[Free Article] Vintage and Legacy Championships

[forests failed you]

Had a great weekend in Philly playing at the Eternal Weekend Championships.  Today's article talks about the decks that I played and some of my experiences at the tournaments. 

Thanks to Nick Coss for running such a wonderful pair of events.

Check it out!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27264_Vintage-Legacy-Championships.html

Cheers,
Brian DeMars

[Grand Inquisitor]

I also thought that Chris Pikula and Randy Buehler did a fantastic job of commentating the Vintage matches

I'm curious about this. I only re-watched three matches (including my own Rnd 7).  I thought they had decent intuition about general lines of play, but they didn't know basics about deck types, card choices and card tactics.  It made for some awkward claims on their part at critical moments.  Obviously I could see picking celebrity personas over insightful commentary, but we should at least call a spade a spade.

Is it like that at other formats?

[rooneg]

I also thought that Chris Pikula and Randy Buehler did a fantastic job of commentating the Vintage matches

I'm curious about this. I only re-watched three matches (including my own Rnd 7).  I though they had decent intuition about general lines of play, but they didn't know basics about deck types, card choices and card tactics.  It made for some awkward claims on their part at critical moments.  Obviously I could see picking celebrity personas over insightful commentary, but we should at least call a spade a spade.

Is it like that at other formats?

They were better than the vast majority of commentators I've seen, and I watch a lot of magic coverage. Buehler clearly is a smart player, although a bit out of touch with recent developments, and Pikula has clearly played vintage relatively recently, although he's stopped recently to concentrate on Legacy and formats that one can play at PTQs and PTs. Especially for something like Vintage, where it's specialized knowledge and almost everyone who knows more than that is actually playing in the event, this is the gold standard for coverage. Did they make mistakes? Sure, but they got to the right answer eventually in all the cases I picked up on.

Honestly, the only people who really do better than that are when they pull in a high level pro who punted on day 1 of a PT and have them do coverage on day 2, like they've done with LSV a couple of times recently.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Honestly, the only people who really do better than that are when they pull in a high level pro who punted on day 1 of a PT and have them do coverage on day 2, like they've done with LSV a couple of times recently.

That makes sense.  I bet LCV would call a pretty decent game.  I think having someone like Smennen or Ruben Gonzalez would be solid.  The trick is to find people who even give passing recent attention to metagame movements. 

Eg, they had no idea why I brought Forest in against BUG.  Like they repeatedly and actively mocked the idea that someone who plans to cast Abrupt Decay would want a Forest against 5x strips and Null Rod.  Not to pick a personal example, but this was round 7 so they had time to warm up and BUG has been format defining for almost six months.  It just seems that they'd have a clue at this point, being World Champions,etc.

[boggyb]

Yes, and the bafflement about Kevin's "crazy" four-color control deck (a variation on an archetype that's been around longer than any other) was a bit much. But those are nits -- generally they were terrific commentators. Knew the cards, knew the interactions, explained them cogently to the audience -- just great. Compare them to the random dudes they got to call 2011, for example. Terrible.

Remember, almost nobody knows anything about this format. It's well below 1% of the Magic community that pays any attention whatsoever. So, cut em some slack.

[forests failed you]

IMO, its not only about being able to call the plays but also about being interesting and engaging.  I thought they did a really nice job of describing and explaining what was going on in a manner that might get people browsing the Vintage content somewhat interested in Vintage.  I also thought they did a good job of being entertaining and fun to listen to.  There are plenty of people who know a lot but are irritating as all hell to listen to actually talk about stuff, and CP and RB were perfectly great to listen to talk about the games and the matches.

[tribet]

Exactly, I had the chance to watch a couple of games live before going to work and I found that they were both very entertaining, knowledgeable and interactive, sharing their thoughts process, not pedant, good flow, no awkward silence, no annoying voice...
It was hard to unplug, I thought it was top quality.
If anything, I was a bit disappointed in the games/decks covered at the time I watched.

[Grand Inquisitor]

IMO, its not only about being able to call the plays but also about being interesting and engaging

I know I'm the one griping, but you're right and I'd take that trade (interesting>informed) too.

[Shock Wave]

I thought that both commentators did a great job, although they basically ripped me a new one on half the choices I made. They understood enough about the format to make their commentary relevant and entertaining. I would be happy to see them back in that role again for future vintage events.

[birds of paradise]

IMO, its not only about being able to call the plays but also about being interesting and engaging

I know I'm the one griping, but you're right and I'd take that trade (interesting>informed) too.

I must ask, why forgotten ancient?

[Grand Inquisitor]

I must ask, why forgotten ancient?

I wanted a silver bullet for the RUG & BUG matchups.

[Varal]

I must ask, why forgotten ancient?

I wanted a silver bullet for the RUG & BUG matchups.

How did it perform? I feel like RUG might have too many fliers for it to really performs.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I didn't get to play against RUG, but it won games vs. BUG and WW before making a late appearance vs. Fabiano.

It's kinda goofy, but I find at big events where everyone's list is tweaked pretty hard that unique lines of play are quite valuable.

[voltron00x]

Yes, and the bafflement about Kevin's "crazy" four-color control deck (a variation on an archetype that's been around longer than any other) was a bit much. But those are nits -- generally they were terrific commentators. Knew the cards, knew the interactions, explained them cogently to the audience -- just great. Compare them to the random dudes they got to call 2011, for example. Terrible.

Remember, almost nobody knows anything about this format. It's well below 1% of the Magic community that pays any attention whatsoever. So, cut em some slack.

Agree with this post.  I watched 2011's coverage and while Smmenen defended it at the time, it was easily the worst commentary I've ever seen. Only the last few matches where he was involved after being eliminated were watchable at all (and those were quite good).

While the coverage Sunday wasn't perfect, it was probably as ideal as you can get for Vintage - there were people who were watching because of the caliber of the coverage team; these guys hadn't done coverage together in a decade, and people who had no interest in Vintage prior were watching for these two.  I saw many commented/posted that the format was interesting/exciting, comments about picking up cards on MTGO for Vintage Masters, etc. 

I do wish I could've done coverage Sunday, as I'd been testing a lot of Legacy and no Vintage at all in the few months before this event, I think in terms of being good for the format, this was an ideal selection by Nick and GGS Live.

Anyone who watched the Saturday coverage, I'd be happy to hear any thoughts/feedback on that - PM me or email me.

[H]

I watched my feature match (round 1 vs Jaco) and I felt like they had a pretty good call on my lines of play (including that my game 3 keep was incredibly sketchy).

If I wasn't playing and was home I would have watched the coverage, as frankly SCG has some much worse commentators at times, in my opinion, and I still tune in to those when I can.

[Guli]

Could those who rewatched the matches share a link for these video's?

[xouman]

Guli, I saw first of them yesterday here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXvWVmmqyaqg9cOQAZb6OyhhF1fcRSHBb

Unfortunately my English is quite poor and I was having dinner at that time while my gf was sleeping, so I just watched the video without sound.

[H]

Could those who rewatched the matches share a link for these video's?

I watched my match here: http://www.ggslive.com/videos