Thursday, April 30, 2015

Wizard Den: Trinisphere

Trinisphere is worth dedicating the entirety of this week's Judge's Den to. Last week I covered the importance of maintaining the order of your graveyard in preparation for Wizardden.com 's Vintage League. Had I thought it through a little more, I would have realized that I should have also discussed the oddest card ever when it comes to casting spells, Trinisphere.
First off in order to understand this card you must first understand how to cast a spell. Sounds easy sure, but truth is most magic players do not know how to properly cast a spell.
Announce- Reveal it and announce the spell
Choose Modes- Choose a mode or modes (Crux of Fate, Dromoka's Command)
Target- Choose any necessary targets
How to Distribute-Determine how to distribute if necessary. (Arc Lightning) Once this choice has been made you can not change your mind on the distribution at a later point.
Total Cost-First determine the cost, then apply any cost increases, next apply any cost decreases, finally apply any cost setting effects (Trinisphere).
Mana Abilities- Activate any mana abilities
Pay All Costs- Pay any remaining costs of the spell or ability

We are going to focus on the total cost step. Notice the Trinisphere is the last step, this means that it catches any and all spells as long as they are being cast. Force of Will, Windbrisk Heights, and Omniscience all get caught by the all powerful Trinisphere. For more clarification here are the rulings on Trinisphere.
  • 12/1/2004-Trinisphere's ability affects the total cost of the spell. It is applied *after* any other cost increases or cost reducers are applied: First apply any cost increases. Next apply any cost reducers. Finally look at the amount of mana you have to pay. If it's less than three mana, you'll pay three mana.
  • 12/1/2004-Even with a cost reducer on the battlefield, spells can't cost less than three mana to cast.
  • 12/1/2004-If a spell costs at least three mana due to additional costs, such as kicker costs, that's fine.
  • 12/1/2004-You still need to pay any additional nonmana costs the spell has, such as sacrificing a creature or discarding cards.
  • 12/1/2004-Casting a creature with morph face down already costs three mana, even though the converted mana cost of the face-down spell is zero, so Trinisphere normally doesn't modify the total cost of a face-down creature spell. However, if Dream Chisel is reducing that cost while Trinisphere is on the battlefield, you'll still have to pay three mana for the spell.
Moral of the story is everything must cost at least three mana to cast. This does not change the converted mana cost of the spell, it simply makes you pay additional mana. I will also add that delve and convoke will not get trapped by the sphere. Phyrexian mana on the other hand is currently subject to the sphere. Trinisphere asks you to pay three mana even if you paid life to meet the cost of the symbol. I say currently because convoke used to also be restricted by the sphere, but in 2015 the changed the wording on the ability, a similar change for phyrexian mana would make sense. Each of those are alternate ways to pay for the spell, but don't reduce to cost. Since they do not reduce the cost Trinisphere will not make them cost more. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading and look forward to next week's edition of Judge's Den.



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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Thug life at the "Real" Idaho State Championship and other true stories I didn't make up...


Hey guys's and gal's. I'm back again to talk about my favorite standard archetype; Mono-Black Aggro(MBA, Thug life, etc). I Know I've touched on this subject a few times before but some big things have been happening regarding the deck and I really wanted to get this out there while it's still relevant and I'm still experiencing some success with the deck.

So, as you know I put the deck back together for the first week of standard after the release of Dragons of Tarkir. The reason for that is because I felt it regained a solid foothold after Tomaharu Saito's near top 8 finish at GP memphis with a tribal iteration of the deck and showed us non-believers that the tools are still there for those willing to use them. So I heeded the call and built Saito's deck on magic online and started grinding. This of course being the version with obelisk of Urd. After testing the deck and reading some primers and reviews I started to make some changes. As some of you know, this list was featured in Starcity Game's CVM VS BBD versus video. BBD piloted it to a staggering 4-1 victory over CVM playing his revered G/R aggro, which was and is still a very popular archetype. After the match BBD stated; The Obelisk of Urd were awkward in his opening hands and he feels the slot in the deck would have been better served being a brutal hordechief. So, that's what I did. I replaced the playset of obilesk and played the chief and that's what I sleeved for the first FNM of the new format.

