[Article]Eternal Europe: Vintage Champs Breakdown

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

I've finally gotten around to write about Vintage again

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29648_Vintage-Champs-Breakdown.html

I hope you enjoy this, make sure you let me know what you think&where my impressions might need correction

[Demagoguery]

Interesting and fun read, but these are my criticism:

The thing that jumped out at me the most in the first half of the article was that you presented a lot of reasonable questions but never really went into depth about them. I know you addressed it by stating that you aren't super familiar with Vintage currently and don't get to play it enough, but I feel like a little more research could have provided a much stronger article for players who aren't as familiar with the format or in a similar position as you are currently.

The only thing that seemed easily incorrect was the mention of BUG Fish being made worse by the presence of Oath. In reality BUG shouldn't have any issue with Oath as it can easily run 4 copies of Decay which not only hurts the Oath plan but also the backup Time Vault plan, and they also generally run things like Trygon Predator, meaning that they have a significant amount of hate for Oath decks compared to other creature based decks. The bigger issue for them is that right now Young Pyromancer is much stronger than most of their creatures, so they'll have a much harder time playing against those decks, while also having to replace one of their threats in Dark Confidant with Treasure Cruise. So it's not Oath that makes the deck worse, but rather URx Delver.

Overall though it was reasonably well written and the mention of Spawning Pit got a chuckle out of me.

[wiley]

Back when I was playing Burning Oath (pitch version) I won most of my matches against Bug fish through the oath plan.  A single misdirection gets you the turn to oath, or a time walk.  The few times oath didn't work their hand was light enough that I was able to storm them out with ease, I can easily see the same being said for tezz vaulting.

I know Bug is better positioned to fight oath compared to other fish decks, but it is still not an easy fight, and a surge in oath definitely makes Bug worse in the meta.  Not to mention it is also a dog to a resolved show and tell, so unless every fish deck main decks a karakas I don't see the match up being in their favor any time soon.

[msg67183]

Back when I was playing Burning Oath (pitch version) I won most of my matches against Bug fish through the oath plan.  A single misdirection gets you the turn to oath, or a time walk.  The few times oath didn't work their hand was light enough that I was able to storm them out with ease, I can easily see the same being said for tezz vaulting.

I know Bug is better positioned to fight oath compared to other fish decks, but it is still not an easy fight, and a surge in oath definitely makes Bug worse in the meta.  Not to mention it is also a dog to a resolved show and tell, so unless every fish deck main decks a karakas I don't see the match up being in their favor any time soon.

And if they do decide to run Karakas, Oath decks can just run Progenitus.

[Twiedel]

So, the combination of Griselbrand and a LOT more creatures in Vintage has finally pushed Oath to a Tier 1 strategy ... I don't like it all that much, but it was about time. Now the question is if the "regular" blue control decks get back some tools that were restricted previously. But let's first see how this all settles down... I think much will be shifting around in Oath and Delver lists, and none can tell right now who comes out on top.

Also, as mentioned in the end, a great new Hatebear against all those insane Legacy Show and Tell / Sneak Attack actions as well as a huge possibility for white decks in Vintage fighting Oath that is not just Grafdigger's Cage.