Phil Stanton has retired from the supercomputer business. Since no one else has stepped up, and since I inspired his template, I have decided to take over where he left off. I disagree with some of the methodology and approach, but for consistency’s sake, I will continue as he did.
To remind you, Phil limited the data to tournaments with fifty players or more. I think 50 is a wholly arbitrary number. I would have chosen something like 33 or 65 to reflect the swiss round break points.
A few words about the time frame. In the past, Phil analyzed the data from a given month or a pair of months. In this data set, I am including four months. The last article presenting the Vintage metagame was Phil’s May-June piece. I think it is fair to analyze the Vintage metagame in the four months surveyed and compare it to the other time periods. For one, not of lot of innovation was occurring in this time period. The deck that won SCG Chicago in July was the same deck and same player that won SCG Chicago in October. Vroman playing Uba Stax bookends this time period. Second, this was the lull before the storm. Legacy was growing and that diverted a lot of energy away from Vintage. Third, Ravnica was not quite integrated into Vintage at this time period. The solid number of tournaments in this time will provide a critical backdrop for understanding Vintage and the changes which are to ensue in the next few months. Enjoy.
From July through October, I have been able to find 20 tournaments with over 50 players. These tournaments represent a wide swath of metagames over a fairly lengthy period of time. Nonetheless, despite only one major top eight oddity, the “Universitat Trier,” the metagame appears remarkably stable during this time period. Here is the archetype breakdown from the top eights of these events:
Can we get a graphic for this chart, like Flores has on MTG.com?:
20 Events Totaled (160 Players)
35 Stax (8 1st Places)
29 Gifts (3 1st places)
16 Control Slaver (4 first place)
13 Oath (1 first place)
12 Fish Decks
9 TPS (1 first place)
7 Dragon Combo
6 Workshop Aggro
4 Tog
3 Madness
2 2 land Belcher Combo
2 Goblins
2 Sensei, Sensei (Divining Top Combo) (1 first place)
1 Control Masknaught
1 Mono Blue Control
1 Bazaar Infestation Control (1 first place)
1 Welder Combo???
1 Grim Long
1 3cControl
1 4c Control
1 Food Chain Goblins
1 Mask (1 first place)
1 Suicide Black
1 Stompy
1 Parfait
1 3 Duece
1 Scepter Control
1 Landstill
1 Rector Combo
1 Cerebral Assassin
As you can see, Gifts and Stax dominate this time period across all metagames throughout Europe and the United States. They are clearly the decks to beat. The three decks that trail Gifts and Stax are much more metagame specific. Oath is primarily a Midwest feature with additional play by the Dutch. TPS is almost exclusively a European phenomenon at this point. And Control Slaver was a major player in July and August, but has trailed off dramatically as Gifts has apparently replaced it in most metagames. Those are the broad strokes of the Fall Vintage metagame.
Saying that Gifts and Stax dominate isn’t as helpful as it should be. There is a huge amount of variation between successful Stax and Gifts decks.
Although I have listed only 29 Gifts decks, there were multiple TPS decks and Control Slaver lists with Gifts that are not included in that counting. So the total number of decks with Gifts actually rivals if not surpasses Stax decks. There is also a Meandeck designed Gifts-Oath list which is included but is also counted under “Oath.”
You’ll also notice that compared to past articles analyzing the Vintage metagame, there aren’t many singleton decks that made Top 8. Over ninety percent of the decks that made Top 8 were major archetypes that saw repeat showings in these Top 8s! A sizable portion of those, probably more than two-thirds, are from non-proxy metagames. In other words, in non-proxy metagames, almost all of the Top 8 decks are major archetypes.
What does that mean? Going rogue in Vintage means playing a personalized variant of a major archetype. Travis Laplante’s Waterbury Stax deck is a case-in-point: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kmb8c/Wbury/Day1/Travis%20LaPlante.jpg
What this means is that the Vintage metagame is highly consolidated during this time period. This is partly due to a lack of innovation. The lack of innovation does not open a door to new decks entering the metagame because the already developed decks are so powerful. The result is that you have tremendous variability in the top decks. You have multiple identifiable Stax variants and multiple identifiable Gifts variants. The variability is in the major archetypes themselves, not in the metagame. What this means is that the metagame is inbred – most of the major decks are tweaked and tuned to beat each other. So you see Stax and Gifts variants playing Gorilla Shamans and the like to fight each other. Gorilla Shaman is a very good metagame card in this metagame.
