The Long and Winding Road – Vintage Deck Explosion!

I heard a rumor that you guys like decks.

You may have heard a rumor that I like Vintage.

Put those two together, and what do you get?

Vintage Deck Explosion!

I was hoping there could be some way to get fireworks to shoot out of your computer monitor to really make this pop, but I’ve been informed that the technology doesn’t actually exist yet, and that Microsoft FireWerks only exists in my dreams.

What follows are ten Vintage decks, some of my creation, and some stolen from the best minds in Vintage. Dig into the first batch of post-Gush, post-Scars Vintage tournament decks:

 

Why should you play this deck?

Well, for one thing, MUD keeps winning large tournaments in the US and abroad, so there’s that. But more to the point: why this specific version?

The heart of this deck is an update of
Joe Brown’s winning Waterbury list,
but this build is relatively heavy on Scars cards, especially the board sweepers: Ratchet Bomb and Steel Hellkite. The majority of blue decks are banking on using Nature’s Claim and Trygon Predator to suppress Workshops, so this list aims to put Chalice on one, and then resolve Steel Hellkite. Hellkite will promptly smash its way to victory, blocking Trygons and then devouring them. Instead of Null Rod, this build uses Ratchet Bomb to sweep away fast mana and knock out opposing creatures including Dark Confidant, Lotus Cobra, Quirion Dryad, and Trygon Predator (if resolved early enough); instead of Smokestack, we’re aiming to end games in a hurry with Hellkite and Lodestone Golem and to suppress permanents by sweeping them away. Horizon Canopy is a nice little draw engine with Crucible of Worlds and might warrant consideration for a second copy, especially in builds that run three Crucibles.

In the sideboard, Maze of Ith keeps pesky Trygon Predators out of the red zone, while Duplicant and Crucible come in against opposing Workshop decks (as Hellkite is the nut high there). We smash Gush by way of having a billion resistors to trump their strategy, and use nine sideboard cards to go after Dredge; the use of Ratchet Bombs and Hellkites also handles annoying Zombie tokens. Machines do not have the brains that Zombies seek.

MUD is a relentless and powerful strategy, one which is consistently underestimated. Each version requires some testing to get used to, as they all play differently, and there
are
play choices and decision tress within these decks that can win or lose you games.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

As with Oath of Druids, in some metagames, hate for Workshops is overwhelming. While Steel Panther MUD can definitely beat hate cards, as with other linear strategies like Dredge, Storm, and Oath, if someone really wants to beat you, they can beat you. There is a certain amount of hate, a threshold, that can overwhelm the deck, whether it’s on an individual opponent level where someone over-prepares for you, or on a meta level where enough opponents have just enough hate that you can’t break through to the elimination rounds. This version is built to resist cards like Trygon Predator, but there will be some hands you can’t beat, just as MUD has some hands that no opponent can defeat.

Some people also take issue with MUD’s inability to pull back into a game when it gets behind, as it has no draw engine and no tutoring ability. This version at least has board sweepers – but it still doesn’t have Force of Will, so a deck like ANT can kill you before you get a turn; a Gush deck might not kill you, but it may stall you long enough to keep you from doing anything meaningful before you lose. As a Shop pilot, you have to be willing to take those losses on the chin without dismissing the deck out of hand. Not everyone can do so.

Why should you play this deck?

Original credit on this deck idea goes to Matt Sperling. You can find his article on this deck
here.

Oath of Druids has always been designed to punish creature-centric strategies. It just so happens that the format is shifting strongly toward decks with creatures. Whether it’s the use of Dark Confidant as a draw engine, Lotus Cobra as a mana engine, or decks that aim to beat down with creatures such as Workshop strategies and Gro, creatures are more present in Vintage than they’ve been in years. This gives us some incentive to consider using Oath of Druids as a strategy to trump the rest of the format. With deck space being crunched and the format’s attention turning to Gush, some of the Workshop hate that has splashed onto Oath, such as Trygon Predator, has begun to recede.

