[Free Article] Vintage Avant-Garde: Answering Permanents and Why You Must.

[forests failed you]

New article up on SCG.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/23861_Vintage_AvantGarde_Answering_Permanents_And_Why_You_Must.html

Enjoy.

[Commandant]

One of your best in a long while. Thank you.

[Prospero]

Great read, thanks.

[Twaun007]

Brian, thanks for the article.

It was a good read, but I finished the article a bit confused. In October of 2011, which isn't that long ago in Vintage terms, you wrote an article discussing Vintage being too fast and in this article you highlight a slow grind out your opponent style Vintage Control deck. I'm just curious as to what made you choose Vintage Control to combat this blitzkrieg like metagame since it chooses to fight its battles on the board instead of on the stack? I can see the importance of beating Workshop decks game one, but why can you give up your game one vs opposing blue decks when they are still the most popular strategy in Vintage? Is this purely based on metagame speculation? I was also wondering if your view of Vintage's speed has slowed and if so, what metagame shift do you think slowed the format?


EDIT: Sorry for all the questions. I'm just in an inquisitive/discussion like mood today.

[MaximumCDawg]

Very good article, but I'm just as curious as Twaun007 here on your change of heart.  I recall a long and involved debate on the forums about the "speed" of Vintage following your last article...

[Grand Inquisitor]

Jace is good against everybody—even Dredge after sideboard.

Is this what we're telling people new to Vintage these days?

[vaughnbros]

Overall i enjoyed reading the article.

However, I couldn't disagree more with your argument for swords to plowshares to be in the top 5 cards.

First off Path is better in every aggro list because it doesn't gain your opponent life and seeing as almost every deck running white is playing creatures and aven mindcensor, and not to mention your opponents r probably fetching their basics already and it has 0 drawback against stax, path is better. 

Also lightning bolt is infinitely better against decks that are not running creatures with more than 3 toughness.  Lightning Bolt eot snapcaster lightning bolt 6 damage to the dome?  I don't see how swords can really compare to the clock acceleration that bolt can achieve.  As well as lightning bolt's ability to destroy jace who you seem to think is almighty against everything.

Alone there being two very powerful alternatives shows that swords shouldn't be anywhere near the top 5.  There are not even decent alternatives to gush, bob, and trygon in the decks where they are needed, which are also all backbones to certain archetypes.

[forests failed you]

@ Twuan:  My complaint about "too fast" was that too many decks are able to too quickly force opponent's to interact in very specific ways or lose the game at very early stages in the game.  Just because beating MWS is a grinding endeavor, doesn't mean that they don't put you into a position, often from turn one onward, where if you can't interact in very specific ways you lose the game.  The fact that people probably NEEED to be playing 1cc artifact removal and grudges demonstrates this.  I don't mind MWS being tier one, because I believe the ways it forces a player to interact are more reasonable and fair than the front that one has to fight Gush or Dredge along. 

@ Grand Inquistor:  You don't leave your Jace, the Mindsculpters in against dredge?  I'm not surprised.

@ Vaughnbros:  Historically, when has making your opponent gain life ever mattered in Vintage, EVER?  If you don't want it to it doesn't matter at all.

Bolt never kills BSC and a million other things, therefore is worse than path.

[Commandant]

Why shouldn't one side out Jace versus Dredge?

[forests failed you]

I am playing 9-10 hate cards for Dredge between the main and sideboard in my control decks.  You want Jace to help you continue to find hate cards so they can't break out of your soft lock and then press your advantage into victory.  I'd much rather have a Jace than a Trygon Predator or removal spell most of the time against Bazaar decks.  If you have a lot of cards to draw to, Jace becomes a lot better.  Not to mention if you have a leyline he lets you find counters to protect it.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Jace is good against...Dredge after sideboard.

I'd much rather have a Jace than a Trygon Predator or removal spell most of the time against Bazaar decks.  If you have a lot of cards to draw to, Jace becomes a lot better

The logical space between these two sentiments is a fucking canyon.

So I conclude from one of Vintage's greatest minds that JTMS is (1) better than an anti-workshop card against dredge and (2) good at drawing cards, provided (3) you play other dredge hate.

My complaint about "too fast" was that too many decks are able to too quickly force opponent's to interact in very specific ways or lose the game ...I don't mind MWS being tier one, because I believe the ways it forces a player to interact are more reasonable and fair than the front that one has to fight Gush or Dredge along.  

