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
Friday, November 18, 2011
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Scars of Mirrodin Set Review
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
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
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Winners and Losers in the 3rd Gush Era
Heya,
Welcome back to 2007! (sorta) There’s no Flash and Time Vault is playable. But still, we’re at least back to where we should have been after the 2008 B/R decision. Two years to wait for a correction isn’t bad in my opinion. So let’s examine the initial ramifications of the B/R announcement that unrestricted Gush and Frantic Search.
First, the Potential Big Winners:
-Grow Decks: Obviously…. The thing is, though, I’m not sure they’re the best place for Gush now. A light mana base is very vulnerable to Spheres and I’m not sure it stacks up well against Trygon Jace. Regardless, Grow is a more viable strategy than it was a month ago.
-Shop Decks: There is nothing Shop players love more than decks that want to play a lot of spells. 13 Sphere effects + Tangle Wire means they are well prepared for any Gush archetypes that show up- with the possible exception of one.
-Tyrant Oath: At least initially, I think this will be the Gush deck to rise to the top. It’s easy to build in that you don’t have to change the current shell a great deal to take advantage of Gush. It can get around Spheres easily enough and can bounce a board vs. Fish. Its strength vs. Trygon Jace and Dredge will be tested, but clever pilots will find success at least in the early months of this new meta.
-Rogue Decks: The 2007-2008 metagame was a rogue decker’s paradise. R/G Beatz, Gob-Lines, WGDx, Bomberman, Elves! and several others all were viable thanks to the blanket of protection Gush and MUD gave them. Look for rogue strategies to flourish and then fall in a never ending cycle of innovation over the next six months.
-Slaver Decks: Anymore, this may count as a rogue deck. But with Frantic Search now legal as a 4-of, it could replace TFK in that build. And there’s a new spiffy version of the namesake for this deck in Scars of Mirrodin to boot!
-Gaddock Teeg: Our favorite hobbit suddenly looks crazy strong in this new meta. It all depends on whether or not Gush decks really find an archetype that can survive in the Vault vs. Rod vs. Shop meta we now have. If Gush only makes up 10% or less of the field, he’ll be a sideboard card- much like he is now. If Gush rises above that, look for Fish pilots to dust off their foil playsets.
-Qasaili Pridemage: Already a great card, he gets better now that decks will play more enchantments.
-Ethersworn Canonist: Hatebears everywhere love this decision. It comes down to, though, if they can find a winning strategy against a field that will become more diverse.
-Leonin Arbiter: Not even out yet and he’s a winner! Gush decks love Fetches (especially now w/ Misty Rainforest) and Tutors (don’t be surprised to see an increased use of Imperial Seal). Toss him on the pile of G/W creatures who are feeling the love.
-Tunnel Ingus: Speaking of cards not out yet. Tunnel Ingus could become the Red Mage’s best sideboard card if Gush gets too far out of hand. His application is narrow, so don’t look for him outside of burn decks featuring Ankh of Mishra and Runeflare Trap unless things get really serious.
-Blood Moon Effects: Historically, Gush decks have relied a great deal on non-basics. If that tradition holds true, Magus and his enchantment friend will make their way back to the tournament scene after a two year absence.
-Red Blast Effects: Already pretty strong, these will become important sideboard cards in the near future.
-Disenchant Effects: How good will Nature’s Claim, Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Krosan Grip be now? Yikes!
-Mystic Remora: Where was this thing three years ago? This is the Mana Drain Player’s key card if Gush really takes off…. well, along with Trygon and Nature’s Claim, of course. Look for Remora Jace/Tez decks to emerge if Gush decks become a significant player.
-Trinisphere: I think the debate over whether or not Trinisphere belongs in Shop decks along with Thorn, Resistor, and Golem is over. It’ll be too important to get a spell hoser out on turn 1 now.
-Doomsday: Or at least, I hope. This was my favorite iteration of Gush back during the Golden Age. Here’s to it rising once again.
-Lotus Cobra: He was just starting to emerge his head from the ground in Time Vault decks. Now, Gush decks may be well poised to take advantage of his ability. I think after the initial dalliances with Tyrant Oath, Serpent Gush will be the next big archetype.
-Tropical Island: Most important land in Vintage now?
-Extirpate: What happens when all the top decks switch from Highlander to 4-of’s? Extirpate gets really good. Don’t expect this card to matter right away. Check back in four months or so.
-The 6th Pillar: Yes, Gush itself is a winner! After two years of heavy lobbying by myself and others, it’s back. While the DCI may regard Fish, Mana Drain, and Gush decks as one Pillar under the ubiquitous Force of Will, the Vintage community sees it differently. For those who like deckbuilding choices and diversity, they win big with this decision.
Now the Potential Losers:
-Mana Drain Decks: I still think they’ll be the best deck in the meta, at least for a while. But now they’ll have two equals- MUD and Gush. It’ll be a three way battle at the top. But the era of Mana Drain’s sole dominance ends today.
-Dark Ritual Decks: Gush crowds in on the Tendrils Combo design space for decks. There’s a lot of incentive to run lots of blue cards in Vintage. If a Gush Tendrils deck shows promise, I think a lot of those still playing TPS will switch. It’s been a long drought for Dark Ritual, and it seemed as if GenCon ’10 was the beginning of a renewal in Ritual combo. But alas, it may be short lived.
-Terrastadon: Iona and Tyrant will probably become the Oath creatures of choice. There may be some room left for him, tho.
-Emrakul, The Aeons Torn: Nobody’s gonna mess around with him in Oath now that better options are available.
-Null Rod: If Gush makes a significant move to the top tier, then Null Rod becomes less attractive. It already is marginal vs. Oath and MUD and useless vs. Dredge. Gush decks run light on artifact mana, so it could mean that Fishy decks have to look elsewhere for their disruption package. Pithing Needle, maybe?
-Juggernaut: Just not playable anymore. Not disruptive enough in this meta. We’ll have to move on to something else.
Finally, those Who Aren’t Really Affected:
-Dredge Decks: Dredge doesn’t care. It’s gameplan is the same almost now matter what the rest of the meta is doing. It could be a borderline winner if people move towards stacking 4 Leyline of the Voids in their SB to deny Gush a big Yawg’s Will, but I see that as unlikely.
-Belcher: Never really a player anyway. Still can have a good time, though regardless of who’s at the top.
-Hurkyl’s Recall: Everyone’s favorite mass artifact bounce will still be as good going forward as it has been recently. Despite the fact that Gush doesn’t play a lot of artifact mana, Shop and Drain decks still will. I do expect some more experimentation with Echoing Truth or Rushing River, but Hurkyl’s will remain a sideboard staple for at least the next four to six months (not to mention we’re smack in the middle of a new artifact block).
-90% of Magic Players: Many of whom have never even heard of Vintage.
It’s not certain yet, at this very early stage, that much will change at all. I suspect Gush will be good, but I have no proof. It could flop. The standard tools that we loved in the second Gush era like Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are all restricted. Preordain is a very slow and weak replacement for them. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.
