For the Love of Vintage

[Diary] Vintage from Scratch Update #2

2011-11-28T07:43:00.001-08:00

Heya,

I’m getting ready to start building some proxy decks to introduce people at my new FLGS to Vintage for the first time. I’m looking for some feedback on what decks would be good to A) teach how Vintage works and B) not be so scary that it turns people off. I think Dredge is out. It’s not intuitive at all. I also think I want to keep budget-minded decks like Dark Times and Christmas Beatings out too. As much as I love those two decks, they aren’t representative of Vintage. I also don’t think I’ll use the Doomsday Deck. It’s not that the Doomsday Piles are too complicated, it’s the fact that there are two very different lines of play in that deck, and I think it could be confusing for newbies. So here’s my preliminary list, can you help me narrow it down to 2?

-Turbo Tez

-MUD (mono-brown)

-Cat Stax (with Magus and Red Blasts)

-Noble Fish

-Snapcaster Control

-Bob Gush

-Elephant Oath

I’d like a good dueling set, so let me know what you think. I appreciate any and all input! :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Diary] Vintage from Scratch: Update #1

2011-11-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

Heya,

So last week I began a diary declaring that I would attempt to begin a Vintage community in my small hometown in Kentucky where a new gaming store opened. This is my first update in that endeavor.

On TheManaDrain, Godder suggested that I participate in the weekly FNM’s. That was good advice, and I took it. But before that, I got a chance to go to the store early before all the school kids showed up. I brought my cube which has all kinds of Vintage cards like Ancestral Recall, Skull Clamp, Mental Misstep, RedBlasts, etc. I asked the owner if he could play since there were no customers in at the time, and he agreed to oblige.

We had a great time. The match took almost an hour. He almost poisoned me out with Rancor on a Vector Asp. It was pretty cool, but importantly we got to get to know each other. He’s had some personal tragedies in the recent past, and I have to say I greatly admire his courage to open a gaming store in a small town in this economy. I respect him a great deal for many more reasons I’ll not go into here. He told me a story that his first Magic pack was a pack of Alpha he won for some type of DnD tournament back in the day. I didn’t get out of him how much of his old collection he still had, but I imagine it’s some.

I also brought in some old roleplaying books, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and legends from Chronicles to stock the store with some cheap Commander Generals. I donated them to the store for him to sell. He said, “I owe you a big one.” I said, “No.” And he replied, “Yes I do.” I smiled and said, “You’re right. You do. Keep this store open.” And with that, we shook hands.

The FNM rolled around. It was an M12 Draft. I’m not accustomed to draft. This would be only my third draft tournament ever, but it gave me a lot of time to get to know the people sitting around me. The guy across the table from me started Magic about the same time I did. We swapped old stories about Arena League, the miserable string of sets from The Dark to Fallen Empires to Chronicles to Ice Age to Homelands. I told him that I like to play Vintage, and he said he had lots of old cards, but no Power 9. I explained the idea of proxies to him. He seemed a little ambivalent. But I offered to bring some proxy decks some time if he would like to play. He said, “Sure!”

The tournament started and I ended up placing second out of 12 people. Not bad. My final opponent was a Legacy player to likes to travel to nearby PTQ’s and SCG Opens. He’s got a fairly large collection and an affinity for older cards too.

Thus, I think I made three pretty good contacts and got to interact with the owner in a one-on-one environment. Not bad for one week’s work. In the next update, I’ll talk about working on making up some updated proxy decks.

Peace,

-Troy

[Diary] Starting a Vintage Community from Scratch

2011-11-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

Heya,

I have some really exciting news. Well, mostly exciting for myself, but perhaps exciting for you too. A brand new Magic shop has opened up in the po-dunk little town where I live in Kentucky. It is literally a four minute drive from my house. The player base is young, new, eager to learn, and most importantly, lacking large collections of Magic cards. In other words, they have no real loyalty to any particular format outside of Limited at the moment.

I’m going to turn this blog into a diary of sorts cataloging my attempts to create a Vintage community from scratch. So far as I know, not a single person at the store plays Vintage, so I’ll definitely have my work cut out for me. I’m still putting together a plan, but here are the basics of what I want to do:

-First, develop a strong rapport with the shop owner, manager, and general player base.

-Second, create at least 8 to 10 proxy decks that are made using very high quality proxies and leave them at the store for people to play with.

-Third, show up on FNM nights toward the end of the tournament to snag players who’ve dropped to play Commander, Cube, and eventually, Vintage.

-Fourth, organize a monthly “Vintage Night” with a small entrance fee. I’ll provide all the decks if necessary and perhaps even a prize in addition to the fees.

-Fifth, see if this event can eventually run without me being there.

I’ll keep you updated on how this goes. Hopefully, in a year or two, there will be a small but thriving Vintage community in central Kentucky.

Peace,

-Troy

Scars of Mirrodin Set Review

2010-09-26T17:50:00.001-07:00

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

Winners and Losers in the 3rd Gush Era

2010-09-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

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

GenCon Data Roundup

2010-08-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

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

GenCon Predictions

2010-07-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

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

2nd Place w/ Ichorid

2010-07-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

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

My Take on M11

2010-07-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

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

The Stagnation Continues (UPDATE)

2010-06-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

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

The Stagnation Continues

2010-06-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Yay.

Peace,

-Troy

An Open Letter about the Vintage B/R List

2010-06-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

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

Quick B/R Survey

2010-03-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

Heya,

If you could suggest one or two cards to come off the Vintage B/R list, what would they be? Why?

Peace,

-Troy

Feeling Lost At the Moment...

2010-03-19T05:48:00.001-07:00

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

The Reserve List

2010-03-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

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

A Lamentation and a Hope

2009-09-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

Heya,

I haven't been able to play in a tournament since early August, and it looks like I won't get another chance for a couple more weeks. That's really a bummer. However, in a couple weeks Vintage is going to change. The upcoming Zendikar set will have a huge impact, probably as much as Lorwyn and maybe as much as Future Sight. I'll be posting a set review after the launch parties and I'll also be working on a small-scale metagame report for July/August. Steve will resume the large-scale meta reports on SCG.