Metagame Occurrences (by percentages of all top 8 decks)
(Decks appearing once or twice in the course of the year are sometimes excluded.)
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.8, _0.0, 0.0 U/B Control
_1.8, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.3, _2.5, _0.0, _1.8, _0.0, _1.6, 0.1 3C Control
19.6, _9.7, _7.5, 10.9, _1.3, _1.3, _5.7, _8.9, _3.6, _0.0, 0.1 4C Control
_1.8, _1.4, _7.5, _7.8, 10.0, _7.5, _8.0, 10.7, _3.6, _6.3, 10 Control Slaver
_5.4, _2.8, _2.5, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 GAT
10.7, _8.3, _2.5, _9.4, _5.0, 12.5, _4.6, _8.9, _1.8, _4.7, 2.5 Psychatog
_0.0, _2.8, _0.0, _6.3, _1.3, _2.5, _8.0, _5.4, _3.6, _0.0, 0.1 Landstill
_0.0, _0.0, _5.0, _6.3, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _3.6, _1.8, _0.0, 0.1 Mono-Blue
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 12.5, 12.5, _8.0, _3.6, _10.7, 3.1, 8.1 Oath of Druids
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.3, _2.5, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 Salvagers
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.6, 0.0 U/rPhid
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.8, _1.8, _6.3, 1.3 Sensei, Sensei
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.8, 10.7, _6.3, 18.1 Gifts Ungiven (Drain)
39.3, 25.0, 25.0, 40.7, 32.4, 38.8, 34.3, 46.5, 39.4, 30.3, 40.4 TOTAL Drain archetypes
A closer look at Gifts
Gifts has undergone basically four distinct evolutionary shifts in the course of this time period. At the beginning of this time period, the Gifts.fr, which had a mix of Scryings and Thirsts and the original SSB (Thirst + Goblin Charbelcher and Mana Severance) were completely replaced by a deck I created: Meandeck Gifts. Meandeck Gifts was the first Gifts list to run four Gifts Ungiven. In order to make it work, the deck ran multiple Misdirections and upwards of four Merchant Scrolls and a full rack of mana acceleration like Lotus Petal and Mana Vault.
Andy Probasco incorporated some of the key Meandeck Gifts innovations into a new SSB list. He took the solid mana base with heavy basics, the Merchant Scrolls, and streamlined design and rebuilt SSB, which looks like a hybrid between the original SSB and Meandeck Gifts. He has fully accepted that I was right about Tinker/Colossus and Burning Wish.
Perhaps more important than the archetype itself is the fact that Gifts is proliferating in other contexts. I think that a deck built around Gifts was a huge metagame atom bomb for the late summer and mid-fall. Since then, the competition has adapted, often through the incorporation of many Red Elemental Blasts. The result is that Gifts as a strategy is more tenuous and risky than it used to be. For that reason, the future of Gifts is either an evolutionary offshoot like Meandeck Gifts-Oath or, more likely, its mass incorporation into other archetypes like we are seeing with Control Slaver – blurring the line between what we call Gifts and what we call control slaver. If a deck has multiple Gifts Ungiven, Recoup, Burning Wish, and Tinker Colossus in addition to part of the Slaver combo, which deck is it? Brian DeMars calls it Burning Slavery.
The Gifts-Oath list was leaked prematurely and it was not fully tuned. I think that there is another evolutionary leap to be made with Gifts, but getting there requires lots of work – as I can attest in what it took for me to figure out and unveil Meandeck Gifts.
One other thing is of note: the Italian players, long noted for their affinity for Psychatog, have abandoned the creature in favor of Tinker – Colossus. This will further blur the lines between Slaver, Tog, and Gifts as they converge around abusing Yawgmoth’s Will and Burning Wish and the tutoring power of Merchant Scroll, Intuition, and Gifts Ungiven with the now legal Imperial Seal as well.
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
_8.9, 11.1, 15.0, 12.5, _5.0, 13.8, 11.4, 12.5, 10.7, _7.8, 5.6 TPS
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.3, _1.3, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 Doomsday
_0.0, _0.0, _2.5, _1.6, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.1 Long
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.3, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 Meandeck Tendrils
_5.4, _1.4, _2.5, _0.0, _2.6, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _3.6, _0.0, 0.1 Belcher
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _2.5, _0.0, _1.8, _0.0, _0.0, 0.1 Rector
14.3, 12.5, 20.0, 14.1, _8.9, 17.7, 11.4, 14.3, 17.9, _7.8, 5.9 TOTAL Ritual Archetypes
Dark Rituals are at the lowest ebb since these stats have been kept with barely a twentieth of the entire Top 8 data. Almost all of that can be attributed to TPS Top 8s from Europe. In America, Combo appears to be dead. Or does it?
