Jumpping Into Vintage

[APriestOfGix]

Hey, I've been lurking around the site for some time now, and with 3 summer jobs, I think i might be able to finally jump into Vintage.

Being a LONG time Legacy player, I know a little about the older formats, but of course Vintage is a whole different animal.

I was hoping to get some advice on what the best deck to jump into the format would be?  I'm looking for something that i can build really fast and cheap, and then slowly add power/shops/drains/bazzars/goodies to it over time.

I currently already own Legacy Ichorid, but the deck runs kinda weird for me.  I dislike it's consistancy.  Maybe Manaless Ichorid runs smoother?

I'm kinda looking for some sort of aggro-control or combo-control.  I'm normally a combo player, but for my first deck, I don't see me playing things like Grim Long very well until i actually get out, and learn the format by playing it.

Thank in advance for any help you guys can give me.

[BruiZar]

goblins is cheap, you can build that from your legacy cards and add a mox ruby to get your power going. I wouldn't focus too much on drains, shops and bazaars. As nice as they are, you really just want to acquire 5 moxen. I wouldn't advise playing oath.

[personalbackfire]

Unless you allready own all of the cards for vintage goblins from legacy goblins I would not advise that. The reason is because most of the cards in goblins you can only use in goblins. Its a deck that the cards you buy for it would only be going into one use.

While comming into vintage you generally get anywhere from 10-15 proxies a tournament. So if you own most legacy staples, duels, fetchs, force of will,  you should be in a good position to put together most decks with 10-15 proxies. I would check out the Dark Confidant Tendrils list in the open Forum to get into the format. It doesnt use any semi-power cards, so you should own the majority of it, then once you get more into the format you can work on getting the 9.

[APriestOfGix]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So I have been looking at decks, and was wondering the viability of the following, and how much running a fully powered (as in all the good stuff, not necessarily all 9) version would be.

Dragon - Looks fun, and i miss it from the original days of Legacy, but is it any good?

Manaless Ichorid - I already own everything but Bazzar, so i guess that's a start.  ;-P  How good is the deck, and is it worth playing?

Stax (w/ Welder) - I have not seen a list, but i remember the days of TriniStax.  Is stax still a viable deck?  What about some sort of Juggernaught, 7/10 deck?

Grim Long - OK, the thing that brought me to this format.  Assuming 10 proxies how much would this baby cost to pick up?  There is no real build it half way on this though, no?  I kinda have to just get it, and then learn one of the hardiest decks in Magic to play.  Being a long time TES player, it is right up my ally, but is it worth the cost, and play testing?

Thanks for all your help guys.  Maybe I'll just get sick of finding a deck, and come break your format!  (I wish ;-P)

[personalbackfire]

There is a dragon thread in the open forum talking about the viability of it. I would check that out if your interested in that deck.

Meadbert is the man you should get in contact with about Ichorid. It is viable being as it  lost nothing during the restrictions. The deck has a high game one win percentage. It is postboard and knowing how to sideboard and play around the hate which will be hard to do with Ichorid.

There is a Workshop Aggro list that uses juggernauts, Magus of the moons and spheres. There is also a MUD list that is quite powerful. Those seem to be the most powerful workshop variants at the moment.

Grim Long is going to be tricky to build/play because it lost brainstorm. That card allowed it to run a sketchy manabase and turn bad cards into good cards. It also lost ponder. If you are looking for a tendrils list i would strongly suggest looking at the dark confidant list in the other thread.
Price wise i think underground seas are around 30. Force of wills are probably up around there as well. The Blue fetchlands are probably around 20. You could the prices for yourself tho.

I hope all that helped

[APriestOfGix]

Yeah, I know the price's of the basic stuff, I'm just wondering if there is sub-optimal replacements for them until i can get my hands on the real deal.  I already own force, and a few blue duals (w & r).

I'll take a look at Ichorid and MUD/Stax.  They seem to be good decks, and I just messed around with Dragon for a while, and hate watching myself lose game after game, to almost every card.

[arctic79]

Oath is another cheap and easy deck to learn with, although the current build is in upheaval because of the Brainstorm/Ponder restrictions, but there are many other cards to replace them.  Menendian has a list up right now but it uses Bazaars.  You could take an older list and use cards like impulse instead.

[kicks_422]

You might want to look into Mana Ichorid as well. It's closer to Legacy Ichorid and has been doing well with T8's.

[APriestOfGix]

Thanks for all the idea's guys.  I'll take a deeper look at the decks suggested, and come back here if I get stuck.

Now I just need a place to play in SoCal...

I know one place, but it's not that competitive, and it might be fun to not steam roll people.  (Took second place there with a Legacy Deck (TES) First place was the only one with a powered deck...)

[nero angelo]

as what kicks_422 said, you might wanna take a look at Mana Ichorid.

I'm currently building one, and has only 8 cards missing, namely 4x Cabal Theraphy and 4x Bazaar of Baghdad (OMG).

I like playing with the deck. It dredges fast and might as well win fast even Bazzar gets Wasted/Stripped.

My other deck was Goblines. It was like legacy goblins, well, it has 4 Maindeck Leyline of the Void, for fighting GY recursion decks namely: Manaless Ichorid, Flash, to some extent, Grim Long and Tropical Storm. It also has 4x Earwig Squads to battle almost any deck, namely Oath...  However, with the restrictions, they say removing LotV maindeck and putting CotV in it migh give it a better matchup. I don't know, haven't tried it yet. :p

[BruiZar]

In the end it really depends on what you have. In any proxy 10 or 15 environment, there's not much that you can't play. As far as acquiring power and semi power goes. Get moxen first.

[KnowmaD]

I've always liked fish / mountain wins decks as a good fall back for lack of power.

You have FoW and bluewhite, bluered  lands. The rest is relatively cheaper. Plus you can slide your power in as you go ( I went with the black lotus first. Its the best off the best an a high hurdle  to jump, then moxen).

I also think thees builds have lots of growing room an directions to take them in future magic.

                 

                                                                                                                             go aggro control pet decks for the win
                                                                                                                                                             Knowmad

[nero angelo]

yeah

I also like Fish. Haven't played w/ it but played against it.


some cards to own:

Force of Will
Dual lands (specially ones with Island part)
Fetch Lands (specially ones that fetches Islands)
Leyline of the Void
Power 9 (or 8, incase you don't want Timetwister...)
Yawgmoth's Will
Tutors (Vampiric, Demonic, Mystical are the common ones...)
Wasteland
Stripmine

[Deger]

If you have the stuff for red legacy stax you can go to vintage stax real easy in a 10-15 proxy event..  I play a red uba stax list and it does pretty well..  you would really just need the shops, Bazaars and the mox/lotus and that brings you to 14 proxy.. The only decks that really seem to give it trouble is fast aggro.  But there are ways around that and well I kind Nerf the mulligans a lot. The ichorid builds are easy on the proxys but I find them real unstable.  RG beats can do well also.. grab some skull clamps and go to town with a kird ape.. 

 

[bronxie]

Grim long is a hell of a fun deck to play, i would run with that if i was you.  yeah its got expensive shit in it, but its so much fun!