I think the 0-mana aspect of Reverent Silence is the most important part, considering the deck wants more than anything to go off turn 1 (or 2 with a bad hand). It can remove a Leyline or Rest in Peace (even multiples) while you can go off in the same turn.
Also, I agree with Sinis that sticking Griselbrand before the opponent has anything is an almost guaranteed win. Drawing 7-14 cards has a huge chance of giving you what you need to lock the game up, whether it's another dude or a way to strip their removal. That said, Chancellor of the Annex is the first creature that you want to max out as 4-of, because having it in your opening hand is probably the biggest factor in winning a significant amount of your games. It's also the only creature you don't mind seeing more than one copy of. Griselbrand should be the first target to reanimate, but you can go with less than four in the deck since you already want to have 4 Entomb anyway.
Could (new spoiler)Kess, Dissidant Mage be awesome in this deck? Safe from Bolt and Decay, great attacker or defender, and a free spell every turn. Is the cost worth it in the deck, either in mana or moving away from Angler?
I played an Esper prison deck a while ago that looks like it played the same style of game, but maybe less controlling in favor of individually powerful things. Just putting out some ideas based on what I remember from that deck, even though it was a few years ago and a different deck. It was basically a Tezzerator core, modified to run Enlightened Tutor in place of Transmute Artifact, with a bunch of hateful enchantments along with the artifacts. They are not budget-friendly at all though, so it's probably not worth buying a lot of the cards just to play in a fringe deck.
If Brainstorm, and drawing extra cards in general, is a major problem, splashing for Chains of Mephistopheles looks like the best answer, especially with Enlightened Tutors already. You might have to cut your own Brainstorms, but if you only run one Chains to tutor against specific opponents you might be able to get away with both. A black splash also opens up the option to run hand disruption in the board. I also played one of some other high-dollar hate cards for people that are able to get them, specifically The Abyss and Moat in place of a couple Bridges, and Nether Void. I also ran Trinisphere and Humility, which are easier on the budget, and in most situations I found Humility was actually the best of the creature-hate options.
I ran a pretty high land count with a set of Mox Diamonds to pick up some speed; Chrome Mox or Mox Opal might work better here depending on your land/color/artifact counts. The biggest reason I played them was to go for a turn 1 Chalice, which wouldn't work out in this deck, but it can also let you play other things that would otherwise be just a little bit slow, like Trinisphere/Arcane Laboratory, or that Uba Mask as a budget Chains (one game I managed to land a turn 1 Trinisphere with a double Mox hand, I just always have to mention that when I talk about this deck). This deck has a lower curve than mine did, but playing a couple could help get hate cards on the field early in matchups where they're important. That might mean playing a few in the board, especially for when you're on the draw - sometimes you just need to drop RIP turn one on the draw against Reanimator or Dredge, or Humility before Elves can draw 20 cards, or a Bridge before they ramp into Sneak Attack.
Someone mentioned adding the Counter-Top package in here. I played one of each and they didn't work in my list. I wasn't able to do what I wanted while also keeping enough cards of different mana costs for them to be consistent. If I remember right, my high land count plus the Diamonds was a big part of that, so perhaps this list could play one of each to E-Tutor up when the opponent runs mostly 1-drops. Lantern helps them play around it a little bit, but only if you don't have mill rocks up. In fact, you might even be able to just play one Counterbalance without Top since there is a bunch of manipulation already, with possibly another plus a Top in the board if it tests well, but I doubt there's enough room for the full set of 8.
I do think one or two Jace would be good here, but I haven't played the deck so I could be completely wrong. He's an extra Shredder when the opponent has a lot of hate (which will show up sooner or later if you play this somewhere regularly), including getting through Chalice/Prelate on 1 unlike the others, still works if you have to pop your Lantern, and works towards his ultimate while doing that. He's also an extra pseudo-removal spell for creatures that don't care about Bridge, and an extra way to repeatedly dig for things you need. It could just be that the deck doesn't want 4-drops, but he just does several different things in one card that all seem great here. Brainstorm actually looks like his least useful ability in this deck, and everybody likes to Brainstorm.
Also, there's that new legend that gives all your artifacts hexproof (and dodges both Bolt and Decay). He seems like he fixes one of the biggest issues with prison decks I've played, i.e. your opponent finding an answer to whatever hate piece is holding them back while trying to get your kill/lock in place. There are plenty of cards available that disrupt this deck, and even more cantrips to dig past what mill rocks can take out. If you play the black high-budget splash, Guardian Beast is a maybe-better version.
Just throwing this out there - Visions and Portent can set up your opponents next few draws as early as turn one. They're probably not good enough, they just keep popping into my head while writing about this deck so I thought I would mention them.
Has anyone played this at all lately? I would like to try out Vintage at Eternal Weekend and wondering if anyone has a reasonably competitive list (preferably without Power). I don't have access to Power, but I have the Legacy deck already and could probably get any non-Power stuff that might get added for the different format. I like some of the numbers you changed; the Symbiote-Visionary engine and Deathrite's abilities are best in grindy games, which I imagine come up a lot less. DRS is still great for his mana, but I don't know if fetches are as common as in Legacy.
I do play Ruric Thar in my Legacy list, and he always hurts the opponent a lot more than you unless you just draw a string of nothing but Green Sun's. I realize it's a totally different format, but from what I can see there are even fewer creature-based decks, which means opponents will trigger him even more and there will presumably be fewer answers going around. It's also just nice to have something you can grab with an early Natural Order that has more effect than just attacking for non-lethal.