On the other hand, this is a solid explanation and pretty much how I feel about the current 'speed' of Vintage.  When talk of restriction or fairness about this format comes up, this is a good litmus for figuring out if something is healthy or not.

If I were to remark on why JTMS is even more relevant now, as opposed to when he was highlighted in Owen's T1 Champs win, I'd say it's because of the limited deckspace available to fight a wide range of archetypes and the combination of power and flexiibility the card offers.  The thing is, it still costs 4 mana.  Where I think the article falls short is in addressing what I feel is the pressing quandry of Vintage deckbuilders right now: how to cope with a diverse metagame during turns 1-3.

[forests failed you]

Jace is good against...Dredge after sideboard.

I'd much rather have a Jace than a Trygon Predator or removal spell most of the time against Bazaar decks.  If you have a lot of cards to draw to, Jace becomes a lot better

The logical space between these two sentiments is a fucking canyon.

So I conclude from one of Vintage's greatest minds that JTMS is (1) better than an anti-workshop card against dredge and (2) good at drawing cards, provided (3) you play other dredge hate.

My complaint about "too fast" was that too many decks are able to too quickly force opponent's to interact in very specific ways or lose the game ...I don't mind MWS being tier one, because I believe the ways it forces a player to interact are more reasonable and fair than the front that one has to fight Gush or Dredge along.  

On the other hand, this is a solid explanation and pretty much how I feel about the current 'speed' of Vintage.  When talk of restriction or fairness about this format comes up, this is a good litmus for figuring out if something is healthy or not.

If I were to remark on why JTMS is even more relevant now, as opposed to when he was highlighted in Owen's T1 Champs win, I'd say it's because of the limited deckspace available to fight a wide range of archetypes and the combination of power and flexiibility the card offers.  The thing is, it still costs 4 mana.  Where I think the article falls short is in addressing what I feel is the pressing quandry of Vintage deckbuilders right now: how to cope with a diverse metagame during turns 1-3.

You could also conclude that Jace is 4) better than a removal spell, from that statement.  Playing a blue deck against Dredge the hierarchy of value for cards goes something like this:

from most important to least important:

1.  Cards that interact with the graveyard.
2.  Cards that find cards that interact with the graveyard.
3.  Cards that protect cards that interact with the graveyard. 

and basically, nothing else matters.

If you don't have a card that interacts with the graveyard, finding one is the most important thing.  If you have a card that interacts with the graveyard, finding more cards that interact with the graveyard is the next most important thing.  If you have multiple cards that interact with the graveyard, protecting them is the next most important thing.  Jace is good because he finds cards that interact with the graveyard, every turn for the rest of the game and also helps find cards that protect your cards that interact with the graveyard.  He obviously isn't as good as another Tormod's Crypt against Dredge, but he's on the secondary tier of cards I want to resolve.

Also, I don't consider Trygon Predator to be an 'anti-workshop card,'  he's actually really important in a lot of match ups.  There are actually very few match ups where I would board him out.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Most of that sounds good.

2.  Cards that find cards that interact with the graveyard.

Timing is really the crux here.  Eg, vampiric tutor is perhaps the best card at doing #2.  A 4cc brainstorm is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum.  There are games where you have Lotus or Mana Crypt to power early big plays, the question is whether your deck would rather use that boost to win the game, or if a long-term CA/search play is better.

Against dredge in most builds I play (big blue), I'd go for the win instead of a play like JTMS.  What does that mean in terms of deck construction?  Since you can't run more copies of Tinker or Yawgmoth's will, that means I'd favor cards like Preordain since they more cheaply find you your win or a hate piece.  Again, this is compared with JTMS when considering the dredge match.

[vaughnbros]

from most important to least important:

1.  Cards that interact with the graveyard.
2.  Cards that find cards that interact with the graveyard.
3.  Cards that protect cards that interact with the graveyard. 

First off 1, 2, 3 all have a relative time frame you need a gy hate card by turn 1 or 2 otherwise they are nearly pointless, unless your turn 1ing jace i don't see how he is helping any of those 3.  The need for an answer in the first few turns also results in keeping mana starved opening hands that satisfy 1 and 3, jace is almost completely dead in these situations as well.