Peace,
-Troy
Welcome back to 2007! (sorta) There’s no Flash and Time Vault is playable. But still, we’re at least back to where we should have been after the 2008 B/R decision. Two years to wait for a correction isn’t bad in my opinion. So let’s examine the initial ramifications of the B/R announcement that unrestricted Gush and Frantic Search.
First, the Potential Big Winners:
-Grow Decks: Obviously…. The thing is, though, I’m not sure they’re the best place for Gush now. A light mana base is very vulnerable to Spheres and I’m not sure it stacks up well against Trygon Jace. Regardless, Grow is a more viable strategy than it was a month ago.
-Shop Decks: There is nothing Shop players love more than decks that want to play a lot of spells. 13 Sphere effects + Tangle Wire means they are well prepared for any Gush archetypes that show up- with the possible exception of one.
-Tyrant Oath: At least initially, I think this will be the Gush deck to rise to the top. It’s easy to build in that you don’t have to change the current shell a great deal to take advantage of Gush. It can get around Spheres easily enough and can bounce a board vs. Fish. Its strength vs. Trygon Jace and Dredge will be tested, but clever pilots will find success at least in the early months of this new meta.
-Rogue Decks: The 2007-2008 metagame was a rogue decker’s paradise. R/G Beatz, Gob-Lines, WGDx, Bomberman, Elves! and several others all were viable thanks to the blanket of protection Gush and MUD gave them. Look for rogue strategies to flourish and then fall in a never ending cycle of innovation over the next six months.
-Slaver Decks: Anymore, this may count as a rogue deck. But with Frantic Search now legal as a 4-of, it could replace TFK in that build. And there’s a new spiffy version of the namesake for this deck in Scars of Mirrodin to boot!
-Gaddock Teeg: Our favorite hobbit suddenly looks crazy strong in this new meta. It all depends on whether or not Gush decks really find an archetype that can survive in the Vault vs. Rod vs. Shop meta we now have. If Gush only makes up 10% or less of the field, he’ll be a sideboard card- much like he is now. If Gush rises above that, look for Fish pilots to dust off their foil playsets.
-Qasaili Pridemage: Already a great card, he gets better now that decks will play more enchantments.
-Ethersworn Canonist: Hatebears everywhere love this decision. It comes down to, though, if they can find a winning strategy against a field that will become more diverse.
-Leonin Arbiter: Not even out yet and he’s a winner! Gush decks love Fetches (especially now w/ Misty Rainforest) and Tutors (don’t be surprised to see an increased use of Imperial Seal). Toss him on the pile of G/W creatures who are feeling the love.
-Tunnel Ingus: Speaking of cards not out yet. Tunnel Ingus could become the Red Mage’s best sideboard card if Gush gets too far out of hand. His application is narrow, so don’t look for him outside of burn decks featuring Ankh of Mishra and Runeflare Trap unless things get really serious.
-Blood Moon Effects: Historically, Gush decks have relied a great deal on non-basics. If that tradition holds true, Magus and his enchantment friend will make their way back to the tournament scene after a two year absence.
-Red Blast Effects: Already pretty strong, these will become important sideboard cards in the near future.
-Disenchant Effects: How good will Nature’s Claim, Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, and Krosan Grip be now? Yikes!
-Mystic Remora: Where was this thing three years ago? This is the Mana Drain Player’s key card if Gush really takes off…. well, along with Trygon and Nature’s Claim, of course. Look for Remora Jace/Tez decks to emerge if Gush decks become a significant player.
-Trinisphere: I think the debate over whether or not Trinisphere belongs in Shop decks along with Thorn, Resistor, and Golem is over. It’ll be too important to get a spell hoser out on turn 1 now.
-Doomsday: Or at least, I hope. This was my favorite iteration of Gush back during the Golden Age. Here’s to it rising once again.
-Lotus Cobra: He was just starting to emerge his head from the ground in Time Vault decks. Now, Gush decks may be well poised to take advantage of his ability. I think after the initial dalliances with Tyrant Oath, Serpent Gush will be the next big archetype.
-Tropical Island: Most important land in Vintage now?
-Extirpate: What happens when all the top decks switch from Highlander to 4-of’s? Extirpate gets really good. Don’t expect this card to matter right away. Check back in four months or so.
-The 6th Pillar: Yes, Gush itself is a winner! After two years of heavy lobbying by myself and others, it’s back. While the DCI may regard Fish, Mana Drain, and Gush decks as one Pillar under the ubiquitous Force of Will, the Vintage community sees it differently. For those who like deckbuilding choices and diversity, they win big with this decision.
Now the Potential Losers:
-Mana Drain Decks: I still think they’ll be the best deck in the meta, at least for a while. But now they’ll have two equals- MUD and Gush. It’ll be a three way battle at the top. But the era of Mana Drain’s sole dominance ends today.
-Dark Ritual Decks: Gush crowds in on the Tendrils Combo design space for decks. There’s a lot of incentive to run lots of blue cards in Vintage. If a Gush Tendrils deck shows promise, I think a lot of those still playing TPS will switch. It’s been a long drought for Dark Ritual, and it seemed as if GenCon ’10 was the beginning of a renewal in Ritual combo. But alas, it may be short lived.
-Terrastadon: Iona and Tyrant will probably become the Oath creatures of choice. There may be some room left for him, tho.
-Emrakul, The Aeons Torn: Nobody’s gonna mess around with him in Oath now that better options are available.
-Null Rod: If Gush makes a significant move to the top tier, then Null Rod becomes less attractive. It already is marginal vs. Oath and MUD and useless vs. Dredge. Gush decks run light on artifact mana, so it could mean that Fishy decks have to look elsewhere for their disruption package. Pithing Needle, maybe?
-Juggernaut: Just not playable anymore. Not disruptive enough in this meta. We’ll have to move on to something else.
Finally, those Who Aren’t Really Affected:
-Dredge Decks: Dredge doesn’t care. It’s gameplan is the same almost now matter what the rest of the meta is doing. It could be a borderline winner if people move towards stacking 4 Leyline of the Voids in their SB to deny Gush a big Yawg’s Will, but I see that as unlikely.
-Belcher: Never really a player anyway. Still can have a good time, though regardless of who’s at the top.
-Hurkyl’s Recall: Everyone’s favorite mass artifact bounce will still be as good going forward as it has been recently. Despite the fact that Gush doesn’t play a lot of artifact mana, Shop and Drain decks still will. I do expect some more experimentation with Echoing Truth or Rushing River, but Hurkyl’s will remain a sideboard staple for at least the next four to six months (not to mention we’re smack in the middle of a new artifact block).
-90% of Magic Players: Many of whom have never even heard of Vintage.
It’s not certain yet, at this very early stage, that much will change at all. I suspect Gush will be good, but I have no proof. It could flop. The standard tools that we loved in the second Gush era like Brainstorm, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are all restricted. Preordain is a very slow and weak replacement for them. It will be very interesting to see what happens next.
Peace,
-Troy
Friday, August 13, 2010
GenCon Data Roundup
Heya,
Here's ll the major threads and links for the GenCon Vintage Champs. Enjoy!!!
