Alright, I've been a casual player for years, playing mostly with friends or in some cases family. I have a deck that works great against them, but I'm doubtful that it'd hold up competitively
I want to start transitioning into being a more serious player, maybe go to tournaments. So I am starting in vintage, since almost all of my cards ARE vintage except for 2 recent additions that aren't even critical to the deck.
The strategy of this deck is long term, in the short run it frustrates opponents by shutting down their offensive options via No Mercy , Energy Field (usually combined with Library of Leng), Walls, and regenerating monsters. This allows for a buildup to a Dregs of Sorrow (preferably preceded by a mana short to prevent counters) to clean out the opponent's field and clear the path for a large attack (buffed by endless scream or feast of the unicorn). Intimidation provides an easier, riskier way to dish out damage if Dregs is unavailable or was countered.
Soothsaying, and the Demonic/Mystical Tutor allows for stacking the deck and ensuring optimal draws.
of course, I have some additional removal in Sever Soul, Terror, and the disk, as well as deck removal with Jester's Cap getting some serious threats from the opponent's deck out of the game (as well as allowing me to see what's IN the deck while I'm at it)
Isochron Scepter combined with Terror allow for the selective elimination of key targets, or the maintaining of field control after a Dregs of Sorrow. It can also double as an easy source of counters for Sphinx Bone Wand to dish out major damage.
Big problems this deck faces are a very slow start (tried to mitigate it with low cost regenerate monsters and fodder), sometimes difficulty with drawing the right land types, and there's little actual synergy or combos.
Budget-wise, I don't have a set in stone budget, but I'm not willing to spend a lot of money at once, preferring to pick up a cheap card or two every now and then and slowly upgrading.
Any suggestions for how to improve this deck? (as well as any legality issues, I'm unfamiliar with ban-lists and format rules)
Edit: Turns out both of my cards that I thought were NOT vintage are, in fact, legal in vintage
Well man I don't want to absolutely kill your vibes, but you may want to repost this deck in the casual section of the forums.
Firstly, though this deck is clearly well thought out by you, the cards just aren't powerful enough for the vintage tournament scene. If you do want to play a blue type of control deck in vintage you will want to look at investing into cards like Force of Will, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Underground Sea and Mox Sapphire. Now I'm going to just assume that some of these are out of your price range (and they are definitely out of mine,) in which case you will want to start looking for tournaments which let you use a certain amount of proxies (fake cards) to participate in the tournament. A budget deck you would want to look at would be something like Merfolk (just google "vintage Merfolk decklists.")
I am not a huge vintage player myself, but you will definitely want to look into saving funds and reading articles on smart investments to get right into the tournament scene. Either way, it's good to see people still making home brews, and welcome to the scene of competitive magic. Don't let the sharks scare you off.
Well man I don't want to absolutely kill your vibes, but you may want to repost this deck in the casual section of the forums.
Firstly, though this deck is clearly well thought out by you, the cards just aren't powerful enough for the vintage tournament scene. If you do want to play a blue type of control deck in vintage you will want to look at investing into cards like Force of Will, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Underground Sea and Mox Sapphire. Now I'm going to just assume that some of these are out of your price range (and they are definitely out of mine,) in which case you will want to start looking for tournaments which let you use a certain amount of proxies (fake cards) to participate in the tournament. A budget deck you would want to look at would be something like Merfolk (just google "vintage Merfolk decklists.")
I am not a huge vintage player myself, but you will definitely want to look into saving funds and reading articles on smart investments to get right into the tournament scene. Either way, it's good to see people still making home brews, and welcome to the scene of competitive magic. Don't let the sharks scare you off.
Thanks for the advice, yeah those cards are WAY out of my price range (by god... 100 bucks for a single card? TCGs never cease to amaze me). I could probably substitute cards (maybe not quite as effective) for most of the ones you listed, except that planeswalker. Yeah there's no way I can face off against cards like that and expect to win, at least not with this deck.
I'll go to casual for now to work this deck up a bit, and see if I can get my hands on Jace sometime in the future when my deck is better (and I have money)
Of course if other people have tips in this forum, I'll be keeping tabs here too
I want to start transitioning into being a more serious player, maybe go to tournaments. So I am starting in vintage, since almost all of my cards ARE vintage except for 2 recent additions that aren't even critical to the deck.