Obelisk V.S. Hordechief

 Okay, I tried both ways. On paper and online and had success with both. One thing about Hordechief is; you don't have to take a turn off to cast him. With Obelisk, the most powerful use of this card is to convoke it out on turn three after starting 1drop on turn one into double 1drop on turn two and turn three convoke into a team of 4/3's and 3/3's to swing on turn four. Sounds great right? Well, not really and let me break it down.

The deck ran 14-16 one drops. The team of choice being:
Bloodsoaked Champion
Mardu Shadowspear
Ruthless Ripper
Tormented Hero

So, this crew is a deadly one. Bloodsoaked and Tormented hero being 2/1 for 1b(One black mana), Shadowspear being pseudo 2/1 with the life loss trigger and Ripper being the weakest as a 1/1 deathtouch but can drain life for two in a pinch late game. So let's assume you have a prime Obelisk hand.
 Bloodsoaked Champion, Bloodsoaked Champion, Ripper, Obelisk, Swamp, Swamp, bile blight.
This is an average but good hand and would be sequenced like this:
Turn One:
Swamp into bloodsoaked Champion. Pass turn.
Turn Two:
Attack with Champion, Second Main phase: Swamp into Bloodsoaked + Ripper)Or other 2/1 if drawn).
Turn Three: assume we draw a swamp
Play swamp, Convoke team into Obelisk naming Humans. Pass turn

We now have two 4/3's and 3/3. Which is great but, if you break down the damage here
Turn Two 2dmg with Champion
Turn 3 would have been 5 damage if we attack or 7 damage with a marauder or 5dmg plus putting additional threats in play.

Now with that what is the pay off of Obelisk? It gives our team +2/+2. That is a total additional damage of 6 assuming nothing dies before we get to combat. So it evens out or is more which is great right? Sure, except you are an aggro deck. You have to kill quickly. Most games end  by turns 4-6 is everthing goes correct and that's a win percentage of 80ish % if ended by turn 6. Each turn after 4 we lose at least a 10% chance of victory as the deck does not have the tools to deal with mid game bombs like Siege Rhino, tasigur, Elspeth, Stormbreath dragon ETC.

So, Let's look at the math replacing Obelisk with Brutal Hordechief in our opener.
Turn One Swamp, Bloodsoaked champion
Turn two, Attack for 2dmg, play bloodsoaked+Ripper
Turn three Attack for 5dmg + play a pain seer let's say.
Turn four play Brutal Hordechief, Attack for 7dmg plus a life drain of four from horde chief. Total 11 Damage. That would have our opponent in the single digits and dead any unblocked creatures or the Hordechief drain if he lives. I descided this was better than obelisk and testing showed it to be the case as with this list I took down the following undefeated:

First FNM of new standard format (First Version)
The following Thursday Night Competitive standard. (First Version)
Four different 8-4 single elimination standard 8mans on MTGO (Split between Old and Current list)
4-0 Finish in a 100+ player standard on MTGO (Old Version)
Second FNM the Friday before The "Real" Idaho State Championships. (New Version)

Old Version (Pre-Dragons of Tarkir)
Creatures:28
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Brutal Hordechief

Spells:10
4 Ulcerate
4 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall

Lands:22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp

That is the main 60 I ran for about 2-3 weeks before dragons released.
With dragons came some sweet new additions to the deck:





Duress was huge for the list. Control was already favorable but with access to eight total hand disruption spells against them, it kept the match favorable, despite the upgrades to the archetypes.




Ultimate Price was also a huge addition as well. The card is arguably narrow, sure. But it solved a huge problem for us as previously, we couldn't kill anything with higher than 3 toughness without stretching our mana to fit hero's downfall. Very welcome addition.