Peace,

-Troy

The New Tez

2009-08-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

As I said in a previous post, the new Tez build would be decided just before GenCon. It turns out, that indeed it was. Here is the Tez list that won the World Champs:

1st – Itou Hiromichi Tezzeret Control

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Tinker
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Inkwell Leviathan
4 Dark Confidant
1 Fire // Ice
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Magus of the Unseen
1 Misdirection
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Island
2 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Darkblast

Sideboard
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Trinisphere
2 Pyroclasm
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Darkblast

I suspect this will become the base list people start working with from here-on in. There are certain Main Deck slots I think he devoted specifically to the GenCon meta. For instance, Magus of the Unseen and Rack & Ruin were there to stop the top contenders. You could even make the case for Fire//Ice and Darkblast as metagame calls. Though, I think Darkblast will become a staple for Tez decks in the Rod vs. Vault vs. Welder matchup going forward.

Here are the “innovations” I want to focus on for a now: 4 Dark Confidant, 2 Sensei’s Divining Top, 1 Swamp.

Dark Confidant is the natural go-to draw engine people will gravitate towards following the restriction of Thirst For Knowledge- even though Night’s Whisper is more explosive, more immediate, and less life intensive. However, this deck has an average CMC of around 1.6 pre-board and only nine cards in the Main with a CMC of 4 or more. The life loss will only matter in longer games and only really against agro decks like BUG Fish, Meandeck Beatz, GW Beatz, Shop Agro, and Christmas Beatings.

So what does this mean for building in the future. The 2-4 open slots may best be filled by Duress in a generic meta. The slow life attrition from Fetch Lands, FoW, Vamp Tutor, and Bob mean that Thoughseize and maybe Imperial Seal are probably out as options. Duress can trade your one drop for your opponent’s best card and buy you a couple turns to set up. Seal is slow, costs life, and interrupts tempo.

Moving on to SDT. The 2 Tops Itou included can help smooth out any massive loss of life and make up for the restrictions of Ponder and Brainstorm. Where Bob goes, Top is sure to follow it seems. One top used to be fairly standard in Tez builds, as Menendian’s Composite Tez lists have shown. But now with 2, Itou is making it a feature of his deck. Counting the Tops, Itou has build at deck that has 9 cards that either manipulate the top of his library or tutor cards into play/his hand: Ponder, Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm, Tinker, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and 2 Sensei’s Divining Tops. While Bob, Time Walk, FoF and Ancestral, still gain him card advantage, it’s beginning to become clear that there’s a shift in Vintage priorities from straight card advantage to card selection. This is why I think Dark Confidant will remain the draw engine of choice until someone finds a way to exploit the life attrition it causes. Confidant makes the Card Selection priority even better.

The last thing I want to highlight is the inclusion of a basic swamp. None of Menendian’s composite lists have one. This is something new. With Bob in the mix and so important to the deck running smoothly, I’m guessing that Itou wanted to avoid the complications caused by Wasteland and Magus of the Moon. With his basic Swamp, he is assured that he will be able to cast all eight of his black spells almost regardless of his opponent’s board position (although obviously Strip Mine w/ Crucible would shut it down). I see this as an insurance policy for the deck. I doubt he fetched it out too often during the tournament, but he perceived the threat to non-basics to be high enough that it warranted playing a basic of his secondary color. In the Null Rod/Wasteland infested metagame we are likely to see in the next few months, I don’t believe it’s a bad idea at all. Two XG Beatz decks made the top 8 at World’s. There’s no doubt that green-based agro/disruption decks are going to be a force at least until Zendikar comes out, and perhaps even after then.

Meta-specific decisions for Tez Control builders are becoming harder and harder to implement. They are basically left with 4 open slots to hone their deck to their individual environment. While that may sometimes be a weakness, Tez Control has shown that is resilient to both new printings and card restrictions. It will be fun to see how it evolves over the next few months and just how much influence Itou has on the world-wide meta.

Peace,

-Troy

Diamond in the Rough #1: Abolish

2009-08-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

Heya,

This is the start of a series of articles on cards that have practical applications in Vintage but either haven’t found the right deck yet or are still waiting for a critical mass of printings to happen in order to become relevant. This is more or less a “cards to watch” series that looks at spells and effects that meet the Vintage requirements for power and utility but for whatever reason, have not made an impact.

Today I’m looking at Abolish. The card reads, “1WW, Instant, You may discard a Plains card rather than pay Abolish's mana cost. Destroy target artifact or enchantment.” Okay, so what have we got here?

Instant speed? Check
Alternate casting cost? Check
Affects critical cards commonly played in Vintage? Yep
In popular deck lists? No way

Sounds like a Diamond in the Rough! It’s kind of funny, but Disenchant effects are amazingly powerful right now, and likely always will be going forward. Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Qasali Pridemage are seeing a good amount of play in Vintage right now. So cards with Abolish’s effect are generally accepted as solid utility cards. That’s score one point in favor of this card.

Pitching a land is sometimes a problem and sometimes not in Vintage. In the opening grip, it’s usually pretty bad. You need at least your first two land drops to get your deck running. However, as the game goes on, those extra lands become less relevant and playing spells becomes more important. You’re likely to draw into land you don’t need. Abolish gives you the ability to tap out to play some other card, then when you opponent thinks your weak, give you to option to pitch a card you don’t need to play a powerful effect. In a color like white, tapping out is necessary in almost every game at some point. Abolish can let you bait your opponent into exposing a critical card that you can blow away on his end step. Score half a point here.

But what’s keeping Abolish back? Well, honestly, there’s just way too many more efficient cards out there that do basically the same thing. The aforementioned Seals along with more dedicated cards like Oxidize, Ancient Grudge, Krosan Grip, etc are just better at destroying relevant cards. It just lacks a good hard casing cost, cantrip, or some other intangible to make it a viable choice over other cards right now.

So why might Abolish someday be a card that shines? The answer is speed. Every few sets, we get some new mana acceleration card. Elvish Archdruid, Simian Spirit Guide, Rite of Flame, and Chrome Mox are some more recent examples. These are going to keep adding up. Examine how much faster Vintage is today vs. oh let’s say the Mask block era when Abolish was printed. There are so many more ways to generate card advantage and mana on turns 1, 2, and 3 now than there ever were back then. Chances are good, in three to five years, there will be even more plays possible on the opening turns. Thus cards like Abolish will gain more importance. You may not have time to get to your second or third land drop before a Time Vault combo is established or a turn 1 Oath + Time Walk combo is pulled off. It is very conceivable that some time down the road, being able to kill an artifact or enchantment before your first land drop becomes one of the most important plays you can make.

I’m not telling you to run out and buy a playset of these now. But what I am telling you is to not forget about this card down the road. You never know when it might become the next big tech.

