[Free Article] Vintage: Finding the Blue Decks

[voltron00x]

Dear Vintage,

I still love you.  No, really, I do!  I'm sorry I haven't called.  Here, I wrote a bonus article just for you.  It has the metagame from the 11/20 Blue Bell, plus a look at the 20 events with 20+ players from 9/11-11/21, and some thoughts on the best blue decks in the format right now:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/20641_The_Long_and_Winding_Road_Vintage_Finding_the_Blue_Decks.html

[The Atog Lord]

An excellent article as always, Matt. It captures the frustration that I, and I'm sure other Blue mages, have felt regarding our favorite color in Vintage at the moment. Vintage is at an all-time low in strength right now -- at least until someone figures out how to make a better blue deck. That said, I think it is worth mentioning that blue decks aren't doing horribly by any means; we've just become accustomed to blue dominating the format, which at the moment appears no longer to be the case.

[Qube]

That was a really good read, thx for that. I like it that you show us the datas form the last 2 month. Keep going!

[CorwinB]

Another excellent article, Matt.

I especially liked the section about the future of Blue decks. Considering that the unrestriction of Gush didn't seem to bring us any Blue apocalypse so far, do you feel further unrestrictions could be tried, or that the meta is diverse enough right now ?

[Odd mutation]

Thanks for a great read! and it's just... extra? Even better!

I'm looking and trying to build a better Blue deck, so your article was very cool. It's not easy to get the blue deck right. I'm especially struggling with mana bases. I want to cut back as many colors as possible but at the same time want cards in all colors!

A friend of mine was playing Crucible of Worlds, Wastelands and a Strip Mine in a UB Jace Tezzeret deck the other day. It looked pretty good actually... even though I probably wouldn't play the Crucible, not main deck.

Robrecht

[Royal Ass.]

Thanks for the great article.  I'm looking forward to spending some more time looking over all the deck lists.  I too am trying to optimize a blue list.

On a side note, how come Star City doesn't date their articles?  I find this really annoying, especially when an article references an older one and you have too actually look at deck lists to try to figure out when the article was written. For posterity sake please date your articles!!   (I realize you can click the link to the forum discussion and check out the date there, but I feel it should be be at the top of the article)

[Tha Gunslinga]

On a side note, how come Star City doesn't date their articles?  I find this really annoying, especially when an article references an older one and you have too actually look at deck lists to try to figure out when the article was written. For posterity sake please date your articles!!   (I realize you can click the link to the forum discussion and check out the date there, but I feel it should be be at the top of the article)

It's at the bottom.

Other Articles From StarCityGames.com
on Dec 03, 2010:

[Royal Ass.]

Ahhhhhhhh  Thanks

[Ravager Sam]

Known for playing Dredge, Sam has only four cards in his board devoted to the Dredge matchup (not including Tabernacle), which I found surprising.

Dredge is lovely in that it wins G2 and G3 by making the enemy play dredge's game.  However, when the enemy has something like a Tabernacle or Wurmcoil, it's impossible.

Josh mushroom stamps people with his 12 inch BBC tied to his right leg...

...that's nothing compared to what Wurmcoil Engine does to a dredge player.  That, my friend, is ugly.  Frankly, it is downright hideous.

 

[Tha Gunslinga]

How does Wurmcoil beat Dredge?  Either they swarm you or they Chain of Vapor it.

[Ravager Sam]

How does Wurmcoil beat Dredge?  Either they swarm you or they Chain of Vapor it.

I find doing either of those is surely much easier said than done.  Tabernacle & Relic are the dedicated hate cards and Wurmcoil mops up what happens to be left.  Wurmcoil also fits nicely in the in place of MD duplicant.  Before SoM, we even had good results testing far worse creatures than Wurmcoil (along with Tabernacle and Relic) vs. Dredge to simply sit there and block.

Wurmcoil Engine is rarely good enough on its own vs. dredge, but in conjuction with some hate, it makes sure you don't get clocked out by a small army of creatures.  Typically, the matches vs. shops I won with dredge, when not directly caused by Serenity blowout, was accomplished by attacking with a few creatures over an extended period of time.  Very rarely was a swarm established, and it was typically a ~4-5+ turn clock of some zombies/ghasts/narcs.  Therefore, Wurmcoil takes the very principle of the "Turtle Dredge" sideboard plan and flips it upside down by giving them a new threat to deal with.  It's hard enough to Chain of Vapor it through spheres or Chalice on 1, and unlike other threats (Steel Hellkite), they can't simply plan to trade it with a Stinkweed Imp because that will net the shops player 6 life and 2 untapped reincarnates.

[minusblindfold]

I didn't think wurmcoil was that good against dredge until I watched that finals match at the last bluebell. I think i agree with sam.

Thanks for the article Matt. However i couldn't find anywhere to pay you 9$ to read it. I thought that was the norm now.