If SCG Chicago from the last date of this time period, October 31, 2005 is a harbinger of things to come, then Belcher and Grim Long may become players once more. Dark Ritual combo decks are never more deadly than when they are completely underestimated. Moreover, the legalization of Grim Tutor and Imperial Seal has put Long once again into a Top 8. If other players can make Top 8 with Grim Long, then Rituals may see themselves in Top 8s once more.
But what explains why TPS has performed so poorly and is basically nonexistent in the US? I think it is because the Mana Drain decks have basically become combo decks. Gifts Control decks such as Meandeck Gifts and SSB (gifts) are often just as fast as TPS, making TPS seem pathetic by comparison. Most of the TPS decks are now running Gifts themselves, showing that the card has lots of applications. Will TPS also run Imperial Seal and maybe Grim Tutor? This question is unanswered. Was Grim Long a fluke or a surprise?
Keep your eye on Belcher and Grim Long as we enter November and December.
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
10.8, 2.8, 17.5, 6.3, 12.6, 5.1, _2.2, _3.6,_5.4 9.5,_ 3.8 Workshop Aggro
_3.6, 20.8, 12.5, 11.0, 17.5, 16.3, 19.4, 14.3, 10.8, 12.2, 22 Stax
_3.6, _4.2, _2.5, _1.6, _0.0, _1.3, _4.6, _0.0, _1.8, _3.1, 0.0 Workshop Slaver
18.0, 27.8, 32.5, 18.9, 30.2, 22.7, 26.2, 17.9, 19.8, 25.1, 25.8 TOTAL Workshop Archetypes
The previous Workshop categories are pretty obsolete. As such, I will simply divide all Workshop decks into Workshop Aggro and Stax until further refinement can be made reasonably.
Although Stax is clearly the best performing archetype, what is notable is that Workshops are not performing at peak level. Workshops constituted merely a fourth of the metagame, yet 40% of the first place decks. This could be explained by the fact that Workshops are hard to come by – particularly Uba Stax, which requires not only Workshops, but Bazaars as well. However, I do not find this particularly convincing given the quantity of proxies that are permitted at many of these events.
What is clear is that Workshops are taking their fair share of the pie. Moreover, Workshop Aggro is pretty much an irrelevant contender with barely 3 percent of the metagame. In contrast, the Stax variants themselves consistent of over a fifth of the Top 8s.
What’s going on with Stax?
Stax is fragmenting into multiple archetypes. I have already explained why. A stagnant metagame is not one that will consolidate. The archetypes fragment and frangment further as each niche variant is tweaked and tuned to deal with the other major archetypes. 15 of the 35 Stax decks that made Top 8 were Uba Stax. At least one of those was five color Uba Stax, a.k.a. 5cuba Stax. Uba Stax is completely different from the other Workshop Stax decks. Uba Stax is much more focused on Goblin Welder synergies, making it an automatic four-of. Other Stax decks have somewhat disincorporated Goblin Welder on the basis that it isn’t immediately useful unless you run Thirst for Knowledge. Uba Stax also focuses on Bazaar of Baghdad as a drawing engine with Uba Mask. The use of Bazaar of Bagdhad has important ramifications for the decks mana base development. You do not need as many accelerants if you have turn 1 Welder and turn 2 Bazaar of Baghdad. You only need a Chalice of the Void or a single Mox to then get a Smokestack or some other brutal lock component into play. It is on this ground that Uba Stax can really abuse Null Rod – because it is not as reliant upon its mana base to get cards into play. Moreover, by seeing a bunch of cards with Bazaar and using Crucible of Worlds, it can find Mishra’s Workshops faster than other Stax variants.
The rest of the Stax lists are basically what we now call traditional or five color Stax, however without Tangle Wire. The Vintage Championship decklist piloted by Roland Chang ran Tangle Wire, but that is now anomalous. Roland himself has piloted his Stax list to two Top 8s in this data set. When you take out the one or two Cron Stax lists (featuring Chains of Mephistopheles and In the Eye Of Chaos) you find that the five color Stax lists appear in rough proportion in these Top 8s to the Uba Stax variant.
