An overview of some popular (and unpopular) Vintage decks

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 45

I originally wrote this for the front page but don't really think it's quite front page material, so I'm posting it here since we have no Vintage deck stickies.

There are a lot of common misconceptions about Vintage in the Magic-League community. Vintage is by far the least loved format and has no real core community like the Legacy format has gained, and Vintage has a reputation of being the combo format, where everyone plays Flash and games are decided by coinflips. More broadly, it is thought of as an unfair format, where "real" magic strategies like turning your dudes sideways are ignored and "broken" decks using mainly the same lineup of cards are the only playable decktypes. It also has the distinct downside of being expensive and obscure compared to Standard when played in real life, so it has a much smaller transferrable playerbase on Magic-League. Because a lot of these misconceptions stem from being unfamiliar with the format (either having never gotten into "Type 1" or Vintage before or having quit playing it at some period in the past) I'd like to walk everyone through some typical Vintage decklists and at the same time try and address common complaints and concerns with the format - even the ones that are valid.

http://magic-league.com/deck/37983/vintage_t1.html#Hulk%20Flash11846

Flash

The Flash combo deck was reborn when the power errata on Flash was removed, making it possible for the creature you're Flashing in to briefly enter play. This triggers comes-into-play and leaves-play abilities, particularly that of the other combo piece, Protean Hulk. Flash in a Hulk and you can then fetch any number of creatures whose converted mana cost adds up to six, which enables several immediate game winning combinations - many zero cost artifacts, Arcbound Ravager and some Disciples of the Vault, a combo involving Kiki Jiki and Karmic Guide, and the current combo of choice, a Heart Sliver and four Virulent Slivers. All of the above combinations win the game immediately (or as soon as you attack) and Flash can easily be played on turn one. Flash plays the format's free counterspells such as Force of Will and Pact of Negation and backs it up with Merchant Scrolls and various restricted tutors to recover whatever it needs at the moment.

Flash is probably what most people think of when they think of Vintage - an obscenely powerful combo deck. It is incredibly easy to pilot and actually executing the combo requires hardly any actual decision-making at all. It can win before the opponent gets a turn - how fair can that be? Well, Flash can also get set back multiple turns before anyone does anything - hate cards such as Leyline of the Void should be a staple in any metagame (including the Magic-League) and become active before the Flash player can do anything about it. This is the primary reason the Slivers kill is played - to give Flash a backup plan of hardcasting its targets when hate like Leyline comes down immediately. Post-sideboard games with Flash generally begin with the opponent mulliganing into Leyline and then continuing from there to apply pressure or get further disruption to stop the Flash player from bouncing Leyline.

http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=23668

Gro-A-Tog (GAT)

Gro decks were revived with the recent unrestriction of Gush, which provides the engine needed for the titular "grow" creatures (although Psychatog is not played in the example list). The principle of the deck is that Gush in conjunction with Fastbond generates an obscene amount of mana and cards - and Gush by itself refilling your hand for free is pretty ridiculous too. All these free spells serve to quickly generate enormous Quirion Dryads and in this build power the secondary attacker Tarmogoyf. The deck's enormously powerful card drawing engine allows it to restock its hand and dig for answers to other decks almost every turn, and it powers out many spells in a single turn using timely Mana Drains.

GAT, and other Gush based archetypes (such as Gush decks that do not use growing creatures but instead Tinker into Darksteel Colossus, decks that abuse Meloku the Clouded Mirror in conjunction with Fastbond, or Gush decks that revolve around killing the opponent with storm spells like Tendrils of Agony or Empty the Warrens) are widely considered to be the strongest deck in the format, despite the fact that it is very unlikely you will win before turn three (barring any silly recurring Time Walk shenanigans). Despite most public perceptions, the strongest deck in the format doesn't come down to turn one wins - Gush based decks are simply more consistent and powerful thanks to their huge amount of card drawing. They are also much more resistant to hate since they do not rely as heavily on resources such as the graveyard that can be easily attacked with many free disruption pieces.

