Coming back to the game after a few years, wanted to ask a few questions.
1. What happened to Stax? Smokestacks and Tangle Wire?
the next 2 are similar, but more specific...
2. Uba Stax was especially hot when I was playing - seems it doesn't see much if not any play. What happened?
3. Karn also saw much play when I was playing, beating down with Tangle Wires and Trinispheres and Crucibles, and also killing opponents' moxen. Seems it doesn't see much play anymore?
Cards like thorn of amethyst, lodestone golem and precursor golem were printed, meaning that stax moved away from being control decks to being aggro-control. Karn still sees some play, but not nearly as much.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
MUD has even shifted as far in the direction of aggro as making Null Rod MUD decks. Unfortunately, because of MUD's popularity, Chalice of the Void was recently restricted, but MUD is still going strong.
While Stax (and in your case Uba Stax - using Tangle Wire and Uba Mask) is/was a valid archetype, it has come to be seen as slow. Smokestack as a card has shown to be slow, it typically reads, spend 4 mana and then the following upkeep an opponent has to sacrifice the permanent of their choice. So it's effects are going to be 2 turns usually from doing anything significant.
The prison archetype has moved away from slowing decimating the board, and more towards mana denial with the printing of Lodestone Golem and other cards likeThorn of Amethyst (both of these cards may not be new to you but just mentioning them). The Golem gives you a clock and ends games before the opponents can find and cast answers. Tangle Wire is still used somewhat, but not as much.
One of the Archetypes that may be tied to it's demise is the rise of "Weenie engine decks" (my own term), and these decks while not necessarily characterized by these creatures have some powerful answers to Smokestack. The cards that typify this weenie deck are Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor. Both of these cards have becomi popular over the past years and allow decks stacked with Instants to flood the board with permanents and ignore the effects of Stax. These cards also somewhat negate the effects of Tangle Wire allowing the Elementals or Monks to be tapped down under the wire allowing mana to be freed up to help escape the prison.
Uba Mask certainly keeps counters in check and combos with Bazaar but again the interactions only seems to slow people down, not to necessarily create a clock for winning the game.
Workshops are still incredibly powerful and might be the most dominant archetype/pillar in Vintage, but they aren't utilizing the same lock pieces as of old. Some of them are even utilizing cards that might be associated with "Affinty Decks" of old, to emulate a more creature centric rush.
Thank you for the detailed answer!
Took a quick look at some of the example cards you have pointed out, and it really showed me how much the environment had changed!
Will see if I can upgrade and run the same deck, but will likely shift to the newer archetype.
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Coming back to the game after a few years, wanted to ask a few questions.
1. What happened to Stax? Smokestacks and Tangle Wire?
the next 2 are similar, but more specific...
2. Uba Stax was especially hot when I was playing - seems it doesn't see much if not any play. What happened?
3. Karn also saw much play when I was playing, beating down with Tangle Wires and Trinispheres and Crucibles, and also killing opponents' moxen. Seems it doesn't see much play anymore?
Please kindly provide your answers.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Karn, Silver Golem, Metalworker, and Kuldotha Forgemaster are significantly less popular, though.
So I guess my old Ubat Stax running bazaars and welders and uba mask are obsolete...?
You could probably still run it, maybe with some upgrades.
The prison archetype has moved away from slowing decimating the board, and more towards mana denial with the printing of Lodestone Golem and other cards likeThorn of Amethyst (both of these cards may not be new to you but just mentioning them). The Golem gives you a clock and ends games before the opponents can find and cast answers. Tangle Wire is still used somewhat, but not as much.
One of the Archetypes that may be tied to it's demise is the rise of "Weenie engine decks" (my own term), and these decks while not necessarily characterized by these creatures have some powerful answers to Smokestack. The cards that typify this weenie deck are Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor. Both of these cards have becomi popular over the past years and allow decks stacked with Instants to flood the board with permanents and ignore the effects of Stax. These cards also somewhat negate the effects of Tangle Wire allowing the Elementals or Monks to be tapped down under the wire allowing mana to be freed up to help escape the prison.
Uba Mask certainly keeps counters in check and combos with Bazaar but again the interactions only seems to slow people down, not to necessarily create a clock for winning the game.
Workshops are still incredibly powerful and might be the most dominant archetype/pillar in Vintage, but they aren't utilizing the same lock pieces as of old. Some of them are even utilizing cards that might be associated with "Affinty Decks" of old, to emulate a more creature centric rush.
And finally welcome back.
Took a quick look at some of the example cards you have pointed out, and it really showed me how much the environment had changed!
Will see if I can upgrade and run the same deck, but will likely shift to the newer archetype.