How Shards of Alara Will Shape Vintage, by JacoWhen Wizards of the Coast releases a new Magic expansion every few months, the Magic community in general is abuzz with excitement. It means new draft pools, new Standard and Block Constructed decks, as well as a few cards that may impact Extended. Players of the Eternal formats (Vintage and Legacy) have come to understand that there may be a few crumbs here and there for them to pick up on, but that by and large the new cards and sets are not designed for their use. By Wizards' own admissions, they are unable to test older formats due to time and resource constraints, so many of the cards are not tested to see how they will play out in Vintage or Legacy.
Mirrodin and
Future Sight have changed the Vintage landscape more than any recently released sets. Mirrodin was wrought with powerful artifacts used in Vintage, such as Aether Spellbomb, Chalice of the Void, Duplicant, Goblin Charbelcher, Isochron Scepter, Mindslaver, Pentavus, and Platinum Angel. Mirrodin also introduced us to Thirst for Knowledge, which has ultimately become one of, if not the most played draw engines in Vintage today. The ability to dig for cards at instant speed, while fueling the graveyard for later abuse, has arguably made it the de facto draw engine in Vintage.
Future Sight brought Vintage players a host of very playable cards cards in the form of Aven Mindcensor, Bridge From Below, Coalition Relic, Dryad Arbor, Magus of the Moon, Narcomoeba, Pact of Negation, Street Wraith, Storm Entity, Yixlid Jailer, and Tarmogoyf. Summoner's Pact and Virulent Sliver also saw play for a while when Flash was still legal as a four-of in the Vintage iteration of the
Hulk Flash deck. The aforementioned cards have helped shape decks such as Flash,
Bomberman,
Dredge, combo, and
aggro-control variants for the past year and a half.
Like
Mirrodin and
Future Sight before it,
Shards of Alara will radically change the Vintage environment, as decks based on some newly printed cards will once again force players to adapt to new strategies. For the sake of brevity, I'll break down the new set by grouping the potential Vintage playables into a few groups, and add a few notes alongside each card. We'll then focus on a few new exciting decks based on some of these fantastic cards.
Interesting, But Probably Not PlayableCourier's Capsule - while interesting from a design perspective, at a total cost of four total mana to draw 2 cards, this probably won't cut it in Goblin Welder-based decks (or any other Vintage decks).
Covenant of Minds - at five mana for 3 to 5 cards, this might be a decent deal along the lines of Fact or Fiction, but the sorcery speed probably prevents this from seeing any serious Vintage play.
Woolly Thoctar - a 5/4 for three mana is nothing to sneeze at, but when the three mana are in the worst colors of Vintage, this will probably be relegated to Standard and Extended play only.
Wild Nacatl - potentially a 3/3 for G, that does nothing else. People don't really play Kird Ape seriously in Vintage, so like Wooly Thoctar above it: yawn.
Lich's Mirror - this has some cool effects, but it's simply way too much mana, setup, and effort to draw seven cards.
Interesting, With Decent PlayabilityMaster of Etherium - this card is incredible from a design perspective, as it not only rewards you for playing more artifacts, but it also pumps your other artifact creatures too! This should see play in Gilded Claw variants, Workshop Aggro, Affinity based decks, and more. Jeff Carpenter has
already come up with a successful and saucy little UW aggro-control deck based around abusing this card, along with Ethersworn Canonist, which we'll get to a little bit later.
Goblin Assault - a slightly different animal than its cousin Bitterblossom, this has the potential to fit into Landstill decks as a finisher, and potentially things like aggressive Goblin decks, or into Workshop-based decks as a finisher (and to combo with Smokestack).
Hellkite Overlord - this 8/8 hasted trampling monster has already found a permanent home in
aggressive Oath of Druids decks, replacing other smaller hasted beaters such as Razia, Boros Archangel.
Relic of Progenitus - in decks that don't care about their graveyard (i.e. are not playing Yawgmoth's Will), this is a very useful card in a format where so many decks are reliant on abusing the graveyard. This shuts down Dredge strategies, Goblin Welder strategies, and Yawgmoth's Will strategies, which covers a large portion of decks in Vintage. It competes for a slot with Tormod's Crypt and Phyrexian Furnace, but it stays on the board, cantrips, and if you don't care about your graveyard is ultimately more effective at limiting the opponent's options. Former StarCityGames champion Tommy Kolowith featured this card in his newly unleashed UW control deck
last weekend in Wisconsin.
Ethersworn Canonist - this is the new quintissential aggro-control creature that is conveniently white and fits into most existing Fish decks. It's like an Arcane Laboratory on legs! Like Meddling Mage before it, Canonist will be a pain for combo players to deal with, as it limits the options of how they can play out their turns. However, this card is not without drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that Canonist is an artifact, and is thus bounced by all commonly played 'bounce' cards, like Rebuild or Hurkyl's Recall (played in most, if not all Vintage combo decks). The second relevant drawback is that Canonist is only a 2/2 creature, and will thus die to the omnipresent sideboard card Massacre, which already slaughters most UW Fish decks. While many are hyping this as White's Vintage saviour, the fact that this is a small artifact creature opens up it to nearly every form of removal played in Vintage today, and this will ultimately hold it back from becoming a truely amazing addition to the card pool. These shortcomings aside, you can still expect to see plenty of these in Vintage tournaments in the future.
