[ Article] Zendikar: A Vintage Set Review

[Smmenen]

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/18071_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Zendikar_A_Vintage_Set_Review.html

Editor's Blurb:

Monday, September 28th - Zendikar is finally here, and it looks like a fantastic set for Magic’s oldest format. Stephen Menendian runs down the essential cards that every Vintage fan should own… and who knows, maybe your Zendikar pack will contain a Black Lotus!

WOW is Zendikar pretty sweet.   I've got you covered so you know exactly what you'll need to stay competitive in this new era!  

[Stormanimagus]

Hey Stephen. Nice article. I do disagree with you on one thing and I wanted to ask about it. Do you not think that Gatekeeper of Malakir has what it takes to fit well into a Sui-Black strategy as an upgrade from Diabolic Edict?

-Storm

[Troy_Costisick]

This was an excellent review, Stephen.  Suicide Black got a ton of playable cards in this set.  I can't wait to see if it starts showing up in top8's over the next three months.

Peace,

-Troy

[Bone]

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

[Smmenen]

Hey Stephen. Nice article. I do disagree with you on one thing and I wanted to ask about it. Do you not think that Gatekeeper of Malakir has what it takes to fit well into a Sui-Black strategy as an upgrade from Diabolic Edict?

-Storm

Keep in mind that Suicide Black shells are incredibly fragile, and very rarely succeed in any form in modern Vintage.   That said, I think Suicide Black is a fine gateway deck to the format, a 3-3 kind of deck that you can build on a budget -- for budget Vintage.  It will give you a couple of wins to help you learn the format.

With that caveat, I do not see Gatekeeper as an upgrade for several reasons.     Diabolic Edicts efficiency is crucial.  It can be played on turn two without a ritual or on turn three while you are Wastelanding someone.   Edict sometimes needs to be played immediately to stop a Bob or a Tinker target.    This guy also costing BBB is a bit of a problem, even in Suicide Black.  You may want to use your Rituals for something else and find yourself with only 2 Swamps and a Wasteland effect for some time.   

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

Bloodghast does seem like one of the better uses of Skullclamp.   That said, what are you going to build around it?   

[Stormanimagus]

Hey Stephen. Nice article. I do disagree with you on one thing and I wanted to ask about it. Do you not think that Gatekeeper of Malakir has what it takes to fit well into a Sui-Black strategy as an upgrade from Diabolic Edict?

-Storm

Keep in mind that Suicide Black shells are incredibly fragile, and very rarely succeed in any form in modern Vintage.   That said, I think Suicide Black is a fine gateway deck to the format, a 3-3 kind of deck that you can build on a budget -- for budget Vintage.  It will give you a couple of wins to help you learn the format.

With that caveat, I do not see Gatekeeper as an upgrade for several reasons.     Diabolic Edicts efficiency is crucial.  It can be played on turn two without a ritual or on turn three while you are Wastelanding someone.   Edict sometimes needs to be played immediately to stop a Bob or a Tinker target.    This guy also costing BBB is a bit of a problem, even in Suicide Black.  You may want to use your Rituals for something else and find yourself with only 2 Swamps and a Wasteland effect for some time.   

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

Bloodghast does seem like one of the better uses of Skullclamp.   That said, what are you going to build around it?   

These are all good points, and I do agree that right now, sans innovation Sui-Black is just a gateway deck, but people might have said that about Selkie-Strike in its early development too. I think Sui-Black has some major weapons now that could make it a contender and not just a blip on the screen:

1. Sadistic Sacrament= This card is just nuts and its brutal efficiency at Nuking top-tier decks makes it a great include in Sui-Black and could even make it take the slots that Null Rod used to take. I've always thought that Null Rod was kinda MEH in Sui-Black and that people only ran it because it was the best option out there. I think this might take the cake, but only time will tell.

2. Bloodghast= This card seems like the best answer to Stax-Lock I've ever seen. Think about it. If you have 3 of these guys in the yard and you are locked out under Tangle Wire + Smokestack (say on 2 or so) and multiple spheres are some-such nonsense you can still drop a land and return 3 of these guys at once. The magic number then becomes 10. If you can deal a shops player 10 damage BEFORE they lock you out then they really haven't locked you out because you can get some hasty Bloodghasts to finish the job under basically any lock they can throw at you (except perhaps Ensnaring Bridge with 0-1 cards in hand). This seems incredibly powerful against Shops and I'd run it for that reason alone, but wait there's Skullclamp! What a nice engine!

3. Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths = This might not be on par with Oath Of Druids as a "get the fatty into play combo" and certainly isn't as ubiquitous as Tinker-->Robot, but it could be devastating in this deck and I plan to find out. My question is: Is it worth it splashing Green for Goyf and some number of Crop Rotation/LftL if you are also trying to run the Hexmage combo? Is it fine to just be mono-black or B/u and use Vamp/DT to tutor up Dark Depths (run Depths as say, a 2-of)?