More specifically, why would you play this version of Oath of Druids? Sun Titan Oath is a unique take on the Oath strategy. The major appeal of this design is that it always hits Sun Titan when Oath triggers, and part of its strategy is to purposefully “deck” itself with Oath; this eliminates some, but not all, of the randomness and risk inherent in an Oath strategy like Elephant Oath that uses three different Oath targets. I say some, because you still have only minimal control over what you flip, and when.

I’ve tested this deck in two different flavors, one with a singleton Sun Titan as in Matt Sperling article on this deck, and one with two Sun Titans. The solo Titan build is better at pushing all-in using the combination of Titan, Scroll Rack, and Krosan Reclamation; in a pure racing situation against a deck without counters, such as against Ichorid and Workshops, this build wins faster. In fact, I played Titan Oath on 10/2 and won both of my game 1s against Dredge. The deck is that fast and that consistent when it begins to Oath. While the double Titan build is less guaranteed to win on the second Oath activation, it also adds some flexibility in the case of drawing Titan, or having it killed or exiled. While the double Titan version isn’t as good at racing, it’s absolutely capable of winning without pushing “all-in” by decking itself and recurring something with Krosan Reclamation and/or Scroll Rack.

One of the ways the deck locks up games, and also a reason why it’s so good against Dredge, is a toy I added to Matt’s deck: Pernicious Deed. I replaced Seal of Primordium with Deed, as a way to get around Chalice of the Void on two, but I learned quickly that this card is insane as a Sun Titan target. If you’ve hit Titan before assembling the Time Vault / Voltaic Key combo, you can recur Deed and use it to clear the opponent’s board (including the ability to prevent the opponent from using your Oath against you). You can then smash in with Sun Titan, using the Titan’s trigger to put Deed back in play. In fact, you can even attack, resolve the Titan trigger, and use Deed to blow up any potential blockers to make sure you get in for six damage. If you’re using a two-Titan build, you can often win the next turn by attacking with Titan into a now-empty board and then continuing to bring it back to play, keeping your opponent locked out of permanents. You can then either destroy Oath and the Spirit tokens with Deed, to prevent the opponent from Oathing, or use the Titans to recur Orchards and Oath to Oath out the rest of your deck and combo out into Key/Vault.

In fact, I liked Deed so much that I’d probably play two if I were playing two Titans, to make sure I hit one. Being sure you can Oath into Deed gives you a good shot at beating Dredge game 1. There’s very little that deck can do against a recursive Deed. In general, the Dredge matchup is a much easier matchup than normal with this deck as you can recur Strip Mine as well as hate cards like Pithing Needle and Tormod’s Crypt, post-board.

I haven’t done enough testing to rule out other targets as well, as essentially any permanent that costs three or less is open to us as an option. Some that occurred to me for the main or sideboard: Ratchet Bomb, Null Rod, Crucible of Worlds, Fastbond / Zuran Orb, Staff of Domination, Runed Halo, Oblivion Ring, Winter Orb.

Have an interesting one? Post it in the forums!

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

While Trygon Predator seems to be losing some popularity (squeezed out by Lotus Cobras and Gushes), there are still plenty of Predators and Nature’s Claims running around maindecks in the format. Resolving Oath and keeping it in play long enough to trigger is much harder than it used to be. Duress, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, and Force of Will all conspire to keep Oath off the table, and when it does resolve, a lot of blue opponents have a sideboard full of Nature’s Claims to destroy it. In addition, the new Gush decks have the ability to race a resolved Oath. Workshop decks even have resistance to Oath now, by way of Ratchet Bomb and Steel Hellkite.

Sun Titan Oath has an additional weakness to graveyard hate, which can be addressed by playing a Tinker and robot in the sideboard, or swapping the Titans out for another creature, like Terastodon; the only problem is in knowing when someone will choose to attack us that way, because as a strategy, it really isn’t all that strong.

Additionally, while I almost guarantee you can win games with this deck because opponent’s have no familiarity with the strategy, that won’t always be the case; going all-in on the solo Titan plan can leave you vulnerable to a opponent that is familiar with the strategy, similar to how you used to be able to disrupt the Iona strategy.

