this version at GenCon. This deck is built for absolute speed, and I blew out every opponent by turn 3 and never lost a single game until the finals. However, the GenCon crowd will be prepared for Ichorid since it is so cheap to build. Therefore, the lists packing max disruption like Chalice, Unmask, and Leyline of Sanctity are probably going to do the best.
Regarding Sun Titan: I loved having Sun Titan in the deck. Twice he scored me a turn 2 victory. I like him way better than the Sharuum Combo, especially at GenCon where Null Rods will be all over the place. He’s a big body, with Vigilance, that will give you two Landfall activations in the same turn. He is really strong in this deck, and should be considered. I was happy every time I Dread Returned him.
Regarding my Sideboard: This is the weakest part of my game. The 4 Pithing Needles didn’t do anything for me. Either I won before it was necessary to play them for Time Vault or Crypt, or I never got them in my hand. I’ll probably replace them with Leyline of Sanctity or Unmask.
Peace,
-Troy
I took second place in a small tournament last week. Here’s the list I played:
Lands:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
3 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage
Artifacts:
4 Serum Powder
Enchantments:
4 Bridge From Below
Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancient Grudge
Dredgers:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast
Non-Dredge Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Fatestitcher
3 Ichorid
2 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Sun Titan
Sideboard:
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Pithing Needle
2 Darkblast
1 City of Brass
First a report, then my thoughts. It was a small tournament. Just 8 players following the M11 Launch Party. The TO decided to make it 3 rounds of Swiss with the top two players playing in the last round for a small prize. We used to routinely get over 20 players in the 2006-2008 era. The restriction of Flash, Gush, and Brainstorm along with the Time Vault errata really took its toll on the local scene. Anyway, here’s what happened as best I can remember from referencing my notes.
Round 1: John A. w/ BUG Fish
I almost never beat John. Over the last four years we’ve played each other dozens times with dozens decks. I’ve probably beat him five or six times. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this match.
Game 1-
My opening hand was this:
Bazaar
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Grave Troll
City of BrassIchorid
Bridge from Below
I won the roll, so I play first. Drop a Bazaar, activate, draw Bloodgahst and Ancient Grudge. I’m still new to Dredge, so what would be best to discard here? Grave-Troll is obvious. I could do Ichorid and Bloodghast, or two Bloodghasts. It’s game one, so I probably don’t have to worry about Crypt or Trap. I decide to discard the Troll and two Ghasts. I pass the turn.
John plays Wasteland and kills my Bazaar then passes. Discarding the Ghasts looks really smart now. I go to my draw step, dredge 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Grave-Troll, Serum Powder, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. I play my second Bazaar and put 3 Bloodghasts into play. Activate Bazaar. Dredge 6, revealing Thug, Serum Powder, Narcomoeba, Dakmor Salvage, and a Bridge. Dredge 5, revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Undiscovered Paradise, Therapy, and Zealot. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Bridge. I sac a Narco for Therapy calling Force. I get it. Then it’s sac’ing the other Narco and 2 Ghasts for Dread Return on Zealot for the win.
Game 2-
John sideboards in about five or six cards. I bring in 4 Chains, 4 Claims, and 1 City removing 3 Ichorids, 2 Salvages, and 4 Powders. I mulligan to 6. John mulligans to 5. My hand has
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Stinkweed Imp
Undiscovered Paradise
Chain of Vapor
Nature’s Claim
John goes first, plays a Fetch, cracks it for U. Sea and plays Ponder. No Leylines, so that’s good. I play Bazaar, activate drawing Bloodghast and Bridge from Below. I discard Imp and two Ghasts. I didn’t want to risk my Bridges yet incase he had Crypt in hand. I pass. He drops Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar then passes. I dredge for 5 on my draw revealing Narco, Bridge from Below, Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Sun Titan. I drop my Paradise bringing two Bloodghasts into play. I sac them and the Narco to return Titan. No countermagic from John, so Titan returns my Bazaar and I get my two Bloodghasts back. I activate Bazaar and dredge 6 revealing Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Fatestitcher, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Cabal Therapy. I discard Troll, Imp, and Bridge. I tap the Paradise to unearth Fatestitcher, and activate Bazaar again. Dredge 12 total. I get another Narco in play, another Bridge in the yard along with FKZ. I sac my creatures to Dread Return on FKZ and win from there. John showed me his hand. He was holding two Jailers. I guess he went for stripping my Bazaar over neutering my Graveyard. I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made in the long run.
Round 2: Corey w/MUD
Game 1-
I’m on the play. I draw garbage in my opening hand, but I have Serum Powder. I dump what I’ve got and draw a new seven. Corey doesn’t look at the cards I exiled. I was a bit surprised. I keep what I got:
Bazaar
Grave-Troll
Narcomoeba (hate that)
Grave-Troll
City of Brass
Ichorid
Undiscovered Paradise
I lay Bazaar and activate. I draw Ichorid and Serum Powder. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Ichorid then pass. He drops Workshop, Mox, Golem. Yay. During my upkeep, I put the Ichorid trigger on the stack then activate Bazaar. I dredge 12 and get 2 Bloodghasts, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dread Return, 2 Cabal Therapy, 1 Thug, 2 Bridge from Below, 1 Imp, 1 City of Brass, 1 Fatestitcher. I discard the 2 Trolls and my Narcomoeba. I exile a Thug and put Ichorid into play. I put City of Brass into play and then stop to think.
I have some choices here. Right now, I’ve got 1 Ichorid, 1 Narcomoeba, and 2 Bloodghasts in play. I’ve basically stopped his attack for now, and I’ll get two tokens at EOT from Ichorid. I could Therapy or I could play Fatestitcher. I decide that I’m in a pretty decent position and don’t need to win fast, so I tap my City and sacrifice Ichorid to play Therapy calling “Sphere of Resistance.” I nab two of them. Holy crap! I also see Null Rod, Juggernaut, and City of Traitors. I pass.
He draws, plays his City, taps it, and puts a Thorn of Amethyst into play then passes. I stack Ichorid and dredge for 12 again. I get enough creatures in play that I can cast Dread Return on FKZ using the mana from my City and Paradise to win that turn. I tell him I was pretty lucky to get three lands in my opening hand.
Game 2-
I side in 4 Nature’s Claims, 1 City of Brass, and 4 Pithing needle. I mulligan to six. My opening hand has:
Bazaar
Undiscovered Paradise
Grave-Troll
Pithing Needle
Bridge from Below
Bloodghast
I figure he’s probably playing Crypt and not playing Leylines. Maybe Relic. So I keep it based on Needle. He goes first, drops Workshop, Mox, and Juggernaut. Then he passes. I draw Nature’s Claim (yes!), play Bazaar, and activate. I draw Bridge from Below and a second Undiscovered Paradise. I discard 1 Troll, 1 Bloodghast, and 1 Bridge. I pass.
He attacks me for 5 then drops Ancient Tomb. To my surprise, he taps Shop and Mox to play Jester’s Cap, then taps Tomb to activate it. He chooses my last two Bridges and an FKZ. He passes. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar. Dredge for 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Bazaar of Baghdad, Grave-Troll, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. Dredge for 6 again putting Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Ancient Grudge, Pithing Needle, Thug, and a Grave-Troll. I discard 1 Bridge and two Grave-Trolls.
I play an Undiscovered Paradise and put 2 Blooghasts into play to add to my 2 Narcomoebas. I’m afraid he’s holding Crypt, so I play Pithing Needle and call “Tormod’s Crypt.” He laughs out loud, not in a “oh crap, I’m screwed” sort of way but in a “bad call, dude” sort of way. So I’m faced with some unpleasant scenarios. 1) He’s holding some way to kill my needle. Maybe he’s playing Red and has a Mountain and an Ingot Chewer in hand. 2) He’s playing Relic and my call on Crypt was useless. 3) There’s something else I’m not considering, which is very likely the case. Duplicant? Nah, why would he side that in? That’ can’t be it.
I decide to establish a strong board position and just let the chips fall where they may. I sac my 2 Narcomoebas and 1 Bloodghast to play Dread Return on a Golgari Grave-Troll. He comes into play with eight +1/+1 counters I believe. Something like that. I also make 6 tokens. I pass the turn.
He untaps, draws, plays a Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar. Then he (you’re not going to believe this) taps his Shop and Mox and plays another Cap! He taps his Tomb, and pulls out 2 Dread Returns and last FKZ. He has to attack with Juggs. So I block with my last Bloodghast and get 2 more tokens.
I untap, put UP in my hand, and Dredge for 6 on my draw. I reveal a few cards. It doesn’t matter. With my Troll and 8 tokens, I attack for lethal. It was a weird game. He did show me that he boarded in Tormod’s Crypts but thought the Caps would get him there.
Round 3 (Finals): Michael w/Helm of the Void combo
I won’t bore you with many of the details. Game 1 he opens with Leyline of the Void and Wasteland. I’ve got nothing for that, so I suggest we move to game 2. Game 2 he mulligans, then opens with double Leyline and shows me a hand with U. Sea, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and FoW. Yeah, so that was that. I get a few M11 packs and crack a Time Reversal, Foil Lightning Bolt, and a Mystifying Maze. Not bad. All he got was $15 for taking first.
Reflection:
I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but…
Regarding GenCon: I would not play this version at GenCon. This deck is built for absolute speed, and I blew out every opponent by turn 3 and never lost a single game until the finals. However, the GenCon crowd will be prepared for Ichorid since it is so cheap to build. Therefore, the lists packing max disruption like Chalice, Unmask, and Leyline of Sanctity are probably going to do the best.
Regarding Sun Titan: I loved having Sun Titan in the deck. Twice he scored me a turn 2 victory. I like him way better than the Sharuum Combo, especially at GenCon where Null Rods will be all over the place. He’s a big body, with Vigilance, that will give you two Landfall activations in the same turn. He is really strong in this deck, and should be considered. I was happy every time I Dread Returned him.
Regarding my Sideboard: This is the weakest part of my game. The 4 Pithing Needles didn’t do anything for me. Either I won before it was necessary to play them for Time Vault or Crypt, or I never got them in my hand. I’ll probably replace them with Leyline of Sanctity or Unmask.
Peace,
-Troy
Monday, July 12, 2010
My Take on M11
Heya,
Well, after getting a chance to actually play with the cards from M11 over the weekened, I feel I can comment on them with some degree of certainty. M11 is a great set. It's fun to draft, fun to play sealed, and very flavorful. It reminds me a lot of what Magic was like when I first started- back when most of the players had a background in RPGs.
Anyway, starting with white...
Banelsayer Angel: Not good enough for Vintage but seems playable everywhere else. Given my experience at the pre-release, the printings of Combust and Plummet should moderate BSA's dominance (if it really was dominant in the first place).
Leyline of Sanctity: This card will see Vintage play. It stops Oath, Hurkyl's, Tormod's Crypt, Tendrils of Agony, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cruel/Diabolic Edict. That's an aweful lot of important cards nullified by this thing. If Nature's Claim weren't so widely played, I think this card would be in nearly every deck. As it stands right now, I'm not sure who'll be brave enough to sacrifice 4 slots for it. Ichorid might instead of LotV or CotV. Stax might. But who else? I don't know, but I do know it will find a home somewhere soon.
Silence: I'm a little disapointed this card never found a home anywhere. With Silence, Orim's Chant, and Abeyance, you can stop a lot of cards from being played by your opponent. I guess there's just too much countermagic for a Silence.dec to work. Too bad. I like the design.
Sun Titan: I like this card a lot in Dredge and Oath. For Dredge, it can get you there by bringing back an extra Bazaar to finish dredging your deck. He'll be played in Dredge for sure. In Oath, he could be used to assemble a Vault-Key combo. Oath pilots will have to decide if that's better than just blowing up stuff with Terastadon or locking out the other player with Iona or decimating the opponent's board with Emrakul. Time will tell. Good card, tho.
War Priest of Thune: There's better cards out there for this.
BLUE
Call To Mind: This card only reinforces the point that Regrowth can come off the restricted list. Getting a single card out of the graveyard at sorcery speed is just not that great in Vintage- even if the card letting you do that is printed in the most powerful color and has a splashable casting cost. I like the art, tho.
Conundrum Sphinx: Sick with Top! But not sick enough for Vintage. :(
Foresee: This is a card that demonstrates why I think Vintage may suffer a little bit. Foresee lets you look at up to 6 cards for 4 mana. That's actually pretty good. But the sorcery speed and honestly the total mana required to play this spell make it impossible to use in Vintage. Too bad. I think it's really a powerful effect that's highly underrated in other formats.
Jace's Ingenuity: Apparently the fair casting cost for Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and Time Walk is 5. This card's not good enough for Vintage, but at least RnD is paying homage to the old cards.
Leyline of Anticipation: This card lets you break some of the most important rules in Magic. This will change things, I just don't know how. In a Workshop deck, this thing can be quite good. Let's say you're on the Draw. With 2 Moxen, you can cast a Sphere on your opponent's upkeep before he even gets to play any spells. Suddenly, you have to take a look at Grim Monolith and wonder if it's worth using here to power out nasty turn one lock pieces. One of the biggest things this card could change is how players choose whether to play or draw. With this card in hand, being on the draw is no longer a drawback. I don't know if that's important enough to play this card. We'll find out.
Preordain: Here's the card we've been talking about for a while now. Will this be the second coming of Ponder? There's no doubt this card will get played. It's not as good as Ponder, but it's better than Portent and Impulse. Will it get restricted? Check back with me in the fall of 2011.
Scroll Thief: Ophidian gets an update! This version is much better. It still gets to deal damage and it's a merfolk. It won't see play in Vintage, but maybe in Legacy. It has some stiff competition from Cold-eyed Selkie, IMO, but its 3 toughness is definately a plus.
