This article is meant to be a primer for an entire format. The difficulties of doing such an article should be apparent, but I am planning on giving it my all nonetheless. In writing such an article I am hoping to give players, both already involved in this format and those interested in starting up, an in-depth view of what my favorite format entails. I will attempt to give a broad overview of what decks are currently competitors and what decks are just looking for a way to break in. I am also beginning to write this the day after T1 just crowned a new World Champion, so this is the perfect day to begin bringing players into the format for the lead up to next year's World Championships.
So where on Earth does one begin when it comes to the world of Vintage Magic? I suppose that my choice of a beginning would include some of the reasons that I personally play this amazing format.
First and formost in my mind are the players. The tournament level players involved in the Vintage format, from my experience, are heads above the "average" PTQ or or GPT player. Vintage lends itself well to a more casual attitude while still retaining a very high level of skill. There is simply no other format like it. Anybody from other formats should go at least try a moderate sized T1 tourney simply for this reason.
#2 has got to be a new trend... proxies! Proxies are fake versions of real cards, for example writing "Black Lotus" on a basic land. Proxy tournaments have been the primary driving force behind T1's rapid growth over the past 2-3 years. It has made format with a nearly impossible barrier to entry accessible for many more players than ever before. The standard has crept up to allowing 10 proxies in a deck but the proxy limit still ranges from 0 to even unlimited proxies.
Another reason why I play Vintage Magic is the deckbuilding. Simply put, there is nothing that compares to the decks of T1. The power level is just intense. Something that is misinterpreted about the Vintage format is that it all involves turn 1 and 2 kills and games come down to a coin flip. This of course is generally false. While there ARE indeed games that this can happen in, mainly something like DeathLong vs 2-Land Belcher, more often than not T1 matches go the distance, and in tournament play drawing due to time is a somewhat common occurance. The games that are won early tend to be no different than, say, T2 games that feature something like turn 4 Tooth and Nail entwined (which happens rather often). The skills required to run most of these decks optimally is incredibly high as well. I do not want to get into too much of a debate as to what format is the most skilled, so I will put it like this: T1 requires the most skill in certain areas, Limited is skill intensive in others, and so on and so forth. I will say however that T1 requires more knowledge of the stack and of minor interactions by a long long shot. The card pool also lends to the format being much more difficult to get used to. In other words, you really never know what is going to hit you. For example, I have recently been popularizing Death Spark as a valid choice in Dragon and Cerebral Assasin decks; this is a card that probably over 90% of Magic players have no clue about. Never underestimate any card in Magic (okay, okay, maybe you can underestimate Grizzly Bears)
All of that being said, I suppose now is an excellent time to begin talking about the actual decks in the format. Currently there are two separate deck types that are dominating the Vintage format. These decks are Stax and Control Slaver. Several recent large tournaments in the US have shown these decks to just stand out, and many many tournaments over the past two years have shown these deck types to be long-lasting powerhouses of the format.
*STAX
I'll begin with the brand new T1 World Champion deck list. Roland Chang is the new champion, and he won the title with a deck known as STAX. More specifically he won with 5color Stax that was modified from something like Kevin Cron's Stax builds and more traditional Stax builds by still running Goblin Welder and Tangle Wire, but extending into the 5 color mana base for better lock pieces. Stax has been a powerhouse in the T1 format ever since the introduction of the old Long.dec and the addition of the Mirrodin Block. The deck even forced the DCI to restrict Trinisphere. Since the restriction Stax has become even better in reality since so much new work has been added to it. Here is Chang's 3rd place deck list from the last Star City Games tournament in Chicago. (* denotes a restricted card)
| STAX, by Roland Chang 3rd place at StarCityGames: Chicago, 2005-07-31Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 1 Black Lotus * 3 Crucible Of Worlds 1 Mana Crypt * 1 Mana Vault * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Sapphire * 4 Smokestack 1 Sol Ring * 3 Sphere Of Resistance 4 Tangle Wire 1 Trinisphere * 1 Sundering Titan 1 Triskelion 4 Goblin Welder 1 Gorilla Shaman 1 Ancestral Recall * 1 Crop Rotation * 1 Swords To Plowshares 3 Thirst For Knowledge 1 Vampiric Tutor * 1 Karn, Silver Golem 1 Balance * 1 Demonic Tutor * 1 Tinker * 1 Barbarian Ring 4 City Of Brass 3 Gemstone Mine 4 Mishra's Workshop 1 Strip Mine * 4 Wasteland 1 Tolarian Academy * | Sideboard: 3 Chalice Of The Void 1 Jester's Cap 2 Tormod's Crypt 2 Viashino Heretic 2 Choke 2 Seal Of Cleansing 3 Red Elemental Blast |
Stax decks are, in essence, combo decks. In this case the combo is Smokestack and Crucible of Worlds. The rest of the deck is set up to slow down and disrupt the opponent's game plan using cards such as Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void. While this is certainly not classic combo like 2-land Belcher or DeathLong, it still focuses on a central goal of getting that combination of cards into play. Many people also refer to these decks as Workshop Prison decks. Another type of Stax that you have heard about is UbaStax which was designed originally by Robert Vroman and also won the last Star City Event.