Here is my deck as it is now
9 Swamp
9 Islands
1 Saprazzan Skerry
1 Urza's Mine
1 Urza's Tower
1 Urza's Power Plant
1 Peat Bog
1 Revenant
1 Phantasmal Fiend
1 Sengir Vampire
1 Living Wall
1 Ornithopter
1 Wall of Shadows
1 Drudge Skeletons
1 Chameleon Spirit
1 Blizzard Elemental
1 Sage Owl
1 Krovikan Sorcerer
1 Hollow Dogs
1 Wall of Air
1 Flymarid
1 Dread Specter
1 Python
1 Cadaverous Knight
1 Drowned
1 Hyalopterous Lemure
1 Air Elemental
1 No Mercy
1 Recall
1 Raise Dead
1 Soothsaying
1 Soar
1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
1 Library of Leng
1 Feldon's Cane
1 Mana Short
1 Jester's Cap
1 Victimize
1 Snap
1 Feast of the Unicorn
1 Animate dead
1 Energy field
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Launch
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Sever Soul
1 Dregs of Sorrow
1 Endless Scream
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Terror
The strategy of this deck is long term, in the short run it frustrates opponents by shutting down their offensive options via No Mercy , Energy Field (usually combined with Library of Leng), Walls, and regenerating monsters. This allows for a buildup to a Dregs of Sorrow (preferably preceded by a mana short to prevent counters) to clean out the opponent's field and clear the path for a large attack (buffed by endless scream or feast of the unicorn). Intimidation provides an easier, riskier way to dish out damage if Dregs is unavailable or was countered.
Soothsaying, and the Demonic/Mystical Tutor allows for stacking the deck and ensuring optimal draws.
of course, I have some additional removal in Sever Soul, Terror, and the disk, as well as deck removal with Jester's Cap getting some serious threats from the opponent's deck out of the game (as well as allowing me to see what's IN the deck while I'm at it)
Isochron Scepter combined with Terror allow for the selective elimination of key targets, or the maintaining of field control after a Dregs of Sorrow. It can also double as an easy source of counters for Sphinx Bone Wand to dish out major damage.
Big problems this deck faces are a very slow start (tried to mitigate it with low cost regenerate monsters and fodder), sometimes difficulty with drawing the right land types, and there's little actual synergy or combos.
Budget-wise, I don't have a set in stone budget, but I'm not willing to spend a lot of money at once, preferring to pick up a cheap card or two every now and then and slowly upgrading.
Any suggestions for how to improve this deck? (as well as any legality issues, I'm unfamiliar with ban-lists and format rules)
Edit: Turns out both of my cards that I thought were NOT vintage are, in fact, legal in vintage
Firstly, though this deck is clearly well thought out by you, the cards just aren't powerful enough for the vintage tournament scene. If you do want to play a blue type of control deck in vintage you will want to look at investing into cards like Force of Will, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Underground Sea and Mox Sapphire. Now I'm going to just assume that some of these are out of your price range (and they are definitely out of mine,) in which case you will want to start looking for tournaments which let you use a certain amount of proxies (fake cards) to participate in the tournament. A budget deck you would want to look at would be something like Merfolk (just google "vintage Merfolk decklists.")
I am not a huge vintage player myself, but you will definitely want to look into saving funds and reading articles on smart investments to get right into the tournament scene. Either way, it's good to see people still making home brews, and welcome to the scene of competitive magic. Don't let the sharks scare you off.
Thanks for the advice, yeah those cards are WAY out of my price range (by god... 100 bucks for a single card? TCGs never cease to amaze me). I could probably substitute cards (maybe not quite as effective) for most of the ones you listed, except that planeswalker. Yeah there's no way I can face off against cards like that and expect to win, at least not with this deck.
I'll go to casual for now to work this deck up a bit, and see if I can get my hands on Jace sometime in the future when my deck is better (and I have money)
Of course if other people have tips in this forum, I'll be keeping tabs here too
There is a deck called "cherios" that you should check out, it can be a lot of fun and is not terribly expensive to make