[Deck] My FIRST vintage deck. ^_^

[Killertree]

How I play with this deck is I play cards like disk and wrath of god to destroy all the creature.  THen I attack with cards like mishars factory and  spawning pool.

I have cards like arcbound worker so they can pump up my lands and artifacts.

The main reason why I built this deck was because I just got a vindicate and I really wanted to use it in a deck and I did not have a white and black deck.

Creatures
4 Arcbound Worker
1 Mageta the Lion


Spells
1 Balance
4 Chainer's Edict
4 Dark Ritual
2 Death Grasp
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
4 Wrath of God


Enchantments
2 Lethal Vapors

Artifacts
2 Darksteel Brute
4 Nevinyrral's Disk


Lands
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Forbidding Watchtower
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Plains
4 Scrubland
1 Spawning Pool
2 Swamp
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale


Deck History
-------------

3/1/05
+2 Lethal Vapors Cheaper than Final Judgment.
+1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale Incredible card that destroys enemy creauture or gives me mana advantage.
-2 Final Judgment Lethal Vapors are cheaper.

2/28/05
+2 Final Judgment Just trying somthing new.
-2 Swords to Plowshares Just trying somthing new.

2/27/05
+4 Arcbound Worker Helps pump up my lands when destroyed.
-2 Blinking Spirit To much of a hassle replaying it plus its not that strong when I can just use my lands.
-2 Myr Retriever Having this and the disk in play does not happend enough to be worth it.
-------------


Creatures
Arcbound Worker-When it dies, it pumps up my lands and artifacts.
Mageta the Lion-Mass destructor that doubles as a creature.


Spells
Balance-Great for destroying creatures since my lands can become creatures after Balance is played.
Chainer's Edict-Creature destroyer.
Dark Ritual-Mana pump.
Death Grasp-Deals damage plus it gains me life.
Diabolic Edict-Creature destroyer.
Swords to Plowshares-Creature Destroyer.
Vindicate-Perfect versatility with the ability to destroy any permanent.
Wrath of God-Mass destructor.


Artifacts
Darksteel Brute-Creature turnable artifact.
Nevinyrral's Disk-Mass destructor.


Lands
Blinkmoth Nexus-Creature turnable land.
Caves of Koilos-Produces lands of each of my types.
Forbidding Watchtower-Creature turnable land.
Mishra's Factory-Creature turnable land.
Plains-Basic land.
Scrubland-Dual land.
Spawning Pool-Creature turnable land.
Swamp-Basic land.

[AnFgangsta]

There however are a few problems with this deck, what happens if they do not play creatures? This deck I mean if fine tuned has potential, but that would be taking out a lot of the cards.   The cards here seem to have very little mementum, many high casting cost and no overall theme except creature destruction.

There is however a black/white version of control, as a matter of fact a bunch.

There is Chains, which uses discard (mainly the Chains of Mephistopheles/Anvil of Bogardan/Howling Mine combo to lock your opponents hand down and deck them, make note that gaeas blewwing was also used to cycle your deck in some versions.
 
Also, Void which uses Nether Void along with cheap creatures to lock the game early.

Finally, there are just plain old black/white control decks that dont rely on either of the abovementioned.  I would check into those, you have time before the tournament because your decklist I am sorry to say I cannot forsee going that far, not because the cards are bad, its just unfocused. Good luck man, feel free to PM me or aim me at k9stile69 to discuss the decks, Id be more than happy to help you out.

[Whatever Works]

The closest this deck resembles to anything is probably landstill... I guess you could adapt this deck to be landstill w/black so you can run the vindicates, but it is still overall a down grade. However, landstill is a reasonable deck for a person who doesnt own power 9, and is fairly budget friendly.

