Pounding Your Opponent Into the MUD [Free Article]

[Smmenen]

If you have the urge to shatter skulls, to beat someone into the ground, to bash their face to a bloody pulp, then it’s time to play some Vintage. And let’s face it, whose dreams would you rather crush than snooty Vintage players?

This is your first Vintage tournament. You’re excited. But you’re also nervous. Your palms are sweaty, and you can’t get your heart to stop pounding. Your opponent seems friendly enough. He has a nice playmat, with Vintage images drawn over it. His sleeves are new. He shuffles your deck for a bit, and you shuffle his.

You’ve been playing Magic for a little while now. You’ve even played a bit of Legacy, but Vintage seems so much more intimidating and… unpredictable. It’s almost as if the impossible is possible in this format. Anything can happen.

Your opponent proposes, "high roll?" "Sure," you reply. He pulls out a 20-sided die, and rolls an 8. You reach across the table and check out the dice. It’s not a spin-down. You roll a 17.

A burst of relief washes over you, but is replaced by a bundle of tense nerves. You’ve won the roll, but it’s only added to the pressure.

You pick up your cards and look at your hand. Your chest tightens. You hold your breath. You announce that you’ll keep.

Your opponent considers his hand, impossible to read. He quietly, but clearly, states that he’ll do the same.

You inhale, and play Mishra’s Workshop. Nothing he can do about that. So far so good. Then, you drop a Mox Jet onto the table. Your first spell. It resolves.

Now your heart is pounding in your chest, a war drum. You will yourself to present a calm exterior, even though your hand tremors as you tap your Mishra’s Workshop and Mox, drawing four mana into your mana pool. Your opponent’s expression remains the same – stony and distant.

You snap a card onto the table, and announce Lodestone Golem, leaving a sweaty fingerprint on the sleeve face. Your opponent considers the situation, frowns, and tersely responds, "resolves."

You can feel your jaw unclench. Your pulse slows, and you regain your composure. You pass the turn.

To read the rest, click here: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/19542_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Pounding_Your_Opponent_Into_The_MUD.html



I'm really excited about this article.  I've been working on it for a few weeks, and I think it will be of great use to Vintage players.    I open with a vignette designed to get players to appreciate just how sweet the deck is.  

Here's the roadmap paragraph from the article itself:

In this article I will explore the MUD deck in great detail.   Now that MUD is winning many of the largest tournaments in the World, it’s more important than ever to understand what makes this deck tick.  I’ve collected detailed statistics on the archetype, mining through dozens tournament results.   I will begin by showing you the core of the deck, the six lock parts that compose the backbone of the archetype.   Secondly, I will show you how MUD handles the major matchups in the metagame, and comprehensively discuss the many, surprising tools at its disposal for addressing these matchups.   Third, I will highlight the major areas of disagreement among MUD players, and try to resolve them.  Fourth, I will then show you a composite list based upon 44 different MUD lists that appeared in Vintage Top 8s since the appearance of Lodestone Golem.   Finally, in the appendix I provide a complete list of options for MUD pilots, a handy reference for you to peruse.  

[Cyberpunker]

Looking forward to reading it 2 weeks later! 

[Killane]

This was an interesting read. It makes me want to play MUD.

That said, I think it is interesting that a begining player woudl choose to play this deck (as implied by the article). In addition to soem tough tactical choices (what lock pieces are best in a given matchup, etc...) 4xWorkshop is extremely expensive and doesn;t fit in many other Vintage decks.

i think articles like this, directed towards newer players to the format and/or archetye, should make some comment on financial issues - ie in a 5,10,15 proxy environment, what is best to proxy? What card overlap with other archetypes and so are the ebst thing to buy first? How expensive is this deck? What has in the past been restricted? Like it or not financial issues are a key topic in Eternal formats, so i think they shoudl be addressed.

[Smmenen]

Thanks for your question Killane.  I realize that cost considerations are a real factor when it comes to decks like this.   But I try not to let them influence my article, unless I am specifically writing about budget decks or budget options, as I've done in the past.

