I’m guessing the first question you might have for me is, why play Vintage? And furthermore, why discuss it in a column ostensibly about trying to qualify for the Pro Tour?
The easy answer to the first question is that, well, I like Vintage. Because I don’t play it as often, it always feels fresh. I also happen to fall into the camp that finds it considerably more skill-intensive than Standard. The deeper and possibly more accurate answer is that the value offered up in Vintage tournaments is outstanding compared to most of the other tournaments I play. I suppose I could just be fortunate in this regard, but it seems to me that this is the standard, rather than the exception, for Vintage tournaments.
So: Progenitus Oath. Let’s start at the beginning…
ICBM Hellkite Oath by James King
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Impulse
1 Misdirection
4 Negate
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Wipe Away
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
4 Thoughtseize
1 Time Walk
4 Oath of Druids
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Scroll Rack
2 Flooded Strand
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Wasteland
Sideboard:
2 Simic Sky Swallower
3 Oxidize
1 Life from the Loam
1 Massacre
2 Arcane Laboratory
4 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Tropical Island
1 Wasteland
Hellkite Oath is a fast, disruptive Combo deck, with a simple goal: get Oath of Druids into play. Once Oath resolves, the game typically ends in short order. Either the opponent is already running creatures for the Oath deck to piggy-back on, or Forbidden Orchard is used to give the opponent a creature. The creatures in Hellkite Oath are chosen specifically so that whichever order they show up will equal 20 points of damage within two Oath triggers:
Akroma, then Hellkite: 6, then 6 + 8 = 20
Hellkite, then Akroma: 8, then 8 + 6 = 22
Those numbers assume you’re not pumping the Hellkite using an Orchard or Mox Ruby — sometimes Hellkite alone is sufficient to deal lethal damage over two turns. This deck also packs a number of disruptive elements to help it stay alive and to protect its threats if necessary. Chalice of the Void on zero slows most decks down and makes them play fair, while a Chalice set on one will prevent the opponent from playing Thoughtseize, Duress, Chain of Vapor, Brainstorm, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual or Swords to Plowshares, just to name a few. Thoughtseize prevents combo decks from winning before Oath goes online, and also can be used to clear out counterspells or removal / bounce effects. Negate helps the deck resolve an Oath against Force of Will or Mana Drain, and protects it against lock pieces from Workshop decks. Scroll Rack and Brainstorm allow you to place a Hellkite, Akroma, or Gaea’s Blessing (which is there to prevent you from decking yourself) from your hand back into your library. I think most of the other pieces are relatively self-explanatory, consisting mostly of Vintage staples, cards to dig for or tutor up combo pieces, and mana.
When I started getting into Vintage again, I put this deck in my gauntlet of proxy decks, along with Slaver, Painter, Dredge, Workshop Aggro, and TES. I was very happy with the results Hellkite Oath posted against the field, and the deck is pretty enjoyable to play as well. There are few, if any, completely unwinnable match-ups, and the deck performs well against random, non-gauntlet decks. For a competitive Vintage deck, it is also relatively easy to pick up and play, and in a ten- or fifteen-proxy environment, the cost involved is reasonable (especially as the Dual Lands and Force of Wills can do double-duty for you in Legacy). As the metagame has begun to shift to feature more Fish decks of various flavors, the strength of the Oath strategy has improved (and has been featured as a sideboard alternative for Tezzeret decks as well).
I did make a few changes from the list above the first time I actually ran the deck in a tournament:
Maindeck: -1 Wasteland, +1 Tropical Island
Sideboard: -2 Simic Sky Swallower, +2 Empyrial Archangel; -1 Tropical Island, +1 Wasteland
I was finding myself struggling to get both Green and Black mana without having to use Orchard early, exposing it to Wasteland (and obviously also exposing myself to extra damage from Spirit tokens). Moving the Wasteland to the sideboard seemed logical and, for the most part, fixed the mana issues. The Empyrial Archangels are a strict upgrade in the match-ups where you used to want Simic Sky Swallower (Fish and random Aggro).
Following this first tournament experience with the deck, I felt some additional changes were needed. The primary issue was I was drawing Negate too often. Although it is excellent in some match-ups, clearly this deck is not meant to be a control deck. Negate’s main function is to help you force your key spells through opponent’s counter-magic, and in some match-ups to counter key cards like Smokestack. Having four copies of a situational counter in a deck that isn’t really flush with mana felt like too many, so I made the following changes:
Maindeck: -2 Negate, +1 Crop Rotation, +1 Lim-Dul’s Vault
The Crop Rotation I’ve seen in other Oath lists, and is there to function as the 5th Orchard. Lim-Dul’s vault is sort of a compromise card, in that I needed to watch the number of Blue cards in the deck to keep my Force of Wills and Misdirection functional. I also wanted a tutor that could find both Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard, so the Vault was the best thing I could come up with. It’s an Instant so it can be snuck past Control decks, finds any card in the deck provided you have enough life left, and can be pitched to Force or Misdirection.