Game ChangersTezzeret the Seeker - with the ability to win after you untap with this in play, and the
recent errata change to Time Vault, this card provides control-combo decks with a new win condition that fits naturally into most Mana Drain based decks. Cast Tezzeret, use the ability to fetch out Time Vault, then on your next turn (and every subsequent turn after), use the other ability to untap your Time Vault and take another turn. Rinse, repeat, win.
Ad Nauseam - a five mana instant that can draw you as many cards as you're willing to pay life for. In a deck full of cheap mana accelerants and cheap disruption, this can be absolutely broken.
Mindlock Orb - can permanently shut down fetchlands, tutoring, and other search effects to further lock an opponent out of the game. The fact that it's a 'blue artifact' means it will have to be used in a five color Mishra's Workshop shell.
These are the best cards from Shards of Alara, so let's take a more in depth look at some new decks based around these bad boys.
Tezzeret will radically re-shape how Mana Drain players construct their decks, because it is arguably the best kill condition now, is on-color, and uses relatively few deck slots (compared to other decks like
Oath or
Control Slaver). Relatively few creatures or direct damage spells are played in Vintage, so it is often easy to keep a Tezzeret in play once it hits. It can fit into a myriad of deck shells, with different draw engines, so there is a lot of design space with the card. Here's a sample deck in a mono-blue shell, designed by Steve Menendian of Meandeck fame, and tweaked and played by ICBM heavyweight Dan Carp.
Mono Blue Tezzeret, by Dan Carp 1st place ICBM Open 7Business (34)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Impulse
1 Time Walk
4 Ophidian
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Tezzeret
1 Time Vault
3 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics | Mana Sources (26)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
8 Island | Sideboard (15)
4 Energy Flux
4 Propaganda
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Sower of Temptation |  |
This is a classic example of leveraging the strengths of a mono-blue shell. With a full complement of Moxen and tons of basic Islands, the deck can very frequently have a counterspell active on the first turn, between Force of Will, Mana Leak, and Negate. By utilizing the drawing of Ophidian, and mana denial in the form of Back to Basics and Wasteland, this deck can also put real pressure on the opponent to find a solution in the early and mid-game. Add in Tezzeret for a quick Mana Drain fueled win, potentially any time in the game, and you have a very powerful deck that can play the short, mid, or long game.
Next up is a deck that I piloted recently at the ICBM Open, which opens up and incorporates more colors for added disruption, tutoring capability, and card advantage in the form of Dark Confidant.
BHWW CheatyFace Tezzeret, by Jaco, 3rd place ICBM Open 7Business (37)
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Repeal
3 Mana Drain
3 Mind Twist
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Regrowth
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Tezzeret
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Sundering Titan | Mana Sources (23)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Academy Ruins
4 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Swamp | Sideboard (15)
2 Extirpate
1 Volcanic Island
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Krosan Grip
4 Tarmogoyf |  |
This deck takes a more proactive approach to disrupting the opponent, and is heavily leveraged to combat a control and combo laden metagame. It has numerous above average first turn plays in the form of Duress, Thoughtseize, and Dark Confidant. Duress effects not only furthers your game plan by clearing the way of opposing counterspells , but they can also strip a Tezzeret or other bombs from the opponent's hand, and can also disrupt the early game of various combo decks you'll encounter in nearly any Vintage tournament. In addition to Tezzeret, this deck can also effectively end the game with a well timed Mind Twist or Gifts Ungiven. If you resolve Mind Twist, you will usually empty your opponent's hand and be far enough ahead in card advantage for the rest of the game. If you resolve Gifts Ungiven, you can simply grab Voltaic Key, Time Vault, Regrowth, and Yawgmoth's Will, and then win no matter what your opponent gives you. Regrowth or Yawgmoth's Will allow you to recur any part of the two card combo, so you will ultimately be able to take infinite turns with the Time Vault plus Voltaic Key interaction.
Tezzeret decks will surely be the rage for Mana Drain players in the near future, but now let's look at how Shards will be tapped by the Dark Ritual toting Vintage players. Ad Nauseam is a much hyped draw engine, that in the right deck can flat out win the game the turn it is cast.