I'm sure Skullclamp would be a great addition, but with a few of those I suspect you would need a different kill card than Craterhoof since you'll be killing off his fuel to draw cards. Progenitus is the first thing that comes to mind (because that's the other big one in Legacy), but taking two more turns to kill might be too slow.
I think you might not run 7 of Glimpse/Skullclamp, I might try cutting some number of one of those. I would probably cut Glimpse first, since Clamp stays around, but that's just a guess since I don't know the format. The second Clamp doesn't do much, but there's also artifact destruction all around so it's probably not bad to get extra. Clamp could also help a little bit against Oath, potentially keeping your board clear and sculpting your hand until you can try to go off in one turn.
Workshops must be a rough matchup, but since Trinisphere and Chalice are both restricted now that makes a big difference. Maybe Ancient Tomb in the board could improve it some more? Also, Bane of Progress could be better than Creeping Corrosion, especially if you bring an extra NO with it.
I'm pretty sure at least one Survival of the Fittest should go in here. Not the full set, since you run 4 of everything important and don't have any bullet-type cards, but maybe extras in the sideboard along with hate cards. Without power, would Loaming Shaman be quick enough to run as Dredge hate?
I also have the cards available to splash white or blue for sideboard hate cards. Rest in Peace most likely, maybe Gaddock Teeg if he's as good as he can be in Legacy, Kataki seems great. Blue would probably just be Flusterstorm, maybe Swan Song if there are enough enchantments that this deck is really worried about.
I'm going to Eternal Weekend and I would like to try playing in one of the smaller Vintage events. Not the main event, because I have no Power (or experience), I just want to try out the format. I've got a bunch of Legacy stuff, so I'm not going entirely budget, but I only have a handful of expensive things that I'll mention below. I have at least seen almost all Legacy decks played, and I've messed around with lots of decks casually, so if something I am familiar with can port over easily that would be preferable to trying to build a new budget deck in the next couple days.
For reference, here are the Legacy decks I am able to build now or with minimal investment:
Death and Taxes - one of the primary decks I've been playing lately, seems like this wouldn't change much. There's actually a chance I could borrow a Mox Pearl as well, probably the only Power card I might be able to get my hands on. Strip Mine is great here. I have a Moat in the board, if that's even important here.
Elves - the other deck I've played with a lot in the last couple years. Survival of the Fittest could be a big addition, and I'm sure I could get one or two easily enough. Can't think of any changes besides that. [Edit - How did I forget Skullclamp? That looks like it would be insane, but it might mean going for a different kill card than Craterhoof]
Tezzerator - I haven't played this for a few years, but it gains a lot of stuff that I have/can get. The non-Power mana rocks, Tolarian Academy, and Tinker would be huge upgrades. I've got one each of Chains of Mephistopheles and The Abyss that I played in the board. Could possibly get access to a Nether Void. I'm sure I would change this up somewhat to take advantage of Tinker.
Lands - I have no competitive experience with this deck, but I think I still have everything. I do have a Tabernacle, but I don't know if that's as big in Vintage as in Legacy. Strip Mine is a big upgrade here too.
Any flavor of Delver - I've got the 4 Force and plenty of blue duals. It seems like going budget with this deck would be missing too much (small-p)power to do well, especially with the cantrips restricted.
Reanimator - I may be able to borrow a R/B reanimator from a friend, assuming he isn't using it in Legacy at the time. I don't have experience with it myself, but I've watched it a lot and it's straightforward enough to pick it up quickly.
Cheeri0s - since I'm not expecting to do great anyway, this deck is just plain fun. Besides the fact that the deck loses to itself too often to play seriously, this one seems like it could actually compete with Vintage decks in terms of speed. I would definitely have to fit Mental Misstep to fight others, since a 1-drop is the whole deck.
Infect - I have no actual playing experience with this one either, but I have access to everything except Berserks already, and they're cheap enough now that I've been thinking of getting a couple anyway.
Having only looked at Vintage in passing, I'm thinking the combo decks would likely work the best without being able to add power, and of those Reanimator and Cheeri0s would be the two that require the least changes/learning. I assume Workshops is a horrible matchup for any of them, but that's likely true of most decks I could play anyway.
D&T also seems like it could do pretty well, but would probably need retuned for totally different matchups.
I know there's very little notice on this, but if anybody has suggestions before the end of the weekend I would appreciate it.
Played in a small Game Day today, only 10 people. I went 3-1, which was good enough for the cut to top four.
Round one I beat U/B Zombies. Lost game one, because the deck is just a bad matchup for me. After sideboard I get exile effects and lower my curve, which makes a big difference. After stabilizing in a long game, I won game two with Crush of Tentacles surged, next turn hit for 8 and Part the Waterveil awakened, then Chandra on my extra turn to hit for everything. I expected to draw game 3 because we started with like 4 minutes on the clock, but my opening hand had Thing in the Ice, Dynavolt Tower, and Fall of the Titans. After ignoring a couple creatures to burn his face with Fall and a Tower activation, I top-decked Attune with Aether on Turn 4 after time, which was just the right card to flip Thing, give me enough energy to use Tower, and attack with a Lumbering Falls for 13 with him at 12 life.
Round two I beat the same zombies list. Exact same 60, the first guy built this guy's list right before the tournament started but just threw together a sideboard of what he had in front of him. I got lucky in this match because he just kept two slow hands, and both times I stuck an early Chandra while I had a Tower up to keep her alive and hitting for 6. Second game I used a Part without awaken after he tapped out trying to kill Chandra, so attacking with her twice plus activating Tower finished him off.
