MTG Salvation

Going to try method #1, method #2 is what I think of as Windsor and is a great format.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I am looking for variations of 2 player drafts, please excuse me if I have posted in the wrong forum. But Casual didn't address draft issues.

Currently I typicallly draft with a good friend and we do Pack Wars and then do a Windsor Draft or Rochester Draft with the cards. Looking for alternative suggestions - with 2 people the hate drafting can get intense.

The Tez deck has some awesome non-standard solutions to the Elvish decks. Turn 1 Land & Chrome Mox = Chalice set to 1. Turn 2 Trinket fetching Explosives. Turn 3 cast & activate Explosive or Trinket again into Chalice for 0 to stop Summoners Pact from fetching Viridian Shaman. Alternatively hold up mana for Spell Snare for the 2 drop and cast Trinket the next turn. I guess only 2 Cryptic Commands but still such a unique engine - I love it.

So many interesting builds, Oberg with his Tezz (recursive Chalices sound fun), Chapin opening a can of Worms, All in Red showing up in Deus's and all the Elfball decks with the variety of win conditions - Predator Dragon!?!, Tendrils?, Brain Freeze etc.

Just weighing in slighty in favor of the Strip over the LOA. M03 posted a more controlish list which is fine, plenty of card draw and control elements. But at times I think that disruption can be more beneficial then base card advantage ala the Capsules used above.

Green card? Glimpse of Nature? Allowing you to draw every time you play a Kobold? Channel?? allowing you more mana to Clamp? Not sure if your reply is in reference to Nauseous Kobolds - now with a thread started by SKRules or simply about Ad Nauseum alone.

I have been playing for over 10 years and attend an occasional Pre-release and FNM, I have been to 2 PTQualifiers. I loved the new pre-release because I did not have to travel 2+ hours to play. Our local card shop was packed, including many new faces. Without having to travel, I was able to attend my son's swim practice in the morning and meet up with my wife for dinner at the end of the day. I disliked not being able to draft, but this was offset by the pure convenience.

I am sure that there was more attendance, because many of the newer players wouldn't have bothered to travel. In the state I live in - Arkansas - there is only 1 place in the past that Pre-releases are held. Assuming 200 people ish, vs the new program with 6 card stores having turnouts of 50ish, the math seems to win.

Nonetheless I think there is room for improvement.

Here is a Dragon List for reference. It is probably a tier 1.5 deck in most metagames, but might be usable in your metagame, it has disruption ala Duress/Thoughtseize, protection ala FoW's and even some utility in Chain of Vapor/Cunning Wish. It's relatively fast for Vintage - capable of 1st turn wins. It seeks to put a Big Creature into play from the Graveyard and win - it doesn't beat down with the creature, Oona just mills your opponent out or you recursively Ancestral your opponent or wish for a stroke.

http://www.deckcheck.net//deck.php?id=20191

Ok added a repeal substituting for the 2nd Grim Tutor. Played a few games against BUG Fish (Goyfs, Confidants, Cursecatchers), counters were too much in games 1 & 2 and game 3 saw Null Rod shut down Kobolds/Clamp/Moxen - thus no hope of repealing the Null Rod, Confidant beatdown finished Nauseous Kobolds - although the Kobolds themselves made it close by slowing the beats allowing Bob to do some damage. Duress early to get a Tendrils really hurt in game 2, maybe some recursion?

Tested another vs Cerebral Assasin, Kobolds went off on turn 2 but couldn't finish the deal knocking assasin to 2 on the Tendrils, Assasin went with the Platinum Angel Plan, but with the added +18 life from the first Tendrils, another Add Nauseum (pun intended) found Repeal and the finishing Tendrils was overkill.

Tested a third time vs a Mana Drain Tendrils deck, and went off before the countermagic could get online in both games.

No games were sideboarded.

Suggestions, I might consider adding Repeal (or Vapor) and Ancestral, adding 4 Underground seas (of course you become more wasteland vulnerable but your still decent on basics), Mox Diamond might another possible add, as Add Nauseum will/can leave a glut of basic land in your hand when you might need mana to clamp or search for Tendrils.

Some recursion might be advisable, since your Tendrils are vulnerable, Green gives you Regrowth and Fastbond (but the additional pain might not be feasible), further Blue (if you take my advice on the Ancestral & Repeal/Vapor) could use Timetwister and Black of course offers Yawgmoth's.

Kobolds can make you sick to your stomach!

Considering Adding either Squeaking Pie Sneak or Shriekmaw to subustitue for the Prickly Boggarts. I like the fear but the Prickly's are so underwhelming. Squeaking wants more Goblins, I guess I could add a few Nameless Inversion to work with the Squeakings but even then it will be underwhelming. The maw is excellent and can find early graveyards using it evoke ability but doesn't work well with the C&D.

Agreed on the the two shroud beaters being overkill, but was just giving suggestions for some possibles. I think both are suboptimal because their clock is too slow, but maybe the meta that he is entering isn't playing Tendrils/Belcher/Dragon/Slaver/Ichorid/Any other fast winning variants.

Um. This is too slow to compete in Vintage. Maybe better suited for casual.

Comments on some of the individual cards.
Duress (it's fine, only real disruption in deck, but might consider Raven's crime for an alternative discard outlet)
Buried Alive (this is fine but besides entomb it's your only discard outlet, if these are countered your deck does very little)
Exhume (Decent reanimation in vintage where creatures aren't used that much)
Diabolic Edict (your creature control suit, maybe drop or replace with Lightning bolt or something odd like Lightning Axe giving you another discard outlet)
Zombify (eh, ok)
Damnation (drop, there aren't enough creature swarms to worry about, again unless your making this deck for casual or multiplayer play)
Chainer's Edict (see comments about Diabolic Edict above - it is recursive at least)
Dark Ritual (excellent go up to 4)
Demonic Tutor (Excellent)
Sol Ring (Fine)

Things to add: Vampiric Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, other reanimation such as Animate Dead, Necromancy.

Your reanimation targets:
Keep Akroma, Sky Swallower, Angel of Despair and Hellkite, possible adds Sundering Titan, Platinum Angel, Empryrial Archangel and the Red Akroma.

Biggest addition: Bazaar of Baghdad for a draw and discard outlet.

This will probably still be too slow, unable to disrupt anyone or unable to defend itself vs other vintage archetypes. Other routes might to be to go all artifacts and use a Welder style reanimation - ala some of the old Cerebral Assasin decks.

Blue is the strongest color in Vintage and this deck would benefit possibly more by adding blue over red. Allowing the addition of cards like Intuition, Ancestral, Timewalk, Startegic Planning, Brainstorm and if enough blue is added you could add Force of Wills.

Good luck.

Testing out posting using my deck tags:

Here is the version I am testing to get some use out of my Assaults. Think it needs more Sarkhan Vol for Sacrifice to the Husks. Bit shy on mana to boot.

Could run this in a semi-Reveillark shell. Consider adding Knight-Captain of Eos (testing links so be gentle). The soldiers from the Captain work well with Goldenglow Mothallowing it to block then gain you the life then fog.

After some testing this deck needs more removal and card draw. Even though the Thieves' Fortune is in theme and utilizes the prowl mechanic. I substituted in 4 Esper Charms.