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All Suns’ Dawn – Exploring Vintage

Towards the end of 2011, I had hit a little bit of a snag in my Magic: the Gathering lifestyle. I’m not a fully dedicated grinder where I can just go to every event, and as the end of the year approached, most events that I wanted to attend were falling out of my travel range. During this time, I started putting more time into my ongoing job search and into Magic finance, a correct move in my opinion with the Modern PTQ season right around the corner and multiple friends opening their respective card stores. I tried to find time where I could play Eternal Magic a little more locally.

It was then where I caught the buzz, right around late October, via the Twitterverse and a series of articles, regarding the Vintage format. I immediately became intrigued, for a couple of reasons. The first is that Columbus, Ohio is a very opportune place to participate in Vintage. I’ve been living in the same city as the Vintage Meandeck Opens for over five years now and I had been letting a good learning opportunity slip by. I even coordinated its Legacy counterpart Opens until interest in the format dwindled within the local playgroup, making the practice not as profitable. Why wouldn’t I at least check it out?

The second reason is that Vintage has always been a sort of mystery box for me. There is a lot of enigma surrounding the format, the oldest one of the card game that we have all played for so long. I myself, as I imagine many other players to be, was intimidated upon my holistic view of the format; stereotypically exemplified by plays such as t1 [card]Trinisphere[/card], t2 follow-up of [card]Crucible of Worlds[/card] and [card]Strip Mine[/card]; t1 [card]Bazaar of Baghdad[/card], Dredge my deck, t2 kill you; and t1 [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], “Good luck catching up.” Still, with the tournament being a full proxy event, I had nothing to lose. I apprehensively started to do some research.

Choosing My Weapon

My approach when it comes to playing something in a particular format is to first identify the pillars of said format; so, what are the identifying archetypes of Vintage? What makes up the tournament landscape of a well sampled Vintage event? Because the amount of Vintage being played is significantly smaller than, say, Standard or Legacy, the amount of research that I could do was severely limited. It was actually a little uncomfortable; I gave the metaphor of trying to finish a tabletop puzzle when half of the pieces are missing from the box to begin with. How could I fill those empty spaces? The Mana Drain forums aren’t nearly as active as The Source forums, which I frequented for Legacy information. But I could still find information from various articles on the web as well as morphling.de, which compiles the Top 8 finishes of Vintage events around the world. I tried my best to gather as much data as I could before deciding what to play.

From a limited research standpoint, I found the top decks in Vintage to focus on three different types of strategies: Bazaar-based decks, Workshop-based decks, and Blue-Based Control. The first two are a little easier to simplify because they are indeed the respective counterparts to Dredge and MUD in Legacy, with a much higher power level and more resilience. Blue-based Control means a lot of things in Vintage; the blue mage has his choice or Gush, Snapcaster, Tezzeret, or Landstill, and it doesn’t even end there. Those archetypes each have their own sub-strategies. The second tier is made up of a variety of decks, which range from “hate-bear” strategies, moon abilities, mono-black strategies, and any intriguing brews that may be encountered. In the interest of the length of this article, I’ll save the archetype reviews. I had originally started writing the different sections on the decks, but realized it was quickly getting out of control. There are a lot of deck choices in Vintage.

The first Meandeck Open I attended in October 2011 was a disaster; I played a stock UBg Gro list from Matt Elias, but wasn’t prepared to face new answers in the metagame for [card]Gush[/card], like [card]Flusterstorm[/card], and couldn’t fight through the card advantage from opposing [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]. I decided that for this tournament I would be battling with Tiago on my side, and looked for a Snapcaster Control list. I settled on this decklist that I found from morphling.de:

[Deck Title=UBrg Snapcaster Control, Ferran Relat][Lands]
1 City of Brass
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Riptide Laboratory
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
[/Lands][Spells]
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Tinker
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Fire // Ice
1 Ancient Grudge
[/Spells][Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Blightsteel Colossus
[/Creatures][Sideboard]
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Dismember
1 Flusterstorm
1 Forest
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Nature’s Claim
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Surgical Extraction
[/sideboard][/deck]

*Editor Note: Please excuse the technical problem concerning [card]Fire // Ice[/card] in the decklist.

