Planar Chaos promises to inspire a modicum of format chaos for the Vintage player. Turmoil is a result of change and uncertainty. And change in Vintage is generally an innovative response to one of two events: 1) alterations to the restricted list or 2) the printing of new cards. Since changes to the restricted list are now quite infrequent, most of the change in Vintage comes through the introduction of new cards into the format.
It’s difficult to characterize or group cards into broad categories, but the cards that enter the format are generally one of three varieties:
1) Fundamental to the Format: These are cards that become a defining part of the metagame: Gifts Ungiven, Forbidden Orchard, Grim Tutor, and Trinisphere are recent insertions (i.e. the last three years) that transformed the Vintage landscape.
2) Format Staples: These are cards that see are generally useful and see a decent measure of play, but aren’t format defining (Dark Confidant, Repeal, and Pithing Needle).
3) Format Fillers: These are cards that fill niche roles and are only played at the margins of the format, or only in particular decks that aren’t really metagame defining at the moment (Darkblast, Trickbind, Serum Powder, and Ancient Grudge).
And if you want to add a fourth catch-all category, you could add:
4) Possible Playables: This would include cards that appear to be viable in Vintage in terms of their efficiency or utility, but wouldn’t appear to have an obvious home at the moment. A card that fits this bill would be Erayo. It was clear that when Erayo was printed that it was a powerful effect that could be useful in Vintage. Many attempts to do that failed, until Adrian Sullivan found a home for this guy some time later. The result was a tournament-winning deck called the Sullivan Solution. But the card hasn’t seen play in any other deck since.
Looking back on my Time Spiral review, it is clear that although I did a good job of figuring out where most of the set fell in Vintage, I missed the two cards that appear to be in the process of leaving the biggest mark: Empty the Warrens and Dread Return. It is too early to fit either card into one of the categories I’ve described above, but Dread Return appears to be at least a Category 2 card, if not a Category 1 card. Whether Dread Return reaches Category 1 status will depend upon whether the Ichorid decks manage to become long-standing upper tier contenders. I believe that they will in time. Empty the Warrens is well on its way to Category 1 status.
Andy Probasco recently won one of American Vintage’s major events: The Mana Drain Open (also known as the “Waterbury”) playing a Gifts Ungiven variant designed to abuse Empty the Warrens. If you look at Andy’s article), you’ll notice that he was traditionally a champion of Thirst For Knowledge in Gifts control. However, he finally seems to have abandoned that route in lieu of the Meandeck Gifts engine of Merchant Scroll and his own preference for playing his beloved Repeal. The printing of Empty the Warrens turns Repeal from a quirky but useful bounce spell into a powerful storm enabler. Empty the Warrens has wholesale replaced the Tinker into Darksteel Colossus combo in his list, which you can find here.
As for Dread Return, in the last three weeks I’ve written about a powerful new deck that is built around the card. Although I’ve never said this explicitly until now, it is Dread Return that fundamentally reshaped Vintage Ichorid in ways that are interactive and cumulative. Let me explain. Dread Return gives Ichorid a faster clock than has ever existed in Ichorid because of the Sutured Ghoul combo. This clock does not rely on mana. Therefore, Serum Powder into Bazaar at any cost becomes a viable tactical play that results in your Dread Return combo. However, both Serum Powder and Dread Return depend on Nether Shadow. In previous lists, Nether Shadow wasn’t used because you needed real power. The fact that Nether Shadow is a 1/1 doesn’t matter now because he is mostly bait to feed the Dread Return. In short, Dread Return made both Serum Powder and Nether Shadow good simultaneously and transformed the archetype in the process.
I omitted Dread Return from my original set review because I felt that it wasn’t going to substantially improve Ichorid as an archetype. I felt that if you had three creatures out you were winning anyway, and flashing back Dread Return didn’t make much sense. My assumption, however, was that your creatures were Ichorids, Ashen Ghouls, and Putrid Imps. I hadn’t thought of using Nether Shadow, or indeed rebuilding the deck around Dread Return.