[Anusien]

Creatures
4 Arcbound Worker
1 Mageta the Lion


Spells
1 Balance
4 Chainer's Edict
4 Dark Ritual
2 Death Grasp
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
4 Wrath of God


Enchantments
2 Lethal Vapors

Artifacts
2 Darksteel Brute
4 Nevinyrral's Disk


Lands
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Forbidding Watchtower
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Plains
4 Scrubland
1 Spawning Pool
2 Swamp
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Getting back to the topic at hand, let's do -some bad cards +some good cards, shall we?  I'm going to assume that you have full card access, if not, tell me.

You're aiming W/B obviously, but since blue is the best color in magic for control, we can't help but add it.  So right away:
+1 Ancestral Recall
+1 Time Walk
+1 Fact or Fiction
+4 Brainstorm
+4 Force of Will
+4 Mana Drain

These changes are facilitated by removal of some of the bad bombos and strictly inferior cards.
-4 Arcbound Worker (orlove explains the bombo)
-1 Mageta, the Wrath-Stick (how many wrath effects does a man need, honestly?)
-2 Death Grasp, +2 Swords to Plowshares (strictly an upgrade)
-4 Dark Ritual (bad card in this deck)
-2 Darksteel Brute: no point, we have better cards)
-2 Lethal Vapors (see Mageta)
-4 Chainer's Edict (8 targeted removal is enough, so cut the sorcery)
-4 Blinkmoth Nexus, +4 Faerie Conclave (strictly better)

obviously the mana base needs some tweaking.  more basic lands and fetchlands would be good, and you may want to try Crucible of Worlds and Wasteland.  At any rate, see how that fits.

[TJ-Whoopy]

if we are changing to a 3c build then the mana base needs to be changed to accomodate this I suggest

-4 caves
-1 watchtower
-1 spawning pool

+ 4 underground sea
+2 polluted delta

[Purple Hat]

-4 Blinkmoth Nexus, +4 Faerie Conclave (strictly better)

that's not true.  don't forget that the conclave comes into play tapped and costs more mana to activate.  The nexus is better under a whole set of circumstances.

[Fall-Titan]

I do not know the budget you are working on but a few of these cards are unplayable in type one because of their mana cost vs. effect. Wrath of God seems good but in vintage it would generally only kill 1-2 creatures if any. In vintage 4 mana can win the game so simply stalling for a turn is not worth it. Also I would not use any of the creatures you have listed and try to keep it man land oriented. (Blinkmoth Nexus is a good addition) Also due to the fact that you are running so many non basic lands i think you would find crucible of worlds better than a darksteel brute when your opponet is trying to strip away all of your lands. Vindicate is slow but thats why your building the deck so keep it in. Diabolic Edict and Swords should be your only other creature removal because they are efficient and deal with alot of popular decks right now including oath and goblin welder decks. And for those of you tring to get him to build 3CC i think he would have a hard time rounding up mana drains forces and power in time. It would push his list to well over 10 proxies. And finally i would like to add that if you have any black tutors i highly suggest you add them bc you will find that they make the deck so much more consistent.
P.S. I like the void in this deck with it being based around man lands and isochron scepter would not be bad in the board, or in place of nether void

[warble]

If I might suggest, try proxying up a deck like 4cc (or the new 3cc!) and see what you can modify from that to play.
If you can't proxy, you apparently have a computer so you can try magicworkstation for a run with 4cc.  Just draw a few hands and see what the control vs disruption looks like.  You can see how your deck has advanced, and trust me since I've been playing since '94, your deck has really taken a few twists since the creature-wrath was popular back then it always lost to friggin monoblack though  
I'd just say you need a little experience proxying up the true tier 1 decks before you get a good feel for what type 1 is about.  The best way to see a true type 1 deck is to see what dragon or meandeck tendrils draws on turn 1.  Seriously brokenness.  Try to encapsulate that or the few ways to control that and you have type 1.  Here's a sample hand from draw7 tendrils to get you started:

1 swamp
1 fetchland
1 mox diamond
2 dark rituals
1 1 duress
1 wheel of fortune.

