The Year That Was In Vintage

Happy Holidays all! 2014 is winding down which means it is once again time to take a look back at the year that was in Vintage. This year was a big year in
the history of Vintage that included some key moments that have changed Magic’s oldest format forever. So sit back and take a stroll with me back down
memory lane at some of the big moments in part one of the Vintage 2014 Year in Review.

January: Where Did All The Shops Go?

Do you remember way back then? The Florida State Seminoles had just become the BCS National Champions, “Timber” by Pitbull was all the rage on the radio,
and Magic fans were anxiously awaiting the release of Born of the Gods. Oh, those were the days…

Theros failed to include any new printing of note to shake up Vintage, and the typical jockeying for metagame position between the 2013 mainstay decks,
various builds of Sultai and Mishra’s Workshop, had taken over as the dominant Vintage narrative. At the end of my 2013 VIntage year in review, I predicted that with
Sultai and Workshops putting up such strong numbers that perhaps more threat-heavy creature decks and Oath of Druids could make a run at the top of the
heap in 2014.

We don’t need to look too far into the 2014 calendar year to find big time Vintage action heating up: The Player’s Guild Championship tournament for a Mox
Emerald took place on 1/04/14.

One of the interesting factors about Vintage is that there are so many powerful decks that are capable of taking down any given tournament on any given
day. I can look at trends that are apparent in the format over a period of time and make an educated guess about what is likely to happen next. One of the
factors I always consider when looking at the format is that despite whatever the trends seem to suggest, Vintage will always have broken combo decks
floating around and these combo decks are more than capable of winning any event at any time!

Scoreboard: Zombies – 1, Puny Mortals – 0

2014 started off with a grim reminder of why not to bury things in the Pet Sematary, because “sometimes dead is better…”

Dredge

Lance Ballester

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 01-05-2014

Vintage

Creatures (20)

• 4 Golgari Grave-Troll
• 4 Stinkweed Imp
• 4 Narcomoeba
• 4 Bloodghast
• 1 Sun Titan
• 2 Laboratory Maniac
• 1 Griselbrand

Lands (16)

• 1 Strip Mine
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 City of Brass
• 4 Bazaar of Baghdad
• 1 Riftstone Portal
• 2 Dakmor Salvage

Spells (24)

• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 4 Serum Powder
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 3 Darkblast
• 3 Dread Return
• 2 Bridge from Below
• 4 Mental Misstep

Sideboard

• 4 Divining Witch
• 1 Dark Confidant
• 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Mayor of Avabruck
• 4 Cavern of Souls

I don’t tend to go too deep into the technology of Dredge decks, but I cannot deny that this Dredge deck has a pretty cool sideboard plan, as it transforms
itself into a bizarro “Human” Dredge deck.

Humans and zombies unite!

While all of Lance’s opponents were perhaps loading up on backbreaking graveyard hate, he was able to sideboard into a Plan B plan of uncounterable
creatures to attack unsuspecting opponents from a new angle. It’s the same principle of back in the day when TPS players would bring in Phyrexian Negators
against control decks who were boarding out all of their removal in lieu of more Duresses.

The Player’s Guild January event is also significant because the Top 8 was absolutely loaded with combo decks. In fact, in the finals, Bazaar of Baghdad
faced off against another broken combo deck.

The end of the world as we know it, yes indeed.

It’s not the most common thing in the world to see Doomsday versus Dredge at the end of a tournament playing for all the marbles, but one of the cool
things about Vintage is that sometimes that is what it comes to!

I also got onto the scoreboard early last January by taking down a Vintage event at RIW Hobbies in Michigan with a pretty sweet Sultai Control deck.

Sultai Control

Brian Demars

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 01-19-2014

Vintage

Creatures (4)

• 3 Dark Confidant
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus

Planeswalkers (3)

• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (15)

• 1 Island
• 3 Underground Sea
• 3 Tropical Island
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Verdant Catacombs

Spells (38)

• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Brainstorm
• 2 Mana Drain
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Time Vault
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Tinker
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ponder
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 2 Mental Misstep
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 1 Toxic Deluge

Sideboard

• 1 Forest
• 4 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Trygon Predator
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Flusterstorm

In response to fast combo decks seeing some success early on in the year, I opted to enlist the help of an old friend:

Taking control haters to Jelly School.

