Vintage occupies a special place in the game of Magic. It is the place where Magic’s present meets Magic’s past. Being as old as the game itself, it is the only format where every card is legal (excepting those for ante, with dexterity, or subgames). It is the only sanctioned format where Black Lotus can be used to play Tarmogoyf, or Cursecatcher can be used to counter Ancestral Recall.
To the wary, Vintage sometimes looks like a rogue’s gallery of Magic’s most broken cards, and the restricted list is just the hall of infamy, the Arkham Asylum for the worst of the worst.
To the curious, Vintage must appear like a fantasy sports league with a drafting pool that begins with Babe Ruth and rounds out with Alex Rodriguez.
To the casual, Vintage is the structure for unstructured. It is the place where Sol Ring can be used to play Multani, and Demonic Tutor can find Coat of Arms.
To the dabbler, Vintage is a work-out. It is a format to test drive every once in a while, to cross-train for fun and profit. It is the place where deep stacks are common and graveyards are as much in play as lands.
To the libertarian, Vintage is a haven. It is the laissez-faire format that no designer could conceive and no development team or Future Future League can shape. It is the land of unintended interactions where metagame forces are the only currency.
To the gentleman, Vintage is a format to impress your friends and acquaintances, with flashy cards and stylish plays.
To the addict, Vintage is where high octane strategy thrives. It is a never-ending array of options and interactions, a cascade of ideas to test.
Vintage is all of those things and more.
To the legions of Magic players, Vintage is at once familiar and enigmatic. And in spite of the fact that other formats are more accessible, easier to master, and more profitable, Vintage is irresistible. Shocking numbers of players list Vintage as their favorite format. It’s not hard to see why.
Last Monday, Wizards of the Coast went above and beyond their responsibility to manage Vintage. They took steps to secure its future by strengthening the format, by giving it a sturdier foundation by clearing out the cobwebs and renovating the restricted list. Wizards announced the unrestriction of five cards and the removal of power level errata on Time Vault.
What the cynics and wary do not understand is that the Vintage restricted list is not a hall of infamy. It is not the final repository for the best cards in Magic history. Its purpose is less rarified and more practical. It is a policy device. A tool.
The act of restricting a card in Vintage is a serious matter. For all but a handful of cards, Eternal is the final home for Magic cards. The idea of Vintage, its raison d’être, is that you get to play with all of your cards so far as possible. In 2000, the DCI unbanned Mind Twist and Channel and moved them to the restricted list. With that move, the DCI legalized for the tournament play those last remaining cards that were banned for power reasons. In 2005, Portal became tournament legal. The last remaining cards that could be played were admitted into the format.
The flip side of the reason for Vintage is that if a card does not deserve restriction, then it should not be restricted. A cynic might say that unrestricting a card that will have no impact on the metagame, or one that sees no play, does not make much sense. What the cynic doesn’t understand is that a shorter restricted list is better for Magic and the integrity of the format. Casual players who use the restricted list, but don’t play unfair decks, have more options. Players who design and tinker with decks have more options with fewer restrictions. There are more toys to play with. The sandbox is larger. Players are happier because of it. They feel freer. But above all, the unrestriction of cards that don’t deserve that designation helps preserve the sense that restriction is a means of last resort.
The restricted list has picked up quite a bit of detritus over the years. The unrestriction of these five cards comes as quite a surprise so soon after a wave of the June restrictions, but it is a welcome surprise. It signals that the DCI is attentive and is willing to take action to continue to improve the format.
Dream Halls was restricted in 1999 in a wave of 18 restrictions cleaning up and taking out most of the accumulated brokenness from Urza’s Block, and then some. The explanation can be found here.
The fundamental problem with Dream Halls is that it is an outmoded and inefficient mana accelerant. Let me explain.
In function, if not form, Dream Halls is a mana accelerant. You use Dream Halls to play more expensive spells. In that sense it is no different than Dark Ritual or Tinder Wall. The problem is that it is a very bad mana accelerant.