Also I'm pretty sure at some point you need a clock.  Sure you can keep finding cards to interact with the graveyard and keep them protected, but eventually a smart dredge player will just start hard casting beats on you.  On top of that putting them on a fast clock can completely eliminate the need for 2 and 3 and if its a fast enough clock even for 1.  Jace's 2 abilities that can win you the gain brainstorm and fate seal and painfully slow, as well as his cc mana cost of 4.  So as far as a clock is concerned Trygon is better there are no creatures that dredge can hard cast that it doesn't as least trade with as well as that you are usually running him in decks with other creatures making him a faster clock than jace is and he costs less mana to drop.

Maybe I'm wrong but I just completely fail to see why you would want 4 jace's in a noble fish deck, that would rarely drop him before turn 3, and also why that deck wouldn't want to automatically board him out against a deck that has a fast clock and that doesn't care about CA.

[forests failed you]

from most important to least important:

1.  Cards that interact with the graveyard.
2.  Cards that find cards that interact with the graveyard.
3.  Cards that protect cards that interact with the graveyard. 

First off 1, 2, 3 all have a relative time frame you need a gy hate card by turn 1 or 2 otherwise they are nearly pointless, unless your turn 1ing jace i don't see how he is helping any of those 3.  The need for an answer in the first few turns also results in keeping mana starved opening hands that satisfy 1 and 3, jace is almost completely dead in these situations as well.

Also I'm pretty sure at some point you need a clock.  Sure you can keep finding cards to interact with the graveyard and keep them protected, but eventually a smart dredge player will just start hard casting beats on you.  On top of that putting them on a fast clock can completely eliminate the need for 2 and 3 and if its a fast enough clock even for 1.  Jace's 2 abilities that can win you the gain brainstorm and fate seal and painfully slow, as well as his cc mana cost of 4.  So as far as a clock is concerned Trygon is better there are no creatures that dredge can hard cast that it doesn't as least trade with as well as that you are usually running him in decks with other creatures making him a faster clock than jace is and he costs less mana to drop.

Maybe I'm wrong but I just completely fail to see why you would want 4 jace's in a noble fish deck, that would rarely drop him before turn 3, and also why that deck wouldn't want to automatically board him out against a deck that has a fast clock and that doesn't care about CA.

Midrange Bant IS the best card advantage deck in Vintage right now.  You have four Hierarchs and jewelry, the goal is to try and slam a turn two jace often, and you can almost always have him and 3, not 4.  Midrange is not a beatdown deck like Noble Fish, if you are not grasping this concept there is very little point in debating any of these strategic points with you.  The misunderstanding we seem to be having about Path V. Swords, pretty much assures me that you and I simply are not on the same page about what is going on here, which means there is very little point in having the debate at all.  It seems to me all of your contextual experience with Bant revolves around a build that is similar to the one Matt Elias wrote about two weeks ago, the list from my article (though the same colors and playing some overlapping cards) is strategically and conceptually VERY different from Matt's.  Noble Fish is a BEATDOWN deck, Midrange Bant is a JACE CARD ADVANTAGE deck.  They are not the same thing:  the most important cards in MRB are Snapcaster Mage and Jace -- completely different tactics from the Beatdown deck.

It doesn't have a way to produce a fast clock against Dredge, which is exactly why it NEEDS its Jaces post sideboard.  You simply fight a war of attrition where they can't win, in order to do that you must have a sustained source of card advantage and library manipulation, hence Jace. 

Most of that sounds good.

2.  Cards that find cards that interact with the graveyard.

Timing is really the crux here.  Eg, vampiric tutor is perhaps the best card at doing #2.  A 4cc brainstorm is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum.  There are games where you have Lotus or Mana Crypt to power early big plays, the question is whether your deck would rather use that boost to win the game, or if a long-term CA/search play is better.

Against dredge in most builds I play (big blue), I'd go for the win instead of a play like JTMS.  What does that mean in terms of deck construction?  Since you can't run more copies of Tinker or Yawgmoth's will, that means I'd favor cards like Preordain since they more cheaply find you your win or a hate piece.  Again, this is compared with JTMS when considering the dredge match.

Of course, but I kind of assumed that was an obvious oversight that 'just winning the game' is better than playing Jace; although those two things in my experience are almost one in the same.  One thing to consider is that VC and MRB can't JUST WIN the game which is one of the sacrifices I have chosen to make to play with more efficient cards.  My Tinker can only get battle sphere, and my JUST WIN is Key Vault, which requires two cards.  My best way to win is actually to find GY hate and leverage it long enough to keep Dredge softlocked so I can stick a Jace and use it bury them.

