[Premium Article] So Many Insane Plays - Winning in Vinage on a Budget

[coyoteuglly]

I just went to SCG and added up the cost to build Doran from scratch.  Total was $584.50 no counting commons.  I don't play Bitterblossom.  If you want to tack on another $80.  You could build almost any T1 deck for that in a 10 proxy.  Stacks and Bazaars might be rough to build.  But everything else is pretty doable.

[JJNess]

Sorry to dredge (pun intended) this article up after a few weeks, but I wanted to say this:

I'm a new vintage player. I've played Magic since Mirage (I was, what... 10? 11?) and have sold out a few times (never again though! I used to have a Yawg Win in great condition!) and now I'm back in it about 6 weeks ago. I've bought and built up a sup-par Type 2 collection, a cheesy G/W beats deck, and will hit up Regionals with whatever I can borrow.

That is because B/G Elves would cost me nearly $600 (US)! Here's the punny part. After reading this article, I traded a Blitterblossom, a set of Fulminator Mages, a bit more of Type 2 goodness, for Mana Dredge. Proxy up the power (and the Bazaars), the rest I either have or can afford (a set of Cabal Therapy can't be that hard to eBay). Boom, I'm a vintage player... and loving it.

There are 3 other kids around my small meta with T1 decks (no power around but proxies are fun). We have so much fun playing 4-player round robins or shuffling our decks together to play off one giant library (so broken!).

And what did it cost me? Trading out of the box of Shadowmoor I bought to get a T2 collection started. It's not that hard, and totally worth it.

I hope to persuade a certain tournament organizer in the Duluth, MN, area to incorporate a 10-proxy Vintage tourney in his annual convention (TwinPortsCon). I even hope to play some fun games on the side after I (inevitably) drop out of Regionals.

So thanks Smmenen and my friends for pushing me to play such a great and fun format. I barely care about Standard or Limited anymore. Vintage FTW!

[Smmenen]

You are much welcome!!!!!!!

[Kraken]

I think one of the main problems with T1 is that there is too few tournaments.  I am interested in playing T1 and I have 3 power cards, but I can't find any tournaments on the canadian east coast.  From what I understand, I have to choose between:

a) Attending a local T1 tournament with a low competitive playing field where people run T2 decks combined with a few old cards and you get maybe 1 or 2 decent tier 2-3 T1 decks.

b)Driving to the states for one of the rare tournaments, paying ton for gas, lodging and possibly missing a day of work not to have to drive down the morning of the tournament and being tirred.

c)Attend an annual tournament in Montreal with a low profile that is barely advertised and that is usually missed due to poor communication with a very poor prize pool.

Maybe I just don't know where to look, but I don't know any serious type 1 players locally and I can't find any decent tournaments to attend.  By the way, I live in Ottawa area.