Dark Ritual generates three mana for one mana. You net two mana from it. Most of the Moxen net one mana the turn you play them, and then continue to produce mana for the rest of the game.
Let’s suppose you are playing Time Spiral off Dream Halls. Here is what Dream Halls did:
Dream Halls Ritual
UU3
Sorcery
Discard a blue card to play Dream Halls Ritual.
Add UU4 to your mana pool.
Granted, you can then use Dream Halls to play the spells you draw off Time Spiral for free. But Time Spiral already is free! It untaps the lands in play so that you can just play all of those spells you drew anyway.
Before storm saw print, combo decks used awful cards like Mind Over Matter and Dream Halls to generate enough mana to assemble their expensive and often infinite mana kill conditions, like Fireball or Stroke of Genius. We can laugh about that today. Infinite mana is infinitely unnecessary. The printing of the storm mechanic, specifically Tendrils of Agony, abolished the need for all such engines.
Many of you will try to build Dream Halls decks anyway. You won’t believe me at my word. Okay, let me take you up on your claim that Dream Halls can be broken.
Logically, in order for a Dream Halls deck to work, there are three requirements:
First of all, you need the mana to play Dream Halls.
Second, you need ways to protect Dream Halls.
Third, you need a way to combo out quickly once it is in play.
We can agree on these minimum prerequisites.
First of all, the mana requirements to play Dream Halls is basically no different than the mana requirements of playing any big Vintage engine, whether it is Mind’s Desire or Yawgmoth’s Bargain. You have one of two options: you can just Mana Drains to fuel it or you can go the Dark Ritual route. Both options would utilize the normal coterie of artifact acceleration. This will require at least 25 mana sources, and possibly 28.
Second, you are going to need to run at least 8 disruption spells, and probably more. You may want 4 Force of Will and 4 Duress or you could go 4 Force of Will and 4 Mana Drain. Alternatively, you could spice it up with Misdirections, Thoughtseizes, and so on.
Third, if you are to break Dream Halls, you need not only a way to combo out once it’s in play. But more importantly, you need to get some advantage that you can’t get without Dream Halls. The only thing that makes sense is to play with absurdly over-costed spells that couldn’t otherwise be played without Dream Halls.
Grozoth plus four Searing Wind seems to be the most obvious route, but there are others. I tried building a Dream Halls deck with Future Sights and Temporal Cascades and all sorts of other junk.
The number one problem is that this deck is simply worse than available options. If you are running Dream Halls to storm out and using 4 Force of Will and 4 Duress, how is that better than TPS? It’s not. You are actually running a much worse deck.
If you are running Dream Halls to play Temporal Cascades or Grozoth your deck is bad, because if you can’t find or resolve Dream Halls, you are holding unplayable garbage.
In sum, the kills that are good with Dream Halls are better in decks without it (Tendrils etc) or they are garbage without Dream Halls (Searing Wind and Grozoth). All of the ways that you would cast Dream Halls are mana acceleration, like Dark Ritual and Moxen, or Drains and Blue spells. Either way, those shells actually render Dream Halls unnecessary. This is because any thing that you’d play free with Dream Halls can just be cast with the mana you used to actually play Dream Halls.
The bottom line is that Dream Halls has no advantages over anything else that already exists. As a card, it’s terrible. It’s highly symmetrical, a double edged sword, and it’s easy to disrupt or stop. Dream Halls does nothing by itself. It doesn’t draw you cards. It just gives you mana. And the mana it gives you is not commensurate with the costs of playing the cards itself, both in the sense of casting it and in the sense of designing around it.
I set about trying to build a Dream Halls deck in my article on Unrestriction Proposals in February. The unrestriction of Dream Halls simply opens the door to casual players across the world who want to enjoy playing a 4 Dream Halls deck to cast monstrous fatties, and other Timmy cards. Grozoth for the win. It will see no seriously play in Vintage. Much thanks to Wizards for recognizing Dream Halls for what it is.
Like Dream Halls, Mox Diamond is also a terrible card that was unnecessarily restricted in the 1999 purge.