I talked about Grapeshot as a potential storm card for Vintage, but completely omitted Empty the Warrens (as did Vroman and others) from my set review because it looked like a weak Tendrils of Agony. In order to go lethal with Warrens, you had to wait at least one turn so that your goblins could attack. Why would you ever wait? I didn’t think about the repercussions of randomly dropping 8-14 Goblins on the table against Stax or Fish. It causes quite a bit of trouble without requiring the full investment in resources and storm that Tendrils needs to be any good.
I think this highlights the danger and limitations of set reviews. You can’t really make accurate predictions just based upon assessing cards in the abstract, examining the relative strength of the new card to similar old cards, or determining how old cards may fill niches in existing strategies. Sometimes a new card, like Dread Return, will require an examination into new deck design before it can be accurately forecast. Seeing as that would have involved a lot of thinking and a complete redesign of the Ichorid deck (which Albert Kyle eventually did with his Manaless Ichorid), that would take us beyond the purview of set reviews and into deck development itself.
With the humility in the certain knowledge that my set review will be at best tentative and flawed, we can still make educated guesses and at least figure out where most of the cards will fall.
The theme of Planar Chaos is mixing up the color pie. Such an endeavor has the potential to leave a deep imprint on the Eternal formats, where such cards will be legal in perpetuity until the end of time. On the other hand, the availability of readily accessible mana of any color via Fetchland and Dual land and multi-color nonbasics means that cards that significantly change the color pie will have to be unusual or efficient to really see play. For example, a Black Red Elemental Blast would tremendously shake things up, but a White Misdirection probably wouldn’t be that good.
Let’s see what Wizards has cooked up for us this time around…
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Akroma has been Planeshifted into Red, with some changes.
Akroma is widely regarded as one of the best White creatures ever printed and is a marquis murder weapon in Vintage Oath of Druids decklists.
The question is: will this Akroma now join her sister as twin furies of vengeances? Ultimately, I think the answer is “no,” because Razia has haste while Angel of Fury doesn’t. If she had haste, she’d be an automatic inclusion into the Vintage elite. Without it, she’s just another sweet looking card for Vintage players to trade away for Vintage cards.
Brain Gorgers
I doubt this card will see play, but the primary drawback, that an opponent could sacrifice a creature to counter it, is not likely to be a problem in Vintage, where creatures are not prevalent or likely to be sacrificed to stop him from coming into play.
Since this card has madness, it combos with Bazaar of Baghdad. I doubt it will see play, however, as Bazaar already sees lots of play in other decks. This card could see home in some of the rogue, disruptive aggro decks that are getting some press in Vintage but use Bazaar as random draw spell to get rid of bad cards and dig for relevant ones.
Dash Hopes
While it appears they put Counterspell in Black, they did not. Vintage players gladly pay five life for all sorts of different effects. The drawback is too steep to make this a playable card. If it were a straight counterspell, I would put it in Category 4 as a potentially playable card, keeping in mind that Counterspell (UU) sees no play in Vintage right now.
Dawn Charm
I will simply note that this card counters Gifts Ungiven. That doesn’t make it playable, but I just thought I’d note that anyway.
Dead / Gone
Red Bounce is potentially useful. I could see some Uba Stax players taking note of this card for their sideboards. Granted, it’s probably inferior to Duplicant, but I mention it anyway. I would classify it as a weak Category 4 card.
Extirpate
Wow! What a surprising card to print. It seems to me that this card is undercosted for its effect. I would have expected at least B1 for such a powerful card. Granted, this card doesn’t automatically affect board position or hand, but it easily could.
This card is an automatic Category 3 card and has solid potential to reach Category 2 status. Category 1 status is possible but unlikely.
Strategies that revolve around the graveyard are central to Vintage. Gifts Ungiven, Goblin Welder, Ichorid, Auriok Salvagers, and Worldgorger Dragon Combo all seek to use the graveyard. Perhaps the most important card in Vintage: Yawgmoth’s Will, is all about the graveyard. Tormod’s Crypt sees a lot of play, but doesn’t deter these strategies because they are so powerful and resilient. Extirpate could stop some of them in their tracks and humble you at the same time.