Peace,

-Troy

May/June 2009 Large-scale Metagame Report

2009-08-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

Heya,

Last week I did a report on the small-scale Vintage metagame for May and June of 2009. Due to a flood of very interesting topics he’d rather write about, Stephen Menendian asked me to do a write-up about the large-scale metagame for the same bi-monthly period. I agreed, and so for these two months and these two months only, I’ll be reporting on the results of the big tournaments. I hope that I am able to produce a report that meets the standard he sets. It will probably be briefer than Steve’s usual reports since much of what I said in the small-scale meta report (link here: ) is also true of the large-scale meta. The important thing about this bi-montly report is that it’s the last one prior to the June 2009 B/R changes. It also marks one full year since the “apocalypse” when Gush and Flash were restricted. Anyway, here we go-

The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Archetype:

There were 13 tournaments reported with 33 or more players (at least 6 rounds of Swiss) for a total of 103 decks. One deck was not reported. Here are the top 8 results by Archetype:

27 Tez Control (1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,3,3,5,5,5,5,6,6,6,6,7,7,7,8) [includes 2 Remora Tez, 2 Tezless Tez, and 2 Toughtcast Tez]
13 Drain Tendrils (1,1,2,2,3,3,3,4,5,5,6,8,8)
12 Ichorid (1,2,2,3,4,7,7,7,8,8,8,8)
8 MUD (1,2,4,4,4,5,7,7)
4 Stax (1,2,4,6)
4 BUG Fish (5,5,7,8)
4 UR Fish (2,2,5,8)
4 Oath (3,4,4,8)
3 Painter Combo (2,4,5)
2 ANT (3,7)
2 TPS (3,5)
2 Bomberman (6,7)
2 Suicide Black (5,7)
2 Pitch Long (3,7)
1 Drain Freeze (1)
1 Faeries (1)
1 Selkie Strike
1 Grow
1 Merfolk
1 Stiflenought
1 Mystic Meditation
1 Etherium Workshop
1 Long.dec
1 RBW Agro
1 UW Fish

Remarks:

-Tez decks dominated once again, however they did receive a bit of a challenge from Drain Tendrils. Looking back on Steve’s last report, there were only two Drain Trendrils lists that made the top 8. This marks a massive upswing in that archetypes performance and one that Steve predicted last year [http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/15991_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Vintage_Apocalypse_The_New_Metagame_Uncovered.html]. We’ll see if Drain Tendrils sticks around or was just a flash in the pan that no one saw coming.

-After nearly vanishing from the top 8 in the last report, Oath returns with 4 entries. That represents a 400% improvement from last time. However, Control Slaver is gone completely. I doubt it will ever return thanks to the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge. Maybe with Strategic Planning or Careful Consideration, but I highly doubt it. That’s a sad thing for me. I hate to see an archetype vanish like that, especially if it’s one the DCI wasn’t even targeting with its B/R announcement.

-The last thing I want to highlight is the emergence of some unexpected agro decks. Faeries, Merfolk, Suicide Black, and Selkies all made the top 8. Could they be the new Goblins and Elves? Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block added a multitude of powerful tribal cards that dominated Standard over the last two years. It’s interesting that those cards may be filtering all the way down to Vintage. We’ll see if these decks pop up again once the meta sorts itself out post-GenCon.

The number of decks that make the top 8 in each bi-monthly report will vary depending upon the number of tournaments. So sheer numbers don’t give a complete picture. Instead, it is helpful to look at percentages. Here is the percentage breakdown of the top 8 by archetype for May/June 2009:

Tez Control: 26%
Drain Tendrils: 12.6%
Ichorid 11.6%
MUD: 7.8%
The Field: 42%

Remarks:

-Moving up from 30% in the last report, The Field grew to 42% of the metagame. Any archetype getting less than 5% of the top 8 pie I put in “The Field” category. I interpret this increase to mean that people were trying anything they could to unseat Tez control these last two months. Obviously, it didn’t work. Tez decks took a share of the top 8 twice the size of the next best performing archetype. Just for historical reference, Gush decks- AS AN ENGINE- only made up 25% of the top 8 at their peak. Just think about that. One archetype performed better than an entire “pillar” of the format. It beat GAT, Gush Tendrils, Next Level Doomsday, Tyrant Oath, and MSPaint combined! That is absolutely astounding!

-Ichorid dropped about four percentage points from its last showing. I noticed a greater percentage of decks featuring Leyline of the Void over Yixlid Jailer (or playing both) according to Morphling.de. IMHO, Leyline is a much better Ichorid Hate card than Jailer, so when the number of Leylines go up, I expect the number of Ichorid decks making the top 8 to go down. However, Ichorid is performing quite well and is still a force to be reckoned with. Ignore it at your own peril.

The May/June Metgame Top 8 Breakdown by Engine:

In my small-scale report I call engines “pillars” to match Tom LaPille’s terminology. However, Stephen has used the word engine for a long time and since I am just the sub this time around, I will keep with his tradition. The top 8 percentage breakdown by engine is as follows:

Mana Drain: 45.6%
Null Rod: 14.6%
Workshop: 12.6%
Bazaar: 11.6%
Dark Ritual: 8.7%
Other: 6.7%

Remarks:

-I know you’re thinking the same thing I am. No change here. Mana Drains tripled-up on the next best engine thanks in part to the surge by Drain Tendrils. This is a feat never accomplished by cards like Gush or Flash. There is a whopping 31% difference between first and second place. On average, almost half of any top 8 in a 33+ man tournament will feature drain decks. Throw in 1 Rod deck and 1 Shop deck and Bazzars, Rituals, and Other have to fight for the last two open positions.

-The 45.6% take of the top 8 for Drains represents a modest 3% gain from the previous report. That’s probably within the margin for error, but the fact that you can go back to the July/August report of 2008 (prior to Tez, Inkwell, and Time Vault errata) and see that Drain decks made up nearly 37% of the top 8 metagame is testament to its dominance. For one full year, Mana Drain has been the top engine and has at least doubled up on the next best thing.

-Real quickly, some thoughts on Tez and Time Vault. There’s a lot of people who want to blame Time Vault for Mana Drain’s dominance. The numbers I cited above suggest that people are misplacing their blame. At best, Time Vault made about an 8% difference and that’s excluding any effect Tezzeret the Seeker and Inkwell Leviathan had on the metagame. Time Vault is not and has not been the problem. Hell, even Mana Drain is not the problem. The B/R decisions of June 2008 was the problem, and I don’t believe it has been corrected by the June 2009 decisions.