The fundamental problems with Mox Diamond are as follows.
First, most decks that would value the acceleration gained by Mox Diamond do not have or want the quantity of lands needed to support it. Vintage combo decks, like TPS, run only 12 lands. Slower decks don’t need the acceleration and do not find the benefit of early mana to be worth the cost. In any case, virtually all decks would run a Chrome Mox before running Mox Diamond, and almost nothing in Vintage currently plays Chrome Mox.
Second, Mox Diamond is quite painful in mulligans, and a bad topdeck. The test of a card is not simply how good it is in the abstract, but how it performs when you are in a losing position. Mox Diamond is a useless, unplayable topdeck, and significantly weakens a mulligan hand. A hand of six with Mox Diamond is a functional hand of five, if that.
Third, Mox Diamond is not better in multiples. The idea of restriction is to limit a cards power by 1) reducing the chances that you’ll draw it or by 2) reducing the synergy of multiples. For example, Mind’s Desire is more powerful in multiples because a Desire might flip another Desire. Mox Diamond is not that much better in multiples, if at all. A hand with two or, god forbid, three Mox Diamonds is not better than a hand with one. The increased chance that you’ll draw it is not all that significant since any deck trying to abuse Mox Diamond will probably find the optimal number of Mox Diamond is much less than 4. The risk of drawing two Mox Diamonds must be mitigated at all costs unless you are building a deck for Mox Diamond.
The most obvious home is in budget decks for zero proxy environments. Mox Diamond might be useful in Europe where proxies are generally not permitted.
The second possible home would be a deck that can turn the drawback into an advantage. For example, a deck that runs either Land Tax or Life From the Loam.
Andy Probasco came up with an innovative deck using Raven’s Crime for the Vintage Championship. Unfortunately for Andy, it didn’t pan out too well. However, what if we retooled it for Mox Diamond?
Control Loam
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Stifle
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Intuition
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Darkblast
1 Recoup
1 Raven’s Crime
1 Life from the Loam
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Empty the Warrens
6 Blue Fetchlands
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
2 Mox Diamond
Sideboard:
1 Stifle
3 Duress
3 Tarmogoyf
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Extirpate
3 Yixlid Jailor
The Mox Diamonds could fuel turn 1 Mana Drain and turn 2 Intuition. This deck can Intuition up Life From the Loam, Raven’s Crime, and a Strip Mine and go to town.
But what about Land Tax? Re-introducting, Deck Parfait!
Deck Parfait!
10 Plains
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
4 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
4 Land Tax
4 Scroll Rack
4 Aura of Silence
1 Zuran Orb
1 Humility
1 Ivory Mask
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Balance
4 Abeyance
1 Enlightened Tutor
4 Argivian Find
2 Orim’s Chant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Runed Halo
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Rule of Law
1 Jester’s Cap
1 Moat
2 Sacred Mesa
This deck is a blast to play. In my Shadowmoor review, I practically begged for the DCI to unrestrict Mox Diamond just for this deck. I think with four Mox Diamond, you might actually be getting into a situation in which this deck is good enough to compete at the Tier 2. Turn 1 Mox Diamond, Land Tax or Mox Diamond, land, Scroll Rack followed by Land Tax should be incredible here.
The idea behind this deck is to use White to pack in silver bullets, using your Tax/Rack draw engine to find them.
• Aura of Silence is a massive drubbing to Workshop based strategies. This card will shut them out entirely. This is why you run four. It is also a nuisance to most other decks as well.
• Jester’s Cap, Humility, Moat, Rule of Law, and Ivory Mask are all silver bullets for decks across the field, shutting down everything from Ichorid to TPS.
• Orim’s Chants, Abeyance and Tormod’s Crypt give you protection and disruption to resolve your spells and stop your opponent from winning. Swords to Plowshares and Balance also play clean-up.
• Argivian Find is an incredibly efficient, instant speed Regrowth in this deck. If your silver bullet is countered, you can just Find it back to your hand.