It is also possible that people are undervaluing just how powerful JTMS actually is here.  From my experience, untapping with Jace is pretty much the same thing as winning.

[boggyb]

Excellent article. One small thing, have you tried Lotus Cobra in Midrange Bant? He doesn't interact with the board as much but does enable a high number of turn 2 Jaces while allowing you to cheat on mana a bit. A good anti-sphere too.

Also I wonder, if you've got an afternoon to spare, if you could write a brief primer on Jace, and Snapcaster too if you've got a chance. On deckbuilding and playing strategies with them. Jace is particularly tricky nowadays with all these creatures floating around -- knowing which ability to use and when can often spell the difference between a dead Jace and a winning Jace. I think those two cards, as well as Liliana of the Veil, are some of the most underrated cards in Vintage.

[brokenbacon]

As per usual, a great article, if only a little pretentious (Nostrademars? Come on.....)
Seriously though, I love what you had to say about STP. It makes me very happy and excited to see Vintage leaning in a new creature oriented direction, rather than an instant/sorcery based one, as Gush would lead us to believe.

[John Jones]

 Jace is very simple. If you are at parity or better, always fateseal. If you are not at parity, either bounce their dude or brainstorm. The end.

[vaughnbros]

Midrange Bant IS the best card advantage deck in Vintage right now.  You have four Hierarchs and jewelry, the goal is to try and slam a turn two jace often, and you can almost always have him and 3, not 4.  Midrange is not a beatdown deck like Noble Fish, if you are not grasping this concept there is very little point in debating any of these strategic points with you.  The misunderstanding we seem to be having about Path V. Swords, pretty much assures me that you and I simply are not on the same page about what is going on here, which means there is very little point in having the debate at all.  It seems to me all of your contextual experience with Bant revolves around a build that is similar to the one Matt Elias wrote about two weeks ago, the list from my article (though the same colors and playing some overlapping cards) is strategically and conceptually VERY different from Matt's.  Noble Fish is a BEATDOWN deck, Midrange Bant is a JACE CARD ADVANTAGE deck.  They are not the same thing:  the most important cards in MRB are Snapcaster Mage and Jace -- completely different tactics from the Beatdown deck.

It doesn't have a way to produce a fast clock against Dredge, which is exactly why it NEEDS its Jaces post sideboard.  You simply fight a war of attrition where they can't win, in order to do that you must have a sustained source of card advantage and library manipulation, hence Jace. 

Alright so let me get this straight.  Midrange bant, which is really just noble fish minus mana denial plus card advantage, is the greatest card advantage deck in the format.  It apparently generates more card advantage than decks with bob, preordains/ponder, tutors, and snapcaster/gush.  It is also capable of turn 2ing a jace consistently with only 9 accelerators, even though the odds are barely in your favor to have 1 in your opening hand.  It is also not a beat down deck, even though it runs 16 creatures and its only ways of winning are jace and beating down.  

If snapcaster and jace are really the two most important cards in your deck you should be playing more acceleration, snapcaster is almost always a 3 drop and jace is obviously a 4 drop, not to mention both these cards get hit hard by sphere effects.  I think you should strongly take Boggyb suggestion of lotus cobra.  On this same note you have 7 counter spells that don't work against shops, and a full play set of snapcasters and jaces, this seems like it has to be a bad match up, which cobra would help with.

Back to the swords versus path argument.  You just wrote an entire article about how creature decks are played more in vintage yet you state "life totals don't matter".  They do matter especially when your playing a deck that only attacks for a few damage a turn.  And when your not even running a mana denial strategy who cares if your opponent gets a land.  I wouldn't really expect you to respect my opinion after you called one my decks trash in one of your articles, but I do have a lot more success playing and building decks that attack than you do.

[boggyb]

Jace is very simple. If you are at parity or better, always fateseal. If you are not at parity, either bounce their dude or brainstorm. The end.

Yeah, that's the most basic usage. But the 'bounce their dude or brainstorm' one can be tricky, especially when they have more than one dude out, or have another in hand, as is common nowadays. Also you might fateseal them if you want to buy time or something. Need to balance what is in your hand vs. what might be in theirs and what might be coming later, from you or them. And if you miscalculate, your Jace can die and that can cost you the game. Anyway it's worth writing down in some detail in any case.