At first glance, it would seem that Worldgorger Dragon combo would be the deck hardest hit by Extirpate. If the Dragon player has discarded a single Dragon, Extirpate could rip the remaining Dragon’s out of the graveyard and knock you out of the game. However, most Dragon lists run Duress and Xantid Swarm, both of which can address Extirpate pre-emptively. However, it does increase, by a sizable margin, the vulnerability of Dragon strategy and will dissuade most people from playing it more than cards like Leyline of the Void.
Similarly, it would seem that Ichorid loses quite a bit to Extirpate. I think, although Extirpate is useful against Ichorid, it’s not as strong as it looks. First of all, Ichorid still has Nether Shadows to recur a Sutured Ghoul. Second, Ichorid has upwards of twelve discard spells to preemptively strip out the Extirpate. Extirpate will slow down Ichorid decks, but not stop them.
Against Storm combo, you can respond to a Yawgmoth’s Will by removing all Dark Rituals from their graveyard, deck, and library at instant speed in the hopes of causing them to fizzle.
Against Control, you can remove all of the Polluted Delta, Brainstorms, or even Force of Will or Mana Drains very quickly. God forbid if the Control player has already played a Force of Will. In mid-game control mirrors, this card could create havoc by stripping out all Mana Drains and Force of Wills from your opponent’s hand at unstoppable speed. Comboing out shall commence shortly thereafter.
I am not sure that any individual point I’ve made so far is really enough to make Extirpate more than a Category 4 card. However, it has even more utility that makes it really useful. At instant speed, you can see your opponent’s entire hand and library. That information can be absolutely crucial. And it isn’t Glasses of Urza — you are getting something out of it, something more than just raw information. It’s also unstoppable so that you can time it precisely to maximize the tactical advantage that the information would grant.
It’s also disruptive and can reverse cards like Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor by forcing your opponent to shuffle their library.
The question is: will it be omnipresence like Chalice of the Void or Duress, or will it be more of a niche card like Stifle?
I could see it both being incorporated into existing decks, but also providing the foundation for new decks. Time will tell.
Frozen Aether
Kismet in Blue would seem to have potential in a Stasis deck, no? Well, it costs four mana, does the same thing as Orb of Dreams, and is much more expensive than Root Maze. So I doubt it.
Besides, I haven’t seen a Stasis deck in years.
Imp’s Mischief
This is a Black Misdirection of sorts… perhaps it would be better termed a stronger Deflection. It’s probably inferior to both Misdirection and Divert, but it is worthy of notice. In mono-Black decks, this card can act a straight counterspell to protect your spell and force it into play. Perhaps this is a card that could serve in a mono-Black combo deck as anti-counterspell protection. You can have Force of Will target this spell instead of the spell it is trying to counter.
However, I haven’t seen a mono-Black deck in some time. It’s too cost effective to splash for relevant colors. And if you want to protect your spell, most of the time Duress or Unmask would just be better. This is a very weak Category 4 card.
Keen Sense
This is a Planeshifted Curiosity. Curiosity has seen sizable play in recent Vintage history, predominantly in U/R Fish decks that dominated the Summer 2003 metagame. This card is efficient enough that it could find a home in Vintage just as Curiosity did. It’s a Category 4 card.
Magus of the Library
This card is probably too slow to see play in Vintage. Even Library of Alexandria’s place in Vintage deck is now a matter of considerable debate. If this card cost G1, I could see people trying it. As it stands, it is too slow. Vintage games often wrap up by turn 4, and you won’t even get to play this most of the time until turn 2 anyway.
Mana Tithe
Planeshifted Force Spike. Force Spike sees no play in Vintage because Daze and Disrupt are just considered superior for obvious reasons. Although it is notable that White now has Force Spike, I don’t anticipate that this will make a difference or see any play, primarily because there are no mono-White decks that could take advantage of it (Parfait what?)