Matchups for the Stax builds can vary drastically depending on the actual build of Stax. For example; Vroman's Uba Stax build has been found to have a bad matchup (currently) against Control Slaver and a somewhat weak matchup against Dragon (In fact most Stax decks have bad matches against Dragon). However 5color Stax builds and CronStax builds can have really good matchups against Control Slaver, and can be improoved in the area of Dragon. Another concept that has recently been fixed was the problem of Fish in the meta. Some older Stax builds really had a problem with Fish and would just roll to a heavier aggro matchup due to these decks not only getting ahead early in the permanent war, but also by putting pressure on Stax with quick beatdown strategies. However, steps have been taken such as bringing back Tangle Wire in Chang's deck and adding cards like Duplicant and Solemn Simulacrum (along with tech like Barbarian Ring) to Vroman's UbaStax build. These decks now have a seemingly favorable matchup against their previous nemesis by attacking the aggro strategy in ways that had been lost earlier while Trinisphere was dominant and small aggro could not compete.
*Control Slaver
The next most dominating deck currently in the format is called Control Slaver. While this deck suffered some popularity setbacks due to the next deck I will feature (Gifts) it has still retained all of its potency and has proven to be an amazing deck. Since it is fresh in my mind I will also post a Control Slaver (CS) deck from SCG: Chicago. This is the 4th place CS deck from Jim Erlinger.
| Control Slaver, by Jim Erlinger 4th place at StarCityGames: Chicago, 2005-07-31Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 1 Black Lotus * 1 Crucible Of Worlds 1 Jester's Cap 1 Mana Crypt * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Sapphire * 1 Sol Ring * 1 Duplicant 1 Pentavus 1 Triskelion 4 Goblin Welder 1 Ancestral Recall * 4 Brainstorm 4 Force Of Will 2 Intuition 4 Mana Drain 1 Mystical Tutor * 4 Thirst For Knowledge 1 Vampiric Tutor * 1 Mindslaver 2 Deep Analysis 1 Demonic Tutor * 1 Time Walk * 1 Tinker * 1 Yawgmoth's Will * 1 Seat Of The Synod 1 Island 2 Flooded Strand 2 Polluted Delta 1 Strip Mine * 2 Underground Sea 4 Volcanic Island 1 Tolarian Academy * 1 Snow-covered Island | Sideboard: 1 Sundering Titan 3 Arcane Laboratory 2 Echoing Truth 1 Pyroblast 3 Rack And Ruin 2 Red Elemental Blast 3 Pyroclasm |
Matchups for this deck are generally good in most instances. Being a control deck with one of the best disruption cards ever as the primary goal (Mindslaver) can simply roll many decks over. The deck's primary concern is that of mana denial strategies tearing a hole in the speed threshold of this deck. Fish and Stax can both cause some small problems simply by running the full complement of Wastelands and Strip Mine. The other problem this deck can have is focused anti-Goblin Welder hate. Cards such as Lava Dart and Fire/Ice are major pains for this deck type. While a single Mindslaver activation can often win games, eliminating the strategy of dumping the cards via Intuition and recurring them with Goblin Welder can severely tamper with Slaver's game plan.
