Playing with Vanguard

[Sheik al Kaji]

So, does anyone still break out their Vanguard cards from time to time for casual play?

I'm looking for anyone who might want to play from time to time on MWS.

www.magiclibrary.net has got images and text for all the cards from all four sets.

Pick a card, break it, then come find Kung Fu Master on MWS when you're ready for some Vanguard action.

Also, AIM me if you want to set up a game ahead of time.

The format for building a deck is that you will build a minimum 60 card deck, and then insert your Vanguard card into your deck as an extra card. Before the game, you'll have to search your library and fish it out and set it somewhere on your side of the table for the game.

And, you could post any decklists you come up with here, to inspire other players. I'll have one up as soon as I finish putting it together in MWS.

[Laertes]

A local shop had a vanguard tourney.  The format is quite unhealthy, because there seems to be only 2 options:

1 Play mishra sligh (mishra makes your creatures deal double damage)

2 Play combo with a vanguard that makes you land tap for 2 mana

It doesn't seem very fun to play.

[goober]

Hanna and Krark Clan Ironworks deck she is Helm of Awakening for you.  Serious potential there, only drawback is -5 life, which is irrelevant.

[Jacob Orlove]

A local shop had a vanguard tourney.  The format is quite unhealthy, because there seems to be only 2 options:

1 Play mishra sligh (mishra makes your creatures deal double damage)

2 Play combo with a vanguard that makes you land tap for 2 mana

It doesn't seem very fun to play.

Wait, those are the best you  could come up with? Didn't anyone break Hanna? You get a 9 card starting AND max hand size, and all your spells cost 1 less. That's far better than the double mana one (which gives you no bonus to your hand size). You just have to put a greater value on stuff like AK or merchant scroll than on stuff like mystical. You could build an absurd hulk deck with Hanna, for example. I have a hard time seeing any other card as better, when Hanna gives you a free ancestral AND makes all your spells hideously cheap.

Mishra is ridiculous too, though, but he only works on creatures. Everyone should be able to beat creature based decks with the brokenness Vanguard gives you.

[Kowal]

And not even an honorable mention for Squee?  God damn yo.

[Unearthly]

I'll play you anytime.  Anyone remember eggdrills? Well now you start with the helm (Hanna) in play.  Goes off first turn almost all of the time, and it runs Force of Will too.  

[Sheik al Kaji]

Wow, did no one break Urza? Dragon becomes more ridiculous when they can't get rid of your win condition.

Urza Dragon

Vanguard
Urza

Mana
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Island
3 Swamp
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Peral

Disruption
3 Duress
4 Force of Will

Draw/Tutoring
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Intuition
3 Compulsion

Combo
4 Worldgorger Dragon
4 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy


It's fairly simple, just get the Dragon loop going, and use Urza to burn them to death. Urza will also kill anything keeping them alive.

[Nazdakka]

Yeah, Hanna is BROKEN.

This thing kills turn 2 pretty consistantly and apart from the Vanguard card is Extended legal. With the Type 1 cardpool, it would be killing turn 1 easily...

Vanguard 1.x Hanna-Egg deck:

Character:
Hanna

Lands:
4 City of Traitors
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Swamp
1 Plains

Fast Mana:
4 Mox Diamond
4 Priest of Gix
4 Cabal Ritual

Eggs:
4 Sungrass Egg
4 Skycloud Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Chromatic Sphere

Other:
3 Second Sunrise (Shades of Yawgmoth's Will here...)
4 Night's Whisper
2 Vampiric Tutor

You can also build an Elf deck with Takara, but that's a turn or so slower.

If you want to play with Vanguard in a serious but non-broken way, then you probably need to ban several of the combo-enabling cards, because this sort of thing is pretty easy to come up with.