The decklist was an excellent starting point to what I wanted to play in January Meandeck Open. The last Top 4 from the October tournament was as follows: UR Landstill, [card]Mystic Remora[/card] [card]Gush[/card], [card]Laboratory Maniac[/card] [card]Doomsday[/card], and UBr Snapcaster Control. I felt comfortable matching this pilot’s choice of having a maindeck [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card], along with two maindeck [card]Flusterstorm[/card]s. These choices are more skewed towards what the projected metagame would look like, as I assumed that the January event would be similar. [card]Flusterstorm[/card] was something that I wanted to play with for sure, as it served as combo and [card]Gush[/card] hate. After reviewing the maindeck, the only thing I wanted to cut was the [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card]. There were 9 maindeck [card]Flusterstorm[/card]s between the Top 4 of the October tournament, and to me I didn’t want there to be a situation where I walked it into one. I made the cut so I could have two spot removal spells in the maindeck, replacing it with [card]Lightning Bolt[/card].

Tinkering with the sideboard would be interesting. I decided to keep the following cards:

4 [card]Leyline of the Void[/card]
1 [card]Pyroblast[/card]
1 [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card]
1 [card]Forest[/card]
2 [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]

I wanted to go up to seven pieces of Dredge hate between the 75 as well. I knew from experience that [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] was incredibly suspect against Dredge (it does, however, have value against [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]), and that I would rather have a combination of [card]Yixlid Jailer[/card] and [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card] instead. I chose to have two [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card] (one in the maindeck, one in the sideboard) in the end, favoring it over two [card]Yixlid Jailer[/card]. In most cases testing against Dredge, supposing that my [card]Leyline of the Void[/card] was answered, I was put into more immediate danger if my [card]Yixlid Jailer[/card] was killed, although it had the more powerful effect of blanking all of the Dredge abilities in the graveyard.

The rest of the four slots I wanted to fill in the empty blanks. With [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Nature’s Claim[/card], and the basic Forest, I felt like I had reason to reduce the amount of [card]Ancient Grudge[/card], especially if there was already a copy in the maindeck. However, I still wanted some hate against Workshops. I was reminded of [card]Energy Flux[/card], a card that has seen a good amount of Vintage play and a card that I had experience playing in Vintage. The best part about it was that the mana from [card]Mishra’s Workshop[/card] could not be used to pay for the upkeep effects. It also pitched to [card]Force of Will[/card]. I added two copies to my sideboard. The last two cards were for fish or hate bears, which I opted to play a single copy of [card]Dismember[/card] and a [card]Pyroclasm[/card]. With so little spot removal, playing against the swarm decks can be difficult. [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card] shuts off [card]Massacre[/card] so I felt [card]Pyroclasm[/card] was a natural choice. My final list looked like:

[Deck Title=UBrg Snapcaster Control, Mark Sun][Lands]
1 City of Brass
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Riptide Laboratory
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island[/Lands][Spells]
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Sol Ring
1 Tinker
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Fire // Ice
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Ancient Grudge[/Spells][Creatures]
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Blightsteel Colossus[/Creatures][Sideboard]
1 Dismember
1 Pyroclasm
1 Forest
2 Nature’s Claim
2 Energy Flux
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast[/Sideboard][/Deck]

*Once again [card]Fire // Ice[/card]

The Tournament

In the end I finished 3-3, able to beat Tezzeret, Elves!, and Dredge, but losing in true miserable fashion to two Workshop decks and in an epic game 3 against Vintage Dragon Stompy, piloted by Matt Hazard. I didn’t get to play against any more Blue-based Control mirrors on the day. Clearly, I had underestimated the power level of the Workshop decks. Losing the die roll (as I did in both matches against Workshop) is such a factor in this particular matchup, and for the next event I will be looking at better ways to address that issue. At the conclusion of the tournament, Stephen Menendian made an excellent suggestion to better my play by recording a quick voice recap of my matches. This would allow me to recount my matches and decisions a lot better. For now, I have notes from a single match, which I think exemplifies something that could be seen in Vintage. My other matches either ended very quickly or had did not have enough meaningful interaction for analysis.

