Back in the Game

[Based]

Hey guys.

I used to keep up with Type I pretty well.  I was a long-time lurker/short-time poster at bdominia before it went down.

I'd love to get back into the game, but I feel really overwhelmed by the new metagame.  Some decks are new, some decks sound familiar but my memory has faded.  The primers are all of older decks (unless Nether Void is back in style).  I've looked through some of the tournament reports on this site and while they're excellent, they rightly assume that most readers know the deck.

How do you suggest I become reacquainted with T1?

[tdickinson]

Welcome back!

I got back into Magic after a somewhat long break about 2 years ago. What worked really well for me was to pick up an older deck I was familiar with (Sui =x) and just start playing people on MWS. As I watched the newer decks in operation I got a better feel for what they did, until finally I picked up Worldgorger Dragon combo myself.

Just as a (way too) brief summary of a few of today's decks, I'll just give you a brief rundown of these.

Control Slaver: Recognized by Goblin Welder, Mindslaver, and either Pentavus or Crucible of Worlds and an Artifact Land. The deck uses Mana Drain  to ramp up huge amounts of mana quickly, then infinitely Mindslavers the opponent with the aforementioned cards. Usually wins with Pentavus, Triskelion, or Welder beats, although Tinker->Darksteel Colossus has been showing up more frequently lately.

Stax: A few different varieties have shown up lately, but the most prevalent has been Uba Stax, which uses Uba Mask, Bazaar of Baghdad and sometimes MD Null Rod. This deck is mono-red. The other prevalent build is 5C Stax, which on top of the normal Stax components runs White for Balance and possibly STP, and Blue for draw and usually In The Eye of Chaos. I've also seen Chains of Mephistopheles on a few occasions. Someone else might want to give a better description of Stax, I'm not the most familiar person with it.

Fish: Fish is an Aggro-Control deck that uses creatures such as Meddling Mage, Rootwater Thief, Cloud of Faeries, Basking Rootwalla and Wild Mongrel. Most current builds are either U/W or U/G. Umezawa's Jitte and Aether Vial are two important cards in making Fish competitive. It usually runs a large ammount of disruption in the form of Wastelands, Chalice of the Voids and/or Null Rods.

Gifts: Gifts is the newest deck on this list, being created by the Meandeckers shortly after Gifts Ungiven was printed. The deck is U/R/B, and runs cards like Gifts Ungiven and Mana Drain. It wins with either Tendrils of Agony (In the sideboard, retrieved with Burning Wish) or Darksteel Colossus and Time Walk. The decks sets itself up to be in complete control of the game, and then casts Gifts Ungiven for some combination of Tinker, Recoup, Yawgmoth's Will, Time Walk and Burning Wish.
Along the way the Gifts player will usually cast other copies of Gifts for whatever they need at the moment, be it mana, counters, or card advantage.

I think those are the big four at the moment, but someone else might want to elaborate on what I've written and add in decks I've left out, such as Oath, Dragon, Long, FCG and Workshop Aggro

[Based]

Thanks!  I'm DLing what I need for MWS right now.

It's nice to see that new cards are making appearances in the format.

[TimeWizzle]

I would recommend reading through this article by Ted Knutson (of Starcity Games) that has some overviews of Type I (called Vintage now) and several decklists to give you a better idea what's in what.  Also the clickable card names are handy if you don't know what something does. 

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/vintage05/welcome

[Green Knight]

I would also suggest reading through the tournament reports here: http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?board=43.0 the Gen Con reports are very insightful as to today’s metagame.

[argylekilla]

Hey, i have to thank you guys for this post too. I just got back in after a 5 year hiatus and am finding it increasingly difficult to get back to the comfort level i once enjoyed. If i read a report or decklist, i have to first find out what KSOIEK 8klanet means (or whatever combination of letters and numbers that is used as the name of the deck) and then look up EVERY CARD ON THE DECKLIST... and of course, some cards have nicknames that I cannot decipher... either way, thanks for the links

[49 Cents]

Also, you might even want to try the Starcity Games premium memberchip. The have really cool articles about Type 1, written by Pro's like Stephen Menendian and the like. You can find SCG here: www.starcitygames.com.

[xrizzo]

Also, you might even want to try the Starcity Games premium memberchip. The have really cool articles about Type 1, written by Pro's like Stephen Menendian and the like. You can find SCG here: www.starcitygames.com.

If you can't (or don't want to join) all the articles become free 6 months after their initial posting anyway... 

Another way to get familiar is start playing a top tier deck (say control slaver) and take it to a tourney.  You will find out really quickly what else is out there.  Along the way, you get a chance to win prizes and it only costs like $20.

I have a bunch of staples available in non-foil versions that I am too lazy to sell on ebay, PM if interested.

[Boltbait]

Hey Saltz, welcome back! I just got back into the game too, and have slowly been absorbing all the new cards and decks.

[LotusHead]

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=17797

Lunar wrote up a pretty neat intro to Type 1 (Vintage) Magic at the above link.  It doesn't go over everything, but does cover a lot of ground and has nifty deck lists to go along with it and explanations.

It's a good read, so check it out.

Also, for those that have been out for a few years, many rules have changed in technicality, so playing against people up on their rules or thoroughly reading the comprehensive rules (on www.magicthegathering.com somewhere) is a good idea eventually.

[Disburden]

Also, you might even want to try the Starcity Games premium memberchip. The have really cool articles about Type 1, written by Pro's like Stephen Menendian and the like. You can find SCG here: www.starcitygames.com.

If you can't (or don't want to join) all the articles become free 6 months after their initial posting anyway... 

Another way to get familiar is start playing a top tier deck (say control slaver) and take it to a tourney.  You will find out really quickly what else is out there.  Along the way, you get a chance to win prizes and it only costs like $20.

I have a bunch of staples available in non-foil versions that I am too lazy to sell on ebay, PM if interested.

In six months all those articles will lose 60% of their importance since the meta game will change by then anyway. I wouldn't want to read an article about Stax when Trinisphere was a four of in the deck. I would be misinformed.

The premium account is absolutely wonderful. I have had it for six months, paid hardly nothing for it and have read countless of amazing articles from it that are up to date.

[Jacob Orlove]

Technically, premium content becomes free after 3 months, not 6. Buying a yearly subscription is only $30, though, which works out to something like $2.50 a month.

[bdg4life]

A while back Jason Pilarski did a nifty T1 breakdown and matchup analysis. It hasnt been updated with some of the newer decks like Gifts or uba stax, but its a fine starting point and gives you an idea of what some of the decks are trying to do.
http://ca.geocities.com/pilarskijics4m/index.htm