Then we have Foul-Tongue Shriek. Easily the most underrated card of all time in my opinion. This card is a brutal hordechief trigger at instant speed for B(One black mana). That is insane. One huge issue with the chief is he almost never lives to combat if our opponent has anything to say about it and from testing with him, one trigger ends the game on the spot more often than not and this is a "Spot removal-Proof" Hordechief in this our deck. It has it's weaknesses, sure. It requires we have a team on board to even function and against control decks or removal heavy midrange that can be an issue but I've ended over half of my games with "Combat with the team. Before damage, Foul-tongue shriek for X. Good Games." Or even Double foul-tongue shriek which isn't uncommon. Maybe it's not a four of but from experience, I'm never sad to see or draw it.


Last we have the big daddy Pitiless Horde. To be honest he is a glass Cannon. Dies to everything except Wild slash and magma jet, but, He has a specific role to play thanks to his dash mechanic.
He is Wrath of God insurance/Punishment. He never gets played on turn 3 and is dashed near 100% of the time and only when my opponent is tapped out and that's usually after playing a siege rhino or destroying the board with end hostilities or crux of fate. Five damage uncontested is big game and to be honest, after a turn 5 crux of end hostilities, ends the game on the spot. He also Forces your opponent to trade their rhino or lose 1/4 of their life (Which to this point I haven't seen an abzan player willing to do that).

With those additions, here is the total 75 I brought to States and is as it sits, sleeved and in my deck box right now:

Current Version:

Creatures: 27
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pitiless Horde

Spells: 11
4 Foul-Tongue Shriek
3 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall

Land: 22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Duress
2 Dark betrayal
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Herald of Torment
3 Brutal Hordechief

As I stated I played this list at FNM the Night before the state championship. There was a last minute trial for the state championship being held at the same time as FNM. I would have played in that but I was working at the Wizard Den as Nick and Ariel were required to run the trial and played at the shop for that reason. I wasn't expecting high turn out and we had 10 people for 4 rounds of standard swiss. The crew consisted of a few Rogue T3ch members, Matthew Petro and William Lotz(Who had a top 4 finish the following day) and a few regulars who had to miss the Championships due to work or family obligations but all solid players, some I consider to be higher skilled players than myself so my 4-0 wasn't given to me by any stretch as I start the night against my worst matchup: Mono-red aggro, followed by Abzan Control. and then R/W aggro and capped off with a pseudo mirror with B/W warriors.

It's actually kind of funny, William Lotz was playing Abzan Control and because of being beaten by me 2-0 he chose to change decks to R/G aggro on the drive home to have a better game against me. We didn't get paired but it was the correct change given his finish and despite the popularity of the archetype, there were no copies of Abzan Midrange or control in the top 8 on saturday. (You're welcome Will. P.S. I love you).



My "Real" State Championship experience.
With my running success with the deck you must be asking yourself "If this is as good as he says it is, why did he only finish 25th going 3wins 3 loses on saturday?" Well, that is a great question and here's my best answer given my matches:

Round One
I am paired against Grae Gradzinski. A solid local player and a super sweet dude to say the least. He was playing Esper control (Esper Dragons as it's being called now, I guess). I knew this match-up very well as Teammate and Trial Winner William Pickett has been on the deck for a few weeks now. From the 100+ Games we jammed during the week I knew the match was very Play/Draw dependent as I was taxed with getting in enough damage that I could kill him in 1-2 turns following a turn 5 End hostilities. Of course I lost the die roll but thanks to some poor draws by my opponent and strong opening by me I was able to take game one. I opened Bloodsoaked champion into second Bloodsoaked + tormented hero backed by Marauder on 3 to finish him off turn 4 or 5 with an unanswered board. Phew, Through the fire but he was on the play and Had 4 drown in sorrows with my name on it. I boarded the following:

Out:
3 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price 2 Hero's downfall 2 foul-tongue shriek
In:
4 Duress 4 Herald of torment 1 Self-inflicted Wound

The Removal is dead except for after an attack with Ojutai so was an obvious cut. There are arguments for downfall but I don't care about Ashiok, so there's that. I Just wanted hand disruption and more threats to tax his removal, plus herald dodges drown in sorrow being a 3/3. The Self-inflicted wound was a gamble. If it hit the Ojutai, I was king for a day. If it didn't, It was a waste of space.  I was able to not over extend into drown in sorrow while developing the early game and Duress on turn 5 to confirm he didn't have a wrath and jam damage until he died. Sweet, starting the event 1-0 and the match 2-0 felt good. Let's keep doing that!