-Storm

[Smmenen]

Many of those are points I raised in the article, although I don't think that Bloodghast is for Suey

[Stormanimagus]

Many of those are points I raised in the article, although I don't think that Bloodghast is for Suey

You commented on the playability of Sacrament and Hexmage, but only talked about Bloodghast's applications in Ichorid. I think it belongs more in a Ritual deck that perhaps runs some number of Intuitions/Skullclamps and a decent land count as a way to combat Stax. Traditionally Duress effects have never been good against Stax so Bloodghast might be a welcome visitor to such a deck at giving it a real weapon vs. Lock/mana-denial Strategies like Stax. Because sooo many Shop lists now sport Tanglewire his hastiness may also be huge if you can get them to 10. You didn't talk about its applications vs. Stax at all.

[Bone]

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

Bloodghast does seem like one of the better uses of Skullclamp.   That said, what are you going to build around it?   

Vault/Key, Mana Drain, Dark Confidant, Moxen, Bloodghast, Skullclamp, Intuition, Trinket Mage, tutors and stuff...

I am 100% sure that I will play the above mentioned in my next small-scale vintage tournament

(off-topic: just ordered a new Lenovo laptop with Vista (so I can use MWS), will get it in October.)

[MirariKnight]

Last night I played against a deck that uses Intuition/Bloodghast/Skullclamp (and Fastbond) as the draw engine. It seemed really good despite its obvious weakness to graveyard hate. It also gives Stax fits as they have little way to deal with it and it often has haste. I wouldn't dismiss this deck so early, it's objectively quite powerful.

I also think it's possible for Sui Black of some type to be quite good. I think we have hit the critical mass of efficient cards in black that using any combination of them + Null Rod would be really good. It can even include the Hexmage/Dark Depths combo as a tutorable pseudo-Tinker.

I also tested Mindbreak Trap. I only played 5ish games with it so that's obviously too small a sample size, but it seems really solid. I like it as a one of replacing Misdirection or a Duress effect. The reason I like it so much is that in the early turns, it's often free quite easily against most deck (when moxen are dropped, etc.) and later in the game it's also easily triggered and also easily hardcast. The exiling is definitely relevant. It obviously needs more testing but I like it a lot.

[Stormanimagus]

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

Bloodghast does seem like one of the better uses of Skullclamp.   That said, what are you going to build around it?   

Vault/Key, Mana Drain, Dark Confidant, Moxen, Bloodghast, Skullclamp, Intuition, Trinket Mage, tutors and stuff...

I am 100% sure that I will play the above mentioned in my next small-scale vintage tournament

(off-topic: just ordered a new Lenovo laptop with Vista (so I can use MWS), will get it in October.)

In that sort of a build why not also throw in Counter-Top combo? Seems to fit really well with Bobs, and Trinkets. Intuition gives you a good chance of finding 3 CMC to counter Yawg Will which can be quite handy I hear. Sorry if you already thought of this and I'm being redundant to your thoughts .

-Storm

[Kiriyuu]

How is your opinion about 3 of each Bloodghast/Skullclamp, Intuition?

Bloodghast does seem like one of the better uses of Skullclamp.   That said, what are you going to build around it?  

Vault/Key, Mana Drain, Dark Confidant, Moxen, Bloodghast, Skullclamp, Intuition, Trinket Mage, tutors and stuff...

I am 100% sure that I will play the above mentioned in my next small-scale vintage tournament

(off-topic: just ordered a new Lenovo laptop with Vista (so I can use MWS), will get it in October.)

Well this is a very unrefined list I wrote in the last 5 minutes after seeing the intuition bloodghast skull clamp engine, and I tried a different approach:

4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize

4 Intuition
3 Bloodghast
3 Skullclamp
4 Dark Confidant

1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Chain of vapour
1 Hyrkuls recall

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol ring
1 Lotus Petal

4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground sea
2 Swamp
2 Island

EDIT: Ooops! No time walk? That's quite an error! That should obviously be in here somewhere

Obviously you could take it into a draw 7 route, or play Necro etc, but this is just what immediatly came into my head. I might have to build it and see if it's any good!

Trinket mage and a control shell sounds really interesting too though, I'm intreged

[silvernail]

I don't know about playing a deck whose draw engine only functions properly after your opponent is at 10 or less life. Maybe it could be used in legacy, but clamp is banned there so you'd need some other tricks with ghast instead of clamp.

[vartemis]

I don't know about playing a deck whose draw engine only functions properly after your opponent is at 10 or less life. Maybe it could be used in legacy, but clamp is banned there so you'd need some other tricks with ghast instead of clamp.

It has haste if it is less than 10 life, but its landfall ability is always on.

j

[Bone]

Edit: (I hate doubleposting)

This is my take (another TMD member a very similar list but some other cards in it)

Mana
1 Black Lotus
2 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Polluted Delta
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave

Creatures:
3 Bloodghast
4 Dark Confidant
3 Trinket Mage

Counters:
4 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will

Tutors:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Draw:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Intuition
3 Skullclamp

Other tech:
1 Darkblast
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Vault
1 Time Walk
1 Voltaic Key
1 Yawgmoth's Will

*** I'm trading away my Mana Drains so therefore the Countertop instead

*** Possible change: -4 Counterbalance, -3 Sensei's Divining Top, +4 Mana Drain, +1 Misdirection, +2 ???

[vroman]

we basically agree 100% this time, tho steve missed the possibility of putting bloodghast in non-icky archetypes, like tez w sklamps.