It is important to note that although Cron Stax has pretty much evaporated, many of its key innovations are lingering in what we now call 5color Stax: Vampiric Tutor, Balance, Imperial Seal, a full five color mana base, Seal of Cleansing, and many of its sideboard cards like Choke and In The Eye of Chaos. Five Color Stax has a lot of metagame flexibility and that is what makes it alluring to people who love the archetype. I would expect to see Stax to continue to do well. It is flexible enough to adapt and powerful enough to succeed.
One question I have though is: why is Stax doing so well all of a sudden? The fall 2005 was the best performance for Stax ever with over 22 percent of the metagame. Why wasn’t Stax putting up these numbers when Trinisphere was unrestricted? I have a number of explanations. First, Trinisphere permitted players to play more Aggro-based Workshop decks because you could just drop Trinisphere and Juggernaut and win without much skill or experience. The Stax versions that are being played now are far more sophisticated. The loss of Trinisphere has spurred Stax players to think in innovative ways, but I think there is more to it than that.
I think one factor that should not be underestimated is the fall of Control Slaver coinciding with the rise of Gifts. Control Slaver was the best deck for the fall of 2004 and early 2005. That deck absolutely dominated the Stax match. Counter a spell and then use Goblin Welder to control the game. Stax had to innovate and return to Sphere of Resistance to fight Control Slaver. The fall of Control Slaver has provided a metagame opening for Stax. I think all of these factors combined to explain why Stax is doing so well.
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
_5.4, _6.9, _0.0, _4.7, _3.8, _0.0, _0.0, _1.8, _1.8, _3.1, 0.0 Bazaar Madness
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _3.6, _0.0, 0.0 Bazaar Replenish
_8.9, _5.6, _2.5, _6.3, _6.3, _6.3, _5.7, _0.0, _5.4, _3.1, 4.4 Dragon
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.6, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 Oshawa Stompy
_0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _8.9, _1.8, _3.1, 0.1 Cerebral Assassin
0.1 Bazaar Infestation Control
14.3, 12.5, _2.5, 12.6, 10.1, _6.3, _5.7, 10.7, 14.4, _9.3, 4.6 TOTAL Bazaar Archetypes
This table is pretty stupid for one simple reason: it doesn’t take account of Uba Stax – the primary deck using Bazaar of Baghdad at the moment. As such, it appears that Bazaar is only used by a twentieth of the Top 8 metagame, when in actuality it is closer to 10% or a tenth of the metagame.
I predict that the use of Bazaar will spike once more with the full incorporation of Life From the Loam into Vintage.
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
_0.0, _6.9, 10.0, _4.7, _3.8, _1.3, _5.7, _3.6, _5.4, 17.2, 7.5 Fish
_0.0, _2.8, _0.0, _0.0, _1.3, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, 0.0 Kiodo CounterBurn
_0.0, _0.0, _2.5, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _0.0, _1.8, _0.0, 1.9 U/G/x Madness
_0.0, _9.7, 12.5, _4.7, _5.1, _1.3, _5.7, _3.6, _7.2, 17.2, 9.4 TOTAL Null Rod Archetypes
This archetype has fallen waaaay down. I think this is partly explained by the rise of Stax and in part by the incorporation of this decks’ most potent weapon by the Workshop archetype.
The Type One Watch List (number of copies per Top 8 by Time Period)
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, O-N, D-J, Feb, Mar, Apr, M-J., Fall
_4.6, _4.9, _0.8, _3.9, _3.5, _2.4, _2.2, _3.4, _5.1, _4.3, 5.2 Bazaar of Baghdad
_0.4, _4.6, _8.2, _7.3, _7.3, _5.6, _8.0, _7.9, _5.0, _6.5, 6.2 Crucible of Worlds*
_4.6, _4.8, _6.4, _4.6, _3.9, _7.1, _5.5, _4.6, _5.7, _2.5, 2.8 Dark Ritual
_7.7, _6.9, 12.0, _7.0, 12.3, _7.4, _9.8, 10.3, _7.4, _8.9, 10.1 Goblin Welder
____, ____, ___, ___, _0.3, _1.4, _1.8, _1.4, _3.3, _3.3, 5.5 Gifts Ungiven
_9.1, _8.0, _8.6, 13.3, _9.5, 11.7, 11.9, 15.0, 13.0, _9.0, 13.5 Mana Drain
_6.6, _9.8, 11.4, _7.5, _9.8, _7.1, _9.1, _5.7, _5.7, _8.0, 8.3 Mishra’s Workshop
_5.1, _3.8, _7.6, _4.8, _7.9, _5.3, _6.4, 10.0, _9.9, _9.2, 7.5 Thirst for Knowledge *
_2.3, _2.1, _4.0, _2.9, _3.3, _3.1, _3.6, _5.0, _4.6, _3.9, 5.3 Tinker
_3.7, _3.1, _3.6, _3.4, _2.0, _3.6, _3.1, _4.3, _4.3, _2.9, 4.2 Yawgmoth’s Will
For comparison:
25.0, 22.5, 20.6 Force of Will
11.7, 17.4, 16.2, 19.1, 16.5, 12.6, 16.0, 14.0, 10.9, 15.9, Wasteland
The above card counts are guesstimates based upon the archetypes, not actual hard counts. That’s because I would have to get paid a lot more money than I currently am for these articles to hand count them. If jeek gives me the full card counts, then I will correct this table in the November-December metagame breakdown. The asterisked cards are noted because they are extremely rough estimates.