Stormtide Leviathan: Probably a replacement for Blazing Archon. Except, who plays Archon in Vintage?
Time Reversal: I can't believe they printed another Draw 7. I admire RnD for this. It's not good enough for Vintage (and I don't think it's good enough for Standard either). But I do admire the courage it took to print this card.
BLACK
Dark Tutelage: It's the worst parts of Phyrexian Arena mixed with the worst parts of Dark Confidant. Still, it doesn't trigger Oath of Druids. I think it deserves testing in Tez decks.
Demon of Death's Gate: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Nantuko Shade: (reprint) I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Phylactery Lich: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Reassembling Skeleton: I don't know if suicide black is... just kidding. I like this card. I think it costs too much for Dredge decks, but any deck where you have to sacrifice creatures for effects might like this thing. I think the design is great.
RED:
Act of Treason: Thing thing at the common level is nuts in Limited.
Arc Runner: A lot of things are wierd about this card. First, can they make up their minds about how to template sacrificing someting at the EOT? This is the third iteration of it, and I think it's the worst. Second, for a set focussing on flavor and "making sense" in a fantasy sort of way, why is this thing an ox? The flavor text isn't any better. For a storm that hits hard, it can be easily blocked by an Eldrazi spawn and not deal any damage to a player. A powerful thunderstorm stopped by an 0/1 token. Nice. None-the-less, it is a fine Ball Lightning knockoff if you are looking for more of these types of cards for your burn deck.
Chandra's Spitfire: Speaking of burn. This may get used over Kiln Fiend since it has evasion. I'm not sure. It's still not good enough to make burn viable in Vintage. But it's getting closer.
Ember Hauler: I'm not an expert in Goblins, but I think I'd still rather have Mogg Fanatic to exile Bridges.
Hoarding Dragon: New Flash deck! Vault-Flash-Dragon ftw! Except Flash is restricted. Cool card, nice flavor.
Manic Vandal: Overcosted for Red. Should have been a Goblin.
Reverberate: People are pointing to this to show that WotC plans to skirt around the Reserve List. To me, this is a red Twincast- a card that showed me a long time ago they planned to skirt around the Reserve List. I guess it takes a little more than that to get me excited. Let's see this same treatment for Thunder Spirit and then we'll talk.
GREEN
Autumn's Veil: Autumn's Fail. All the other color hosers blow someting up. This card just outsmarts itself. I'd rather have a Green Elemental Blast. We'll see what the replacement is next year.
Back to Nature: Nice upgrade. Not sure it'll make a difference, but I'm all for this sort of spell getting more powerful.
Fauna Shaman: (AKA, Magus of the Fittest) This card is hard to evaluate. The biggest problem is the summoning sickness. But in Vintage, creatures are actually more stable than enchantments! Between Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Krosan Grip, and Nature's Claim, there's a ton of enchantment hate out there. Fauna Shaman actually has a decent chance of living. I'd love for Combo Elves to make a hit in Vintage. With Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves in play, this card is good. I personally witnessed it power with Vengevine while some guys were playtesting their Standard decks. But I'm not sure it's good enough for Vintage. Here's to hoping, though!
Mitotic Slime: I've heard this discussed in terms of a Dread Return target for Dredge. I dunno. Space is limited and it's best use would be when some of your bridges have been removed. I'd put it in the maybe pile.
Plummet: So green has a way to kill Iona now. I suppose you can play one in your SB with PtE or StP.
COLORLESS
Brittle Effigy: I'm actually somewhat high on this card. It can be tutored up with Trinket Mage. It can fit in any deck. It exiles the creature which is important. It gets around Iona's ability. The real problem is it lacks synergy with Null Rod, which is the type of deck that really needs this card.
Crystal Ball: Great in any format where Top isn't leagal.
Steel Overseer: This card could be really interesting with the Modular creatures from Mirrodin. Not viable in Vintage, but a blue based artifact deck in Legacy that takes advantage of the +1/+1 counters to evade blockers would be very interesting. He has great synergy with Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium. Good card.
Sword of Vengeance: Nice to know they can still print decent equipment!
Warlord's Axe: Nice to know they can still print really crappy equipment!
Voltaic Key: Autmoatically good in Standard and Extended. I can't believe they reprinted this thing.
Mystifying Maze: This is drawing comparisons to Maze of Ith. That's fair. The Ith version can't tap for mana, leaves the creature untapped, and costs $30. Mystifying can tap for mana, keeps the creature tapped, and costs 1/10 as much. The sticking point is the four mana to activate, which is one too many IMO. Mystifying Maze is a fine budget card, but in the end, it's just not as good as Maze of Ith and Karakas.
Overall, this is a great set. If I still played standard, I'd be really excited. As a Vintage player and Magic enthusiast, I'm still excited. I give RnD a thumbs up on this set. I really enjoyed the pre-release.
Peace,
-Troy
Well, after getting a chance to actually play with the cards from M11 over the weekened, I feel I can comment on them with some degree of certainty. M11 is a great set. It's fun to draft, fun to play sealed, and very flavorful. It reminds me a lot of what Magic was like when I first started- back when most of the players had a background in RPGs.
Anyway, starting with white...
Banelsayer Angel: Not good enough for Vintage but seems playable everywhere else. Given my experience at the pre-release, the printings of Combust and Plummet should moderate BSA's dominance (if it really was dominant in the first place).
Leyline of Sanctity: This card will see Vintage play. It stops Oath, Hurkyl's, Tormod's Crypt, Tendrils of Agony, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cruel/Diabolic Edict. That's an aweful lot of important cards nullified by this thing. If Nature's Claim weren't so widely played, I think this card would be in nearly every deck. As it stands right now, I'm not sure who'll be brave enough to sacrifice 4 slots for it. Ichorid might instead of LotV or CotV. Stax might. But who else? I don't know, but I do know it will find a home somewhere soon.
Silence: I'm a little disapointed this card never found a home anywhere. With Silence, Orim's Chant, and Abeyance, you can stop a lot of cards from being played by your opponent. I guess there's just too much countermagic for a Silence.dec to work. Too bad. I like the design.
Sun Titan: I like this card a lot in Dredge and Oath. For Dredge, it can get you there by bringing back an extra Bazaar to finish dredging your deck. He'll be played in Dredge for sure. In Oath, he could be used to assemble a Vault-Key combo. Oath pilots will have to decide if that's better than just blowing up stuff with Terastadon or locking out the other player with Iona or decimating the opponent's board with Emrakul. Time will tell. Good card, tho.
War Priest of Thune: There's better cards out there for this.
BLUE
Call To Mind: This card only reinforces the point that Regrowth can come off the restricted list. Getting a single card out of the graveyard at sorcery speed is just not that great in Vintage- even if the card letting you do that is printed in the most powerful color and has a splashable casting cost. I like the art, tho.
Conundrum Sphinx: Sick with Top! But not sick enough for Vintage. :(
Foresee: This is a card that demonstrates why I think Vintage may suffer a little bit. Foresee lets you look at up to 6 cards for 4 mana. That's actually pretty good. But the sorcery speed and honestly the total mana required to play this spell make it impossible to use in Vintage. Too bad. I think it's really a powerful effect that's highly underrated in other formats.
Jace's Ingenuity: Apparently the fair casting cost for Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and Time Walk is 5. This card's not good enough for Vintage, but at least RnD is paying homage to the old cards.
Leyline of Anticipation: This card lets you break some of the most important rules in Magic. This will change things, I just don't know how. In a Workshop deck, this thing can be quite good. Let's say you're on the Draw. With 2 Moxen, you can cast a Sphere on your opponent's upkeep before he even gets to play any spells. Suddenly, you have to take a look at Grim Monolith and wonder if it's worth using here to power out nasty turn one lock pieces. One of the biggest things this card could change is how players choose whether to play or draw. With this card in hand, being on the draw is no longer a drawback. I don't know if that's important enough to play this card. We'll find out.
Preordain: Here's the card we've been talking about for a while now. Will this be the second coming of Ponder? There's no doubt this card will get played. It's not as good as Ponder, but it's better than Portent and Impulse. Will it get restricted? Check back with me in the fall of 2011.
Scroll Thief: Ophidian gets an update! This version is much better. It still gets to deal damage and it's a merfolk. It won't see play in Vintage, but maybe in Legacy. It has some stiff competition from Cold-eyed Selkie, IMO, but its 3 toughness is definately a plus.
Stormtide Leviathan: Probably a replacement for Blazing Archon. Except, who plays Archon in Vintage?
Time Reversal: I can't believe they printed another Draw 7. I admire RnD for this. It's not good enough for Vintage (and I don't think it's good enough for Standard either). But I do admire the courage it took to print this card.
BLACK
Dark Tutelage: It's the worst parts of Phyrexian Arena mixed with the worst parts of Dark Confidant. Still, it doesn't trigger Oath of Druids. I think it deserves testing in Tez decks.
Demon of Death's Gate: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Nantuko Shade: (reprint) I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Phylactery Lich: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Reassembling Skeleton: I don't know if suicide black is... just kidding. I like this card. I think it costs too much for Dredge decks, but any deck where you have to sacrifice creatures for effects might like this thing. I think the design is great.
RED:
Act of Treason: Thing thing at the common level is nuts in Limited.
Arc Runner: A lot of things are wierd about this card. First, can they make up their minds about how to template sacrificing someting at the EOT? This is the third iteration of it, and I think it's the worst. Second, for a set focussing on flavor and "making sense" in a fantasy sort of way, why is this thing an ox? The flavor text isn't any better. For a storm that hits hard, it can be easily blocked by an Eldrazi spawn and not deal any damage to a player. A powerful thunderstorm stopped by an 0/1 token. Nice. None-the-less, it is a fine Ball Lightning knockoff if you are looking for more of these types of cards for your burn deck.
Chandra's Spitfire: Speaking of burn. This may get used over Kiln Fiend since it has evasion. I'm not sure. It's still not good enough to make burn viable in Vintage. But it's getting closer.
Ember Hauler: I'm not an expert in Goblins, but I think I'd still rather have Mogg Fanatic to exile Bridges.
Hoarding Dragon: New Flash deck! Vault-Flash-Dragon ftw! Except Flash is restricted. Cool card, nice flavor.
Manic Vandal: Overcosted for Red. Should have been a Goblin.
Reverberate: People are pointing to this to show that WotC plans to skirt around the Reserve List. To me, this is a red Twincast- a card that showed me a long time ago they planned to skirt around the Reserve List. I guess it takes a little more than that to get me excited. Let's see this same treatment for Thunder Spirit and then we'll talk.
GREEN
Autumn's Veil: Autumn's Fail. All the other color hosers blow someting up. This card just outsmarts itself. I'd rather have a Green Elemental Blast. We'll see what the replacement is next year.
Back to Nature: Nice upgrade. Not sure it'll make a difference, but I'm all for this sort of spell getting more powerful.
Fauna Shaman: (AKA, Magus of the Fittest) This card is hard to evaluate. The biggest problem is the summoning sickness. But in Vintage, creatures are actually more stable than enchantments! Between Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Krosan Grip, and Nature's Claim, there's a ton of enchantment hate out there. Fauna Shaman actually has a decent chance of living. I'd love for Combo Elves to make a hit in Vintage. With Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves in play, this card is good. I personally witnessed it power with Vengevine while some guys were playtesting their Standard decks. But I'm not sure it's good enough for Vintage. Here's to hoping, though!
Mitotic Slime: I've heard this discussed in terms of a Dread Return target for Dredge. I dunno. Space is limited and it's best use would be when some of your bridges have been removed. I'd put it in the maybe pile.
Plummet: So green has a way to kill Iona now. I suppose you can play one in your SB with PtE or StP.
COLORLESS
Brittle Effigy: I'm actually somewhat high on this card. It can be tutored up with Trinket Mage. It can fit in any deck. It exiles the creature which is important. It gets around Iona's ability. The real problem is it lacks synergy with Null Rod, which is the type of deck that really needs this card.
Crystal Ball: Great in any format where Top isn't leagal.
Steel Overseer: This card could be really interesting with the Modular creatures from Mirrodin. Not viable in Vintage, but a blue based artifact deck in Legacy that takes advantage of the +1/+1 counters to evade blockers would be very interesting. He has great synergy with Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium. Good card.
Sword of Vengeance: Nice to know they can still print decent equipment!
Warlord's Axe: Nice to know they can still print really crappy equipment!
Voltaic Key: Autmoatically good in Standard and Extended. I can't believe they reprinted this thing.
Mystifying Maze: This is drawing comparisons to Maze of Ith. That's fair. The Ith version can't tap for mana, leaves the creature untapped, and costs $30. Mystifying can tap for mana, keeps the creature tapped, and costs 1/10 as much. The sticking point is the four mana to activate, which is one too many IMO. Mystifying Maze is a fine budget card, but in the end, it's just not as good as Maze of Ith and Karakas.
Overall, this is a great set. If I still played standard, I'd be really excited. As a Vintage player and Magic enthusiast, I'm still excited. I give RnD a thumbs up on this set. I really enjoyed the pre-release.
Peace,
-Troy
Friday, June 25, 2010
The Stagnation Continues (UPDATE)
Ha! The point I was raising in my previous article is only reinforced today. Check out Tom LaPille's article, especially the Vintage section. This is really annoying.
Peace,
-Troy
Peace,
-Troy
Saturday, June 19, 2010
The Stagnation Continues
Heya,
So the June B/R announcement comes and goes without any changes for Vintage. One person on TheManaDrain said, "The format is really diverse right now. I'm not sure that unrestricting cards is the way to go right now." Diverse? Maybe, maybe not. One thing is for sure, the format is stagnant.
