All the domain cards care for card types (Forest, Plains, Mountain, Swamp, Island).
This would not affect domain, as it does not introduce a new type of basic lands. If it would, then all the snow-covered versions of the basic lands would also have impacted domain.

Other than that, I like how they made colorless-specific a 'color'. I don't expect it will impact Vintage because you can't use workshop mana for these spells (unless they are also artifacts obviously), and that is just too much power to leave behind. Although it is far too early to be really sure about this.

For commander though, we get a colorless basic land of which you can put in multiples. Although I think that currently there are enough colorless lands, this does make it more accessible. Also opens up the possibility of a colorless commander product in the future.

I assume this is real, mainly because this is the sollution I thought of myself when they said that they found a way to make a colorless basic land. It just seems to be the most elegant/simpel way to do this. Although I don't get why they didn't use  instead of <> for mana production (as that is essentially the same). Maybe for thematic reasons, or maybe I'm forgetting something.

I am currently testing it in my The Deck, replacing Timetwister (as I didn't really liked that card as much as I thought I would). It is doing quite decent at the moment.

The problems with Jace the new are that he is expensive, and after that, he's quite slow, and vulnerable to creatures. In a sense, he is like crucible of worlds, but even slower and with a better effect.
In the context of The Deck, however, these problems are somewhat lessened. The Deck has the tools to come back from not having mana drain mana up for a turn. In addition, you can play it after balance, pernicious deed (and is affected by neither) against creatures, and work from there. Also, The Deck takes arguably the most turns to win, so the fact that he's slow is immediately compensated by the fact that you get so many uses out of him if he sticks.

What you do get:
- Card Advantage. Repeatable brainstorms are still great, even if it is sorcery speed.
- Maindeck bounce. I don't have maindeck bounce in my version of The Deck, and Jace added it for the moment.
- Win Condition. Most games go very long. After a crucible-strip lock, your opponent can still collect a blowout hand to try and win. They can't when you also have Jace selecting their spells. In addition, building up his loyalty allow you an additional win condition. This is a great way to get 4+ win conditions in your deck when facing Sadistic Sacrement.

That said, the mana cost is quite prohibitive, and he can be a little dead early on. You don't always have a force of will to pitch him to. Also, I personally like him too much to pitch him all that often, which is something I should change. But this has nothing to do with the card itself. All in all, I like him. He's not the new ancestral recall in terms of power, or even gifts, but he does add a nice combination of raw power with great utility.

That is soo cool. I didn't realize this.

That is indeed how the deck works, kind of. But that doesn't mean that it automatically loses to more focussed strategies, because the deck is actually really focussed as well, except that it's not focussed on executing a linear line of play, like ritual->tutor->will, Time vault->voltaic key, or "life pressure dude"->"mana denial". It is focessed in that it generates a lot of small advantage, so it's linear would be like: small advantage -> small advantage -> small advantage -> small advantage -> ... -> control of the game -> win. The specific cards used for this don't really matter all that much.

One of the complaints you had was that the opening hands were inconsistent, however, many of the cards that are there as 1-ofs are cards that create small advantages, except that they do it in a different way. Some of those cards can be blowouts in certain matchups, which is why they are there. Ancient grudge might be not the most ideal card against fish, but if you take out 2 moxen with it, and you couple that with some wastelands, you will have a great mana advantage, and the ancient grudge actually attributed to this. Finally, you have tutors to search out the cards that give you the biggest advantage whenever you want.

Another problem you had was the early game, and I think that this is a logical consequence of being the control player. The Deck generally wins after many turns, much more than most other decks. To do this, it has to be the stronger deck in the late game, which it is usually. However, you cannot simply be the strongest deck against at any stage of the game, and the early game is where the deck can lack a little. However, this is where you use your 19-life buffer to get through to the late game. The Deck doesn't really have blowout hands that just win, but it does have strong openings that put you a long way on the path to complete control.


If you feel that way, then that's ok. I personally feel that this deck gives me great opportunity to flex my mental muscle, and even if it gets overshadowed in the end, I am glad to have played it now, because to me, it is a very rewarding deck. Difference in playing style, I assume.


The whole point the other posters had was that they pointed out what they percieved as the flaws in the decklist you presented. It is very true that there are a lot of different decklists for The Deck, and they have widely different card choices, but that is the whole point: Metagaming and personal preference. Different builds have different weaknesses. The flaw in your logic, the way I read the post, was that you had settled on a list that was optimal according to you, and the proceded to address weakness to the entire archetype (or "idea", or: "all The Deck lists possible") based on your experienced with this, rather excotic, list. I think that is where the intention of your post got lost a little.

The question you have to ask is: Do you have enough control to cast it yet? Casting fire shouldn't be a reflex that happens when you see a confidant. Often it's correct to kill it on sight, but sometimes it's better to wait a turn. Maybe you can ice their land end of turn, waste another land and then balance the confidant away without the fear of mana drain or spell pierce. In many cases, you can drop gorilla shaman and keep up with some card advantage by destroying their moxen (it's surprising how often the shaman is not countered). You both get a similar card advantage, but you constrict their mana in the process, which can put you in the position to cast fire at a later point where they are unable to effectively defend against it, or just waste too many forces on your single spell, leveraging the card advantage that the confidant just created.

I generally can keep my opponent off mana drain by taking out their mana with wasteland, gorilla shaman and ancient grudge. Especially if they wish to cast a spell on their own turn, because they need UU + the mana for their spell while you assault their mana base. This can give you the opportunity to get your drain cast while your opponent is unable to defend.
And always remember that there are spells that you don't need to counter. You can use ancient grudge, balance, pernicious deed, or any other card to deal with a certain threat. You must just estimate if you can get the better sollution online (tutor for it, find the mana to cast it, etc.) before the spell takes the game away from you. This way you can keep your mana drain for another time.


Swords has been part of The Deck for a long time as I read in The Control Player's Bible, and for good reason. It is an efficient answer to relevant threats. However, it doesn't really generate an advantage and this is where it falls flat. Especially compared to other sollutions, like Balance, pernicious deed (against goyf), and sower of temptation. It is efficient, which gives you a better chance in the early game, but it lack the incremental advantages that The Deck is really looking for. You can play it, just know at what cost it comes.


First of, some lists use cunning wish with rebuild in the sideboard which can be a sollution.
Second, you lose a counter war, and then get a crucial spell countered. This means your opponent was able to get 2 more counterspells off than you. This means that your opponent was already at some tremendous advantage, or you were unable to constrict his mana enough. You might have picked the wrong card to fight a counter war over, because...
Third, why fight over a tinker if you have another card to deal with it more efficiently? If you can't protect your balance with all your countermagic, you can fight a little over tinker so that you get the most out of your untap fase that follows, but in this scenario it could very well be that balance was a more important spell to protect than the force directed at the tinker.