Because Vintage is such a regional format, you’ll have to observe your local metagame and try to determine how viable Oath is as a strategy. This is an extremely fun deck to play with, and I find it to be very engaging and strategically deep. Sadly, none of that will help you if your format is overrun with Trygon Predators. If you’re looking for a new take on Oath and didn’t catch Sperling’s debut article for StarCityGames.com, check it out for his build, and more detailed strategy for this deck design.

Why should you play this deck?

This is the same basic Dredge shell I’ve advocated for most of the year, and why not? It keeps performing. If you’re unfamiliar with Vintage Dredge, I wrote a 10,000-word primer and strategy guide in two parts,
here
and
here,
that will teach you what you need to know to get started.

The use of Leyline of Sanctity has forced most opponents to use Pithing Needle, Yixlid Jailer, and Leyline of the Void as their main hate cards, thus this version is focused on beating those cards. Serenity in particular is fantastic at sweeping the board clear of multiple Leylines, Needles, and Relics (as well as fast mana). If you can manage to resolve it against Workshops, which isn’t impossible given the number of Petrified Fields in this deck, it’s devastating there.

Like MUD, Dredge is an often underestimated strategy, and it’s also one which benefits from a wide-open format. Based on the results of the first weekend with Gush, the format is extremely open. Gro, Storm, Time Vault, Oath, and Workshop decks are all operating successfully, crunching people’s sideboard space. Opponents without significant hate cannot beat this deck as it’s a stable and consistent shell for the Dredge strategy.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

In areas where the deck is popular, it appears that even with a format shift, the majority of players aren’t skimping on their Dredge hate as they might have in the past. In addition, the popularity of the deck increases the likelihood of the mirror match, which is one of the less skill-intensive mirror matches in all of Magic.

Perhaps more damning is the tension on Dredge to beat hateful decks like MUD, which have Wastelands and often pack a huge supply of hate cards in the sideboard, but also to beat decks that want to race, like Gush and Lotus Cobra-fueled Storm decks. The former suggest a slower, resilient build while the latter pushes us toward a high-impact, high-speed version like Fatestitcher Dredge. Similarly, Leyline of Sanctity is probably better than Leyline of the Void, except for all of the mirror matches running around, so regardless of which way you go, you may have the wrong Leyline for your opponent’s strategy. The key decisions in which Leyline to choose are how many opposing Dredge decks you expect, how many opposing Tendrils and Oath decks you expect, and what type of hate is being used in your field.

Why should you play this deck?

Honestly, you probably shouldn’t, as this version isn’t battle-tested at all. This is just a framework for an update of Noble Fish; you can
find more information on the basic theory of this deck,
here.
Still, as a thought exercise at least, I think it shows promise. The key change is the inclusion of Aether Vial and seven anti-tutor/anti-Tinker cards in Leonin Arbiter and Aven Mindcensor. While some might think Vial is too slow for Vintage, the reason it’s included is more a nod to the Workshop matchup than the blue matchup; the added benefit is being able to flash in Leonin Arbiter. With Vial in the deck, there are effectively eight one-drop accelerants, and Vial lets us play out creatures in the face of any number of Workshop resistors.

Against Workshop decks, you’d sideboard out four Arbiters and three Mindcensors for two Teegs, two Tarmogoyfs, two Nature’s Claims, and one Swords to Plowshares, although it’s worth considering the use of Pithing Needle to make sure you can beat Steel Hellkite, Ratchet Bomb, and Maze of Ith.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

This is, basically, a sketch. It’s a guesstimate. The problem, or difficulty, with building and playing Fish early in a new metagame is that you’re not sure what you’re trying to beat, and a hate-bear deck needs to know its targets. Any guess as to what the format is, or will be, is just that, a guess, and therefore has a high likelihood of inaccuracy or incompleteness.

The other concern is that the maindeck of this build isn’t specifically designed to beat anything, so the approach may be too broad; this happens a lot with Fish, which is best played in a meta which is defined by one or two clear front-runners.