Round Two
I was not familiar with the player although he did know me by name, which was strange but cool. Overall courteous and respectful dude. He too was on Esper Dragons/Control and proceeded to crush me 2-0. There were some strong differences between His and Grae/Will Pickett's list. Mainly he had mainboard ashiok and jammed it on turn 3(He was on play). Also, he Mainboarded 4 Ojutai's command, which due to some early stumbling with a slower draw from me, he was able to counter my turn four play and gain four life, Followed by cycling 2 more copies on turns 5 and 6 to gain a total of 12 life over 3 turns followed by an Ojutai with counter/removal backups to close out game one. Game two was similar except instead of ashiok he utilized the playset of Surge of Righteousness he brought out of the board to shut out my early plays and Cycles Ojutai's command to take the game out of reach.

I'm now 1-1. Tough beats, But still in the game!

Round 3
Round 3 is upon me and I'm paired against Casey Robbins. I Believe I won the die roll but it hardly mattered as he took a mulligan to 5 and played a shivan reef. He never saw a second land that game. Game two, I had no Idea what he was on so just boarded in 2-3 duress as I saw blue. He was on jeskai tokens and played a Brimaz on curve backed by an anger the gods and that's all she wrote. With that, I replaced some shriek's and Downfalls with Hordechief and Self-inflicted wound. I can't recall the game exactly but I know it was close. I drew runner-runner bile blights that closed out the game and knocked Casey out of top 8 contention (Sorry Bro, but had to be one of us).

Round 4
Paired against another unknown player and he was on Abzan control. Game one was unfortunate for him as he played four "Enters the battlefield tapped" lands and died before he could use them all. Game two I knew the match and sideboarded like this:

Out:
2 Ultimate Price 1 Gnarled Scarhide 1 Tormented hero 1 Bile Blight 1 Pain Seer 2 Foul-Tongue shriek
In: 4 Duress 2 Dark Betrayal 2 Self-Inflicted wound.

He was on the play and went Tapped land into caryatid. I Opened Scarhide into Self-Inflicted wound, swing for 2. He followed with a string of fleeceman lions. I got through with Mogis's Marauder untill we ended in a big board stall. I had 5 creatures totaling 10power on board and he had 3 Lions, caryatid and Satyr wayfinder at 6 life. I Have a foul-tongue shriek and dark betrayal in hand. I Draw a tormented hero. Swing and Shriek for 5 before blocks taking him to 1 life and lost my board. Followed by Tormented hero, target with dark betrayal for the win. Sick rip on my part and another win taking me to 3-1. Phew, almost there!

Round 5
I'm at one of the top tables and Paired against (Now State Champion) Ryan Courtouis. I know Ryan pretty well and had tested the Abzan Aggro matchup a little bit. I won the die roll and felt confident despite this being a bad matchup for my deck historically.  I Opened strong and had him at 2 life by turn 5. We were both hellbent and I had 2 power on board to his 0. He then draws Warden of the first three and makes it a 3/3. I draw land #5 and pass. He gives it lifelink and plays a land and passes. I draw land #6 and pass. He makes it an 8/8 lifelink and destroys me. Tough beats. On to sideboard.

Out:
4 Foul-tongue Shriek, 1 Pain seer, 2 ultimate price
In:
2 dark betrayal, 2 Self-inflicted wound, 3 duress

On the play I came out strong, Drew enough removal to clear a hole and deal with his threats and took it very quickly and we're in game 3. I Sideboard again.