Since September of '08, we've had Mana Drain-Time Vault decks, Shop-Prison Decks, and Disruptive Agro decks dominating the format. Dredge moves up and down but remains only slightly tweaked and at the bottom of the major archetype list. Oath zig-zags more wildly as the new fattie of the quarter gets released in the newest set, makes an impact, and then people adjust.
In fact, Oath is probably the only place real innovation has happened recently. Instead of fast fatties like Akroma, Razia, and Helkite, the archetype has moved to disruptive fatties like Iona, Terrastadon, and on occasion Emrakul.
The only really interesting debate, IMO, that has gone on for a long time is whether or not Trinisphere and Black Lotus belong in MUD lists anymore. The Black Lotus discussion would have been much more interesting if those same lists didn't include Mana Vault. I guess the toying around with Mystic Remora was interesting too. But anyway, I digress.
It's unfortunate, IMO, that there are several fun decks that are on the sidelines because they can't really break into the format right now. Goblins are out. Bomberman is dead. Elf combo is out. R/G Beatz is out. Dark Ritual Combo is virtually out. Dragon Combo is out despite Entomb's unrestriction. Grow decks are out. Slaver is out. The format could be so much more diverse and dynamic but it's stifled thanks, in large part, to poor management of the B/R List.
I want to go back to the Golden Age of Vintage (Summer '07-Summer '08). I want to take a look at three "decks" (I use that term very loosely here) from that era: Gush Decks, Flash Decks, and Agro Decks.
Gush was such a dynamic source of innovation from that time. Obviously GAT came out first since everyone remembered it from the first Gush era. Followed by Empty Gifts. Then a whole string of innovative decks like Next Level Doomsday, The Tropical Storm, and Tyrant Oath. It all finally culminated in MS Paint just before the restrictions of June 2008.
"Oh c'mon, Troy. That's not innovation. That's just switching the win condition around." Um, well that may be, but when you witch from Quirion Dryad to Tidespout Tyrant as your win condition, that's a major shift in strategy and more importantly, a major shift in counter-strategy. When you go from a storm kill to Painter-Grindstone, that's a major shift in strategy. And the cards that work against one, won't against the other.
When you switch from Inkwell Leviathan to Sphinx of the Steel Wind, that's not a major shift in strategy. When you go from 9 Sphere to 13 Sphere, that's not a major switch in strategy. When you add Show and Tell to an Oath deck, you're not changing the basic function of the deck. That's just making the decks more efficient which only squeezes other decks out of the meta.
Okay, let's go back and look at Agro decks from the Golden Age. The knee jerk reaction I always hear is, "There weren't any back then. It was all Gush!" What a bunch of crap. First, let me highlight one deck I thought was particularly cool during this era: "Gob-Lines". Remember that Dredge, Flash, TPS, and Gush relied a lot on the graveyard at the time. Gob-Lines main-decked Leyline of the Void, Wastelands, and Earwig Squad to fight those decks. This was totally awesome and a nightmare for those decks that faced it. TPS would lose its Tendrils. Tyrant Oath would lose its Tyrants. Flash couldn't function. Dredge folded like a house of cards. What made this deck so cool in my mind is that the age old tribal deck of Goblins went from an all-in agro deck, to a disruptive agro deck. Pilots had to change their mindset and rightfully so. The meta was shifting constantly and so should the strategies to compete against it. Gob-Lines never got much traction, though. Shortly after Earwig Squad was released, Gush and Flash got restricted and reliance on the graveyard diminished- especially after the printing of Tez.
But that wasn't the only agro deck of note at the time. Everyone forgets (or nearly everyone) that a simple R/G Beatz deck won a SCG Power 9 tournament in Chicago. Yep, a deck sporting bland critters like Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite and burn spells demolished a well tuned meta of Gush and Shop. The deck got picked up in tournaments everywhere and became a real contender- until the restrictions. It didn't pack a lot of disruptive creatures- maybe Gorilla Shaman or Viashino Heretic. It just beat face to win. Good luck with anything like that winning now.
Finally, let me talk about Flash for a minute. Flash went through a lot of mutations. First, to bust a myth, the Turn Zero Kill deck sporting Gemstone Cavern, Disciple of the Vault, and X cost artifact creatures probably never existed. Or, if it did, performed so horribly it never posted any top 8 results. In Vintage, Flash had three major incarnations. One was a Sliver deck. It used Venomous Sliver and Heart Sliver to kill with poison counters. Poison counters, people! What competitive deck ever won with poison counters in a constructed format? It's gotta be the only instance of this happening in Magic's history. That's incredible. Sadly, it's mostly forgotten.
Another incarnation was a combo with Kikki-Jiki Mirror Breaker. This one was really complex and had all sorts of vulnerabilities to cards like Pithing Needle, burn spells, and Tormod's Crypt in addition to LotV. It honestly, didn't work that well and still required an attack.
The last form of the deck was Reveilark kill with Mogg Fanatic. This was definitely the best. Unlike the other two, you didn't need to attack to win. And you could win at instant speed with the "lost the game" triggers of Summoner's Pact and Pact of Negation on the stack. That was the real innovation of the deck. Eschewing the combat phase for a true combo trick. It radically changed the way people had to play against it. That's when Flash spiked up to a whopping 12.5% of the top 8 meta. wow. The decks adjusted quickly, MS Paint hit the scene, and Flash was back down below 10%.
But the thing is, the deck totally changed the way it won. It went from attacking to pinging. That's a much greater shift in tactics than tossing in the newest robot, fattie, or duplicate printing that we've been stuck doing for the last two years.
And you know, I'm not even going into how Slaver Decks, Masknought Decks, Shop Decks, Ritual Decks, Fish, and off-the-wall Rogue Decks innovated during this period. Every couple of months the meta game changed to a point where it was different, exciting, and engaging. You could never rest. You had to constantly update your main deck and your sideboard.
This latest decision by the DCI just keeps the status quo. It doesn't change the dynamic that's been at work for the last 22 months. And it's hard to see how this will change through printings thanks to RnD's decision to put more emphasis on crashing creatures into each other while at the same time de-emphasizing wins that use spells and new engines.
So, we're kinda stuck. The DCI has said they want to keep Vintage to 5 pillars. RnD has said they want to emphasize the creature and planeswaler card types over instants, sorceries, artifacts, and lands. Therefore, the likelihood of a new pillar or engine for Vintage is extremely low. It follows then, that for the foreseeable future, change is unlikely. The best we can hope for is deck tweaking.
-Troy
So the June B/R announcement comes and goes without any changes for Vintage. One person on TheManaDrain said, "The format is really diverse right now. I'm not sure that unrestricting cards is the way to go right now." Diverse? Maybe, maybe not. One thing is for sure, the format is stagnant.
Since September of '08, we've had Mana Drain-Time Vault decks, Shop-Prison Decks, and Disruptive Agro decks dominating the format. Dredge moves up and down but remains only slightly tweaked and at the bottom of the major archetype list. Oath zig-zags more wildly as the new fattie of the quarter gets released in the newest set, makes an impact, and then people adjust.
In fact, Oath is probably the only place real innovation has happened recently. Instead of fast fatties like Akroma, Razia, and Helkite, the archetype has moved to disruptive fatties like Iona, Terrastadon, and on occasion Emrakul.
The only really interesting debate, IMO, that has gone on for a long time is whether or not Trinisphere and Black Lotus belong in MUD lists anymore. The Black Lotus discussion would have been much more interesting if those same lists didn't include Mana Vault. I guess the toying around with Mystic Remora was interesting too. But anyway, I digress.
It's unfortunate, IMO, that there are several fun decks that are on the sidelines because they can't really break into the format right now. Goblins are out. Bomberman is dead. Elf combo is out. R/G Beatz is out. Dark Ritual Combo is virtually out. Dragon Combo is out despite Entomb's unrestriction. Grow decks are out. Slaver is out. The format could be so much more diverse and dynamic but it's stifled thanks, in large part, to poor management of the B/R List.
I want to go back to the Golden Age of Vintage (Summer '07-Summer '08). I want to take a look at three "decks" (I use that term very loosely here) from that era: Gush Decks, Flash Decks, and Agro Decks.
Gush was such a dynamic source of innovation from that time. Obviously GAT came out first since everyone remembered it from the first Gush era. Followed by Empty Gifts. Then a whole string of innovative decks like Next Level Doomsday, The Tropical Storm, and Tyrant Oath. It all finally culminated in MS Paint just before the restrictions of June 2008.
"Oh c'mon, Troy. That's not innovation. That's just switching the win condition around." Um, well that may be, but when you witch from Quirion Dryad to Tidespout Tyrant as your win condition, that's a major shift in strategy and more importantly, a major shift in counter-strategy. When you go from a storm kill to Painter-Grindstone, that's a major shift in strategy. And the cards that work against one, won't against the other.
When you switch from Inkwell Leviathan to Sphinx of the Steel Wind, that's not a major shift in strategy. When you go from 9 Sphere to 13 Sphere, that's not a major switch in strategy. When you add Show and Tell to an Oath deck, you're not changing the basic function of the deck. That's just making the decks more efficient which only squeezes other decks out of the meta.
Okay, let's go back and look at Agro decks from the Golden Age. The knee jerk reaction I always hear is, "There weren't any back then. It was all Gush!" What a bunch of crap. First, let me highlight one deck I thought was particularly cool during this era: "Gob-Lines". Remember that Dredge, Flash, TPS, and Gush relied a lot on the graveyard at the time. Gob-Lines main-decked Leyline of the Void, Wastelands, and Earwig Squad to fight those decks. This was totally awesome and a nightmare for those decks that faced it. TPS would lose its Tendrils. Tyrant Oath would lose its Tyrants. Flash couldn't function. Dredge folded like a house of cards. What made this deck so cool in my mind is that the age old tribal deck of Goblins went from an all-in agro deck, to a disruptive agro deck. Pilots had to change their mindset and rightfully so. The meta was shifting constantly and so should the strategies to compete against it. Gob-Lines never got much traction, though. Shortly after Earwig Squad was released, Gush and Flash got restricted and reliance on the graveyard diminished- especially after the printing of Tez.
But that wasn't the only agro deck of note at the time. Everyone forgets (or nearly everyone) that a simple R/G Beatz deck won a SCG Power 9 tournament in Chicago. Yep, a deck sporting bland critters like Kird Ape and Skyshroud Elite and burn spells demolished a well tuned meta of Gush and Shop. The deck got picked up in tournaments everywhere and became a real contender- until the restrictions. It didn't pack a lot of disruptive creatures- maybe Gorilla Shaman or Viashino Heretic. It just beat face to win. Good luck with anything like that winning now.
Finally, let me talk about Flash for a minute. Flash went through a lot of mutations. First, to bust a myth, the Turn Zero Kill deck sporting Gemstone Cavern, Disciple of the Vault, and X cost artifact creatures probably never existed. Or, if it did, performed so horribly it never posted any top 8 results. In Vintage, Flash had three major incarnations. One was a Sliver deck. It used Venomous Sliver and Heart Sliver to kill with poison counters. Poison counters, people! What competitive deck ever won with poison counters in a constructed format? It's gotta be the only instance of this happening in Magic's history. That's incredible. Sadly, it's mostly forgotten.
Another incarnation was a combo with Kikki-Jiki Mirror Breaker. This one was really complex and had all sorts of vulnerabilities to cards like Pithing Needle, burn spells, and Tormod's Crypt in addition to LotV. It honestly, didn't work that well and still required an attack.
The last form of the deck was Reveilark kill with Mogg Fanatic. This was definitely the best. Unlike the other two, you didn't need to attack to win. And you could win at instant speed with the "lost the game" triggers of Summoner's Pact and Pact of Negation on the stack. That was the real innovation of the deck. Eschewing the combat phase for a true combo trick. It radically changed the way people had to play against it. That's when Flash spiked up to a whopping 12.5% of the top 8 meta. wow. The decks adjusted quickly, MS Paint hit the scene, and Flash was back down below 10%.
But the thing is, the deck totally changed the way it won. It went from attacking to pinging. That's a much greater shift in tactics than tossing in the newest robot, fattie, or duplicate printing that we've been stuck doing for the last two years.
And you know, I'm not even going into how Slaver Decks, Masknought Decks, Shop Decks, Ritual Decks, Fish, and off-the-wall Rogue Decks innovated during this period. Every couple of months the meta game changed to a point where it was different, exciting, and engaging. You could never rest. You had to constantly update your main deck and your sideboard.
This latest decision by the DCI just keeps the status quo. It doesn't change the dynamic that's been at work for the last 22 months. And it's hard to see how this will change through printings thanks to RnD's decision to put more emphasis on crashing creatures into each other while at the same time de-emphasizing wins that use spells and new engines.
So, we're kinda stuck. The DCI has said they want to keep Vintage to 5 pillars. RnD has said they want to emphasize the creature and planeswaler card types over instants, sorceries, artifacts, and lands. Therefore, the likelihood of a new pillar or engine for Vintage is extremely low. It follows then, that for the foreseeable future, change is unlikely. The best we can hope for is deck tweaking.
Yay.
Peace,
-Troy
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
An Open Letter about the Vintage B/R List
Dear Members of the DCI,
I am writing to you to discuss the current state of the Vintage Banned/Restricted list. Each year, this list receives a thorough examination by the Vintage community and by the DCI. In the past, the DCI has been very receptive to community feedback about the B/R list. I hope that continues. In this letter, I examine several cards that have been discussed in the community as candidates for unrestriction. I lay out several reasons each could come off the list in your next update. I hope that what I have written is helpful and illuminating. Cards are listed in alphabetical order.