The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Archetype:

Making the top 8 in a large tournament is an exhilarating achievement. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and sometimes can result in some nifty prizes. However, the big money is in winning the tournaments, and that’s where we see where the best decks truly are. The winners by archetype for this report are:

Tez Control: 6 wins
Drain Tendrils: 2 Wins
Ichorid: 1 Win
MUD: 1 WinStax: 1 Win
Drain Freeze: 1 Win
Faeries: 1 Win

And a breakdown by percentage goes like this:

Tez Control: 46.2%
Drain Tendrils: 15.4%
Ichorid: 7.7%
MUD: 7.7%
Stax: 7.7%
Drain Freeze: 7.7%
Faeries: 7.7%

Remarks:

-Fish continued to languish. There were no wins for Fish in this report nor in the last one. In fact, I had to go back to January/February 2009 report to find any wins for Fish decks. This has changes since recent the B/R announcement, but it means that Fish went nealy 5 months without a win. That’s a long dry spell.

-One can think of Drain Freeze as an extension of Drain Tendrils giving that archetype three wins and a 23% share of the top 8, but if you do, Tez still won twice as many tournaments as the next best archetype. It only made up 26% of the top 8 but makes up 46% of the winners. During the May/June 2009 era, if you wanted to win, you pretty much had to play Tez. Nothing else performed nearly as consistently. For me personally, I prefer my metagames to be diverse and uncertain. These numbers for Tez are pretty disgusting from that point of view, but not nearly as disgusting as the next set.

The May/June Metgame Tournament Winner Breakdown by Engine:

The number of wins by each engine for May/June was:

Mana Drain: 9 Wins
Workshop: 2 Wins
Bazaar: 1 Win
Other: 1 Win
Null Rod: 0 Wins
Dark Ritual: 0 Wins

And a breakdown by percentage looks like this:

Mana Drain: 69.2%
Workshop: 15.4%
Bazaar: 7.7%
Other: 7.7%
Null Rod: 0%
Dark Ritual: 0%

Remarks:

-Improving from the last report Workshop decks managed to win a couple tournaments. I’m a little surprised to see MUD making the top 8 so much with all the artifact hate going around. It’s a good thing though, IMO.

-The real story (surprise, surprise) was Mana Drain. It took over 69% of the wins! I regard 13 tournaments as a relatively small sample, but it’s still enough to get a solid feel for what’s going on out there. One almost has to admire the utter domination of Mana Drain. It’s certainly of historic proportions and something that will be discussed for years and years to come. It’s legendary. It really is. Hasn’t it been since the Keeper or Academy days since we’ve seen something like this?

-The funny thing is, 69.2% is actually a decline from the last report. In March/April, Mana Drain decks won 11 tournaments or 73.3% of all tournaments by my count. Those who fear Gush and/or Flash being unrestricted, please explain to me how they were EVER more broken than this?

Now, I’ve been somewhat negative on Tez and Drain decks in this article. I don’t want anyone who plays those decks to think I’m disparaging them. Nope. I think they made the best decision and deck choice for this metagame. The point is to win. Drain decks, and Tez decks specifically, win. Choosing anything else is rolling the dice. Drain decks were the only really logical choice and have been for 12 consecutive months. I say “Bravo!” to all those who have been playing and winning with Mana Drain. However, it is my personal desire to see the metagame shift to something different and more diverse. It’s happened a little bit already. There’s some nascent Fish builds that are doing well. We’ll see if it continues now that TFK is out of the mix and Enlightened Tutor and Crop Rotation are in.

Thanks for reading. I know there’s not much to respond to in an article like this, but if you have any questions, I‘ll be happy to try to answer them. Steve’s the real expert, so Steve, you’re welcome to chime in with anything. Until next time,

Peace,

-Troy

Sources:

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1050
Philadelphia 09.05.2009, 55 Players, Remora Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1051
Annecy, 351 players, MUD Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1057
Catalan Vintage League 09.05.2009, 70 players, Drain Tendrils Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1061
Blue Bell 23.05.2009, 33 players, Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1063
LVV 5, 36 players, Drain Tendrils Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1064
Lega WL #10, 40 players, Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1065
Zurich, 50 players, Ichorid Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1071
Philadelphia 06.06.2009, 65 players, Stax Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1072
Madrid 31.05.2009, 46 players, Drain Freeze Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1076
Breda, 42 players, Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1079
Madrid 14.06.2009, 38 players, Thoughtcast Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1080
Catalan Vintage League 14.06.2009, 58 players, Tez Won

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1086
Boulder, 40 players, Faeries Won (one deck missing)

No GenCon This Year

2009-08-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

Due to a new addition to my family and a very busy schedule at my job, I won't be able to attend GenCon this year. Bummer. It probably would have helped if the Vintage tournament were on Saturday instead of Friday, but oh well. I wish everyone who goes the very best of luck!

Peace,

-Troy

May/June Small-scale Metagame Report

2009-07-28T03:31:00.000-07:00

Heya,

This is a new series of articles I’m beginning on this blog. Like most Vintage players out there, I mainly participate in small-scale tournaments. I get to one maybe two larger tournaments (33+ players) a year. Small tournaments are a different animal from large ones. You can often find outmoded archetypes such as Reanimator or Gob-Lines still being played, as well as oddball variants of proven archetypes like Tez featuring 4 Transmute Artifacts.

My goal is to track small-scale tournaments and report on their results. For the purposes of this blog, “small scale” means a minimum of 12 players and a maximum of 32. Stephen Menendian covers tournaments of 33+ players very well in his articles on Star City Games. I’m not going to infringe on his work there. I chose 12 as the minimum to ensure at least a third of the field is eliminated before cutting to the playoffs. Top 8 performance is important to me. Measuring how well a deck does against other well performing decks is key to gauging its power. Any less than 12 players and I feel you don’t even get a minimum feel of a deck’s competitiveness. Fortuitous pairings become too great a factor in which decks make the top 8.

I like small-scale tournaments because you can find some real innovation there. Players are much freer to experiment and try new decks without sacrificing their chance to top 8. Since many of us play in smaller tournaments, I feel this data will be useful. I also plan on examining various statistics and trends in this article series to further shed light on the metagame as a whole.

Before we begin, there are several caveats. First, if you don’t like the name I give a deck or archetype, that’s fine. You can tell me, but unless I made a significant error or there is some other compelling reason, don’t expect me to change or care. We can spend forever debating deck names. I’m not going to waste my time on it. Second, for this first article, I am getting all my info from Morphling.de. Starting with the next bi-monthly report, I’ll try to expand to other sites. This is purely for my own convenience this time around. Third, the number of decks reported might not add up to full top 8’s for the number of tournaments reported. Some tournaments are missing decks or only report the top 4. That’s just the way it is. So if the numbers don’t match, that’s why. Also, this is my first attempt. Mistakes are very possible. If you see one, please, point it out and I will fix it. Finally, the numbers will only be current as of this writing. Tournament reports might come in after I finish writing my report. Not my fault; I’m sorry if your tournament didn’t get included. I will try to wait at least a few weeks after a two-month period has ended before writing.

