[Article] A Fine Vintage - November Review

[Zherbus]

Link to the Article.

November, when everyone tries to play as much Magical tournaments as possible before getting sucked into the holidays, is historically frenzied. The irons have cooled from the summer Magic that has forged our metagame. The banned and restricted list changes, or lack thereof, have long sunk in and the metagame begins to congeal. By those accounts, Vintage should be coasting by with the same decks that have had the chance to prove themselves over the summer blockbuster events of Waterbury, StarCityGames Power 9 Events, and finally the Vintage World Championships.

[Ulthrion]

Very nice article! It was a great read. As a beginning vintage player I enjoyed reading about the various decktypes used and the diversity in the metagame. Some question I have though:

Thorn of Amethyst
Ponder
Thoughtseize

This is a bit different from new sets in the past, in that those are cards that seem strictly ready made to make our existing strategies stronger

I was hoping you would reflect on this statement at the end of your article, because from what I've read on these forums, Thorns of Amethyst especially has inspired people to try some newer(older) decklists and play it as one sided sphere, which is actually enabling new strategies instead of making traditional stax stronger (which it also undoubtly did). Did the Thorn encourage newer decktypes, or did they really only make an impact as spheres 6-9 in the obvious Stax builds in the end?

In Europe, they saw Gifts Ungiven was restricted but didn’t get the message that the deck was dead.

In the meta breakdowns in the end we see one gifts gifts claiming 2nd and 5th in Villena and 1st, 3rd and 6th in Brescia, which seems to be a pretty good showing for dead deck. Do you think that there is still a place for this deck? Or are these just the result of the sheer volume of gifts being played there?

Again, thanks for the great read! A good motivation to get into vintage I would say!

[Zherbus]

I was hoping you would reflect on this statement at the end of your article, because from what I've read on these forums, Thorns of Amethyst especially has inspired people to try some newer(older) decklists and play it as one sided sphere, which is actually enabling new strategies instead of making traditional stax stronger (which it also undoubtly did). Did the Thorn encourage newer decktypes, or did they really only make an impact as spheres 6-9 in the obvious Stax builds in the end?

Yeah, I left commentary out on purpose as that's planned for another piece. But your assertion is mostly correct, though the numbers are a bit off. Just having 1-2 is enough to really make the prison decks that much more consistant. Also, in addition to prison decks, it's starting to find uses in other decks SB's.

In the meta breakdowns in the end we see one gifts gifts claiming 2nd and 5th in Villena and 1st, 3rd and 6th in Brescia, which seems to be a pretty good showing for dead deck. Do you think that there is still a place for this deck? Or are these just the result of the sheer volume of gifts being played there?

There were some more T8's that showed up for November after I had already written. I think it's a perfectly solid deck and there's still a place for what it does. One message it sends is that Mana Drain is stilll a potent force in Vintage. I view European top 8's as a place to find truth over what can be viable. Make one top 8, and it doesn't send a message. Make a ton of top 8's and a deck is certainly worth paying attention to. I'd love to see it played more here in the US.

[SolKanar]

So, Gush is unrestricted and now we have new decks (sometimes multiples) every month that are serious contenders. That's really a compelling arguement for how good or bad Gush is for the format.

[Solomox]

Great article Zherbus!  I tend to lean towards the opinion that this is the Golden Age of Vintage.  While Gush decks do seem to take the lead on sheer numbers, i believe that it has made a lot of other former Tier 1.5/2 decks playable.  In fact, lately there have been various top 8's around the country with strong showings from several Stax variants, Slaver, Bomberman, Fish, Tendrils variants, and basically everything except Oath.  I have been thinking about the top 8's I've looked at and lately they have been the most diverse they have been in a loooong time.  Someday, the format will settle down, but for now everyone has a chance to experiment with decks they enjoy playing.  With decks like Platinum Control, Dawn of the Dead, and R/G Beats taking home prizes this is a very diverse format that leads to more people having fun rather than just playing the "Best Deck" to win.  I just wanted to thank you and several others here who continue to write great articles and keep Vintage alive. 

[Zherbus]

Thanks for the kind words. The results gave me a real serene feeling about the format right now. There's so much that's certainly playable without random trash drifting in. A high barrier of entry, but plenty of doors are open!