Continuing from where we left off from yesterday, we’ll now explore the final cards on my list.
7: Black Lotus
For zero mana you get three mana of any color you want. This card is the most powerful piece of acceleration that you can run and the cause of many broken starts people love to complain about (me included!). Though some people may debate including Lotus, the fact remains that (just about) every single deck plays this card for the opening starts it can produce.
6: Mana Drain
It’s a Counterspell and Dark Ritual in one, how can you go wrong? Drain allows you to successfully steal tempo from an opponent, trade 1 for 1 and take advantage of the resources they put into the spell! It’s not only the best Counterspell ever printed, but one of the best Blue disruption spells as well. Despite being the only reactive card on the entire list, Drain’s ability to steal resources from the opponent puts it up here above Chalice of the Void and right behind the next card on our list…
5: Trinisphere
…Man, I hate this card. Play it turn 1 and you have a pair of Time Walks on your opponent. God forbid you have a follow up while the opponent sits there crippled. Adding insult to injury, the card lacks any sort of tact or strategy. Play it ASAP and hope the opponent can’t recover before you:
A. Destroy his few lands in play
B. Beat him down
C. Make your opponent curse you out in disgust and get him ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Most of my first article focused on stupid decks, go check there if you would like to see an example of why Trinisphere is here.
4: Ancestral Recall / Necropotence / Yawgmoth’s Bargain (Yes, I’m cheating here. Shhh.)
I lump these three cards together, because of the annoying similarities of the trio. These three are the only draw cards on the entire list and are on here because they provide a backbreaking card advantage to one player. It seems only fitting that these all get lumped together. The only major difference is when each of the cards is typically played and wins the game.
Ancestral Recall player: I draw 3 on turn 1. 7 turns later, you’re dead now, right?
Necropotence player: I draw 7 at the end of turn 1. Turn 2 comes. You’re dead now, right?
Yawgmoth’s Bargain player: I draw 19 cards on turn 3. You’re dead now, right?
An Ancestral Recall that resolves on turn 1 is one of the hardest advantages to overcome with any deck. The same goes for an early Necropotence, which will usually win the turn after it resolves. Meanwhile Bargain comes down later in the game, but wins immediately assuming a high life total. All 3 of these cards provide an excellent card to mana cost ratio. Any of these cards resolving will typically cause a major card deficit; that the opponent will struggle to cope with.
3: Mind’s Desire
Desire was the first card to ever be pre-restricted (Restricted before it was legal to be played) in Vintage play. It’s one of the most powerful cards available in Vintage, even as a 1-of, and we should count ourselves lucky we never had to deal with a full set of 4 being legal*. A turn 1 or 2 Desire for 5 or more is generally considered game, barring a freak occurrence by an unlucky caster. This card can’t be stopped by any normal counters and requires no other specific cards to help set-up like other combos. Unlike other Draw-7’s and similar spells, there is no synergy involved here; Desire simply gives you a huge amount of mana and cards for the initial cost of six mana.
*Except for those geniuses who thought it’d be fair / fun having multiple turn 1 kill decks that were barely phased by normal combo hate. An “All Desire All The Time” format certainly sounds entertaining, but we already have that. It’s called Type 0.
2: Tinker
This is one of the most brutal turn 1 plays you could possibly pull on an opponent. For three mana and an artifact going into the trash, you can fetch any artifact directly from your deck and put it into play. This gives you a cheap super tutor that can find game winning spells at any juncture of the game, beginning on turn 1. Did I mention it was Blue? Because, you know… Blue really needed it. I know it’s not like it’s a good color in Vintage or anything…
With the Mirrodin block providing Darksteel Colossus, Sundering Titan and Mindslaver, the card received an upgrade from “really good tutor for Memory Jar” to “near auto-include in every single deck that runs Blue”. And one of the most one-sided and unfair cards ever printed.
1: Yawgmoth’s Will
Before I write my little ditty on Will, let’s all take a moment to thank Scourge though for producing a card that got in the top 3 over an all Urza’s block of Bargain, Tinker and Yawgmoth’s Will.
Now as for why Will is number one.
…
*blink blink* You mean you don’t know how to use the three sea shells?
Tune in again next time, when I talk about something. Something that’s possibly not Vintage related. Maybe.
-Joshua Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: joshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom