Don’t play.
It’s a dead format.
Seriously, though. You don’t need to pay for cards that you won’t be able to use in another year because you can pay for cards that will be good forever if you play Vintage instead.
What: Vintage tournament! UNLIMITED PROXYAs far as I’m concerned, if you’re going to Regionals, you have no reason to miss this Vintage tournament. Vintage is way better anyway because you get to skip all that annoying mana development and just start dropping bombs.
Prizes: GUARANTEED $200 payout. $120 to first. $60 to second. $20 to third.
Above 15 players, prize pool will be adjusted upward.
Entry: $15
Where:
The Soldiery
4256 N. High St.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
When: Sunday, June 10, 2007
Registration starts at 12:30. Tournament begins at 1pm sharp.
Last time the tournament went until around 8pm.
Of course, I’m already five days past the most recent banned and restricted announcement. And what an announcement!
Gifts was restricted, Gush and some other random cards were unrestricted, and who cares about Legacy?
Okay, for real, so in Legacy Flash was banned (which was expected), and Replenish and Mind Over Matter were unbanned. Flash isn’t even really worth discussing here. I had fun, but don’t let it happen again.
Mind Over Matter still costs six mana, and four of that is blue, so I really can’t see that having much of an effect. It’s really good with ways to produce lots of mana, I guess, but most of those are banned. Maybe someone will do something with it, but I haven’t seen anything along those lines yet.
Replenish will get played and it will be a fair combo deck that costs four mana and involves some setup. It will probably win around turn three or so, and everyone will be okay with it. Also, Leyline of the Void will continue to be a strong hate card against combo in Legacy, not to mention that it makes Threshold creatures look dumb.
Vintage, though…
Vintage was already setting new speed records thanks in part to Empty the Warrens being easy to cast off of a land a Dark Ritual and a mox for six guys and a three-turn clock, Future Sight and its generosity to Ichorid, and, indeed, the changed erratas on Flash. Mana Drain is being shown the door in many decks in favor of pitch counters and Duresses, and Stax is hardly played anymore because it has approximately zero ways to stop a first-turn win.
So Wizards restricted Gifts Ungiven.
Ooookaaayy…
Now personally, I think it’s fine that they did. Gifts is ridiculously powerful as a card-advantage tutor and graveyard stocker. It’s relatively easy to cast, and it’s blue.
The decks built around Gifts Ungiven weren’t really dominating anything at the moment, though. Sure, Meandeck Gifts could Merchant Scroll for Force against a combo deck, hold it off, and then try to win, but if that’s what you’ve got to do, why not just play the combo deck? It just seems odd that they would choose to give it the axe now rather than, say, six months earlier.
Whatever. Like I said, Gifts is still really powerful, and since Merchant Scroll is still unrestricted, you can go get it whenever you want (may I recommend after Ancestral Recall?) and just win then. Plus, it still sets up Yawgmoth’s Will just fine, thankyouverymuch.
Unrestricted Black Vise is much cooler. As it’s a one-drop artifact that does damage based on cards in hand, it will see play in a still largely card advantage=based format such as, for example, the one in which we play. I am personally looking forward to a resurgence in Workshop Aggro, somewhat along these lines:
4x Black Vise
4x Sphere of Resistance
4x Null Rod
1x Trinisphere
3x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Juggernaut
4x Su-Chi
1x Sundering Titan
3x Duplicant
And then some other stuff, I haven’t really gotten it all worked out yet except for Juggernaut, Black Vise, and Sphere of Resistance.
Think about it: Mana Drains are at a low ebb and there’s a big premium on free spells, which you can tax with Spheres. Plus, while they have to build up mana and get ready to combo off, they get hit by Black Vise.
I’m not saying it will be awesome, but I will say that caving someone’s nads in with a Juggernaut is some fun, and I definitely want to get some testing in on this in the upcoming weeks.
Wizards also unrestricted Gush, to which I actually said to my computer, “Wow,” when I read it.
Gush is a powerful draw and mana engine, especially when paired with its good friend, Fastbond.
I guess green cards went from goggles to gasoline over night.
Now, I got into Vintage too late to play against Gro-A-Tog in its original environment, but I got to test against the same list (essentially) last night. That deck is the real deal. It’s explosively fast once it sees some Gushes, Quirion Dryad is a widowmaker, and it’s got enough disruption to make sure everything sticks together. The only weaknesses I noted were a shallow manabase, the possibility to poop out, and no maindeck graveyard hate against Ichorid, which trashed it with an average draw.
Gro’s four Misdirections, along with the two or three played in other control and combo-control decks, also make the newly unrestricted Mind Twist an exciting proposition for the gambling man, but I don’t see it being played much. Maybe, though, just maybe, MBC is ready for a comeback.
Anyway, Gush-based decks of all kinds are poised to win on turn two, as soon as they get that second island into play. It doesn’t seem like much of a storm enabler to me, but in a game where having more cards in hand than your opponent, it seem decent.
Wait, turn two? Maybe Mana Drain isn’t that slow after all.
Wait, Flash can and will win on turn one with some regularity. It’s the next big thing: 4 Flash, 4 Protean Hulk, 4 Summoner’s Pact, 4 Force of Will, 4 Misdirection, 4 Pact of Negation. Sure that’s already 20 cards, but who cares? With two mana, that wins the game. Island, Mox, win. That’s it. Mana Drain doesn’t even consider thinking about maybe getting the chance to possibly counter that.
Oh, and like I mentioned, Ichorid is also nice and fast and gives no whit to Mana Drain.
I wondered, actually, whether Wizards was watching the Ichorid threads and witnessing the excited turn-two kills people were pulling off with it. It wasn’t likely that they would restrict Bazaar of Baghdad, I thought. They can’t let the secondary market control them, but they do mind it, and restricting Bazaar would ruin some people’s $400 playsets. Then I realized they would restrict Serum Powder.
Stop laughing.
Serum Powder is a one-sided draw seven. It may have some restrictions that make it all but unplayable outside of the opening hand, but when you don’t care about anything but your opening hand and your graveyard, it’s like holding gold.
Plus, Ichorid looks retarded when it has to mull below four.
Anyway, Vintage for the next few months will be super fast. Dark Ritual, Gush combo, Quirion Dryads, Doomsday, Ichorid, Flash, Belcher, all of them have the potential to kill you in different ways before you hit turn two. So, uh, watch out, I guess.
Force of Will, Leyline of the Void, Chalice of the Void, Duress, Stifle, and Daze are your best hate cards now. Well, them and winning first.
Oh yeah, they unrestricted Voltaic Key too.
Good luck with that.
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