I’m going to break down the results in several different ways. First is by top 8 finishes according to deck archetype in no particular order:

Tez......................................... 35
Stax......................................... 5
Elves!...................................... 2
Mono-U Control.................... 1
Landstill .................................2
Euro-Control......................... 5
Ichorid.................................. 16
Mono-Red Shop Agro.......... 2
Control Slaver....................... 4
Bazaar Drain.dec.................. 1
Painter................................... 5
WUG Fish.............................. 3
UW Fish................................. 1
MUD...................................... 5
BUG Fish............................... 6
Helm of the Void Combo..... 1
TMWA.................................. 2
UG Fish feat Bazaar............ 2
Mono-U Shop Agro............. 1
La bulle à Bonvil.................. 1
Suicide Black........................ 2
Drain Tendrils..................... 2
Drain Freeze........................ 1
ANT...................................... 1
TPS..................................... 12
Bomberman........................ 3
Goblins................................. 1
Hellkite Oath...................... 3
Zoo....................................... 1
Remora Control................. 3
Counter-Top...................... 1
Grow................................... 4
Long.dec............................. 1
Selkie Strike...................... 1
WUB Fish........................... 3
Pitch Long......................... 1
Progenitus Oath............... 1
Grim Long......................... 1
GW Beatz.......................... 1
UR Fish............................. 2
Stifle-Nought.................... 1
WGB Fish.......................... 2
RBW Fish.......................... 1
BRG Fish........................... 1

Analysis: Tez is by far and away the most likely deck archetype to make the top 8. 35 Tez decks made the playoffs, which is over double the next archetype- Ichorid. Speaking of Ichorid, though, it made a very strong showing as well IMHO. 16 out of 150 reported decks made the top 8. That’s not bad at all.

I believe the reason Tez decks did so well is, obviously, that it is the best deck in Vintage, period. I’ve heard all the arguments about percentage of the field, player preference, player quality, and so on. I wave my hand at them. Tez is best (or at least was until the B/R update). End of discussion. As for Ichorid, I believe its strength in these small-scale tourneys comes partly from poorly prepared sideboards. It’s been my experience that players at smaller tournaments play with more versatile sideboards, and this makes sense. You will face a much broader ranger of threats in small tournaments than you will in larger ones- especially in the top 8. However, considering how easy it is to include cards like Leyline of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Yxilid Jailer into a sideboard, Ichorid’s strong performance in reaching the top 8 is somewhat likely due to inadequate sideboard construction in the field. Note I said “in the field.” The next set of data is much more telling about how the best decks perform against each other.

It’s one thing to make the top 8, it’s another to win. You can see the brilliant diversity of the small scale meta above, however the tournament winners are less varied. In no particular order, here is who won the May-June small tournaments this year:

Tez................................... 8
Euro-Control.................. 1
Ichorid............................ 1
Control Slaver................ 1
BUG Fish........................ 1
TMWA............................ 1
UR Fish........................... 1
Mono-U Shop Agro....... 1
TPS................................. 1
Bomberman................... 1
GW Beatz....................... 1
RBW Fish....................... 1
MUD............................... 1

Analysis: Only one deck archetype won more than one tournament in this bi-monthly report: Tez. In fact, close to 1 out of every 4 Tez decks that made the top 8 won. (For most of the bi-monthly period it was running at 1 to 4, but some last minute European tournament reports added some fish winners) That’s pretty strong. Out of the 20 tournaments reported as of this writing, Tez won 40% of them. That is an astounding number when you consider the number of diverse threats that deck must face, overcome, and win against to take home the top prize. Ichorid, however, only won 1 tournament. This shows me that in general, players in small-scale tournaments are unprepared for Dredge decks. However, once you get to the top 8, decks are well defended against that strategy. So in short, Tez and Ichorid appear to be your top two choices to make the top 8 of a small-scale tournament, but Tez is (was) your best choice to win.

I’ve debated on whether or not to split Ichorid decks into Mana’d and Manaless. I wouldn’t mind some feedback on that. Is it fair to lump all Dredge decks together while not doing the same for all Fish decks? I don’t know. I’m not sure the two builds are all that dissimilar from each other. However, lumping them together might not give the clearest picture of what’s going on. Some advice on this matter would be most appreciated.

Let’s move on to how each “Pillar” did in this cycle. Several weeks ago Tom LaPille outlined the DCI’s view of Vintage. He stated there are five pillars of the format that they track and try to balance against one another. They are: Force of Will, Mishra’s Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, Dark Ritual, and Null Rod. Force of Will decks were later refined to mean mainly FoW decks that feature Mana Drain. So, according to pillar (Drain, Shop, Bazaar, Ritual, Rod), here is how they stacked up:

..................Top 8's.....Wins
Mana Drain....64.............11
Workshop.......14..............2
Bazaar..........19..............1
Null Rod.........25..............5
Dark Ritual....20..............1
Other...........14..............0

Note: The “other” category includes things like Oath decks that didn’t use Mana Drain, various creature decks like Elves and Goblins, and some Grow variants. Some decks utilized more than one pillar in their build, so a total of 6 decks were counted twice.

Analysis: Drain decks made up 41% of the top 8’s and 55% of tournament winners in May and June. That is domination on an unheard of level. Such performance would never be tolerated in any other format by players or the DCI. Coming in second was Null Rod decks at 16% of top 8’s and 25% of tournament winners. This is where the conundrum of Ichorid decks comes in. Above I recommended Ichorid decks based on their performance as a deck archetype. However, as a pillar Rods beat Bazaars both in wins and top 8’s. So which is right? Well, Rod decks are immensely diverse in their builds. In fact, I counted 12 different archetypes that played Null Rod. Conversely, there were only three Bazaar archetypes. Pick your poison, I suppose, their both vastly inferior to Drains. Surprisingly, to me at least, Ritual decks faired very poorly in this bi-monthly report. Only one Ritual deck won a tournament (TPS). I don’t know if it’s a sign that there’s a bias against combo decks in smaller tournaments or if Drain decks are just that dominant. Perhaps my next set of statistics will shed some light on that as more data sets come in.

