Vintage is the only real format that can boast having the most powerful decks in Magic. There is no other format acknowledged by Wizards of the Coast or the DCI where a player can field a deck anywhere near as powerful as in good ol’ Type I.

With the spoiler for Dragon’s Maze finally complete, it’s time to examine which cards from Dragon’s Maze may soon be getting cast by Black Lotus mana in Magic’s oldest format.

I have written enough Vintage set reviews that the vast majority of readers will likely know the drill by now:

The Vintage card pool is so expansive and the cards so powerful that it is hard for a card to earn a spot in a 75-card deck, etc., etc…

The kinds of cards likely to see consistent Vintage play are:

A) The most powerful cards ever printed.

B) Cards that have strong synergy with the most powerful cards ever printed.

C) Cards that are specifically good at hosing the most powerful cards and synergies.

“It’s easy as A-B-C!”

Most Magic cards don’t fit these narrow criteria, which means most cards are unlikely to see much Vintage play. But just because most cards are unlikely to see much competitive Vintage play doesn’t mean a few won’t see someplay.

“What do these cards all have in common? ALL of them have been in decks I’ve won Power Nine with.”

Not every card can be a format staple, but over time there are lots of opportunities for narrow or niche cards to make an impact at a tournament.

Return to Ravnica, in comparison to previous blocks such as Innistrad, has been disappointing in its lack of high quality Vintage staples.

Innistrad Block Creme de la Creme

Scars of Mirrodin Block MVPs

Zendikar Block World Beaters

Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash “Look Out Restricted List” Build Around Me Cards

“Wah-wah-waaaaaaah…”

I have speculated the lack of Vintage playables in Return to Ravnica block is a symptom of the emphasis on multicolored cards since costing two specific colors of mana severely inhibits whether a card will be played in Vintage.

Once again I find myself reviewing a set comprised largely of niche cards, which means it is unlikely we have any Vintage All-Star Team candidates in this set. The good news is that the set is at least better than Gatecrash for Vintage playables (thank goodness!) and has more than a few interesting role-player type cards and a few fun build around me type cards.

Tear

“Wear did your artifact and enchantment go?”

In any U/W/R style deck that would typically want to play Disenchant out of the sideboard, Wear // Tear will be a strict upgrade. Instead of having to pay 1W to destroy an opposing Oath of Druids, that effect now costs W, which can be a pretty huge deal on the draw against that strategy. Later in the game, it’s possible to fuse both sides together to destroy the problematic enchantment and destroy a Mox.

While I’m excited that Wear // Tear is a solid Vintage playable card, I feel like it’s really a missed opportunity. My belief is that Wear // Tear should have cost R // W instead of 1R // W and remained an instant since it would be fusing together two rather unplayable cards—Smelt and Demystify—into a great one.

I understand that it’s elegant to have Shatter // Demystify on the same card, but Shatter isn’t even in the core set anymore because it was replaced by Smelt in M13. Nature’s Claim and Ancient Grudge already exist, and in my opinion Smelt // Demystify is on a similar power level

At the end of the day, Wear // Tear is still likely to see some fringe play in Vintage. Anytime someone would have played Disenchant and has access to U/W/R, this card will have a home.

Beck // Call

Beck // Call is a card that has gotten a lot of hype in the weeks leading up to the Prerelease because it is a very powerful Glimpse of Nature variant. I asked fellow Vintage ringer Jon Johnson, who has a lot of experience with Elves, to brew me up a Vintage Elves deck that utilizes this powerful Dragon’s Maze rare:

G/U Elves

Jon Johnson

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Vintage

Creatures (26)

Lands (13)

Spells (21)

Sideboard

Now this is a spicy brew bound to give one’s opponent’s a Devil’s Haircut!

Frantic Search gives the deck a way to untap Gaea’s Cradle, which is a really sweet interaction while comboing off. Aside from getting to play Force of Will, the deck also makes use of the card Wirewood Hivemaster as Beck lets us draw cards when our tokens enter the battlefield unlike Glimpse of Nature.

If you are looking for a really fun Vintage deck to try out at your next Vintage tournament, G/U Elves might just be where it’s at!

Odelay!!!

Far // Away

“How many cards do you know that can kill Blightsteel Colossus two different ways!?”

Unfortunately, in 99.9% of situations it is only necessary to kill one Blightsteel Colossus.