Out:
1 Swamp 1 Duress
In:
2 Herald of torment

I wanted to lower the chance of Flood and up my threat count on the draw as he would have access to kill them before they can deal damage being on the play. I mulligan to 6 and keep a removal heavy hand, which, being on the draw seemed correct as he would most likely be the aggressor. We proceeded to trade 1-1 with everything eachother played untill we were both hellbent and top decking. He was low, at 3 life and I was still at 20 but I knew I was screwed as his top decks trump mine by a lot. I was drawing 2/1's that couldn't block and he had Siege rhino, Tasigur, Sorin etc in his deck. Like game one, he drew into a Warden of the First Tree and Gave it lifelink and counters almost immediately and beat me into oblivion. I ended with 9 swamp in play. Bummer. Flood happens but it's my fault for keeping a super-reactive 6 card hand. Bad beats and out of top 8 I go.

Round 6
My opponent and I didn't really play. I was on the draw and kept a bad hand. He kept a bad hand as well as we new we were out of top8 and wanted to have fun. He was on Jeskai tokens and didn't make a token 'till turn 8 or something. I had 13 swamp in play when I lost game one.
Neither of us sideboarded and neither mulliganed our terrible hands (6 lands and hero's downfall is what I kept LOL) Anyway, he beat me. We had some good laughs and ended the event on a good note. He took 13th and I fell to 25th but I didn't care about prize payout so I was fine.

Finished 3-3.
Played against:
Esper control - Esper Control- Jeskai Tokens- Abzan Control- Abzan Aggro- Jeskai Tokens
Beat 50% and lost 50% across the Archetypes. Had good beats and Bad. I don't regret any choices about my deck. Maybe should have taken a mulligan a few times when I didn't but overall I am satisfied with my finish and how we as team performed.

To those who took my list to the Event, Thank's for indulging me and following my articles.
To those seeing this, sorry for making it a novel but I love the deck and wanted to go in-depth for those who were curious or those looking for something to play in standard. I will continue to play the deck I already took down a standard 8-man today and it has yet to disappoint me.
So I'll continue to "Win fast or Die trying."


Until next time,
Christian

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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Grab Bag Sealed May 9th

Grab Bag Sealed! Wizardden.com is once again hosting a grab bag sealed event. This will run exactly like the last one, but we have some new goodies in the grab bags this time around. Here is a preview of what you can find in them, but this is not the final list.

Each of the cards in From The Vault: Annihilation
Tropical Island (rev)(LP)!!!!
Nissa Worldwaker (foil)
Ajani Steadfast (foil)
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker (foil)
Sorin, Solemn Visitor (foil)
Leyline of Sanctity
Polluted Delta (onslaught)
Demonic Tutor
Primeval Titan (foil)
Deathrite Shaman x2
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (conflux foil)
Vindicate
Sen triplets
Glimmervoid (foil)
City of brass (foil)
Xenagos, the Reveler (foil)
Butcher of the Horde (foil)
Chord of Calling (foil)
And much much more!!!!!!!!


As a refresher the last event info can be found here. Prizes will be similar but different.

$20 entry, May 9th, noon, be there.
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Friday, April 24, 2015

Vintage League Break Down

As you may have heard, Wizardden.com's Vintage League starts this Sunday. There have been plenty of questions about this event so here is the FAQ sheet on everything you need to know about the league.

  • Cost: $15 one time fee for the four week period.
  • Proxies? Yes, you may have every card in your deck proxied. These need to be printed proxies, black in white is fine however. Alternate art acceptable with approval.
  • Prizes are a Tundra for the person with the most points at the end of the 4th Sunday and a Demonic Tutor for the person with the second most points.
  • Can I change my deck? This league is not requiring you to stick to the same deck the entire time.
  • What do we do? At 2pm on Sunday a structured tournament will be run that earns you points. This will have a minimum of 4 rounds for points sake. Before and after this tournament there is casual play that will also earn you points. (points seen below)
  • Can I earn points on other days of the week? No, just on Sundays.
Points:
3 points for showing up on a Sunday (awarded each week, 12 points max)
3 points per tournament match win
1 point per tournament match loss
1 point per casual match win (max 10 per day, can be earned between noon and 5pm when the tournament is not happening)
1 point for each five cards not proxied in your 75 (awarded on the last league day)
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Judge's Den: Otherwise Irrelevant