• New printings like Mistveil Plains replace Soldevi Digger as a recursion engine. This deck can go infinite with creatures and life gain.
The unrestriction of Mox Diamond is upsides all the way around.
On March 1, 2005, Wizards announced that Portal would become legal that fall. At the same time, they restricted Personal Tutor and Imperial Seal as a pre-emptive measure. Although its brother, Imperial Seal, was justifiably restricted and has seen much play, Personal Tutor is unwanted, unloved, and unused.
It is not so much that Personal Tutor, at its hyper-efficient cost of a mere “U” and with its bevy of juicy tutor targets like Yawgmoth’s Will and Tinker, is a bad card. The problem is that there is enough good tutoring that the unrestriction of this card will have no impact. In combo, you already have:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Merchant Scroll (which can find Mystical Tutor)
1 Personal Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
Grim Tutor 1-4
And more…
Personal Tutor just doesn’t make the cut. Even if Grim Tutor were restricted, this card wouldn’t see play.
The scariest thing I can see doing with Personal Tutor is using it to find Tinker ASAP.
Off the top of my head:
The Tinker Deck
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
2 Seat of Synod
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Tinker
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Personal Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
4 Force of Will
3 Duress
3 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Echoing Truth
The plan is to play Personal Tutor for Tinker and then swing twice with a Darksteel Colossus. Subsquent Personal Tutors can find Yawgmoth’s Will or Time Walk.
Does that sound scary? Maybe. If you are a Fish deck. Even a Goblin deck just has to tutor up Goblin Stingscourger.
Vintage is a tutor-rich format. Restrictions or unrestrictions, there are already a critical mass of available tutors such that unrestricted Personal Tutor doesn’t change that equation on iota. If Personal Tutor for early Tinker was a good play, Personal Tutor would see play in Vintage already. It doesn’t.
This is a safe unrestriction.
Since 2004, I have argued that Time Spiral is a safe card to unrestrict. The fundamental problem with Time Spiral is that it is slow. Time Spiral is more expensive than another unrestricted Draw7 which sees no play, Diminishing Returns.
There are only two other non artifact spells that see play which cost as much: Yawgmoth’s Bargain and Mind’s Desire. Both cards are fundamentally superior in ways that suggest that Time Spiral would not be broken as an unrestricted four-of.
Yawgmoth’s Bargain is most often played with a Dark Ritual or multiple Rituals. Time Spiral can be played with Rituals, but it can’t be Ritualed out on turn 1 or 2 like Bargain. Mind’s Desire is uncounterable by conventional means since it is a storm card. Thus, the fact that Mind’s Desire is so slow is not a problem because it can’t be stopped by a simple Mana Drain.
Even if Time Spiral were to find a home in a Vintage combo deck, that deck would be fair by Vintage standards. The reason is that it would be a slow deck. TPS sets the bar for Vintage combo at the moment, although Flash set the bar far higher just a few months ago. TPS is basically a turn two and three deck. Since Time Spiral requires more than a few lands in play in order to maximize its untap, that means that Time Spiral is being played on turn 3 or later, barring the use of other restricted cards.
Perhaps a home for Time Spiral would be in a High Tide shell:
Two years ago, I proposed a High Tide deck for Vintage.
Creatures (8)
Lands (16)
Spells (36)
- 4 Brainstorm
- 1 Fastbond
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 3 Meditate
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Timetwister
- 1 Mind's Desire
- 4 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Frantic Search
- 4 High Tide
- 1 Echoing Truth
- 4 Snap
- 1 Time Spiral
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Ideas Unbound
- 1
Sideboard
Unfortunately, Merchant Scroll, the lynchpin of the deck, has been restricted. However, a Time Spiral list might still have some punch.
Meandeck Tide, 2008
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Cloud Of Faeries
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Fastbond
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Disrupt
1 Ponder
1 Echoing Truth
1 Frantic Search
4 High Tide
3 Meditate
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Research / Development
4 Snap
4 Ideas Unbound
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind’s Desire
4 Time Spiral
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
There are, of course, other possible homes for Time Spiral. The more I consider the options, the safer it seems as an unrestrict.