Round three lost to G/W midrange. His creatures just got too big for my removal, and in a couple games I was stuck on 5 lands and drawing nothing but 6-cost spells. At one point the four cards in my hand were Crush, Part the Waterveil, 6-drop Chandra, and Nissa's Renewal while I had five lands in play.
Last round I was paired against a guy playing an unfinished Aetherworks Marvel deck that wasn't planning to stay for the top 4 cut, so he agreed that if he won we could call it a draw which (I think) would have put me into the top 4. After going 1-1 and using up most of our time he just conceded to me, which put me into 2nd place.
First round of the top 4 I played against the same zombies deck as round two. Unfortunately, this time he got good opening hands and I couldn't do anything. Game three I kept a hand with 2 Thing in the Ice, which has been my best way to the game against that deck so far, but every draw step after that was land-land-3rd Thing-land-one spell that was entirely too late. I got all three of my Things, but was only able to cast one actual spell the whole game.
So it looks like there are more Zombies lists showing up locally, which means I really need to figure out how to beat them. I may need to move some Incendiary Flows to the main for a better game one, and I would like to find some kind of decent graveyard hate for the sideboard. I'm not sure if that exists right now.
Aetherworks Marvel also seems like a rough matchup. This is the first time I've played against it, but it seemed like most of my answers lined up pretty poorly. I'm thinking I either need more counterspells to stop their thing from going off, or I need to be able to go more aggressive after sideboarding. I'm pretty sure Longtusk Cub is the way I would go aggro if that's the angle I take, just have to play more matches to figure that out.
Ugh I really don't like how copter is in every deck, it's even more annoying than sylvan advocate because at least against the latter you can play sorc. speed removal or the deck has to run green to use it. I think it's easy to dismiss as "this is a nother ban x card" but time will say if it actually starts killing diversity as it seems right now.
The fact that it can be played in several different decks means that it really can't do much to "kill diversity." That can only happen if the card makes it necessary to play a very specific set of cards with it, so that every deck running it is almost exactly the same list (like CoCo, which incidentally did not get banned).
I haven't been able to play any in the last week or so, but here's what I can say about it based on my last couple times out.
Personally, I feel like if you're going to run green it might as well add to your mana fixing. If you're not using energy at all, I might go with Traverse the Ulvenwald, plus one or two Torrential Gearhulk to find if you hit delirium. But even with just Lightning, Attune With Aether would really help to kill some x/4 or 5 stuff.
If your only green is for Nissa's Renewal, it may not be worth stretching your mana base when there are things like Hedron Archive available. That said, dropping green also means that Radiant Flames probably has to go (Aether Hub alone isn't enough to rely on hitting for 3 early), and Flames seems to be the best sweeper against the red aggro decks as well as any Zombie decks that may be around. Caravan could be enough to help with the Converge, and you also run more spot removal than I do, but I still would look into other options if you decide to cut green. If you do go two colors then you might add enough basic Islands to run Engulf the Shore
Metallurgic Summonings is something I looked at, but in my list I feel like I can't afford to spend turn 5 or 6 playing something that doesn't effect the board. Again, the extra spot removal might make a difference, but I would still be worried about my hand being clogged up with more than one copy in the early game. If I ran it at all, I certainly wouldn't want the full 4.
Crush has never felt like a bad draw for me, but I've only played in my local meta, which is virtually all aggro and midrange. I've cast it without Surge a few times just to clear the board - sometimes it buys me the time I need to stabilize, sometimes it just stalls because I don't draw anything else in time. I'm not saying 100% that it's a staple, I could end up moving more into a full-on Dynavolt Tower build that doesn't worry about a board reset, but until I play a game where I'm unhappy to draw at least one copy I'm going to stick with running 3.
Thing in the Ice is great in the deck. He's an excellent early blocker, survives a Flames on 3, and becomes a significant win condition pretty quickly. I've found that having 3 TitI along with 3 Crush has made a big difference in being able to get/keep a good threat on the board before the opponent has time to rebuild from early removal.
The full 4 Part the Waterveil seems like a lot. I see what you're going for with that and Summonings, but I'm sure that between 8 copies of those two cards you're going to have a lot of very slow opening hands that just fold to aggro. Even with just two in my list I've already had games where I draw more copies than I want to see. Eight draw spells should be enough that you can cut at least one copy of each and still be able to find them once you're stabilized and ready to start winning.
Bristling Hydra is something I skipped over since I was building a mostly-spells deck, but it looks like something that might work well in my sideboard for removal-heavy decks. I usually build up enough energy by the time I would play it that I could give it hexproof two or three times right away, so it might be exactly the resilient threat that I'm looking for in those matchups. I'll have to test that one out when I get a chance.
I went 3-1 last night with the list I posted above. I beat U/R Spells, then G/B Delirium to start with. Lost to a budget R/W humans aggro that just came out too fast with a bunch of 1-drops for me to stabilize, then beat a more normal R/W Vehicle aggro. All the spot removal seemed to perform better against the vehicle decks, because I could kill the real creatures and ignore a couple vehicles long enough to hit my late game stuff.