Ariel with Wizardden.com bringing you a very short Judge's Den article today a rule that in most most often otherwise irrelevant. Graveyard order. With our vintage league starting this weekend and legacy growing in the community now would be a good time to remind people about these rules. Here is the official rule on graveyards.

404. Graveyard
404.1. A player’s graveyard is his or her discard pile. Any object that’s countered, discarded, destroyed, or sacrificed is put on top of its owner’s graveyard, as is any instant or sorcery spell that’s finished resolving. Each player’s graveyard starts out empty.

 404.2. Each graveyard is kept in a single face-up pile. A player can examine the cards in any graveyard at any time but normally can’t change their order. Additional rules applying to sanctioned tournaments may allow a player to change the order of cards in his or her graveyard.

 404.3. If an effect or rule puts two or more cards into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of those cards may arrange them in any order.

 Prior to Urza's Saga there were cards that cared about the order of your graveyard, those cards fall into five categories based on how exactly they care.

 While on the battlefield: Soldevi Digger, Volrath's Shapeshifter, Alms, Barrow Ghoul, Bosium Strip, Circling Vultures, Nature's Kiss, Necratog, Phyrexian Grimoire, Zombie Scavengers
 While in the graveyard: Ashen Ghoul, Death Spark, Krovikan Horror, Nether Shadow
 While in other zones: Corpse Dance, Shallow Grave, Spinning Darkness
 Care about your opponent's graveyard: Bone Dancer, Guiding Spirit, Phyrexian Furnace
 The odd ball (there's always at least one): Mistmoon Griffen
With that quick reminder we draw this week's Judge's Den to a close. Thank your for reading here at Wizardden.com.
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Sunday, April 19, 2015

A Look at Vintage

Hello,

 In a couple weeks, Wizard Den will be hosting a four week proxy Vintage league where the first place prize is a revised Tundra and second prize will be a Demonic Tutor.
Entry will be $15 for the full league to help mitigate the costs of the prizes.
In preparation to that, lets go over the most important cards that you would expect to play against.

Mishra's Workshop Decks, also known as "Shops" is the big mana deck in the format. Powered by it's own repeatable "Black Lotus", shop's decks quickly ramp into powerful spells such as Wurmcoil Engine, Steel Hellkite, Sundering Titan, and Staff of Nin to finish out the game quickly. However, how does the deck protect itself from quicker decks such as Monastery Mentor decks, Storm Combo decks and others.


That's where the prison strategy of the deck comes in. This deck uses the early turns to start locking opponents out with cards such as Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Trinisphere, and Wasteland to deny the opponent from playing anything.


A typical decklist would look like:


Vintage Daily (4-0) by Baulvor (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/276019#online)
Creatures


Spells


Lands


In this deck you can see that we ramp into our primary threats such as Kuldotha Forgemaster and Lodestone Golem while protecting with Chalice of the Void, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst and Tangle Wire.  Generally you have the most consistent late game and the longer you lock the game down you are more favored to win because you can usually play your threats while the opponent cannot.

Bazaar of Baghdad
Bazaar of Baghdad enables one deck in vintage and it's completely vital to have this card. Dredge (the deck in question) works differently in vintage than in legacy because this card allows for a more aggressive game plan because the deck velocity is so much greater.  One copy of this card allows you to dredge up to three times a turn while keeping dredge cards in the graveyard to keep dredging.
The familiar Narcomoeba/Bridge from Below/Cabal Therapy package help fuel your attack. Along with Bloodghasts/Undiscovered Paradise and Ichorids to keep the pressure on, games generally finish with a flashback cast of Dread Return to get Flame-Kin Zealot finish the game in one turn.