Remember that Yawgmoth’s Will and Tinker are already restricted. Their presence per Top 8 cannot be directly compared with other cards on the watch list.
The criterion for restriction that I advocated is either dominance or distortion. The specific threshold I have suggested in the past is around 16-18 copies per Top 8 over a period of several months, with emphasis on the upper bound of that range. The reason I came up with the 16-18 range was based upon data I analyzed from Gush before it was restricted. Once a card starts consistently putting up over 16 copies per Top 8, that means that it is showing up in more than half the decks in the Top 8. For a card like Force of Will, we find that acceptable and even normal for many reasons. One such reason is that Force of Will goes in lots and lots of decks. But if Goblin Welder or Gifts Ungiven were to start showing up in 5-6 decks per Top 8 on a regular basis, then such a card would have to be restricted. The most prevalent card on our watch list was Mana Drain, which showed up in roughly more than three archetypes per Top 8. That is to be expected and a proper place for Mana Drain.
More concerning to some players is probably the omnipresence of Tinker and Yawgmoth’s Will. They are showing up in more than half the decks in the Top 8s on a consistent basis. The printing of Darksteel Colossus has dramatically transformed the way Tinker is used. It is now argued that Tinker should be played in every deck with artifacts and Blue mana just so you can Tinker up Darksteel Colossus. Few people quibble with this notion. Shortly behind Tinker is Yawgmoth’s Will, which suffers only because it isn’t used in Uba Stax and some traditional Stax decks, unlike Tinker. Yawgmoth’s Will is a card I think should be banned for reasons I have already written about here. However, there is strong and vocal opposition to such a move. My complaint is that Vintage has become Yawgmoth’s Will v. Anti-Yawgmoth’s Will. The results in this article demonstrating a Gifts and Stax metagame bear that out. Gifts, Control Slaver and TPS – all converging around Gifts Ungiven and the new prevalence of additional tutors have renewed their Yawgmoth’s Will focus. I believe that Yawgmoth’s Will is a dominant strategy in Vintage – meaning that finding, protecting, and resolving Yawgmoth’s Will is the best strategy in Vintage (particularly for Mana Drain decks) aside from playing cards that make Yawgmoth’s Will bad such as Trinisphere, Null Rod, and Chalice of the Void. Yawgmoth’s Will can be fought with cards like Tormod’s Crypt, but then the strategy becomes Burning Wish for Yawgmoth’s Will after the graveyard has been removed or just find the Tinker and win with Colossus the hard way – something made easier by the fact that your opponent has spent resources playing Tormod’s Crypt.
In the Appendix I have included card counts and the Top 8 data, including links to the Top 8s I have compiled.
The next metagame breakdown will be for November and December. In the meantime, I will publish an article focusing on Gifts, Oath and Stax as they appear in the Top 8, much as Phil did with Oath and TPS in the past. I hope you enjoyed this article. I will continue to look for ways to improve upon the methodology laid out here. In the meantime, I hope to satiate your appetite for data with the appendices.
Appendix I: Card Counts
Unfortunately, I don’t have a complete compilation of the card counts in the Top 8s. I did some of them by hand since I couldn’t get a full count.
Jeek gave me a list that included only about half of the tournament Top 8s I gave him. Since that was missing quite a bit of data, I did some of the calculations myself just to give us an idea of where we are:
Force of Will 412 (this is actual)
Mana Drain 270
Mishra’s Workshop 166
Thirst For Knowledge 150
Bazaar of Baghdad 104
Tinker (restricted) 106
Yawgmoth’s Will 83
The others are guesstimates based upon the archetypes. If anyone would like to tally up the data and give us a full card count list or a more accurate type one watch list table, please do so and either email me or post the data in the forums accompanying this article.