I haven't come to any new conclusions so far, my first impressions seem to still be mostly accurate for this week. I still want to fit another Dynavolt Tower somewhere - I think the combination of Tower and Thing In the Ice/Octopus tokens works out well, because the aggro decks can't really spare enough space for both creature removal and artifact hate without diluting their own game plan and getting slower. Fall of the Titans has been great for me, even when it's just for X=2 to get a couple small creatures out of the way. I was on the fence with Nissa's Renewal, but the life gain added onto the extra mana has made a huge difference.
The mana base needs some work, but that's just going to take some more playing and tweaking. There have been a couple games where too many lands come into play tapped, but between Attune, Servant, and Aether Hub I've always had the colors I need so far.
I've brought Offshoot in a few times but have not actually drawn it yet, so I still can't say how good it is. I think I want to replace it anyway, as soon as I figure out what should go in those spots. I probably want the 4th Radiant Flames, but I'm not sure what else. I haven't played any matches where I wanted to bring Visions in, so I might look into switching at least one of those out as well. My main issue with the board so far has been figuring out what to take out against aggro, since there are so many cards to bring in. I need to work out an actual plan for what swaps I need to make in each matchup so that I can line things up better, but that's just going to take more testing. I don't get a lot of play time, so that's going to take some time to figure out.
Your list looks interesting, but I feel like you're going for something different. That looks closer to a combo deck than what I'm looking for, where you're just trying to stall long enough to set up a specific thing that ends the game almost on the spot. I'm trying to play more of a board-control strategy, where I block my opponent from doing anything and resolve a threat that they can't deal with. I don't have nearly enough artifacts for Era of Innovation, and I run too low on cards for Fateful Showdown to be worth 4. Aether Marvelworks doesn't work for me, because my big spells rely on Surge or Awaken so they lose a lot if cast through Marvelworks. I'm not saying it's bad, I honestly have no clue since I've only played the format a couple times, but I can tell that it's a different deck than I'm working towards.
So Eternal Weekend is coming up, and I'm considering playing in the Vintage tournament just for fun. I've only played a handful of Vintage matches before, so I don't expect to do well, I'm just looking for a deck that can hold its own and play some reasonable games. I have a lot of Legacy staples, so I'm not going fully budget. If I'm very lucky I might be able to borrow a couple things (possibly a Twister, which would be great for this deck), but most likely I won't have access to any kind of Power. I played in a proxy Vintage a while back with a Powered burn deck that performed pretty well, and my opponents said it was surprisingly hard to play against, so I'm looking to recreate that as close as I can.
Here's what I'm looking at so far.
Brainstorm being restricted makes me think that Delver might not be the way to go, but if its still good enough I might run him and try to fit enough other blue cards to run Force of Will as well.
When I played the proxy-powered version before I basically auto-folded to Workshops, and I'm expecting Game 1 will still go that way now. I'm hoping that the Tombs in the board would make some difference in that match, but I assume it would still be my worst matchup. Yawgmoth's Will was a great splash in that powered version, but I'm guessing that without any Power/fast mana it won't really do anything. If I include the splash I might also add Demonic Tutor, and maybe even Bump in the Night.
I cut down on Fireblast, Price, and Vortex because of how much faster I expect this format to be than Legacy. I assume that there won't be more than 3 or so lands on either side before the game ends, so I don't expect that they would have the same impact (except Fireblast - I just think drawing a second would be mostly dead).
If anybody has some idea of how well this might work in a real Vintage field, even if its just straight-up bad, I'm interested in hearing it.
I also have Legacy Elves and Death & Taxes built if either of those might be better to adapt for Unpowered Vintage. I'm open to anything, just looking to play for fun as long as my deck has a reasonable chance of competing.
First of all, I should point out that I haven't played any Standard in 3 or 4 years. All I really know is that vehicle aggro is the big thing right now, but I don't want to play that. My local store just started a Standard League on a night that I can actually play, so I put this together. I don't need something Tier 1, just good enough to play in that local League that I actually enjoy playing. The meta seems to be mostly aggro, with one or two midrange/Planeswalker decks and one guy on Aetherflux Reservoir combo.
New Chandra would fit perfectly in here, and I intend to replace the Hedron Archive if I can get her cheap enough.
I know 24 land seems light for this kind of deck, but I seem to be flooded more often than not. I just cut the 4th Attune to add a 3rd Thing.
The fact that aggro is so good right now has been a problem for me because people are packing more removal than I have threats. Even if they spend removal on my Servants, they still have something ready in hand for my 8/8 or awakened land. I haven't been able to actually attack with anything yet. I'm thinking that I want to find room for a 3rd Dynavolt Tower, I just need to figure out what I should cut for it.
I would like to get some sort of artifact hate into the board, but Appetite for the Unnatural looks like the best option and I'm not sure if its actually good.
I can't decide if Jaddi Offshoot is good yet, or if I should just play more removal in that space. I think if I keep it I should fit a few Evolving Wilds in the deck.
I'm sure it will be a sideboard thing at most. There are only a handful of decks you could play against where A) the game will go long enough that card advantage matters, and B) there isn't a huge risk of letting them take Monarch from you. Miracles is the only popular deck I can think of that matches that, and even then maybe just the non-Mentor builds. Still, if it turns out to be good against Miracles that could be enough to run one in the board.
Tallowisp is one of my favorite archetypes, but I almost never get a chance to play/test Modern so take whatever I say with a heavy grain of salt.
I feel like the colors you play depend heavily on how aggressive/controlling you want to be with your playstyle. If you're a more aggressive player, splash green for Rancor, Unflinching Courage, and maybe even Strangleroot Geist.
