First Vintage Premier Event MTGO

[MasamuneK]

I think we all agree that the attendance exceeded the expectation with the event being full (64).

The Top8 Decklist will be soon be published  but the replay should be off in just a few hours.
Also with the new server, the replay doesnt stay much or not at all. I have been discussing with WotC on that but not sure why this happens.

Anyway here was the metagame breakdown. I think it is relevant because 64 man paper Vintage doesn't happen often and it also helps to understand the Online Metagame. I grouped them as much as I could.

Dredge 6

MUD 2
MUD aggro genesis Chamber 1

Aggro 10
Affinity 3
Merfolk 1
Junk Aggro 2
WR (Simian Mom) 1
Monowhite 1
5c humans 2

Aggro Control 19
Gush Delver URg 5
UW (bomberman/Angel...) 8 (including two Esper bomber and one 4 color Deathblade style deck (the winner)
BUG fish 5
Bant aggro 1

Combo 14
Marrit Lage 1
UB storm 1
TPS 2
Gush Storm 4
Oath Storm 3
Oath (Fenton style) 3

Control 12
UR Landstill 3
BUG Landstill Ashiok 1
Grixis Control 2
Superfriend 1
Tezzerator 2
Welder 3

If we just show result by group

Dredge 6
MUD 3
Aggro 10
Aggro Control 19
Combo 14
Control 12

First conclusion is that MUD was clearly missing ( Of course Montolio was there but that's almost it) and there were 3 Affinity decks that looks pretty similar to Legacy Affinity.
It may comes from the fact that there were a lot of MUD before and people have loaded the hate. Also, this is maybe subjective but I think player may want to play more "enjoyable" deck while playing vintage online, or just want to play with all the awesome blue cards

Second conclusion is a very strong presence of Aggro and Aggro Control, almost half of the field. There were a lot of stoneforge and I think it may be that MODO player comes from legacy and feel more confortable with this strategy. Also Stephen has been pushing Delver and they were 5 of them

Thirdly, I was surprise by the number of Oath. In 2 mans or previous DE, Oath and Gush Storm were omnipresent. I think people loaded Oath hate and MUD hate that may have cause this shift also.

Finally what really surprise me is the success of Welder, they were only 3 decks but 2 in the top 8 and one in the final. It makes me very happy and I am looking for those lists.

The top 8 consisted of the following
1 Delver
1 Grixis Control
2 BUG aggro
1 Deathblade
2 Welder
1 Landstill.

But the top 16 decklists should be published by wizard soon so we can all look at them

The top 2 decklists are

First Place jsiri84
Deathblade

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Bayou
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Underground sea
1 Wasteland
3 Sword to Plowshares
2 Mental Misstep
1 Ancestral Recal
1 Brainstorm
1 Fulsterstorm
2 Spell pierce
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sol Ring
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Time Walk
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Trygon Predator
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Jace the Mind Sculptor
4 Force of Will
1 Batterskull

SB:
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Flusterstorm
3 Thoughtseize
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Rest in Peace
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Energy Flux


Kowal NWCS

2 Goblin Welder
2 Dack Fayden
2 Baleful Strix
1 Mindslaver
1 Myr Battlesphere

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
2 Duress
1 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Pierce

4 Night's Whisper
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Fire/Ice

1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl

1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island

SB:
1 Flusterstorm
1 Darkblast
1 Mountain
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Massacre
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Grafdigger's Cage


I hope you find those stats useful. We can add more when available. Unfortunately I couldnt join because I was working (It was Monday for Asia and Australian) but I thank Steve and steve to have gathered people. I hope we can do more things like this in the future.

Edit: Thanks Jason and Kowal for sharing the lists

[Zherbus]

Unfortunately I couldnt join because I was working (It was Monday for Asia and Australian) but I thanks Stephen and Zherbus to have gathered people.

Could just call us Steve Squared...

Anyway, yeah I hadn't been playing much in the past week and my decision to run Oath just showed how fast the metashifts occurs on MTGO. Oath  could not have been a worse deck decision. 

[diopter]

I thought MUD was a huge presence in the dailies? Is the price of Wastelands impacting the MUD numbers or is it a legit metagame shift?

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

we have to organize and keep firing these events. Whether the demand is inflated or not because we are organizing the events this will help the stat trackers at wizards put more events on the books and maybe even fix the prize structure (its less than other premier events). It might even affect what promos are decided for each month and a vintage one might hit us down the road. It only behooves us. If you prove the demand a handful of times the effect will be them adding more events for months or a year and you wont have to rally the boards every time.

[desolutionist]

I went 1-2 drop with Grim Long.  I also did not expect as much Gush. KowalLazy won it with Slaver. I'm sure we could fire these weekly

[The Atog Lord]

I went 4-2 with Gush Storm. Shockwave and HashSwag both took matches against me, and I learned how good Canonist is against Gush.

Apparently, Stoneblade won, and Kowal took second with Control Slaver.

[Samoht]

I thought MUD was a huge presence in the dailies? Is the price of Wastelands impacting the MUD numbers or is it a legit metagame shift?