 An example deck list:
Vintage Daily (4-0) by Legion273 (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/277707#online)
Creatures:


Spells


Lands


Again, it is extremely important to have Bazaar of Baghdad in your opening hand. It is a mulligan or use of Serum Powder (if you play that). You will NOT win if you do not have that card.
Null Rod
"Fish" decks use Null Rod to cancel out the higher power levels of the other decks in the format by preventing the use of the moxen, Lotus and other mana accelerants. These decks are usually aggro-tempo decks that looks to put a lot of pressure on opponents early and force interaction in the first few turns. However, some pure control decks like Standstill decks also use Null Rod to answer powerful game ending combos such as Time Vault/Voltaic Key.
These decks also usually do not run as much artifact power as the other decks so that the Null Rod affect is as one sided as possible.


An example of an aggressive Null Rod deck:
Merfolk by Randy Buehler (VSL Season 2) (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-online/vintage-super-league-season-2-decklists#Buehler)
Creatures
Spells
Lands
11 Island
A more controlling example Null Rod deck:
UR Standstill (3-1) by XShockWaveX (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/276023#online)
Spells
Lands
These decks look to disrupt the other decks in the format by preventing explosive starts while not hindering their own plans.
Mentor/Delver Decks

Monastery Mentor

The other type of aggro decks in the format. These decks work around the spell heavy nature of the format to enable Delver of Secrets, Monastery Mentor, and Young Pyromancer to take over the game though providing extreme efficiency and value through out the entire game. Delver provides a quick clock that you can pressure the opponent to kill it with their very, very few kill spells (Generally some mixture of 1-2 Swords to Plowshares, 1 Fire // Ice, 2-3 Lightning Bolts and 2 Pyroblasts).  
Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer allow you to store up spells and get an army so that if the creature is killed, you still have enough creatures to take over the game.
Jeskai Mentor by LSV

Creatures
Spells
3 Gush
Lands
2 Island
These decks follow the same general principles of Standard Caw Blade, and Delver decks and if you enjoyed those decks you would like this deck.
Combo/Storm
Why would you like to interact with the opponent? Wouldn't you rather just kill them?
If so, then combo is the way to go. There are many types of combos that are viable in vintage, however there are three main ones you need to look our for: The Perfect Storm (Storm Combo), Oath of Druids, and Doomsday.
The Perfect Storm:
Similar to the legacy version, vintage storm is about playing enough spells and generating enough mana in a single turn to be able to cast a lethal Tendrils of Agony. Using Moxen, mana rocks and rituals along with card draw spells, TPS also uses string card drawing spells such as Mind's Desire, Necropotence, and Yawgmoth's Bargain to ensure that they don't ever run out of gas once the user decides to go off.
The Perfect Storm (4-0) by UnrestrictGifts (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/273277#online)
Spells


Lands
2 Island
1 Swamp


Essentially a two card combo: Oath of Druids and a large creature, usually Griselbrand or Emrakul. Oath of Druids says if your opponent has more creatures than you, reveal from the top of your deck until you hit a creature and put that into play. However looking above, not all decks have creatures in the first few turns, so we can add a third card, Forbidden Orchard, to give an un-counterable way to give your opponents a creature.


Oath of Druids (3-1) by evouga (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/278707#online)
Creatures
Spells
Lands
2 Island
Finally, Essentially a one card combo, Doomsday, gives you 5 cards from your library and graveyard and replaces your library with those cards. To win, you then play a Laboratory Maniac and then draw a card. The issue is figuring out how to get there.
Doomsday (4-0) by oRS (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/267206#online)
Creatures
Spells
4 Gush
There is enough cards to make everyone happy in vintage. With a card pool so vast, your imagination can go wild. Remember to make sure that each card in your deck is in there for a purpose and either advances your game plan or hinders opponents' game plans in a way that doesn't hurt your game plan. Remember your role in the matchups and figure out how to execute.
Thank you for your time and attention. This has been Will Pickett with Wizadden.com.
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