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
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
[Diary] Vintage from Scratch: Update #1
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
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
Friday, November 18, 2011
[Diary] Starting a Vintage Community from Scratch
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)