The other change I made to the maindeck was due to the release of Conflux, and is quite possibly the most ridiculous Creature I’ve ever seen: Progenitus. How can you look at this guy and NOT want to get him into play? His text box might as well say, “Protection from Format: Vintage.” Replacing Akroma with Progenitus seemed like a natural move — Fish decks are getting more and more popular in response to the success of Tezzeret decks (again, see Stephen Menendian recent metagame analysis for a look at how dominant Tezzeret decks have been), and Progenitus is one of the best creatures you can get into play against Fish. Generally speaking, they have no answer to him in their entire 75. Although he takes away from the “two hasted monsters = death with two Oath triggers” scheme of the deck, he has many solid upsides as well, so much so that I think this is a strict upgrade. Because he’s Blue, he can be pitched to a Force of Will if necessary. In addition, his shuffle ability can be relevant in several ways. If circumstances require it, you can Thoughtseize him into your Graveyard to get him back into your deck. Furthermore, if your opponent is actually running a way to kill him (typically Balance, but certainly other options like Diabolic Edict aren’t completely unlikely), he’s just going to get shuffled back in and pop back into play the following turn. Obviously, he gives you a maindeck weapon that is immune to the format’s normal sources of removal, all of which hit Akroma: Swords to Plowshares, Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Duplicant, and I suppose now Path to Exile. Provided that you Oath him up before Hellkite, your clock isn’t really impacted significantly. The only other card that might be as good in this slot would be Empyrial Archangel, but I’m happy leaving those in the sideboard; Progenitus kills twice as quickly and I think that makes him better against the majority of the field.
From the sideboard, I wasn’t happy with the Loam / Wastelands package, so I removed those:
Sideboard: -2 Wasteland, -1 Life from the Loam, +1 Oxidize, +2 Echoing Truth
I felt like Echoing Truth was a solid card to bring in against Fish decks running Meddling Mage, in addition to being a flexible catch-all for a variety of situations. The Oxidize was a response to the previous tournament, where both of my losses came against Stax decks. The final list looked like this:
Creatures (2)
Lands (17)
Spells (41)
- 1 Brainstorm
- 1 Vampiric Tutor
- 4 Oath of Druids
- 4 Force of Will
- 1 Scroll Rack
- 1 Demonic Tutor
- 1 Gaea's Blessing
- 1 Time Walk
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 4 Impulse
- 1 Merchant Scroll
- 1 Lim-Dul's Vault
- 1 Misdirection
- 1 Crop Rotation
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Pearl
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 4 Chalice of the Void
- 1 Wipe Away
- 1 Ponder
- 4 Thoughtseize
- 2 Negate
Sideboard
I ran this list to a 4-2 finish in the tournament on 2/7, which got me 9th place after Swiss. The final-round pairings worked out so that no one on X-2 made the Top 8. Of the two matches I lost, one was a very close 2-1 match against AJ Grasso (who won the event using Landstill), and the other was completely my fault due to pilot error (against Slaver). I defeated three Fish decks and one Stax deck (piloted by Roland Chang, who I’d lost to in the previous tournament).
A couple of additional changes came to mind after this tournament. I’m not at all happy with Merchant Scroll in this deck. I was, however, impressed with Lim-Dul’s Vault, which was directly responsible for several of my wins. I’d consider removing Merchant Scroll for a second Lim-Dul’s Vault, but that slot could be quite a few different cards, including one Echoing Truth, another Misdirection, a Fact or Fiction, and so on. It does probably need to be a Blue card, although if the Crop Rotation was replaced by a Vault instead, that opens up one more “free” slot for anything (maybe a switch to 3 Chalice, 2 Null Rod?). I also think that the Sideboard still needs work — locally, Storm is relatively unpopular at the moment, so the Arcane Labs are probably superfluous. At this point, I’m pretty sure that the proper sideboard has more weapons against Tezzeret, and needs something like Null Rod or Energy Flux.
Changing gears a bit, I wanted to talk briefly about Legacy, something I’ll be coming back to in the coming weeks. I actually have the least experience in Legacy of the major formats, because there aren’t any regular Legacy events in the Philly suburbs (or, if there are, I am unaware of their existence). This is a shame, because I really enjoy the format, and most people that have a chance to play it seem to feel the same way.
My starting point for Legacy is probably different than most people’s, in that my initial deck of choice is Belcher. I ran Belcher to a Semifinals appearance in the 2008 Legacy Champs, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so confident running a Magic deck in my life. The power level of this deck is ludicrous, so much so that the Legacy version actually outperforms the Vintage version by virtue of its access to full playsets of Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, and Burning Wish. Belcher is always going to be a calculated risk; its match-ups against Blue control decks range from acceptable to miserable, and unfriendly pairings against Dragon or Sea Stompy can ruin your day, but against much of the field, the match-ups are absurdly in favor of Belcher. Goblins and most other Aggro strategies have nearly no chance of beating this deck 2 out of 3 games.
