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Vintage 3.0: The Silver AgeBy JACO on June 12th, 2008 · Filed in Vintage (Type 1) · 8 CommentsA few of the Vintage pundits have touted the past few years as the "Golden Age of Vintage," and I certainly don't disagree with this sentiment. We have seen tons of innovating and exciting strategies appear the past decade, and deckbuilding philosophy has been sharpened to a much finer edge. With the printing of new sets and new deckbuilding ideas, we have seen gems such as TnT (Tools 'n' Tubbies), GroATog, Stax, TPS, Landstill, Food Chain Goblins, MeanDeck Gifts, Grim Long, Pitch Long, Dredge, Flash, Angel Oath, Tyrant Oath, and Grindstone-Painter combo unearthed. We have also seen a design space for decks to prey on the giants, and things like Red-Green aggro, various builds of Fish, Oshawa Stompy, ICBM Gob-lines, and other memorable decks picking apart their respective metagames. So exactly what directions will the metagame move in, and what cards will be saucy in this new era? There will be less incentive to play Blue because of the restriction of Brainstorm and Ponder, but many will make attempts to replace them, with cards like Accumulated Knowledge, Impulse, Opt, and more. Mana Drain will make a significant comeback because it's the second best unrestricted Blue spell now available (behind Force of Will), so this will naturally make the cut in Slaver and storm-based decks. Without Brainstorm to hide goodies on top the library, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cabal Therapy are likely to see even more play to potentially clear out an opponent's hand. This will increase the amount of Black in the field, meaning even more Leyline of the Voids in people's decks to combat the coming onslaught of Ichorid-Bridge variants certain to appear (both including mana, and not). Painter's Servant decks that were leveraging the inclusion of Red Blasts main deck against a heavy Blue metagame will take a step back, but will still provide an attractive option for specific metagames filled with Control Slaver, Oath of Druids, and other Mana Drain decks. Aside from these observations, what single cards and decks will be seeing increased play? Single Cards to Focus On Another card that should see a rise in Blue decks is Mystic Remora, which has become a staple in European sideboards over the past couple of years. Everything from TPS to Mono Blue Control to Control Slaver can afford to be playing this either main or sideboarded because it provides card advantage, as well as buys turns to potentially filter your hand. In a recent match documented in the following video (courtesy of Team Pataners), you can see the effect that it ultimately has on the game as both players end up with a Mystic Remora on the board, leading to a penultimate turn. This was a unique game, but it illustrates the potency of the card. If your opponent plays his spells through it, you will draw a ton of cards, and if they wait, you can simply sculpt a better hand and develop your mana position. Dark Confidant is an interesting card from a Vintage deck design perspective since it's a format that has largely grown to ignore creatures and the attack phase. Confidant should see increased play in all types of combo decks as a way to provide damage on its own, as well as to refill the hand and help fight wars of attrition against control players. You can expect to see it in a lot of Mana Drain variants going forward, as well in every aggro control deck. As in Extended, the card advantage is just too good to pass up, and a Confidant left unchecked for even a couple of turns is often the difference between winning and losing. The synergy it has with the aforementioned Sensei's Divining Top is a nice bonus to help you prevent doing too much damage to yourself (even in a format where the average casting cost of a spell is well below 1.6). With the format potentially slowing down a bit, another card that could see increased play is the Extended and Legacy powerhouse Counterbalance. This probably won't see play immediately, because the new metagame will include tons of Mishra's Workshop and Bazaar of Baghdad fueled decks, and Counterbalance isn't very good against those decks. But once the natural predators of the Workshop and Bazaar decks surface and become popular, the