Red can be equally aggressive with things like Madcap Skils, but there are no spirits really worth running. Red is definitely the least likely splash color, but not entirely out of the question.
For control players, black can give you Dead Weight, Pillory of the Sleepless, Horobi's Whisper and similar effects, not to mention the more obvious hand-control aspect that black can bring to the table. Thief of Hope can also serve as a closer in the slower Esper lists that run heavy on Spirits and Arcane spells.
Straight UW has to be the most balanced, with the option for aggro in the form of Ethereal Armor or Unstable Mutation, or control in any number or Pacifism or Mind Control effects, depending only on which cards you choose to play. At this point there are enough options to go either way. {Last time I played this deck in a competitive environment, I actually ran a 1-of Mind Control,
TL;DR: If you want to be ready for a wide-open metagame, I would say stick with a "safe" straight-up UW list with a straightforward strategy and sideboard. If you're looking to play towards your own local metagame, or perhaps just bend the list to match a style that you just like to play more, then you can splash either green to go more aggressive or black to go more control.
Really enjoy the new article! One question for you all. I am playing in this small tournament of about 20 people. There will be a lot of miracles and goblin stompy, 4 of each for some ungodly reason. There will be 1-2 Nic Fit, 1 Jund, 1 burn, 1 12-post, and unknown decks. given this, what should I bring in for the goblin deck? I cannot find much information on it. 8 blood moon effects do nothing against basic plains, but chalice and trinisphere could be less than fun. The win seems to be Krenko, Mob Boss, Siege-gang Commander, or Goblin Rabblemaster. Would something like Holy Light work for mentor tokens and goblin tokens?
If you're sure there will be that many goblins, I sort of want to suggest Tivadar of Thorn. He's Recruitable, but awfully narrow, so I'm not sure if it's actually worth it. First strike and pro-red does make him decent against burn and maybe playable against Jund.
Without Elves in that list, Marrow Shards might be better than Holy Light if you want that kind of effect. As far as I know the Stompy decks don't run any lord effects, so they actually attack as 1/1s.
Also, I agree with Sinis that sticking Griselbrand before the opponent has anything is an almost guaranteed win. Drawing 7-14 cards has a huge chance of giving you what you need to lock the game up, whether it's another dude or a way to strip their removal. That said, Chancellor of the Annex is the first creature that you want to max out as 4-of, because having it in your opening hand is probably the biggest factor in winning a significant amount of your games. It's also the only creature you don't mind seeing more than one copy of. Griselbrand should be the first target to reanimate, but you can go with less than four in the deck since you already want to have 4 Entomb anyway.
If Brainstorm, and drawing extra cards in general, is a major problem, splashing for Chains of Mephistopheles looks like the best answer, especially with Enlightened Tutors already. You might have to cut your own Brainstorms, but if you only run one Chains to tutor against specific opponents you might be able to get away with both. A black splash also opens up the option to run hand disruption in the board. I also played one of some other high-dollar hate cards for people that are able to get them, specifically The Abyss and Moat in place of a couple Bridges, and Nether Void. I also ran Trinisphere and Humility, which are easier on the budget, and in most situations I found Humility was actually the best of the creature-hate options.
I ran a pretty high land count with a set of Mox Diamonds to pick up some speed; Chrome Mox or Mox Opal might work better here depending on your land/color/artifact counts. The biggest reason I played them was to go for a turn 1 Chalice, which wouldn't work out in this deck, but it can also let you play other things that would otherwise be just a little bit slow, like Trinisphere/Arcane Laboratory, or that Uba Mask as a budget Chains (one game I managed to land a turn 1 Trinisphere with a double Mox hand, I just always have to mention that when I talk about this deck). This deck has a lower curve than mine did, but playing a couple could help get hate cards on the field early in matchups where they're important. That might mean playing a few in the board, especially for when you're on the draw - sometimes you just need to drop RIP turn one on the draw against Reanimator or Dredge, or Humility before Elves can draw 20 cards, or a Bridge before they ramp into Sneak Attack.
Someone mentioned adding the Counter-Top package in here. I played one of each and they didn't work in my list. I wasn't able to do what I wanted while also keeping enough cards of different mana costs for them to be consistent. If I remember right, my high land count plus the Diamonds was a big part of that, so perhaps this list could play one of each to E-Tutor up when the opponent runs mostly 1-drops. Lantern helps them play around it a little bit, but only if you don't have mill rocks up. In fact, you might even be able to just play one Counterbalance without Top since there is a bunch of manipulation already, with possibly another plus a Top in the board if it tests well, but I doubt there's enough room for the full set of 8.
I do think one or two Jace would be good here, but I haven't played the deck so I could be completely wrong. He's an extra Shredder when the opponent has a lot of hate (which will show up sooner or later if you play this somewhere regularly), including getting through Chalice/Prelate on 1 unlike the others, still works if you have to pop your Lantern, and works towards his ultimate while doing that. He's also an extra pseudo-removal spell for creatures that don't care about Bridge, and an extra way to repeatedly dig for things you need. It could just be that the deck doesn't want 4-drops, but he just does several different things in one card that all seem great here. Brainstorm actually looks like his least useful ability in this deck, and everybody likes to Brainstorm.
Also, there's that new legend that gives all your artifacts hexproof (and dodges both Bolt and Decay). He seems like he fixes one of the biggest issues with prison decks I've played, i.e. your opponent finding an answer to whatever hate piece is holding them back while trying to get your kill/lock in place. There are plenty of cards available that disrupt this deck, and even more cantrips to dig past what mill rocks can take out. If you play the black high-budget splash, Guardian Beast is a maybe-better version.