What does this do?
float 2 black mana, plays a mox diamond, remove your opponent's counter, and draw you 7 cards.  It's not a win, but it gets your storm count (that's what kicks up tendrils of agony to 20) up to 5, draws you a full hand again, and ensures that the wheel draws you 7 safely by milking the opponent's force from his hand.  A classic example of what tendrils can do, the potential win here is REALLY good because of the 2 black floating.  If you replace one of the rituals with any other broken manasource (black lotus for example   ) you can see how this hand gets even more broken with a lucky draw.  Just examine a few of these hands and you'll understand a LOAD more about type 1 and deck construction.

[Killertree]

I should keep arcbound worker, its cheap plus when it dies it can pump up my lands.

I'm not talking about diing from wrath, I'm talking about dieing from blocking and stuff.

[Jacob Orlove]

Thread cleaned.

[Anusien]

I should keep arcbound worker, its cheap plus when it dies it can pump up my lands.

I'm not talking about diing from wrath, I'm talking about dieing from blocking and stuff.

People block in this format?  Wait, what's this attacking thing you people keep talking about?

Killertree: There is a lot of stuff that we're taking for granted that you're not used to.  I suggest you go play around with Landstill for a while (I know there are lists running about, but I don't have one off the top of my head).  You don't want to activate manlands on other people's turns because it opens you up to extra removal that you don't want, and the extra counter isn't all that significant.  By the time you win with manlands, you've probably got control of the board at least temporarily.  The extra 1/1 counter is generally not going to be worth the mana you pay for it, especially main phase mana.  It's also extra slots that are badly needed for more deck manipulation like Brainstorm, Demonic Tutor, and the like.

[Kasuras]

Before you, or us, can improve your deck: you must first have a decent grasp of knowing why t1 is different from the other formats. I suggest reading all the stickies on TMD, and the articles mentioned in those. Lurking around a few weeks to get the hang of proper etiquette on TMD is worthwhile.


Let's begin first with how I see the current metagame: (granted: it is a tad outdated but was written less than a week ago and still holds true for the moment and probably after that as well)

In my opinion, the metagame consists of the following from a play/card perspective:

The early game. Where this was usually turn 1 to turn 3 or even 5 in the old vintage, it’s turn 1 and 2 now. And mostly turn 1. With all the acceleration and cheap cards which do a lot nowadays (think Goblin Welder): you’ll have to do something good early. And I think the following plays are the most common.

Turn0:

-Force of Will

Turn1:

-Goblin Welder
-Trinisphere
-Ancestral Recall / Brainstorm to draw into Force of Will
-Turn 1 kill via Goblin Charbelcher or Tendrils of Agony
-Duress

Turn2:

-Mana Drain
-Crucible of Worlds with Wasteland (this is usually the follow-up of the Trinisphere play from turn1)
-Smokestack or Tangle Wire
-Big artifact, such as Mindslaver, via the Welder from turn 1

Note: I’m not taking the oddities such as turn 1 Island, Mox Sapphire, UU open for Mana Drain in hand into consideration since these are not common.

The midgame. This is when the dust settles and neither player is dead yet. (note that this can be in turn 2 already too) Most resources in the hands of the players are now not sufficient to win the match anymore and from now on it’s a battle between the person who can topdeck the best and play their spells at the right time. All sorts of strong plays are made here which can’t really be summed up since there are so many of them. To illustrate the midgame however; look at things such as Chalice of the Void for 2, Skeletal Scrying for a lot, etc: all those things that happen later in the game or not as common in the early game than the ones stated above.

The lategame. I doubt whether vintage still knows this step; I can’t really think of anything that happens in the lategame which doesn’t happens in the midgame except for bigger counterwars.

However, the above was just to illustrate the strong plays that can be made in vintage. This does have a direct connection to the metagame from a deck perspective though. Since all the strong decks have one, usually more than one, of these strong plays from above. I believe the following topdecks are prominent in vintage at the moment:

-ControlSlaver
-WorkshopAggro
-Oath
-TPS
-Stax

And to finish this list, although these are not tier1: the most prominent decks feature cards which are usually either artifacts, spells and/or either very big creatures which attack or small utility creatures. I suggest checking the latest article by Dr. Sylvan and Zherbus for the other cards and decks which show up a lot and of course look very good at your own metagame.