Here is what Jeek gave me:
(you can see how this is about half of the total data in the number of Force of Wills and Mana Drains I counted versus what he counted).
200 Force of Will
172 Brainstorm
153 Wasteland
138 Polluted Delta
129 Mana Drain
122 Island
119 Goblin Welder
110 Chalice of the Void
108 Duress
99 Rack and Ruin
96 Flooded Strand
95 Underground Sea
94 Red Elemental Blast
93 Thirst for Knowledge
92 Volcanic Island
88 Mishra’s Workshop
82 Crucible of Worlds
80 Smokestack
74 Mox Sapphire
71 Black Lotus
69 Mox Emerald
69 Mox Ruby
68 Mox Pearl
66 Mox Jet
66 Sol Ring
65 Ancestral Recall
62 City of Brass
62 Mana Crypt
59 Tormod’s Crypt
58 Demonic Tutor
58 Gifts Ungiven
56 Tolarian Academy
52 Gemstone Mine
52 Tinker
50 Mana Vault
50 Null Rod
50 Time Walk
48 Mountain
48 Oath of Druids
45 Bazaar of Baghdad
45 Strip Mine
44 Forbidden Orchard
43 Merchant Scroll
43 Pyroclasm
40 Dark Ritual
40 Gorilla Shaman
39 Mystical Tutor
39 Sphere of Resistance
39 Swords to Plowshares
39 Vampiric Tutor
38 Pithing Needle
38 Triskelion
37 Duplicant
36 Uba Mask
36 Yawgmoth’s Will
35 Tangle Wire
35 Viashino Heretic
34 Darksteel Colossus
33 Echoing Truth
33 Seal of Cleansing
29 Pyroblast
28 Intuition
28 Sundering Titan
28 Tundra
27 Fact or Fiction
27 Fire // Ice
27 Lotus Petal
27 Mana Leak
26 Stifle
25 Energy Flux
24 Accumulated Knowledge
24 Balance
24 Tendrils of Agony
24 Tropical Island
23 Ground Seal
23 Rebuild
23 Sacred Ground
22 Cunning Wish
22 Hurkyl’s Recall
21 Karn, Silver Golem
21 Trinisphere
20 Blue Elemental Blast
20 Impulse
20 Lava Dart
20 Misdirection
20 Recoup
19 Engineered Explosives
19 Snow-Covered Island
19 Swamp
18 Barbarian Ring
18 Choke
18 Maze of Ith
17 Annul
17 Engineered Plague
16 Rushing River
15 Burning Wish
15 Crop Rotation
15 Forest
15 Mishra’s Factory
15 Skeletal Scrying
15 Snow-Covered Plains
15 Solemn Simulacrum
14 Meddling Mage
13 Disenchant
13 Naturalize
13 Squee, Goblin Nabob
12 Coffin Purge
12 Elvish Spirit Guide
12 In the Eye of Chaos
12 Isochron Scepter
12 Jester’s Cap
12 Mindslaver
12 Pernicious Deed
12 Worldgorger Dragon
11 Blood Moon
11 Memory Jar
11 Xantid Swarm
10 Chain of Vapor
10 Goblin Charbelcher
10 Library of Alexandria
10 Necropotence
10 Oxidize
10 Standstill
10 Wheel of Fortune
10 Wooded Foothills
9 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
9 Arcane Laboratory
9 Deep Analysis
9 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
8 Animate Dead
8 Bloodstained Mire
8 Ensnaring Bridge
8 Gaea’s Blessing
8 Goblin Lackey
8 Goblin Piledriver
8 Juggernaut
8 Land Grant
8 Mind Twist
8 Mind’s Desire
8 Necromancy
8 Platinum Angel
8 Seasinger
8 Sensei’s Divining Top
8 Skyshroud Elite
8 Timetwister
7 Cabal Ritual
7 Goblin Warchief
7 Ninja of the Deep Hours
7 Phyrexian Negator
7 Skirk Prospector
6 Badlands
6 Bayou
6 Berserk
6 Gempalm Incinerator
6 Goblin Matron
6 Goblin Ringleader
6 Mana Severance
6 Nevinyrral’s Disk
6 Pentavus
6 Siege-Gang Commander
5 Cranial Extraction
5 Decree of Justice
5 Exalted Angel
5 Glimmervoid
5 Massacre
5 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
5 Phyrexian Furnace
5 Pyrostatic Pillar
5 Shattering Pulse
5 Shivan Reef
5 Spawning Pit
5 Taiga
5 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Counterspell
4 Curiosity
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Defense Grid
4 Demonic Consultation
4 Flying Men
4 Food Chain
4 Goblin Recruiter
4 Grafted Skullcap
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Illusionary Mask
4 Jungle Lion
4 Land Tax
4 Lim-Dûl’s Vault
4 Metalworker
4 Mox Diamond
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Old Man of the Sea
4 Orb of Dreams
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Plateau
4 Price of Glory
4 Psychatog
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Rancor
