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

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

4 Kuldotha Forgemaster

4 Lodestone Golem

3 Phyrexian Revoker

1 Duplicant

1 Phyrexian Metamorph

1 Steel Hellkite

1 Sundering Titan

1 Wurmcoil Engine

Spells

4 Chalice of the Void

4 Sphere of Resistance

4 Tangle Wire

4 Thorn of Amethyst

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

1 Staff of Nin

1 Trinisphere

Lands

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Mishra's Workshop

4 Wasteland

1 Strip Mine

1 Tolarian Academy

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:

4 Bloodghast

4 Golgari Grave-Troll

4 Narcomoeba

4 Stinkweed Imp

3 Fatesticher

2 Golgari Thug

2 Ichorid

2 Ingot Chewer

1 Flame-Kin Zealot

1 Sun Titan

Spells

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Mental Misstep

4 Bridge from Below

3 Dread Return

2 Gitaxian Probe

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Black Lotus

1 Lion's Eye Diamond

1 Mox Sapphire

Lands

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

3 Undiscovered Paradise

2 City of Brass

1 Dakmor Salvage

1 Mana Confluence

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

4 Master of the Pearl Trident

4 Cursecatcher

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 True-Name Nemesis

4 Silvergill Adept

3 Phantasmal Image

Spells

1 Time Walk

4 Force of Will

3 Mental Misstep

1 Flusterstorm

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dismember

1 Misdirection

2 Null Rod

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Grafdigger's Cage

Lands

1 Strip Mine

4 Wasteland

4 Cavern of Souls

11 Island

A more controlling example Null Rod deck:

UR Standstill (3-1) by XShockWaveX (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/276023#online)

Spells

4 Force of Will

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Mana Drain

4 Mental Misstep

4 Spell Pierce

4 Null Rod

4 Standstill

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Time Walk

1 Treasure Cruise

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

1 Black Lotus

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Mox Sapphire

Lands

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Volcanic Island

4 Wasteland

2 Faerie Conclave

2 Steam Vents

1 Flooded Strand

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Strip Mine

These decks look to disrupt the other decks in the format by preventing explosive starts while not hindering their own plans.

Mentor/Delver Decks

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

2 Monastery Mentor

Spells

4 Preordain

4 Force of Will

4 Mental Misstep

3 Dack Fayden

3 Gush

2 Dig Through Time

2 Pyroblast

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Gitaxian Probe

1 Ponder

1 Time Walk

1 Treasure Cruise

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

1 Fire // Ice

1 Flusterstorm

1 Misdirection

1 Repeal

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sensei's Divining Top

Lands

4 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Island

2 Tundra

2 Volcanic Island

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Strip Mine

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

4 Duress

4 Dark Ritual

4 Mental Misstep

3 Preordain

3 Force of Will

2 Tendrils of Agony

2 Defense Grid

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Grim Tutor

1 Mind's Desire

1 Ponder

1 Time Walk

1 Timetwister

1 Treasure Cruise

1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

1 Cabal Ritual

1 Chain of Vapor

1 Dig Through Time

1 Rebuild

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Black Lotus

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

1 Necropotence

1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Lands

4 Polluted Delta

3 Underground Sea

2 Island

1 Flooded Strand

1 Swamp

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Mox Ruby

Oath of Druids:

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

3 Griselbrand

Spells

4 Preordain

4 Force of Will

4 Mental Misstep

4 Oath of Druids

3 Show and Tell

2 Thoughtseize

2 Flusterstorm

2 Misdirection

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

1 Dig Through Time

1 Memory's Journey

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Time Vault

1 Voltaic Key

Lands

4 Forbidden Orchard

4 Misty Rainforest

2 Island

2 Tropical Island

2 Underground Sea

1 Polluted Delta

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

1 Laboratory Maniac

Spells

4 Doomsday

4 Preordain

4 Dark Ritual

4 Force of Will

4 Gush

3 Mental Misstep

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Duress

1 Imperial Seal

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Ponder

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Thoughtseize

1 Time Walk

1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Brainstorm

1 Flusterstorm

1 Hurkyl's Recall

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Black Lotus

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.