There is nothing too cute going on in this decklist. It’s a very basic Mana Drain Combo Control deck that has built into it very strong plans for combo,
Workshops, and Dredge.

Dark Bomberman

Miquel Alcoriza

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 01-05-2014

Vintage

Creatures (11)

• 4 Trinket Mage
• 3 Auriok Salvagers
• 4 Dark Confidant

Lands (16)

• 1 Plains
• 1 Island
• 2 Underground Sea
• 2 Tundra
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 3 Cavern of Souls

Spells (33)

• 3 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Brainstorm
• 4 Force of Will
• 2 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 4 Mana Leak
• 1 Aether Spellbomb
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 4 Mental Misstep
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage

Sideboard

• 2 Disenchant
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 3 Kataki, War's Wage
• 1 Path to Exile
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 3 Notion Thief

Another powerful option in the early phases of last year was to simply play a more controlling creature-based control deck than people who were playing
Sultai Fish.

While I was busy dusting off my Mana Drains last January, Miquel Alcoriza brought a full swath of Mana Leaks out for battle:

Mana Leak is interesting in this Bomberman deck because it can be cast off of Cavern of Souls as well as all of the off colored Moxen. Obviously, Mana Leak
is a less powerful Magic card than Mana Drain in the abstract, but in this deck the fact that it is easier to cast gives it an edge.

So what happened to Mishra’s Workshop? It was there, but not winning. It’s tough to find a top 8 without a Mishra’s Workshop deck somewhere, but it is
telling of what is going on in the metagame when Workshop decks are not making the finals and/or winning events.

February: Bored of the Gods

Last February, I was writing my set review for the newest
Magic expansion, “Born of the Gods,” and grasping at straws for what Vintage players might take away from this set. I think my most playable Vintage card
from this set was:

King of Nothing.

While Born of the Gods may not have shaken up much in Vintage, the metagame did continue to march forward.

And out came the Workshop decks.

“Hail! Phyrexia!”

While it may have appeared at the beginning of the year in January that Vintage fans had forgot about Mishra’s Workshop altogether, the archetype surged
back as the winter continued on.

Stax

Javier David

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 02-02-2014

Vintage

Creatures (11)

• 2 Karn, Silver Golem
• 4 Lodestone Golem
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 3 Phyrexian Revoker

Lands (19)

• 1 Strip Mine
• 4 Wasteland
• 3 Mishra's Factory
• 4 Ancient Tomb
• 4 Mishra's Workshop
• 2 Rishadan Port
• 1 Tolarian Academy

Spells (30)

• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 4 Sphere of Resistance
• 3 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Trinisphere
• 4 Smokestack
• 1 Black Lotus
• 4 Tangle Wire
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 4 Chalice of the Void
• 2 Staff of Nin

Sideboard

• 2 Triskelion
• 3 Null Rod
• 2 Duplicant
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 4 Grafdigger's Cage

It is very difficult to keep Mishra’s Workshop down for any extended period of time in Vintage. The archetype is simply too powerful and able to exploit
being on the play to its advantage more so than any other archetype in any format in Magic!

One of the cool things about Vintage is that there are six or seven “best decks in the format,” where each of these decks is simply powerful enough to win
a tournament on the back of the powerful things that the deck does all on its own. However, each of these decks also has some sort of intrinsic weakness
that can also be exploited by other people’s decks.

If at any time any given deck becomes too popular or starts winning too much, people can in a sense “overreact” and amp up on hate for those decks. When
Mishra’s Workshops start crushing tournaments it becomes time for the other decks to start playing more Nature’s Claims, Ingot Chewers and maindecking
Hurkyl’s Recalls. In the same vein, when the Mana Drain decks start winning, the Workshop decks can warp themselves against being strong against Time Vault
and artifact mana with cards like Null Rod and Phyrexian Revoker.

The circle of hate continues on.

It is because of this high density of powerful decks that change is often slow and mostly revolves around the metagame moving in cycles where combo-control
decks and Mishra’s Workshops duke it out at the top of the metagame. Part of it has to do with these decks traditionally being exceptionally powerful, but
it is also in part due to the popularity of these archetypes.

March Maskness

Wintertime is often one of the slower periods for Vintage play. Snowy roads, holiday fatigue, and bad weather all contribute as to the reason why. One cool
event that took place in March 2014 was a gigantic Grand Prix Melborne Sanctioned Vintage side event where 43 people battled for supremacy of the old
school landscape.

