Like I said, I'm a relative newcomer, so I was looking for outside thoughts. From what I can see, however, against Oath, the primary advantage is stealing a fatty. It would probably be dangerous to mill a Will deck, unless it was playing 0 creatures. I know this card has a low probability of being playable (although I still think that it's not bad), but I just wanted to see what cards in the set might be Vintage-worthy.

This card mills. Usually, against the decks that you would want to bring this in, the ability to choose what you want doesn't matter much (eg. 1 DSC, 1 Sundering Titan, Oath's creatures). Considering how few/no creatures some Vintage decks play, however, the mill seems quite relevant.

My thoughts exactly - and the decks it's best against are fairly prominent decks too.

Makes sense. I wasn't advocating it as a maindeck card, but for sideboard use. I can see what you mean though, against most decks this card would be fairly useless.

Hey guys, this card just got spoiled from Conflux, and I wanted to know what everyone thinks of its applications for Vintage. The CMC is a bit prohibitive for Vintage at 5, but I was thinking perhaps sideboard in a Drain deck against Oath/Tendrils? For those who don't know what it does, here is the card:

Telemin Performance - 3UU
Sorcery (R)
Target opponent reveal cards from the top of his/her library until a creature card has been revealed. Put all non-creature cards revealed this way into that player's graveyard, then put the creature card into play under your control.

While in most other formats this would suck, against many decks in Vintage, this becomes either:
Mill entire deck
or
Mill deck, steal Colossus/Sundering Titan/Hellkite Overlord/Akroma, etc.

I am a bit new to this, so I would appreciate some input. Let me know what you think.

Alara is bringing us all sorts of goodies - my first thought when I saw this spoiled was that I needed to pick up a playset for Fish, but it has some powerful implications in Vintage. Against non-Workshop decks, I'd just side out Kataki and side in this.

I'm fairly new to Vintage myself, so I'm a bit shakier on the addition of those sorts of things. (I'd also suggest Hellkite Overlord, by the way, it's the new 8/8 hasted flying trampling nonlegendary dragon )

Here's what I would do off the top of my head, keeping in mind that a casual meta like yours needs more answers to various things. Keep in mind that I did this in about 5 minutes, so it's not anywhere near perfect. Also, there might be some problems getting enough blue to support FoW.

Creatures: 6
3 x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
3 x Hellkite Overlord

Spell base: 33

4 x duress/thoughtseize (your choice)
4 x dark ritual
3 x careful study
4 x strategic planning (these are absurdly expensive right now, around $100 each unfortunately, but they're a synergistic draw spell that puts stuff in your graveyard)
1 x demonic tutor
1 x entomb
3 x exhume
4 x reanimate
1 x vampiric tutor
4 x serum powder
4 x Force of Will

Land base: 21

4 x Bazaar of Baghdad
4 x Polluted Delta
4 x Flooded Strand
4 x Underground Sea
3 x Watery Grave
1 x Swamp
1 x Island

Other cards to consider for casual fun:
Hymn to Tourach

Here is the deck that Chris Nighbor ran at the Vintage Championships 2008:

Chris Nighbor
2008 Vintage Championship Top 8
   View a sample hand of this deck

Main Deck

60 cards
4  Bazaar of Baghdad
4  City of Brass
3  Petrified Field
11 lands


1  Angel of Despair
1  Cephalid Sage
1  Flame-Kin Zealot
4  Golgari Grave-Troll
2  Golgari Thug
4  Ichorid
4  Narcomoeba
4  Stinkweed Imp
21 creatures    4  Bridge from Below
4  Cabal Therapy
4  Chalice of the Void
2  Darkblast
3  Dread Return
4  Leyline of the Void
4  Serum Powder
3  Unmask
28 other spells
   

Sideboard

4  Chain of Vapor
3  Contagion
3  Gemstone Mine
1  Pithing Needle
4  Wispmare
15 sideboard cards

As you can see, most of the cards in the deck are similar to extended Dredge, so your deck can do double duty - the only other cards I can see that cost any substantial amount at all are 1 Pithing Needle, 3 Gemstone Mine, 4 Leylines, 4 Chalice of the Void, and 4 Cabal Therapies (but you already have that covered). However, the deck is fairly susceptible to hate. If you want to build a competitive Vintage deck with minimal or no Power, however, your choices are basically this deck and Fish.

Also, if you'd like to make your deck more consistent, I'd also recommend cutting painlands and adding in Fetchlands, as well as cutting white for blue - cards like careful study and so on will help get cards into your graveyard more quickly, and you probably won't even miss being able to hardcast your reanimators (although it'll leave you a bit more vulnerable). Adding blue will also give you the option of protecting your combo with FoW and Misdirection.

I would most definitely suggest the investment in Bazaars as: 1, they're a decent investment, 2, they'll make a reanimator strategy far more consistent and powerful, and 3, if you ever felt like playing competitive Vintage, you'd have really the most cost-prohibitive part of Ichorid already.

My PM system on this site won't let me send any PM's I think - so the best thing to do would be to PM me your e-mail for us to get in touch.

Hey guys, I'm just getting into Eternal formats - I've been playing Magic since around Revised and was wondering if anyone on these forums with some experience would be willing to take on a playtesting partner and help me improve my Vintage/Legacy game either on MWS or in person at the University of Pennsylvania (unlikely, but whatever). Please let me know!

Thanks,
Kevin

Hey guys,

My name is Kevin and I've been playing since around Revised, although I was so young then that it could hardly be called competitive by any sense of the word. I have retired and come back to Magic several times, trying various formats, but never Vintage, due to the monetary barrier and my overall perception of brokenness in the format. I've recently come back to Magic again full force, and have been trading for playsets of various staples for the first time (before this, I mostly played casually), and would really like to learn more about the Vintage scene, what it takes to become a great Vintage player, and things of that nature. If anyone can point me to good articles (I've read alot of Menendian's articles and lurked around the forums a bit, as well as reading tournament reports and decklists) let me know. I hope to contribute to this forum and the Vintage community as a whole someday.

P.S. I go to the University of Pennsylvania, so if anyone knows anywhere to play Vintage near there or anyone else who goes there, let me know!
P.P.S. My hometown is Sacramento, so if anyone's over there, let me know that as well.