In all, this scenario sounds more like your opponent was the one in control of the game, and you were unable to execute your game plan. An opponent winning from an advantaged position is not the problem. You should really wonder how he got into the position where he had so many (blue) cards in hand, and all the mana in play to cast so many of them. In this scenario, the problem lies in the turns before this play happened.

This is probably one of the most important aspects of The Deck I think. I recently won a Mox Sapphire with a twist on MirariKnight's The Deck, and many games went somewhat like this:
I play mana, do something cute (gorilla shaman, brainstorm, ponder, etc). I play wasteland->go for as long as possible (so no drain mana up unless I hit the sapphire). At that point I get drain mana up, while they have build a board, but are short on mana (one of the reason why I wanted 28 mana sources was to play this type of game for as long as possible). Then, most opponents got greedy and wanted to expand their board position, and walked into mana drain, unable to effectively defend it, giving me mana on my turn to devestate them with balance, mind twist, pernicious deed, tinker, crucible/strip mine etc. Then the playing fields were levelled, except I have a mana advantage and every spell in my deck creates card advantage from that point on.

Often, I didn't had mana drain up until turn 4. If you let them build up mana, you let them cast progressively better spells, that put them into a progressively better position. Most decks run more counters than The Deck, better draw, and/or better hand disruption. You, on the other hand, have the strongest mana base and the tools to pressure theirs. If you don't apply the pressure there, you allow them to fight in areas that they are better equipped. However, once you have disrupted their flow of spells with mana denial, you can begin yours and build on the incremental advantages that the cards in your deck give you.

My playing style isn't set in stone. I don't play it every time, and others shouldn't blindly follow it, but I just wanted to say that my version of The Deck is designed to synergize with that playing style. I play 28 mana sources, and use sundering titan as my tinker target. I also play regrowth, and have used it on cards like wasteland, crucible and sundering titan to advance this strategy. I used gifts and demonic tutor to get crucible/strip and/or gorilla shaman going instead of going for the traditional yawgmoth's will.

The Oath transformational sideboard was a bit of a mixed bag. I think it can be powerful, but wouldn't opt for it as the standard. I didn't have the sowers, so I wanted something else for the beatdown matchup. Lack of testing with the Oaths made me make some mistakes I shouldn't have made.
Greater Gargadon remained in the side all day, but it was fantastic against Oaths during playtesting. One of the better sideboard cards in that matchups because they pretty much need pithing needle to have a chance of going off quickly.
Mind Twist and Balance were both great. In fact, Mind Twist has contributed to at least 4 wins over the course of the tournament. Mainly off a mana drain, butt the beauty is that you can go all-in if you're not facing forces, or you have backup, because they are immediately in topdeck mode after it resolves. Balance is awesome in creature matchups, as expected, but it's also quite nice if you get a good mox-loaded hand as a semi-twister. I never used it as a armageddon though. It also seems great with greater gargadon, but the problem is that you don't really want both in the deck against the same opponent.
Crucible is so much easier to play than life from the loam. It doesn't cost you a draw step, and I really hate cards going to the graveyard for nothing. They are still accessible, but cards in the library are much easier to reach, and often it's quite comforting to know that certain cards are still in your library. It comes down to style of play though I think. I often used tutors to get crucible/strip out, and almost never went for yawgmoth's will if I had a choice, because with Will still in the library, you have the tool to come back in any game. The same goes for cards like balance and timetwister to a lesser extend. Also, I play very aggressively with my wastelands, so I'm usually in a good position once I decide to cast the Crucible. Often mana drain helps with protecting it. In any case, playing wastes early, and dropping crucible late, I never lost a match where I got crucible down, and I never had crucible destroyed once it was in play. The uncounterable aspect of loam didn't come into play in my matches.

The cards that made no impact this tournament were misdirection and fire//ice. Timetwister was also a little too dead for my taste. In case of fire//ice though, it's a matter of matchups, and misdirection is still a great inclusion I think. Mana Crypt and Tolarian Academy weren't all that great either, although the academy does give some good mana at times, the deck really has too little or consistent artifacts in play to really make this useful. Mana crypt was mainly for tinker, other than that, games go too long for mana crypt to be really worth the risk. Sometimes, like ac ademy, it just helps you close the game that much faster with an early tinker + protection. Luckily, Gorilla Shaman can get rid of it as well, which makes it easier to play, and then it can help with getting a crucible down (in which case you are in a terriffic position).
Thirst was also mainly used for digging, and like tolarian academy, it suffers a little from the low artifact count.

Last sunday I made my first top8 in vintage ever, and won the 41 man tournament (First Brussel Vintage Championship) to recieve my second piece of power: Mox Sapphire!

I started vintage because of The Control Players' Bible, and my friend Frank convinced me to play it because it fits my playing style.

Anyway, I took the list from MirariKnight (as posted here), and made some changes. I knew I wanted Balance, so switched the 4th city in for the snow-covered Island. I dropped the Sowers because I didn't have them, and initially wanted to play Control Magic in it's place. Instead, I opted to drop Sadistic Sacrement as well (too hard to cast with triple black), and go for the Oath sideboard, as the sowers were mainly there for beatdown matchups anyway. There are precious few win conditions game 1, and sometimes I wanted a faster clock, but in the end I never lost a game where I got control.

All in all, this is what I played:

The Deck:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand

1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sundering Titan

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven

1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Mind Twist
1 Balance
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Timetwister
1 Fire//Ice
1 Regrowth

Sideboard:
3 Oath of Druids
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Rebuild
1 Oxidize
1 Extirpate
1 Pyroblast
2 Greater Gargadon

I didn't make any notes, but some comments anyway:
After 5 rounds of swiss I was in first on tiebreakers (4-1). I got 1 bye, defeated tezz, vampires and selkie strike, losing to TPS.

Quarter-finals vs. Mirror
The first game he opens on Library and gets to activate it three times before I can force him to drop under seven cards. I open of Gorilla Shaman that continues to beat down for the next twelve or so rounds. I do win a counter war with a mana drain, and use that mana to mind twist his hand away. He topdecks ancestral, finds some mana and a fact or fiction and is almost back in the game. I have assembled Crucible/waste/shaman however, and after he lets my demonic resolve, I show him the Strip mine I search for and he concedes.