Balance
Many years ago, Balance was overlooked in Magic. Its symmetry made it difficult to use and the fact that it hit what, at the time, were the game’s three most important resources caused confusion on how to really use it best. Then came along The Deck. Brian Weissman showed just how strong the card was and voilla, people suddenly understood the card and put it to good use. In a short period of time, you had Maysonet Rack Balance. Not too long after, the card is put on the restricted list where it has remained.
I’ll risk stating the obvious and say that the metagame has changed since then. What made Balance so broken back then was that it was a Wrath of God, Armageddon, and Mind Twist all wrapped into one card for a measly 1W. However, I submit that those effects are now no longer powerful in Vintage and that Balance’s casting cost is hardly too little for its effect.
Let’s start with Balance’s Mind Twist effect. Knocking your opponent down to 1 or 2 cards is really great… at least in theory. Mind Twist has been unrestricted for some time now and has not been a factor in Vintage magic whatsoever. It fails to even appear in mono-black suicide decks that could easily ramp it up with Dark Ritual. One reason for its lack of impact is that the graveyard is hardly a place players don’t have access to. The graveyard, in Vintage, is just and extension of one’s hand in many cases. Dredge decks, Crucible of Worlds, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Goblin Welder take great advantage of the graveyard and represent no small portion of the Vintage metagame. There are plenty of decks that one would face in a Vintage tournament where Balance’s “Mind Twist” effect is more of a liability than a boon.
The Armageddon effect of Balance has almost been entirely neutralized. A majority of Vintage games run only 4 to 5 turns and are often locked up sooner than that. In that amount of time, it is much harder to build up a sizeable land disparity between players. The reason is that there are so many viable sources of cheap artifact mana. Two of the best decks in the metagame Tez-control and MUD use a full compliment of artifact mana. They don’t rely on having a large number of lands in play to cast their spells. Two or three at the most will do just fine. Also consider that other strong contenders in Vintage like Dredge decks and Oath of Druids decks play few lands. Add do that, Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam showing up in many different archetypes, and it is easy to see how the Armageddon effect has lost most if not all of its potency. As a strategy, using Balance to blow up your opponent’s lands is just not viable anymore.
Finally, the Wrath of God effect. There are lots of agro decks in Vintage. Fish and X/G Beatz decks are large factors in any tournament. So Balance’s 1W casting cost to clear the board should be the perfect answer, right? Well, if it were, wouldn’t decks play it as a singleton and then use any one of their three to five tutors to get it? The fact is, Balance isn’t even played as a sideboard card. What is played, however, is Sower of Temptation. A control player would gladly pay 2UU to steal a single creature rather than 1W to wipe the board. This is where Balance’s casting cost comes in. 1W is actually a harder casting cost to manage in a current Vintage Magic deck than 2UU. There are just not enough incentives to squeeze in white for a single card when there are plenty of cards in more powerful colors that can do essentially the same thing or better. Consider that powerful white cards like Land Tax, Agrivian Find, Abeyance, and Enlightened Tutor see next to no play. It, therefore, doesn’t take a great leap of faith to suggest that Balance too will see little or no play in Vintage.
If Balance were to find a home in Vintage, it would almost certainly not be in blue-based Force/Drain decks. It could be in five color Mishra’s Workshop decks that can mitigate the symmetry of sacrificing creatures/lands and discarding cards thanks to Goblin Welder and Crucible of Worlds. Even so, using the card would not be easy since Workshop mana can’t be used to cast it, Dredge decks are always part of the metagame, and one mana counterspells like Spell Snare and Spell Pierce are very popular (Spell Pierce has made Morphing.de’s top ten most played Vintage spell list several times in the past few months). Thus, while Balance may be advantageous for a particular pillar of the metagame, it is not likely it will have much of an impact on the overall environment.
Burning Wish
It is somewhat bewildering as to why Burning Wish is still on the restricted list. It’s a type of tutor and as a rule, tutors are given extra consideration for the B/R list. I understand that, but a lot has changed since it was first placed there. First, Lion’s Eye Diamond was restricted. LED allowed you to tutor for a card, sacrifice the Diamond in response, then be able to cast the card you just tutored for. Without 4 LED, all tutors were weakened to some degree. However, the greatest weakening of Burning Wish came with the M10 rules. It can no longer retrieve cards from the Exile zone. Getting back your Yawgmoth’s Will or sorceries exiled by Tormod’s Crypt is no longer possible with Burning Wish. Since this was a major facet of that card’s power in Vintage, Burning Wish is only a shell of its former self.
Let’s look at some similar cards. Personal Tutor is unrestricted and can search for Sorceries. It’s a blue card- automatically making it better- and costs one less mana. It’s topdeck feature is certainly a powerful drawback, but so is Burning Wish’s ability to only be able to search the sideboard. Grim Tutor is easily cast in Dark Ritual decks and can search for anything, not just sorceries. And yet, neither Personal Tutor nor Grim Tutor see much play at all in Vintage. They haven’t been in the top 50 cards on Morphling.de in who knows how long. Cunning Wish has been unrestricted all along and gets blue instants- the most powerful cards in Magic! However, almost no one in the community has advocated for its restriction. If cards as good if not better than Burning Wish can be safely unrestricted, one has to wonder why Burning Wish can’t be unrestricted too.
Decks that might potentially benefit most from an unrestricted Burning Wish would perhaps be Dark Ritual Decks or red-based Null Rod decks. Ritual decks might still try to take advantage of Wish’s ability to fetch Yawgmoth’s Will from the sideboard, but this is unlikely for a number of reasons. First, they can already play Grim Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor to fetch Yawg’s Will. Ritual decks pack massive numbers of draw spells that let them draw into Will and then recycle them a second time after casting it. Taking out more versatile cards like tutors or draw spells for more narrow cards like wishes is generally not a good idea in Vintage. Red Null Rod decks might try Burning Wish to search for answer cards that can destroy artifacts or creatures. This would certainly make those decks more competitive and flexible, but even so, it’s hard to imagine a red deck taking out cards like Gorilla Shaman, Ancient Grudge, Pyroblast, or Magus of the Moon to make room for Burning Wish. It is very likely that Burning Wish will end up in the dustbin right along Personal Tutor, Cunning Wish, and Grim Tutor.
Flash
Flash was restricted with a whole batch of blue cards in June 2008 in an attempt to correct the Vintage metagame. The results of the Legacy tournament in Columbus Ohio about a year prior were certainly a factor. The idea that a turn zero win was possible was also part of that decision according to the article on magicthegathering.com that explained the restriction. The thing is, all the assumptions about Flash were just not bourn out by the tournament data.
First, Legacy is not Vintage. Flash dominated in Columbus way back when, but according to Stephen Menendian’s research, the BEST Flash decks ever did in Vintage was make up 10% of the top 8’s. Just as a frame of reference, Gush decks peaked out at 25% and Tez decks around 45%. Flash was never a major factor in Vintage tournament victories but instead challenged players to build very flexible sideboards. It is easy to argue that Flash improved Vintage diversity and the metagame suffered as a result its restriction.
Second, to my knowledge (and I have searched very, very hard) there has never been a recorded instance of a turn zero Flash win in a Vintage tournament of any size. It may have happened somewhere, but there is just no record of it ever occurring that I have found, and it certainly never happened at a major tournament. There was a lot of hysteria at the time about it being possible, but the route to achieve a turn zero kill is so inconsistent, few people- if any people at all- ventured in that direction. Succinctly, the turn zero kill was never a concern for the Vintage community.
Finally, Flash was most weakened by the other restrictions made at the time, namely Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant Scroll. These cards were not just helpful for Flash decks, they were absolutely critical. Flash’s strength lied totally in its speed. If it could not win quickly, it could not win at all. The combo is so easily thwarted with cards like Pithing Needle, Leyline of the Void, Ravenous Trap, and Tormod’s Crypt. With the June 2008 restrictions, Flash lost 9 of its best cards, and the de facto replacement for those cards (Thirst for Knowledge) is now also restricted. Without Ponder to dig through a deck, without Merchant Scroll of quickly tutor up Flash, without Brainstorm to shuffle back the multiple combo pieces from a player’s hand, Flash loses almost all of its viability.
In comparing it to other cards, Flash is most like Entomb in many respects. Each take 2 cards in-hand to win. Each can go off (with a lot of luck) on turn 1. Each can manipulate cards in the graveyard infinitely. Each combo is most likely going to be backed up with Duress and cheap countermagic. When Entomb was unrestricted there was a lot of fear that Worldgorger Dragon combo decks would take over the format. It never happened. The combo is too fragile, too hard to piece together, and too inconsistent anymore. Once upon a time it was powerful, but things have changed. Flash is in the same boat. Without all the blue deck manipulation, the Flash combo is too fragile, too hard to piece together, and too inconsistent. I believe Entomb demonstrates quite well that cards that are win conditions can, for the most part, be unrestricted so long as the support cards like Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant Scroll remain on the restricted list.
Currently, Flash is the ONLY card on the Vintage B/R list that deals exclusively with creatures. That makes it totally unique and quite historical. The DCI has had a history for many years now of not restricting cards that interact solely with creature cards. This includes cards like Worldly Tutor and Gaea’s Cradle which look similar to other cards on the B/R list. It seems remarkable and quite inconsistent that Flash is restricted in light of past DCI policy. That alone, I believe, should put Flash into consideration for unrestriction.
I realize that Flash may fall under the “Force of Will” pillar, and that the DCI is trying to balance that pillar against the others. However, a close look at Vintage reveals that Null Rod decks, Dark Ritual Decks, and Bazaar of Baghdad Decks quite often use Force of Will as well. I feel it is much more constructive to look at Force of Will + Mana Drain decks as a pillar. Flash would not likely fit into that category. Old Flash decks used Force of Will and Pact of Negation to back up their combo because they didn’t cost any mana. They did not use Mana Drain because it would mean that they would need 1UUU to cast Flash with protection. That is a very, very difficult mana cost to achieve in Vintage. It is highly unlikely that Flash would turn to Mana Drain for help.
Consequently, Flash decks would be very different from the other Force/Drain decks in Vintage. More than likely, Flash players would use cards like Spell Pierce and Pact of Negation to back up their combo. This may especially be true since the number of blue draw spells available to Flash is now more limited than before. Thus, a new avenue of deckbuilding would open up for Vintage enthusiasts. And new avenues of deckbuilding are what Vintage is all about.
Gush
The situation with Gush is a lot like the situation with Flash. Gush decks were strong not because of Gush or even because of the Gush-Fastbond combo. Their real power came from Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant scroll. Chaining Gushes consecutively on the same turn allowed players to quickly draw into their win condition. Thanks to the June 2008 restrictions, Gush decks, like Flash decks, have lost 9 of their best cards. The replacements are laughable. Slight of Hand, Opt, and Strategic Planning would have to be subbed in. These cards are clearly not even close to the power level of other Vintage staples. Also, since Gush was restricted we have had three VERY significant printings. Ethersworn Canonist, Mindbreak Trap, and Lodestone Golem are massive factors in Vintage and would be even more so with Gush unrestricted. These three new cards along with Gaddok Teeg and Thorn of Amethyst from Lorwyn Block present a formidable obstacle for Gush decks to overcome.
It’s easy to think that Gush decks were the supreme masters of the Vintage metagame back in the second Gush Era. However, according to the data gathered by Stephen Menendian, Gush based decks were evenly matched with Mishra’s Worskshop decks. Each made up 25% of the metagame. And if you look at the metagame at the time, it was the most diverse Vintage had ever been. 49% of the metagame was “Rest of the Field.” That means people could build and play nearly any kind of deck they wanted because the Gush and Shop decks were so focused on beating each other, they couldn’t worry about anything else. This time period was widely hailed as the Golden Age of Vintage, and despite the minor grumblings at the time (there was always be minor grumblings no matter what you do), people were generally happy with the format.
And just to give a word about Gush’s diversity back then. Gush supported six distinct archetypes at the same time- GAT, Empty Gifts, Next Level Doomsday, MS Paint, The Tropical Storm, and Tyrant Oath. Diversity is the lifeblood of any format. Each of the archetypes I just listed required a different set of tactics to beat. Tyrant Oath was nothing like Next Level Doomsday. MS Paint was nothing like GAT. During the 2nd Gush Era, the Golden Age, whatever you want to call it, Vintage had its greatest diversity. It was a tremendous and exciting time to play.
Gush is its own Vintage pillar. It would use Force of Will, but as I demonstrated earlier, many of the other pillars do as well. Gush relies on drawing lots of cards to win. This is not much different from Dark Ritual decks that use most of the restricted list to do the same thing. Unlike the current Force of Will/Mana Drain decks that can overly dominate the top 8’s from time to time, Gush decks have a specific weakness to Workshop Prison decks and to mana denial strategies like Wasteland, Sphere of Resistance/Trinisphere, and Magus of the Moon. Unrestricting Gush would cause a shakeup in Vintage and either realign the dominant archetypes OR add a brand new set of archetypes to the mix.
It’s not like the other pillars would be defenseless against it. Null Rod decks have Ethersworn Canonist, Rule of Law, Quasili Pridemage, and Gaddok Teeg to counter Gush’s drawing potential; Shop decks have Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, and Lodestone Golem. Mana Drain decks have Spell Pierce, Mindbreak Trap, Ravenous Trap, and the recently re-discovered Mystic Remora. Therefore the other pillars of the format have the tools and are very capable of fending off a challenge from Gush decks. Consequently, I strongly believe Gush can be unrestricted.