[forests failed you]

Midrange Bant IS the best card advantage deck in Vintage right now.  You have four Hierarchs and jewelry, the goal is to try and slam a turn two jace often, and you can almost always have him and 3, not 4.  Midrange is not a beatdown deck like Noble Fish, if you are not grasping this concept there is very little point in debating any of these strategic points with you.  The misunderstanding we seem to be having about Path V. Swords, pretty much assures me that you and I simply are not on the same page about what is going on here, which means there is very little point in having the debate at all.  It seems to me all of your contextual experience with Bant revolves around a build that is similar to the one Matt Elias wrote about two weeks ago, the list from my article (though the same colors and playing some overlapping cards) is strategically and conceptually VERY different from Matt's.  Noble Fish is a BEATDOWN deck, Midrange Bant is a JACE CARD ADVANTAGE deck.  They are not the same thing:  the most important cards in MRB are Snapcaster Mage and Jace -- completely different tactics from the Beatdown deck.

It doesn't have a way to produce a fast clock against Dredge, which is exactly why it NEEDS its Jaces post sideboard.  You simply fight a war of attrition where they can't win, in order to do that you must have a sustained source of card advantage and library manipulation, hence Jace. 

Alright so let me get this straight.  Midrange bant, which is really just noble fish minus mana denial plus card advantage, is the greatest card advantage deck in the format.  It apparently generates more card advantage than decks with bob, preordains/ponder, tutors, and snapcaster/gush.  It is also capable of turn 2ing a jace consistently with only 9 accelerators, even though the odds are barely in your favor to have 1 in your opening hand.  It is also not a beat down deck, even though it runs 16 creatures and its only ways of winning are jace and beating down.  

If snapcaster and jace are really the two most important cards in your deck you should be playing more acceleration, snapcaster is almost always a 3 drop and jace is obviously a 4 drop, not to mention both these cards get hit hard by sphere effects.  I think you should strongly take Boggyb suggestion of lotus cobra.  On this same note you have 7 counter spells that don't work against shops, and a full play set of snapcasters and jaces, this seems like it has to be a bad match up, which cobra would help with.

Back to the swords versus path argument.  You just wrote an entire article about how creature decks are played more in vintage yet you state "life totals don't matter".  They do matter especially when your playing a deck that only attacks for a few damage a turn.  And when your not even running a mana denial strategy who cares if your opponent gets a land.  I wouldn't really expect you to respect my opinion after you called one my decks trash in one of your articles, but I do have a lot more success playing and building decks that attack than you do.

First of all, suggesting that MRB is a Noble Fish deck with 4 Jace, 4 Snapcaster Mage, 4 Swords to Plowshares, No Waste/Strip lands, and 2 Mana Drains makes about as much sense as saying that Vintage Control is just a Gush deck without -Gush, -Fastbond, -Lotus Cobra, -Islands, and +other spells, + City of Brass.  It is a WRONG statement.  Having 20+ different cards tends to make a pretty big difference in how a deck will function and what it does...

Also, just because a deck's most efficient plan for ending the game is to attack with creatures doesn't make it a "beatdown deck."  I would hardly qualify Standard Wolf Run a beatdown deck because it attacks with creatures...

Also, Gush is not a "Card Advantage deck," it doesn't use Gush to press an advantage in cards and resources -- it uses Gush as a combo draw/mana engine to end the game.  MRB has 4 Jace, 4 Snapcaster, 3 Trygon, 1 Acall, all of which directly generate "card advantage." thats 12 cards, 1/3 of my spells directly generate "Card Advantage."  That is a lot, most decks don't play that many cards that directly create 2 for 1s.  Also, Preordain/Ponder and Tutors don't actually generate card advantage.  More to the point, MRB and Vintage Control are strategically different from most other U decks because their strategy is based around generating card advantage, whereas other decks are more focused upon taking advantage of tempo, combo synergies, or board advantages.  Specifically, other decks don't grind you out of cards and options, and then press it by drawing cards.

Secondly, by making the statement "you have dead counters against MWS, therefore you have a match up -- Aside from Noble Fish, which is basically a bye -- Workshop is probably this decks second best match up.  It is severely skewed in MRBs favor.  I 4-0d Shops at the Meandeck Open, didn't lose a game, and none of my games were even close.

