[Premium Article] So Many Insane Plays - Unrestricted Vintage, a Magical Experim

[Ulthrion]

I think you could build a control deck, like:
4 force
4 leyline
4 chant
4 stifle
4 tinker
4 plats
4 gemstone cavern
4 ancestral
moxes,lotuses, etc.

Does this list refer to leyline of the void, or leyline of singularity, because that last one seems to be a great equalizer on the draw against unrestricted moxen. Was that card considered in this excercise? Was it found to be too narrow in application? It doesn't really stop lotus which might be a big argument against it. Still, leyline of singularity restricts them to 2 or 3 moxen in their deck, which can be huge. I guess what I wanted to say here is, maybe that could be used as well as turn 0 disruption alongside gemstone caverns/stifle and leyline of the void.

[Mr. Type 4]

i dont feel like Leyline of Singularity would do much to prevent the turn 1 beat down. it doesn't work against Black Lotus (unless you're an idiot) and for the most part these decks dont use much in the way of permanents to win. Cutting me off my second Mox Sapphire just doesn't seem very strong. 

[SuckedBackIn]

Leyline of Singularity also does not stop Flash. Well it doesn't stop the Reveillark kill at least. That deck needs 2 mana. That is it. Leyline would only stop that deck if the opening hand was Sapphire - Sapphire. In that matchup you would be better off holding the leyline for force of will and why on earth would you ever want to hard cast that junky enchantment.

[Noah]

I would imagine Flash being the best deck in this format no?

[Purple Hat]

I've got 4 of both chant and stifle.

I wonder if it's worth playing pact of negation since your plan is pretty clearly: survive turn 1 on the draw, tinker in plats.  I also wonder if you play workshops to give you a chance of hard casting her...even with moxes and lotuses 7 mana is a reasonably tall order.  splashing white also gives you access to the children vs storm on the play.

[Lou]

I've got 4 of both chant and stifle.

I wonder if it's worth playing pact of negation since your plan is pretty clearly: survive turn 1 on the draw, tinker in plats.  I also wonder if you play workshops to give you a chance of hard casting her...even with moxes and lotuses 7 mana is a reasonably tall order.  splashing white also gives you access to the children vs storm on the play.

If you did get your Caverns on the play it would be possible to Stifle your Pact trigger.

Angel's Grace would also become a possibility and would help w/ Pact. You would still need Gemstone Caverns though.

[Purple Hat]

anyone interested in an MWS tourny?  rounds should be pretty short. 

[Smmenen]

anyone interested in an MWS tourny?  rounds should be pretty short. 

You might be best off just running the decks against each other yourself.  I would love to hear your results.  They will inform my choices the next time I run this experiment in a future article.

In the future, I will play each match best 3 of 5 because I think that will give us a better sense of if decks can win on the draw, since they will have more opportunities to do it.   It should also minimize the importance of the coin flip slightly.   Since the games are fairly quick, it shouldn't be that much additional work either. 

I think the decks I've developed are a really good start, but there are major looming questions, like what is the role of Commandeer, how to balance speed/disruption in decks like the Flash deck, and even if/where Unrestricted Long should run disruption.   I'll also need very well built sideboards for each deck.   I didn't run sideboards in my first run, and it's obvious they are needed.   What I may need to do is simply run a larger list of cards that can interact on turn zero, and then an even larger list of cards that can be run off mana sources that can be deployed on turn zero (i.e.: SSG, ESG, and Caverns).

[Eastman]

You are absolutely right that no individual could figure out what a metagame would look like in advance, since by definition, metagames are a constellation of many decision makers selecting decks over time.    However, it doesn’t follow that an attempt to imagine what a metagame might look by looking at what decks are possible and then tweaking decks to compete against other imagined decks is only an exercise in hubris.   Although it might be that this is an exercise in hubris, there are still other things that can be gleamed and insights to be had, and hopefully, an entertaining read as well. 

Well taken. I have to say this comment is a large part of why I just bought a quarterly premium subscription

[Smmenen]

You are absolutely right that no individual could figure out what a metagame would look like in advance, since by definition, metagames are a constellation of many decision makers selecting decks over time.    However, it doesn’t follow that an attempt to imagine what a metagame might look by looking at what decks are possible and then tweaking decks to compete against other imagined decks is only an exercise in hubris.   Although it might be that this is an exercise in hubris, there are still other things that can be gleamed and insights to be had, and hopefully, an entertaining read as well. 

Well taken. I have to say this comment is a large part of why I just bought a quarterly premium subscription

I hope you'll find it worth it.   Now you that you have premium, what do you think of the lists I came up with so far, in light of what's been said? 

[2nd_lawl]

I really enjoyed this article.  I think one interesting aspect of this format is how transparent the metagaming is.  A good example of this is Leyline of the Void vs. Yawgmoths will,  In normal vintage you wouldn't necessarily want to have 4 leylines against a deck with just 1 restricted Will, but in this format where a long deck might be playing 4 wills, you can get a sense of the interaction in far fewer games, and maybe decide that you want leyline Vs. 4wilLong.dec.  You could even extrapolate this principle into actual testing... If you wanted to for example quickly test which sideboard cards are most effective against mana drain strategies, you could shuffle up control slaver with 8 or 10 copies of drain, and quickly ascertain which sideboard options were doing the best job against drain.  Clearly this isnt a replacement for actual testing, but by messing with the numbers(and ignoring restricted lists or even the 4 card rule) you can hone in and focus on the relevant card interactions.