*Gifts
Probably the most hyped deck in the format currently is another Mana Drain-based deck known primarily as Gifts. Gifts decks are similar in appearance to CS as the base deck is very much the same. However Gifts decks are entirely set up to abuse the tutoring power of Gifts Ungiven and win through several different routes. One player managed to Top 8 at SCG Chicago with Gifts, and another version of Gifts placed second at the World Championships (Andrew Probasco) That decklist has not been posted yet (at the time of my writing this) so here is Jim Gaffney's Gifts build.
| Gifts, by Jim Gaffney 6th place at StarCityGames: Chicago, 2005-07-31Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 1 Black Lotus * 1 Lotus Petal * 1 Mana Crypt * 1 Mana Vault * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Sapphire * 1 Sol Ring * 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 Ancestral Recall * 4 Brainstorm 1 Echoing Truth 1 Fact Or Fiction * 4 Force Of Will 4 Gifts Ungiven 4 Mana Drain 2 Misdirection 1 Mystical Tutor * 2 Rebuild 1 Burning Wish * 1 Demonic Tutor * 4 Merchant Scroll 1 Recoup 1 Time Walk * 1 Tinker * 1 Yawgmoth's Will * 3 Island 3 Flooded Strand 2 Polluted Delta 2 Underground Sea 2 Volcanic Island 1 Tolarian Academy * 2 Snow-covered Island | Sideboard: 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Pithing Needle 2 Old Man Of The Sea 1 Pyroblast 2 Rack And Ruin 2 Red Elemental Blast 3 Duress 1 Pyroclasm 1 Tendrils Of Agony |
The deck's matchups are difficult to analyze. First off there are numerous versions of Gifts in the format currently. Secondly we aren't 100% sure about which versions are really the best. The primary concerns for this deck have been Fish and Stax though for mainly the same reasons as Control Slaver. Attacking the mana base of Gifts has been the primary goal of many other decks. Efforts to stop this have resulted in versions like Meandeck Gifts that run up to 5 basic Islands in the hopes of stemming this tide. UbaStax is probably the worst matchup you can face, but Dragon can cause some problems as well for this version. Fine meta tuning is required to run this deck optimally.
From this point there are a ton of other decks that see at least some play in T1 currently. As I cannot write a 500 page novel on them all I will try to list what I feel are probably the next best set of decks and a couple of decks that can act as spoilers to these main decks.
*Oath
The next top deck would probably have to be Oath. Oath decks combine their namesake Oath of Druids with Forbidden Orchard to get Oath to activate, spitting out Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Spirit of the Night or sometimes a large number of other creatures such as Ancient Hydra or Darksteel Collosus to win via beatdown in short order. This deck placed 3rd/4th at the World Championships and has been a strong contender ever since Orchard was released in Champions of Kamigawa. Another neat version of this deck is one that combos out by Oathing for Auriok Salvagers and then killing via infinte mana with Black Lotus recursion and Pyrite Spellbomb. Here is another crazy idea of what you can do with Oath of Druids: one build of Oath recently placed in the Top 4 at the T1 Championships at GenCon. This versions simply called GWS Oath (after the team that designed it) is sort of the cutting edge of Oath building. They have decided to focus more on the combo esque effects of Orchard/Oath rather than trying to force the deck into control mode like previous builds. This combo-focused aspect of Oath, alongside an amazing suprise card, Choke, in the sideboard make for a wonderful build that was able to take Mr. Endress to a very nice placing at Worlds. To clarify, Choke is generally NOT a SB option for Oath builds and is an amazing card to bring in against any blue based control deck.
| GWS Choke Oath , by Matt Endress 3rd/4th place at GenCon T1 Championship, 2005-08-20Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Main Deck: 3 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 1 Underground Sea 1 Tropical Island 2 Island 4 Forbidden Orchard 4 Wasteland 2 City of Brass 1 Strip Mine * 1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 1 Spirit of the Night 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 3 Impulse 3 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Rushing River 1 Ancestral Recall * 1 Mystical Tutor * 1 Time Walk * 4 Oath of Druids 4 Duress 1 Vampiric Tutor * 1 Demonic Tutor * 4 Chalice of the Void 1 Gaea's Blessing 1 Mox Sapphire * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Black Lotus * | Sideboard: 2 Triskelion 2 Ground Seal 2 Choke 4 Oxidize 1 Hurkyl's Recall 1 Rushing River 1 Balance * 1 Tinker * 1 Darksteel Colossus |
*Dragon (and Cerebral Assasin)
Another solid choice, especially right now, is Dragon. Dragon decks have actually been much maligned since their debut waaaay back in the day, mostly due to their inherent inability to get around splash hate from many other decks. Most times you dont even have to SB against Dragon since hate for other decks generally works against Dragon. However that is hardly a reason not to run the most powerful pure combo deck in the game. The deck works by playing Animate Dead targeting Worldgorger Dragon. Due to errata on Animate Dead this creates an infinite loop (allowing you to tap your lands for mana infinite times) that cannot be stopped without another creature to animate at some point. The win conditions that this deck can use are pretty broad but they generally include either Shivan Hellkite, Kumano, Master Yamabushi, or Ambasador Laquatus (Laquatus has fallen a bit out of favor since Oath generally runs Gaea's Blessing and thus cannot be decked in this fashion) as the primary wins. Recently versions winning via Ancestral Recall recursion from an infinite Eternal Witness have done well and other secondary kill options include Verdant Force, Caller of the Claw, Flamewave Invoker, Sundering Titan, Triskelion, and Memnarch. Another very closly related deck is Cerebral Assasin, which also runs Goblin Welder to recur Sundering Titans, and can combo with Squee, Goblin Nabob and Possessed Portal to lock an opponent down. (BTW this is my favorite deck EVAR, and I'll throw a deck list in for it...)
