[Free Article] So Many Insane Plays -- The Alara Reborn Vintage Set Review

[Smmenen]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17399_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Alara_Reborn_A_Vintage_Set_Review.html

In this article I carefully review the entire set and look at the set for Vintage applicability.

Editor's Blurb:

So Many Insane Plays – Alara Reborn: A Vintage Set Review
Read Stephen Menendian every week... at StarCityGames.com! Monday, April 27th - Multicolor cards and Vintage are not always compatible; the chances of them hitting the board on turn 1 is slim. However, Alara Reborn does offer up a couple of exciting Vintage playables, and a host of cards that could cause a splash under the right conditions. Stephen shares his thoughts on the stronger Vintage contenders in the new set…

[diopter]

Slim pickings, Steve.

[oneofchaos]

I did not like the article at all, but that is not Steve's fault.  WOTC printed a really cool set in the fact that it was gold, but gold cards are not commonly played in vintage.  I can only think of sometimes meddling mage and gaddock as played.  I think pridemage will see plenty of legacy play, and perhaps some vintage g/w beats creation.  Steve, you did the best you could for such a weak set for eternal formats.

[Troy_Costisick]

I give the set two thumbs up for being innovative and ballzy.  But I give it 2 thumbs down for being wholly irrelevant for Vintage.  The most useful card will probably be the Pridemage.  I'm just impressed you were able to write so much about so little, Steve.

Peace,

-Troy

[Explosion]

I enjoyed the article. It's not really Stephen's fault that ARB is all-gold, and it'd still be a shame to just skip over this set with a 2-sentence dismissal.

One thing I noted was the aside about Conflux, telling Vintage players to set aside a playset of Noble Hierarchs, Transmuters, and a singleton Leviathan. I'm still pretty new to Vintage, and I've been trying to set aside Vintage staples whenever possible, but I was wondering if there's a list somewhere of Vintage staples that I could refer to.

[oneofchaos]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/12056_Vintage_For_Beginners_Jargon_and_Essential_Cards.html is a decent article about what cards to obtain for vintage also written by Smennen.  It's a bit dated, but pick all that up first.

[LordHomerCat]

I'm just impressed you were able to write so much about so little, Steve.

Clearly you have forgotten the whole Lawyer thing.

[Smmenen]

The amount of analysis does not depend upon the quantity of playables cards, but the degree of impact of those cards.   Remember, Vintage is a system, and it only takes *one* playable to change that system, as Time Vault, Empty the Warrens, Tezzeret, Ponder, and many printings and restrictions and unrestrictions prove.  Indeed, the whole idea of restriction - that changing the ratios of one card -- can actually affect an entire metagame, proves this point. 

[zeus-online]

Rather boring set for me, but i hope something might be good somewhere outside of block and standard

I don't really see alot of potentials...the card-drawing creature seems alright though, although i'd prefer confidant any day of the week.

/Zeus

[Smmenen]

Perhaps I was too subtle in this article.   Although I paired Coatl and Mystic Remora together, I wish I had stated that I suspect that Coatl may actually be just better than Psychatog in the Remora deck.   Remora + Coatl = Insane.  Remora, by disincentivizing your opponent from playing spells, serves precisely to grow the Coatl.  Meanwhile, when you achieve Time Vault + Key, Coatl gets artibrarily large.   Finally, Meditate + Coatl = wow.

[FlyFlySideOfFry]

Perhaps I was too subtle in this article.   Although I paired Coatl and Mystic Remora together, I wish I had stated that I suspect that Coatl may actually be just better than Psychatog in the Remora deck.   Remora + Coatl = Insane.  Remora, by disincentivizing your opponent from playing spells, serves precisely to grow the Coatl.  Meanwhile, when you achieve Time Vault + Key, Coatl gets artibrarily large.   Finally, Meditate + Coatl = wow.

My understanding of the current Remora decks is that they want to cast all their draw spells first and then drop their business backed by a lot of disruption. Thus Psychatog is good because it swings for lethal with the huge late-game graveyard+hand size. Wouldn't Coatl force the Remora pilot to drop it before it draws the tons of cards necessary to support their pitch counters and thus weaken the main strategy? Or did you just mean making an entirely new Psychatog-style deck with Coatl+Remora+Meditate instead?

[Smmenen]

Well, I proposed a first draft of such a list in my article, but I am also thinking about more traditional approaches as well. 

[Explosion]

Looking at your list for the Coatl deck, you have 2 Trop and 2 Volc Island, but no red spells. Is there a reason why you wouldn't run 4 Trop Island instead to increase the chance of having green for Coatl?

[Smmenen]

Looking at your list for the Coatl deck, you have 2 Trop and 2 Volc Island, but no red spells. Is there a reason why you wouldn't run 4 Trop Island instead to increase the chance of having green for Coatl?

I was building the mana base such that it could support useful red sideboards cards, such as Red Elemental Blasts and Ingot Chewers, among other possibilities.