The second game starts with a classic draw-go style play from both of us, keeping eachother's mana in check. I resolve Crucible, and he mysticals for ancient grudge. He cast ancient grudge of his volcanic and emerald, which I force and destroy his emerald the next turn with my own grudge to prevent a quick flashback. He concedes when I cast demonic for Strip Mine again.

Semi-finals vs. Painter
Game 1 I keep an insane hand with sea, ancestral, sol ring, crucible, wasteland and two other cards containing at least 1 permission spell. He apperently kept a risky hand with painter + grindstone. I open with sea and sol ring, he opens with volcanic, mana crypt, sol ring and painter, keeping volcanic open. I waste his volcanic and safely cast ancestral finding another wasteland. I keep destroying his mana, but he only fails 1 of his six mana crypt rolls, so keeps beating with the painter. I resolve crucible as soon as I run out of wastes, and find strip mine a few turns later. I tinker for titan and seal the game.

In game 2 we both play control, but my shaman and wastes keep his mana in check. He does get an early painter online. I extirpate force of will, and see that he has pyroblast for my yawgmoth's will, so I continue to build mana until I can cast it with protection, but I topdeck Tinker at that moment. I tinker for titan and destroy all but 1 of his lands. He mysticals for rack and ruin and destroys my titan and his own sol ring (the only artifacts in play were titan, and his sol ring and painter). This destroys his last land. I quickly find crucible, and after a demonic tutor for strip mine he concedes.

Finals vs. TPS
This is the guy I lost my only swiss round to.
He opens on duress and sees my yawgmoth's will, force of will, brainstorm as the only buisiness spells. He takes brainstorm and passes the turn. I topdeck drain and play a land. He draws and does nothing (no land drop), and I topdeck a second mana drain. He vampirics at the end of my turn and tries to go off on his. I force the yawgmoth's will, he forces back, and I drain the force. He is momentarily perplexed as he had only counted on one unknown card in my hand. We continue the draw-go plan and I draw the remaining two mana drains in the next three draws. I ride the card advantage and land destruction to a big yawgmoth's will turn which I still had from turn 1, and cast regrowth for sundering titan and time walk from my graveyard. On the walk turn I hardcast titan (I would have lost 3 duals if I had cast it on the will turn), and get the remaining three force of wills in my hand to ride out the game.

In game 2 I mulligan to five and keep a mediocre hand. I do get a gorilla shaman out to beat him down, and he doesn't get much out. He only topdecks forces and eventually casts timetwister. This gets my back in the game as he had a better hand and a small mana development advantage prior to the twister. Next turn he tries to go off again, but only manages to cast necropotence. He necro's 8 cards and passes the turn (he doesn't get anything useful though). Gorilla shaman keeps beating, and he vampirics on my end step for sadistic sacrement. He necros 2 more cards, putting him at 1 life, and sad sacs me. He removes helm of obedience, sundering titan and time walk. I point out that I have my win condition on the battlefield already, and he concedes.


I now have doubled my number of power cards and added a mox sapphire to my ancestral recall. All in all, I love how The Deck plays, but it is a bit slow. Crucible of Worlds was instrumental in nearly every game, and gorilla shaman is a true underestimated win condition. I never believed he could be the 20-turn clock you need to win, but now I know that he can realistically go all the way in addition to being an increadible card advantage machine. Titan is definately the robot of choice for me at the moment. There are still some things to tinker about with this deck (I think a glen elendra archmage would be a really cool addition to The Deck as a clock + card advantage + permission).

A possible trap card for Vintage:



A free counter against storm combo that can accidently counter other spells in a counter war or when your opponent is using excessive tutoring/moxing.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see the discussion in the Open Forum.

Only 1 piece of power, which is an Ancestral Recall, which I am very very happy with. I want to acquire more, but don't ave the financial means at the moment.
I do own 4 italian drains. Only 6 duals (4 volcanic, 1 FWB savannah, 1 scrublands) and 4 fetches though (1 delta, 2 strand, 1 heath), so I still need to borrow cards to play in 10 proxy games. I really need to work on my mana base .

I'm from the Netherlands btw.

I was going to make a reply here, but Harlequin said it better than I could.

The point that there is unknown information is not of concern, because the number of possible direct futures (i.e. game state when you regrain priority in Magic, or when it's your next turn in chess) is finitely bounded. In a sense, the problem of there being unknown information is the same as the unknown decision making process you opponent uses to make their moves. In both cases, you can't predict the outcome 100% each time, but you can calculate all possible outcomes.

Very nice article! Although I'm not completely sold on the idea. I think it's very important to think outside of the box, but the flowcharts are not an absolute evil that must be avoided. I've read Playing to Win, and it makes a good case for sort-of flowchart thinking. The main point that stuck out for me was the conservation of mental energy in a tournament. I read this around the time I went to my first Vintage tournament ever, and after 6 rounds, I was mentally exhausted. Even if by some miracle I would have made it into top 8, my concentration (or lack thereof at that point) would have prevented me from reaching much higher.

Tournaments drain mental energy, and flowchart thinking (or autopilot thinking) can help conserve energy for the really important matches.

The biggest point from your article for me would be to always be aware of when you can apply flowcharts, and when not. What I mean is that if you decide to ride out a game on autopilot, you should always be aware when the flowchart is failing, and tighten up your game.

I think that flowcharts/autopilot can be weapon in winning a tournament, but you always need to be careful when applying it.


Just for nitpicking purposes: In magic, even though a hand might be unknown, each card represents a few thousand possible plays, but nothing infinite. Therefore it is possible to create an ideal flowchart like in Chess. For mathematical purposes, Magic is still a finite game at any given point in time.

Loam is more difficult to stop with counters as it keeps comming back. In addition, you dig three deep every turn in search of more lands or cards to retrieve from your grave with argivian find/regrowth. So it is a combination of resilience and circumstancial ability to dig faster.

Your deck seems to be able to unload it's hand pretty quickly, plays no creatures and can safely sac all lands in a zuran orb. Balance seems like the perfect fit for this deck, and I would definately make room for it. Maybe something like Orim's Chant can help you in the disruption suite by allowing you to force through spells, but I wouldn't know what to cut for it. I have no experience with Jace, and the rituals seem a little out of place, so maybe those could be cut. Although the rituals presumably help you with your early crucible, you still have to get both in hand to make any effect.

You could also cut 1 enlightened tutor for an argivian find and then add an Academy Ruins, so you can intuition for Ruins, Crucible, Argivian, and then argivian up your crucible at instant speed if they give you that.

Also, Since you're playing/replaying lots of lands anyway, Vinelasher Kudzu might be a nice alternative kill condition, although it kind of goes against the balance idea (although you can drop it after balance and then replay the lands from your graveyard).