Far // Away provides several options for a control deck, and the fact that it can be tutored up via Merchant Scroll is a bonus. Don’t forget that a player can fuse this together to bounce their own Snapcaster Mage while forcing their opponent to sacrifice a creature to obtain maximum value.

Blood Scrivener

“BRAINS!!! A Novel.”

One of the more interesting lynchpin style cards in the set is Blood Scrivener.

My initial thought with this creature was to try to brew up a Suicide Black deck that just goes all out and tries to win quickly. The biggest drawback with Blood Scrivener is the lack of synergy between having him and a Dark Confidant in play at the same time since often you won’t get to trigger it because Bob will put a card in your hand.

Then again, if one already has an active Dark Confidant, chances are things are going pretty well and Blood Scrivener can still continue to push through damage.

Suicide Black

Brian Demars

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Vintage

Creatures (14)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Liliana of the Veil

Lands (16)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

I also like that Blood Scrivener is a Zombie, which allows us to buy back Gravecrawler from the graveyard.

Hidden Strings

“No, I’m not trippin’; this card could be fringe playable.”

Hidden Strings is an interesting card because it provides players with a new way to assemble an infinite turn combo with Time Vault—this time by ciphering onto an uncontested creature.

Clearly this isn’t better than playing Voltaic Key or Tezzeret the Seeker, but it is another way to set up the combo. One advantage Hidden Strings has over other options is that it’s a sorcery, which means that certain tutor effects such as Mystical Tutor and Burning Wish can find it.

If Hidden Strings sees play anywhere, I would predict it to be in a Grixis deck featuring creatures and a Burning Wish sideboard. It would allow players to Burning Wish for a Time Walk if they had Time Vault in play or Time Vault combo to take infinite turns with a Snapcaster Mage, Dark Confidant, or other creature.

One other thing to keep in mind is that Hidden Strings has particularly sick synergy with Thada Adel, Acquisitor because you can cast it to tap down their blocker (which may or may not be necessary if they have an Island in play), attack the opponent, deal combat damage, stack Thada Adel’s abilities favorably, search out their Time Vault, and untap it with Hidden Strings!

[Editor’s Note: I don’t play Vintage, but I kinda want to start if I get to do that to someone!]

Notion Thief

“Steal their Brainstorm, steal the game.”

I really like the flavor behind this card: a creature that plagiarizes = an idea thief.

I also really like the way Notion Thief straight up destroys an opposing Jace, the Mind Sculptor:

+0 = How about I draw 3 and you put your hand on top of your library?

-1 = Ok, I’ll flash it back down?

+2 = Whatever! Attack your Jace, the Mind Sculptor!

If something changed in Vintage and games slowed down and became more about Jace wars, I could really see this card being an important player. However, as of right now it’s probably more of a miser’s sideboard card for crushing control mirrors.

It’s also pretty sick that you can respond to an opponent’s Standstill by flashing Notion Thief in then popping the Standstill and stealing the three cards from your opponent!

Ral Zarek

“Finally, a ral planeswalker!”

In Vintage, Ral Zarek is going to really suffer from having to exist in the same multiverse as Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

“There is a reason the song proclaims him to be “‘better than all.'”

Every time one sleeves up a copy of Ral Zarek, there needs to be a good reason why it wasn’t the best planeswalker ever printed instead.

Now, to say a card is worse than Jace isn’t really saying much at all. Nearly every Magic card ever printed is worse than Jace, so we cannot simply dismiss cards based upon this one assumption. However, many of the cards that one plays that are “worse than Jace” are typically different than Ral Zarek because when you’re a 4CC blue planeswalker in a format with the 4cc blue planeswalker, comparisons will be drawn.

All of that being said, there are some situations where putting a Ral Zarek into play is going to be better than a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Perhaps examining some of those situations to see how frequently they are likely to arise is a good way of thinking about Ral Zarek as a possible Vintage card.

I. Your opponent is at three or less life.

Ba-dum-ching! Thank you and remember to tip your waitress!

Possible deck: U/R Burn.

II. Your opponent has a Jace with three or less loyalty counters in play.

If they cast Jace first and you have to play your Jace to legend rule theirs, you’d rather play Ra Zarek to gun down their planeswalkers while still having yours left behind.

Positive EV in Jace mirror.

III. You already have a Jace, the Mind Sculptor in play and Ral Zarek joins the party.

There are a lot of blue planeswalkers: Jace, the Mind Sculptor; Jace Beleren; Tezzeret the Seeker; Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas; Tamiyo, the Moon Sage; and now Ral Zarek. Is it time for Vintage ‘Super Friends?’

