[Free Article] Analyzing the B&R Changes + Top 8 Decks from TDG 9/19

[voltron00x]

Obviously I'm a little bit late to market with this due to a 3-day business trip I had this week, but regardless, here's my take on the B&R changes and how they'll likely impact Vintage. I also provide the top 8 decks from the Top Deck Games Vintage on 9/19, which had 41 players:

Free Article - Analyzing the B&R Changes + Top 8 Decks from TDG 9/19

Interestingly enough there's a lot of singleton Dig Through Time and a winning Workshop deck with no Chalice of the Void in its main deck.

Plus, some nice innovations that I try to highlight as well.

I'm working on a Dredge article to have up hopefully by Monday, and will attempt to get a video/audio piece together this weekend for release next week.

Thanks and appreciate any feedback!

[inkmothnexus]

when you say one of the 3 dredge players has the sideboard you recommend, I assume you mean serenity, rather than boarding the 4th field, right?

[ajfirecracker]

Am I right in thinking that Dragonlord Kolaghan is a situational upgrade to Flame-Kin Zealot, roughly in line with Urabrask the Hidden?

Kolaghan seems like interesting anti-Moat tech, and can also be a hasty beater in situations where FKZ wouldn't have enough zombie buddies to win the game. Flying is also nice against Shops in the "reanimated beater" role.

On the other hand, FKZ will sometimes have a slightly easier goldfish because he needs 6 tokens to deal 20 at once (and basically all your creatures will be the same size, so you don't get chump-blocked by a single Thopter token), and DK needs 7.

I don't think we're that interested in shutting off multiple Gravecrawler or Skaab Ruinator, and shutting off multiple of the same planeswalker sounds like a useful but rare corner-case.

Am I missing anything?

[inkmothnexus]

Am I right in thinking that Dragonlord Kolaghan is a situational upgrade to Flame-Kin Zealot, roughly in line with Urabrask the Hidden?

Kolaghan seems like interesting anti-Moat tech, and can also be a hasty beater in situations where FKZ wouldn't have enough zombie buddies to win the game. Flying is also nice against Shops in the "reanimated beater" role.

On the other hand, FKZ will sometimes have a slightly easier goldfish because he needs 6 tokens to deal 20 at once (and basically all your creatures will be the same size, so you don't get chump-blocked by a single Thopter token), and DK needs 7.

I don't think we're that interested in shutting off multiple Gravecrawler or Skaab Ruinator, and shutting off multiple of the same planeswalker sounds like a useful but rare corner-case.

Am I missing anything?

the card is slightly worse for goldfishing damage off a DR, but has multiple upsides. so far the last ability has not come up in practice. it flies over moat/magus, pitches to ichorid, which is huge, and is much less reliant on bridges than FKZ would be. if you have 3 dudes, a DR, and 0 bridges, kolaghan is better, and kills them the next turn due to hasting things that enter after it. this option isn't present with FKZ. off 1 bridge, with only 3 dudes, either is 12 that turn and lethal the next. off 3 dudes 2 bridges, they goldfish 18 and 21. add any more dudes or bridges and it doesn't matter. a situation that comes up fairly often when goldfishing with kolaghan is the ability to baby DR on turn 2 with 0/1 bridges, then on turn 3 your fresh creatures can each pop into multiple hasty 2/2s, or just be hasty bloodghasts while your opponent is still at 14.

kolaghan is better than all the other creatures that give your team haste for a combination reasons. she is the only one, aside from madrush cyclops, that pitches to ichorid. she has the second most power, aside from maelstrom wanderer. and she's the only one with flying, which makes her a relevant threat on her own. Any one of these on its own is not much, seeing as cyclops and wanderer have to my knowledge seen no play, but they add up. the last ability is also just marginally better than having no ability. if jace-bounce or snap-plow are no longer outs to her, that's not nothing. The downsides of her compared to FKZ are marginally worse goldfishing in a certain range of scenarios(and better in others) and being theoretically vulnerable to removal, although between therapy barrages and the fact that removal tends to target ichorid on our draw step the latter is not really that much of a problem.