I would definately run Gemstone Mine as a land. It is solid in color generation, and crucible and crop rotation both lower it's downside considerably. It is also quite budget.

D'Oh! How could I forget about the coolest tutor to ever grace my highlander deck .

One a lighter note:
Sleep
Sorcery
Tap all creatures target opponent controls. Creatures that player controls don't untap during their controller's next untap step.

I can see this card in casual fish decks to time walk against a resolved tinker and push a lot of damage through. The cost is again quite prohibiting, but a 1-of seems like a possibility since it would also work quite nice against other aggro decks.

Finally, about Sign in Blood: Is the new craze now to have spells target any player in the way the original Braingeyser and Mind Twist did? Since Mind Spring and Mind Shatter are also in M10 and they follow the same pattern. Night's Whisper would otherwise seem like an easier reprint.

A new one is just up on mtgsalvation:

Mirror of Fate
Artifact
Tap, Sacrifice Mirror of Fate: Choose up to seven face-up exiled cards you own. Exile all cards in your library, then put the chosen cards on top of your library.

The cards go onto your library in any order I suppose.

This card seems somewhat like doomsday. Relic of Progenitus combo's nice with this: Exile your best cards (or just all graveyards) and then fix your library doomsday/Yawgmoth's Will style. In addition, you can retrieve all cards you exiled with Force and Yawgmoth's Will.

Very cool card with a good potential and possibly a tat too expensive casting cost. Might also invoke a cool workshop-based combo deck in the future. I definately like this one in terms of style potential.

Edit: Fixed link

sorry for going off-topic,


Assume seven spells have been played, and now Tendrils of Agony is played. As soon as Tendrils of Agony is played, the storm mechanic triggers and wants to put 7 copies of the spell on the stack, but for the moment, only the original spell and the trigger are on the stack, so only the original spell can be commandeered (which means that you get to drain 2 life from an opponent). If the storm trigger resolves, there are now 8 Tendrils of Agony on the stack, and at that point any one of the eight can be commandeered to drain 2 life for you.
Net result is the same, you only gain control over 2 points of life draining (i.e. 1 spell)


Oracle has changed this to trigger when a noncreature spell is being cast. In essence, succesfully cast no longer exists in the game, as all cards with such wording have been errata'd to trigger on casting (to the best of my knowledge).

Hey Duncan! Your first round opponent Joep here.

In our second game, the Viashino Heretic was a mistake, because at that time I had 4 open mana (so not enough for heretic + mana drain) and I only had 1 red source, which meant that I would also cut myself off red elemental blast. I did have force in hand, but no blue spells to support it. During your cascade of spells my draws were red elemental blast, mana vault, polluted delta, tolarian academy, and 1 or two more lands. Even though these were terrible draws, I did give you an opening to try and win the game (as I already had the Ignot Chewer in play to beat you down), and you correctly took it. It was very informative to play against you and I learned quite a bit about control-on-control matches. Next tournament I'll be that much better .

The deck I played was a homebrew which felt underpowered during the entire tournament. Empty the Warrens was an allstar card in TDV 7 (I wrote a report on this site and played with thoughtcast painter then), so I figured it to be a strong alternative win. In addition, the Commandeer was cut at the last minute, because I initially thought I couldn't play black (I own no underground seas and only 1 delta). Last minute decision to cut it, although it would not have helped in our game, seeing as I never really had the amount of blue cards to support it.

It was nice playing against you, I learned a lot this tournament, and realized I still have a lot more to learn as well.

First of all, welcome to the world of Vintage, and congratulations on making the finals!


You'll get used to them. There are a lot of powerful plays in other formats as well, but in vintage it tends to be compressed in fewer turns, which means that there is less time to recover and early mistakes or miscalculations therefor carry a bigger penalty. Just play more games, and you'll start to identify the most effective ways to deal with certain situations. Still game losses to random topdecks of Yawgmoth's Will exist, but the road to getting into a position where you auto-lose to a certain card is a factor in all formats, and vintage just happens to have the most broken pieces of topdeck cardboard in Magic.

Anyway, good to hear you enjoyed it and I hope you'll play more vintage!

Yesterday (April 5th, 2009) was The Dutch Vintage 7, and it was my second vintage tournament. I was unable to play in tournaments because my sundays were occupied with rugby competition. Hopefully, I'll get to play a lot more in the upcomming months because, like with the previous tournament, it has only increased my thirst for competitive vintage. Anyway, enough of the boring part, on to deck I played. It is basically Thoughtcast Painter as found in this thread by Demonic Attorney. Here is the list:

Mana (23):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Seat of the Synod

Spells (37):
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Thoughtcast
3 Mana Drain
3 Painter's Servant
2 Grindstone
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Darksteel Colossus

Sideboard (15):
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Pyroclasm
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Old Man of the Sea
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Pithing Needle

Initially I chose the deck because it was the only one that I would be able to play within the Proxy and my budget limit. I definately like the deck though, as I love to play control games, and this deck just gives you that in plenty. While playing the original list from Demonic Attorney, I found that Seat of the Synod spent most of it's time in my hand waiting to be pitched to Thirst for Knowledge, and was hardly ever useful. In addition, Thoughcast tended to clutter my hand a lot and either force mulligans, or be terrible to find in a mulligan hand. Less cards in hand means fewer artifacts which means that the expected mana cost of thoughtcast increases when you mulligan, making it even worse when you're going to 6 or 5 cards. Therefor, I made 2 maindeck changes which are pretty straightforward, and I have never looked back really.
1) -1 Seat of the Synod, +1 Lotus Petal. It serves the same purpose for Thirst for Knowledge, Thoughtcast and when facing Null Rod. On the upside, it improves your chances of a 1st turn mana drain, and helps with Tolarian Academy and Yawgmoth's Will as well. Finally, it fixes colors in a 3 color deck with some mana issues.
2) -1 Thoughtcast, +1 Ponder. Drawing 2 or digging 3 is relatively similar (and at the same time, worlds apart). However, Ponder is better in mulliganed hands and on turn 1. In addition, it's an extra shuffle effect for Sensei's Divining Top. It basically played out as a retail Thoughtcast most of the time, which makes it superior over the 4th Thoughtcast for me.