Possible deck: Planeswalker Control.

IV. You have Time Vault in play.

Ral Zarek’s +1 can allow us to take infinite cards with Time Vault.

Possible deck: Tezzeret or Turbo Tezz.

V. You’re playing a creature mirror and just want to gun down multiple creatures.

If Ral Zarek resolves, he’s pretty good at simply murdering small creatures again and again and again.

Possible deck: Fish (sideboard).

VI. You want to make extra mana.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor does almost everything, but he cannot reliably make mana. Ral Zarek’s +1 will net you a mana by untapping a land or possibly more if you untap a Grim Monolith, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, or in Magical Christmasland Tolarian Academy.

Possible deck: Turbo Tezz.

One other thing to note is that I almost feel like this card does not have an ultimate ability in Vintage—unless you Time Vault combo, in which case do you really need more Time Walks?—because the games don’t typically go super long.

Given the amount of useful applications, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ral Zarek saw Vintage play in the future. The most appealing application for me (at least in the abstract) is a deck that just plays a ton of planeswalkers.

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

“Is there a place for a R/G six-drop?”

The idea of having this fatty in play is a good thought, no doubt. The problem is that Ruric Thar is a R/G 6CC monster, which means that in order to reliably get it onto the battlefield, it’s going to need to be cheated into play.

– Natural Order? If we are Elfing, wouldn’t we just get Craterhoof Behemoth and win?

– Oath of Druids? Shouldn’t we just get Griselbrand instead?

– Tinker? Um, not an artifact…

– Show and Tell? Still not a Griselbrand.

I couldn’t think of a reasonable way to get this thing into play where I wouldn’t have a better option to put into play. However, if there comes a day where somebody thinks of some way and some reason to play Ruric Thar—and specifically Ruric Thar—the options do exist.

Sin Collector

“Dirty deeds, and they’re done dirt cheap!”

Actually, these dirty deeds are done for 1WB, which is a pretty steep cost.

As I’ve already stated in my past two articles, I really like playing with Sin Collector, but he may simply be too expensive for Vintage. I could see it making an impact in a B/W deck with a lot of hand disruption, but I must admit that such a deck would likely be a budget deck.

Spike Jester

“Is this a joke? No, it’s a Spike Jester!”

A 3/1 haste creature for two mana is nothing to scoff at.

I understand that this is Vintage and that by Vintage standards this is not particularly impressive; nonetheless, it could be a solid budget deck type card.

R/B Burn

Brian Demars

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Vintage

Creatures (26)

Lands (13)

Spells (21)

Sideboard

A not actually a terrible little deck!

Voice of Resurgence

“One little voice is calling me, calling me (if you get this Doug reference, kudos).”

Good card is good.

A reasonable card for both Bant and G/W Aggro decks to utilize moving forward. Voice of Resurgence seems like a solid addition to either deck since it’s really strong against counterspells, end-of-turn effects, and in creature combat.

Unfortunately, it’s weak to Swords to Plowshares because it won’t net you a token unless your opponent is foolish enough to use it during your turn.

If you play against Bant or G/W Aggro, don’t be surprised if Voice of Resurgence is good against you both pre- and post-sideboard.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped

“Scar and Stripes Forever”

Varolz, the Scar=Striped is a really powerful Magic card. It has two abilities, both of which are awesome and both of which are packed on a 2/2 body for only three mana.

Suicide Mask-Nought

Brian Demars

Test deck on 02-17-2013

Vintage

Creatures (15)

Lands (16)

Spells (29)

Sideboard

While admittedly not a tier 1 superpower, I feel as though I have outdone myself with this little masterpiece.

Stifle –> Phyrexian Dreadnaught + Illusionary Mask –> Phyrexian Dreadnaught as a fast combo.

Suicide life loss + Death’s Shadow as a midgame plan.

Varolz, the Scar Striped + Phyrexian Dreadnaught and/or Death’s Shadow if the first two didn’t work!

Merry Dragon’s Maze and Happy New Decks!

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Brian DeMars

I am Selesnya. If forced to live on an all city planet, I would definitely join the “back to nature” group. The thing I love about the Selesnia guild is that on a plane dominated by varying degrees of villainy, the Selesnyans are the one heroic group of the bunch.