[Free Article] The Weissman Strategy and Card Advantage

[Marske]

http://www.vintage-sideboard.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10:the-weissman-strategy-and-card-advantage&catid=5:vintage-articles&Itemid=12

Editor's Blurb:

Everybody knows the importance of card advantage: more cards equal more solutions and more lines of play. This couldn't be more true for Vintage, a format that has access to every busted combination of cards imaginable. With the DCI's current line of actions slowly eroding cheap (blue) card drawing, Vintage stands on a new threshold where card advantage takes on another meaning. Today I want to explore this with you.

[chrissss]

nice read, was good and fun to read.

[waywreth]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.

[Tobi]

Good roudup of the possible replacements for Thirst. There are a lot more, but probably not that obvious ones (like Arcane Denial, Top/Repeal, Skeletal Scrying), or even not direct replacements for card draw, but more disruption, like Steve mentioned in his article.

Loosing 3 Thirsts doesn't really hurt Tezzeret. Indeed, it makes it stronger, because it is harder now to see lines of play coming. At least until the most successful strategy has settled.

[BruiZar]

Nice article Marske.

One thing I'd like to add is the interaction between Hatching Plans in Painter Servant Grindstone. Being able to up the amount of maindeck Red Elemental Blasts and Pyroblasts means that the Vault/Key matchup is going to be a walk in the park. You can use blasts to remove opposing Tezzeret and Remoras, counter drain, commandeer, recall and force of will and shoot your own hatching plans to turn reb into recall 2-5. Against stax hatching plans will either tap for tangle wire or sack for soot, in which case the rebs become less attractive, but the plans remain strong.

[Tobi]

Against stax hatching plans will either tap for tangle wire[...]

Unfortunately not.
On the rest I agree. However REB doesn't turn into Ancestral, since you need Plans on the board, reducing you CA to +1 compared to +2 of Ancestral. Not to mention the casting cost of RU1.

[BruiZar]

@Tobi

Tangle Wire doesn't affect enchantments, so you're right about that. Should've quickly looked it up before posting. Though the casting cost is  , the investment can be spread out over 2 turns which means you only need a volcanic island and a mox to start drawing.

[Marske]

Like I said in the article:

Both cards on by themselves do next to nothing, with Perilous Research doing the most on its own. They're only good when combined together, giving you 5 cards at instant speed for 2UU which you can spread out over additional turns. It's not vulnerable to graveyard hate, but it's really slow and the fact that both components don't do anything on their own means you're playing with 8 “dead” cards in your deck if you're not able to find the other piece.

The problem is you need a REB, Perilous Research, <Insert random permanent sac outlet> for Hatching Plans to do anything, let alone for it to be "good" or able to keep pace with Confidant. I'm not sure if this has any viability, but felt it was worth to mention it at least.

[BruiZar]

But the important point to mention is that REB doesn't do nothing. Although situational, it's an extremely strong card on its own. A deck like painter's grindstone is built to enable the situation. I don't like perilous research because the only way to draw cards with it is by losing board position. That means that it's totally useless if you don't have Hatching Plans.

Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are permission cards that are good on their own in a control infested meta. They are versatile and aggressive color permission cards that only become better once a part of your combo hits the table. Running 4 Hatching Plans and 8 REBs/Blasts means you have a chance of hitting a REB every 7.5 cards. That means you can consistently expect your starting hand to have at least one Blast. Hatching Plans is never dead in this case unless you somehow use up all your blasts in counter wars or as vindicates, in which case you should be glad that you ran 8 blasts in the first place. Additionally, if it's really dead you can just pitch Hatching Plans to FoW and be done with it.

I agree that perilous research and hatching plans is running 8 cards that do nothing on their own, but running 8 blasts and 4 plans is a completely different story

[LotusHead]

I wonder if singleton forgotten classics like Stroke of Genius might make a return.

EOT, blue decks just might have 5-8 mana laying around, or mainphase if Drain is involved.

[Marske]

@LotusHead,
I left out most of the singleton cards one can run because they don't qualify as an "engine" in my book. I think playing singleton draw spells can be solid but you have 2 problems namely:

• What cards do you run and how many?
• Will you grab the right draw spell?

This way of deck building needs an entire new (or old) approach, you'll likely run a more "keeper-esque" style deck focussed on getting the cards (solutions) you need at the right time instead of just drawing X cards more then your opponent and thusly having more solutions.

[Tobi]

Perilous Research is not as dead as it may seem at first glance. You can use it to sac a land in response to their Wasteland/Strip, or any other removal they may play on your permanents. It doesn't make the cards super good, but at least not completely useless.
Saccing Moxes with a Null Rod on the table may also make sense, or saccing one of your own Null Rods if you happen to have two on the table. Or one of your Grindstones.

I guess the only way to use Hatching Plans effectively is to build your deck around it. Synergies with Red Blasts or some other outlets like Engineered Explosives, Smokestack, Crack the Earth, Drinker of Sorrow, Claws of Gix, Abjure, Read the Runes or whatever are needed.
But I fear none of these cards is good enough to make Hatching plans worth it.

[Sloth]

Nice article marske. It's certainly one of the most interesting topics in Vintage at the moment.

But I have a few questions:

- You have listed Meditate, but you don't mention it afterwards. So what's your verdict on Meditate?

- Since you bother to mention Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions and Strategic Planning, shouldn't you also say something about impulse and telling time? They seem much more useful to me.

[XdeckX]

- Since you bother to mention Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions and Strategic Planning, shouldn't you also say something about impulse and telling time? They seem much more useful to me.

I agree with Sloth on this. Eventhough its not cardadvantage its still a strong cardquality card. Depending on the deck Impulse is stronger then Strategic Planning in most cases (instant and digs deeper) But then again it's hardly an engine as you call it.
But all in all its another fine piece of writing. Keep up the good work

[Marske]

@Sloth,

Nice article marske. It's certainly one of the most interesting topics in Vintage at the moment.

Thank you, I agree... but it has always been a very interesting topic for me.

- You have listed Meditate, but you don't mention it afterwards. So what's your verdict on Meditate?

Oops, sorry about that, I'll add my verdict to the article. Small spoiler:  It's a great card combined with Remora the two have synergy of the chart when playing together. Without Remora it's not so hot.

- Since you bother to mention Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions and Strategic Planning, shouldn't you also say something about impulse and telling time? They seem much more useful to me.

Again, Sorry about that.... Impulse and Telling time fall under the same category as Sleight of hand and Serum visions imho. Obviously they are very different in what they do but they aren't card drawing either, it's more card selection.

As stated in the article about Sleight and Serum, this also can be said about Impulse and telling time.

The biggest problem these cards have compared to others is that they don't let you do anything about the cards in your hand (Brainstorm) or allow you to shuffle (Ponder).