The sideboard was a mixture of what I read, and what I had in terms of cards. I expected to face a lot of Workshop and Slaver builds, so the Old Man would be really nice, but I only had access to 1. I fixed this up with pyroclasm which also helps out against Confidants and other random non-Tarmogoyf aggro elements. Demonic Attorney mentioned Empty the Warrens in his report which seemed like a good idea. I initially had 2, but later cut to 1 to make room for Chalice of the Void to improve my combo matchup. On the day before the tournament, I realized I had 1 proxy space left, and changed a Leyline of the Void into a Pithing Needle. I figured it was more versatile and could also be boarded in against Ichorid anyway to at least stop Bazaar.
With the deck set, I was picked up by my friend Frank and we drove to Breda where the Tournament was held. When we arrived we found that there were 60 people attending, which I believe a new record for The Dutch Vintage (although I could be mistaken). Vintage is very much active in The Netherlands and Belgium. Before I go to the matches, I would like to say that the atmosphere was really friendly and competitive. In addition, most of my opponents, when they saw me write down my hands asked if I was making a report, and when I replied yes they generally agreed to wait patiently for me to finish writing. So thanks very much. I would have missed a lot of information if it wasn't for your kindness.


Match 1 versus Mathijs with B/G Aggro
Game 1 (Loss)
Hand: Island, Library of Alexandria, Underground Sea, Thirst for Knowledge, Grindstone, Pyroblast, Force of Will
He winns the dice roll, and elects to go first. I keep my hand because of Library of Alexandria and Force of Will, which is good against most opponents I figure. In addition, I can start drawing cards from turn 1 on if I don't need the Force. He opens with a Bloodstained Mire for Bayou, a Mox Sapphire, and plays Tarmogoyf, which I probably should have countered. However, I was still having Library of Alexandria activations in my head, and I wasn't willing to pitch my only other gas spell (Thirst for Knowledge). I fail to draw a Painter's Servant, and he start beating down. He adds a Dimir Cutpurse to the board and I again fail to force it because I am now hoping to fire off Thirst next turn, and combo out quickly. Cutpurse and Tarmogoyf starts bringing in the damage and I later counter another Tarmogoyf. I don't get enough turns to find either a tutor or a Painter to combo out, and he is on full tilt with an active Cutpurse and a Tarmogoyf for damage.

Sideboarding: +1 Old Man of the Sea, +1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Leyline of the Void, -1 Thirst for Knowledge, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Pyroblast, -2 Thoughtcast
As a side note, I really had no clue what to side out. Pithing Needle was going in because I expected Wasteland. Old Man of the Sea could take over a Cutpurse, and I expected a Dark Confidant as well. The Leylines would help keep Goyf down, so Old Man would work against them. Empty the Warrens just helps stalling the game against his lack of evasion. The parts I removed have no real reason behind them. In fact, I was at quite a loss at wat to remove. Sideboard is a part of the game I should really get more practice in, and this tournament really hammered in that fact. Why didn't I add pyroclasms if I expected Dark Confidants and Dimir Cutpurses? I don't know.

Game 2 (Loss):
Hand: This is the only hand I fogot to write down. I mulliganed a slow hand away to keep a terrible one along the lines of 4 lands and no turn 1 play.
I play land-go and he opens with Mox Sapphire into Ancestral Recall. From then on he is ahead of me all the way. He lands a Tarmogoyf again, a Dark Confidant, and a Dimir Cutpurse. Duress and Hymn to Tourach keep me at topdeck mode, which is mostly mana. His creatures go all the way while his hand it full of threats.

After the game he told me that this was his first match at a Vintage TOurnament, as he is usually a Legacy Player, so congratulation on your first match and first win! He had a really consistent deck, and probably something he would be used to playing with or against from Legacy, which makes it an even better choice for him to play. I hope you get to play more.
Also, I really wasn't in a tournament mindset and I was feeling very unfocussed on the game. Luckily this was the only match as I regained my focus except for the sideboarding, which remained a problem throughout the tournament.


Match 2 versus Marcel with Bomberman
Game 1 (Win)
Hand: Mox Emerald, 2x Thoughtcast, Painter's Servant, Demonic Tutor, Lotus Petal, Thirst for Knowledge
I Mulligan this hand away because of lack of mana. I note that Lotus Petal gave this hand some plays, where Seat of the Synod would not. Still, it's not good enough.
Hand: Underground Sea, Sol Ring, 2x Grindstone, Thoughtcast, Relic of Progenitus
I win the roll, go first, and open with Underground Sea, Sol Ring, Relic of Progenitus and Grindstone. He reponds with a Pithing Needle on Grindstone and dispatches of my Relic of Progenitus. At this point I wonder what he might be playing as I see a blue-based control-like deck playing needle and wanting to get rid of a Relic of Progenitus. I fail to identify this as Bomberman because I have never played against it before. We both end up in topdeck mode quite quickly until he lands a Tinker and puts Darksteel COlossus into play. I draw a Red Elemental Blast, which is a turn too late for Tinker, and be beats me to 8 on his turn. I topdeck Painter's Servant, play it, Use Red Elemental Blast to destroy the Pithing Needle and have enough mana open to activate Grindstone for the win.

Sideboarding: +1 Red Elemental Blast, +1 Empty the Warrens, -1 Relic of Progenitus, -1 ?? (forgot, probably the other Relic of Progenitus)
This is again an example of uncertain sideboarding. I figured at least some control-like matchup, for which Red Elemental Blast came in. Empty the Warrens was going to make it's first test spin, because I figured he'd have answers for the Painter combo (in fact, I had seen the Pithing Needle).

Game 2 (Win)
hand: I mulliganed a hand having only 1 island as a mana source
hand: Island, Underground Sea, Brainstorm, Yawgmoth's Will, Thirst for Knowledge, Force of Will
We both have a slow start, and he is the first to make a move with trinket mage for a Black Lotus. He later adds a Seal of Cleansing and another Trinket Mage for an Aether Spellbomb, making both my COlossus and Grindstone wins highly difficult. He beats down, and when I reach 6 life, I manage to get through a small Yawgmoth's Will which ends in 10 Empty the Warrens tokens and a fixed hand. He bounces his own Trinket mage in order to search for Engineered Explosives I guess. I Have Red Elemental Blast for his Trinket Mage, He have Force of Will, but so do I. On my turn I cast Time Walk which was left in my hand from the Yawgmoth's Will turn, and with another Red Elemental Blast for his Trinket Mage, he concedes. I have 2 life left.

Two games in which I win in the very last possible turn, and two very nice control on control games which are my favourite. Also, it was my first casting of Empty the Warrens in this deck, and it was precisely what I needed.


Match 3 versus Hero 't Mannetje with Belcher
Game 1 (Win)
Hand: Polluted Delta, Mox Emerald, 2x Painter's Servant, Mana Drain, Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast
I don't have many notes about this game, but I play Painter's Servant and destroy his Goblin Charbelcher with a Red Elemental Blast. He destroys my Painter, but I have a second one, and continue to control the game with mana drain and Pyroblast until I find Grindstone and combo for the win.

