The Vintage Championships at Eternal Weekend are only a few, short days away, and it’s coming down to the wire to make a final decision about what deck to
play for this exciting event.
First of all, let me start by saying that, in Vintage, there really are not any right or wrong choices when it comes to picking a deck. The cards that
appear in basically any deck are incredibly powerful, and most “real” decks have a fighting chance of beating anything, good or bad matchups, in any given
match.
The most important thing with regard to picking a Vintage deck (in my opinion, anyway) is to play something that you feel the most comfortable piloting.
There are tons and tons of nuanced and complicated interactions in Vintage, and regardless of what the ‘in-crowd’ says is the ‘best’ deck, players have a
much higher chance of performing well with decks where they understand what is going on at the highest level.
Since I already know that most players who are tuning into this Vintage installment are not actually looking for a deck to play, but are mostly interested
in thinking about how to approach the tournament, I’ve decided to write this article from the perspective of which decks I think have the best chance (in
the blind) of winning the Vintage Championship.
In fact, the decks that I will be show casing in my article today are the decks that I will be looking at and practicing against when I choose my deck for
the Championship later this week. So, at the very least I think that anybody who is planning to attend the Vintage Championship should be aware and have a
very solid plan against these decks (if he or she isn’t simply playing one of these decks in the first place!).
If I had to pick an odds on favorite deck to win the entire Vintage Championship tournament it would be a deck playing four copies of Mishra’s Workshop.
From what I have seen in the games I’ve been playing and watching, as well as information I’ve gathered from looking at Vintage tournament results, I think
that Mishra’s Workshop decks are extremely powerful and performing at a very high level all over the place.
I’m actually not entirely unconvinced that if Mishra’s Workshop decks are on the play that they are heavily favored against any other deck that can be put
in front of them. Granted, things get more difficult when the archetype is on the draw-but, it is certainly saying something that in roughly half of your
matches you will be outright favored simply because you win the die roll.
I like that Mishra’s Workshop decks are extremely proactive and that all of their cards are synergistic and that they have the ability to simply “out-mana”
basically every other deck in the critical first few turns of the game.
I actually looked into borrowing a play set of Mishra’s Workshops because I was considering jumping onto the bandwagon and playing what I consider to be
the outright best deck in Vintage. However, the reason that I decided not to play the deck is that I don’t believe it actually gives me the best shot of
winning the tournament because I don’t have nearly the experience playing it as I do playing other blue decks.
That is an example of my advice to play what you know in practice!
Overall, there are two basic builds of MUD Workshop decks that I really like and that I think are extremely powerful and likely the best deck in Vintage.
The first one is called Martello Shops and the second one is called Terra Nova. The Martello Shops deck is characterized by playing with Kuldotha
Forgemaster as an extremely powerful threat and toolbox card, whereas the Terra Nova deck of the moment forgoes the powerful 3/5 and instead opts to play a
more prison-y Null Rod game.
Cooking up something good.
Here is a current list of Martello Shops by one of the archetype’s most well-known players to take a look at:
Creatures (18)
- 1 Sundering Titan
- 1 Duplicant
- 4 Lodestone Golem
- 1 Steel Hellkite
- 4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
- 4 Phyrexian Revoker
- 3 Phyrexian Metamorph
Lands (18)
Spells (24)
The deck is pretty straightforward, but the basic concept is to use lots of artifact acceleration to power out disruptive threats that impede an opponent’s
ability to use their mana. The deck also banks on being able to use the time that it buys with its mana disruption to play a Kuldotha Forgemaster that will
be able to tutor out an absolutely devastating win condition.
I bought all the Moxes and my opponent won’t let me use them!
In contrast to Martello Shops, Terra Nova does mostly the same things but has more removal (Dismember) and additional mana disruption in the form of Null
Rod.
Creatures (13)
Lands (23)
Spells (24)
The key to defeating Mishra’s Workshop decks is to not get locked out of using your mana early in the game. The unfortunate part about this strategy is
that it is very difficult to accomplish!
Efficient answers to Artifacts.
Having cheap ways to free yourself from the Spheres effects that a Workshop player is throwing up is extremely important, and there are some great options
available.
I’ve noticed that Workshop decks seem to have a lot more answers to opposing creatures than they used to. I’m not surprised as creatures have really become
a more important part of the Vintage metagame than they ever were before. As a result of this move, I really prefer to play my artifact hate in the format
of spells (preferably instants to get around Tangle Wire) that simply trade one-for-one with the cards that matter the most. Ancient Grudge is great
because it is two efficient Shatters in one card.
My approach to beating Workshop is simply to outlast their initial mana suppression by staying above water so I can keep casting spells and trying to
attack their actual threats. If you can not die, eventually the game reaches a point where they have a bunch of Spheres and ticking down Tangle Wires, but
if you keep drawing cards or making land drops, you can flip the script and start winning.
The most important thing for the Workshop matchup is to have as many cards as possible that actually play in the first few turns so that you can stave off
their early mana advantage.
The next deck that I’d like to feature here today is a perennial winner:
Say goodbye to your hopes and dreams…
In actuality, there are about a billion different decks and shells that one can fit a Mana Drain or two into and have a great chance of winning a Vintage
event. The deck that I’m going to feature here today is a Tezzeret Control deck-but, it could very well be Grixis Control, Sultai Control, Neo-Control
Slaver, Bomberman, etc. etc.
I think that a deck that features Mana Drains and Time Vault has a legitimate shot of winning the tournament.