TMD Results Thread
Owen The Champion's Report on CF
The Top 8 Decklists from Champs
GGSLive's Video Archive of Vintage Champs
Vroman's 9th Place Report
M. Sollymossy's 13th Place Report
Matt Elias's Report
Stephen's Report (will update)
Stanley Chen's 1st Place Prelim Report
Eternal Central's Coverage
BC's On-site Reporting
The TMD Trash Talk Thread
Pathetic Excuse for Coverage on MTG.com
DCI Restriction of Preordain and Jace (will update)
Please notify me of any broken links!
Peace,
-Troy
Here's ll the major threads and links for the GenCon Vintage Champs. Enjoy!!!
TMD Results Thread
Owen The Champion's Report on CF
The Top 8 Decklists from Champs
GGSLive's Video Archive of Vintage Champs
Vroman's 9th Place Report
M. Sollymossy's 13th Place Report
Matt Elias's Report
Stephen's Report (will update)
Stanley Chen's 1st Place Prelim Report
Eternal Central's Coverage
BC's On-site Reporting
The TMD Trash Talk Thread
Pathetic Excuse for Coverage on MTG.com
DCI Restriction of Preordain and Jace (will update)
Please notify me of any broken links!
Peace,
-Troy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
GenCon Predictions
Heya,
While everyone else is concentrating on the Legacy GP in Columbus, I’m going to make my predictions for the Vintage Champs at GenCon (which, if you haven’t noticed, is next week already!). For the first time since 2006, we’re going into GenCon pretty much knowing what the format is all about. It’s the first time in four years where the DCI didn’t monkey around with the format in June. So, our options are pretty clear:
Tezzeret Control
Drain Tendrils
TPS
MUD
Noble Fish
Dredge
Elephant Oath
Tez was last year’s winner. I don’t know when the last time a deck repeated at Vintage World’s. It’s been a while, and I think that trend will continue. Tez is being out maneuvered by several decks. I just don’t see it winning. Final Prediction: 1 or 2 in the Top 8.
Storm decks are making something of a comeback. I still believe that they are not positioned well in the format right now. I attribute a lot of their success to the rise of Elephant Oath. Neither Drain Tendrils nor TPS has the starch to win it this year. Final Prediction: 1 in the Top 8.
MUD is all the rage right now. Meandeck MUD is seeing play in a lot of tournaments all over the world and doing very well. This deck is easy to play, especially compared to Tez, Drain Tendrils, and TPS; therefore, opportunities for mistakes are minimized. In Vintage World’s, that’s important. MUD is well positioned to beat the Storm decks that show up and obviously has a good matchup vs. Tez. With Duplicants in the SB, it can combat Oath well enough. I think Dredge and a properly tuned Noble Fish can give MUD some headaches. I imagine most MUD lists will have 7+ anti-Ichorid cards in its SB. IMHO, this is the deck to beat. Final Prediction: 3 in Top 8, 2 in Top 4.
Noble Fish has performed well all year, but it’s on the decline at exactly the wrong time. If GenCon had been this spring, I think Noble Fish (or one of its variants) would be the deck to beat. Expect a TON of Fish decks at GenCon. Null Rods, Chalices, Wastelands, Goyfs, and Hierarchs are cheap by Vintage standards. However, I think that Dredge decks Oath decks (especially ones with Show and Tell) will stamp out most of them. Final Prediction: 1 in Top 8 (maybe)
Just as Fish is declining, Dredge is peaking out at just the right time. Terrific new cards like Sun Titan and Leyline of Sanctity are being incorporated into a very resistant, very powerful Ichorid deck. Dredge undulates between 5 to 15% of the metagame in a fairly regular, rhythmic patter. People put tons of Dredge hate in their sideboards, Dredge goes down, they forget about Dredge, Dredge comes back. It’s a pattern than has persisted since Future Sight. However, this year has shown us something different. Dredge hasn’t lost its potency. It’s held its spot in the meta despite new hate cards like Ravenous Trap and Bojuka Bog. I believe that Dredge decks that pack a mix of Unmask, Darkblast, Chalice of the Void, Leyline of Sanctity, Petrified Field, and Sun Titan will do very well this year in World’s. All that being said, almost half of every sideboard will be devoted to beating this deck. The threats are many. I don’t think this is the year of Dredge, but I do think this will be Dredge’s best year ever. Final Prediction: 1 or 2 in Top 8, 1 in Top 4.
Elephant Oath is hard for me to gauge right now. Is it on the decline? Is it just in hibernation? Are the good players who played this deck migrating to MUD? I don’t know. I do know that Dredge decks are well positioned to take out Oath this year. MUD seems to have a favorable matchup. Tez decks dropped their Confidants, so that matchup is a little harder for Oath. Oath and Noble Fish have been locking horns all year. So what to say? Oath could do really well, or it could get blown out completely. Final Prediction: 1 in Top 8, 1 in Top 4.
So I’ve got 10 decks making the top 8. That’s probably a pretty good prediction. I feel pretty confident about my MUD, MUD, Oath, Dredge final 4. From there, it will just depend on who gets matched up with what.
There’s also a chance for a rogue deck to make it in. If I were going to take a rogue deck to GenCon what would it be? Suicide Black. It’s the last thing anyone is prepared for, so I think it would have a chance of at least having a winning record. Here’s what I would build:
Main Deck:
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
6 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Null Rod
4 Phylactery Lich
4 Dark Confidant
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Tombstalker
2 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
1 Necropotence
Sideboard:
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Yxilid Jailer
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Cruel Edict
2 Massacre
3 Ensnaring Bridge
Take into account I haven’t had much time to playtest that list, but I believe that no one would see it coming and it could sneak up on decks very easily. It’s Suicide Black, so there is some risk in every game, but that’s part of the excitement too. I tried working in Sadistic Sacrament and the ole’ Dark Depths/Vampite Hexmage. I didn’t like what they did to the deck, so this is what I’m most happy with.
Anyway, here’s to another year of Vintage at GenCon. Good luck to all participants!
Peace,
-Troy
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
2nd Place w/ Ichorid
Heya,
I took second place in a small tournament last week. Here’s the list I played:
Lands:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
3 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage
Artifacts:
4 Serum Powder
Enchantments:
4 Bridge From Below
Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancient Grudge
Dredgers:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast
Non-Dredge Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Fatestitcher
3 Ichorid
2 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Sun Titan
Sideboard:
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Pithing Needle
2 Darkblast
1 City of Brass
First a report, then my thoughts. It was a small tournament. Just 8 players following the M11 Launch Party. The TO decided to make it 3 rounds of Swiss with the top two players playing in the last round for a small prize. We used to routinely get over 20 players in the 2006-2008 era. The restriction of Flash, Gush, and Brainstorm along with the Time Vault errata really took its toll on the local scene. Anyway, here’s what happened as best I can remember from referencing my notes.
Round 1: John A. w/ BUG Fish
I almost never beat John. Over the last four years we’ve played each other dozens times with dozens decks. I’ve probably beat him five or six times. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this match.