As more power becomes available more players will play blue. It's really that simple. The metagame is coming into line with paper magic very quickly.

[Smmenen]

Masamukek, how did you get the metagame breakdown?

[JACO]

Masamukek, how did you get the metagame breakdown?

Watching replays of each first round match. After the event is over the event is still live for a few hours before the replays go offline. I was going to do that this morning but it was already offline.

[ulysses_s_grant]

I went 5-1 with Grixis Control, and lost in top 8.

It's unfortunate the tournament started so late on a Sunday - it's very tough to justify staying up til 3:30am on a weeknight to play in a tournament where the top prize is < $100 -- the tournament was very fun, though, despite some embarrassing misclicks (I Ancestral-ed my opponent once somehow, and also managed to click through a resolved Tinker), and then also somehow managed to forget to put Mystical Tutor in my deck.

I beat Affinity, U/W, Standstill, BUG, Tezz, lost to U/W in swiss (sort of a draw - I think I lost 0-2, but the games were meaningless and I was quick to concede if I got behind at all), and lost in the top 8 to Delver. I'm not too familiar with Vintage -- but it seemed like my deck was quite good against the other control decks, as having Vault/Key gave it the ability to win much faster than the U/W and BUG decks without sacrificing any countermagic, and Bolt is pretty good against the stone forges/Deathrites they play (if they matter).

[The Atog Lord]

It's worth noting that, even with an event run online by Wizards, the community really came together to make this a success. Both Meandeck Steves put a lot of work into rounding up players. I might not have played if Smmenen hadn't contacted me to tell me the importance of this being the first Premier event to fire, and I'm sure that was the case for others as well. And Masamukek clearly put a lot of work into getting the metagame roundup together in time -- great work on that.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Too bad the "Restrict Chalice" thread is closed.  This is a pretty impressive refutation of that idea.  I can't believe MUD didn't even make top 8.  That's pretty embarrassing for Shops.

[Kowal]

Low turnout for MUD, and nothing more.  Montolio was my make-it-or-break-it opponent in the final round and the only reason I won is because my deck is loaded with maindeck hate and his deck gave him a mediocre hand game three.

[Smmenen]

On twitter, lee sharpe told me lists will be posted tomorrow.  I tweeted the winners decklist.

[rickster]

Watching replays of each first round match. After the event is over the event is still live for a few hours before the replays go offline. I was going to do that this morning but it was already offline.

I believe replays last for 12 hours after the event has ended.

[Shock Wave]

Awesome event --- high quality play, high quality players, variety of decks ... this event included all the positive aspects of Vintage. I would love to see another one.

I lost my "win and in" against Jsiri, whose build was an absolute nightmare for me. I probably should've won game two, but my deck refused to give me a 4th land for infinite turns. He seemed to have a very innovative and well designed deck. I don't think I've ever seen a "4c dudes" build before. Great stuff.

Oh, and +1 for an earlier start time.

[sylverfyre]

I got crushed by more than one opponent running maindeck ancient grudges or Trygons.

[Coopes]

Awesome event --- high quality play, high quality players, variety of decks ... this event included all the positive aspects of Vintage. I would love to see another one.

I lost my "win and in" against Jsiri, whose build was an absolute nightmare for me. I probably should've won game two, but my deck refused to give me a 4th land for infinite turns. He seemed to have a very innovative and well designed deck. I don't think I've ever seen a "4c dudes" build before. Great stuff.

Oh, and +1 for an earlier start time.

you've never seen a 4c dudes build before? also, jsiri was just running 3 colors, not 4. he said he put together the deck himself an hour before the PE, those additions of swords/paths are what did it in vs me.

[WotC_Ethan]

Thank you SO much to Steve and Steve for getting the word out, and to everyone who played! I did everything I could in my own small way to give Vintage Online a chance to succeed, and it warms my heart to see things like this.

[sylverfyre]

Thank you SO much to Steve and Steve for getting the word out, and to everyone who played! I did everything I could in my own small way to give Vintage Online a chance to succeed, and it warms my heart to see things like this.

Very much this.  Even though I got crushed, it was cool going into a 64 player premier event!

[Shock Wave]

Awesome event --- high quality play, high quality players, variety of decks ... this event included all the positive aspects of Vintage. I would love to see another one.

I lost my "win and in" against Jsiri, whose build was an absolute nightmare for me. I probably should've won game two, but my deck refused to give me a 4th land for infinite turns. He seemed to have a very innovative and well designed deck. I don't think I've ever seen a "4c dudes" build before. Great stuff.

Oh, and +1 for an earlier start time.

you've never seen a 4c dudes build before? also, jsiri was just running 3 colors, not 4. he said he put together the deck himself an hour before the PE, those additions of swords/paths are what did it in vs me.

His deck had UBWG --- so yes, it had 4C, and no --- I don't recall seeing a 4c list like that before.

[desolutionist]

Anyone have a link to the decklists yet?

[Kowal]

Wizards will publish them tomorrow afternoon.  It's typically around the close of business two days after any given event.