Sideboarding:+2 Pyroclasm, +1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Viashino Heretic, +1 Pithing Needle, +2 Ingot Chewer, -2 Relic fof Progenitus, -3 Thoughtcast, -1 Red Elemental Blast, -1 Pyroblast

Game 2 (Win)
Hand: I mulligan a hand with Mana Crypt and Sol Ring as my only sources of mana. I do have Painter's Servant, but I would have to topdeck very well to get any further into the game.
Hand: Underground Sea, Lotus Petal, Merchant Scroll, Ancestral Recall, Force of Will, Empty the Warrens
Turn 1 he starts building mana and storm with alternating Tinder Walls and Manamorphose. I suspect Empty the Warrens, so I Force his Tinder Wall that would bring him to 4 mana. He burns 2 and I play Ancestral Recall on my turn. I don't draw business and have to let a Memory Jar resolve which he immediately actives. Luckily for me, he has to tap out for it and can only play a Goblin Welder from the Jar hand. However, Ancestral Recall had given me Pyroclasm, so I wasn't too worried about this.
At this point, he made a comment that I had a very bad sideboarding strategy. I don't know where this came from, possibly frustration that I had the answer for his welder, but even though he may be right in general, I am bad at sideboarding, I think pyroclasm would be very good against belcher, as I thought that the Empty the Warrens kill was quite popular in the deck. Am I mistaken here?
Anyway, I get 8 Empty the Warrens tokens into play and next turn get a Painter's Servant + Grindstone into play. He has Red Elemental Blast for my Painter in response to the Grindstone activation, so I start beating down with the 8 tokens. I get to play beatdown for the win with double mana drain as a backup.


Match 4 versus Twan Koperberg with Manaful Ichorid
Game 1 (Loss)
Hand: I mulligan a hand with Mox Emerald as the only mana source to find 6 cards with no mana source. I settle for the next 5.
Hand: Brainstorm, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Darksteel Colossus, Thirst for Knowledge
He opens with Bazaar, and drops some dredgers. I have never played against Ichorid, so this is another new matchup for me. I draw a land and have to chose between Brainstorm and Thirst for Knowledge. I chose to cast Brainstorm becase I figure that I pretty much need an active Relic next turn to win, and Thrist for Knowledge would tie up too much mana. I don't find the Relic and he combo's out with Reveillark for Flame-kin Zealot and Golgari Grave Troll, along with 6 zombie token.

Sideboarding: +3 Leyline of the Void, +2 Chalice of the Void, +1 Pithing Needle, -1 Red Elemental Blast, -1 Pyroblast, -2 Mana Drain, -1 Thirst for Knowledge, -1 Thoughtcast
I'm not entirely sure about what I sided out here. I sided in the Chalices of Void, because I figured that locking out Cabal Therapy would slow him down. I forgot about Chain of Vapor, which incidentally is also stopped by Chalice of the void at 1.

Game 2 (Loss)
Hand: Leyline of the Void, Island, Volcanic Island, Pyroblast, 2x Thirst for Knowledge, Painter's Servant
I start with Leyline in play and begin with a massive Error. I open with Island instead of Volcanic Island because I am afraid of Wasteland and figure that I will need the mana to actually do something. He opens with a Mox Sapphire and has the Chain of Vapor for the Leyline, after which he plays Bazaar and discards three Ichorids. Volcanic Island would allow me to Pyroblast the Chain and keep Leyline in play. I topdeck a Mox Pearl, play the Painter's Servant and Pyroblast his Bazaar. He has a second Bazaar but again fails to find dredgers. I play Thirst for Knowledge, find Grindstone but no mana sources. He again fails to find dredgers. I don't topdeck a mana and play Grindstone with 2 mana open. He finds a dredger and comboes out. After the match he said that he had a second Chain in his hand, so even if I would have countered the Chain, he would have continued with it the second turn, and have 2 active bazaars. Still it was a massive play error on my part.


Match 5 versus Alex with RGB Aggro
Game 1 (Loss)
Hand: Volcanic Island, Polluted Delta, Mox Emerald, Mana Crypt, Thirst for Knowledge, Relic of Progenitus, Merchant Scroll
I open the game with Mana Crypt, Volcanic Island, Thirst for Knowledge discarding Mox Emerald, playing Relic of Progenitus. He plays a Tin-Street Hooligan from a Taiga and Mox Ruby, destroying the Relic of Progenitus. We both continue to draw mana sources. Thoughtseize picks out the only gas spell I had in Yawgmoth's will, and his goblin beats down along with my own Mana Crypt. We both see no business spells and apparently Aggro decks like it when you are dealing 9 damage to yourself with a mana crypt.

Sideboarding: +2 Pyroclasm, +1 Old Man of the Sea, +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Empty the Warrens, -2 Relic of Progenitus, -1 Red Elemental Blast, -1 Pyroblast, -1 Vampiric Tutor

Game 2 (Win)
Hand: Lotus Petal, Black Lotus, Volcanic Island, Painter's Servant, Old Man of the Sea, Red Elemental Blast, Force of Will
Prepare for the strangest game of magic I have played in a while...
I decide to take a gamble here and keep the hand. I open with Volcanic, Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, and sacrifice both for an Old Man of the Sea and a Painter's Servant. I have Force + Red Blast for Emergencies and Red Blast for turn 2 and after. He plays Thoughtseize and picks out Red Elemental Blast, I beat down and he draws nothing but a Null Rod which locks his own two moxen out. We continue doing this while I draw another force, a Pyroblast and some blue cards to pitch. I always have an answer for his spells, and Old Man of the Sea and Painter's Servant go all the way. Beatdown on the beatdown with two creatures clearly not meant for that task ... very strange indeed.