Round 3) Matt Hazard playing Dragon Stompy, Loss-Win-Loss

I win the die roll, but mulligan down to 5 for a keepable hand. I saw Matt playing with [card]Ancient Tomb[/card] earlier on the day so I assume that it’s a Workshop deck, but my hand has [card]Force of Will[/card] in it, so there’s a little bit of fight. Matt opens with a [card]Null Rod[/card], which meets the [card]Force of Will[/card] in my hand, exiling a [card]Mental Misstep[/card]. Not what I expected to see from Workshops. I am even more surprised, though, by a second turn [card]Magus of the Moon[/card], which I fetch for a basic Island in response. I see a [card]Blood Moon[/card] the following turn as well. It will be very difficult to get out from under the [card]Blood Moon[/card] and was clearly misinformed from my one card scout earlier in the day. On the next turn, he plays a [card]Figure of Destiny[/card], which causes me to glare at the [card]Mental Misstep[/card] in my exile zone, and the critters go the entire way while I struggle to find an answer.

Sideboarding: -2 [card]Flusterstorm[/card], -1 [card]Red Elemental Blast[/card], -1 [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card], -1 [card]Mox Pearl[/card], +1 [card]Dismember[/card], +1 [card]Pyroclasm[/card], +1 Forest, +2 [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]

I opted to board out the [card]Mox Pearl[/card] since I was boarding in the extra mana source. Otherwise, more removal comes in for the irrelevant disruption. It is now Matt’s turn to mulligan to 5 for game 2, and I quickly take by getting a [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card] in play, fatesealing myself, and Brainstorming away. Aren’t we tired of this guy in every format now? Game 3 is where the interesting interactions happen, and are up for debate. I mull to 6 and my opening hand is: [card]Volcanic Island[/card], [card]Ancestral Recall[/card], [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], [card]Voltaic Key[/card], [card]Demonic Tutor[/card], [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card]. Would you keep this hand on the draw? I opted to do so. This hand has the ability for an explosive start with [card]Ancestral Recall[/card] and contains an answer for a resolved creature. It is also not quite cold to [card]Null Rod[/card], as I have seen earlier in the match. Only [card]Blood Moon[/card], which I assume is present in a lesser quantity than [card]Magus of the Moon[/card], would be able to fully derail the plan outlined by this hand: kill a creature, resolve an [card]Ancestral Recall[/card] with a window of opportunity.

Matt opens with [card]Ancient Tomb[/card], [card]Simian Spirit Guide[/card], [card]Magus of the Moon[/card], which I allow to resolve, holding the [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] in my hand. On my turn, I draw the [card]Riptide Laboratory[/card], maybe the worst land in my deck for this situation, play [card]Volcanic Island[/card] and pass, ready to cast [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] on his [card]Magus of the Moon[/card] during his end step, and cast [card]Ancestral Recall[/card] on my turn. As I predicted, Matt lays a [card]Black Lotus[/card], attacks with [card]Magus of the Moon[/card], and passes the turn. I go for the [card]Lightning Bolt[/card].

He breaks his [card]Black Lotus[/card] for three blue, and [card]Mindbreak Trap[/card]s my [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]. I stare at the board, exile my [card]Lightning Bolt[/card], and go to my turn. If I had just cast [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] during my main phase, this game might have been a little different. But if he has a follow up [card]Blood Moon[/card] or another Magus, I’m in a worse position and he still has [card]Mindbreak Trap[/card]. This decision ate at me for the rest of the night, but I decided that there was a greater percentage of him having a follow-up Moon effect (since the number of Moon effects in his deck is at a number greater than four), rather than the [card]Mindbreak Trap[/card]s that are in his sideboard.

Two turns later, as the opposing [card]Magus of the Moon[/card] clock is doubled with a [card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card] copying it, I peel a [card]Time Vault[/card] from the top of my deck, and realize how quickly this game could turn around if I manage to draw a mana source next turn. On Matt’s turn, he plays a [card]Phyrexian Revoker[/card] and names [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card]. Excellent. I draw a third land, casually play out the [card]Voltaic Key[/card] and the [card]Time Vault[/card], basically telling him, “find an answer, or lose.” Matt knocks on top of his deck, grins, and casts a [card]Null Rod[/card]. I die a couple of turns later, with a [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] exclamation point to the dome after I hit 3 life.