For years, there have been three main strategies identified in Magic- Combo, Control, and Agro. Examining these strategies can be an important part of understanding the over-all metagame. These categories organize decks in to their major point of emphasis and can give insight into their general game plan. Since they were identified, hybrid categories like Agro-Control and Combo-Control have been identified. For the purposes of this blog entry, I’m going to stick to the original three. I realize that’s not ideal, and I might change that in the future since decks like Grow are extremely hard to categorize as one or the other. But I want to go from micro (deck archetypes) to macro (strategy) in my analysis of the small scale meta, and sticking with the original three helps me best accomplish that goal. In no particular order the three strategies finished like so:

...............Top 8's....Wins
Control........75............11
Combo........22.............2
Agro............53.............7

Analysis: No decks were repeated. Control finished with 50% of the top 8 metagame and 55% of the winners. Agro came in second with 35.3 % of the top 8 and 35% of the winners. Combo entered last at a 14.7% share of the top 8 and a 10 winning percentage. Rounding may account for numerical discrepancies.

What does this tell us? Control decks are dominating and at the same time not knocking each other out of qualifying for the top 8. This is a direct result of Mana Drain’s strength. This data may show that combo decks aren’t favored by small tournament players, but I think it’s too early to jump to that conclusion. Time will tell. Agro decks aren’t too far behind Control; not surprising in a smaller tournament scene. We’ll see if newer printings affect this at all. As far as card choices, this data tells us that things like 9Sphere, Ethersworn Canonist, Pyrostatic Pillar, and Gaddok Teeg are likely at a low ebb in power while cards like Nulll Rod, Gorilla Shaman, Chalice of the Void, and Red Blasts are probably at a peak. This is speaking only in a broad sense. Individual small-scale metas are comprised of the personalities that play in them and will, therefore, be unique. There’s no blanket statement that can apply to all of them.

Overall Analysis:

Drain deck, specifically Tez decks are powerfully dominant in small-scale metagames just as they are in larger tournaments. The metagame is basically broken down into Control Decks vs. Agro Decks with Control holding the upper hand at the moment. Combo decks are scarce right now and not performing well when they do show up. This data should provide us with a baseline to judge the modifications to the B/R List on June 20, 2009. Starting with the next bi-montly report, we’ll know if those changes made a difference or not.

The Top 5’s:

Along with my deck analysis of the metagame, I want to analyze card choices. There are six categories I plan to look at every two months. They are: Top 5 Cards Played, Top 5 Creatures, Top 5 Artifacts, Top 5 Lands, Top 5 Spells, and Top 5 non-P9 Restricted Cards. The numbers I use are accurate as of this writing and come from Morphling.de. These numbers include ALL tournaments- big and small.

Overall Top 5 Cards for May/June 2009:

...............................May June Total
Force of Will...............388....332...720
Polluted Delta.............293....262...555
Underground Sea........226....208...434
Mana Drain...............211....204...415
Flooded Strand...........210...191....401

Top 5 Creatures for May/June 2009:

................................May June Total
Yixlid Jailer.................126....125.....251
Dark Confidant............116.....125....241
Tarmogoyf..................97.......77.....174
Golgari Grave-Troll.......80.......NA.....80
Narcomoeba................79.......NA......79

Top 5 Artifacts for May/June 2009:

...............................May June Total
Pithing Needle............171....121.....292
Chalice of the Void......170....98......268
Tormod's Crypt..........143....116.....259
Black Lotus...............127...106.....233
Mox Sapphire.............112...103.....215

Top 5 Lands for May/June 2009:

..............................May June Total
Polluted Delta............293....262.....555
Underground Sea........226....208....434
Flooded Strand...........210....191.....401
Wasteland.................201....149.....350
Volcanic Island...........84......99.......183

Top 5 Spells for May/June 2009:

...................................May June Total
Force of Will..................388....332....720
Mana Drain....................211.....204...415
Duress..........................224.....175....399
Thirst for Knowledge........178......175....353
Leyline of the Void...........154.....133....287

Top 5 Restricted Cards Outside the P9 for May/June 2009:

................................May June Total
Demonic Tutor.............95.......87......182
Sol Ring......................94.......86......180
Brainstorm..................91.......83.......174
Mana Crypt.................91.......82.......173
Vamp Tutor.................84.......82.......166

I think looking at these lists can give us some insight into building sideboards and including specific hate cards to combat the most prevalent cards played in the meta. I’ll track the changes every two months, and we’ll see how the meta evolves as we go.

Closing:

I hope that this article was enjoyable. If you play in small-scale tournaments, I hope it’s useful. Until next time,

Peace,

-Troy

Sources:

http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1048
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1049
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1052
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1056
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1060
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1062
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1066
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1067
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1068
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1069
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1073
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1074
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1075
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1077
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1078
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1081
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1083
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1088
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1089
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1090
http://morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1092

Semi-baseless Prediction #3

2009-07-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Heya,

Just judging by my own experience, until the new Tez build gets sorted out (which should happen by the next month) there is going to be a big spike in agro decks. Look for MUD to return from oblivion and new Fish builds to pop up everywhere. Surprisingly, I expect Ichorid decks to stay about at the same level. Don't expect anything new, though. I doubt we'll see Dragon Combo show up in any numbers and even Shop Rotation decks will be slim in their appearances in the top 8. For the next few weeks, expect agro to be everywhere.

Peace,

-Troy

An Update on Christmas Beatings

2009-07-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Heya,

I had a chance to play in a small Vintage tournament last weekend. I brought out my old Christmas Beatings deck and was really looking forward to mixing it up against some Tez and Slaver decks that usually dominate my meta. Here’s the list I played:

4 Null Rod
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Thornweald Archer
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Seal of Primoridum
4 Pyroblast
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Black Lotus (budget players sub in Petal)
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Tiaga
3 Snow-covered Forest
3 Snow-covered Mountain
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

I was all set to compete against some top level deck designs….and all I did was play against agro all day. No Tez, no Stax, no Slaver, just a bunch of Fishy decks. It was disappointing, but Vintage has fallen on hard times in my area. While in 2006-2008 we’d have 20+ people come every week, now we’re lucky to get to 12. The June 2008 hit my area very hard and the dominance of Tez lists hasn’t helped.

So how did my deck do? Not bad. I made the top 4 and lost to UB Fish in 3 games. I’m not going to bother with a detailed game report this time. There’s not much to glean from the competition other than Thornweald Archer is a great addition to the main deck specifically because it is so good against agro. But I just don’t feel there’s much benefit in talking about how my deck did against Type2 decks with a mox and lotus thrown in just before the tournament starts.