Sideboarding: +1 Viashino Heretic, -1 Mana Crypt

Game 3 (Win)
Hand: Tolarian Academy, Mox Ruby, Mox Jet, Volcanic Island, 2x Thirst for Knowledge, Ponder
Warning: My first Jedi Mind Trick in a vintage tournament comming up
He opens with Thoughtseize and picks Ponder to deny me 2 spells on my first turn. I play the Mox Ruby and Mox Jet along with Tolarian Academy and Thirst for Knowledge. He plays nothing of note while I continue to dig and failing to find much in terms of combo. He taps his wasteland for a Dark Confidant. I play Time Walk, Sensei's Divining Top, and Pyroclasm. In the walk turn, Top finds Tinker for COlossus, and I Needle the Wasteland. He has Dead/Gone for the Colossus and I am left with a small hand. He plays a Tin-Street Hooligan, which I let resolve as I am still at 20 life. Pithing Needle is destroyed, and Wasteland takes out Tolarian Academy destroying any dreams of hard-casting the Darksteel COlossus. I continue to draw nothing but Mana and Red Elemental Blast + Pyroblast. He adds 2 Mogg Fanatics and starts beating me down to 4 life. I draw and see Old Man of the Sea and let out a sigh of relief. I honestly thought for half a second that this would save me, however, the two fanatics would be able to shoot the last damage to me anyways, so I had lost. I played the Old Man though, and explained to him what it did. He didn't like it and as the attention was focussed on the Old Man, he attacked with everything, I blocked the Hooligan and he sacrificed one fanatic to take out the Old Man of the Sea. If he had shot both at my life total, I would have lost the game. I topdecked Painter's Servant as a blocker for the remaining Fanatic. We both draw nothing for a few turns, then I draw Sol Ring and Empty the Warrens back-to-back and make 4 Empty the Warrens tokens. Red Elemental Black, Pyroblast and 2 hardcasted Force of Wills are enough to keep him at bay while the tokens beat down for the win.


Match 6 versus Steven with a Metal-Fish type deck.
Game 1 (Loss)
Hand: Volcanic Island, Flooded Strand, Mox Pearl, Lotus Petal, Mana Drain, Thirst for Knowledge, Thoughtcast
We both play draw-go for a turn, then he lands a Painter's Servant. I decide not to counter it, as I hope to find my own Grindstone and use that against him. I feel that I am in a good position here. He choses Green for the Painter here. I draw nothing, and when we start a counter-war over Grindstone which he wins. I have 1 topdeck left and enough mana for a grindstone + activation, but I find Darksteel Colossos on top.

Sideboarding: +1 Viashino Heretic, +1 Hurkyll's Recall, +2 Ingot Chewer, +1 Red Elemental Blast, +1 Empty the Warrens, -2 Relic of Progenitus, -3 Painter's Servant, -1 Vampiric Tutor

I side out the Servants, as he had not seen any of the combo pieces in my deck. In addition, I don't want to be the player to spent mana on the combo piece we are both going to use.

Game 2 (Win)
Hand: Island, Mox Sapphire, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Grindstone, Viashino Heretic, Brainstorm
I open the game with Island, Mox Sapphire, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Viashino Heretic. He opens on Island, Ancestral Recall, but has to discard a card for holding 8 cards. I draw nothing immediately useful like Ingot Chewer, and he plays a second land and then stops playing anything until after some turns he plays Mishra's Factory. Finally he opens with Etherium Sculptor, Ethersworn Canonist, Master of Etherium and another Ethersworn Canonist. I use Viashino Heretic on the Master of Etherium at the end of his turn, and play Ingot Chewer in my turn on a canonist. He concedes.

Game 3 (Win)
Hand: Polluted Delta, Seat of the Synod, Underground Sea, Sensei's Diving Top, Pyroblast, Tinker, Thirst for Knowledge
He mulligans down to 4 cards as his 6 and 5 card hands contain no mana. He opens with a Mox Ruby, but I topdeck Ingot Chewer and Polluted Delta into Volcanic Island allows me to destroy the only mana source he has. I draw Darksteel Colossus for my next turn, so I spend a turn using Thirst for Knowledge to get rid of it. He concedes after I tinker for Colossus on turn 4. He does have double force of will, but I have Pyroblast and a Force of Will of my own.

It later appeared he had also sided out the entire combo, so the Grindstones in my deck were actually dead weight.


Final Result: 4-2

I finished 11th and received the foil alternate art Woolly Thoctar, and foil DCI Hypnotic Specter, along with 2 boosters of conflux which had a Blood Tyrant, Foil Sphinx Summoner and the Ancient Ziggurat to finish my playset on one, and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in the other. So that was very nice.
I stayed around to watch the finals match, which was recorded, so I'm sure Marske will get that up if everything goes well.

Finally, some positive notes:

1) I am now very certain that I need to find a way to playtest against more different decks, and especially sideboarding strategies and sideboarded games. I felt that to be the biggest negative impact on my game, as it also drains a lot of time and mental energy trying to sideboard on the fly instead of having a clear plan you can adjust to the situation.
2) The Opponents were great. Especially the positive comments about my notes and the fact that they generally didn't mind waiting for me to finish writing.
3) Organisation was good. Microphone failures aside, I think that the event went smoothly from a player's perspective, which is definately a result of the good organisation.
4) A lot of first times for me: First Jedi Mind Trick. First game against Ichorid, Bomberman and Belcher. First time calling a judge (explanation on the amount of counters on a Golgari Grave-Troll being Reveillarked into play). Go go experience!
5) Rudy's Backpack magic for having an awesomely big selection of cards, decent prices, and generous prizes for the top 16.
6) Empty the Warrens. I followed the suggestion from Demonic Attorney that it probably deserved a playtest, and I can definately say that it has been an all-star in my tournament. It has won me many games, and I was generally always happy to see it. Casting it for 4 token even won me a game. If I'm playing a version of this deck again, I'll most likely try to find a maindeck slot for this card. It is that good.
7) I brought plentyful food, fruitjuice and two apples. They kept me fresh during the day and I had little trouble with mental fatigue because I would go outside and eat and drink some after every game and feel refreshed. Preperation was key here.

As with the first tournament I went to, this tournament has only reinforced my belief that I want to play more vintage, and that Vintage is a long way from being dead (as some doomsdayers will say). In short: Fantastic tournament, I hope to be there for the 8th edition.

Chaque certainly seems to be translated (twice!) to each on the Knight of New Alara.

That would make Broodmother Dragon quite cool, as it also gives you an even bigger defensive bonus by allowing you to devour a token that you attacked with last turn to get a 3/3 blocker in your opponent's turn.

As a side note, I like the strange mana cost on broodmother dragon. It essentially reads like a red card with a green splash, and would be a lot easier to cast than for some decks, thus giving more decks access to powerful multicolor cards.

After thinking about it some more, I can only say that I more and more agree with this. Wizards should feel confident enough to set the standard in this industry instead of following the standard of unrelated industries.


I think that they have been saying a couple of times since 10th that they are comfortable with increasing the complexity levels for the core set, as they realized that many new players weren't introduced to the game throught the starter-level sets but rather with the expert level sets. That's why they felt comfortable with legendary creatures in Xth and planeswalkers in M10. If they continue this trend (not up to expert-level though) they give themselves more breathing space.

Overall I must say that I really like these changes.

NamingI don't like the naming, but I can understand that it would be odd to have Xth edition being followed by M9. I agree with Matt that in the long run release year would have been better. Other than that, I kinda dig the expansion symbol with the original magic-style M.