Creatures (3)
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (11)
Spells (41)
- 1 Sensei's Divining Top
- 1 Brainstorm
- 3 Mana Drain
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Hurkyl's Recall
- 5 Island
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Time Vault
- 1 Gifts Ungiven
- 1 Thirst for Knowledge
- 2 Misdirection
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Voltaic Key
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 3 Mental Misstep
- 1 Flusterstorm
Sideboard
Big Blue Combo Control has been at the top tier of Vintage forever, and I don’t see any end to that streak in sight.
“To everything – turn, turn, turn
I have Key / Vault – turn, turn, turn.”
Time Vault is simply a broken Magic card, and it happens to go very well into the blue card drawing and permission suite. If you can simply stay alive long
enough to tutor up and protect these two cards, well, you’ve done your job and the game is over.
Obviously, Null Rod tends to be pretty great against these types of decks as it locks up the deck’s ability to make mana as well as the ability to actually
win with the combo. Unfortunately…
Giant Death Robot.
Yes, unfortunately, because attacking with a Blightsteel Colossus is not an activated ability. One of the biggest upsides of a deck like Tezzeret Control
is that it has flexible ways to end the game that can’t all be stopped by one card.
Cards that are great at breaking up Key + Vault, like the uncounterable Abrupt Decay or Null Rod, do nothing to interact with Tinkering out a Blightteel
Colossus, and cards that deal with Blightsteel Colossus, like Swords to Plowshares or Hurkyl’s Recall, are not great at beating Time Vault.
While decks like Tezzeret Control tend to adopt the ‘control role’ in Vintage, it is important to note that they are not clunky sit-around-and-do-nothing
decks. Tezzeret Control is very capable of simply winning the game on the first turn!
The reason that we Vintage fans call the Mana Drain archetype ‘Control,’ despite the deck actually being very fast, is that it tends to have inevitability
in nearly every matchup. Being able to draw lots of cards and assemble lots of permission tends to lead to this deck winning most games that go very long.
Therefore, the key to beating a Mana Drain deck is to understand that you need to get to the business of actually getting them dead sooner rather than
later. If you can force them to interact with you, it will always be a good thing.
Disrupt their mana, counter their draw spells, and do both while trying to actually win the game at the same time. In short, you need to be doing things to
mess with their plan before they have a million mana in play and have drawn a bunch of cards.
The last deck that I’d like to focus on for Vintage Champ preparation is the upstart U/R Delver deck that has been performing extremely well lately. The
deck has really been pushed over the top by the recent printing of Treasure Cruise in Khans of Tarkir, which has allowed an archetype that was always
already very good, and it has really pushed it up into that elite level of Vintage decks.
Take a ride on the card advantage yacht.
You really know a deck is elite in Vintage when nearly identical decklists are getting played not only in the same tournament, but in multiple tournaments
all across the world!
U/R Delver has elevated itself into that category.
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (12)
Spells (35)
If you’ve ever seen a Legacy Delver deck, this is basically the Vintage equivalent. Really cheap threats that hit extremely hard backed up by lots of card
draw/filtering, disruptive countermagic, and burn.
U/R Delver has been putting up a lot of high level finishes lately, and I wasn’t sure if it was just because people wanted to play with the new card or if
the deck was actually just that good. I’m of the opinion that the later is actually true and that these Delver decks are actually just an elite archetype.
The deck simply has a lot of flexible tools and a fast clock, which makes it a formidable opponent for any matchup. Aggressive creatures backed up with
counterspells and burn for removal is no joke.
So these three are my major decks to beat for the Championship tournament, but there are a few other decks that I’d like to quickly comment on.
King Fish?
I think there is also a reasonable chance that Merfolk could repeat as the Vintage Championship winning deck. It is important to note that, while the
Delver decks are really good, that the Merfolk decks probably have an all-around pretty good matchup against Delver.
Islandwalk and Null Rod? Nice!
King Zombies?
In case you haven’t been skulking around The Mana Drain looking at all of the results, Dredge has actually been putting up a lot of strong
tournament finishes in the past month. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dredge was able to become a repeat Vintage Championship winning deck. I could also
foresee a scenario where blue decks (both Drain and Fish) are sort of spread too thin trying to be good against too many different decks and simply don’t
have enough graveyard hate and get rolled over. Don’t leave home without your Graffdigger’s Cages and Yixlid Jailers.
It’s also worth noting that Nihil Spellbomb, “for value,” against people who are trying to Treasure Cruise and Snapcaster Mage could be a very nice hedge
for this event and a way to get some extra graveyard hate in your 75.
King Shaman?
Deathrite Shaman is an insane Magic card and can go into a lot of different decks ranging from Sultai Fish to aggro to Planeswalker Control. It
would not surprise me in the slightest to see a Deathrite Shaman deck win the event. In particular, Sultai Fish is a really solid deck that I think will
attract a fair amount of players to the Sultai side of the force.
King Tendrils?
Storm is such an absolutely overpowering deck that I find it impossible to ever count it out as a potential event winner. The true question will ultimately
be how much Workshop is present, and how many die rolls did they win? It may also be noteworthy that the Delver decks may be better at fighting against
Storm than traditional Mana Drain decks because of the quick clock and their ability to go underneath.
All in all, I am really looking forward to playing in this event and watching the whole thing unfold in front of me. I’m sure that this is going to be a
tournament that we will all be talking about in Vintage for weeks and months to come!