Anyway, I’ll keep updating this space with my performance with this deck and other budget builds. Hopefully my findings will be a little more interesting the next time.

Peace,

-Troy

M10 Set Review

2009-07-14T16:39:00.001-07:00

Heya,

After actually getting to play with the cards from M10, I feel I can now do a set review. I participated at the pre-release at my FLGS and had a blast. As far as core sets go, I believe this is the best one since Revised- and that’s saying a lot because 10th edition was pretty good in its own right. Anyway, here are my thoughts on M10 pertaining to Vintage:

White-

Elite Vanguard: There may be a soldier deck lurking somewhere in Vintage. Cards like Aether Vial, Lotus Petal, and Mox Diamond can help power out weenies in a hurry. Elite Vanguard is an upgrade IMO to the venerable Savannah Lions of Alpha. However, like all non-disruptive creatures, it has little shot to be used in a serious Vintage deck.

Mesa Enchantress: If Parfait ever catches on, and I think it would take the unrestricting of Balance to accomplish that, this card may have a spot. The only problem IMO is the double WW in its casting cost. Even in a mono-colored deck, that’s hard to achieve fast enough to make a difference in the game. Maybe someday they’ll print a cheaper variant.

Safe Passage: Over costed. At W it would be worth a look. At 2W, it’s just too much.

Silence: This may be the best card for Vintage out of the set. A UW “Time Walk” deck featuring these, Abeyance, Orim’s Chant, and the original of course, could find a way into the meta with some solid support from cards like Ethersworn Canonist and Aven Mindcensor. Silence can’t be Misdirected, so that’s a major plus in my book. White is at its lowest ebb ever in Magic right now, so it may be a few years before this card has a chance to shine.

Tempest of Light: An instant version of Tranquility! I only mention it because it is a massive upgrade to that card.

Blue-

Cancel: This card is an insult.

Djinn of Wishes: Well, Vintage is the place to abuse its ability. There are plenty of topdeck tutors that combo well with it. The problem is getting it in play fast enough to matter. This card is probably better in theory than it ever will be in practice.

Fabricate: I maintain that this card is a lot more castable than Vintage players give it credit. I’m not saying it’s good, just saying it’s better than the “crap uncommon” label it has gotten.

Negate: One of the better 1U counterspells.

Polymorph: It’s a Tinker for Standard! Now that DSC is back, we’ll see it that little combo sees play in Type 2.

Ponder: Wow, this card is so busted, it deserves a spot on the restricted list! Aaaaaanyway, I do recommend picking up a copy from the M10 set. The artwork is miles better than the one from Lorwyn.

Sleep: In Limited, this thing is a Time Walk. You basically get two unmolested attack phases. That’s about as much of a win now card as you can get in modern Magic. This card might even see some play in Standard now that Wrath of God is out of print. Very nice design IMO and powerful at the uncommon slot.

Snapping Drake: I guess Phantom Monster is just too broken to reprint anymore.

Telepathy: I’ve often wondered if this card were widely played in Vintage if it would be any good. Knowing what your opponent has in his hand is powerful. One blue isn’t a high casting cost IMO, and enchantment kill is rarely ever played. I guess deck space is too much at a premium for something like this. It’s a shame. I think it’s a decent effect.

Black-

Duress: This is one of the top spells played in Vintage month to month. We now have three different artworks to choose from. Honestly, though, I don’t care much for any of them.

Sign in Blood: The artwork harkens back to cards like Contract From Below. However, it’s a bad Night’s Whisper. Nothing to see here.

Red-

Burning Inquiry: Wow, there’s a lot going on with this card. Drawing 3 cards for one mana is always worth a look in Vintage. However, the drawbacks are STEEP. First, it’s card disadvantage since you discard the same number you draw. Second, it symmetrically affects your opponent. That’s just too much even for a draw three. I don’t think even a Belcher deck would play this.

Goblin Chieftain: This is a nice upgrade to Goblin King. I don’t know if it will get played in Vintage Goblin lists, but I’m sure there’s other Goblin decks out there salivating for when this card becomes legal.

Lightning Bolt: Count me in the crowd that thought this card would never be reprinted. For all those who longed for this thing in the new card frame, here’s your chance!

Pyroclasm: This has always been a decent board sweeper in Vintage. Firespout doesn’t give you much more utility in this format as it does in others, Pyroclasm is still the best cheap sweeper in Vintage IMO (unless you count Balance of course). Solid card if you are in a heavy Fish meta.

Shatter: Shouldn’t this thing cost only one mana by now?

Green-

Elvish Archdruid: It’s an expensive Priest of Titania. I don’t see Elf decks messing around with this all that much in Vintage.

Great Stable Stag: If 9 Land Stompy were still around, this would be a key card for it IMO. We’ve come a little ways since the days of Scragnoth. Maybe someday they’ll print something similar just 1 mana less. That card might have a chance at seeing play in Vintage.

Mold Adder: Not bad in a Zoo deck, but it has to compete with Skyshroud Elite and Wild Nacatl at the same casting cost. I find it unlikely to see play.

Nature’s Spiral: The three best cards that can be recovered by Regrowth are Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, and Black Lotus. This one gets Lotus at least! However, it’s probably worse than Reconstruct or Agrivian Find in that department.

Artifact-

Darksteel Colossus: For many years, the best artifact creature in Vintage. Now, a forgotten memory.

Mirror of Fate: It’s a nice try to use the new Exile zone, but it provides nothing Doomsday doesn’t.

Pithing Needle: Getting more of these in print is nice. I just wish it had new art. Every Vintage player should have a couple in their collection.

Land-

Gargoyle Castle: I think Landstill has all the manlands it needs. Casual players will love this, though. Too bad Crucible of Worlds wasn’t reprinted.

New Duals: When evaluating mana sources in Vintage, one always has to consider the mulligan. These lands are terrible in a mulligan hand and therefore are probably ranked behind the shocklands and painlands as alternatives to the original duals.

Grades-

Limited: A+
Standard A-
Vintage: D-

What did you expect? Outside of Silence and Pithing Needle, there’s not much for Vintage. The prerelease was a blast, and I’ll be at my local launch party. And I know Standard will be greatly impacted by this set. But I think we’ll have to wait until Zendikar for anything worthwhile to come to Vintage. Here’s to another three months of waiting.

