Spell Pierce passes Mana Drain on top plays

[Eastman]

I don't know if any of the rest of you check out the top played cards over at morphling.de, but each month it tabulates the most played vintage cards based on the tournament data that it tracks.  Of course, it doesn't track every single tournament but I've always found it one useful barometer for trends in the meta.

Anyway,  I don't know if anyone else noticed this on the list this month:

6. Spell Pierce (119)
7. Mana Drain (118)

Could be temporary, but speaks volumes.  I think this is the first time since I started playing vintage that something other than mana drain took the #2 (behind Force of Will) counter spot.  

Is this a changing of the guard?  

[CorwinB]

Couldn't that be because of the recent rise of popularity of Oath decks ? I think Fish decks use Spell Pierce too, no ?

[Eastman]

Oh sure, but which way does that cut Corwin?  If Oath decks that have spell pierce are popular and successful, is that oath helping spell pierce or spell pierce helping oath?  The same can be said of fish. 

[zeus-online]

I think corwin got it right, spell pierce fits into way more decks then mana drain. I would not be surprised to see spell pierce become the next part of the good ol' drain+fow disruption package - Aswell as being played in fish and oath which in the end might make it more played then drain.

[Evenpence]

I think corwin got it right, spell pierce fits into way more decks then mana drain. I would not be surprised to see spell pierce become the next part of the good ol' drain+fow disruption package - Aswell as being played in fish and oath which in the end might make it more played then drain.

Spell Pierce is good right now because the format doesn't use spells with large amounts of colorless mana in them to get the job done.  If Thirst for Knowledge, Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven etc. were still unrestricted, we would be seeing a lot less Spell Pierce and a lot more Mana Drain.

Oath resolves tutors into Oath, Tinker into fatty, or Vault/Key assembled in like eight different ways.  None of those require a lot of colorless mana (EDIT: save Tezzeret -> Vault) and the double UU of Drain actually hurts them a large bit because having 2UU for Tinker with backup isn't necessarily a problem, but 2UUU might be.  Same thing for Tutor-> Oath->play Oath with non FoW backup.  2BGUU is harder to assemble than 2BGU.

Fish (quite obviously) doesn't run colorless mana draw spells, or anything that requires a large amount of colorless mana.  They're a mana denial deck already, so getting two extra colorless while resolving something important is much harder vs. them than it is vs. other decks.

If the format were to have any of the 3U powerful blue spells unrestricted (or even just 2U), we would be seeing a ton more Drains while the amount of Spell Pierce remains roughly constant.

Also, Tezzeret is performing terribly as of late, so a lot of people are switching to Fish/Oath.

[TheBrassMan]

Try and forgive the blatant self promotion, but at the 80 player Philly Open V I was the only Tezzeret player to *not* run Mana Drain (I ran Spell Pierce instead), and I was the only Tezzeret player who top 8d.  I won the Mox event the next day, also with no Mana Drain.  In my opinion Spell Pierce is just a better card right now. 

[credmond]

Spell pierce is a lot more effective than drain in the early game. If you have spell pierce in hand and can resolve an early bomb like ancestral, tinker, or oath then you effectively win the game right there if the opponent has to force of will your bomb. The popularity of spell pierce is undoubtedly related to the increasing importance of the early turns. It would be interesting to cross reference spell pierce vs. drain with how they weigh into the actual performance of the decklist.

[Evenpence]

Spell pierce is a lot more effective than drain in the early game. If you have spell pierce in hand and can resolve an early bomb like ancestral, tinker, or oath then you effectively win the game right there if the opponent has to force of will your bomb. The popularity of spell pierce is undoubtedly related to the increasing importance of the early turns. It would be interesting to cross reference spell pierce vs. drain with how they weigh into the actual performance of the decklist.

Island, go.
Spell pierce your bomb.

^  Is also important.

[Rico Suave]

Spell Pierce does what Mana Drain does for U instead of UU. 

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Spell Pierce does what Mana Drain does for U instead of UU. 

really? I've never combo'd someones face using extra mana from spell pierce.

[silvernail]

My current counter package in any blue based control deck I play is 4 Force, 4 Drain 3 Spell Pierce and 1 Misdirection. In an aggro version I'd change the drains to something else probably.

[Rico Suave]

Spell Pierce does what Mana Drain does for U instead of UU. 

really? I've never combo'd someones face using extra mana from spell pierce.

I've never combo'd someones face using extra mana from Drain either (in the past 3-4 months). =)

[Evenpence]

My current counter package in any blue based control deck I play is 4 Force, 4 Drain 3 Spell Pierce and 1 Misdirection. In an aggro version I'd change the drains to something else probably.

What cards are you running to fuel drain, and what's your win condition?  Are you playing super control Tezzeret with a card drawing engine other than Bob?