4 Regrowth
4 River Boa
4 Rogue Elephant
4 Savannah
4 Seeds of Innocence
4 Shadow of Doubt
4 Silver Knight
4 Sinkhole
4 Spirit of the Night
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Tinder Wall
4 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Volrath’s Shapeshifter
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Windswept Heath
4 Woodripper
4 Æther Vial
3 Blazing Archon (WTF of the month?)
3 Bounty of the Hunt
3 Chill
3 Chrome Mox
3 Contagion
3 Darkblast
3 Daze
3 Enlightened Tutor
3 Eye of Nowhere
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
3 Grim Tutor
3 Hidden Gibbons
3 Hydroblast
3 Imperial Seal
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
3 Living Wish
3 Man-o’-War
3 Masticore
3 Mogg Fanatic
3 Perplex
3 Powder Keg
3 Pristine Angel
3 Ray of Revelation
3 Razia, Boros Archangel
3 Razormane Masticore
3 Scroll Rack
3 Serenity
3 Stormscape Apprentice
3 True Believer
3 Viridian Zealot
3 Withered Wretch
2 Argivian Find
2 Back to Basics
2 Boomerang
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Claws of Gix
2 Compulsion
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Dwarven Miner
2 Echoing Ruin
2 Entomb
2 Eternal Witness
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Humility
2 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Meltdown
2 Plains
2 Quirion Ranger
2 Sculpting Steel
2 Seal of Removal
2 Seal of Strength
2 Serendib Efreet
2 Starstorm
2 Stoneshaker Shaman
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
2 Verdant Force
2 Windfall
2 Zuran Orb
1 Abeyance
1 Ambassador Laquatus
1 Ancestor’s Chosen
1 Ancient Hydra
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Aura of Silence
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Brain Freeze
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Careful Study
1 Channel
1 City of Traitors
1 Control Magic
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Dark Confidant
1 Devout Witness
1 Earthquake
1 Elvish Scrapper
1 Firestorm
1 Flame Fusillade
1 Fling
1 Frantic Search
1 Gilded Drake
1 Goblin King
1 Grim Monolith
1 Gush
1 Ivory Mask
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Moat
1 Morphling
1 Nether Void
1 Phage the Untouchable
1 Primitive Justice
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Shivan Hellkite
1 Sliver Queen
1 Snuff Out
1 Sparksmith
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Time Vault
1 Tsabo’s Web
1 Underground River
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Watery Grave
1 Æther Spellbomb
Appendix II: Tournament Results
Iserlohn 7/10/2005
84 Players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=275
1) Control Slaver
2) Oath of Salvagers
3) Meandeck Gifts
4) Meandeck Gifts
5) UR Fish
6) UW Fish
7) 4Color Control
8) Oath of Salvagers
Barcelona, Spain
7-17-05
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23919.0
1) Divining Top Combo
2) 2-Land Belcher
3) TPS
4) Stax Masknaught (Workshop Aggro)
5) Academy Rector Trix Tendrils
6) Uba Stax
7) Workshop Ravager Aggro
8) Meandeck Gifts
I) 7-31-05
SCG Chicago: 141 Players
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t%5BC1%5D=vin&start_date=2005-06-26&end_date=2005-07-31&event_type=P9&city=Chicago
1) Uba Stax
2) Cron Stax
3) Traditional Stax
4) Control Slaver
5) Control Slaver
6) Meandeck Gifts
7) Control Slaver
8) Dragon Combo
07/31/05
Alessandria: 92 players
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=24300.0
1) Control Slaver
2) 4 Color Tog
3) 4 Color Tog
4) Dragon Combo
5) Dragon Combo
6) Oath
7) Control Slaver
8) URG Madness
8-14-05
German Vintage Championship: 127 players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=282
1) Stax
2) Uba Stax
3) 3C Control
4) Gifts Hybrid
5) Meandeck Gifts
6) Uba STax
7) Control Slaver
8) Meandeck Gifts
8-20-05