Peace,

-Troy

The Loss of TFK

2009-07-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Heya,

Starting this month, Thirst for Knowledge is restricted in Vintage. Throw it on the pile of "see three cards" that have been restricted like Ancestral Recall, Brainstorm, and Ponder. It makes me wonder if Impulse, Intuition, and Strategic Planning are next. In fact, I think there is a little bit of hypocracy here. Is Ponder that much better than Impulse? Is Gifts Ungiven that much better than Intuition? Is TFK that much better than Strategic Planning? In certain ways, yeah, they are. But in a lot of ways, these three cards match fairly closely to cards already resticted. I wouldn't be surprised if they are on the chopping block next. But that's a worry for another time.

The best replacesments for TFK, IMHO, are:

Mystic Remora + Meditate

Mystic Remora + Dark Confidant

Intuition + Accumulated Knowledge

Intuition + Deep Analysis

Strategic Planning

Impulse

Standstill

Night's Whisper

Telling Time

Careful Consideration

Thoughtcast

I don't know how many of these will really pan out. Honestly, it's probably just better to run the entire blue restricted list of draw cards. But here's an assortment of cards to test. We'll see which cream rises to the top.

I'm not sure restricting TFK will give the DCI what it wants: a more balanced Drain deck. There are so many useful options to replace it. Honestly, even off the wall cards like Standstill would be just fine when you think about it. So in the end, they will just keep chasing the next most effecient blue draw spell. Until they suck it up and unrestrict a Drain hunter card like Gush or Flash, then we're likely going to be stuck in this same metagame for a while.

Peace,

-Troy

Semi-baseless Prediction #2

2009-07-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Heya,

While this one is somewhat at odds with my previous prediction, I still believe it has a reasonable chance of coming true. I predict that the June 2009 moves on the B/R List will have little to no effect on the overall metagame. The only new archetype supported by those moves would be based off of Worldgorger Dragon, and I highly doubt it will be more competitive than 5% of the overall meta. As a result several things will happen:

1) Obviously, the metagame will continue to stagnate- passing 12 months in basically the same shape.

2) More people will give up on the format as their prefered archetype has no shot at winning.

3) Ichorid decks will gain a few points of the meta share, maybe up to 12.5%.

4) We will be right back to clamouring for unrestrictions in 3-6 months.

That last point I'll touch on a little bit more. I believe there at least 7 more cards that can come off the B/R list, maybe more. I'll be outlining them in a series on this blog over the course of the next few weeks or months. After the DCI's September decision, I'll doubt we'll see much movement until June 2010. So between now and then, I will be honing my arguments and discovering new uses for the cards that are wrongfully restricted in our format.

Peace,

-Troy

A New Outlook on the B/R List

2009-07-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

Heya,

Over the last few weeks Tom LaPille wrote two articles explaining how the DCI looks at Vintage. They categorise it into five "pillars": Force of Will/Mana Drain, Mishra's Workshop, Bazaar of Baghdad, Dark Ritual, and Null Rod. Future B/R modifications will be based on this outlook and attempt to balance each pillar against the others. Therefore I thought it might be useful to attempt to organize the B/R list according to Pillar rather than function or color. Here's my first try:

Force-Drain

* Ancestral Recall
* Time Walk
* Timetwister
* Tinker
* Gifts Ungiven
* Fact Or Fiction
* Brainstorm
* Gush
* Ponder
* Mystical Tutor
* Merchant Scroll
* Frantic Search
* Thirst For Knowledge
* Flash* Yawgmoth’s Will
* Demonic Tutor
* Vampiric Tutor
* Imperial Seal* Fastbond
* Channel
* Regrowth
* Time Vault
* Tolarian Academy
* Library Of Alexandria

Ritual

* Ancestral Recall
* Mind’s Desire* Windfall
* Brainstorm
* Ponder
* Mystical Tutor
* Time Twister
* Ancestral Recall
* Yawgmoth’s Will
* Yawgmoth’s Bargain
* Necropotence
* Demonic Tutor
* Vampiric Tutor
* Imperial Seal
* Demonic Consultation
* Burning Wish
* Wheel Of Fortune
* Lion’s Eye Diamond
* Memory Ja
* Tolarian Academy

Workshop

* Ancestral Recall
* Time Walk
* Tinker
* Thirst For Knowledge
* Demonic Tutor
* Balance
* Trinisphere
* Tolarian Academy
* Strip Mine

Bazaar

* Vampiric Tutor
* Imperial Seal

Null Rod

* Ancestral Recall
* Tinker
* Ponder
* Mystical Tutor
* Brainstorm
* Vampiric Tutor
* Imperial Seal
* Strip Mine
* Library Of Alexandria

All

* Demonic Tutor
* Black Lotus
* Mox Emerald
* Mox Jet
* Mox Pearl
* Mox Ruby
* Mox Sapphire
* Sol Ring
* Mana Crypt
* Lotus Petal

Any feedback?

Peace,

-Troy

Semi-Baseless Prediction #1

2009-06-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

Heya,

I'm going to make a prediction about the future metagame:

If Crop Rotation sees an extraordinary amount of play (i.e. decks using it comprise 15% or more of the top 8's) then players will choose to wave good-bye to basic lands. Crop-Strip dis-incentivises using basic lands unlike the current 4 Wasteland/1 Strip Mine package played now. If players choose to drop basics, look for the following cards to begin showing up more and more in decks:

Flooded Strand (as 4 of instead of 1 or 2 like now)
Bloodstained Mire (next most likely choice to fetch black producing lands)
Minamo, School at Water's Edge (nice synergy with Tolarian Academy)
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds (protects itself from Strip Mine)
Seat of the Synod (nice synergy with Tinker, Tezzeret, and Trinket Mage)
Vault of Whispers (see above)

It will be very interesting to see if people move away from using basics. It would strengthen Wasteland and Blood Moon effects, but would also free decks from the design constraint of using them. This is all very hypothetical. I'm not sure Crop Rotation will make much of a difference at all. We'll have to see.

Peace,

-Troy

So what am I doing here?

2009-06-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some changes in my life, I was able to return to Vintage magic after a few years away. Now, after being heavily involved in it for some time once again, I've regained my passion for the format. Thanks to some terrific printings, adjustments to the B/R List, and a change at the DCI, I believe Vintage is the most fun format for Magic: The Gathering. I'll be using this space to express my views on the format and to accomplish several important tasks:

1) Examine small scale tournament data

2) Lobby the DCI to remove various cards from the B/R List

3) Lobby the rules committee to change the errata on various cards

4) Comment on new sets as they are released

5) Develop budget decks for the Vintage format

I'm looking forward to working on this project. I hope it proves valuable in some way to the Vintage community.

Peace,

-Troy