Hey Xouman,

Congrats on your finish! Know you've been on a long journey (if I remember rightly) of being a semi-powered aggro-control player, to a fully powered blue mage and hope this result made it worth the while! Also on a side note, great to see the LCV edging up in attendance again - be great if you can reach the 50 mark.

All the best and congrats!

Titus

While I applaud the design and power level of this guy, I'm not really sure what makes him any more suited to Vintage at the moment than Dark Confidant. Bob barely gets a look-in these days, and as long as mid-range gro decks (and the removal we all run because of them) continue to be a thing, I doubt this guy will either.

That said, if Gush ever gets restricted we might be back to looking for other draw engines. Still, even then, Bob seems far more reliable, especially at helping you hit your land drops versus Shops, so you can even begin to think about emptying your hand.

Cool card, but I'm not really seeing it in Vintage.

Ah man... unfortunately, I really missed the boat on getting the cards together on MTGO, so won't be able to try this myself for a while (though getting the paper stuff together at least).

While I'm sure the deck would enjoy unrestricted Chalice as per the Modern version, perhaps playing 4x Thorn of Amethyst (plus the one Chalice & maybe 3sphere) is the way to go, to slow down the broken decks? That might be a bit easier on the manabase.

As to lifeloss - a Tomb of the Spirit Dragon in the SB against decks pressuring your life total is just one idea. Worked well for UR Modern Eldrazi.

I agree on the comparison to Merfolk and it will be fascinating to see if someone can knit this together into a workable whole.

Sooo..... Pro Tour Eldrazi Face Smash is in the books and I suspect will have repercussions for several formats moving forward. I think overall, looking back at this thread, the card it most underestimates is Eye of Ugin. Naturally, on seeing the arrival of colourless cards en masse, most Vintage pilots wondered how to squeeze them into Workshop decks here and there - but after watching this weekend's action, I'm not even sure Mishra has a part to play in any Vintage Eldrazi deck. The shennanigans possible with Eye + Sol lands seem very powerful - and perhaps powerful enough for this format two.

I mean, it was not rare to see three threats dropped off on Eye on turn 1 (eg in the Top 8, 2 Mimics, plus a 2/2 Endless One), followed by Temple, Thought Knot Seer, swing for 10 on Turn 2. While Vintage obviously has access to Force of Will, efficient removal and wasteland, this still seems like a pretty powerful play - and that's before you consider the possibility of a Caverns-fuelled version as per the UR build that took home the trophy.

Did anyone else watch the PT? What did you guys make of Eldrazi tribal and its plausibility in Vintage? Certainly, I think it shows promise at least and that it might be worth reconsidering how playable Thought-Knot Seer and its foul, tentacled brethren are in wake of the weekend's fairly amazing results.

Hrishi, have you considered Tolaria West as a tutor for Academy? Granted it costs 3, but it is both Null-Rod proof and uncounterable (and doesn't take you into green). Depending on how many Null Rod effects you're running into, perhaps a one-of over a fourth Expedition Map?

Deck looks sweet otherwise and it's great to see you forging ahead with this archetype. Hope to bump into it soon online.

+1 on the congratulations!

You've been a pretty consistent performer in the Dailies and loyal to UWR, so great to see all that practice with the deck rewarded. Well done!

Rich, this build seems really interesting - thanks once again for providing us with a fascinating list to try out. Perhaps more importantly, thanks for offering a bit of a riposte to some of the hasty statements uttered on VSL - even if this week, you were on the receiving end of a tough time from Storm!

As to the third anti-shop fattie: Bane of Progress as mentioned above does sound good. Otherwise maybe some of the titans are worth considering - Primeval Titan into lands or Sun Titan into land/moxen/Dack/Deed could all be decent.

Good luck with the deck - hope we see you give it a run-out in the next VSL trimester.

It's certainly an interesting read, though really it sounds more like lucky guess-work than anything else and/or idle chit-chat taken out of context (the supposed overheard conversation.

We'll see what happens - the main disappointment is, that it really is only speculating a set reprinting non-reserved list cards. As fine as that might be, it's not really going to change much for Vintage (and I suspect even Legacy given a) the price of duals and b) the lack of opportunities to play now SCG is largely withdrawing support).

Still, the piece was good. It's a good yarn and entertaining read. Let's see what happens.

Sweet! After two months with slightly fewer players due to the holidays and what-not, it would be great if people could make an effort for this one to push us back up over the hundred mark - given the fickle nature of MTGO's events offering, I think it's pretty important to show that no-one is taking these tournaments for granted.

So, let's not be complacent and sling some Power to usher in 2016. Look forward to it!

Not saying it's amazing, just that there are blue decks that exist, already running plenty of ways to find, discard and exile this card, that have four slots for win conditions. I don't think that's really controversial.

