[Free Article] MythBusters: Is Vintage’s Speed At A Standstill?

[Womba]

Vintage's speed, Spell Snare, an interview with THE top Landstill pilot, and some of my thoughts I have observed about the current Vintage and in a larger sense Magic community....Enjoy


http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/23040_MythBusters_Is_Vintages_Speed_At_A_Standstill.html

[MagicMan]

I agree with you. At the TMD Open I ran 4 Snapcaster MD and 4 Surgical extraction with 3 Extirpate in the side, never losing once to dredge in testing leading up to the tournament. Unfortunately for myself I played the eventual TMD Open winner in round 2 and after locking him out basically game 2 I lost because I flipped force of will with BOB. I liked my chances if it would have went to game 3 : (

[Bibendum]

Awesome article as always, broken blue looks to be less broken with standstill taking down 3 bluebells and the NYSE this weekend

[cvarosky80]

Outstanding article! Your best one to date!

[Stormanimagus]

I'd be curious to know if Josh Potucek is ever worried about going to time in his matches. The main reason I tend to NOT play Landstill at tournaments any more is because I used to always go to time with the deck, and IF I lost game 1 that meant I lost the match (i.e, I lose game 1 and am stuck not quite winning game 2 in time to get to game 3 and at least a tie). The same could happen if I win game 1 and quickly lose game 2. You go to time in game 3 and get a tie where a faster deck would either win or lose game 3 in enough time.

This was my absolute main quibble with running this deck. Perhaps I simply am not automatic enough with such a deck to play it fast enough, but I feel you can just get those games where beating with a 2/2 isn't fast enough and you can't speed your play up enough to make it fast enough without the possibility of a play mistake.

Did Josh ever find this to be the case? Is it a concern in matches for him?

-Storm

EDIT: Also, would he ever consider running some number of Snapcaster Mage in Landstill?

[nataz]

Loved the Osyp/LSV points. Calling dredge the "tax man" was great.

[The Atog Lord]

That was a great article. I especially liked your interview section. And I agree, Dredge is beatable if you're willing to devote the deck space, and the testing time. Nicely done, champ.

[Marske]

Awesome article, the time you put into writing these definitely shows. Keep up the good work!

ps.
Thanks for the name drop, good to see people overhere haven't forgotten me

[Prospero]

Mark, that was a great read.  Keep it up. 

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

That was an extremely thurough article, Mark.  So are we headed for a big showdown between Standstill and a deck that doesn't play spells? How awesome would that be!  

Peace,

-Troy

[ilpeggiore]

awesome article !

Game, set, match !

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

I'd be curious to know if Josh Potucek is ever worried about going to time in his matches. The main reason I tend to NOT play Landstill at tournaments any more is because I used to always go to time with the deck, and IF I lost game 1 that meant I lost the match (i.e, I lose game 1 and am stuck not quite winning game 2 in time to get to game 3 and at least a tie). The same could happen if I win game 1 and quickly lose game 2. You go to time in game 3 and get a tie where a faster deck would either win or lose game 3 in enough time.

This was my absolute main quibble with running this deck. Perhaps I simply am not automatic enough with such a deck to play it fast enough, but I feel you can just get those games where beating with a 2/2 isn't fast enough and you can't speed your play up enough to make it fast enough without the possibility of a play mistake.

Did Josh ever find this to be the case? Is it a concern in matches for him?

-Storm

EDIT: Also, would he ever consider running some number of Snapcaster Mage in Landstill?

This is Josh Potucek for those who dont know me, as far as your question. Of course this is always in the back of my head in a match, and sometimes is an issue. But I have been playing the deck for like 3 years in vintage and 5 years in legacy. I am pretty fast at making vital decisions where as other people playing the deck might not be. Adding the 3 jace to the deck helped speed up the wins slightly.

So overall I would say no I have had little problems with completing matches.

Wow Mark huge props on the article it was great!

[Womba]

Heya,

That was an extremely thurough article, MARK*.  So are we headed for a big showdown between Standstill and a deck that doesn't play spells? How awesome would that be! 

Peace,

-Troy

*Fixed 


Thanks for the kind words everyone. Big thanks to Josh as well for helping me with the interview!!


FYI- Josh is the other person in the opening picture...

[voltron00x]

I'd love to take credit for that article.  It was a good one.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

That was an extremely thurough article, MARK*.   So are we headed for a big showdown between Standstill and a deck that doesn't play spells? How awesome would that be!  

Peace,

-Troy

*Fixed  

Sorry about that!

[madmanmike25]

Yeah nice article.  I'm surprised to see that none of his lists contain Brainstorm.  I thought my vision was failing, but I am able to find Brainstorm in the Landstill lists that T8 at NYSE.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

Yeah nice article.  I'm surprised to see that none of his lists contain Brainstorm.  I thought my vision was failing, but I am able to find Brainstorm in the Landstill lists that T8 at NYSE.

No your vision is not failing. I have been playing the deck forever and always was quite disappointed with brainstorm in it from day 1. The deck generally runs 4-5 shuffle effects, can't get blightsteel in the hands, and cant dig for broken cards. So when Jace was printed I decided to run Jace over the brainstorm slot. I started liking Jace more and more and added a 2nd Jace, and finally I am running 3 now. Sure Jace suffers from the same issue as brainstorm in this deck with so little shuffle effects, but Jace does much more then just brainstorm, she can bounce a threat or eventually win the game. So on that note I have found brainstorm to be a really nice card in a broken deck but really pretty poor in this one.

I do like brainstorm in my legacy landstill lists because I have 7 fetch lands and 4 brainstorm then its more exciting to play!

[rpf5029]

Yeah nice article.  I'm surprised to see that none of his lists contain Brainstorm.  I thought my vision was failing, but I am able to find Brainstorm in the Landstill lists that T8 at NYSE.

No your vision is not failing. I have been playing the deck forever and always was quite disappointed with brainstorm in it from day 1. The deck generally runs 4-5 shuffle effects, can't get blightsteel in the hands, and cant dig for broken cards. So when Jace was printed I decided to run Jace over the brainstorm slot. I started liking Jace more and more and added a 2nd Jace, and finally I am running 3 now. Sure Jace suffers from the same issue as brainstorm in this deck with so little shuffle effects, but Jace does much more then just brainstorm, she can bounce a threat or eventually win the game. So on that note I have found brainstorm to be a really nice card in a broken deck but really pretty poor in this one.

I do like brainstorm in my legacy landstill lists because I have 7 fetch lands and 4 brainstorm then its more exciting to play!

If Jace has a gender, he's definitely a he.  :-p

Also, on the discussion of time, after we got into that long game two at the last Blue Bell, I was totally playing for the draw game three.  Unfortunately, your denial was waaaaay too strong and you got your Factories online too quickly. 

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

I knew you were pulling for a draw haha, and I knew I needed to get the pressure on quicker compared to some other games that landstill may play! 

[Smmenen]

Myth: Busted.