Imperial Seal
Tutors are tricky in Vintage. They unlock so many lines of play. They are the grease for the decks’ engines. The more powerful ones are restricted. The less powerful ones are unplayed. Imperial Seal, I think, straddles the fence. It’s powerful since it can retrieve any card. However, it is weak because it casts at sorcery speed and costs you 2 life.
The sorcery speed of Imperial Seal is its greatest drawback. It means that the caster is giving up card advantage and flexibility for card selection. As with all formats, card advantage is important in Vintage. Cards that are disadvantageous are seldom played. I think this is why Imperial Seal has gone unused for the most part in Vintage. Players generally don’t like giving up cards now for cards next turn. Despite the fact that it fetches anything, Imperial Seal has not found a home in Vintage outside a few Storm decks and Workshop decks, and it’s hardly required in most of the builds. When evaluating Imperial Seal versus draw spells, discard spells, or other tutors, it just loses out because of its slow benefits.
Not only is Imperial Seal slow, the loss of two life it causes is no trivial matter in Vintage anymore. Consider the life attrition many decks face already. Fetch Lands, Force of Will, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, and Vampiric Tutor see wide play across many pillars and archetypes. Never mind other outlying life-sinks like Ancient Tomb, Necropotence, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Ad Nauseam, City of Brass, Night’s Whisper, and Skeletal Scrying. Spending down one’s life to play cards has become routine in Vintage Magic. It’s not uncommon to inflict six or more “damage” to one’s self during a game. That’s almost of third of a player’s life points. Against agro decks, six damage is not an insignificant amount.
Consider then, playing 4 Imperial Seals in a deck. Casting it twice in a game results in –2 card advantage and –4 life. One way of looking it is skipping two draws and giving your opponent and extra attack without him having to spend any resources to accomplish that. Casting it three times in a game results in even steeper losses. Adding it all up, it’s easy to see how a deck with four Imperial Seals could easily cause its player to lose 10 or more life during the course of the game without the other player having to do much of anything. The benefits of better card selection quickly become outweighed by the opportunity costs and life point costs of this card.
In addition, after a player resolves an Imperial Seal, he is effectively cutting himself off from using any fetch lands or other tutors to react to his opponent until he draws the top card of his library. That is significant in Vintage where the board state can change very rapidly. Imperial Seal does not see widespread play now because few players want to limit their options to that degree. Value is placed more on flexibility.
The history of tutors and the B/R list for Vintage is interesting to say the least. Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are so powerful they must be restricted. However, Enlightened Tutor, Personal Tutor, and Grim Tutor are not. Burning Wish is restricted. Cunning Wish isn’t. Imperial Seal is restricted but hardly used. Some of the best cards Imperial Seal can go and fetch are most like Tinker, Yawgmoth’s Will, Black Lotus, a Storm card, Time Vault, or Voltaic Key. But unrestricted one mana tutors like Personal Tutor and Enlightened Tutor can already do that and they almost never make an appearance in decklists. If tutors that already do the job of Imperial Seal can be safely unrestricted, it stands to reason that Imperial Seal can be unrestricted as well.
The most likely two pillars to use Imperial Seal would be Dark Ritual decks and Mishra’s Workshop decks. Five color Shop Decks could use the Seal to tutor up their next lock piece or an answer to the opponent’s strategy that they don’t need RIGHT NOW. Since Ritual decks have lots of draw spells, they could use Imperial Seal to find the last piece to their Storm puzzle they need so they can combo out. However, Ritual decks would have to watch their life attrition carefully and drawing into more Imperial Seals after playing a Draw 7 isn’t all that great unless you get more draw spells with the mana to cast them all at the same time. As mentioned earlier, Ritual decks are under-performing in the current meta game and could use some help. Five color Shop decks already have access to many tutors to grab what they need out of their libraries so it’s questionable how much extra oomph Imperial Seal would give them. Given all of this, I believe it is quite safe to unrestrict Imperial Seal for Vintage.
Mana Vault
The best argument for unrestricting Mana Vault can be made by comparing it to other cards like it. Consider that the following cards are all unrestricted in Vintage: Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Grim Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual. The two Mox cards were unrestricted to no effect at all. They have a zero casting cost and can provide on-color mana. That sounds powerful on the surface, but Vintage Players haven’t found a way to take advantage of it. These cards showed that not all artifact mana is dangerous. Later, Grim Monolith was unrestricted. This one took a little longer due to the memory of the Power Artifact combo still being in the psyche of Vintage enthusiasts. Again, though, unrestricting Grim Monolith has had absolutely no effect on the Vintage metagame.
However, I think there are better analogies in Magic for Mana Vault. All along, Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual have been unrestricted. They provide three (or more) on-color mana at instant speed. That’s something Mana Vault cannot do. And like Mana Vault, they are effectively one use mana sources. True, Mana Vault can be untapped with Voltaic Key. But the Rituals can be reused with Yawgmoth’s Will. So I think the comparison between these cards is fair. If those two spells, along with the other artifact mana sources can exist as unrestricted without degenerating the metgame, it reasonable to ask why Mana Vault shouldn’t be unrestricted. It’s hard to imagine it being much more powerful than any of those cards.
The best place for unrestricted Mana Vault would be in Goblin Charbelcher decks. It would give them easy access to three colorless mana and likely replace the seldom used Grim Monolith. Mishra’s Workshop decks may use it, but with the plethora of other artifact mana sources, it’s hard to see how much gain there would be in replacing lock pieces or lands with these. Mana Drain decks would be loathe to take out other cards more pertinent to their strategy just for some one time use mana acceleration. Indeed, the fact that Mana Vault can basically only be used once limits a player’s flexibility with the card and makes it more likely to be used in a wacky combo deck or in a budget prison deck that doesn’t run Mishra’s Workshop. Mana Vault can be safely unrestricted.
Mind’s Desire
The Storm mechanic, without a doubt, changed Magic: The Gathering. The reviews are certainly mixed. I’ll quote Aaron Forsythe on it, “Nothing good ever came of that abomination.” Given the context of that quote (namely the Standard and Extended environment during the Dragonstorm Era) it’s understandable. However, Vintage is a different animal and one that is probably not given much thought by the design team- although we definitely appreciate the fun new cards they’ve been sending our way over the last few sets.
A card like Disciple of the Vault for example may break Standard or Extended in half, but in Vintage it never really did find a home of any kind. When it comes to Storm cards, there have been several prove themselves powerful enough to make it into tournament play. For the most part, these are Brain Freeze, Mind’s Desire, Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Tendrils of Agony. Looking back over the decklists that have included these cards since their release, it is very interesting to note that few, if any decks, ran more than two copies of a single storm spell. In fact, for the vast majority of decks that used them, only one copy of can be found in their lists. The reason is that any more than that would just be redundant and unhelpful.
Storm spells tend to have a higher casting cost than the bulk of spells you’ll find in a Vintage deck. This makes them extremely difficult to play until the very last minute when the deck seizes victory. At that point, the deck’s opponent has two options: quickly find some way to nullify the Storm spell or watch as the game slips away. It wouldn’t matter if there was one Storm spell or three in the Storm player’s hand. When the game gets to that critical point, it is either won or lost. There is no recovery.
Would multiple Desires make that much difference in a Storm deck? Well, it might be hard to say. First, no one knows what it might be like. Mind’s Desire was preemptively restricted before anyone had a chance to see what the card could do as a 4-of in Vintage. Second, history shows that multiple copies of Storm spells don’t improve the speed or consistency of the deck, and in fact, multiple copies may harm that deck’s ability to pack disruption and protect its combo. Third, Mind’s Desire has a whopping six casting costing including double blue. Achieving that kind of mana is a very difficult task and once one is resolved, that is typically the end of the game- one way or the other. The rest of the deck is so filled with tutors and draw spells, that the storm player need only find his kill card to win. This isn’t hard. Resolving multiple Mind’s Desires is no doubt powerful. I just question whether or not it’s a necessary accomplishment for a deck to win.
Compare it to Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam can net a player 20 cards or more, but how often would a Vintage Storm player want to resolve multiple copies of one? The answer is hardly ever. How many times would having two Ad Nauseams or two Minds Desires in one’s opening hand be a good thing? The answer is almost never. Taking a mulligan into a Mind’s Desire is also a horrendous position to be in, and Storm players mulligan quite frequently in Vintage. These cards are powerful, but one needs to set up properly for them- especially for Mind’s Desire. I am unconvinced that having multiple Minds Desires automatically makes a storm deck stronger than one with multiple Ad Nauseams.
The obvious pillar Mind’s Desire would affect would be Dark Ritual decks. For the last eight months (and maybe longer), Ritual decks have been at their lowest ebb in Vintage in many, many years- perhaps their lowest ever. They are being outclassed by Mana Drain, Workshop, and Null Rod decks. Even if other spells I’ve mentioned in this letter like Burning Wish and Gush were unrestricted, it is very doubtful Ritual decks would make any sort of dominating return. There are plenty of Dark Ritual players out there who are looking for something to get excited about. Mind’s Desire would accomplish that. Ritual-based decks would still have an uphill battle to climb, but at least now they’d have some new tools to work with. Many of the cards I mentioned earlier that would hamper Gush decks would also hamper decks using Mind’s Desire.
At the very least, Vintage players ought to have the opportunity to see if unrestricted Mind’s Desire would warp the format. It is a shame that there was never any opportunity to experiment with the card in its fullness. Vintage players thrive on experimentation and here’s a card that never got its chance. Therefore, I suggest that it come off the B/R List in the interests of a new Storm Archetype, in the interests of format diversity, and in the interests of seeing whether or not the card should have even been on that list in the first place.
Regrowth
Regrowth is one of the old guard. It’s been on the restricted list for ages. In the beginning, this card was extremely powerful, especially because of Time Walk. I remember the old combo after Legends came out: cast Time Walk -> Regrowth -> Time Walk -> Recall -> Time Walk -> Regrowth -> Time Walk. Those were the days. At the time, that was clearly broken. But times are quite different now.
Casting spells at sorcery speed in Vintage in an anathema- especially when doing it with an off color like green. Tying up one’s own mana on one’s own turn limits future choices greatly. Anytime someone decides to do that, the payoff must be large. Regrowth relies on something being in the graveyard that is good enough to spend an extra 1G on during the main phase to play. There are very few cards in Vintage that meet that criteria anymore. Duplicative printings have ensured that one’s library is full of answers, draw spells, counterspells, and other flexible cards to meet any given situation. It is much easier to tutor for something or to draw into something you know will almost always be in your library rather than Regrow something that may or may not be in your graveyard.
Take, for instance, the disparity in the use of cards like Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor versus the use of Reclaim. Reclaim is an instant and costs just one mana like the Mirage-block tutors, but it has never seen competitive play. Why? It’s because the ability to search your deck for a card is way more powerful than the ability to search your graveyard. If a card interacts with the graveyard, it has to do something more than just search. Regrowth doesn’t.
Also, consider the amount of graveyard hate that has been printed in recent years. Leyline of the Void, Jotun Grunt, Extirpate, Relic of Progenitous, Faerie Macabre, Ravenous Trap, Bojuka Pit, and so on. The graveyard is a very dangerous place for cards to be. Unlike Yawgmoth’s Will, Regrowth only lets you return a single card. With all the graveyard hate that is omnipresent in both main decks and sideboards, relying on Regrowth as any kind of strategy is risky at best and futile at worst. In the last four years, any card (aside from Yawgmoth’s Will and Tarmogoyf) that relies on the graveyard has lost a great deal of its potency for the Vintage format.
This loss of potency is easily seen in similar cards. Take for instance Eternal Witness and Nature’s Spiral. Neither of these cards have ever made an impact despite the fact they could be quite useful. The impact Eternal Witness had on other formats could easily be seen. But it was dead in Vintage. Nature’s Spiral could return commonly used cards like Black Lotus, Strip Mine, and Time Vault but has never been used to do so. There are just better cards.
Regrowth suffers from not being easily repeatable. Crucible of Worlds, Goblin Welder, Life from the Loam, and Yawgmoth’s Will are the graveyard recursion cards of choice now. Their effects are repeatable, fairly cheap, and in colors more relevant to most decks.
If cards like Déjà vu and Relearn- which are only slightly more expensive to cast and *on color* for decks that want to replay the most powerful spells in the game- never saw play and other cards similar to Regrowth never saw play and better, repeatable alternatives to Regrowth already exist, then it’s doubtful unrestricting it would have very much of an impact on the Vintage Format.
The decks that would benefit most from a Regrowth unrestriction would likely be green-based Null Rod decks. These decks could pack their libraries full of Regrowths as insurance vs. countermagic and artifact destruction. Regrowth would serve as a means to recycle important cards like Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Quasili Pridemage, Rack and Ruin, or Pyroblast.
Thank you so much for reading this rather lengthy letter. I know your time is valuable. I hope that I have provided you with some food for thought and a legitimate discussion piece for considering unrestricting cards this June.
Sincerely,
-Troy M. Costisick
I am writing to you to discuss the current state of the Vintage Banned/Restricted list. Each year, this list receives a thorough examination by the Vintage community and by the DCI. In the past, the DCI has been very receptive to community feedback about the B/R list. I hope that continues. In this letter, I examine several cards that have been discussed in the community as candidates for unrestriction. I lay out several reasons each could come off the list in your next update. I hope that what I have written is helpful and illuminating. Cards are listed in alphabetical order.
Balance
Many years ago, Balance was overlooked in Magic. Its symmetry made it difficult to use and the fact that it hit what, at the time, were the game’s three most important resources caused confusion on how to really use it best. Then came along The Deck. Brian Weissman showed just how strong the card was and voilla, people suddenly understood the card and put it to good use. In a short period of time, you had Maysonet Rack Balance. Not too long after, the card is put on the restricted list where it has remained.
