Starting out in Vintage

[Frenger]

I'm a long time legacy player, but I recently discovered that some guys i play legacy and EDH with also play Vintage. This sparked my curiosity and after some thought I've decided to make vintage my format of choice. So, I sold all my legacy cards and foils keeping only my duals, fetches, FoWs and the cards i will use in vintage, and I'm sitting on enough cash to buy one mox/walk and have a little bit left over. Luckily for me, Europe has plenty of 10 proxy tournaments and an affordable train network. I plan on attending as many as i can and trying to win, as my goal is to have a full set of power.

Does anyone have advice on how to get started? I've been reading up on strategy articles and becoming familiar with the metagame in addition to goldfishing/MWS with my deck, but would like to get into the format more seriously and go to some upcoming tournaments in october.

Thanks!

[Grand Inquisitor]

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=15089.0

Is probably the most dense source of good information on good play (not all T1).

www.starcitygames.com

www.morphling.de

(and here)

For tournament results.

As for how to get better, there's been a bunch of solid threads here on approaches to that.  I'd summarize my thoughts as:

1) Playtest - this is as much to learn pattern recognition as it is to test individual matchups.  The biggest advantage in a large tournament is being familiar with the dynamics of this card pool.

2) Playstyle - learn what decks you are adept at piloting.  I think T1 is most different from other formats where playing the 'best' deck isn't always as effective as playing the best deck for you.

[JACO]

Why on earth did you sell all your Legacy cards? There are typically more Legacy tournaments than Vintage in both San Diego and Europe, both of which you occupy, from my understanding.

I would recommend selling your Foils, if anything, and just get non-foil versions of all cards you would need, or like to have to compete in both formats. That seems like a better investment in your situation, as it would afford you the opportunity to play both formats.

[Frenger]

Why on earth did you sell all your Legacy cards? There are typically more Legacy tournaments than Vintage in both San Diego and Europe, both of which you occupy, from my understanding.

I would recommend selling your Foils, if anything, and just get non-foil versions of all cards you would need, or like to have to compete in both formats. That seems like a better investment in your situation, as it would afford you the opportunity to play both formats.

What I sold was foils and promos and deck specific stuff. I still plan on playing legacy by playing combo, as I need almost nothing I don't already have to port my vintage deck to legacy. This allows me to play both formats and have the most money for vintage.

[JACO]

Ahh, very good.

As for recommendations on how to get started, I would start by picking up whatever commons and lands people throw away, and make a TON of proxies. I have about 1500 proxies laying around now. Proxy up all the popular Vintage decks right now (Strategic Slaver, TPS/Long, Drain Tendrils, Dredge, Painter, some kind of Workshop variant, etc.) and then goldfish the hell out of them, and play them against each other. Bring them with you whenever you go to play, so you and your posse will always be able to test and get a feel from playing either side of any match(es) you want to test. For other testing, if you know people who test on MWS seriously you could give that a try too. But just going online randomly looking for opponents in MWS is bound to end in failure.

There is basically no substitute for testing and understanding how matches and scenarios play out. You'll see how often a single turn or mana source can mean the difference in a game. It's pretty cool!