Game 1-
My opening hand was this:
Bazaar
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Grave Troll
City of BrassIchorid
Bridge from Below
I won the roll, so I play first. Drop a Bazaar, activate, draw Bloodgahst and Ancient Grudge. I’m still new to Dredge, so what would be best to discard here? Grave-Troll is obvious. I could do Ichorid and Bloodghast, or two Bloodghasts. It’s game one, so I probably don’t have to worry about Crypt or Trap. I decide to discard the Troll and two Ghasts. I pass the turn.
John plays Wasteland and kills my Bazaar then passes. Discarding the Ghasts looks really smart now. I go to my draw step, dredge 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Grave-Troll, Serum Powder, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. I play my second Bazaar and put 3 Bloodghasts into play. Activate Bazaar. Dredge 6, revealing Thug, Serum Powder, Narcomoeba, Dakmor Salvage, and a Bridge. Dredge 5, revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Undiscovered Paradise, Therapy, and Zealot. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Bridge. I sac a Narco for Therapy calling Force. I get it. Then it’s sac’ing the other Narco and 2 Ghasts for Dread Return on Zealot for the win.
Game 2-
John sideboards in about five or six cards. I bring in 4 Chains, 4 Claims, and 1 City removing 3 Ichorids, 2 Salvages, and 4 Powders. I mulligan to 6. John mulligans to 5. My hand has
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Stinkweed Imp
Undiscovered Paradise
Chain of Vapor
Nature’s Claim
John goes first, plays a Fetch, cracks it for U. Sea and plays Ponder. No Leylines, so that’s good. I play Bazaar, activate drawing Bloodghast and Bridge from Below. I discard Imp and two Ghasts. I didn’t want to risk my Bridges yet incase he had Crypt in hand. I pass. He drops Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar then passes. I dredge for 5 on my draw revealing Narco, Bridge from Below, Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Sun Titan. I drop my Paradise bringing two Bloodghasts into play. I sac them and the Narco to return Titan. No countermagic from John, so Titan returns my Bazaar and I get my two Bloodghasts back. I activate Bazaar and dredge 6 revealing Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Fatestitcher, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Cabal Therapy. I discard Troll, Imp, and Bridge. I tap the Paradise to unearth Fatestitcher, and activate Bazaar again. Dredge 12 total. I get another Narco in play, another Bridge in the yard along with FKZ. I sac my creatures to Dread Return on FKZ and win from there. John showed me his hand. He was holding two Jailers. I guess he went for stripping my Bazaar over neutering my Graveyard. I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made in the long run.
Round 2: Corey w/MUD
Game 1-
I’m on the play. I draw garbage in my opening hand, but I have Serum Powder. I dump what I’ve got and draw a new seven. Corey doesn’t look at the cards I exiled. I was a bit surprised. I keep what I got:
Bazaar
Grave-Troll
Narcomoeba (hate that)
Grave-Troll
City of Brass
Ichorid
Undiscovered Paradise
I lay Bazaar and activate. I draw Ichorid and Serum Powder. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Ichorid then pass. He drops Workshop, Mox, Golem. Yay. During my upkeep, I put the Ichorid trigger on the stack then activate Bazaar. I dredge 12 and get 2 Bloodghasts, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dread Return, 2 Cabal Therapy, 1 Thug, 2 Bridge from Below, 1 Imp, 1 City of Brass, 1 Fatestitcher. I discard the 2 Trolls and my Narcomoeba. I exile a Thug and put Ichorid into play. I put City of Brass into play and then stop to think.
I have some choices here. Right now, I’ve got 1 Ichorid, 1 Narcomoeba, and 2 Bloodghasts in play. I’ve basically stopped his attack for now, and I’ll get two tokens at EOT from Ichorid. I could Therapy or I could play Fatestitcher. I decide that I’m in a pretty decent position and don’t need to win fast, so I tap my City and sacrifice Ichorid to play Therapy calling “Sphere of Resistance.” I nab two of them. Holy crap! I also see Null Rod, Juggernaut, and City of Traitors. I pass.
He draws, plays his City, taps it, and puts a Thorn of Amethyst into play then passes. I stack Ichorid and dredge for 12 again. I get enough creatures in play that I can cast Dread Return on FKZ using the mana from my City and Paradise to win that turn. I tell him I was pretty lucky to get three lands in my opening hand.
Game 2-
I side in 4 Nature’s Claims, 1 City of Brass, and 4 Pithing needle. I mulligan to six. My opening hand has:
Bazaar
Undiscovered Paradise
Grave-Troll
Pithing Needle
Bridge from Below
Bloodghast
I figure he’s probably playing Crypt and not playing Leylines. Maybe Relic. So I keep it based on Needle. He goes first, drops Workshop, Mox, and Juggernaut. Then he passes. I draw Nature’s Claim (yes!), play Bazaar, and activate. I draw Bridge from Below and a second Undiscovered Paradise. I discard 1 Troll, 1 Bloodghast, and 1 Bridge. I pass.
He attacks me for 5 then drops Ancient Tomb. To my surprise, he taps Shop and Mox to play Jester’s Cap, then taps Tomb to activate it. He chooses my last two Bridges and an FKZ. He passes. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar. Dredge for 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Bazaar of Baghdad, Grave-Troll, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. Dredge for 6 again putting Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Ancient Grudge, Pithing Needle, Thug, and a Grave-Troll. I discard 1 Bridge and two Grave-Trolls.
I play an Undiscovered Paradise and put 2 Blooghasts into play to add to my 2 Narcomoebas. I’m afraid he’s holding Crypt, so I play Pithing Needle and call “Tormod’s Crypt.” He laughs out loud, not in a “oh crap, I’m screwed” sort of way but in a “bad call, dude” sort of way. So I’m faced with some unpleasant scenarios. 1) He’s holding some way to kill my needle. Maybe he’s playing Red and has a Mountain and an Ingot Chewer in hand. 2) He’s playing Relic and my call on Crypt was useless. 3) There’s something else I’m not considering, which is very likely the case. Duplicant? Nah, why would he side that in? That’ can’t be it.
I decide to establish a strong board position and just let the chips fall where they may. I sac my 2 Narcomoebas and 1 Bloodghast to play Dread Return on a Golgari Grave-Troll. He comes into play with eight +1/+1 counters I believe. Something like that. I also make 6 tokens. I pass the turn.
He untaps, draws, plays a Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar. Then he (you’re not going to believe this) taps his Shop and Mox and plays another Cap! He taps his Tomb, and pulls out 2 Dread Returns and last FKZ. He has to attack with Juggs. So I block with my last Bloodghast and get 2 more tokens.
I untap, put UP in my hand, and Dredge for 6 on my draw. I reveal a few cards. It doesn’t matter. With my Troll and 8 tokens, I attack for lethal. It was a weird game. He did show me that he boarded in Tormod’s Crypts but thought the Caps would get him there.
