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
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