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

Spell Pierce does what Mana Drain does for U instead of UU. 

really? I've never combo'd someones face using extra mana from spell pierce.

I've never combo'd someones face using extra mana from Drain either (in the past 3-4 months). =)

Well if you’re implying you haven’t been playing drains in the past 4 months that still doesn’t mean spell pierce and mana drain do the same thing. Drain enables broken plays in addition to permission, and Peirce is just permission.
 If you HAVE been running drain, seems like you’ve been doing it wrong

[zeus-online]

Running some amount of mana drain almost automaticly means that your deck will be able to take control during the mid-late game. Spell pierce does not do that.

Most drain decks i've played has had Drain + FoW and then some additional cheap disruption to stall until drain can take over. This is where i think i'd use pierce.

I tend to play more controllish then most people though.

[Jess.fr]

Atm, I'm testing 4 Fow, 3 Spellpierce, 2 Mana Drain in my The Deck list - and it's doing good so far.

Spellpierce is a must have during the early game, but later, when your opponent has the possibility to expand its manabase, you do need a hard counter - which can also turn into a potential Dark Ritual.

[healo]

Atm, I'm testing 4 Fow, 3 Spellpierce, 2 Mana Drain in my The Deck list - and it's doing good so far.

Spellpierce is a must have during the early game, but later, when your opponent has the possibility to expand its manabase, you do need a hard counter - which can also turn into a potential Dark Ritual.

I have exactly the same configuration in my Oath list and I think this is the right set up. Pierce is absolutely amazing early game and 2 Drains are enough mid-late game, even if you tutor for them. Its really hard to play around 3 Pierce and than you randomly walk into Drain.

[Troy_Costisick]

Mana Drain and Null Rod are two pillars of the format.  Spell Pierce can be played in both and is good in both.  This was bound to happen sooner or later.  I believe Spell Pierce will end up as one of the most widely played spells in Vintage.  It'll fall somewhere just underneath the dual lands and fetchlands eventually.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I think it's important to consider duress and thoughtseize here, since they're also functional equivalents and, like Spell Pierce, find play across archetypes:

                        October     November     December     January     February
Drain               188           150              185              146          118
Spell Pierce                             80                121              135          119
(Combined)            130           224              188              231           57 + X
Duress                   85             119              105              121          57
Thoughtseize          45            105               83               110            ?

(Someone show me how to make fucking tables)


So there could be a few things going on here.  It's reasonably clear that for a very small set here, Mana Drain's use is on the decline and Spell Pierce's increasing.  Archetype info is needed for context, but it's likely that it's both because slot substitution and archetype mix (the main culprits here being Oath and Fish).  Another thing to note is that February had fewer events than any month except October, so it'll be important to see if this is still true when monthly events are closer to 20 (or if this is consistent with a more diligent counting of small American tournaments).

Duress and thoughtseize combine to trump both Mana Drain and Spell Pierce by wide margins in some months.  I think this is more telling than anything and could have been used to predict Spell Pierce's popularity...in sort of a "duh" kind of way.  Let's remember the limitations of the information we're using.  I've found that expected matchups (which vary regionally) and more importantly the supporting cast of your deck are much heavier determinants of which card is more appropriate.

[A_Outcast]

Code:

                      October     November     December     January     February
Drain                 188         150          185          146         118
Spell Pierce                       80          121          135         119
(Combined)            130         224          188          231         57 + X

Duress                85          119          105          121         57
Thoughtseize          45          105          83           110         ?

Combined is thoughtsieze+duress

[Yare]

Not to entirely diminish the importance of Duress + Thoughtseize being greater than Spell Pierce, but it's possible to run up to 8 Duress + Thoughtseize, while one can only run 4 Spell Pierce. I'm not sure precisely what that means, but I thought I would point it out.

The fact that Pierce has overtaken Drain, however, is remarkable.

[2nd_lawl]

Mana Drain is a pretty shitty spell pierce, it costs like twice as much.

Edit: Seriously though, mana drain is at its worst ever, since there is really nothing exciting to drain into, your most expensive bomb costs 3UU.  Not only that but because your opponents bombs dont cost alot either, you get less drain mana.  The biggest downside to spell pierce is not that it doesn't give you mana, but that it can't counter Bob.

[silvernail]

My current counter package in any blue based control deck I play is 4 Force, 4 Drain 3 Spell Pierce and 1 Misdirection. In an aggro version I'd change the drains to something else probably.

What cards are you running to fuel drain, and what's your win condition?  Are you playing super control Tezzeret with a card drawing engine other than Bob?

I'm currently running that in my Oath build and in my mono blue control build. My oath deck doesn't have any particular means to abuse drain mana, but the occasional hard cast dude off drain mana helps if I get a dude in my hand that I can't get rid of.