Mesa Enchantress
Speaking of Parfait – a mono-White control deck from 2001 that was built around Scroll Rack and Land Tax, with a Sacred Mesa Kill – this card could potentially be useful in there. That deck used things like Aura Fracture and Seal of Cleansing to make things difficult on the opponent. If this ever had a home, it would be in a deck like that. Vintage is now too fast for a deck like that to sprout up. I don’t think this is playable.
Null Profusion
Chris Miller has already talked about the potential of this card in Vintage.
Recycle in a good color. Is this good enough to combo out?
Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Mox, Null Profussion. GG?
In my view, this is either a Category 1 or 2 card, or else unplayable. It either becomes the engine of a successful new archetype, or it is just useless.
This card does have great synergy with the Storm mechanic, but to become a storm engine, you’ll need to take account of two constraints:
First of all, you lose your draw step. That means, once this card has resolved, you had better make the most of it. You are “all in.” Someone on the Mana Drain pointed out that if you start to combo out and you draw two lands, you are done. You have no more spells to play and thus you will be locked under your own Null Profusion. Thus, any deck that seeks to abuse Null Profusion will need to be land light. In fact, it would be advisble to run almost no land at all if possible.
Second, this card will need to come down consistently on turn 1 or turn 2 through resistance. Furthermore, it will have to consistently goldfish by turn 3. Ideally, you will want to win the game the turn you resolve this, but it is possible that you could pass the turn once and then try to go off.
I have great doubts about the viability of this card, so I will leave it as a Category 4 mystefier that could become a Category 1 or 2 bomb, unlikely as that may be.
Phantasmagorian
This card is a Vintage playable in Vintage Manaless Ichorid. It automatically replaces Gigapede. Gigapede was included as an anti-Wasteland component in Vintage Ichorid that enables you to discard your primary dredgers even if you no longer have a Bazaar. It also subbed as fodder to feed Sutured Ghoul. This card is even better. First of all it’s Black, which means it can feed Ichorid as well as Sutured Ghoul and can pitch to Unmask. Second, it enables you to discard even more cards than Gigapede, which makes it an even stronger anti-Wasteland shield. Nice card. Auto Category 3 card.
Porphyry Nodes
Drop of Honey, one of my favorite cards, has been Time and Planeshifted into White. I seriously doubt that this card will see any play since Drop of Honey sees no play, but it is fun to reminisce about my favorite set, Arabian Nights.
Seal of Primordium
Planeshifted Seal of Cleansing. Seal of Cleansing saw quite a bit of play in Stax for some time. Now this card is in a better color, expect to see it more often. Category 3 card.
Shrouded Lore
This is Time and Planeshifted Forgotten Lore. The only reason this might see play where its predecessor sees none is the presence of Dark Ritual as a combo engine. In my view, it is too narrow, but you never know.
Simian Spirit Guide
This is my favorite card from the set and in the long run (long, long run) I’m sure it will prove the most potent. The thing that makes Vintage so unique is the accelleration. In recent years Wizards has been printing more and more accelleration into Red, with cards like Seething Song, Desperate Ritual, and Rite of Flame. This is the best yet. What you giveth to Vintage can never be taken away entirely.
Elvish Spirit Guide is a Vintage staple. I’ve been playing with it in Vintage combo for years. And for a long period in there I would have killed for a more useful color, like a Red Spirit Guide. However, with the printing of Xantid Swarm and its general utility as an anti-Split Second card and ability to hose all counterspells, it has gained currency over cards like Red Elemental Blast. Being able to instant speed Red Elemental Blast after using this card would have been sexy back in 2003.
As it stands, this card will definitely see play in Vintage and possibly more than Elvish Spirit Guide does not, which is not insubstantial. It sees play in all manner of Vintage combo sideboards and mainboards as a green Lotus Petal and an evasive answer to Sphere of Resistance.