Path V. Swords:  It doesn't matter if I only attack for a few per turn if I have active Jace and other ways to press card advantage, because my opponent cannot win anymore.  That is why life total doesn't matter --  if they cannot achieve the strategic objectives required for them to win the game, it doesn't matter how long it takes me to close them out.  What happens when you have to Path their turn one Dark Confidant?  I would be SOOOO embarrassed if I EVER made that play in Vintage.  The Bant deck I advocate can easily win a game against an opponent with 50 life, Swords is the kind of card that you can build around to maximize its effectiveness -- because it is THAT GOOD.  The downside of playing Swords to Plow over Path is that you "HAVE" to also play Jace and Snapcaster to make it better?  not exactly the worst drawback I've ever heard...

Lastly, it is only "feels" personal to you because you are making it personal.  Statements like "you don't respect my ideas, blah blah blah," and "I wouldn't expect you to like my ideas" doesn't make what you are saying any more correct, or what I'm saying any less correct.  I don't disagree with you because I don't respect you as a human being or I hate you or something, I disagree with you because your ideas are poorly reasoned and based on extremely faulty presumptions about how match ups work in Vintage and what decks do and are supposed to be doing.

Pretty much the only correct and accurate statement you make in your entire post is that you've had more success playing Beatdown in Vintage -- because if you have had ANY success playing it, then that is more than I have ever had playing it, considering I have never and will never (unless something very drastic changes in the future) play beatdown in Vintage; not because I couldn't, not because I have a strong preference for one style of deck over another, not because my play style is better suited for something different, but because I don't actually believe it is a great strategy.  And by that I mean, I have never been in a position where I felt that playing a beatdown style deck in Vintage gave me the best opportunity to win a tournament, if and when it does I would but I have never actually believed that to be the case.  Beatdown decks can't take advantage of the more powerful cards in the format as well as other decks can.  I think that playing 4 Jace in a deck that is really good at abusing and protecting Jace is at the same power level of Will and Tinker, which is why I think MRB is actually a very good deck right now.

Jace is very simple. If you are at parity or better, always fateseal. If you are not at parity, either bounce their dude or brainstorm. The end.

I actually Brainstorm +0 into boards where I am ahead or at parity A LOT.  I usually start fatesealing once I can guaranteed answer more threats than they have cards in hand and have an advantage on the board already.

As per usual, a great article, if only a little pretentious (Nostrademars? Come on.....)

I can't make a joke?  Jeez.  Glad you liked that article. 

Excellent article. One small thing, have you tried Lotus Cobra in Midrange Bant? He doesn't interact with the board as much but does enable a high number of turn 2 Jaces while allowing you to cheat on mana a bit. A good anti-sphere too.

Also I wonder, if you've got an afternoon to spare, if you could write a brief primer on Jace, and Snapcaster too if you've got a chance. On deckbuilding and playing strategies with them. Jace is particularly tricky nowadays with all these creatures floating around -- knowing which ability to use and when can often spell the difference between a dead Jace and a winning Jace. I think those two cards, as well as Liliana of the Veil, are some of the most underrated cards in Vintage.

.

I haven't tried Lotus Cobra, but I don't necessarily think he contributes exactly what I'm looking for in the deck.  First problem is I only play 3 Mox, so there are not a lot of ways to get him on 1.  Secondly, all of my creatures are designed to take away outs from my opponent once they are in play, they squeeze the opponent's options away like a boa constrictor by shutting off things my opponent is likely to be trying to do.  I only have 4 four drops, Jace and 3 three drops (trygon), so there really isn't much that I can do with the explosive mana cobra generates.  Hierarch simply accomplishes what I'm trying to accomplish more efficiently and consistently.

There is probably a Bant deck that can play Cobra, I'd be interested to see what you come up with!  Lotus Cobra is probably one of my five favorite cards of all time, and I rarely need much of an excuse to try out a cobra deck.  If you concoct a playable Bant Cobra deck that is passable, I'd gladly feature it in an article. 

Lastly, I don't think there is any reason to think I won't be writing more about Jace in the future.  Maybe an in game Jace strategy article is in order sometime in the future.  Good suggestion.

Thanks for reading and for the comments.  Cheers.

[Bill Copes]

I really enjoyed this article and appreciate your writing efforts.  You inspired me to think outside of normal card choices and vary up advantage engines a bit -- i.e. stop being stupid and start running Trygon Predator and more Jaces.  I didn't realize how versatile Trygon was until playing at Myriad today.  The card is a house.  Thank you.