| Cerebral Assasin, by Scott Lemenager 5th Place at Eudemonia-P9: Black Lotus Final, 2005-07-31Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 4 Bazaar of Baghdad 4 Goblin Welder 3 Thirst for Knowledge 3 Squee, Goblin Nabob 1 Death Spark 1 Eternal Witness 1 Entomb * 1 Platinum Angel 4 Duress 2 Reanimate 1 Demonic Tutor * 2 Triskelion 1 Tinker * 1 Possessed Portal 2 Sundering Titan 1 Worldgorger Dragon 2 Intuition 1 Ancestral Recall * 1 Yawgmoth's Will * 3 Animate Dead 1 Sulfurous Springs 1 Underground River 1 Vault of Whispers 1 Black Lotus * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Mox Sapphire * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mana Crypt * 1 Sol Ring * 1 Mana Vault * 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 1 Shivan Reef | Sideboard: 2 Seal of Cleansing 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Red Elemental Blast 1 Possessed Portal 3 Ray of Revelation 1 Echoing Truth 1 Hurkyls Recall 2 Pyrostatic Pillar |
Fish is perhaps the most loved while at the same time the most hated deck in Vintage Magic. In fact the best description of Fish is that "it's not a deck, it's an idea." Basically this is a blue based aggro-control deck based largely on small tempo gains from the early and mid game state. There are MANY different versions, and it would be impossible to go into all of them (In fact going over all of them in one article solely on Fish would probably be overkill) however at the current moment the UW versions (Wu-Tang Fish) are probably the most favored. The primary difference currently between most fish decks comes from one choice...do I run Aether Vial and Chalice of the Void? OR do I run Null Rod? The debate continues, although most signs point to the Vial builds being a little stronger overall. The best part about Fish is that when built correctly for the meta, the deck can do extreemly well on a very small budget, making this the deck of choice for most beginning players to T1. Other versions of the deck are, UR, UB, UG (called WTF - worse than fish), UGW, and UWR...with major differences in card choices from deck to deck, even within one color scheme. Fish was originally a Mono U Merfolk deck for those of you wondering why on Earth the deck is called Fish. Here is a quality list from SCG Rochester:
| Fish, by Nick Rosu 4th place at StarCityGames, Rochester, 2005-06-12Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 3 Island 1 Plains 4 Force of Will 2 Old Man of the Sea 4 Mishra's Factory 1 Strip Mine * 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 2 Crucible Of Worlds 1 Misdirection 3 Daze 2 Seal of Cleansing 4 Standstill 4 Flooded Strand 1 Polluted Delta 3 Meddling Mage 4 Wasteland 1 Ancestral Recall * 1 Black Lotus * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Sapphire * 2 Swords to Plowshares 1 Time Walk * 3 Tundra 4 Cloud of Faeries 3 Null Rod | Sideboard: 1 Disenchant 1 Dismantling Blow 3 Energy Flux 4 Chalice of the Void 2 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Control Magic 2 Swords to Plowshares |
*Storm Combo
There are several variations on Storm combo decks. The version with the most tournament success overall is call TPS (The Perfect Storm) which is the slowest of these decks. It features MD disruption in the form of Force of Will and is definitely the most stable of the Storm decks. The other primary Storm combo deck is DeathLong (sometimes called MeanDeath or just Long, taken from the previous build that was sooooo devastating). Deathlong is built to win within the first several turns, and often can win games before an opponent has even gotten a turn. This is one of the decks that gives T1 a bad name. Still this is a legitmate choice for combo/math lovers to run. Both decks require extreme patience and great concentration and skill to pilot. Due to this I would reccomend against a newer player to T1 trying to play these decks. These decks win by basically throwing together a string of the most broken cards in the game simply to bring the storm count up to at least 9 (if this is the first turn or two) and then it Death Wishes/Burning Wishes (or in TPS's cases looks for the MD copies) for Tendrils of Agony to win. The previous version of DeathLong was called Long.dec and was probably the most powerful deck in Magic history (after the 4 of rule), it summarily got Lions Eye Diamond AND Burning Wish restricted. Here is a decent copy of Deathlong that recently split a Eudemonia Tourney near me.
