MTG Salvation

Over a year ago I wrote an article advocating the unrestriction of Black Vise in Vintage. In that article I suggested that aggro strategies might become somewhat viable again with that unrestriction.

On Friday I got my wish.

But there's one question the article didn't answer: what would a legitimate 4x Black Vise deck look like, if one even exists?

The natural fit seems to be workshop aggro: with some "classic" artifact creatures like Juggernaut, and some of Stax's lock components like Trinisphere, etc. But could a more Fish-like deck, properly metagamed, be a better fit?

I have been thinking of this, myself.

4 Black Vise
4 Sphere of Resistence

in a workshop shell. I think the deck must have strong control elements, perhaps Leyline, to keep Ichy and Psychatog from pitching their hands.

throw it in stax.
1 3sphere
4 sphere resistence
4 black vice
4 mishras workshop
3 crucible
4 wasteland
also things like
4 arcane labrotory or 4 rule of law would be killer

Prosperity is nice with Black Vice

Since two minutes after I read about the reinstatement of Black Vise and Gush on June 1st, I've been working on a Stasis build. Be patient... I have an entire article-length post on the history of Stasis culminating with the four-Vise deck list I'm working on. I'm actually going to be testing it against various tier one decks to see how it plays out.

Since my Stasis Quo thread on MtGnews finally closed, I've been waiting in the wings for there to be a way to resurrect the archetype.

im looking forward to that grimmshaw...

Great owling mine, in not just extended and legacy but vintage too? Well it will be a cool deck, even if not competitive

i am playing a black vise deck, using high tide + prosperity.... its not competitive but its really funny

I could possibly see play in Fish/Stax decks but I really doubt it will. Why play Vise, which is very conditional over other beatsticks (Ismaru Savannah Lions Juggernaut Jotun Grunt) which are very stable and in a format with few creatures always hit for damage. Even in Stasis I doubt I would play it, wouldn't something like Chronatog be better because it is useful outside of being a win condition?

If you're looking to break vice, I would say you need to look in the direction of stax or maybe something involving Aven Mindcensor (possibly both). Pyrostatic Pillar might be in there somewhere too.

I guess I'm saying, stax is the way to go; otherwise, they're just gonna play their unfair stuff anyway and just win.

I'd say something like an old casual deck I used to have with howling mine, rule of law, underworld dreams, stormseeker, entropic specter, and winter orb would probably be good.

Trade Secrets
I like Complete Jank's idea of Prosperity, and this one does it better if you can manage the double blue.