BANT (BHWW Ad Nauseam Tendrils)Business (29)
3 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Timetwister
4 Ad Nauseam
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Tendrils of Agony | Mana Sources (31)
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
2 Swamp
1 Island | Sideboard (15)
4 Xantid Swarm
2 Massacre
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
2 Oxidize
3 Relic of Progenitus |  |
Total converted mana cost of main deck: 74
Average converted mana cost (74/60): 1.23
The basic idea of this deck is to resolve an Ad Nauseam as soon as possible, and then draw as many cards as you can afford. With an average casting cost of only 1.23, you can typically safely draw 10-15 cards, which is nearly always enough to win. The recent unrestriction of Chrome Mox really helps power this deck, because on your first or second turn you can often play Ad Nauseam, then draw a bunch of cards, drop a Chrome Mox, cast Dark Ritual (plus other fast mana), and then cast Tendrils for the win. It's a pretty straightforward deck to play, and the speed, consistency, and disruption suite of the deck puts it on par with the old Flash decks of the past couple of years. The sheer speed and explosiveness of this deck can help it overcome a lot of hate that will be thrown its way, as it will often win before an opponent even has a chance to get 2 or 3 mana costing hate cards online.
Some of the slots in here are quite debateable, and if you look on
TheManaDrain or some other forums you'll see plenty of different lists floating around. I have chosen to include Yawgmoth's Bargain in here, where others may favor Necropotence. Bargain is more expensive to cast (and costs more life if revealed with Ad Nauseam), but wins on the spot, similar to Ad Nauseam in here. Necropotence is kind of antithetical to how
this deck operates, as it does not want to give the opponent more turns than necessary, and it wants to have more than seven cards in hand. Necropotence effectively slows this deck down.
Another area Ad Nauseam deck design that offers room for latitude is the disruption and protection suite. It has long been my contention that while Duress and Force of Will are some of the best combo stoppers, they also happen to be some of the best combo enablers. The ability to push through your big spell at a key moment is critical to decks in Legacy. Some people will argue for the inclusion of Duress, Thoughtseize, Pact of Negation, or Force of Will. Of all of the builds I have tested, the configuration in the decklist above has performed the strongest. Next week we'll take a closer look at the reasoning behind this specific configuration of the disruption and protection suite.
The last card that we'll touch on is Mindlock Orb. Many Mishra's Workshop-sporting players will be turned off because this isn't simply 4 colorless mana, but is rather 3U to cast. The effect is too strong to ignore though, so we may eventually see a trend towards more 5-color Stax decks, which can accommodate a more powerful range of spells. The importance of the ability to flat out deny the opponent to be able to search their library at all cannot be understated. So much of what Vintage decks do is based around being able to develop their manabase reliably, as well as tutor up bombs like Tinker, Yawgmoth's Will, or a key bounce spell. When you deny the opponent those options you can often rack up turn after turn of being able to further your own game plan while your opponent is stalled out.
Like Tangle Wire, or Sphere of Resistance, or Smokestack, Mindlock Orb is another lock component that strangles the opponent's ability to successfully play their deck. In the deck below, Mindlock Orb takes the place of Tangle Wire, and sits alongside numerous other lock components to build a formidable wall of opposition, limiting the opponent's options.
BHWW 5C Mindlock Stax 1.0, by JacoBusiness (30)
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Mindlock Orb
4 Smokestack
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Balance
1 Tinker
1 Gorilla Shaman
3 Goblin Welder
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelavus
2 Bazaar of Baghdad | Mana Sources (30)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Mishra's Workshop
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine | Sideboard (15)
3 Seal of Cleansing
2 Jester’s Cap
3 Maze of Ith
2 Choke
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Triskelion |
This has a number of potent first and second turn plays, just as any Workshop deck should. It is critical to land two to three lock components on the first two turns of the game. If your opening hand is unable to do that, you should probably mulligan. Mindlock Orb shuts down opposing fetchlands, and it also combos well with Ghost Quarter. When you sacrifice to destroy an opposing land, your opponent is unable to search their deck for a basic land, so the Ghost Quarter essentially becomes Strip Mine in that scenario. Bazaar of Baghdad is present to dig for lock components, to filter away unneeded cards (for example, additional Mindlock Orbs, lands, etc.), and also to throw big artifacts into the graveyard to Weld back in. Between all of the artifacts, Goblin Welder, and Bazaar, there is a lot of synergy here, and the five color manabase allows for gems like Tinker, Ancestral Recall, and Balance to be included.
Even if you're not a believer in Mindlock Orb, give the other decks above a whirl. Shards will be the most important set for Vintage in quite a while, as Tezzeret and Ad Nauseam specifically will shape the metagame in the months to come. Tezzeret once again makes Mana Drain a near lethal card in many situations. With the errata change to Time Vault, Gifts Ungiven is once again transformed into a very potent single win card (see the graphic and explanation above, near the BHWW Tezzeret deck). Ad Nauseam is basically lethal by itself if it resolves, when playing the 'BANT' deck. The unrestriction of Chrome Mox helps power that deck, and we should also see it in a revamped Goblin Charbelcher deck soon as well. Wizards' actions have created a new environment which should be very dynamic, and present us with a very interesting time to play Vintage!
Editor's Note: This was originally published October 17 2008 on MTGSalvation, but due to some problems with editing and moderation, I have pulled the article from their site. The MTGS editing staff was not timely, efficient, or responsive, and my readers (you) deserve the best. I will not stand for less. This is the full, corrected version of the article as was submitted and approved for publication.