Just throwing this out there - Visions and Portent can set up your opponents next few draws as early as turn one. They're probably not good enough, they just keep popping into my head while writing about this deck so I thought I would mention them.
I do play Ruric Thar in my Legacy list, and he always hurts the opponent a lot more than you unless you just draw a string of nothing but Green Sun's. I realize it's a totally different format, but from what I can see there are even fewer creature-based decks, which means opponents will trigger him even more and there will presumably be fewer answers going around. It's also just nice to have something you can grab with an early Natural Order that has more effect than just attacking for non-lethal.
I'm sure Skullclamp would be a great addition, but with a few of those I suspect you would need a different kill card than Craterhoof since you'll be killing off his fuel to draw cards. Progenitus is the first thing that comes to mind (because that's the other big one in Legacy), but taking two more turns to kill might be too slow.
I think you might not run 7 of Glimpse/Skullclamp, I might try cutting some number of one of those. I would probably cut Glimpse first, since Clamp stays around, but that's just a guess since I don't know the format. The second Clamp doesn't do much, but there's also artifact destruction all around so it's probably not bad to get extra. Clamp could also help a little bit against Oath, potentially keeping your board clear and sculpting your hand until you can try to go off in one turn.
Workshops must be a rough matchup, but since Trinisphere and Chalice are both restricted now that makes a big difference. Maybe Ancient Tomb in the board could improve it some more? Also, Bane of Progress could be better than Creeping Corrosion, especially if you bring an extra NO with it.
I'm pretty sure at least one Survival of the Fittest should go in here. Not the full set, since you run 4 of everything important and don't have any bullet-type cards, but maybe extras in the sideboard along with hate cards. Without power, would Loaming Shaman be quick enough to run as Dredge hate?
I also have the cards available to splash white or blue for sideboard hate cards. Rest in Peace most likely, maybe Gaddock Teeg if he's as good as he can be in Legacy, Kataki seems great. Blue would probably just be Flusterstorm, maybe Swan Song if there are enough enchantments that this deck is really worried about.
For reference, here are the Legacy decks I am able to build now or with minimal investment:
Death and Taxes - one of the primary decks I've been playing lately, seems like this wouldn't change much. There's actually a chance I could borrow a Mox Pearl as well, probably the only Power card I might be able to get my hands on. Strip Mine is great here. I have a Moat in the board, if that's even important here.
Elves - the other deck I've played with a lot in the last couple years. Survival of the Fittest could be a big addition, and I'm sure I could get one or two easily enough. Can't think of any changes besides that. [Edit - How did I forget Skullclamp? That looks like it would be insane, but it might mean going for a different kill card than Craterhoof]
Tezzerator - I haven't played this for a few years, but it gains a lot of stuff that I have/can get. The non-Power mana rocks, Tolarian Academy, and Tinker would be huge upgrades. I've got one each of Chains of Mephistopheles and The Abyss that I played in the board. Could possibly get access to a Nether Void. I'm sure I would change this up somewhat to take advantage of Tinker.
Lands - I have no competitive experience with this deck, but I think I still have everything. I do have a Tabernacle, but I don't know if that's as big in Vintage as in Legacy. Strip Mine is a big upgrade here too.
Any flavor of Delver - I've got the 4 Force and plenty of blue duals. It seems like going budget with this deck would be missing too much (small-p)power to do well, especially with the cantrips restricted.
Reanimator - I may be able to borrow a R/B reanimator from a friend, assuming he isn't using it in Legacy at the time. I don't have experience with it myself, but I've watched it a lot and it's straightforward enough to pick it up quickly.
Cheeri0s - since I'm not expecting to do great anyway, this deck is just plain fun. Besides the fact that the deck loses to itself too often to play seriously, this one seems like it could actually compete with Vintage decks in terms of speed. I would definitely have to fit Mental Misstep to fight others, since a 1-drop is the whole deck.
Infect - I have no actual playing experience with this one either, but I have access to everything except Berserks already, and they're cheap enough now that I've been thinking of getting a couple anyway.
Having only looked at Vintage in passing, I'm thinking the combo decks would likely work the best without being able to add power, and of those Reanimator and Cheeri0s would be the two that require the least changes/learning. I assume Workshops is a horrible matchup for any of them, but that's likely true of most decks I could play anyway.
D&T also seems like it could do pretty well, but would probably need retuned for totally different matchups.
I know there's very little notice on this, but if anybody has suggestions before the end of the weekend I would appreciate it.
Round one I beat U/B Zombies. Lost game one, because the deck is just a bad matchup for me. After sideboard I get exile effects and lower my curve, which makes a big difference. After stabilizing in a long game, I won game two with Crush of Tentacles surged, next turn hit for 8 and Part the Waterveil awakened, then Chandra on my extra turn to hit for everything. I expected to draw game 3 because we started with like 4 minutes on the clock, but my opening hand had Thing in the Ice, Dynavolt Tower, and Fall of the Titans. After ignoring a couple creatures to burn his face with Fall and a Tower activation, I top-decked Attune with Aether on Turn 4 after time, which was just the right card to flip Thing, give me enough energy to use Tower, and attack with a Lumbering Falls for 13 with him at 12 life.