So, if anything, consider this a potential starting point, and see if you can hammer out something workable from this framework.

Why should you play this deck?

Deck credit here goes to Brian DeMars. You can read about his deck and its development,
here.

I’d consider adding a Tolarian Academy, and of course the sideboard needs to be updated any time you play this deck, to localize it for your metagame and adjust to keep up with new format developments. With the mana this deck can crank out, it might also be worth exploring something to do with that mana, like a Tezzeret.

I have to be honest with you and admit that I had my doubts about this deck. I thought that it might be more of a gimmick than an innovation (as I believe was the case with Steel City Vault), and I was concerned the Waterbury results were based on player strength more than deck strength.

If you had the same concerns, forget it. Lotus Cobra is the real deal in Tezzeret as long as you build the right shell around it, as Brian did. The things this deck does, no control deck should be able to do.

In fact, I think this may actually be the most powerful control deck in the format. It’s stable, consistent, fast, versatile, and capable of battling against both Workshops and Gush decks. Very few decks in Vintage can say that.

Kudos, Brian.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

The main question with this deck is whether it can keep up with updated MUD and still hang with Gush decks as well. For example, Steel Panther MUD is much better at removing Bob and Cobra from play than other versions of that deck.

We’re still looking at the initial versions of this era of Gush decks. They may get better, and there already isn’t too much separation between this deck and the NEPA crew’s Gush Storm deck. Should that deck continue to win, it could supplant this one, or the decks may merge; one benefit to this strategy is higher resistance to Workshops. I also wonder if Gro could act as a foil for this deck, as it’s probably capable of keeping SCV off-balance long enough to win games. This goes back to my point about localizing / updating the sideboard.

Why should you play this deck?

Credit for this deck goes to Jeremy Beaver and his teammates from NEPA; Joe Pace also made the Top 8 playing this deck; although I think his deck had a few minor tweaks (like including Sol Ring).

Thus far, this is the most “broken” of the Gush decks I’ve seen in terms of skewing toward raw power. It uses the combination of Fastbond, Gush, and Lotus Cobra to do really broken things, usually involving Yawgmoth’s Will and the storm mechanic. The use of Jace with Gush lets you power into some insane turns, even if the overall casting cost in this deck is relatively high.

In one game against this deck on 10/2, my opponent had the following sequence of plays on turn 1:

Black Lotus, sacrifice to add GGG, play Lotus Cobra, play Fastbond, play Polluted Delta (add B to pool), fetch for Underground Seas (add B to pool), tap Underground Sea (BBB in pool), play Dark Ritual (BBBBB in pool), play Demonic Tutor, play Necropotence. Draw a new hand and pass turn.

I did not win that game.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

Jeremy has a knack at building decks that succeed early in metagames, and he loves combining planeswalkers and Dark Rituals. Those tendencies are on full display here, and this is a very cool deck that’s capable of some outrageous brokenness, which is Beaver’s forte. Beaver likes a deck that isn’t subtle.

However, this deck looks like it has some strategic weaknesses on account of its penchant for the broken. Most of its game against Workshops comes in from the sideboard. Hands that lack fast mana are painfully slow to develop, but some common fast mana is missing. It’s relatively light on Dredge hate in the board as well, although it makes up for some of that in speed. There’s no Plan B here by way of Tinker and robot, which surprises me, and you’re not playing the Time Vault / Voltaic Key combo, so you have to work for all your wins and pray you don’t see a Teeg on the battlefield (pro tip: Tinker/Robot and Key/Vault are the two easiest wins in the format). A Fish deck like the one I presented earlier would probably give this deck fits, especially Teeg and the search prevention creatures (Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter).

Gro 2010

Gro 2010 by Stephen Menendian, 1
^st
place at “Black & White” Vintage in Ann Arbor, MI on 10/2/2010

Why should you play this deck?