Round 3 (Finals): Michael w/Helm of the Void combo
I won’t bore you with many of the details. Game 1 he opens with Leyline of the Void and Wasteland. I’ve got nothing for that, so I suggest we move to game 2. Game 2 he mulligans, then opens with double Leyline and shows me a hand with U. Sea, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and FoW. Yeah, so that was that. I get a few M11 packs and crack a Time Reversal, Foil Lightning Bolt, and a Mystifying Maze. Not bad. All he got was $15 for taking first.
Reflection:
I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but…
Regarding GenCon: I would not play this version at GenCon. This deck is built for absolute speed, and I blew out every opponent by turn 3 and never lost a single game until the finals. However, the GenCon crowd will be prepared for Ichorid since it is so cheap to build. Therefore, the lists packing max disruption like Chalice, Unmask, and Leyline of Sanctity are probably going to do the best.
Regarding Sun Titan: I loved having Sun Titan in the deck. Twice he scored me a turn 2 victory. I like him way better than the Sharuum Combo, especially at GenCon where Null Rods will be all over the place. He’s a big body, with Vigilance, that will give you two Landfall activations in the same turn. He is really strong in this deck, and should be considered. I was happy every time I Dread Returned him.
Regarding my Sideboard: This is the weakest part of my game. The 4 Pithing Needles didn’t do anything for me. Either I won before it was necessary to play them for Time Vault or Crypt, or I never got them in my hand. I’ll probably replace them with Leyline of Sanctity or Unmask.
Peace,
-Troy
I took second place in a small tournament last week. Here’s the list I played:
Lands:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Undiscovered Paradise
3 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage
Artifacts:
4 Serum Powder
Enchantments:
4 Bridge From Below
Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Dread Return
1 Ancient Grudge
Dredgers:
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Darkblast
Non-Dredge Creatures
4 Bloodghast
4 Narcomoeba
4 Fatestitcher
3 Ichorid
2 Flame-kin Zealot
1 Sun Titan
Sideboard:
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Nature’s Claim
4 Pithing Needle
2 Darkblast
1 City of Brass
First a report, then my thoughts. It was a small tournament. Just 8 players following the M11 Launch Party. The TO decided to make it 3 rounds of Swiss with the top two players playing in the last round for a small prize. We used to routinely get over 20 players in the 2006-2008 era. The restriction of Flash, Gush, and Brainstorm along with the Time Vault errata really took its toll on the local scene. Anyway, here’s what happened as best I can remember from referencing my notes.
Round 1: John A. w/ BUG Fish
I almost never beat John. Over the last four years we’ve played each other dozens times with dozens decks. I’ve probably beat him five or six times. So, I wasn’t looking forward to this match.
Game 1-
My opening hand was this:
Bazaar
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Grave Troll
City of BrassIchorid
Bridge from Below
I won the roll, so I play first. Drop a Bazaar, activate, draw Bloodgahst and Ancient Grudge. I’m still new to Dredge, so what would be best to discard here? Grave-Troll is obvious. I could do Ichorid and Bloodghast, or two Bloodghasts. It’s game one, so I probably don’t have to worry about Crypt or Trap. I decide to discard the Troll and two Ghasts. I pass the turn.
John plays Wasteland and kills my Bazaar then passes. Discarding the Ghasts looks really smart now. I go to my draw step, dredge 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Ichorid, Grave-Troll, Serum Powder, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. I play my second Bazaar and put 3 Bloodghasts into play. Activate Bazaar. Dredge 6, revealing Thug, Serum Powder, Narcomoeba, Dakmor Salvage, and a Bridge. Dredge 5, revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Undiscovered Paradise, Therapy, and Zealot. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Bridge. I sac a Narco for Therapy calling Force. I get it. Then it’s sac’ing the other Narco and 2 Ghasts for Dread Return on Zealot for the win.
Game 2-
John sideboards in about five or six cards. I bring in 4 Chains, 4 Claims, and 1 City removing 3 Ichorids, 2 Salvages, and 4 Powders. I mulligan to 6. John mulligans to 5. My hand has
Bazaar
Bloodghast
Stinkweed Imp
Undiscovered Paradise
Chain of Vapor
Nature’s Claim
John goes first, plays a Fetch, cracks it for U. Sea and plays Ponder. No Leylines, so that’s good. I play Bazaar, activate drawing Bloodghast and Bridge from Below. I discard Imp and two Ghasts. I didn’t want to risk my Bridges yet incase he had Crypt in hand. I pass. He drops Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar then passes. I dredge for 5 on my draw revealing Narco, Bridge from Below, Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Sun Titan. I drop my Paradise bringing two Bloodghasts into play. I sac them and the Narco to return Titan. No countermagic from John, so Titan returns my Bazaar and I get my two Bloodghasts back. I activate Bazaar and dredge 6 revealing Grave-Troll, Dread Return, Fatestitcher, Narcomoeba, Bridge from Below, and Cabal Therapy. I discard Troll, Imp, and Bridge. I tap the Paradise to unearth Fatestitcher, and activate Bazaar again. Dredge 12 total. I get another Narco in play, another Bridge in the yard along with FKZ. I sac my creatures to Dread Return on FKZ and win from there. John showed me his hand. He was holding two Jailers. I guess he went for stripping my Bazaar over neutering my Graveyard. I don’t know how much of a difference it would have made in the long run.
Round 2: Corey w/MUD
Game 1-
I’m on the play. I draw garbage in my opening hand, but I have Serum Powder. I dump what I’ve got and draw a new seven. Corey doesn’t look at the cards I exiled. I was a bit surprised. I keep what I got:
Bazaar
Grave-Troll
Narcomoeba (hate that)
Grave-Troll
City of Brass
Ichorid
Undiscovered Paradise
I lay Bazaar and activate. I draw Ichorid and Serum Powder. I discard 2 Trolls and 1 Ichorid then pass. He drops Workshop, Mox, Golem. Yay. During my upkeep, I put the Ichorid trigger on the stack then activate Bazaar. I dredge 12 and get 2 Bloodghasts, 1 Narcomoeba, 1 Dread Return, 2 Cabal Therapy, 1 Thug, 2 Bridge from Below, 1 Imp, 1 City of Brass, 1 Fatestitcher. I discard the 2 Trolls and my Narcomoeba. I exile a Thug and put Ichorid into play. I put City of Brass into play and then stop to think.
I have some choices here. Right now, I’ve got 1 Ichorid, 1 Narcomoeba, and 2 Bloodghasts in play. I’ve basically stopped his attack for now, and I’ll get two tokens at EOT from Ichorid. I could Therapy or I could play Fatestitcher. I decide that I’m in a pretty decent position and don’t need to win fast, so I tap my City and sacrifice Ichorid to play Therapy calling “Sphere of Resistance.” I nab two of them. Holy crap! I also see Null Rod, Juggernaut, and City of Traitors. I pass.
He draws, plays his City, taps it, and puts a Thorn of Amethyst into play then passes. I stack Ichorid and dredge for 12 again. I get enough creatures in play that I can cast Dread Return on FKZ using the mana from my City and Paradise to win that turn. I tell him I was pretty lucky to get three lands in my opening hand.