Round two I beat the same zombies list. Exact same 60, the first guy built this guy's list right before the tournament started but just threw together a sideboard of what he had in front of him. I got lucky in this match because he just kept two slow hands, and both times I stuck an early Chandra while I had a Tower up to keep her alive and hitting for 6. Second game I used a Part without awaken after he tapped out trying to kill Chandra, so attacking with her twice plus activating Tower finished him off.
Round three lost to G/W midrange. His creatures just got too big for my removal, and in a couple games I was stuck on 5 lands and drawing nothing but 6-cost spells. At one point the four cards in my hand were Crush, Part the Waterveil, 6-drop Chandra, and Nissa's Renewal while I had five lands in play.
Last round I was paired against a guy playing an unfinished Aetherworks Marvel deck that wasn't planning to stay for the top 4 cut, so he agreed that if he won we could call it a draw which (I think) would have put me into the top 4. After going 1-1 and using up most of our time he just conceded to me, which put me into 2nd place.
First round of the top 4 I played against the same zombies deck as round two. Unfortunately, this time he got good opening hands and I couldn't do anything. Game three I kept a hand with 2 Thing in the Ice, which has been my best way to the game against that deck so far, but every draw step after that was land-land-3rd Thing-land-one spell that was entirely too late. I got all three of my Things, but was only able to cast one actual spell the whole game.
So it looks like there are more Zombies lists showing up locally, which means I really need to figure out how to beat them. I may need to move some Incendiary Flows to the main for a better game one, and I would like to find some kind of decent graveyard hate for the sideboard. I'm not sure if that exists right now.
Aetherworks Marvel also seems like a rough matchup. This is the first time I've played against it, but it seemed like most of my answers lined up pretty poorly. I'm thinking I either need more counterspells to stop their thing from going off, or I need to be able to go more aggressive after sideboarding. I'm pretty sure Longtusk Cub is the way I would go aggro if that's the angle I take, just have to play more matches to figure that out.
The fact that it can be played in several different decks means that it really can't do much to "kill diversity." That can only happen if the card makes it necessary to play a very specific set of cards with it, so that every deck running it is almost exactly the same list (like CoCo, which incidentally did not get banned).
Personally, I feel like if you're going to run green it might as well add to your mana fixing. If you're not using energy at all, I might go with Traverse the Ulvenwald, plus one or two Torrential Gearhulk to find if you hit delirium. But even with just Lightning, Attune With Aether would really help to kill some x/4 or 5 stuff.
If your only green is for Nissa's Renewal, it may not be worth stretching your mana base when there are things like Hedron Archive available. That said, dropping green also means that Radiant Flames probably has to go (Aether Hub alone isn't enough to rely on hitting for 3 early), and Flames seems to be the best sweeper against the red aggro decks as well as any Zombie decks that may be around. Caravan could be enough to help with the Converge, and you also run more spot removal than I do, but I still would look into other options if you decide to cut green. If you do go two colors then you might add enough basic Islands to run Engulf the Shore
Metallurgic Summonings is something I looked at, but in my list I feel like I can't afford to spend turn 5 or 6 playing something that doesn't effect the board. Again, the extra spot removal might make a difference, but I would still be worried about my hand being clogged up with more than one copy in the early game. If I ran it at all, I certainly wouldn't want the full 4.
Crush has never felt like a bad draw for me, but I've only played in my local meta, which is virtually all aggro and midrange. I've cast it without Surge a few times just to clear the board - sometimes it buys me the time I need to stabilize, sometimes it just stalls because I don't draw anything else in time. I'm not saying 100% that it's a staple, I could end up moving more into a full-on Dynavolt Tower build that doesn't worry about a board reset, but until I play a game where I'm unhappy to draw at least one copy I'm going to stick with running 3.
Thing in the Ice is great in the deck. He's an excellent early blocker, survives a Flames on 3, and becomes a significant win condition pretty quickly. I've found that having 3 TitI along with 3 Crush has made a big difference in being able to get/keep a good threat on the board before the opponent has time to rebuild from early removal.
The full 4 Part the Waterveil seems like a lot. I see what you're going for with that and Summonings, but I'm sure that between 8 copies of those two cards you're going to have a lot of very slow opening hands that just fold to aggro. Even with just two in my list I've already had games where I draw more copies than I want to see. Eight draw spells should be enough that you can cut at least one copy of each and still be able to find them once you're stabilized and ready to start winning.
I haven't come to any new conclusions so far, my first impressions seem to still be mostly accurate for this week. I still want to fit another Dynavolt Tower somewhere - I think the combination of Tower and Thing In the Ice/Octopus tokens works out well, because the aggro decks can't really spare enough space for both creature removal and artifact hate without diluting their own game plan and getting slower. Fall of the Titans has been great for me, even when it's just for X=2 to get a couple small creatures out of the way. I was on the fence with Nissa's Renewal, but the life gain added onto the extra mana has made a huge difference.
The mana base needs some work, but that's just going to take some more playing and tweaking. There have been a couple games where too many lands come into play tapped, but between Attune, Servant, and Aether Hub I've always had the colors I need so far.
I've brought Offshoot in a few times but have not actually drawn it yet, so I still can't say how good it is. I think I want to replace it anyway, as soon as I figure out what should go in those spots. I probably want the 4th Radiant Flames, but I'm not sure what else. I haven't played any matches where I wanted to bring Visions in, so I might look into switching at least one of those out as well. My main issue with the board so far has been figuring out what to take out against aggro, since there are so many cards to bring in. I need to work out an actual plan for what swaps I need to make in each matchup so that I can line things up better, but that's just going to take more testing. I don't get a lot of play time, so that's going to take some time to figure out.
