Also, chicken flavor packets.
Anyway, I haven’t played Magic in a while, which always makes writing about it somewhat difficult. Well, I played some Extended decks a while back, including a nifty version of Tendrils that was incredibly slow compared to, you know, actual Tendrils decks that have tutors and things. Then I played UB Fish against some Extended UR Fish-style deck that completely owned me because its creatures were bigger and I was keeping bad hands.
Sigh.
One would think that Vintage decks should be able to beat any deck from any other format, but that’s just not true when it comes to Fish. Oh well.
We’re coming up on some exciting times in Magic, though.
There’s a Vintage tournament on February 4 in Columbus for a Mox Pearl and another one a week later on February 11 in Sandusky for a Mox Ruby. I love back-to-back Vintage weekends, especially when they’re less than a month away. I’ll put the info about both of these at the end of this post and once more as they approach—happy playtesting!
Plus, it’s already January 8, and a new year, and that means it’s new set time. Planar Chaos is on the way! Prerelease events are January 20 and 21 (check local listings for availability) and I’m definitely going to be there. Magic Legend David P. Baum and I are going to be in Columbus tearing up the Two-Headed Giant tables on Sunday.
Planar Chaos so far has seemed nothing short of revolutionary, and I’m interested to see its impact on Vintage. If you don’t want to know anything about the cards, I recommend you skip to the tournament listings at the bottom of the page, because I’m probably going to spoil some cards like the information whore I am.
For those of you who don’t know, Planar Chaos is “alternate reality” Magic. Green is red, blue is black, white is blue, Brown Ouphe is the marquee creature, and Force of Will costs 20 life to play, killing you instantly instead of saving you. According to Mark Rosewater’s article today, there are 45 Timeshifted cards (nine in each color) that are exact reprints of previous cards, except that they’re a different color. Timeshifted cards are distinguished from non-Timeshifted cards by white lettering in their title and spell-type boxes.
Funeral Charm, once black, is now a blue instant called Piracy Charm. Ball Lightning is now green and Groundbreaker, Blastoderm is the White Calciderm. It’s an interesting effect, and Standard certainly won’t look at all the same as long as Planar Chaos is in play.
The effect of Planar Chaos on Vintage, though, is somewhat harder to gauge. With only 45 Timeshifted cards, the effect won’t be that great. I’m sure Wizards, in their infinite wisdom, chose those cards wisely, making them strong enough and interesting enough to be playable, but not overpowered so that they’re format rending. No one plays Blastoderm in Vintage now, for example, so why would they play Calciderm?
So as for Timeshifted cards, unless there’s something that was already bordering on awesome, they probably won’t make too much of a difference.
It’s the other cards that are a little worrisome.
I have a feeling that Wizards R&D pays a little more attention to Vintage than a lot of players think they do. They make playable cards in every set, and most of them aren’t blindingly obvious, or at least they haven’t been since Mirrodin. They brought back the storm mechanic (motto: “Raining on parades since 2003”) in Time Spiral, for example, and gave Vintage a boost with Empty the Warrens, which is apparently just as good as if not better than a Darksteel Colossus with Tendrils of Agony coming out its nose.
Anyway, this attention is good since it means they won’t try to break the format in half, while still giving us notable cards that stir the mixture every few months, even if they don’t expect it. I remember reading from somebody’s article on the Wizards website a conversation that went something like this:
Developer 1: You’ll never guess what just won at the latest Star City.
Developer 2: I don’t know. What?
Developer 1: Sundering Titan.
Developer 2: Guhguhguh—wha?!?
Turns out that in a format that combines dual lands, Goblin Welders, and Tinker, destroying a bunch of “each basic land type” on the cheap is pretty good.
Even in the early spoilers (38 out of 165 cards at MTGSalvation.com at the time of writing) and not including Timeshifteds, there are already some interesting looking cards for Vintage. Wistful Thinking says target player draws two and discards four, and if it wasn’t a sorcery it could be rather sassy as filtering for you or discard for them, for example. Dash Hopes (a black “punisher” counterspell) looks good on paper but will most likely be terrible in play. And UG Fish could get a boost from Seal of Primordium, a fresh new Seal of Cleansing.
Okay, those really aren’t that good.
The playable ones look like they’re in red, which suddenly has bounce, which means a way to deal with Darksteel Colossus. I can’t think of a deck that needs it offhand, but the split card Dead & Gone will have some utility, possibly in Gifts or Slaver.
DeadAnd if Goblin-o’-War (or whatever it ends up being called) didn’t have such an awkward echo cost, it could see some play as well. Unfortunately, it seems like Thick-skinned Goblin is the way to go on the new echoes, and I don’t see that happening in Vintage.
Instant R
Dead deals 2 damage to target creature.
Gone
Instant 2R
Return target creature you don’t control to its owner’s hand.
Goblin-o’-WarThe new echo costs all seem to be two mana higher than the actual mana cost, which will sometimes delay you from playing the card a couple turns so you can use its echo ability and keep it in play.
Creature – Goblin 1R
When Goblin-o’-War comes into play, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner’s hand.
Echo 3R
The problem with cards like these is that, whatever R&D does, they can’t take it back, not in Vintage anyway. Nothing I’ve seen looks too broken or is even guaranteed to be playable, but if they make an already good card into a more Vintage-friendly color (Diabolic Edict in blue could be pretty good), look out. So far, I haven’t seen anything too far out of the way, though; I mean, it’s not like bounce is the best mechanic in the game.
So far, the most playable spoiled card I’ve seen is Tomb of Yawgmoth:
Tomb of YawgmothThat’s pretty good. It fixes mana in all kinds of Stax decks, which need colorless, non-Workshop mana (and mana not in multiples of three) periodically. And adds some possibilities in other areas like, say, swampwalk. Okay, maybe not swampwalk, but Kormus Bell suddenly shuts down Fetchlands and Wastelands for a turn because lands will have summoning sickness. And Stax can now utilize Dark Confidant even better.
Legendary Land
Each land is a Swamp in addition to other land types.
Plus, since it acts as a Swamp itself, it produces mana without even saying so.
I recommend going through the databases and finding cards that reference Swamps and how to deal with them, because this card will get played. Just remember that it makes all lands into swamps, not just yours and not just your opponents’.
Those of you who didn’t want to read spoilers can start reading again here.
About those tournaments I mentioned:
February 4, 2007
The Soldiery
4256 N. High St.
Columbus, Ohio 43214
(614) 267-1957
Registration starts at 12:30 p.m.
Round 1 starts at 1 p.m.
Entry is $15 and gets you infinite proxies
Prize is a Mox Pearl
If you have to quit early due to sucking, there’s hot Type 4 action, and there will more than likely be a trip to Thurman’s Café for dinner for anyone interested.
February 11, 2007
The Gamers Lounge
127 E. Market St.
Sandusky, OH 44870
(419) 621-0282
Registration starts at noon
Round 1 starts at 1 p.m.
Entry is $20 and gets you infinite proxies and a nice environment
Prize is a good-looking Mox Ruby
There will be timed rounds, and we’ll probably descend on Diana’s diner like locusts after the tournament.
I’m going to be at both tournaments, for sure, and I hope everyone else can be there too! I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to play, but there’s a Waterbury in between that might have a little effect on the metagame, especially whether or not the Ichorid scourge is as powerful as everyone says it is.
I say no, but that’s a different article.
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