Unlike Mox Diamond, this is actually not an objectively bad card. Chrome Mox was restricted on December 1, 2004, effective January 1, 2004, only after only a couple of months in the format. It was restricted in the same wave of restrictions as Lion’s Eye Diamond and Burning Wish.
Here is what Randy Buehler said about the restriction then…
“Cards that provide more mana than they cost are simply too powerful in Type 1, and it doesn’t seem to matter how severe their drawbacks are. That’s the same reason we went ahead and restricted Chrome Mox. Mirrodin hasn’t been out long enough for us to see definitive evidence that the card is definitely a problem, but when it comes to fast mana cards in Type 1, we don’t need to see any more evidence. You should expect us to continue to print fast mana cards with interesting drawbacks (like Chrome Mox) when we think they will be interesting cards in Standard, Extended, and/or casual play; but you should also expect us to immediately restrict them in Type 1.”
The unrestriction of Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox signals a move away from that line of reasoning. It is a recognition that being a fast mana accelerant is not, by itself, enough. After all, both Mishra’s Workshop and Dark Ritual are unrestricted in Vintage. And cards like Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide, Cabal Ritual, Tinder Wall, and even Rite of Flame are all arguably better than Chrome Mox.
Although Long.dec (see Randy’s announcement for a list), a deck that was inspired by Mike Long and Mike K., but one that I ushered to tournament perfection, prompted the restriction of Lion’s Eye Diamond and Burning Wish, Chrome Mox was not absent from the metagame.
Some Vintage players came up with a Long variant that they claimed was even faster than the lists I was playing:
4 Chrome Mox Long.dec, Nov. 2003
By “Rico Suave”
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Gemstone Mine
5 Moxen
4 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Dark Ritual
4 Force of Will
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Brainstorm
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mind’s Desire
Sideboard:
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Primitive Justice
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Pyroblast
3 Seal of Cleansing
Although this deck created some buzz upon its release, I don’t think it was honestly stronger than the list that I tuned and polished. Chrome Mox was not particularly good, and Spoils of the Vault has an unacceptably high attrition rate (at least 8%), which is why it sees no competitive tournament play in any format.
Aside from this deck, there was never really a deck that utilized four Chrome Mox. The incoming changes wrought by Mirrodin overshadowed the tournament scene. There was never really an opportunity to see how Chrome Mox would have played out.
If this wave of unrestrictions contains a mistake, that mistake is Chrome Mox. It is, by far, the riskiest unrestriction announced, and there are at least five other cards that I would have unrestricted before Chrome Mox.
There is one bit of data we can turn to in order to predict how Chrome Mox might play out as an unrestricted card. Where has Chrome Mox seen play as a restricted singleton? The answer, surprisingly, is almost nowhere.
Even as a singleton, the cost has proven too steep for Vintage decks. Some of the reasons I already examined I connection with Mox Diamond apply here: the disutility of drawing multiple Chrome Mox, poor topdeck, it being bad in mulligans, all weigh against the need to be restricted. More Moxen clogging up hands makes some decks even worse when facing Null Rod or Chalice of the Void.
In the StarCityGames.com Vintage database, these are the only decks that even ran Chrome Mox.
In short, it appears that the primary home of Chrome Mox will be Vintage Belcher!
Sparkle Belcher
Nat “Belcher Innovator” Moes
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Street Wraith
4 Goblin Welder
4 Guttural Response
4 Manamorphose
4 Rite of Flame
4 Tinder Wall
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Channel
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
4 Land Grant
1 Taiga
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lions Eye Diamond
Sideboard
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Taiga
1 Gaea’s Blessing
4 Pyroblast
4 Jester’s Cap
4 Desperate Ritual
I’m not sure what the obvious cut is, but I’m sure Nat Moes will be running four Chrome Mox in his Belcher decks! As a reusable and stable mana source, Chrome Mox could quickly become the most stable mana accelerant in the deck.