I'm not entirely sure what you think the last ability does, as you mention gravecrawler etc. skaab ruinator is a bad example, as the one they are casting probably exiles the other as a cost. it really only would matter if the creature/walker is capable of killing kolaghan or you of if coupled with removal, and if coupled with removal kolaghan is gone before they cast the creature. turning off topdecked JTMS bounce or snap-plow are probably the best examples of where it could actually matter.

[voltron00x]

when you say one of the 3 dredge players has the sideboard you recommend, I assume you mean serenity, rather than boarding the 4th field, right?

Yes, correct. I lost a match with Dredge at Champs bc of having Claims, and won my top 8 match at TDG on 9/19 against Dredge bc my opponent had Claims.

EDITED: for clarity. Top 8 was at TDG, not Champs.

[inkmothnexus]

when you say one of the 3 dredge players has the sideboard you recommend, I assume you mean serenity, rather than boarding the 4th field, right?

Yes, correct. I lost a match with Dredge at Champs bc of having Claims, and won my top 8 match against Dredge bc my opponent had Claims.

yeah. I played dredge at champs, and while I finished well, I lost at least 1 game in the swiss due to having claim and had basically no outs to an opponent with cage/crypt/needle in play in top 4 due to being on claim and not serenity.

[Chubby Rain]

yeah. I played dredge at champs, and while I finished well, I lost at least 1 game in the swiss due to having claim and had basically no outs to an opponent with cage/crypt/needle in play in top 4 due to being on claim and not serenity.

Speaking from the hater's perspective, I definitely am more afraid of Serenity than Claim. I can't really out hate it with more Cages, Crypts, and RIPs and the only spell I play that typically can counter it is Force of Will. Not only that, it takes my Moxen out with it, which makes it harder to rebuild if Serenity triggers and I manage to Ravenous Trap to avoid dying.

[voltron00x]

yeah. I played dredge at champs, and while I finished well, I lost at least 1 game in the swiss due to having claim and had basically no outs to an opponent with cage/crypt/needle in play in top 4 due to being on claim and not serenity.

Speaking from the hater's perspective, I definitely am more afraid of Serenity than Claim. I can't really out hate it with more Cages, Crypts, and RIPs and the only spell I play that typically can counter it is Force of Will. Not only that, it takes my Moxen out with it, which makes it harder to rebuild if Serenity triggers and I manage to Ravenous Trap to avoid dying.

Serenity has many advantages to Nature's Claim. It is immune to Flusterstorm and Mental Misstep, as well as Misdirection. It can hit an effectively limitless number of hate cards at once if it resolves. Against Workshops, it can not only remove all hate that isn't Tabernacle (which is only moderately effective anyway), it also conveniently eliminates their entire board position save for Lands.

It also has some disadvantages. Against Workshops, that one extra mana can be very significant. In the mirror, if your opponent and you both have Leylines in play, it sadly destroys all the Leylines, not just yours. Against Oath, if you play it on your turn following a resolved Oath by your opponent, they get a chance to activate an Oath trigger. You can't respond with it against Time Vault, though admittedly that and similar scenarios like Oath -> Time Walk are not a common occurrence.

In the metagame as it exists/existed prior to the 9/28 announcement, I think being immune to Flusterstorm and Misstep while having the ability to sweep away multiple pieces of hate against Blue absolutely outweighed the negative.

Whether that still holds up, we shall see.

[inkmothnexus]

Against Oath, if you play it on your turn following a resolved Oath by your opponent, they get a chance to activate an Oath trigger.

this goes both ways. if you play it out, there is no amount of countermagic they can draw into and play on their turn to make playing an oath the right play, it's show and tell or oath/time walk or just lose.

[voltron00x]

Against Oath, if you play it on your turn following a resolved Oath by your opponent, they get a chance to activate an Oath trigger.

this goes both ways. if you play it out, there is no amount of countermagic they can draw into and play on their turn to make playing an oath the right play, it's show and tell or oath/time walk or just lose.

Absolutely, that does happen, but it isn't as common as Oath coming out and needing an immediate removal effect for it. If Oath were very popular I'd strongly consider going back to Claims.

The real issue I have with the deck is being forced to play Leyline of the Void. Once a certain tipping point gets hit where other Dredge players are using it, you're somewhat obligated to do so, too, but right now I'd much prefer Unmask in that slot by a wide margin.