Gencon Vintage Championship: 127 players
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t%5BC1%5D=vin&start_date=2005-04-24&end_date=2005-12-04&event_type=WLD&state=IN
1) Traditional Stax
2) Shortbus Severance Belcher (Gifts)
3) GWS Oath
4) Dragon
5) Control Slaver
6) 3 Color Tog
7) Control Slaver with Masticores instead
8) Cron Stax
8-28-05
Iserholn: 91 Players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=286
1) Venguer Masque
2) Oath
3) Uba Stax
4) Suicide Black
5) Food Chain Goblins
6) Meandeck Gifts
7) TPS
8) TPS
9/03/2005
IX Torneo Liga Catalana – Santa Coloma: 116 players
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) Bazaar Infestation Control
2) UW Fish
3) Stax with Time Vault/Lodestone Myr Combo
4) MUD (Mono Brown Stax)
5) Uba Stax
6) Goblins
7) Stax
8) Mono Blue Control
9-15-05
Waterbury Main Event: 191 players
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kmb8c/Wbury/
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) Stax http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kmb8c/Wbury/Day1/Travis%20LaPlante.jpg
2) Control Slaver w/ Gifts
3) SSB (Gifts)
4) SSB (Gifts)
5) SSB (Gifts)
6) SSB (Gifts)
7) UWG Aggro-Control Threshold/Fish
8) Dragon Combo
9-16-05
Waterbury Day 2: 73 players
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~kmb8c/Wbury/
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) Gifts
2) Uba Stax
3) UW Fish
4) Stax w/ Slavers
5) Gifts
6) UB Fish
7) SSB (Gifts)
8) Workshop Aggro
9-18-05
Doomsday Tournament, Italy 366 players
1) Control Slaver
2) Gifts Deck
3) Welder Combo
4 Madness UWG
5 (Wu Tang) Fish
6 Control Slaver
7 Tps UB
8 Staker Unspo
9-25-05
SCG Richmond: 59 players:
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t%5BC1%5D=vin&start_date=2005-09-11&end_date=2005-12-04&event_type=P9&city=Richmond
1) Shortbus Severance Belcher (Gifts)
2) SSB (Gifts)
3) SSB (Gifts)
4) Workshop Aggro
5) Stax
6) UW Fish
7) Oath
8) Uba Stax
9-25-05
Iserholn: 59 players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=296
1) Stax
2) Gifts Hybrid
3) Welder Mud
4) Landstill
5) Scepter Control
6) Uba Stax
7) Meandeck Gifts
8) Gifts TPS
10-1-05
VIII Torneo Liga Catalana – Barcelona: 71 players
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) 5 Color Uba Stax
2) Stax
3) Stax
4) Cerebral Assassin (Bazaar Welder Titan)
5) Meandeck Gifts
6) Control Slaver
7) Uba Stax
8) UGR Madness
10-9-05
II Master Katan: 152 Players
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) SSB (Gifts)
2) UW Fish
3) Dragon Combo
4) UR Fish
5) ??
6) Control Masknaught
7) ??
8) ??
10-15-05
X Torneo Liga Catalana – Sabadell: 64 players
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elsantuario.tk/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwww.elsantuario.tk%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG
1) Control Slaver
2) Stax
3) Gifts
4) Stax
5) UR Fish
6) Tog
7) MUD (mono brown Stax)
8) Sensei
10-22-05
Universität Trier: 59 players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=302
1) Uba Stax
2) Uba Stax
3) Dragon
4) Goblins
5) Landstill
6) Stompy
7) Oath
8) Parfait
10-23-05
Iserlohn: 98 players
http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=304
1) Gifts TPS
2) Gifts Hybrid
3) Stax
4) Scepter Control
5) Control Slaver
6) TPS
7) TPS
8) Three Duece??
10-30-05
Dutch Vintage Championships: 177 players
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=25291.0
1) Dutch Oath
2) Gifts
3) Oath
4) Gifts
5) TPOath (Bigmac)
6) Control Slaver
7) Uba Stax
8) Workshop Aggro
10-30-05
SCG Chicago: 114 players
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t%5BC1%5D=vin&start_date=2005-10-30&end_date=2005-10-30&city=chicago
1st: Uba Stax
2) Traditional Stax
3) UW Fish
4) Grim Long
5) GWS Oath
6) GWS Oath
7) 2-Land Belcher
8) Meandeck Gifts Oath