The reason for the conceit at the beginning (the vignette) was specifically to get potential new players intrigued by Vintage, to get them thinking about Vintage and to imagine what it would be like.   

Someone on SCG said:

This article had a  perfect mix of the storytelling, the pure facts and the arguments for/against specific cards.

In other word, great article.

Also, apparently, this forum has restricted posting access, otherwise CorwinB said he'd reply.   
 

[Smmenen]

I edited the first post to include some of the opening vignette, to give you a flavor of what this article is about...

[Neonico]

It was a really interesting read, and a good panorama of all possible options for the deck, even the most debatable choices.

Really great article about a really great deck....

[Troy_Costisick]

The way you posted the composite decklist was a little confusing.  All the decimals and rounding made it hard to understand exactly what you meant.  The way you did it for Tez decks, was much better IMHO.  Still, it was a very informative and entertaining article.  I really like it when you go this in-depth about a particular deck.

Peace,

-Troy

[Smmenen]

The way you posted the composite decklist was a little confusing.  All the decimals and rounding made it hard to understand exactly what you meant.  The way you did it for Tez decks, was much better IMHO.  Still, it was a very informative and entertaining article.  I really like it when you go this in-depth about a particular deck.

Peace,

-Troy

Let me explain the methodology:

I took all 44 Lodestone Golem MUD lists that posted a Top 8 since the printing of Golem, and I put them into an Excel spreadsheet.   Then, the composite was the average of those lists.    So, the actual equation was: Total Number of the Card in Question/44.   So, for example, there were 176 Mishra's Workshops in 44 Top 8 Lists, which divided by 44 equals 4.0, or an average of 4.0 Mishra's Workshops per list.   

To take another example, there were 58 City of Traitors in those 44 lists, for an average of 1.32 per list.   That doesn't tell you how many lists ran them, but it gives you a sense of how prevalent the card is overall.   

[Troy_Costisick]

I understood your methodology; I just didn't care for the presentation.  I don't know if a table or graphics or something else would have made a difference.  All of it seemed a bit jumbled to me.  Maybe it would have been easier to read if the values were in decending order, like 4.0 then 3.94, etc.  For instance, I felt that Tolarian Academy sitting so close to Mishra's Workshop was just an odd placement in the list for it based on the numbers following the cards.  I totally get the percentages, but that's not what was showing in the list.  It might just be a personal prefenernce thing.  But I found it less instructive than your composite Tez lists from a year ago.

[Smmenen]

I understand.  I started to do it both ways, but to be honest it was just taking too much time, and I already invested so many hours in this article.  I can make the excel spreadsheet available to folks if they would like.

[Troy_Costisick]

Just want you to know that I appreciate all the work you put into those articles.  Especially ones like this.  They're important historical markers to examine deck construction and how it evolves over the years.  Lodestone Golem is a very important printing.  It deserves an article like this.  My posts above were just a minor athetic thing.  Unimportant to the overall content, really. 

Peace,

-Troy

[Smmenen]

The one thing I'll add is that I was sort of only half in the Null Rod camp when I wrote this article.  Now I'm fully in the Null Rod camp.   While I think SOFI is a great, GREAT asset to this deck, Null Rod should be fully abused here, at least in powered metagames.   And, I think, there are ways to make MUD work against Fish even with Null Rods main.   I'll show my list either next week or the week after.   

[Smmenen]

I think this article is free, either today or tomorrow. 

[Odd mutation]

Hi Steve,

I took your exact list to Breda (The Netherlands) yesterday. There is a report here.
I would love to read your thoughts.

Robrecht

[Smmenen]

I will post any thoughts I may have, but I wanted to clarify that my list was not in this article.   This article was an analysis of the archetype. 

[Odd mutation]

Steve,

I'd love to read them!

Indeed, your list isn't in this article but the reader will find it in my report anyway.

Robrecht