Although the card is near useless by itself, I think given the ubiquity of Dack, as well as the Delve spells these days (which help you find more copie of this of course), it should require minimal contortions for a blue deck to run four of these and achieve alignment. Forcing, Dacking, Digging/Cruising... these are things you want to do anyway. And it's often cards which reward players for "playing Magic" that have worked out in the past. Of course, tends to help when they do something by themselves...

Woah.... is that THE Mike Long hanging out in sixth?! Fascinating if so!

Oh man! So glad to have VSL proper back! Honestly, it's like the gentlemen's club of Magic and I sit there pretending I could be part of it.

My favourite moment was probably Steve's face when he saw what decks Luis and Randy were on... spectacular!

Yup, I think this a reasonable consideration for Shops, especially if it has less access to silver bullets like a one-of Staff of Nin in the post-Martello era. Not sure it plugs the gaps the archetype is contending with right now, but it's certainly on the "maybe" list for future builds.

Think post Shops players will be more interested in the saucy expedition Ancient Tombs first though!

Not caught up on the matches yet, but I was glad to see Kai point out to Randy in the pre-game, that a combo winter in a restricted-Chalice Vintage might not be good for the format. Of course, we're not there yet, but the exchange did make me worry that the restriction was made due to one particularly vocal complainer rather than tournament data...

Kai can be a bit of a curmudgeon in the VSL sometimes - but it was an important point to raise.

Edit: Commiserations to Nick - well done on flying the Vintage flag so well. But David played sensationally throughout the whole tournament and was a worthy winner. Look forward to the regular season now!

I started well, then lost a narrow one to Dale Cooper's very nice Merfolk build, then got tired and fell apart.. still: had a good time and was really glad to see this hit roughly a hundred players again. I figured everyone in the US would be too busy with holidays and family, so I think it's a very respectable showing. Let's keep it up! As I was saying to Brassman on Twitter, we really have the chance with this event to make it the biggest, regularly held Vintage tournament worldwide - and that would do wonders for the format.

Congrats to Efro and the rest of the Top 8. Look forward to seeing all the lists - and the VSLers in action very soon.

Have good weekends, one and all.

Another cracking read Wappla! It's interesting though that your conclusion comes back to the power of the moxen; their defining nature of the format. It sounds a little like Wizards' justification for restricting Chalice, namely that everyone should get to play their moxen, because that's what Vintage is all about. It sounded like bunk when they announced the restriction, a poor criterion to base the decision on - if the format really does just become combo-control versus anti-combo-control won't that have been proven the case? Is the format really as healthy as you argue - or is that just a quirk of Vintage; that the devotees of various pet decks provide enough variety to keep things from being carved up completely between Big Blue and Gush + Creatures?

Yet to give Brian's Bant Mentor deck a proper run-out, but it looks like the perfect sweet spot for this metagame, still being agile enough to outpace Grixis - and having the benevolent Dragonlord herself to go over the top against Jeskai Mentor. Having a difficult-to-remove source of card advantage like Sylvain Library is the icing on the cake... the green Baby Jace!

Anyway, thanks for writing this - a lot of food for thought!

Having played against Desolutionist twice yesterday with UWR Mentor, I can only say that despite appearances this deck is both real - and a real pain in the jacksie! Certainly, in our first match, the number of one-ofs made figuring out how to sideboard a nightmare. The other thing the deck has going for it, is leveraging so many permanents that are hard to get rid of - especially enchantments. While I'm still not sure Erayo itself is worth it, there's definitely something good going on with this list. Is NJMagic a TMD user who could comment more on it?

Balance, Deluge and Sundering Titan all feel like improvements. Be interesting to see where this deck goes.

Prospero, for those of us from the old continent, would you clarify: is that in April or June? Sounds bloody wonderful either way!

Hi Portland,

Afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you: Bazaar of Moxen in its classic sense (a big enter all weekend) has ceased to exist. There was no event in Annecy in 2015, as BoM as TOs focused on running European GPs. As far as I inderstand it, venue costs for Classic BoM were getting too expensive, plus the huge leap in the cost of power for the prize pool must have been crippling.

What we're getting instead in 2016, is a BoM-run tournament series similar to the SCG circuit, with an invitational (pseudo pro tour of you will) at the end of it. Dishearteningly, despite years of being the world's premier Vintage tournament, BoM did not see fit to make Vintage one of the formats for the series. There will only be Vintage side events.

It's a huge blow for European Vintage, who has of now is deep in the doldrums. Perhaps consider a different focus to your holiday!

All the best!

This feels like a somewhat inevitable death of the golden goose. SCG created demand for Legacy cards, milked and stoked price rises which in turn helped inspire speculation that kept new players out of the format. Given that the demand could never be sustained by reprints, everyone in on this wheeze has reaped what they've sewn and sadly, the demise of the format very cogently predicted by Steve Menendian and other is coming to pass. I'm sure it will limp on -at least it has GPs - but how long will those last, if part of the player base that attended SCG events migrates to, say, Modern?