Game 2-
I side in 4 Nature’s Claims, 1 City of Brass, and 4 Pithing needle. I mulligan to six. My opening hand has:
Bazaar
Undiscovered Paradise
Grave-Troll
Pithing Needle
Bridge from Below
Bloodghast
I figure he’s probably playing Crypt and not playing Leylines. Maybe Relic. So I keep it based on Needle. He goes first, drops Workshop, Mox, and Juggernaut. Then he passes. I draw Nature’s Claim (yes!), play Bazaar, and activate. I draw Bridge from Below and a second Undiscovered Paradise. I discard 1 Troll, 1 Bloodghast, and 1 Bridge. I pass.
He attacks me for 5 then drops Ancient Tomb. To my surprise, he taps Shop and Mox to play Jester’s Cap, then taps Tomb to activate it. He chooses my last two Bridges and an FKZ. He passes. On my upkeep, I activate Bazaar. Dredge for 6 revealing Narcomoeba, Dread Return, Bazaar of Baghdad, Grave-Troll, Bloodghast, and Stinkweed Imp. Dredge for 6 again putting Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Ancient Grudge, Pithing Needle, Thug, and a Grave-Troll. I discard 1 Bridge and two Grave-Trolls.
I play an Undiscovered Paradise and put 2 Blooghasts into play to add to my 2 Narcomoebas. I’m afraid he’s holding Crypt, so I play Pithing Needle and call “Tormod’s Crypt.” He laughs out loud, not in a “oh crap, I’m screwed” sort of way but in a “bad call, dude” sort of way. So I’m faced with some unpleasant scenarios. 1) He’s holding some way to kill my needle. Maybe he’s playing Red and has a Mountain and an Ingot Chewer in hand. 2) He’s playing Relic and my call on Crypt was useless. 3) There’s something else I’m not considering, which is very likely the case. Duplicant? Nah, why would he side that in? That’ can’t be it.
I decide to establish a strong board position and just let the chips fall where they may. I sac my 2 Narcomoebas and 1 Bloodghast to play Dread Return on a Golgari Grave-Troll. He comes into play with eight +1/+1 counters I believe. Something like that. I also make 6 tokens. I pass the turn.
He untaps, draws, plays a Strip Mine and kills my Bazaar. Then he (you’re not going to believe this) taps his Shop and Mox and plays another Cap! He taps his Tomb, and pulls out 2 Dread Returns and last FKZ. He has to attack with Juggs. So I block with my last Bloodghast and get 2 more tokens.
I untap, put UP in my hand, and Dredge for 6 on my draw. I reveal a few cards. It doesn’t matter. With my Troll and 8 tokens, I attack for lethal. It was a weird game. He did show me that he boarded in Tormod’s Crypts but thought the Caps would get him there.
Round 3 (Finals): Michael w/Helm of the Void combo
I won’t bore you with many of the details. Game 1 he opens with Leyline of the Void and Wasteland. I’ve got nothing for that, so I suggest we move to game 2. Game 2 he mulligans, then opens with double Leyline and shows me a hand with U. Sea, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and FoW. Yeah, so that was that. I get a few M11 packs and crack a Time Reversal, Foil Lightning Bolt, and a Mystifying Maze. Not bad. All he got was $15 for taking first.
Reflection:
I’ve already stated this elsewhere, but…
Regarding GenCon: I would not play this version at GenCon. This deck is built for absolute speed, and I blew out every opponent by turn 3 and never lost a single game until the finals. However, the GenCon crowd will be prepared for Ichorid since it is so cheap to build. Therefore, the lists packing max disruption like Chalice, Unmask, and Leyline of Sanctity are probably going to do the best.
Regarding Sun Titan: I loved having Sun Titan in the deck. Twice he scored me a turn 2 victory. I like him way better than the Sharuum Combo, especially at GenCon where Null Rods will be all over the place. He’s a big body, with Vigilance, that will give you two Landfall activations in the same turn. He is really strong in this deck, and should be considered. I was happy every time I Dread Returned him.
Regarding my Sideboard: This is the weakest part of my game. The 4 Pithing Needles didn’t do anything for me. Either I won before it was necessary to play them for Time Vault or Crypt, or I never got them in my hand. I’ll probably replace them with Leyline of Sanctity or Unmask.
Peace,
-Troy
Monday, July 12, 2010
My Take on M11
Heya,
Well, after getting a chance to actually play with the cards from M11 over the weekened, I feel I can comment on them with some degree of certainty. M11 is a great set. It's fun to draft, fun to play sealed, and very flavorful. It reminds me a lot of what Magic was like when I first started- back when most of the players had a background in RPGs.
Anyway, starting with white...
Banelsayer Angel: Not good enough for Vintage but seems playable everywhere else. Given my experience at the pre-release, the printings of Combust and Plummet should moderate BSA's dominance (if it really was dominant in the first place).
Leyline of Sanctity: This card will see Vintage play. It stops Oath, Hurkyl's, Tormod's Crypt, Tendrils of Agony, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cruel/Diabolic Edict. That's an aweful lot of important cards nullified by this thing. If Nature's Claim weren't so widely played, I think this card would be in nearly every deck. As it stands right now, I'm not sure who'll be brave enough to sacrifice 4 slots for it. Ichorid might instead of LotV or CotV. Stax might. But who else? I don't know, but I do know it will find a home somewhere soon.
Silence: I'm a little disapointed this card never found a home anywhere. With Silence, Orim's Chant, and Abeyance, you can stop a lot of cards from being played by your opponent. I guess there's just too much countermagic for a Silence.dec to work. Too bad. I like the design.
Sun Titan: I like this card a lot in Dredge and Oath. For Dredge, it can get you there by bringing back an extra Bazaar to finish dredging your deck. He'll be played in Dredge for sure. In Oath, he could be used to assemble a Vault-Key combo. Oath pilots will have to decide if that's better than just blowing up stuff with Terastadon or locking out the other player with Iona or decimating the opponent's board with Emrakul. Time will tell. Good card, tho.
War Priest of Thune: There's better cards out there for this.
BLUE
Call To Mind: This card only reinforces the point that Regrowth can come off the restricted list. Getting a single card out of the graveyard at sorcery speed is just not that great in Vintage- even if the card letting you do that is printed in the most powerful color and has a splashable casting cost. I like the art, tho.
Conundrum Sphinx: Sick with Top! But not sick enough for Vintage. :(
Foresee: This is a card that demonstrates why I think Vintage may suffer a little bit. Foresee lets you look at up to 6 cards for 4 mana. That's actually pretty good. But the sorcery speed and honestly the total mana required to play this spell make it impossible to use in Vintage. Too bad. I think it's really a powerful effect that's highly underrated in other formats.
Jace's Ingenuity: Apparently the fair casting cost for Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and Time Walk is 5. This card's not good enough for Vintage, but at least RnD is paying homage to the old cards.
