[Free Article] Pillars of Vintage, Part 1

[GrandpaBelcher]

http://legitmtg.com/competitive/the-vintage-advantage-pillars-of-vintage-part-1/

Part one of my two part series that looks at the basics and some variants of the five pillars of Vintage. This week, Drains and Shops; next week, Bazaars, Null Rods, and Dark Rituals. The decklists I picked were from larger tournaments and were meant to just be examples, not necessarily the best or newest tech. I just wanted to give people who are unfamiliar with the format a look at what might be typical of the larger group. (Basically, don't be offended if I picked a list you don't like.)

[Twaun007]

Again, great article Nat! I'm glad that you're writing an introductory article series for players entering the format.

I also hope everyone's helping these articles make rounds through the various mtg social media networks so interested players are able to find them.

[Kiriyuu]

Cool article, I like the way each pillar is broken down and discussed. Looking forward to part 2!

One question, you say about 'big blue'  "Drains may or may not be present in every Big Blue deck, however..."

Is this where you would put Gush decks? Particularly ones that don't play mana drain feel like their own pillar, but are they just similar enough to drain even when they don't play it?

[Stormanimagus]

Cool article, I like the way each pillar is broken down and discussed. Looking forward to part 2!

One question, you say about 'big blue'  "Drains may or may not be present in every Big Blue deck, however..."

Is this where you would put Gush decks? Particularly ones that don't play mana drain feel like their own pillar, but are they just similar enough to drain even when they don't play it?

"Drains" is a huge misnomer these days as there are very few decks that still play the card Mana Drain. There are plenty of non-gush decks out there that opt for a counter suite of pierces/flusters/traps etc. over even a single drain.

-Storm

[PeAcH]

Thank you for writing about the format, Nat. Your articles so far really show you care about it.

It´s one of the best ways to keep it alive and present for other Magic players, shops, WotC. They should decide whether it´s worth or not to get into or try to understand it better from a present point of view.

Thanks also to LegitMTG for hosting the series.

Great initiative!

[Smmenen]

Nat, I think you should only tackle one pillar at a time.  Don't worry if the article seems short.  I think you have too much content here...

I don't like the idea of dividing Vintage up that way, but if you are, I think short and sweet is fine. 

[Demagoguery]

It's a good article and serves as a fine introduction, but I agree that each pillar should get its own article, though I think a longer more in depth look is warranted for each pillar. A very common complaint I hear from players that I'm trying to get into the format is that "it's stale" and "the same decks are just played over and over." Now while we as Vintage players can easily understand how vastly different decks in a given pillar may be, many players will see X amount of decks named "MUD ____" or "___ Dredge" and assume it's the same deck with minor differences.

I understand you touched on how the decks can be different, and mentioned a couple of different builds, but I'd say it's very important to really go into depth about how different the decks can be, and explaining the difference more. Even something like posting multiple lists for a pillar, such as the Shop list you have posted and then posting the Affinity Bot list that can be referred to as MUD in many cases, can really demonstrate how different things are, despite similar names and pillar cards.

[wiley]

For whatever my 2 cents are worth, I think a quick overview like this is exactly what you want for new players.  Then later in another article you can go more in depth for each pillar.  Spreading them out so much in the beginning ends up looking like a wall that many players will say "why bother" to instead of glancing through it to see if there is anything that interests them.

Remember, this is a format that most people don't give a second look to because all they've heard are horror stories of no skill turn 1 wins.  You need something short and sweet that convinces (not just tells) them that there is more to the format.

[CorwinB]

I'm currently trying to get people interested into Vintage, and those articles will be an excellent introduction.

Thanks !