This is Stephen Menendian 2010 version of Gro-a-Tog, powered by Preordain and the return of Gush to the format. He won a 23-player tournament with this deck on 10/2, while teammate Paul Mastriano made Top 8 at a 46-player tournament the same day in Blue Bell. As with Snake City Vault, Gro is a stable and consistent deck. It’s also a strategy that has been out of the limelight for a long period of time, long enough that many players may be rusty against the deck or have no experience against it at all, conferring a strategic advantage.

Gro is designed to keep digging for action, and is often able to hit critical mass with impressive speed thanks to its ability to dig for singletons using Gush, Preordain, and shuffle effects and tutors. The Tinker / robot plan is in the main here despite a limited number of artifacts, which surprises me, but apparently won Stephen a lot of games on his way to a Mox.

Further, a lot of people just really enjoy this style of deck. In my limited time testing with it, I have to admit that it is very enjoyable to be bashing with giant Dryads again. Personally, I’m not a fan of Misdirection and would play something else in that slot. I would lean toward Ancient Grudge, Lightning Bolt, and Imperial Seal as potential replacements. Another option is to replace Tinker and Sphinx of the Steel Wind with Time Vault and Voltaic Key, as this deck is already digging with extreme velocity, and opponents are likely to side out their artifact hate.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

Out of the gate, I’m not convinced this deck has a strong enough matchup against Workshops. Chalice of the Void on one and two are both pretty devastating, and Steel Hellkite smashes through Gro’s creatures pretty easily. Without any Waste or Strip effects, Maze of Ith can handle Tryon pretty easily. The strategy of banking on Trygon may have worked at this tournament, but I’m not sure it will continue to work in the long-term.

While I know that I’ve often underestimated Gro as a strategy, Gro is probably going to make you work much harder for your wins than some of the other decks that are higher on the pure power level scale. Still, it gives you room to out-play and out-maneuver opponents, and that has to be part of its appeal. I suspect we’ll see tweaks on this design as time goes on.

Note – this is the alternate Serenity board I played at Waterbury:

4 Leyline of the Void 
2 Yixlid Jailer 
2 Tundra 
3 Serenity 
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Tinker 
1 Virtue’s Ruin 
1 Duress

Why should you play this deck?

As noted previously, I cribbed a version of this deck from Luis Scott-Vargas.
My Waterbury report
included a lot of detail on this strategy.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming Gush has invalidated the other blue decks in Vintage, as there’s still a place (at least right now) for a combo deck like this that has balanced matchups across the board. I still believe that Bob Tendrils is one of the better and more versatile strategies available in modern Vintage. It’s fast, powerful, flexible, and has no unwinnable matchups. Consistency is extremely important in an open metagame, in which you can literally face any type of opposing strategy. In a Shop-heavy metagame, I suggest you use the Serenity board, but if things are open, the bounce package is also effective.

Virtue’s Ruin and Jace are your creature control, as well as the option to Tinker in post-board games. I’m currently testing out Myr Battlesphere, as it’s easy to hard-cast, makes your Tolarian Academy absolutely bonkers, and hits harder than any other Tinker target provided it gets in unblocked. One strike from Battlesphere and a tiny Tendrils will usually end the game on the spot.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

Just because Gush decks aren’t going to dominate you out of the gate doesn’t mean that they’re a cakewalk, either. Gush decks are annoying because they’re much harder to clear of countermagic, as the opponent may be holding both Gush and a Force of Will or Mindbreak Trap; there’s also the danger of being out-drawn or out-brokened in the early game by a Gush Storm deck, although to be fair, this is true of any matchup involving combo on combo decks in Vintage.

A real danger is that of splash damage from white hate-bears like Leonin Arbiter, Ethersworn Canonist, Meddling Mage, and Gaddock Teeg that may show up to combat Gush decks. Teeg and Canonist are both excellent cards to use against Gush, while Arbiter prevents the Gush deck from finding singleton answers brought in from the sideboard, as well as nullifying Jace as an option. While this isn’t a Gush deck, it’s similarly devastated by those cards; should they become popular as a response to Gush, the sideboard for this deck would have to change rather dramatically to adjust. So, while this deck is flexible enough to beat anything, it also has vulnerabilities to certain Fish creatures and Workshops, so it might also be broad enough to lose to everything.