Leyline of Anticipation: This card lets you break some of the most important rules in Magic. This will change things, I just don't know how. In a Workshop deck, this thing can be quite good. Let's say you're on the Draw. With 2 Moxen, you can cast a Sphere on your opponent's upkeep before he even gets to play any spells. Suddenly, you have to take a look at Grim Monolith and wonder if it's worth using here to power out nasty turn one lock pieces. One of the biggest things this card could change is how players choose whether to play or draw. With this card in hand, being on the draw is no longer a drawback. I don't know if that's important enough to play this card. We'll find out.
Preordain: Here's the card we've been talking about for a while now. Will this be the second coming of Ponder? There's no doubt this card will get played. It's not as good as Ponder, but it's better than Portent and Impulse. Will it get restricted? Check back with me in the fall of 2011.
Scroll Thief: Ophidian gets an update! This version is much better. It still gets to deal damage and it's a merfolk. It won't see play in Vintage, but maybe in Legacy. It has some stiff competition from Cold-eyed Selkie, IMO, but its 3 toughness is definately a plus.
Stormtide Leviathan: Probably a replacement for Blazing Archon. Except, who plays Archon in Vintage?
Time Reversal: I can't believe they printed another Draw 7. I admire RnD for this. It's not good enough for Vintage (and I don't think it's good enough for Standard either). But I do admire the courage it took to print this card.
BLACK
Dark Tutelage: It's the worst parts of Phyrexian Arena mixed with the worst parts of Dark Confidant. Still, it doesn't trigger Oath of Druids. I think it deserves testing in Tez decks.
Demon of Death's Gate: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Nantuko Shade: (reprint) I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Phylactery Lich: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Reassembling Skeleton: I don't know if suicide black is... just kidding. I like this card. I think it costs too much for Dredge decks, but any deck where you have to sacrifice creatures for effects might like this thing. I think the design is great.
RED:
Act of Treason: Thing thing at the common level is nuts in Limited.
Arc Runner: A lot of things are wierd about this card. First, can they make up their minds about how to template sacrificing someting at the EOT? This is the third iteration of it, and I think it's the worst. Second, for a set focussing on flavor and "making sense" in a fantasy sort of way, why is this thing an ox? The flavor text isn't any better. For a storm that hits hard, it can be easily blocked by an Eldrazi spawn and not deal any damage to a player. A powerful thunderstorm stopped by an 0/1 token. Nice. None-the-less, it is a fine Ball Lightning knockoff if you are looking for more of these types of cards for your burn deck.
Chandra's Spitfire: Speaking of burn. This may get used over Kiln Fiend since it has evasion. I'm not sure. It's still not good enough to make burn viable in Vintage. But it's getting closer.
Ember Hauler: I'm not an expert in Goblins, but I think I'd still rather have Mogg Fanatic to exile Bridges.
Hoarding Dragon: New Flash deck! Vault-Flash-Dragon ftw! Except Flash is restricted. Cool card, nice flavor.
Manic Vandal: Overcosted for Red. Should have been a Goblin.
Reverberate: People are pointing to this to show that WotC plans to skirt around the Reserve List. To me, this is a red Twincast- a card that showed me a long time ago they planned to skirt around the Reserve List. I guess it takes a little more than that to get me excited. Let's see this same treatment for Thunder Spirit and then we'll talk.
GREEN
Autumn's Veil: Autumn's Fail. All the other color hosers blow someting up. This card just outsmarts itself. I'd rather have a Green Elemental Blast. We'll see what the replacement is next year.
Back to Nature: Nice upgrade. Not sure it'll make a difference, but I'm all for this sort of spell getting more powerful.
Fauna Shaman: (AKA, Magus of the Fittest) This card is hard to evaluate. The biggest problem is the summoning sickness. But in Vintage, creatures are actually more stable than enchantments! Between Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Krosan Grip, and Nature's Claim, there's a ton of enchantment hate out there. Fauna Shaman actually has a decent chance of living. I'd love for Combo Elves to make a hit in Vintage. With Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves in play, this card is good. I personally witnessed it power with Vengevine while some guys were playtesting their Standard decks. But I'm not sure it's good enough for Vintage. Here's to hoping, though!
Mitotic Slime: I've heard this discussed in terms of a Dread Return target for Dredge. I dunno. Space is limited and it's best use would be when some of your bridges have been removed. I'd put it in the maybe pile.
Plummet: So green has a way to kill Iona now. I suppose you can play one in your SB with PtE or StP.
COLORLESS
Brittle Effigy: I'm actually somewhat high on this card. It can be tutored up with Trinket Mage. It can fit in any deck. It exiles the creature which is important. It gets around Iona's ability. The real problem is it lacks synergy with Null Rod, which is the type of deck that really needs this card.
Crystal Ball: Great in any format where Top isn't leagal.
Steel Overseer: This card could be really interesting with the Modular creatures from Mirrodin. Not viable in Vintage, but a blue based artifact deck in Legacy that takes advantage of the +1/+1 counters to evade blockers would be very interesting. He has great synergy with Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium. Good card.
Sword of Vengeance: Nice to know they can still print decent equipment!
Warlord's Axe: Nice to know they can still print really crappy equipment!
Voltaic Key: Autmoatically good in Standard and Extended. I can't believe they reprinted this thing.
Mystifying Maze: This is drawing comparisons to Maze of Ith. That's fair. The Ith version can't tap for mana, leaves the creature untapped, and costs $30. Mystifying can tap for mana, keeps the creature tapped, and costs 1/10 as much. The sticking point is the four mana to activate, which is one too many IMO. Mystifying Maze is a fine budget card, but in the end, it's just not as good as Maze of Ith and Karakas.
Overall, this is a great set. If I still played standard, I'd be really excited. As a Vintage player and Magic enthusiast, I'm still excited. I give RnD a thumbs up on this set. I really enjoyed the pre-release.
Peace,
-Troy
Well, after getting a chance to actually play with the cards from M11 over the weekened, I feel I can comment on them with some degree of certainty. M11 is a great set. It's fun to draft, fun to play sealed, and very flavorful. It reminds me a lot of what Magic was like when I first started- back when most of the players had a background in RPGs.
Anyway, starting with white...
Banelsayer Angel: Not good enough for Vintage but seems playable everywhere else. Given my experience at the pre-release, the printings of Combust and Plummet should moderate BSA's dominance (if it really was dominant in the first place).
Leyline of Sanctity: This card will see Vintage play. It stops Oath, Hurkyl's, Tormod's Crypt, Tendrils of Agony, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cruel/Diabolic Edict. That's an aweful lot of important cards nullified by this thing. If Nature's Claim weren't so widely played, I think this card would be in nearly every deck. As it stands right now, I'm not sure who'll be brave enough to sacrifice 4 slots for it. Ichorid might instead of LotV or CotV. Stax might. But who else? I don't know, but I do know it will find a home somewhere soon.
Silence: I'm a little disapointed this card never found a home anywhere. With Silence, Orim's Chant, and Abeyance, you can stop a lot of cards from being played by your opponent. I guess there's just too much countermagic for a Silence.dec to work. Too bad. I like the design.