http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=23692

Stax

Stax is a Mishra's Workshop-based deck that utilizes the immense amount of mana production from Workshop and various Vintage-only artifact mana pieces to power out huge artifact creatures or many powerful lock pieces in succession. After the restriction of Trinisphere, arguably the strongest lock piece ever printed, Stax fell out of favor somewhat, but it's seen a revival in recent months, due in some part to the printing of Thorn of Amethyst, which empowers Workshop-based aggro decks and traditional Stax decks alike. This particular example does not run Thorn, but does run its older counterpart Sphere of Resistance which serves to slow the game down to a point where Stax's overwhelming mana advantage (in this case augmented by Metalworker, who can often produce six or eight mana on his first activation) allows the Stax player to play finishers unimpeded.

Stax is often considered the weakest of the recurring Vintage archetypes because it can get put so far behind when it loses the coinflip since it does not play any disruption like Force of Will or Misdirection that can be used before it gets a turn. That being said, Stax won the recent Myriad Games tournament because its "coinflip disadvantage" is not nearly so insurmountable versus the field. Stax is a slow prison deck that can often delay the game for many turns under Spheres and Tangle Wires before it applies a final lock or finisher, and its success in the Vintage field in recent months should hopefully help quell concerns that slower control oriented archetypes can't succeed in a format with Vintage's speed. That being said, Stax is a deck that would be considered far too fast in other formats. Even though it is a control deck, due to its amount of available mana it can produce an overwhelming amount of lock pieces very quickly and then win the game at its leisure.

Vintage is, at its core, a format kept in balance by its excesses - so to speak. The easy access to fast mana means that if you want to, your control deck can accelerate itself just as quickly as aggro and combo decks would. Overpowering strategies such as playing a Flash on turn 1 or throwing down several fast mana pieces and a Trinisphere are countered by Duress, Force of Will, Thoughtseize, or Misdirection (or Trinisphere itself coming down to stop busted turn one shenanigans). For strong gameplans like Flash or Ichorid there are even stronger hate pieces - some that cost nothing (Crypt) or some that enter play before the game even begins (Leyline). For every huge cheap Stax creature or control piece, there are cards that undo all the opponent's effort in an instant (Rebuild or Hurkyl's Recall) or cards that lay waste to an opponent's board for very little mana.

The various "broken" strategies of the format, when measured against each other, don't result in a format decided by coinflips. It does result in a very powerful and often swingy format, where your ability to cheaply tutor for lone sideboard cards can pull your ass out of the fire and turn an almost certain loss into a victory. Due to the power level of the strategies and cards being deployed, getting behind without losing the game means you're never far from being able to undo all your opponent's hard work. The primary difference between Vintage and Legacy on that account is in my opinion its access to more fast mana and more effective tutors to fetch your silver bullets, but that's another matter entirely, as is the fact that non-"broken" strategies are played to great success in Vintage.

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 45

I gave a rundown of three prominent decks in the Vintage Magic-League metagame - GAT, Flash, and Stax. I highlighted these decks because they share one common thread - they are "broken", i.e. the strategies and cards they use would be considered fundamentally unfair in any other format. Today I'd like to highlight some decks that prove you can suceed in Vintage with non-"broken" strategies. Despite being accelerated by a Black Lotus and other Vintage jewelry, these decks do not aim for lightning-fast wins or inescapable locks. Instead, they run enormous amounts of disruption, usually in the form of cheap creatures, and aim to break up specific parts of typical Vintage broken gameplans long enough to win out through aggressive beatdown (with varying degrees of success).