Why should you play this deck?

Well, for starters, because it’s awesome. Seriously.

It’s the Kenny Powers of Vintage.

I challenge you to find a more exciting, and ridiculous, Vintage deck that is still capable of winning tournaments. If you’re unfamiliar with
this deck, the primer is located
here.

This deck is a double-combo Workshop deck. It lets you play a ton of cards that could and should be among your favorites, like Painter’s Servant, Goblin Welder, and Intuition. While it has some vulnerability to Chalice of the Void, it plays Goblin Welder with Myr Battlesphere. Stop and think about how insane that one is.

It lets you make great use of any Mox Opals you may have accumulated, and plays draw sevens and Dark Confidant. In a nutshell, this deck is the most fun seventy-five you’re going to find.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

This deck is high-variance, and not all that good at comebacks. It hates Nature’s Claim and Trygon Predator; although it can at least combat them with Goblin Welder (and Red Elemental Blast, if you have Painter’s Servant out or you’re talking about Trygon). Monte has a lot of trouble with Null Rod, Chalice on zero or one (depending on the hand), Pithing Needle out of the board, opposing Welders are annoying, Qasali Pridemage and Meddling Mage are serious issues, and having to race Gush decks is a lot harder than racing older-style Tezzeret decks.

That list got out of control pretty quickly.

Basically, the problem with Monte is that you’re not always going to get to play against your good matchups, and sometimes the deck just malfunctions. Still, the deck’s sideboard gives it some game against everything, and because a lot of people have no idea what this deck is doing, you can get some free game wins due to player error on the other side of the table.

 

Why should you play this deck?

Perhaps you’re seeking the explosiveness of Monte in a more stable and more familiar shell. If so, Ad Nauseam Tendrils is the deck for you. The version here comes from Ashok Chitturi’s build, which came in second place at the Waterbury on September 11, 2010. In a format where a lot of decks are being designed with racing the opponent in mind, ANT will almost always be faster; it’s faster than Lotus Cobra, faster than Gush, faster than Dredge, faster than TPS.

ANT is also designed with beating blue decks in mind. It has full sets of both Thoughtseize and Duress, and brings Xantid Swarm in out of the sideboard. I did change up Ashok’s sideboard to include the Serenity package I tested in Bob Tendrils, and in fact that plan is actually much better in this deck. One of the issues with Serenity in Bob Tendrils is that deck is sometimes unable to capitalize quickly enough. ANT doesn’t have that problem and usually only needs one clear turn in order to win. In some games, I’ve even used Serenity preemptively to Time Walk my way to a turn 2 win.

Why shouldn’t you play this deck?

In a nutshell: Workshops. Certainly, ANT can beat Workshops, especially if it wins the die roll, as this deck can straight-up race Workshops or just win before they get a turn. Unfortunately, that isn’t always going to happen, and Workshops really pound this deck into the ground if they get a chance to get the ball rolling.

Additionally, as with Bob Tendrils, this deck potentially suffers from splash damage due to Gush entering the format. Cards like Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, and Meddling Mage are bad news for ANT. This specific build has a very light package of cards to beat opposing hate-bears. It also isn’t unlikely that Mindbreak Trap is going to become more prevalent in sideboards, and like Dredge, ANT flourishes in environments where opponents are unaware.

Summary

What you see in the decks above isn’t even a complete look at this format, which also includes Stax (including mono-red, mono-brown, and five-color), Workshop Aggro, MUD Aggro, Gush Vault decks, TPS, traditional Tezzeret and Jace Control, and more.

Vintage is deep, vibrant, and above all else, fun.

Don’t believe me? Put these decks together as best you can, proxy as you need to, and have at it. You may find a format that is very different than your preconceived notions of Vintage.

If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to take a few of these decks and analyze them further, perhaps doing some test games and looking at sideboard strategies. Which of these decks would you like to read about in greater detail, if any? Let me know in the forums.

Matt Elias

[email protected]

Voltron00x on SCG, TMD, and The Source