My mono blue deck on the other hand has plenty of 3cc cards that drain mana fuels while leaving me open mana to counter with.

[voltron00x]

I haven't read this whole thread... and although its interesting, one thing I feel needs to be pointed out is that just b/c Spell Pierce is seeing more play than Drain doesn't mean its seeing more play than Drain in Tezz, which seems to be where a lot of this discussion is focused.

Rather, I would suggest that Spell Pierce is seeing play in decks that werent playing Drain, specifically Oath and Fish. Those decks added together are making up a higher % of the field than Tezzeret in the last few NY and PA events.  When you add in the fact that some Tezz pilots are also playing Pierce, it makes sense that Pierce is ahead of Drain in raw quantity.

And yes... Spell Pierce is helping Fish and Oath more at the moment than Drain is helping Tezz.  I got flamed a year ago when I said that post-TFK, Drain lost a lot of value b/c it was basically Counterspell... but I believed, and still believe, that killing TFK took away one of the last good "sinks" for Drain Mana.  Sure, sometimes the card is still busted and insane, but so many times my opponents pass w/out doing anything more than topping once for free.

[Rico Suave]

The problem with Drain is not in the perceived lack of mana sinks.  If blue based control wanted to, it could easily run a good chunk of viable mana sinks. 

The problem is simply casting Drain when it is needed most.  Its primary purpose is not to fuel broken plays, its primary purpose is to disrupt and Pierce is simply better at this job.

[yukizora]

Usually when playing Tezzeret I find myself countering more creatures than non-creatures spell against MUD and fish. 1 sphere is just fine to go through, 2 becomes quite difficult, 3 really annoying, but what about creatures? None of these is smaller than a 4/4 (Excepted Metalworker) and Fish has Tarmogoyf or Qasali Pridemage, that makes a lot of potential good threats. Can spell pierce counter them? Certainly not. Having a turn 2 Mana Drain setup is always better than having 4 Spell Pierce in your deck. Turn 1 doesn't see that much broken plays. Now we spoke about the beginning of the game, I'll set aside endgame situations, where Spell Pierce is a card to cycle and becomes worst than any other card.
This is why Spell Pierce is so Bad.

[yukizora]

Double post. Sorry.

[nineisnoone]

The problem with Drain is not in the perceived lack of mana sinks.  If blue based control wanted to, it could easily run a good chunk of viable mana sinks. 

The problem is simply casting Drain when it is needed most.  Its primary purpose is not to fuel broken plays, its primary purpose is to disrupt and Pierce is simply better at this job.

I'd disagree here.  No, Drain isn't about "broken plays" per se, but it is about resources.  You blank one of their spell AND get mana for it?  It doesn't just cancel out an opponent's attack, it inherently puts you in position to retaliate. 

Spell Pierce is a just disruption piece, and as a disruption piece it is a better one, but Mana Drain has always been more than just disruption.  The thing is that strength is mostly confined to control mirrors.  In reality, the only times I ever intend on running it is for control-oriented environment, which tend to be common in Vintage.  But with aggro and combo getting stronger, that match-up is not as important as it was. 

[yukizora]

The problem with Drain is not in the perceived lack of mana sinks.  If blue based control wanted to, it could easily run a good chunk of viable mana sinks. 

The problem is simply casting Drain when it is needed most.  Its primary purpose is not to fuel broken plays, its primary purpose is to disrupt and Pierce is simply better at this job.

I'd disagree here.  No, Drain isn't about "broken plays" per se, but it is about resources.  You blank one of their spell AND get mana for it?  It doesn't just cancel out an opponent's attack, it inherently puts you in position to retaliate. 

Spell Pierce is a just disruption piece, and as a disruption piece it is a better one, but Mana Drain has always been more than just disruption.  The thing is that strength is mostly confined to control mirrors.  In reality, the only times I ever intend on running it is for control-oriented environment, which tend to be common in Vintage.  But with aggro and combo getting stronger, that match-up is not as important as it was. 

I also agree on this. Turn 2 Drain enables Turn 3 Tezzeret or Dark Confidant + Top + UU Open for anything, or anyhing else you might think about. It's good with any spell that requires uncoloured mana in the early game, because it enables you to play more spells quickly. Even if it's only two uncoloured mana, it changes your plays.

[Oath of Happy]

I tested Spell Pierce and played it in tournaments for a while.  I eventually gor rid of it because my opponent would have the 2 mana pretty often.  In Oath its different because turn 2 Oath plus Pierce is not a likely time for the opponent to have 2 mana floating around, and in Fish pierce is great because of all the mana denial.  I really wish Pierce countered unless they paid 3.