I’ll risk stating the obvious and say that the metagame has changed since then. What made Balance so broken back then was that it was a Wrath of God, Armageddon, and Mind Twist all wrapped into one card for a measly 1W. However, I submit that those effects are now no longer powerful in Vintage and that Balance’s casting cost is hardly too little for its effect.
Let’s start with Balance’s Mind Twist effect. Knocking your opponent down to 1 or 2 cards is really great… at least in theory. Mind Twist has been unrestricted for some time now and has not been a factor in Vintage magic whatsoever. It fails to even appear in mono-black suicide decks that could easily ramp it up with Dark Ritual. One reason for its lack of impact is that the graveyard is hardly a place players don’t have access to. The graveyard, in Vintage, is just and extension of one’s hand in many cases. Dredge decks, Crucible of Worlds, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Goblin Welder take great advantage of the graveyard and represent no small portion of the Vintage metagame. There are plenty of decks that one would face in a Vintage tournament where Balance’s “Mind Twist” effect is more of a liability than a boon.
The Armageddon effect of Balance has almost been entirely neutralized. A majority of Vintage games run only 4 to 5 turns and are often locked up sooner than that. In that amount of time, it is much harder to build up a sizeable land disparity between players. The reason is that there are so many viable sources of cheap artifact mana. Two of the best decks in the metagame Tez-control and MUD use a full compliment of artifact mana. They don’t rely on having a large number of lands in play to cast their spells. Two or three at the most will do just fine. Also consider that other strong contenders in Vintage like Dredge decks and Oath of Druids decks play few lands. Add do that, Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam showing up in many different archetypes, and it is easy to see how the Armageddon effect has lost most if not all of its potency. As a strategy, using Balance to blow up your opponent’s lands is just not viable anymore.
Finally, the Wrath of God effect. There are lots of agro decks in Vintage. Fish and X/G Beatz decks are large factors in any tournament. So Balance’s 1W casting cost to clear the board should be the perfect answer, right? Well, if it were, wouldn’t decks play it as a singleton and then use any one of their three to five tutors to get it? The fact is, Balance isn’t even played as a sideboard card. What is played, however, is Sower of Temptation. A control player would gladly pay 2UU to steal a single creature rather than 1W to wipe the board. This is where Balance’s casting cost comes in. 1W is actually a harder casting cost to manage in a current Vintage Magic deck than 2UU. There are just not enough incentives to squeeze in white for a single card when there are plenty of cards in more powerful colors that can do essentially the same thing or better. Consider that powerful white cards like Land Tax, Agrivian Find, Abeyance, and Enlightened Tutor see next to no play. It, therefore, doesn’t take a great leap of faith to suggest that Balance too will see little or no play in Vintage.
If Balance were to find a home in Vintage, it would almost certainly not be in blue-based Force/Drain decks. It could be in five color Mishra’s Workshop decks that can mitigate the symmetry of sacrificing creatures/lands and discarding cards thanks to Goblin Welder and Crucible of Worlds. Even so, using the card would not be easy since Workshop mana can’t be used to cast it, Dredge decks are always part of the metagame, and one mana counterspells like Spell Snare and Spell Pierce are very popular (Spell Pierce has made Morphing.de’s top ten most played Vintage spell list several times in the past few months). Thus, while Balance may be advantageous for a particular pillar of the metagame, it is not likely it will have much of an impact on the overall environment.
Burning Wish
It is somewhat bewildering as to why Burning Wish is still on the restricted list. It’s a type of tutor and as a rule, tutors are given extra consideration for the B/R list. I understand that, but a lot has changed since it was first placed there. First, Lion’s Eye Diamond was restricted. LED allowed you to tutor for a card, sacrifice the Diamond in response, then be able to cast the card you just tutored for. Without 4 LED, all tutors were weakened to some degree. However, the greatest weakening of Burning Wish came with the M10 rules. It can no longer retrieve cards from the Exile zone. Getting back your Yawgmoth’s Will or sorceries exiled by Tormod’s Crypt is no longer possible with Burning Wish. Since this was a major facet of that card’s power in Vintage, Burning Wish is only a shell of its former self.
Let’s look at some similar cards. Personal Tutor is unrestricted and can search for Sorceries. It’s a blue card- automatically making it better- and costs one less mana. It’s topdeck feature is certainly a powerful drawback, but so is Burning Wish’s ability to only be able to search the sideboard. Grim Tutor is easily cast in Dark Ritual decks and can search for anything, not just sorceries. And yet, neither Personal Tutor nor Grim Tutor see much play at all in Vintage. They haven’t been in the top 50 cards on Morphling.de in who knows how long. Cunning Wish has been unrestricted all along and gets blue instants- the most powerful cards in Magic! However, almost no one in the community has advocated for its restriction. If cards as good if not better than Burning Wish can be safely unrestricted, one has to wonder why Burning Wish can’t be unrestricted too.
Decks that might potentially benefit most from an unrestricted Burning Wish would perhaps be Dark Ritual Decks or red-based Null Rod decks. Ritual decks might still try to take advantage of Wish’s ability to fetch Yawgmoth’s Will from the sideboard, but this is unlikely for a number of reasons. First, they can already play Grim Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor to fetch Yawg’s Will. Ritual decks pack massive numbers of draw spells that let them draw into Will and then recycle them a second time after casting it. Taking out more versatile cards like tutors or draw spells for more narrow cards like wishes is generally not a good idea in Vintage. Red Null Rod decks might try Burning Wish to search for answer cards that can destroy artifacts or creatures. This would certainly make those decks more competitive and flexible, but even so, it’s hard to imagine a red deck taking out cards like Gorilla Shaman, Ancient Grudge, Pyroblast, or Magus of the Moon to make room for Burning Wish. It is very likely that Burning Wish will end up in the dustbin right along Personal Tutor, Cunning Wish, and Grim Tutor.
Flash
Flash was restricted with a whole batch of blue cards in June 2008 in an attempt to correct the Vintage metagame. The results of the Legacy tournament in Columbus Ohio about a year prior were certainly a factor. The idea that a turn zero win was possible was also part of that decision according to the article on magicthegathering.com that explained the restriction. The thing is, all the assumptions about Flash were just not bourn out by the tournament data.
First, Legacy is not Vintage. Flash dominated in Columbus way back when, but according to Stephen Menendian’s research, the BEST Flash decks ever did in Vintage was make up 10% of the top 8’s. Just as a frame of reference, Gush decks peaked out at 25% and Tez decks around 45%. Flash was never a major factor in Vintage tournament victories but instead challenged players to build very flexible sideboards. It is easy to argue that Flash improved Vintage diversity and the metagame suffered as a result its restriction.
Second, to my knowledge (and I have searched very, very hard) there has never been a recorded instance of a turn zero Flash win in a Vintage tournament of any size. It may have happened somewhere, but there is just no record of it ever occurring that I have found, and it certainly never happened at a major tournament. There was a lot of hysteria at the time about it being possible, but the route to achieve a turn zero kill is so inconsistent, few people- if any people at all- ventured in that direction. Succinctly, the turn zero kill was never a concern for the Vintage community.
Finally, Flash was most weakened by the other restrictions made at the time, namely Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant Scroll. These cards were not just helpful for Flash decks, they were absolutely critical. Flash’s strength lied totally in its speed. If it could not win quickly, it could not win at all. The combo is so easily thwarted with cards like Pithing Needle, Leyline of the Void, Ravenous Trap, and Tormod’s Crypt. With the June 2008 restrictions, Flash lost 9 of its best cards, and the de facto replacement for those cards (Thirst for Knowledge) is now also restricted. Without Ponder to dig through a deck, without Merchant Scroll of quickly tutor up Flash, without Brainstorm to shuffle back the multiple combo pieces from a player’s hand, Flash loses almost all of its viability.
In comparing it to other cards, Flash is most like Entomb in many respects. Each take 2 cards in-hand to win. Each can go off (with a lot of luck) on turn 1. Each can manipulate cards in the graveyard infinitely. Each combo is most likely going to be backed up with Duress and cheap countermagic. When Entomb was unrestricted there was a lot of fear that Worldgorger Dragon combo decks would take over the format. It never happened. The combo is too fragile, too hard to piece together, and too inconsistent anymore. Once upon a time it was powerful, but things have changed. Flash is in the same boat. Without all the blue deck manipulation, the Flash combo is too fragile, too hard to piece together, and too inconsistent. I believe Entomb demonstrates quite well that cards that are win conditions can, for the most part, be unrestricted so long as the support cards like Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant Scroll remain on the restricted list.
Currently, Flash is the ONLY card on the Vintage B/R list that deals exclusively with creatures. That makes it totally unique and quite historical. The DCI has had a history for many years now of not restricting cards that interact solely with creature cards. This includes cards like Worldly Tutor and Gaea’s Cradle which look similar to other cards on the B/R list. It seems remarkable and quite inconsistent that Flash is restricted in light of past DCI policy. That alone, I believe, should put Flash into consideration for unrestriction.
I realize that Flash may fall under the “Force of Will” pillar, and that the DCI is trying to balance that pillar against the others. However, a close look at Vintage reveals that Null Rod decks, Dark Ritual Decks, and Bazaar of Baghdad Decks quite often use Force of Will as well. I feel it is much more constructive to look at Force of Will + Mana Drain decks as a pillar. Flash would not likely fit into that category. Old Flash decks used Force of Will and Pact of Negation to back up their combo because they didn’t cost any mana. They did not use Mana Drain because it would mean that they would need 1UUU to cast Flash with protection. That is a very, very difficult mana cost to achieve in Vintage. It is highly unlikely that Flash would turn to Mana Drain for help.
Consequently, Flash decks would be very different from the other Force/Drain decks in Vintage. More than likely, Flash players would use cards like Spell Pierce and Pact of Negation to back up their combo. This may especially be true since the number of blue draw spells available to Flash is now more limited than before. Thus, a new avenue of deckbuilding would open up for Vintage enthusiasts. And new avenues of deckbuilding are what Vintage is all about.
Gush
The situation with Gush is a lot like the situation with Flash. Gush decks were strong not because of Gush or even because of the Gush-Fastbond combo. Their real power came from Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant scroll. Chaining Gushes consecutively on the same turn allowed players to quickly draw into their win condition. Thanks to the June 2008 restrictions, Gush decks, like Flash decks, have lost 9 of their best cards. The replacements are laughable. Slight of Hand, Opt, and Strategic Planning would have to be subbed in. These cards are clearly not even close to the power level of other Vintage staples. Also, since Gush was restricted we have had three VERY significant printings. Ethersworn Canonist, Mindbreak Trap, and Lodestone Golem are massive factors in Vintage and would be even more so with Gush unrestricted. These three new cards along with Gaddok Teeg and Thorn of Amethyst from Lorwyn Block present a formidable obstacle for Gush decks to overcome.
It’s easy to think that Gush decks were the supreme masters of the Vintage metagame back in the second Gush Era. However, according to the data gathered by Stephen Menendian, Gush based decks were evenly matched with Mishra’s Worskshop decks. Each made up 25% of the metagame. And if you look at the metagame at the time, it was the most diverse Vintage had ever been. 49% of the metagame was “Rest of the Field.” That means people could build and play nearly any kind of deck they wanted because the Gush and Shop decks were so focused on beating each other, they couldn’t worry about anything else. This time period was widely hailed as the Golden Age of Vintage, and despite the minor grumblings at the time (there was always be minor grumblings no matter what you do), people were generally happy with the format.
And just to give a word about Gush’s diversity back then. Gush supported six distinct archetypes at the same time- GAT, Empty Gifts, Next Level Doomsday, MS Paint, The Tropical Storm, and Tyrant Oath. Diversity is the lifeblood of any format. Each of the archetypes I just listed required a different set of tactics to beat. Tyrant Oath was nothing like Next Level Doomsday. MS Paint was nothing like GAT. During the 2nd Gush Era, the Golden Age, whatever you want to call it, Vintage had its greatest diversity. It was a tremendous and exciting time to play.
Gush is its own Vintage pillar. It would use Force of Will, but as I demonstrated earlier, many of the other pillars do as well. Gush relies on drawing lots of cards to win. This is not much different from Dark Ritual decks that use most of the restricted list to do the same thing. Unlike the current Force of Will/Mana Drain decks that can overly dominate the top 8’s from time to time, Gush decks have a specific weakness to Workshop Prison decks and to mana denial strategies like Wasteland, Sphere of Resistance/Trinisphere, and Magus of the Moon. Unrestricting Gush would cause a shakeup in Vintage and either realign the dominant archetypes OR add a brand new set of archetypes to the mix.
It’s not like the other pillars would be defenseless against it. Null Rod decks have Ethersworn Canonist, Rule of Law, Quasili Pridemage, and Gaddok Teeg to counter Gush’s drawing potential; Shop decks have Thorn of Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, and Lodestone Golem. Mana Drain decks have Spell Pierce, Mindbreak Trap, Ravenous Trap, and the recently re-discovered Mystic Remora. Therefore the other pillars of the format have the tools and are very capable of fending off a challenge from Gush decks. Consequently, I strongly believe Gush can be unrestricted.
Imperial Seal
Tutors are tricky in Vintage. They unlock so many lines of play. They are the grease for the decks’ engines. The more powerful ones are restricted. The less powerful ones are unplayed. Imperial Seal, I think, straddles the fence. It’s powerful since it can retrieve any card. However, it is weak because it casts at sorcery speed and costs you 2 life.