[Coopes]

Awesome event --- high quality play, high quality players, variety of decks ... this event included all the positive aspects of Vintage. I would love to see another one.

I lost my "win and in" against Jsiri, whose build was an absolute nightmare for me. I probably should've won game two, but my deck refused to give me a 4th land for infinite turns. He seemed to have a very innovative and well designed deck. I don't think I've ever seen a "4c dudes" build before. Great stuff.

Oh, and +1 for an earlier start time.

you've never seen a 4c dudes build before? also, jsiri was just running 3 colors, not 4. he said he put together the deck himself an hour before the PE, those additions of swords/paths are what did it in vs me.

His deck had UBWG --- so yes, it had 4C, and no --- I don't recall seeing a 4c list like that before.

i didnt notice the predator at first, good catch. i will admit the deck he put together is cool, its obviously very close to the legacy version of the deck but it seems tight and well put together for the meta he faced.

[Twiedel]

Low turnout for MUD, and nothing more.  Montolio was my make-it-or-break-it opponent in the final round and the only reason I won is because my deck is loaded with maindeck hate and his deck gave him a mediocre hand game three.

Don't want to talk anything down here - and congratulations on your well deserved T8 - but I don't really think your deck is in any way "loaded" with maindeck hate against Workshops. I think you have quite a fighting chance, but with so few cards in Main + Board that can handle a first turn Lodestone Golem, it seems to me that you won a lot because your deck is exceptionally good against a blue-heavy field with all those raw Fact/Gifts/Night's Whisper draw. But for a field full of Shops, there is certainly too much high CMC and sorcery speed.

I really hope this is the direction for Dack Fayden, was almost sold on the 2 Dack / 2 Welder split for some time, but was always lacking the drawspells to back it up. Night's Whisper seems just perfect. Great to get in results from bigger tournaments on a regular basis soon =)

[KanaKaishou]

I went 5-1 with Grixis Control, and lost in top 8.

It's unfortunate the tournament started so late on a Sunday - it's very tough to justify staying up til 3:30am on a weeknight to play in a tournament where the top prize is < $100 -- the tournament was very fun, though, despite some embarrassing misclicks (I Ancestral-ed my opponent once somehow, and also managed to click through a resolved Tinker), and then also somehow managed to forget to put Mystical Tutor in my deck.

Basically, I'm happy that I got in on the first one (3-2->go to sleep), but for that prize, I'm not interested in staying up until 3. The events are fun, though--I just wish the timing was better. This, at least, is not a real fault for MTGO, as, well, putting the more premier standard/etc. events earlier in the day so people play them makes sense.

[Kowal]

Basically, I'm happy that I got in on the first one (3-2->go to sleep), but for that prize, I'm not interested in staying up until 3. The events are fun, though--I just wish the timing was better. This, at least, is not a real fault for MTGO, as, well, putting the more premier standard/etc. events earlier in the day so people play them makes sense.

Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to justify being up that late on a Sunday evening/Monday morning normally but for the first premiere I had to.

Also, in regards to maindeck hate:  I don't consider the more ubiquitous Lodestone removal, like Bolt, to be hate.  There are a couple reasons I'd argue the semantics of this but largely in part to Bolt being completely irrelevant against the rest of their deck.  If Bolt is a hate card, it's a very inefficient hate card.  Welder and Dack on the other hand are frequently removal though they work a little differently, hate the workshop player's entire deck effectively, and are powerful enough to take control of the entire game.  They're justifiable hate because they do other things that have synergy with the rest of the deck, but they're hate cards.  The core of this deck exists because I was tired of losing to workshops and wanted a deck full of trumps.  In the case of this event, I was able to take over matches against Montolio and Thorme because of the strength of these cards.  No matter how you slice it, 4 maindeck slots that work in this fashion against the matchup is a lot.  To put it another way, I always thought the white-based man decks with Kataki War's Wage were appealing because of the ability to maindeck such a good hate card against Workshop.  At most, people were only running 3 of him which I think is correct.  I get to run 4 effects that are even more powerful against the archetype, and have a greater effect in other matchups.

[Zherbus]

Results are up:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/vintage-premier-2014-07-15

[Phele]

Nice list, Kowal and congratulations on your second place.

One question: Wouldn't it be an option to include Intution + AK instead of the Whispers? The first AK doesn't draw two cards, but you have the option to draw even more, its blue, an instant, Intuition has synergy with Welder and Dack has it (somehow) with AK. Your build has lots of sorcery speed cards in red and black and it seems to put a lot of stress on your manabase which already is kind of vulnerable with so few lands and basics. Intution + AK leaves you more vulnerable to graveyard hate, but beside BUG not to many decks run it maindeck so you could easily adjust over the sideboard if you expect say Nihil Spellbombs or Extirpates.

[Odd mutation]

Thanks for the link Steve.

For some reason, I can't see the first decklist posted on the Wizards results page! It happens nearly all the time. Why is that? Do others have the same problem?
Luckily the winning list is in the first post.