http://www.magic-league.com/decks/download.php?deck=53620

The Mountain Wins Again

TMWA attacks typical Vintage decks mainly through mana and hand disruption. Creatures like Magus of the Moon (who shows up in all three decks highlighted here) cut off access to entire colors if the opponent only has dual lands down. Goblin Vandal destroys Stax lock pieces and the artifact mana acceleration package almost every vintage decks run. Jagged Poppet is a cheap beater whose drawback rarely comes into focus in TMWA's primary matchups and who can quickly destroy an opponent's entire hand and keep it empty itself. This particular TMWA build runs eight choice discard spells for B and maindeck Pyroblasts due to many Vintage decks' dependence on blue. Dark Confidant, one of the strongest creatures ever printed, allows the deck to maintain a stable of answers in the face of blue decks' superior draw power.

http://www.magic-league.com/decks/download.php?deck=53657

URbana Fish

Fish decks (so named because the creatures in it act synergistically like a school of fish and also as a nod to early Merfolk weenie decks) have had varying levels of popularity and success in Vintage. Urbana has seen a resurgence in popularity to combat rising Gush decks, but tweaking it to defeat a varied metagame is difficult. This list again starts off powered by Dark Confidant to draw into disruptive creatures like Mogg Fanatic (who can kill Heart Sliver before Flash attacks, giving you time to try and stabilize, as well as sacrifice itself to get rid of Ichorid's Bridge From Below) and Gorilla Shaman (who generally wrecks decks heavily reliant on broken artifact acceleration). New additions in this build from Lorwyn include Spellstutter Sprite, who counters many of Vintage's cheap tutors, draw and acceleration and also has great synergy with Ninja of the Deep Hours. Sower of Temptation also shows up to steal Tarmogoyfs, large Quirion Dryads, Phyrexian Dreadnoughts and other problem creatures. Thorn of Amethyst rounds out the new additions by being a virtually one-sided Sphere of Resistance versus combo decks.

http://magic-league.com/deck/37983/vintage_t1.html#RG%20Beats46437

RG Beats

This deck won Star City Games' recent Chicago tournament, and at first glance doesn't seem to be a metagame hate deck at all, just a typical aggro decklist. Tin-Street Hooligan destroys Stax lock pieces, Magus of the Moon once again color screws people and cheap, efficient blockers help stonewall against Flash, Ichorid, and GAT. The best addition by far is the Skullclamp engine, which is criminally underplayed in Vintage decks. Since this deck doesn't run blue, it needs access to a broken draw engine - Clamp does this as well as making your bigger guys speed up a turn or two. Chain-Clamping your 2-toughness creatures can net this deck card advantage as ridiculous as any Gush-based deck.

Jameson Bryant's RG list was extremely well tuned to defeat the Vintage metagame at large. Unlike the two lists above, his cards are rarely situational (burn and creatures are pretty useful no matter what) while still playing strong disruption like Magus. Despite his individual disruption plans and card drawing engines not being as "broken" as the top tier decks in the format, he still beat them all out for first place - and it's hardly a fluke, given that Bryant has placed highly in earlier tournaments with similar lists. The deck's ability to couple extremely fast clocks like Tarmogoyf with the maindeck anti-Stax and anti-Gush utility cards allowed him to beat out decks running Ancestral Recall and the full set of broken artifact mana.

Craze · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 5325 Location: Indiana, U

good lord. Wouldn't this have been better suited in article form?

coolcreep · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 264

anyone who either read or wrote that has way to much time on his hands, and should go masturbate.

Daveslusher · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Posts: 202

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 45

lennin · Guest

the m-l vintage "metagame" doesnt rly exist, not because a lot of ppl dont play but because there arent a lot fo good vintage players here and if u look at vintage minis there are like 5 flash decks in 8 man minis. no one really knows whats good here and just play flash, while irl t1 flash doesnt do well at all

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 45

lennin · Guest

people play flash but its not as good as eveyrone thinks just bc u can get the nut draw doesnt mean its that good of a deck, flash is like affinity its really hard to play correctly, but sometimes u just win, like leyline unanswered with protection is pretty much gg and a lot of decks run leyline

coolcreep · Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 264

YTheAlien · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 45

Craze · Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 5325 Location: Indiana, U

oinkster · Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 1

Didn't the list of decks and archetypes used to be more encompassing? Has this forum been abridged?