The sorcery speed of Imperial Seal is its greatest drawback. It means that the caster is giving up card advantage and flexibility for card selection. As with all formats, card advantage is important in Vintage. Cards that are disadvantageous are seldom played. I think this is why Imperial Seal has gone unused for the most part in Vintage. Players generally don’t like giving up cards now for cards next turn. Despite the fact that it fetches anything, Imperial Seal has not found a home in Vintage outside a few Storm decks and Workshop decks, and it’s hardly required in most of the builds. When evaluating Imperial Seal versus draw spells, discard spells, or other tutors, it just loses out because of its slow benefits.
Not only is Imperial Seal slow, the loss of two life it causes is no trivial matter in Vintage anymore. Consider the life attrition many decks face already. Fetch Lands, Force of Will, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, and Vampiric Tutor see wide play across many pillars and archetypes. Never mind other outlying life-sinks like Ancient Tomb, Necropotence, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Ad Nauseam, City of Brass, Night’s Whisper, and Skeletal Scrying. Spending down one’s life to play cards has become routine in Vintage Magic. It’s not uncommon to inflict six or more “damage” to one’s self during a game. That’s almost of third of a player’s life points. Against agro decks, six damage is not an insignificant amount.
Consider then, playing 4 Imperial Seals in a deck. Casting it twice in a game results in –2 card advantage and –4 life. One way of looking it is skipping two draws and giving your opponent and extra attack without him having to spend any resources to accomplish that. Casting it three times in a game results in even steeper losses. Adding it all up, it’s easy to see how a deck with four Imperial Seals could easily cause its player to lose 10 or more life during the course of the game without the other player having to do much of anything. The benefits of better card selection quickly become outweighed by the opportunity costs and life point costs of this card.
In addition, after a player resolves an Imperial Seal, he is effectively cutting himself off from using any fetch lands or other tutors to react to his opponent until he draws the top card of his library. That is significant in Vintage where the board state can change very rapidly. Imperial Seal does not see widespread play now because few players want to limit their options to that degree. Value is placed more on flexibility.
The history of tutors and the B/R list for Vintage is interesting to say the least. Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are so powerful they must be restricted. However, Enlightened Tutor, Personal Tutor, and Grim Tutor are not. Burning Wish is restricted. Cunning Wish isn’t. Imperial Seal is restricted but hardly used. Some of the best cards Imperial Seal can go and fetch are most like Tinker, Yawgmoth’s Will, Black Lotus, a Storm card, Time Vault, or Voltaic Key. But unrestricted one mana tutors like Personal Tutor and Enlightened Tutor can already do that and they almost never make an appearance in decklists. If tutors that already do the job of Imperial Seal can be safely unrestricted, it stands to reason that Imperial Seal can be unrestricted as well.
The most likely two pillars to use Imperial Seal would be Dark Ritual decks and Mishra’s Workshop decks. Five color Shop Decks could use the Seal to tutor up their next lock piece or an answer to the opponent’s strategy that they don’t need RIGHT NOW. Since Ritual decks have lots of draw spells, they could use Imperial Seal to find the last piece to their Storm puzzle they need so they can combo out. However, Ritual decks would have to watch their life attrition carefully and drawing into more Imperial Seals after playing a Draw 7 isn’t all that great unless you get more draw spells with the mana to cast them all at the same time. As mentioned earlier, Ritual decks are under-performing in the current meta game and could use some help. Five color Shop decks already have access to many tutors to grab what they need out of their libraries so it’s questionable how much extra oomph Imperial Seal would give them. Given all of this, I believe it is quite safe to unrestrict Imperial Seal for Vintage.
Mana Vault
The best argument for unrestricting Mana Vault can be made by comparing it to other cards like it. Consider that the following cards are all unrestricted in Vintage: Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Grim Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual. The two Mox cards were unrestricted to no effect at all. They have a zero casting cost and can provide on-color mana. That sounds powerful on the surface, but Vintage Players haven’t found a way to take advantage of it. These cards showed that not all artifact mana is dangerous. Later, Grim Monolith was unrestricted. This one took a little longer due to the memory of the Power Artifact combo still being in the psyche of Vintage enthusiasts. Again, though, unrestricting Grim Monolith has had absolutely no effect on the Vintage metagame.
However, I think there are better analogies in Magic for Mana Vault. All along, Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual have been unrestricted. They provide three (or more) on-color mana at instant speed. That’s something Mana Vault cannot do. And like Mana Vault, they are effectively one use mana sources. True, Mana Vault can be untapped with Voltaic Key. But the Rituals can be reused with Yawgmoth’s Will. So I think the comparison between these cards is fair. If those two spells, along with the other artifact mana sources can exist as unrestricted without degenerating the metgame, it reasonable to ask why Mana Vault shouldn’t be unrestricted. It’s hard to imagine it being much more powerful than any of those cards.
The best place for unrestricted Mana Vault would be in Goblin Charbelcher decks. It would give them easy access to three colorless mana and likely replace the seldom used Grim Monolith. Mishra’s Workshop decks may use it, but with the plethora of other artifact mana sources, it’s hard to see how much gain there would be in replacing lock pieces or lands with these. Mana Drain decks would be loathe to take out other cards more pertinent to their strategy just for some one time use mana acceleration. Indeed, the fact that Mana Vault can basically only be used once limits a player’s flexibility with the card and makes it more likely to be used in a wacky combo deck or in a budget prison deck that doesn’t run Mishra’s Workshop. Mana Vault can be safely unrestricted.
Mind’s Desire
The Storm mechanic, without a doubt, changed Magic: The Gathering. The reviews are certainly mixed. I’ll quote Aaron Forsythe on it, “Nothing good ever came of that abomination.” Given the context of that quote (namely the Standard and Extended environment during the Dragonstorm Era) it’s understandable. However, Vintage is a different animal and one that is probably not given much thought by the design team- although we definitely appreciate the fun new cards they’ve been sending our way over the last few sets.
A card like Disciple of the Vault for example may break Standard or Extended in half, but in Vintage it never really did find a home of any kind. When it comes to Storm cards, there have been several prove themselves powerful enough to make it into tournament play. For the most part, these are Brain Freeze, Mind’s Desire, Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Tendrils of Agony. Looking back over the decklists that have included these cards since their release, it is very interesting to note that few, if any decks, ran more than two copies of a single storm spell. In fact, for the vast majority of decks that used them, only one copy of can be found in their lists. The reason is that any more than that would just be redundant and unhelpful.
Storm spells tend to have a higher casting cost than the bulk of spells you’ll find in a Vintage deck. This makes them extremely difficult to play until the very last minute when the deck seizes victory. At that point, the deck’s opponent has two options: quickly find some way to nullify the Storm spell or watch as the game slips away. It wouldn’t matter if there was one Storm spell or three in the Storm player’s hand. When the game gets to that critical point, it is either won or lost. There is no recovery.
Would multiple Desires make that much difference in a Storm deck? Well, it might be hard to say. First, no one knows what it might be like. Mind’s Desire was preemptively restricted before anyone had a chance to see what the card could do as a 4-of in Vintage. Second, history shows that multiple copies of Storm spells don’t improve the speed or consistency of the deck, and in fact, multiple copies may harm that deck’s ability to pack disruption and protect its combo. Third, Mind’s Desire has a whopping six casting costing including double blue. Achieving that kind of mana is a very difficult task and once one is resolved, that is typically the end of the game- one way or the other. The rest of the deck is so filled with tutors and draw spells, that the storm player need only find his kill card to win. This isn’t hard. Resolving multiple Mind’s Desires is no doubt powerful. I just question whether or not it’s a necessary accomplishment for a deck to win.
Compare it to Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam can net a player 20 cards or more, but how often would a Vintage Storm player want to resolve multiple copies of one? The answer is hardly ever. How many times would having two Ad Nauseams or two Minds Desires in one’s opening hand be a good thing? The answer is almost never. Taking a mulligan into a Mind’s Desire is also a horrendous position to be in, and Storm players mulligan quite frequently in Vintage. These cards are powerful, but one needs to set up properly for them- especially for Mind’s Desire. I am unconvinced that having multiple Minds Desires automatically makes a storm deck stronger than one with multiple Ad Nauseams.
The obvious pillar Mind’s Desire would affect would be Dark Ritual decks. For the last eight months (and maybe longer), Ritual decks have been at their lowest ebb in Vintage in many, many years- perhaps their lowest ever. They are being outclassed by Mana Drain, Workshop, and Null Rod decks. Even if other spells I’ve mentioned in this letter like Burning Wish and Gush were unrestricted, it is very doubtful Ritual decks would make any sort of dominating return. There are plenty of Dark Ritual players out there who are looking for something to get excited about. Mind’s Desire would accomplish that. Ritual-based decks would still have an uphill battle to climb, but at least now they’d have some new tools to work with. Many of the cards I mentioned earlier that would hamper Gush decks would also hamper decks using Mind’s Desire.
At the very least, Vintage players ought to have the opportunity to see if unrestricted Mind’s Desire would warp the format. It is a shame that there was never any opportunity to experiment with the card in its fullness. Vintage players thrive on experimentation and here’s a card that never got its chance. Therefore, I suggest that it come off the B/R List in the interests of a new Storm Archetype, in the interests of format diversity, and in the interests of seeing whether or not the card should have even been on that list in the first place.
Regrowth
Regrowth is one of the old guard. It’s been on the restricted list for ages. In the beginning, this card was extremely powerful, especially because of Time Walk. I remember the old combo after Legends came out: cast Time Walk -> Regrowth -> Time Walk -> Recall -> Time Walk -> Regrowth -> Time Walk. Those were the days. At the time, that was clearly broken. But times are quite different now.
Casting spells at sorcery speed in Vintage in an anathema- especially when doing it with an off color like green. Tying up one’s own mana on one’s own turn limits future choices greatly. Anytime someone decides to do that, the payoff must be large. Regrowth relies on something being in the graveyard that is good enough to spend an extra 1G on during the main phase to play. There are very few cards in Vintage that meet that criteria anymore. Duplicative printings have ensured that one’s library is full of answers, draw spells, counterspells, and other flexible cards to meet any given situation. It is much easier to tutor for something or to draw into something you know will almost always be in your library rather than Regrow something that may or may not be in your graveyard.
Take, for instance, the disparity in the use of cards like Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor versus the use of Reclaim. Reclaim is an instant and costs just one mana like the Mirage-block tutors, but it has never seen competitive play. Why? It’s because the ability to search your deck for a card is way more powerful than the ability to search your graveyard. If a card interacts with the graveyard, it has to do something more than just search. Regrowth doesn’t.
Also, consider the amount of graveyard hate that has been printed in recent years. Leyline of the Void, Jotun Grunt, Extirpate, Relic of Progenitous, Faerie Macabre, Ravenous Trap, Bojuka Pit, and so on. The graveyard is a very dangerous place for cards to be. Unlike Yawgmoth’s Will, Regrowth only lets you return a single card. With all the graveyard hate that is omnipresent in both main decks and sideboards, relying on Regrowth as any kind of strategy is risky at best and futile at worst. In the last four years, any card (aside from Yawgmoth’s Will and Tarmogoyf) that relies on the graveyard has lost a great deal of its potency for the Vintage format.
This loss of potency is easily seen in similar cards. Take for instance Eternal Witness and Nature’s Spiral. Neither of these cards have ever made an impact despite the fact they could be quite useful. The impact Eternal Witness had on other formats could easily be seen. But it was dead in Vintage. Nature’s Spiral could return commonly used cards like Black Lotus, Strip Mine, and Time Vault but has never been used to do so. There are just better cards.
Regrowth suffers from not being easily repeatable. Crucible of Worlds, Goblin Welder, Life from the Loam, and Yawgmoth’s Will are the graveyard recursion cards of choice now. Their effects are repeatable, fairly cheap, and in colors more relevant to most decks.
If cards like Déjà vu and Relearn- which are only slightly more expensive to cast and *on color* for decks that want to replay the most powerful spells in the game- never saw play and other cards similar to Regrowth never saw play and better, repeatable alternatives to Regrowth already exist, then it’s doubtful unrestricting it would have very much of an impact on the Vintage Format.
The decks that would benefit most from a Regrowth unrestriction would likely be green-based Null Rod decks. These decks could pack their libraries full of Regrowths as insurance vs. countermagic and artifact destruction. Regrowth would serve as a means to recycle important cards like Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Quasili Pridemage, Rack and Ruin, or Pyroblast.
Thank you so much for reading this rather lengthy letter. I know your time is valuable. I hope that I have provided you with some food for thought and a legitimate discussion piece for considering unrestricting cards this June.
Sincerely,
-Troy M. Costisick
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Quick B/R Survey
Heya,
If you could suggest one or two cards to come off the Vintage B/R list, what would they be? Why?
Peace,
-Troy
If you could suggest one or two cards to come off the Vintage B/R list, what would they be? Why?
Peace,
-Troy
Friday, March 19, 2010
Feeling Lost At the Moment...
Heya,
By now you've read the new Reserve List policy. I'm not even going to bother to link it. It nullifies my earlier post, so don't bother to read it if you haven't. The Mana Drain and SCG Forums aren't a good place to say what I'm about to say, so I'll blow off steam here.
At the moment, I'm a bit lost as to what to do. For years, the campaign against the Reserve List had been growing. Signals from MaRo and ArFo encouraged the player base by acknowledging that RnD didn't like it either. Its dissolution seemed inevitable. Now, it's entrenched even stronger.
So what now? Is Vintage doomed? Will we ever get back to the 2006-2008 Golden Age? I don't know the answer to that. I'll probably advocate for more unrestrictions this spring, but right now I'm feeling deflated. It's hard to imagine more unrestrictions, more new printings, more innovative deck designs will really have any kind of impact on the Vintage player base.