| DeathLong, by Andrej Hartnet 1st/2nd Split at Eudemonia-P9: A.Recall, 2005-07-10Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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Maindeck: 4 Brainstorm 4 Duress 1 Ancestral Recall * 1 Time Walk * 1 Timetwister * 1 Burning Wish * 4 Death Wish 1 Demonic Tutor * 1 Vampiric Tutor * 1 Demonic Consultation * 1 Mystical Tutor * 1 Tinker * 1 Memory Jar * 2 Defense Grid 1 Tendril's of Agony 1 Necropotence * 1 Yawgmoth's Bargain * 1 Hurkyl's Recall 1 Wheel of Fortune * 1 Mind's Desire * 1 Crop Rotation * 2 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Dark Ritual 1 Black Lotus * 1 Lion's Eye Diamond * 1 Tolarian Academy * 4 Gemstone Mine 4 City of Brass 2 Underground Sea 1 Lotus Petal * 1 Chrome Mox * 1 Mana Vault * 1 Sol Ring * 1 Mana Crypt * 1 Mox Emerald * 1 Mox Jet * 1 Mox Pearl * 1 Mox Ruby * 1 Mox Sapphire * | Sideboard: 2 Oxidize 1 Tendril's of Agony 1 Tormod's Crypt 1 Simplify 1 Balance * 2 Xantid Swarm 1 Hurkyl's Recall 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Time Spiral * 1 Primitive Justice 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 Windfall * 1 Yawgmoth's Will * |
Those are my suggestions if you really want to try and win a Vintage tournament (or at least do well). However in some circumstances there are some other decks that I would suggest you go look into.
Workshop Aggro (Rivers Affinity, Gilded Claw, 5/3, The Riddler, 7/10)
Food Chain Goblins (also Mono Red Goblins is cool)
Sensei Sensei
Bomberman
2-Land Belcher
Mono U Control (Smemmen Blue)
3cc (EBA)
Keeper (4cc)
Tog
A nasty no-no.
There is one final category of decks: the jank. No matter how cool and good these decks may seem, they are not competitive 99% of the time and would be a waste. If you are new to the format then ABSOLUTLY DO NOT attempt to play:
Sui-Black (or Mono B control)
Sligh
Reanimator
RG Beatz (unless heavily metagamed)
9-Land Stompy
Kobolds
Affinity (other than Rivers Affinity, which isn't really Affinity.)
So I have come to the end of my little rant on the Vintage format. I hope it gave you guys a little insight into what is currently going on with us. Hopefully it will get a couple of you into the format.
If you have made it this far then I really appreciate it. Hopefully I will see all of you on the forums.
As a parting tip I would suggest this... test, test, and test some more. You really have to feel what you are playing. Some players are simply better at certain decks. Take some time to familiarize yourself with each deck. Practice with them (and practice with AND against each deck to learn more about the decks)utilize all the tools you have availible. Magic Workstation (www.magicworkstation.com) and Apprentice are both valuable tools in learning the format (especially since they cost nothing and will help get you started before you have to shell out any cash or trade) Also I highly suggest browsing all the forums available to you. The forums here on MTGSalvation for example are starting to fill up with lots of new ideas from players just like yourself.
See you all later.
Scott Lemenager
If you have any questions please contact me.
e-mail [email="Lunarsoldier@Yahoo.com"]Lunarsoldier@Yahoo.com[/email]
or
PM me here or on TMD or SCG; my handle is Lunar.
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