combo of Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top (Counter-Top) should prove to be very efficient against the decks like Control Slaver and Drain Tendrils. Aside from the cards above, here are some other cards that should see increased play in the restructured Vintage format: Ancient Grudge (to combat Workshop and Painter decks) Shattering Spree (to combat Workshop and Painter decks) Rack and Ruin (to combat Workshop and Painter decks) Faerie Macabre (to combat graveyard combo or recursion decks) Kataki, War's Wage (to combat Workshop decks) Accumulated Knowledge (draw engine) Chalice of the Void (to combat combo decks, and stop mana acceleration/Moxes) Lava Dart (to combat Goblin Welder and Dark Confidant) Darkblast (to combat Goblin Welder and Dark Confidant) The Existing Deck Contenders Now that we've reviewed some cards that will probably see increased play moving forward, let's also take a look at what decks existing before June 1 will be least affected by the restrictions of Flash, Gush, Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm, and Ponder. Click on the deck name to link to a deck list. MUD, by David Beduzzi Painter-Grindstone Stax, by Jerry Yang Dredge (mana), by Eric Dupuis Dredge (manaless), by Lou Christopher Gob-Lines, by John Joyce Deez Noughts, by Mark Domzil – loses 3 Brainstorm, but can be replaced Goblin Charbelcher (mono Red version!), by Pierre Liebsch Worldgorger Dragon, by Bjoern Ortmann UR Landstill, by Rich Mattuizio and Lam Phan To no one's surprise, these are nearly all decks that didn't use these recently restricted cards at all. Workshop and Bazaar decks are going to have a big target painted on their backs, as they are consistent and powerful, with the ability to put the game out of reach in the first couple of turns. Worldgorger Dragon also falls into this category, but will most likely suffer from splash damage in the form of Leyline of the Void, Extirpate, and Tormod's Crypt. The Gob-Lines deck is interesting, because it was originally built to combat GroATog, Flash, and Dredge. While GroATog and Flash have gotten the axe, this deck still employs a good place in the metagame because of its strong game against Dredge and Workshop variants, which should be the two heaviest hitters out of the gate. It's also no slouch against Control Slaver. New Decks and Rebuilt Favorites So after a cursory look at the major remaining archetypes that are left standing after June 1, let's now look at a few new decks and variants that have potential to be major wrecking balls in the new format. One strategy that was crippled, but still left standing are the Painter's-Grindstone Blue shells that do not play Gush. Trinket Mage has natural synergy with Grindstone, and can also fetch the closest Brainstorm replacement, Sensei's Divining Top. Dark Confidant also loves to interact with the Top to ensure the best possible draws, and the least possible damage incurred.
This deck is interesting because it can attack from a number of different angles. It can use Painter's Servant to turn the game Blue and just Red Blast everything necessary until it finds any way to win, or it can go the aggro-control strategy of attacking with Confidants + Trinket Mages + Painter and playing the tempo game, or it can simply combo out with Painter's Servant + Grindstone. The Trinket Mages are especially useful because they allow you to fetch main deck singletons like Engineered Explosives to blow up a problematic permanent, Tormod's Crypt to combat Dredge or opposing Goblin Welder tricks, or Grindstone to win the game outright if you have a Painter on the board or in hand. Another interesting choice in here are the single Academy Ruins main, which can provide a headache for opposing control players by bringing back your Painter's Servant or Grindstone, providing inevitability in the game. It can also recur Engineered Explosives or Tormod's Crypt, which can be fatal to a number of opposing decks. For much of this decade, one deck that has continually managed to rise to the top of the game is Control Slaver. Buoyed by the best counterspells in the game, synergistic card drawing (Thirst for Knowledge), and graveyard management (Goblin Welder), Control Slaver has continued to be a proven commodity time and time again, with repeated Top 8 appearances worldwide.