Another possibility is in a Storm deck might be a Draw7 heavy deck.
From my article on the deck four years ago…
Chrome “Draw7”
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
2 Glimmervoid
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Fastbond
1 Crop Rotation
2 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chrome Mox
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Diminishing Returns
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
Four Chrome Mox Draw 7 sounds more entertaining than frightening. Both of these decks will run into big problems when facing opposing Chalices.
The final, and most obvious home, for Chrome Mox is Vintage Goblins!
4 Aether Vial
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 Goblin Ringleader
3 Goblin Matron
2 Goblin Vandal
4 Earwig Squad
1 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Tin-Street Hooligan
3 Mountain
4 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
1 Taiga
1 Strip Mine
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
4 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
This deck could be a terrifying force! With four Chrome Mox, you could rush out onto the board with terrifying speed!
And wouldn’t that be a good thing?
Chrome Mox is the riskiest of the unrestrictions. It will see play. But it will probably be good for the format.
Wizards of the Coast, and the DCI in particular, deserve much praise for their actions here. Based upon what I see and observe in the Vintage community, the DCI receives hundreds of calls to restrict cards every year. Fortunately, in 99% of cases, those calls are resisted, and in time the demands to restrict subside as cards filter through the Vintage metagame and their presence is normalized. It is a far riskier and less rewarding thing to unrestrict. There are no clear, tangible benefits as there would be to restrictions, and the risks are higher, especially if an unrestriction backfires.
The DCI deserves appreciation for the measures they have taken here. Vintage, and Magic as a whole, is stronger for it. If you are happy about these unrestrictions, take a moment to let them know it! It is a far easier thing to criticize than to express appreciation for a job well done. Let the DCI know that you are happy with their decisions and send them a congratulatory email, either to Erik Lauer or Mike Turian (our new Hall of Famer!).
Time Vault Restored!
The history of Time Vault is as complicated as a law school exam prompt. It loops around the history of the game itself.
In 1993, some poor sod discovered that Twiddle could be used to untap Time Vault to take additional turns.
Stupified, the nascent DCI (then known simply as the Duelist Convocation) restricted the card in the first “limited” list (the restricted list used to be called the ‘limited’ list) announcement in January of 1994.
Unsatisfied with mere restriction, three months later the DCI slapped the banhammer on Time Vault with a resounding thud that reverberates today.
In 1996, Time Vault was unbanned, but with new power level errata designed to prevent abuse. In order to take an extra turn, you would have to tap Time Vault and remove a “time counter.” You could only add a “time counter” by skipping a turn. The idea was to provide a wording that would prevent the use of cards like Twiddle to take extra turns.
Time Vault was issued erratum again in 1998 and then again in 2004.
In 2005, Flame Fusillade saw print, and it was quickly discovered that the templating on Time Vault, which could untap at any time provided you skipped a turn, was a two card infinite-damage combo for only 6 mana.
In 2006, Mark Gottlieb announced that Time Vault’s untap ability should only happen at the beginning of the turn, like the identically templated Mana Vault. This killed the Flame Fusillade combo, and hell broke loose.
Rich Shay and I wrote an article calling on Wizards to remove all power-level errata from the oracle. If Wizards was going to go back and restore the original functionality of cards, then they should do in all aspects of the cards and for all cards.
A few months later, the Rules team announced the removal of power-level errata! A host of cards were restored to their original ruled functionality, including the now infamous Flash, much to the chagrin of Grand Prix: Columbus competitors. Although the Rules Team did remove the “time counter” from the text of Time Vault, they failed to restore Time Vault’s original functionality. Time Vault remained power errated.
Until now.
Last Monday it was announced that the Rules Team was going to remove the power level errata from Time Vault, once and for all.
Here is what Time Vault will probably look like:
Time Vault
2
Artifact
Time Vault comes into play tapped. Time Vault does not untap during your untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may untap Time Vault. If you do, skip your next turn.
Tap: Take an extra turn after this one.
And, for the moment, all is right with the world…
Thank you, Wizards.
Until next time…