[Free Article] Vintage Advantage - Vintage on a Budget

[GrandpaBelcher]

http://legitmtg.com/competitive/the-vintage-advantage-vintage-on-a-budget/

I talk about some potential budget decks for players attending Eternal Weekend as well as some of the things to look for when constructing a budget deck.

[Prospero]

This was a good read.

One of the things that I like best about Merfolk is the position that it puts its pilot in once they've picked up the essentials.  Once a Merfolk pilot has picked up their Force of Wills and Wastelands, they're able to start picking up cards for U/R Landstill and work their way into transitioning into a different deck in the field, if they so desire.

As dedicated Vintage pilots tend to pick up cards and rarely part with them, it's about the path that we take more than the choice of a given deck at a given point in time.  If we set ourselves up well at the beginning, we open more doors in the future. 

We start with one deck, finish it, and build towards other decks.  Suddenly able to play them, maybe we build into other pillars, or 'pimp' our decks out. 

I'm a fan of these types of articles.  Thanks for the work, Nat.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Yup, the topic is timely and the style seems well crafted for its audience.  I think a companion topic that isn't always considered for this is budget-porting.  Prospero mentions the path-dependence of card pool for folks new to vintage.  I think an even bigger opportunity (or existing trend) is the porting of existing cards from Legacy (or even Modern/Standard).

So Affinity may not work without the acceleration, but things like Delver, NobleFish or Goblins can be viable and become 'budget' if you already have the duals/fows/wastelands, etc.

2c

[xouman]

Great article! I like a lot those articles Nat.

This morning I was thinking myself about the merfolks+faeries unpowered deck I played some years ago, deciding that with caverns it would be better now. Also I've yet to test if faeries can be played in vintage (because they feel weak facing mud).

I have lately played and enjoyed monored and elves. White trash has won swiss and tournament in LCV. All of those strategies are ready to make good appearances.

Maybe it's a bit harder to play an unpowered deck because you have to play tighter, but it's very rewarding and you can achieve good results!

[PeAcH]

Yet another great article Nat.

Starting from the budget approach should be the beginning for any Vintage newcommer in non-proxy metagames. Once you enter the format you should be able to work your way up from buget/Fish/Dredge to reach more complex, full powered decks.

I think this should be the path to advance in the format. This way, that player learns the value of some cards as this can be rather different from other formats (Wasteland and FOW as Prospero mentioned are very good samples of this).

[msg67183]

Great read! I have built a variant of Elves without power, that is also more resilient to Chalice, boards Sweepers and the like. Allow me to present, The Renegades:


The Renegades

2 Gaea's Cradle
9 Forest
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Skullclamp
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Wirewood Hivemaster
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Priest of Titania
4 Heritage Druid
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Craterhoof Behemoth

Sideboard:

4 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Nature's Claim
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Scavenging Ooze

Cavern of Souls is a HUGE bump for this deck, as well as not relying on Glimpse of Nature to go off. Wirewood Hivemaster plus Skullclamp is a much more consistent draw engine than Glimpse and doesn't require a single turn. This is what I'm going to be slinging at Philly, hope to see you all there!

[Ozymandias]

The mountains win again is another, more disruption-heavy version of Mono-Red that I think has a lot of potential. Starting off a list with 8 moons, 4 rods and 4 cages is going to give you a lot of free wins versus a lot of different decks, and the only power it runs optimally are mox and Lotus, so turning that into Mountain, Petal isn't so bad at all.

[Twaun007]

Another humdinger of an article from the Natmizer. Also, I cannot wait to shoot you the thumbs up when I get dominated by one of these decks in November.

On a more serious note, these decks are very good in the hands of a capable mage. I think that's something that should be addressed and I know plenty of mages who've come up to me and stated "I played against this shitter deck, but I lost? And I have no idea what happened."

Truth be told, those are not shitter decks and I can speak from experience by getting beat by some of them.

[merfolkOTPT]

Another humdinger of an article from the Natmizer. Also, I cannot wait to shoot you the thumbs up when I get dominated by one of these decks in November.

On a more serious note, these decks are very good in the hands of a capable mage. I think that's something that should be addressed and I know plenty of mages who've come up to me and stated "I played against this shitter deck, but I lost? And I have no idea what happened."

Truth be told, those are not shitter decks and I can speak from experience by getting beat by some of them.

I mean heck twaun, aren't you locked in to play mono-white at champs?!

In all seriousness, I think that these decks can be very good.  They do suffer in large wide open metas, but 90% of vintage (at least in the US) is not played that way.  If you know roughly what to target these decks can be extremely strong.

Nat thanks again for writing this. I honestly think you are doing more for the community at least in Ohio than anyone I know.

Sidenote: I am still amazed that reddit's response to this article was "nice budget decks that actually cost a ton of money" people are weird.

[vaughnbros]

Great article keep up the good work!

[John Cox]

I really like that. thanks.