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Xanthophobia22
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« on: October 02, 2008, 01:29:24 pm » |
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I will preface this thread by saying that if this topic is already in discussion that Ill post there if directed. However, I have not seen anything recently so I will assume that the topic should be reopened for discussion. Also as part of this preface I will say that although this is my first post here at themanadrain.com, it by no means that I haven't played magic before. I have in fact played magic for about seven years now (I'm 18) and have been playing with competitive success for the past 3 or so. I have less experience with vintage than legacy and extended but I am a competent player and a versed logistical thinker (man is that a mouthful..).
Down to business. This thread is meant to spark ideas on relatively older cards that are not being used to their greatest potential in vintage. I think as eternal magic players we tend to dismiss certain cards and strategies because they fall out of favor or success. It is easy to dismiss any removal spell at the mana cost of "W" for example because swords to plowshares is so much better. Although I think that it is important to note certain circumstances that make bad cards good such as a run of popularity with deathmark in extended and legacy or how non-black targeted removal has plummeted lately for supposedly unseen reasons. But I digress... In this thread the intention is to examine a few specific examples of such cards and ponder on their lack of inclusion in a vintage environment.
SPELL SNARE
This is a card that has seen much success in legacy and extended mainly for the prominence of goyf-based strategies and to a lesser degree counterbalance based strategies. Really the only dead matchups for spell snare in the legacy enviorment is goblins and to a lesser degree stax. Enter vintage. When considering the importance placed on early game advantage and disruption it becomes clear that spell snare is very powerful in fact. Imagine you win the die roll and keep a modest hand, lets say: fetch,dark confidant,spell snare,tropical island,mana drain,gush,vampiric tutor. Now think of some of the most powerful plays in vintage: land, mox, bob; orchard, mox, oath of druids; Ancient Tomb, chalice one; Ancient tomb, sphere. With spell snare you are able to stop the aggressive start than defines some vintage decks and let your mana drain get online. Assuming you can draw a mox or land you are playing bob and tutoring recall for more advantage. Now I am not saying that situations like this are going to happen all the time, but it is worth considering that spell snare will become much stronger in the upcoming metagame. Sitting at the top are drain based decks, stax, more and more fish and goyf based win conditions, and a large number of oath decks. With only a 40% chance of having a force and blue card, you cannot always deal with these threats and with brainstorm restricted it is hard to dig for that force. This is a strong replacement for the reliance on brainstorm and ponder as the meta moves its focus from CC One to CC Two.
MANAMORPHOSE/BELCHER
Belcher is not unheard of by any stretch, but it should be reconsidered as a DTB in the current meta. With the power of manamorphose and the loss of brainstorm/ponder/merchant scroll force of will, as stated earlier, is down to a 40% chance. Now weigh that to a 40% chance of drawing either main deck blasts (which are popular in current belcher lists) and you have a recipe for success. I think that now belcher and Empty the Warrens based decks will be more powerful than storm based decks because they are more explosive and more reliable. Another point of interest is the unresriction of chrome mox. I don't know if this is better than moxes for a belcher list and my first instinct says no, but that is not really based on nothing.
RELIC OF PROGENITUS
I have not tested nor do i fully understand this card yet, however my first reaction is "better than tormod's crypt." As you can imagine it came to me as such a shock that most vintage players disagreed. I see it as a fundamental misunderstanding about vintage. THE GAME IS NOT OVER ON TURN 2 MOST TIMES! Being able to cycle it for 2 mana is not to be underestimated in a slower metagame. Also with more and more players looking to win with tarmogoyf beats, this card is a perfect silver bullet; waiting with a blocker no tarmogoyf will attack you, possibly stalling until you can combo or until you have your own goyf. Granted that versus an early yawgmoth's will, crypt is better when you need to tutor it up quick, but since it is never more than one anyways cant we all agree on 1x of each? I see no reason that you wouldn't need to remove a graveyard twice versus many decks and the "second crypt" is never truly dead so virtual space is the same.
Thanks for reading and feel free to post whatever cards you think are underplayed and comment on my choices. No matter if I'm right or wrong I hope to learn something anyways.
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