Right now, I intend on running Belcher in the GP Trials to attempt to pick up one or two additional Byes. If I can make that happen, then a 4-2 performance would get me to day 2, and I’m willing to give that a shot. This is the Belcher list I’d play today — the only change from the Legacy Champs list is to swap the Plunge into Darkness for a Spoils of the Vault, which has been better in testing:
Spells (46)
- 4 Dark Ritual
- 4 Land Grant
- 4 Burning Wish
- 4 Goblin Charbelcher
- 1 Spoils of the Vault
- 4 Seething Song
- 4 Lotus Petal
- 4 Lion's Eye Diamond
- 4 Chrome Mox
- 3 Infernal Tutor
- 4 Rite of Flame
- 3 Empty the Warrens
- 3 Manamorphose
Sideboard
In playtesting this week, the deck has been as ridiculous as always. For example, in four games against a Survival-Progenitus deck this week, I was able to do the following (in this order):
• Play 14 Goblins on turn 1
• Play 10 Goblins on turn 1
• Resolve Belcher on turn 1, and activate on turn 2 for the win
• Resolve Belcher on turn 1, and activate on turn 2 for the win
Mind you, the Survival deck is a deck that packs plenty of disruption in the form of Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy. A lot of people that haven’t played much against Belcher assume some light disruption is enough, but unless that disruption is backed up with immediate pressure, often the Belcher deck draws off the top and goes off anyway. During my first six rounds at Legacy Champs, I played against two decks packing some combination of Thoughtseize / Duress / Hymn to Tourach, and still had little difficulty winning those rounds (although I did have to win one game using Cave-In, but that’s a story for a different day). I also won two of three rounds against decks packing playsets of Force of Will and Daze.
The other, and probably wiser, choice is to play a deck running the Counterbalance + Top package, whether that ends up being Landstill, Dreadtill, Threshold, or any other deck that can utilize that combination effectively.
I’ve always been enamored with Painter’s Servant combo, so I built a deck that tries to combine some of the more powerful strategies available in the format. I haven’t tested it as much as I’d like, although the early returns have been decent. This is the starting list, and is a work in progress / rough sketch:
Creatures (10)
Lands (20)
Spells (30)
- 3 Sensei's Divining Top
- 4 Brainstorm
- 4 Force of Will
- 3 Grindstone
- 2 Daze
- 4 Stifle
- 2 Pyroblast
- 3 Chrome Mox
- 2 Engineered Explosives
- 3 Counterbalance
Sideboard
A few notes on the sideboard…
Pyroclasm is a nod to the Elves and Natural Order decks that might show up, while being good against Goblins as well (as well as any generic Aggro deck). These may actually become Firespouts as this deck is well capable of hitting three mana on turn two. Engineered Plague is a reluctant but probably necessary nod to Goblins and Elves as well. Mogg Fanatic is a removal spell for a Dark Confidant that resolves, breaks Bridges against Dredge, and kills Goblin Lackey. Spell Snare has so many choice targets, such as Counterbalance, Hymn to Tourach, Burning Wish, Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, Chalice of the Void, Sinkhole, and so on, and I wish I could find room in the main for a few.
Basically, the deck has solid mana acceleration and some very good two card combos in Servant + Grindstone, Counterbalance + Top, and Dreadnaught + Stifle. The Tops and shuffle effects help you find what you need, and you protect yourself with Counterbalance, Force of Will, and Pyroblast while working toward the Grindstone combo.
This has been a fun deck to playtest with, but it clearly has a few flaws. The main one is that although it has a lot of card selection options, it doesn’t really draw any additional cards and sometimes runs out of gas. Fact or Fiction may be the solution here, although I’m struggling to find the space. An all-out Aggro deck is sometimes too fast for this deck to beat, even after sideboarding, and as listed there are some spells that, once resolved, are tough to win through.
To that end, the Dreadnoughts and Stifles might have to get cut from the deck in place of cards like Thirst for Knowledge; I just don’t really want to make that switch because Stifle is so solid and Dreadnought gives the deck an alternate win condition. The deck probably wants a few Echoing Truths in the sideboard (or even something similar in the main deck — right now, once something resolves, the options to remove it from play are disturbingly limited). I may also be too Explosives-happy due to all my recent Extended testing, so it is quite possible that one of those should be another “bullet” target like Pithing Needle, Tormod’s Crypt / Relic of Progenitus, or Cursed Scroll.
I’d like to conclude today by giving a big “thumbs up” to Wizards for printing creatures like Progenitus, which successfully excite the casual base and are tournament-playable in Eternal formats.
Next week: back to Extended with a review of the Edison, NJ PTQ on 2/21…
Matt