Your list looks interesting, but I feel like you're going for something different. That looks closer to a combo deck than what I'm looking for, where you're just trying to stall long enough to set up a specific thing that ends the game almost on the spot. I'm trying to play more of a board-control strategy, where I block my opponent from doing anything and resolve a threat that they can't deal with. I don't have nearly enough artifacts for Era of Innovation, and I run too low on cards for Fateful Showdown to be worth 4. Aether Marvelworks doesn't work for me, because my big spells rely on Surge or Awaken so they lose a lot if cast through Marvelworks. I'm not saying it's bad, I honestly have no clue since I've only played the format a couple times, but I can tell that it's a different deck than I'm working towards.
Here's what I'm looking at so far.
4 Lava Spike
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Spell Snare
4 Daze
1 Brainstorm
1 Wheel of Fortune
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
20ish land (8-10 fetch, Volcanics, Mountains)
Sideboard
4 Pyroblast
3-4 Ancient Tomb
2-3 Shattering Spree
Mindbreak Trap
Surgical Extraction
Brainstorm being restricted makes me think that Delver might not be the way to go, but if its still good enough I might run him and try to fit enough other blue cards to run Force of Will as well.
When I played the proxy-powered version before I basically auto-folded to Workshops, and I'm expecting Game 1 will still go that way now. I'm hoping that the Tombs in the board would make some difference in that match, but I assume it would still be my worst matchup.
Yawgmoth's Will was a great splash in that powered version, but I'm guessing that without any Power/fast mana it won't really do anything. If I include the splash I might also add Demonic Tutor, and maybe even Bump in the Night.
I cut down on Fireblast, Price, and Vortex because of how much faster I expect this format to be than Legacy. I assume that there won't be more than 3 or so lands on either side before the game ends, so I don't expect that they would have the same impact (except Fireblast - I just think drawing a second would be mostly dead).
If anybody has some idea of how well this might work in a real Vintage field, even if its just straight-up bad, I'm interested in hearing it.
I also have Legacy Elves and Death & Taxes built if either of those might be better to adapt for Unpowered Vintage. I'm open to anything, just looking to play for fun as long as my deck has a reasonable chance of competing.
Here's where I'm at right now -
4 Harnessed Lightning
3 Anticipate
1 Aether Meltdown
2 Scatter to the Winds
3 Radiant Flames
3 Crush of Tentacles
2 Part the Waterveil
1 Nissa's Renewal
1 Fall of the Titans
4 Servant of the Conduit
3 Thing In the Ice
2 Dynavolt Tower
2 Hedron Archive
4 Forest
3 Island
3 Mountain
2 Aether Hub
2 Wandering Fumarole
3 Lumbering Falls
2 Botanical Sanctum
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Game Trail
1 Cinder Glade
4 Incendiary Flow
3 Jaddi Offshoot
2 Weaver of Lightning
3 Fevered Visions
2 Negate
1 Deadlock Trap
New Chandra would fit perfectly in here, and I intend to replace the Hedron Archive if I can get her cheap enough.
I know 24 land seems light for this kind of deck, but I seem to be flooded more often than not. I just cut the 4th Attune to add a 3rd Thing.
The fact that aggro is so good right now has been a problem for me because people are packing more removal than I have threats. Even if they spend removal on my Servants, they still have something ready in hand for my 8/8 or awakened land. I haven't been able to actually attack with anything yet. I'm thinking that I want to find room for a 3rd Dynavolt Tower, I just need to figure out what I should cut for it.
I would like to get some sort of artifact hate into the board, but Appetite for the Unnatural looks like the best option and I'm not sure if its actually good.
I can't decide if Jaddi Offshoot is good yet, or if I should just play more removal in that space. I think if I keep it I should fit a few Evolving Wilds in the deck.
I feel like the colors you play depend heavily on how aggressive/controlling you want to be with your playstyle. If you're a more aggressive player, splash green for Rancor, Unflinching Courage, and maybe even Strangleroot Geist.
Red can be equally aggressive with things like Madcap Skils, but there are no spirits really worth running. Red is definitely the least likely splash color, but not entirely out of the question.
For control players, black can give you Dead Weight, Pillory of the Sleepless, Horobi's Whisper and similar effects, not to mention the more obvious hand-control aspect that black can bring to the table. Thief of Hope can also serve as a closer in the slower Esper lists that run heavy on Spirits and Arcane spells.
Straight UW has to be the most balanced, with the option for aggro in the form of Ethereal Armor or Unstable Mutation, or control in any number or Pacifism or Mind Control effects, depending only on which cards you choose to play. At this point there are enough options to go either way. {Last time I played this deck in a competitive environment, I actually ran a 1-of Mind Control,
TL;DR: If you want to be ready for a wide-open metagame, I would say stick with a "safe" straight-up UW list with a straightforward strategy and sideboard. If you're looking to play towards your own local metagame, or perhaps just bend the list to match a style that you just like to play more, then you can splash either green to go more aggressive or black to go more control.
If you're sure there will be that many goblins, I sort of want to suggest Tivadar of Thorn. He's Recruitable, but awfully narrow, so I'm not sure if it's actually worth it. First strike and pro-red does make him decent against burn and maybe playable against Jund.
Without Elves in that list, Marrow Shards might be better than Holy Light if you want that kind of effect. As far as I know the Stompy decks don't run any lord effects, so they actually attack as 1/1s.