I’m obviously not excited to have lost the match, but the level of interaction and the changes in momentum over the course of that last game exemplifies some of the most interesting, if not frustrating things about Vintage. While we both had rather an uninteresting game 1 and game 2, primarily because of mulligans, game 3 is a roller coaster of momentum. I began the game with a gamble into a projected situation that plays out how I want it to, but it is foiled with a card I did not expect to be in the 75 which was hard cast with a singleton in my opponent’s 60. The game looks bleak, although I had more than a few live outs to get to the singleton [card]Pyroclasm[/card] in my deck ([card]Mox Jet[/card] or [card]Black Lotus[/card] to make black mana for [card]Demonic Tutor[/card], [card]Mox Sapphire[/card] to cast the [card]Merchant Scroll[/card] I had drawn for [card]Mystical Tutor[/card]), and new hope arrives when I naturally draw a game-ending two-card combo. The topdecked [card]Null Rod[/card] puts a damper on that plan, and the game ends depriving me of my last turn to draw an out with a well-timed [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]. Whew.

If there’s a reason to play Vintage, it is for a match that plays out like that. So many insane plays. The format is also incredibly diverse right now. The January Meandeck Open featured a Bant Stoneblade deck, a Dredge deck sideboarding into [card]Vampire Hexmage[/card]/[card]Dark Depths[/card], a Landstill deck playing [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] and [card]Psionic Blast[/card], along with the usual archetypes. Most of the events that are held in the United States have some level of proxies allowed, from 10-proxy to full proxy. If there is a chance for you to attend one, I strongly urge you to do so for the experience. I will continue looking into Vintage and improving; maybe I’ll get to borrow some Power 9 and play at Gen Con this year. It certainly sounds exciting!

Financially Beneficial

As usual, I have some financial moves that I have been debating on and would like to pass over to you. Generally, I don’t really speculate, but if I can pick up the card in trade for its current value, I see no harm in that.

FOIL [card]Mother of Runes[/card] (Urza’s Legacy): Quick. Tell me what this card is worth. I asked around this past week at FNM, and most people, including myself initially, quoted it at a $15-$18 foil at retail. It’s sold out at $30, with no copies available from online retailers. Apparently, people think Maverick is a real deck, and I do too. The FNM foil is not far behind either.

[card]Lotus Cobra[/card]: Lotus Cobra is starting to gain a little momentum in Modern at the moment, with appearances in G/x strategies. It is already a 3-4 of in some Birthing Pod lists, and Caleb Durward piloted his GW brew to a 4-0 finish in a Daily recently. It’s price disparity from its paper version ($6) and its MTGO price (12 tix) is a good reason to look into picking these up cheap with PTQ season looming.

[card]Surgical Extraction[/card]: In the Dark Ascension previews, so far we have seen a 2/1 that can recur itself (Gravecrawler), and the Undying mechanic. Since most of the removal in Standard at the moment does not exile the creature, there has to be an answer to graveyard based strategies with the introduction of the new set. They retail anywhere from $5-7, but mostly the perceived value is around $4-5 at the moment.

[card]Mikaeus, the Lunarch[/card]: Aaron Forsythe tweeted this on Saturday:

What does this mean for the future of BW strategies in Standard (or even Modern), especially revolving around tokens? With [card]Isolated Chapel[/card] seeing a small spike on paper and a huge spike on MTGO (a threefold increase), and [card]Godless Shrine[/card] joining the ranks of the $20 Ravnica Shocklands, I expect this archetype to be pretty popular moving forward, especially if it gets new weapons in Dark Ascension. I know Sorin’s Emblem is available, but Mikaeus fits perfectly into the strategy, mimicking [card]Ajani Goldmane[/card]’s second ability and acting as another anthem effect. The card has been treading water since its release, sitting at an even $5 right now. Mythics are generally pretty volatile in price if they see significant play. Also, if you’re playing Standard, grab a set of [card]intangible Virtue[/card]s from the quarter bin.

All right, that’s it for this article. I hope you enjoyed reading about my exploration into the Vintage format. I highly encourage those that can to try it out. It also looks like Modern is starting to heating up, and I will be looking to grind the format myself. These are going to be a few busy months of Magic.

Thanks for reading,

–Mark

@AllSunsDawn on Twitter

chbe.sun@gmail.com

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