This is a fairly straightforward shell, but disposes of singleton 'metagame' cards like Rack and Ruin or Tormod's Crypt main deck, and instead incorporates the Gifts-Recoup engine for a combo finish. This allows the deck to play a traditional Control Slaver incremental strategy with the pairing of Thirst for Knowledge and Goblin Welder, or bust straight into combo mode on a big turn if it searches out the Gifts Ungiven. I wanted Fact or Fiction in here initially, but ended up cutting it for the third Sensei's Divining Top, which provides the deck with another single mana play in lieu of Brainstorm, will help manipulate the deck and search for answers early, and then provide another target to Weld out with Goblin Welder late in the game. The next deck is another Control Slaver variant I designed to take advantage of a few concepts used in the past by Control Slaver players. One of the original Slaver variants, Goth Slaver (short for Gothenberg) used the Accumulated Knowledge and Intuition to gain serious card advantage, or just used Intuition as an instant speed tutor to dump important artifacts into the graveyard to Weld in. In a version of Slaver I designed a couple of years ago, I coupled Intuition with Jester's Cap main deck, in order to provide a near instant win against decks with only a couple of win conditions (Oath, Long, TPS, etc.). I have moved the Caps to the sideboard in this version, but this still remains a viable way to combat a number of decks, and to essentially win outright against particular matchups (hence their relegation to the sideboard in this version). The final design element in this deck drawn from the past is dropping Black to increase stability to the manabase, and channel the power of Blood Moon, which is also often game-ending when it hits.
Whenever Blood Moon is included in a deck, a debate will be entertained as to whether it should instead be Magus of the Moon. Magus is a creature with a toughness of only 2, and in Vintage is thus easier to remove than an enchantment with the commonly played spells in the format. So unless a Moon effect is being used in an aggro-control deck that can abuse the tempo, Blood Moon is usually stronger because it is more difficult for opposing decks to answer. One final note about Control Slaver is that both of these variants, as well as most others I have seen, have an admitted weakness to hyperaggressive combo decks like Grim Long and Pitch Long. If you expect a lot of those in your area, either tailor these decks to combat Long variants or find another deck to play. Speaking of combo, the last new or rebuilt deck I'll preview is a modern take on the deck I designed for teammate Nick Trudeau, who went undefeated in the Swiss rounds of the 2006 Vintage World Championship to a Top 8 finish.
Other sideboard options: 1 Tinker + 1 Memory Jar + 1 Darksteel Colossus/Sundering Titan/Platinum Angel/Other Robot 1 Tropical Island + 4 Xantid Swarm The deck is fairly customizable depending on what you expect to face, but the combination of a full set of Tendrils and tons of bounce makes it fairly easy to win. Confidant helps against Workshops and to refill the hand against control, and Sensei's Divining Top replaces Brainstorm to dig for threats, and works very well in conjunction with Confidant as well as fetchlands. Rebuild laughs in the face of Workshop decks, and both your Rebuilds and Chain of Vapors can simply bounce your own artifacts to up your own storm count against any deck. For this reason, as well as the cycling ability, I strictly prefer Rebuild to Hurkyl's Recall, as it will never be a dead card stuck in your hand. Some notable omissions from the deck are Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, Ponder, Mind's Desire, and Tinker + Memory Jar. Desire and Tinker + Jar were in my first version of the deck, but the double blue in Desire often proved problematic, and Tinker + Jar just didn't get it done for me in repeated testing. Sensei's Divining Top is much better than Ponder in here, and Fact doesn't really provide a great cost-to-benefit ratio. The only card I would like to possibly fit back in eventually is Gifts Ungiven, just because it is another great tutor. I may swap out Windfall for Gifts in the next version of the deck, in a feature article coming soon. Jumping Into the Silver Age of Vintage Whether or not you agree with the most recent restrictions by the DCI or not, that is the environment we've got to live with for at least the next few months. If your voices are loud enough, the DCI may hear them and take the appropriate action. But in the interim, don't quit the game or stop playing Vintage. The next few months will give you a chance to play a slightly different format, one that may or may not last in its existing form. Explore new deck design, revisit some forgotten favorites, attend this summer's big tournaments, and have fun! By JACO on June 12th, 2008 · Filed in Vintage (Type 1) · 8 Comments |
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