And to conclude this part about the metagame: the metagame from an archetype perspective. The usual archetypes (control, aggro, combo and prison) are outdated, don't have a good definition but mostly don't hold up because of the complexity of vintage, due to the restricted list and the enormous quantity of cards available.

Although the archetypes don't really hold up anymore, they do function as a good "red line" to improve your deck since it is obvious you have too much creature removal. So let's just say, for the sake of explanation, the archetype system holds up. (it probably does to a certain degree, although I'm not the right person to judge that)

That means we have the aforementioned archetypes, and we can already say that pure aggro is not viable in vintage. The only viable types are probably combo (deathlong), aggro-control (fish), aggro-combo (FCG), control (mono blue control) and control-combo (Psychatog), prison-aggro (5/3), prison (staxx). And as you can see: lots of these decks don't play creatures. Combo doesn't play any creatures at all, control only plays creatures you'll never get to destroy, staxx will play a creature but you can't do anything about it and control-combo only plays creatures to smash your face undoubtly next turn. (don't be afraid of all those decknames, take a look at SCG's decks to beat section to get an idea of what I mean)

That means you can have removal for 3 of those 7 archetypes, and I'm not even taking into consideration that control-combo is a deck that is played a lot more than combo, just look at the statistics.

Ergo: running lots of removal won't help you that much really. I could put in lots and lots of theory behind this even more, but I hope you'll just take my word for all this and hopefully get to a better understanding of the metagame with this.


Second of all; you run too much nonbasic lands. The second part of the article I wrote a couple of days ago went like this to illustrate why you should run less nonbasics:

Basics lands have grown immense in popularity in the past half year; mostly due to Crucible of Worlds together with Wasteland powered out by a Workshop and cards such as Back to Basics and Blood Moon showing up in bigger numbers again only fueled the fire. And although the feedback of those cards can be felt more day by day, and thus those cards are declining in popularity again; they’re still dominant and basics cannot be thought out of vintage anymore. But how many should a deck run?

Wastelands are played the most in Workshop decks and are also the most lethal of all in those decks due to Crucible of Worlds together with Trinisphere. As said above: a play which is not unusual in such decks consists of a turn 1 Trinisphere followed by a turn 2 Crucible of Worlds and Wasteland. Getting out of that lock is vital in survival, and in my opinion the following manabase is one that is sufficient to battle such a lock:

-A sufficient number of fetch, this is pretty much dependant on the other cards in the deck
-A minimum of 4 basic lands
-22 mana sources total at least

The minimum basic land count however is one that can be discussed, and the reason why I think 4 is the minimum because of the following scenario:

Opponent’s turn 1: Mishra’s Workshop and Trinisphere
Your turn 1: Fetch or basic land.
Opponent’s turn 2: Wasteland and Crucible of Worlds
Your turn 2: Fetch or basic land.
Opponent’s turn 3: Something
Your turn 3: Fetch for a land which can give you the right card to kill the Trinisphere, the right card would probably be Naturalize, Rack and Ruin, Hurkyl’s Recall, etc.

As you can see; you’ll need at least 3 basic lands because you don’t want any land killed at all in the first 3 turns when you are the most vulnerable. And although the fourth is theoretically not necessary: it is however a convenience large enough to justify that the fourth should be in.

The reason why I chose this example is because of the fact that Workshop.dec is the most prominent deck with Wastelands in it, others run it too but Workshop utilizes it the best and thus this is the extreme example no other can topple.


To finally get to an end of all this, let me say that you really should pay less attention to what the opponent is doing and more about your own gameplan. Take a look at all the best decks in the format: they don't really care about what the opponent is doing, as long as they win. Staxx is an extreme example of this: it won't ever let you do anything, which is the entire gameplan!


Well, I hoped you can improve your deck with this.