Sun Titan: I like this card a lot in Dredge and Oath. For Dredge, it can get you there by bringing back an extra Bazaar to finish dredging your deck. He'll be played in Dredge for sure. In Oath, he could be used to assemble a Vault-Key combo. Oath pilots will have to decide if that's better than just blowing up stuff with Terastadon or locking out the other player with Iona or decimating the opponent's board with Emrakul. Time will tell. Good card, tho.
War Priest of Thune: There's better cards out there for this.
BLUE
Call To Mind: This card only reinforces the point that Regrowth can come off the restricted list. Getting a single card out of the graveyard at sorcery speed is just not that great in Vintage- even if the card letting you do that is printed in the most powerful color and has a splashable casting cost. I like the art, tho.
Conundrum Sphinx: Sick with Top! But not sick enough for Vintage. :(
Foresee: This is a card that demonstrates why I think Vintage may suffer a little bit. Foresee lets you look at up to 6 cards for 4 mana. That's actually pretty good. But the sorcery speed and honestly the total mana required to play this spell make it impossible to use in Vintage. Too bad. I think it's really a powerful effect that's highly underrated in other formats.
Jace's Ingenuity: Apparently the fair casting cost for Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and Time Walk is 5. This card's not good enough for Vintage, but at least RnD is paying homage to the old cards.
Leyline of Anticipation: This card lets you break some of the most important rules in Magic. This will change things, I just don't know how. In a Workshop deck, this thing can be quite good. Let's say you're on the Draw. With 2 Moxen, you can cast a Sphere on your opponent's upkeep before he even gets to play any spells. Suddenly, you have to take a look at Grim Monolith and wonder if it's worth using here to power out nasty turn one lock pieces. One of the biggest things this card could change is how players choose whether to play or draw. With this card in hand, being on the draw is no longer a drawback. I don't know if that's important enough to play this card. We'll find out.
Preordain: Here's the card we've been talking about for a while now. Will this be the second coming of Ponder? There's no doubt this card will get played. It's not as good as Ponder, but it's better than Portent and Impulse. Will it get restricted? Check back with me in the fall of 2011.
Scroll Thief: Ophidian gets an update! This version is much better. It still gets to deal damage and it's a merfolk. It won't see play in Vintage, but maybe in Legacy. It has some stiff competition from Cold-eyed Selkie, IMO, but its 3 toughness is definately a plus.
Stormtide Leviathan: Probably a replacement for Blazing Archon. Except, who plays Archon in Vintage?
Time Reversal: I can't believe they printed another Draw 7. I admire RnD for this. It's not good enough for Vintage (and I don't think it's good enough for Standard either). But I do admire the courage it took to print this card.
BLACK
Dark Tutelage: It's the worst parts of Phyrexian Arena mixed with the worst parts of Dark Confidant. Still, it doesn't trigger Oath of Druids. I think it deserves testing in Tez decks.
Demon of Death's Gate: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Nantuko Shade: (reprint) I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Phylactery Lich: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.
Reassembling Skeleton: I don't know if suicide black is... just kidding. I like this card. I think it costs too much for Dredge decks, but any deck where you have to sacrifice creatures for effects might like this thing. I think the design is great.
RED:
Act of Treason: Thing thing at the common level is nuts in Limited.
Arc Runner: A lot of things are wierd about this card. First, can they make up their minds about how to template sacrificing someting at the EOT? This is the third iteration of it, and I think it's the worst. Second, for a set focussing on flavor and "making sense" in a fantasy sort of way, why is this thing an ox? The flavor text isn't any better. For a storm that hits hard, it can be easily blocked by an Eldrazi spawn and not deal any damage to a player. A powerful thunderstorm stopped by an 0/1 token. Nice. None-the-less, it is a fine Ball Lightning knockoff if you are looking for more of these types of cards for your burn deck.
Chandra's Spitfire: Speaking of burn. This may get used over Kiln Fiend since it has evasion. I'm not sure. It's still not good enough to make burn viable in Vintage. But it's getting closer.
Ember Hauler: I'm not an expert in Goblins, but I think I'd still rather have Mogg Fanatic to exile Bridges.
Hoarding Dragon: New Flash deck! Vault-Flash-Dragon ftw! Except Flash is restricted. Cool card, nice flavor.
Manic Vandal: Overcosted for Red. Should have been a Goblin.
Reverberate: People are pointing to this to show that WotC plans to skirt around the Reserve List. To me, this is a red Twincast- a card that showed me a long time ago they planned to skirt around the Reserve List. I guess it takes a little more than that to get me excited. Let's see this same treatment for Thunder Spirit and then we'll talk.
GREEN
Autumn's Veil: Autumn's Fail. All the other color hosers blow someting up. This card just outsmarts itself. I'd rather have a Green Elemental Blast. We'll see what the replacement is next year.
Back to Nature: Nice upgrade. Not sure it'll make a difference, but I'm all for this sort of spell getting more powerful.
Fauna Shaman: (AKA, Magus of the Fittest) This card is hard to evaluate. The biggest problem is the summoning sickness. But in Vintage, creatures are actually more stable than enchantments! Between Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Krosan Grip, and Nature's Claim, there's a ton of enchantment hate out there. Fauna Shaman actually has a decent chance of living. I'd love for Combo Elves to make a hit in Vintage. With Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves in play, this card is good. I personally witnessed it power with Vengevine while some guys were playtesting their Standard decks. But I'm not sure it's good enough for Vintage. Here's to hoping, though!
Mitotic Slime: I've heard this discussed in terms of a Dread Return target for Dredge. I dunno. Space is limited and it's best use would be when some of your bridges have been removed. I'd put it in the maybe pile.
Plummet: So green has a way to kill Iona now. I suppose you can play one in your SB with PtE or StP.
COLORLESS
Brittle Effigy: I'm actually somewhat high on this card. It can be tutored up with Trinket Mage. It can fit in any deck. It exiles the creature which is important. It gets around Iona's ability. The real problem is it lacks synergy with Null Rod, which is the type of deck that really needs this card.
Crystal Ball: Great in any format where Top isn't leagal.
Steel Overseer: This card could be really interesting with the Modular creatures from Mirrodin. Not viable in Vintage, but a blue based artifact deck in Legacy that takes advantage of the +1/+1 counters to evade blockers would be very interesting. He has great synergy with Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium. Good card.
Sword of Vengeance: Nice to know they can still print decent equipment!
Warlord's Axe: Nice to know they can still print really crappy equipment!
Voltaic Key: Autmoatically good in Standard and Extended. I can't believe they reprinted this thing.
Mystifying Maze: This is drawing comparisons to Maze of Ith. That's fair. The Ith version can't tap for mana, leaves the creature untapped, and costs $30. Mystifying can tap for mana, keeps the creature tapped, and costs 1/10 as much. The sticking point is the four mana to activate, which is one too many IMO. Mystifying Maze is a fine budget card, but in the end, it's just not as good as Maze of Ith and Karakas.
Overall, this is a great set. If I still played standard, I'd be really excited. As a Vintage player and Magic enthusiast, I'm still excited. I give RnD a thumbs up on this set. I really enjoyed the pre-release.
Peace,
-Troy
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