I also missed that kor skyfisher only cost 1 if you have mox, but irrel.

I think Ionia is good enough to put oath back in tier 1. the lock makes up for slow clock

[DPCyric]

I think Lotus Cobra is playable (but not in Meandeck beats) and may find a home in Vintage but it won't be an all star bomb like it will be in some other formats.

Also with the addition or Ravenous Trap, Mindbreak Trap and Spell Pierce mono-blue control just be viable again (or with a small splash so you can potentially hard cast Ravenous Trap).

[LSD25]

I think we will see more xantid swarms if these new traps see much use... in which case the enchantment equivlents will be better... but if you run both (traps and enchantments) they will have to have a cov and an active xantid swarm for the arcane lab/ethersworn and mindbreak trap or leyline of the void and ravenous trap... 

i like that other colors can mindbreak trap if they cant run ethersworn or arcane... but then again, trinisphere is better than those against storm six days a week.

[DPCyric]

i like that other colors can mindbreak trap if they cant run ethersworn or arcane... but then again, trinisphere is better than those against storm six days a week.

Trinisphere is restricted, Mindbreak Trap isn't... I think that your comparison is kinda unfair because it's not every game that 3sphere will be in your opening hand or easily tutorable.

[Smmenen]

Many of those are points I raised in the article, although I don't think that Bloodghast is for Suey

You commented on the playability of Sacrament and Hexmage, but only talked about Bloodghast's applications in Ichorid. I think it belongs more in a Ritual deck that perhaps runs some number of Intuitions/Skullclamps and a decent land count as a way to combat Stax. Traditionally Duress effects have never been good against Stax so Bloodghast might be a welcome visitor to such a deck at giving it a real weapon vs. Lock/mana-denial Strategies like Stax. Because sooo many Shop lists now sport Tanglewire his hastiness may also be huge if you can get them to 10. You didn't talk about its applications vs. Stax at all.

You have a good point.  I didn't consider Clamp + Bloodghast.    I am also comiing around to your thinking that maybe Gatekeeper might be playable, despite the casting cost.   Have you tested him yet?

[BruiZar]

Edict can be dead in matches whereas malakir can atleast attack for 2. I think that is certainly relevant, especially if you plan on using stuff like cabal therapy or multiple clamps

[potato]

I notice you gave Cosi's Trickster short shrift.

It strikes me as having potential in a fish-type deck, possibly blue/white. What are your thoughts? Do you really think it deserves to be discounted as easily as you did?

[Smmenen]

I think it's auto-include in Legacy, but more iffy in Vintage.   It's potentially playable.   Try it and see what you think. 

[Bone]

I think it's auto-include in Legacy, but more iffy in Vintage.   It's potentially playable.   Try it and see what you think. 

In what decks? (Legacy)

Cosi's Trickster is not an auto-include in Legacy. It's not better than Vial, Cursecatcher or Stifle in Merfolks...
As mentioned before; This will never see play in Vintage. (edit: This will never se play in Vintage or Legacy)

How much is premium btw? Would be nice to read all those articles. Regards

[staticfirex]

Mindbreak trap

[Smmenen]

I think it's auto-include in Legacy, but more iffy in Vintage.   It's potentially playable.   Try it and see what you think. 

In what decks? (Legacy)

Cosi's Trickster is not an auto-include in Legacy. It's not better than Vial, Cursecatcher or Stifle in Merfolks...
As mentioned before; This will never see play in Vintage. (edit: This will never se play in Vintage or Legacy)

How much is premium btw? Would be nice to read all those articles. Regards

You might be right.  I sort of misread Cosi's Trickster, or misremembered.  In either case, it's not as good as I thought.  It's still pretty good though. 

[honestabe]

I think it's auto-include in Legacy, but more iffy in Vintage.   It's potentially playable.   Try it and see what you think. 

In what decks? (Legacy)

Cosi's Trickster is not an auto-include in Legacy. It's not better than Vial, Cursecatcher or Stifle in Merfolks...
As mentioned before; This will never see play in Vintage. (edit: This will never se play in Vintage or Legacy)

How much is premium btw? Would be nice to read all those articles. Regards

You might be right.  I sort of misread Cosi's Trickster, or misremembered.  In either case, it's not as good as I thought.  It's still pretty good though. 

I could see it getting play

[Smmenen]

Article is now free. 

[Blue Lotus]

Wow mana tithe is awesome!  Getting someone with that textless version is going to be hot.  Time to play land tax.

[Xyre]

I enjoy rereading the set reviews after a few months to compare the initial insights to the final result.

Stephen - what's your opinion right now about Sadistic Sacrament? Discussing my favorite decks ever on another website, I compared Sad-Sac to a less inherently risky Doomsday. Do you think it has become that kind of "I win these matchups right now" card in the format?