For instance, let’s say you are playing combo and your opponent leads:
Turn 1:
Mishra’s Workshop, Trinisphere.
You can hope to build up a hand that has a land, two Elvish Spirit Guides and a Hurkyl’s Recall so that you might bounce all of their artifacts to their hand and then combo out by dropping the cards that have been building up in your hand while they attempted to lock you out of the game. Simian Spirit Guide assists his sister in that effort.
Here is another deck that may try to abuse Simian Spirit Guide:
Back in 2004, Michael Siminster piloted his monstrous Goblin Charbelcher creation to third place at the Vintage Championship in a sea of Trinispheres. After losing, he was convined that he should have won his final match if not for a crucial misplay. Here is what he played:
Spells (47)
- 1 Tendrils of Agony
- 2 Brainstorm
- 2 Cabal Ritual
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 1 Mystical Tutor
- 1 Yawgmoth's Will
- 1 Necropotence
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Wheel of Fortune
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 4 Dark Ritual
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Channel
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 4 Land Grant
- 1 Timetwister
- 2 Living Wish
- 1 Memory Jar
- 4 Goblin Charbelcher
- 4 Chromatic Sphere
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Mana Cylix
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 1 Chrome Mox
Granted, that list is quite old and a number of players have since taken up the archetype since. Ray Robillard enjoyed some 2005 success with the archetype and Justin Droba made Top 8 at SCG Chicago as well. You can see the deck in action in an article I wrote some time ago.
It seems to me that Simian Spirit Guide is an auto-inclusion. If you wanted to update Simister’s list, you could cut Tinder Walls for Simian Spirit Guide, Mana Cylix for Chromatic Star, and Tendrils for Empty the Warrens. That would give you a good start. Another tack is to cut the Blue entirely, as Nat Moes has done here.
Simian Spirit Guide enables you to play Welders fairly easily while fueling Draw7s. Seems pretty good. That should give you an idea of how Simian Spirit Guide might make a nice addition to Vintage.
I think this is going to be a Category 2 card like Elvish Spirit Guide is today.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
This card has the unique role of giving narrow but powerful Vintage lands like Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra’s Workshop, and Wasteland the ability to produce colored mana. As a consequence, I can see this card becoming an autoinclusion in virtually every Stax deck. And as my teammate Willie Milton pointed out, every card s Fetchland finds will also produce Black while this is in play.
This is a Category 3 card that will see play in Vintage.
The question is whether it could become a Category 1 or 2 card. The answer will depend upon whether it can push a major revamp to an old deck or become the cornerstone to a new deck.
Here is a draft of a deck that might try to abuse Urborg:
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Riftstone Portal
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Trinisphere
4 Dark Confidant
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Null Rod
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Smokestack
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Balance
1 Trike
1 Karn
1 Pithing Needle
The idea behind this deck is to try and take advantage of the fact that Mishra’s Workshop and Bazaar can produce Black with Urborg in play. That way you aren’t hurt as badly by Null Rod, which will break the back of many opponents.
Venarian Glimmer
Venarian Glimmer is interesting. End of Turn, Venarian Glimmer you! Even with just a land and a Mox you can probably take a great card from your opponents hand. And with four mana you can probably take the best card. It’s an interesting card, but probably too slow to be viable in Vintage. Interesting, but not playable.
Wistful Thinking
Notice it says “target” player. If your opponent has one or two cards in hand and you target them, they lose their hand. But if they have three cards in hand, they’ll get to keep their best card. I don’t think this is playable, neither as discard nor as a draw engine for you, but it is an interesting card much like Call of the Court. Interesting, but not playable.
Top 5 Cards from Planar Chaos
We have reached the end of our set review. You know what that means! Time for my Top 5 list of new cards from the set:
1) Extirpate
2) Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3) Simian Spirit Guide (my favourite card from the new set)
4) Phantasmagorian
5) Seal of Primordium
I hope my aim is more accurate this time. I guess we’ll know by the time (insert name of next set) comes around.
Until next time,