Frequency & Organized Play Initially I thought we would have 100 cards with a very short shelf- and standard life, but when I thought about it, the third set of a block also has around 15 months of shelf- and standard life and it has about 60 more new cards in general. The Rotation changes for standard seem odd and a little bit like an artificial way to make the core set more relevant for standard (12 months seems an aweful short time for new cards to live in standard).

Set Content New cards in the core set are the least it needs. The only problem I forsee is with over 100 older cards in the set anyway, interest in the core edition will still be low compared to the block sets, making the new cards of the core editions possibly hard to get. Also, they initially said to have reduced set sizes because of collectibility issues, but with 100 new cards per year added, we're pretty much back on track with the original number of new cards per year. Black bordered cards seem trivial and mythics was pretty much expected anyway as it was introduced as a permanent structural change and I'm fine with that combined with the smaller set sizes. Planeswalkers are also not much of a surprise, as they've shown the intention to make them an integral part of the game, so printing them in a core set is a neccesity for that.

Some other random comments:
- Silence is awesome! It will be a staple for multiplayer combo decks. Worse than Orim's Chant in a duel, better in multiplayer as a combo protector.
- Serra Angel is back as an uncommon! I was sad when she left after 4th edition, and when I came back to magic after a hiatus, one of the biggest shocks for me was that staples like serra angel and hypnotic specter werer suddenly rare. I never really drafted, so that was no concern of mine, and those two were ways for new players to get their hands on some pretty good cards back during 4th edition. Obviously, those arguments don't hold nowadays, but it still satisfied me to see that the angel is back at uncommon. I hope that Hippie is also back at uncommon.
- Same holds for black knight. It's nice to see some loosening of the color pie to include old favorites and flavorfull cards.
- I would have hoped to see some new planeswalkers with the introduction of the new cards in the core set, but the lorwyn ones are solid. I just get fed up with Jace being the poster child and being available in seventeen different versions.
- I hope the new duals inspire some new deck types by adding some mechanism onto lands.

Overall, I think this will make for some interesting changes, and I think they will turn out for the better.

I actually really like the art on this one. The background looks too plain for a conventional card, but as a foil, I think it will work quite nicely. The Myr itself looks cool enough for me.
Too bad I never have time for FNM, so another nice goody to pass me by.

With the risk of going off-topic here, I didn't say that I like to play with all commons, but against making strictly better cards. I know that in bigger formats, making strictly better/worse cards is inevitable, but at the least in standard (i.e. boosters that are readily available) it seems odd to give out the impression that rarity is power level. I understand that Wizards wants to sell packs, but if you look at Garruk and Oblivion Ring from Lorwyn, you see that powerful cards can be in all rarities without making more common variants obsolete. In this case, Ethersworn Adjudicator makes Air Elemental immediately obsolete, just as Serra Sphinx did before it. I do think that there should be good and powerful rares/mythics, but just making superior versions of currently available cards in a lower commonality just seems so wrong. If they would have made a card with similar power level (something like a 3/4 unblockable) that did not have so much in common with an already existing and readily available card (4/4 blue flyer for 5 mana), I would not have any problems with it.


I never did a lot of drafting and I do sealed during the prereleases. I understand that the more bombish cards should move up in rarity, however, this only goes for the cards that are bombs in limited. Air Elemental is too powerful as a common in drafts and is justly placed at uncommon (Same reason as Thoughtseize could have been at any rarity without upsetting limited, but that's a different discussion).

That said, I understand that they want to make most of the rares so that they are interesting for at least one type of player (while the common/uncommon slots can be used to fill up the cards that are needed to make limited interesting), which means that the density of playable cards in the rare/mythic slots is naturally increased. I am fine with all that. That still doesn't mean that rare/mythic cards should make common/uncommon cards obsolete in a single standard environment.

This is all I want to say about it in this thread, so I won't further respond unless in a different thread or through PM. My apologies for going off topic.

Conjecture: From a vintage standpoint, every set is succesful.

As for Ethersworn Adjudicator, I really have a love-hate relationship with this card. I really like the card in what it does, and how it's designed. On the other end, it annoys me that Air Elemental is in 10th edition, and planar chaos already saw a strictly better version at a higher rarity. This is another (strictly-)better variant and again it's a much higher rarity. I don't like the connection between rarity and power level in this case. Not that I think that Air Elemental should set the standard, but I just don't like the power level based on rarity idea.

Another card I hope to get in the prerelease is Celestial Purge, since I think it's going to be one of the best removal cards in the block for limited/standard.

Celestial Purge 
Instant
Remove target red or black permanent from the game.
Uncommon

With so many multicolor cards and mana fixing, this should be very playable against 99% of the decks.

I don't know the most about Vintage, but the only set I don't remember contributing anything was Prophecy, and possible Eventide (but at least people were/are experimenting with Ward of Bones, Cold-Eyed Selkie and Nettle Sentinel). Not every card is equally format defining though, but I think that every other set has contributed to Vintage as a format.

Back to the subject of rumours, domain will probably be pretty popular as a casual theme. With the decent density of domain cards, I can even imagine seeing a Meastrom Archangel or Dramatic Entrance based domain (or 5C control) deck that powers out Progenitus, Nicol Bolas or Conflux. Although the presence of Celestial Purge alone might keep the archetype down. At least there is enough high-powered cards in Conflux that have ridiculous casting costs to inspire deckbuilding for the casual crowd.

Really great article! Thanks for putting so much effort in this. The goldfish option is truely great to get a feel of what turn 1 and 2 plays there really are.

Keep this anual series up, it's the best vintage content on that site.

Discarding, unless otherwise stated, is always the choice of the person who has to discard.
In the case of you casting Mind Rot on your opponent, your opponent choses 2 cards from his or her hand to discard.

For me the main reason is personal life, because I usually have a rugby match on sundays, which is the day tournaments are organised here in The Netherlands.

Other reasons are that I don't have a complete deck yet, and don't have too much access to cards. I also don't have too much money for new cards, but the entry fees at least are reasonable here (around 10 euro's). The main reason remains my rugby matches on sundays though.

Since Shards came out, I have been interested in top-combo using the cost reducing ability from etherium sculptor. One sculptor + 2 tops is infinite storm, and with future sight you draw your entire deck. The sculptor is blue for Force of will support and an artifact creature if you want to use it master of etherium or something, and the sensei's divining top is just a good card overall, so I could see this as a sort of combo finish in an otherwise non combo deck. Then again, I don't have too much vintage experience, so I might just be wanting to do too much in a single deck.