Personally, I hope it results in a price correction on some cards that found themselves relentlessly driven up in price despite only fringe playability (a number of Legends rares for example), but seeing another eternal format dead on its arse is still pretty miserable. It's MTGO or bust kids.

Liked this a lot! A really helpful read - thanks for putting this together.

I notice big Jace wasn't considered in the flex spots. Sometimes, I find myself getting behind on cards in the late game and have wanted something that can just come down on an empty board and pull me ahead - without being succeptible to creature removal or being reliant on my graveyard. Does this mean maybe I'm just playing my counters/threats too aggressively? Or is a big Jace something worth considering - perhaps over a 2nd Dack in these tough times for Workshop pilots?

Look forward to your next piece, keep up the good work.

I find it interesting that this Top 8 is more of a coming-out for Baby Jace than it is Thirst. Seems like he's popping up everywhere at the moment. I've enjoyed playing with him so far, but sometimes miss Big Jace's ability to generate cards without the need to do anything... might try a mixture in the future.

Also, apologies if this is obvious, is Sammich a TMD user? I gave the deck a quick spin last night and was curious about sideboarding. When should the Blightsteels be coming in? Also, are the Expedition Maps mainly for grabbing Academy when you're pumping out Myr?

I chatted briefly to Thiim on MTGO - must say, really like his Shops-Depths list, something I know has been talked about on these boards before. Did anyone face it/get an idea of the strengths weaknesses?

It will be interesting to see if these more aggro/combo lists are the best bet for Workshop decks going forward - or if the Terra Nova style lists do have the staying power in the new meta.

All in all, a fun tournament (I went 4-3 with LSV's list after punting very hard against Oath). Look forward to the next one!

As far I as understand it from Randy, it's all the creatures in the Legendary Cube that are Legendary - but there are plenty of normal non-legendary spells completing the cube. The cards from Commander 2015 will no doubt be a mixture of both.

I would certainly be happy if some of the previous Commander playables like Toxic Deluge and Containment Pries surface in the prize packs, as they're damn pricey online atm.

Have slightly mixed feelings about the new format, but shall endeavour to play in this. It's a really great initiative from WOTC and I think definitely deserves our support.

As mentioned above, some small pariticipation prize would be nice - a Vintage avatar is a great idea - but I'm sure, if we can get players to take part, we'll have more leverage going forward to improve these events.

See you Saturday!

Nice read - and so awesome to see a true Academy deck see the light of day again after so long.

I was wondering if the un-tapping effect of Time Spiral is best broken in this deck (ie one relying on a restricted card) or if you'd considered some kind of Vintage High Tide deck instead?

Another card I thought might crop up in your list was Frantic Search. Alas, it remains homeless despite it's unrestriction.

Anyway, great to see such a sussful re-imagining of a classic deck. Thanks for the write-up and congrats on your finishes with it!

Given the preponderance of Shops online at the moment, I would add a singleton Ghost Quarter to your list of possible maindeck inclusions.

Also, as more of a sideboard choice, one card I've been kind of keeping an eye on is Tomb of the Spirit dragon (2T: Gain 1 life for each colourless creature you control). Perhaps something fringe-playable in a list that makes lots of Thopters...

As most reports are mostly from Zak Dolan's persepctive, I did email Bertrand to see what he could remember. Unfortunately not a lot - but here's what he had to say (translated from the French):

- "Cyrille de Foucaud basically copied my deck, except he was playing Shivan Dragons instead of Serendib Efreets. He also played 1 or 2 Strip Mines.. that was my big error, which cost me the final"

- "I can't really remember Dominic Siemens' deck, although it was black and I think running Hypnotic Cpectres and Juzam Djinns - but I'm not 100% sure any more"

Sorry, that's not much more to go on. But Cyrille's deck at least might be more or less possible to recreate. Sounds like a fun project and maybe we'll crack it. I imagine Wizards first head of organised play might no (his name escapes me, I mention him in my book) - as he's certainly there in all the pics of the final that have surfaced over the years. I never went to the bother of tracking him down though.

Agreed - this really relegates them to almost pointless. Sure, three rounds is quick and fun, but this really makes Legacy and Vintage feel like little more than casual formats. It's a bloody hopeless change - and unless they run big blue-riband events more regularly or introduce leagues quickly, this is really a slap round the face for everyone who has bought into the format, taken it seriously and who treated the DEs as the best, regular Vintage competition they could get to play in.

Steve, on top of Ahab's comments, it seems like the reason they had to put a floor on the value of prize support is because they undermined originally by hiking up the redemption price from $5 to $25. That made it worse value for people to convert sets accumulated on MTGO into real cards - and it was this link to physical goods which had previously ensured the value of prize packs.

This was a good read a few weeks ago on the problems the MTGO economy was facing.
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/what-broke-the-magic-online-economy/

Note, it was written by an economist - but no one at WOTC saw the necessity of include an economist in its crack MTGO team... perhaps why the methods they are using to fix things seem ill-thought out at best and a cynical money grab at worst.