Prices for Vintage and Legacy staples will only climb. Especially now. Check out this graph for Underground Sea:
(Credit: FindMagicCards.com)
It has quadrupled in price over the last five years. This coincides with Type 1.5's split from Type 1 when Legacy and Vintage were reborn. If the graph continues its trajectory, in 5 years, Underground Sea will cost $278.60. Need four for a deck? Shell out $1114.40. That's more than a Black Lotus is now, and likely will be more than a Black Lotus in five years. Don't believe me?
(Credit: FindMagicCards.com)
In the same five year period, Lotus has been stagnant. With demand poised to drop even more, there's little chance Lotus will increase in price. What does that mean? Well, theoretically, it means that in five years Legacy will be more expensive to play than Vintage is right now. Legacy players, you want your format to look like ours in five years? Stephen was worried about ten or twenty years down the road. It's not going to take nearly that long.
So again, what now? I don't know. I'm not going to loby for the repeal of the Reserve List. It's obvious that won't get anywhere right now. Maybe in ten years we can bring it up again. I have no desire to switch to MTGO. Most Legacy and Vintage players use MWS or Cockatrice right now anyway. What's the incentive to switch? Guys who have the cards already aren't going to really get excited about buying them all over again. Guys without them are going to want to compete against those who do in order to test their mettle. So where does that leave us?
I really don't know. I hear people say, "if the demand drops, the price will drop!" We're talking about mana bases here. Not some combo piece like Academy Rector or some uber-creature-of-the-moment like Morphling (which, do you realize how bad this guys sucks now after M10?). We're talking about the essentials, the icons of the GAME. Not just the format, but of Magic: The Gathering itself. The Power 9, the Duals, the Tabernacle, Shop, Bazaar, Library, they're all trophy cards- not just deck pieces.
Anyway, I'm not advocating anything at the moment. Just pointing stuff out. I really don't feel it's fruitful to talk about the Reserve List anymore. Not for another decade. I'm just feeling kind of lost at the moment with regards to Vintage and its future. At the moment, it doesn't look all that promising.
Peace,
-Troy
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Reserve List
Heya,
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Reserve List following the visit of Ben and Steve to WotC headquarters. I figured I’d add my thoughts here on this blog. Before going any further, though, I want to say that if any Wizards employee is reading this, Wizards of the Coast is free to use any ideas I present without crediting me or this blog. I lay absolutely no claim to these suggestions as uniquely my own, and in fact, I suspect the Magic team has already considered them.
Now that that’s out of the way… reprinting cards on the Reserve List is an inevitable step in Magic’s development. First and foremost, from a business standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense at all to limit your business from using its own intellectual property. In fact, it’s a downright stupid idea. The concepts, design, appearance, mechanics, and every other aspect of those cards belong to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. They don’t belong to me, you, or anyone else who’s been, “a loyal fan since ’93.”
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing Magic. You don’t have any right to demand that Wizards use its intellectual property one way or the other. Voicing your opinion, writing letters explaining your point of view, civilly participating in online forums is great and important to do. But this whole thing about filing lawsuits over implied warranties, filing complaints with the SEC or Justice Department, or seeking damages in civil court for the loss of resale value of one’s property is just nonsensical. WotC can change its corporate policies any time it pleases for any reason that makes sense to them. They’re entitled to run their business any way they see fit.
“But what about my kid’s college fund/retirement account/life savings I’ve invested in a full set of Beta Power and Dual Lands???” I’ve this seen all over the boards at the ManaDrain, SCG, and MTGSalvation. The irrationality of that aside, the real question these people are asking is, “I had to sacrifice to get these really rare cards, shouldn’t other people have to sacrifice too?” The answer is, of course, “no.” Just because I had to make certain sacrifices to acquire my cards doesn’t mean others should too. That’s silly, elitist, and honestly quite calloused. It’s no way to treat your fellow Magic players.
Magic is a success story in the adventure gaming industry- an industry littered with the corpses of dead companies and games everywhere. It’s a brutal industry to survive in. We should be grateful any time new people want to join in or try new formats. We should lower the bar as much as possible to keep people invested in the game’s success. The last three years have seen explosive growth in Magic tournament attendance and card sales. As a result prices are higher, cards are scarcer, and the needs of the game are changing.
But let me assuage the fears of all my friends who own four sets of Beta Power or whatever. I firmly believe that eventually, the Power 9 will be reprinted in a tournament legal format, BUT I don’t believe for a second they will be reprinted in any large quantity at all. In fact, I only see two possible, viable, and likely methods of reprinting: Judge Foils and Tournament Prizes. The first is the less likely, but possible. It would have to be for high level events for high level judges and would shatter the value of any judge foil printed to date. I’m not sure how comfortable WotC would be with that, but it is a viable and fair solution. It would be a terrific reward and eventually, get multiple sets of new Power into circulation.
The second way, I feel is much more likely. The best place to hand out Power 9 reprints would be at the Vintage Champs at GenCon and/or the annual World Championships. Personally, I’d like to see it at both, but if it had to be one, I’d love to see them given out at Vintage Champs. Imagine if the top 16 at GenCon got this:
Vintage Prize Structure:
1. Black Lotus
2. Ancestral Recall
3. Mox Sapphire
4. Mox Jet
5. Mox Ruby
6. Mox Emerald
7. Mox Pearl
8. Time Walk
9. Timetwister
10. Library of Alexandria
11. Mishra’s Workshop
12. Bazaar of Baghdad
13. Time Vault
14. Mana Drain
15. Force of Will
16. Mana Crypt
This would reward those players with real prizes (instead of the utterly useless oversized card that hits eBay almost as fast as it’s handed out) and it would put a new set of Power (or two) into circulation each year. To cut down on counterfeiting, they could even have their own logo that would change each year like this:
For the heck of it, here’s what a similar prize structure for the Legacy top 16 could maybe look like:
Legacy Prize Structure
1. Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2. Tarmogoyf
3. Underground Sea
4. Tropical Island
5. Volcanic Island
6. Tundra
7. Bayou
8. Taiga
9. Plateau
10. Badlands
11. Scrubland
12. Savannah
13. Force of Will
14. Lion’s Eye Diamond
15. Mox Diamond
16. Entomb
Here’s the mockup logo:
Keep in mind, these are just off the top of my head.
Now, I honestly believe that the dual lands will be reprinted in Duel Decks, Premium Decks, and maybe somehow in a From The Vault series. It makes good sense to put them in there. But there’s no doubt the tournament prizes would be highly sought after, valuable to Eternal players. This prize structure would not harm the value of the Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Revised/Promo versions of all the cards listed above. However, they would allow the players who win them- especially the Vintage players- to sell or share their Power and thus allow new players into the formats. It would be a slow trickle (which is why I would support handing out two sets of the prize structure per year rather than just one). However, it would be better than nothing.
And I hope that Wizards would adopt this prize structure or something similar sooner rather than later. Each year, the staples for Vintage and Legacy will get older. Each year, they will become harder to acquire. Each year, they will become more expensive, and thus closing the door to more and more new participants in Magic’s two most venerable formats. The popularity of Legacy has been demonstrated with tournament attendance. Just look at all the GP events that have set attendance records. You’ll find Legacy has set several.
However, that will stop if something is not done soon. The dual lands are approaching $80 to $100 each just for Revised. Tarmogoyf is nearing $90 to $100 itself. And other staples in both formats from Lion’s Eye Diamond to Grindstone to Force of Will to Wasteland to Mana Drain are hitting between $30 and $60 dollars a pop. And FoW, Waste, and MD aren’t even on the Reserve List! In five to six years, all these prices could be doubled if no action is taken.
I implore the Magic team at Wizards to consider the suggestions I have made along with what Ben and Stephen have mentioned in their articles. We all love this game. We love our formats and we want Magic to succeed at every level. But if prices continue to rise for Vintage and Legacy staples, at some point, the tournament participation will level off and begin to decline. And unfortunately for Vintage, it already has.
Peace,
-Troy
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Reserve List following the visit of Ben and Steve to WotC headquarters. I figured I’d add my thoughts here on this blog. Before going any further, though, I want to say that if any Wizards employee is reading this, Wizards of the Coast is free to use any ideas I present without crediting me or this blog. I lay absolutely no claim to these suggestions as uniquely my own, and in fact, I suspect the Magic team has already considered them.
Now that that’s out of the way… reprinting cards on the Reserve List is an inevitable step in Magic’s development. First and foremost, from a business standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense at all to limit your business from using its own intellectual property. In fact, it’s a downright stupid idea. The concepts, design, appearance, mechanics, and every other aspect of those cards belong to Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. They don’t belong to me, you, or anyone else who’s been, “a loyal fan since ’93.”
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been playing Magic. You don’t have any right to demand that Wizards use its intellectual property one way or the other. Voicing your opinion, writing letters explaining your point of view, civilly participating in online forums is great and important to do. But this whole thing about filing lawsuits over implied warranties, filing complaints with the SEC or Justice Department, or seeking damages in civil court for the loss of resale value of one’s property is just nonsensical. WotC can change its corporate policies any time it pleases for any reason that makes sense to them. They’re entitled to run their business any way they see fit.
“But what about my kid’s college fund/retirement account/life savings I’ve invested in a full set of Beta Power and Dual Lands???” I’ve this seen all over the boards at the ManaDrain, SCG, and MTGSalvation. The irrationality of that aside, the real question these people are asking is, “I had to sacrifice to get these really rare cards, shouldn’t other people have to sacrifice too?” The answer is, of course, “no.” Just because I had to make certain sacrifices to acquire my cards doesn’t mean others should too. That’s silly, elitist, and honestly quite calloused. It’s no way to treat your fellow Magic players.
Magic is a success story in the adventure gaming industry- an industry littered with the corpses of dead companies and games everywhere. It’s a brutal industry to survive in. We should be grateful any time new people want to join in or try new formats. We should lower the bar as much as possible to keep people invested in the game’s success. The last three years have seen explosive growth in Magic tournament attendance and card sales. As a result prices are higher, cards are scarcer, and the needs of the game are changing.
But let me assuage the fears of all my friends who own four sets of Beta Power or whatever. I firmly believe that eventually, the Power 9 will be reprinted in a tournament legal format, BUT I don’t believe for a second they will be reprinted in any large quantity at all. In fact, I only see two possible, viable, and likely methods of reprinting: Judge Foils and Tournament Prizes. The first is the less likely, but possible. It would have to be for high level events for high level judges and would shatter the value of any judge foil printed to date. I’m not sure how comfortable WotC would be with that, but it is a viable and fair solution. It would be a terrific reward and eventually, get multiple sets of new Power into circulation.
The second way, I feel is much more likely. The best place to hand out Power 9 reprints would be at the Vintage Champs at GenCon and/or the annual World Championships. Personally, I’d like to see it at both, but if it had to be one, I’d love to see them given out at Vintage Champs. Imagine if the top 16 at GenCon got this:
Vintage Prize Structure:
1. Black Lotus
2. Ancestral Recall
3. Mox Sapphire
4. Mox Jet
5. Mox Ruby
6. Mox Emerald
7. Mox Pearl
8. Time Walk
9. Timetwister
10. Library of Alexandria
11. Mishra’s Workshop
12. Bazaar of Baghdad
13. Time Vault
14. Mana Drain
15. Force of Will
16. Mana Crypt
This would reward those players with real prizes (instead of the utterly useless oversized card that hits eBay almost as fast as it’s handed out) and it would put a new set of Power (or two) into circulation each year. To cut down on counterfeiting, they could even have their own logo that would change each year like this:
For the heck of it, here’s what a similar prize structure for the Legacy top 16 could maybe look like:
Legacy Prize Structure
1. Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2. Tarmogoyf
3. Underground Sea
4. Tropical Island
5. Volcanic Island
6. Tundra
7. Bayou
8. Taiga
9. Plateau
10. Badlands
11. Scrubland
12. Savannah
13. Force of Will
14. Lion’s Eye Diamond
15. Mox Diamond
16. Entomb
Here’s the mockup logo:
Keep in mind, these are just off the top of my head.
Now, I honestly believe that the dual lands will be reprinted in Duel Decks, Premium Decks, and maybe somehow in a From The Vault series. It makes good sense to put them in there. But there’s no doubt the tournament prizes would be highly sought after, valuable to Eternal players. This prize structure would not harm the value of the Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Revised/Promo versions of all the cards listed above. However, they would allow the players who win them- especially the Vintage players- to sell or share their Power and thus allow new players into the formats. It would be a slow trickle (which is why I would support handing out two sets of the prize structure per year rather than just one). However, it would be better than nothing.
And I hope that Wizards would adopt this prize structure or something similar sooner rather than later. Each year, the staples for Vintage and Legacy will get older. Each year, they will become harder to acquire. Each year, they will become more expensive, and thus closing the door to more and more new participants in Magic’s two most venerable formats. The popularity of Legacy has been demonstrated with tournament attendance. Just look at all the GP events that have set attendance records. You’ll find Legacy has set several.
However, that will stop if something is not done soon. The dual lands are approaching $80 to $100 each just for Revised. Tarmogoyf is nearing $90 to $100 itself. And other staples in both formats from Lion’s Eye Diamond to Grindstone to Force of Will to Wasteland to Mana Drain are hitting between $30 and $60 dollars a pop. And FoW, Waste, and MD aren’t even on the Reserve List! In five to six years, all these prices could be doubled if no action is taken.
I implore the Magic team at Wizards to consider the suggestions I have made along with what Ben and Stephen have mentioned in their articles. We all love this game. We love our formats and we want Magic to succeed at every level. But if prices continue to rise for Vintage and Legacy staples, at some point, the tournament participation will level off and begin to decline. And unfortunately for Vintage, it already has.
Peace,
-Troy
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