I totally agree.  This is one of those cases that's purely price gouging by wizards.  This isn't strong enough, compared to cards in the past, to be at rare, and isn't draft warping enough at uncommon to justify it's printing there.  I'm not usually one to complain about good cards being at rare, but I hate it when wizards prints basic staples at rare, for no other reason than "people will play this a lot, so lets make it rare."  I just don't get what makes this card a rare-worthy card, other than the fact that a lot of people will want it...

Oh, and $60 if you're lucky.  This will be $20 a pop easy - on the plus side, the kids and timmys who open them at the PR will trade them cheaply, since they have nothing that seems rareworthy about them.   "Well, I suppose I can trade you a Dread for two of those junky discard cards.  I mean, seriously, what kind of rare is that?"

I'm not sure either are fast enough to make an impact on Vintage.  Lili's abilities are certainly vintage worthy, but at her price, there's better things to do than a pair of Imperial Seals (like, you know, win).  Garruk seems strong, and I think will make a big impact in standard and extended, since he does say win next turn, but I'm not sure there's a logical deck for him in an eternal format.  Green based aggro doesn't seem strong enough to justify him (excepting GAT, which just doesn't need him at that cost), and as free untappers go, he's outclassed by the urza's block free dudes.  We'll see about Walkers as a whole though, I have high hopes for Jace - my guess is he'll have either a one-sided timetwister or time walk as his "big" effect. 

Tarmogyf's always solid, as aggro beaters go.  Last tournament I played in, a guy running a Sea Stompy/GAT hybrid with, among the other usual toys, Tarmo did reasonably well.  He can get pretty big pretty fast in this format.  Other than that, I'd second putting True Believer in the board, since it  just won't come into play all that often in the current meta.

I'd definitely add in SoFaI, probably cutting the Vipers.  They've never seemed to do enough for me when I've played them.

Hey Galen - we actually played on Saturday, round 1 IMS.  I'm the idiot who didn't Duress before playing Yawg Wins and walked right into your mana drain. 

I'll definitely check out the Sacro series (is it also 10 prox?) - not sure if I can make it to Reno then, we shall see. 


My post-tournament assessment is that (a) Crypt is indeed useless out of the board, although Infest (a last minute add since I couldn't get any Massacres) was an all-star, (b) I'd rather have had FoF over Gifts all weekend, and (c) I really need to find an answer for Stax, which was an auto-loss for me all weekend.  Of course, this could just be an unfixably bad matchup.   I'll take a look at the Menedian list and make some updates.

I draft every other Friday, but now that I know who to look for, I'll definitely find you when I'm there. 


Oh, for anyone who cares, I ended up going 1-3 on Saturday and 3-3 on Sunday.   Not great, but not completely embarrassing either. 

Awesome pictures, thanks.  Also, you can cross off one of the ????s in the field with TPS - I was running it to a 3-3 finish and didn't see it listed there.

Thanks guys, continuing to tweak the list.  I tried some of your suggested changes, found the deck much better.  I found the Jar and Diamond were sitting in my hand uselessly too often, and was missing the MD Recalls I'd had at one point.

updated list:
Lands
4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea   
1x Tolarian Academy
2x Island
1x Swamp
1x Flooded Strand

Artifacts
1x Lotus Petal   
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet   
1x Mox Pearl   
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus
1x Mana Vault   
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring   

Instants/Sorceries
4x Dark Ritual   
4x Brainstorm
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Timetwister   
1x Mystical Tutor
2x Merchant Scroll
1x Tinker
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Rebuild
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will   
2x Tendrils of Agony
4x Duress
1x Time Walk
4x Force of Will   
2x Misdirection

Enchantments
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Necropotence   

Creatures
1x Darksteel Colossus


Also, what should i be putting together for a sideboard?   

So I'm just starting to get involved in Vintage.  I recently moved into an area with an actual vintage community, and now that my cards are finally here and unpacked from the move, I'm looking to get started. 

Since I don't really know the local meta at all (i'm playing at Eudemonia in berkely, CA if anyone cares, and while they post the results of each tournament, i still don't know the overall makeup), I'm planning on playing U/B combo, since I fell most comfortable with it for now - this may change as my Vintage experience level grows.

Anyway, here's my list.  Any and all suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea   
1x Tolarian Academy
2x City of Brass
2x Gemstone Mine
1x Mox Diamond
1x Lotus Petal   
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet   
1x Mox Pearl   
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus
1x Mana Vault   
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring   
4x Dark Ritual   

1x Memory Jar
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
4x Brainstorm
1x Necropotence   
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Timetwister   
1x Mystical Tutor
2x Merchant Scroll
1x Tinker
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Vampiric Tutor

1x Yawgmoth's Will   
2x Tendrils of Agony
4x Duress
1x Time Walk 
4x Force of Will   
2x Misdirection
1x Darksteel Colossus


Thanks in advance

Welcome to TMD. Make sure to make your topics less ambiguous. "Deck help for a vintage newbie" doesn't shed much light on the contents, so I simply added "Tendrils" in the front to better catagorize it.

-Zherbus