At the end of the day, it was once again Dredge that stood victorious, but this time it was Cagebreaker Oath in the hands of Gabriel Rabin marching his
zombie horde to victory.

While there were a bunch of Mishra’s Workshops and Mana Drain decks bringing up the rear of this event, it was ultimately Bazaar of Baghdad that ultimately
won the day. Dredge traditionally performs very well in moments when Mana Drain and Mishra’s Workshops are heatedly contending to be the best decks in
Vintage because both archetypes end up exerting a lot of energy and deck slots to fighting directly against each other. And when deckbuilders are using
lots of spots to fight combo-control and Workshops, it means they are not using those spots to fight against Dredge.

A truly fascinating deck that was played to a sixth place finish:

It has awesome Amy Weber artwork, but I have no idea what it actually does…

MaskNaught

Timothy Tai

6th Place at Miscellaneous on 03-02-2014

Vintage

Creatures (19)

• 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1 Basking Rootwalla
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 1 Trygon Predator
• 3 Vampire Hexmage
• 2 Vengevine
• 2 Deathrite Shaman
• 2 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

Lands (17)

• 1 Forest
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Taiga
• 2 Bayou
• 3 Gemstone Mine
• 2 Dark Depths
• 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Verdant Catacombs

Spells (25)

• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Time Walk
• 2 Illusionary Mask
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 4 Survival of the Fittest
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 3 Mental Misstep
• 2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard

• 4 Artifact Mutation
• 1 Yixlid Jailer
• 4 Nature's Claim
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Grafdigger's Cage

Timothy’s Masknaught deck is undeniably awesome as it basically fuses Illusionary Mask + Dreadnaught, Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage, Survival of the
Fittest + Vengevine, and a bunch of disruption into one multi-combo deck!

If you are looking for something sweet to put together to do something completely different in Vintage take a look at this deck!

Who says new things aren’t possible?

April: The Oathers

At the end of 2013, I predicted the table was set for Oath of Druids decks to take a spot at the big kid’s table in Vintage.

The easiest Yawgmoth’s Bargain in Magic.

The printing of Deathrite Shaman (and better creatures in general) ensures that Oath of Druids is more likely to hit without an Orchard, but most
importantly Griselbrand is horns and shoulders the best Oath target ever printed. In fact, when I wrote my Avacyn Restored Vintage set review I
predicted that Griselbrand was a bigger deal printing for Vintage than the flashy Snapcaster Mage.

Oath

Benjamin Jones

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 04-14-2014

Vintage

Creatures (2)

• 2 Griselbrand

Planeswalkers (3)

• 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (16)

• 4 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Island
• 3 Underground Sea
• 2 Tropical Island
• 2 Polluted Delta
• 4 Misty Rainforest

Spells (39)

• 1 Brainstorm
• 3 Mana Drain
• 1 Show and Tell
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 4 Oath of Druids
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Gaea's Blessing
• 1 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Time Vault
• 1 Misdirection
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Mental Misstep
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard

• 1 Show and Tell
• 1 Forest
• 4 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Mindbreak Trap
• 2 Nature's Claim
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 1 Toxic Deluge

While the Oath of Druids archetype had been relatively quiet in the first few months of 2014, it made its presence known in April by taking down a bunch of
small events across the USA.

Oath

Ryan Reynolds

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 12-23-2014

Vintage

Creatures (1)

• 1 Sun Titan

Planeswalkers (2)

• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (18)

• 4 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 3 Underground Sea
• 2 Tropical Island
• 1 Library of Alexandria
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 4 Misty Rainforest

Spells (39)

• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 4 Oath of Druids
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Regrowth
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 2 Intuition
• 1 Time Vault
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Pernicious Deed
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Ponder
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 2 Mental Misstep
• 1 Memory's Journey

Sideboard

• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 4 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 3 Nature's Claim
• 2 Terastodon
• 3 Swan Song

The Sun Titan version is kind of interesting, but as time went by it would ultimately be shown that the Griselbrand version would take over as the version
of choice.

Show and Tell was an excellent addition to the Griselbrand-heavy versions of Oath as it provided the deck with a fantastic Plan B against a metagame that
was cruxing very heavily on Grafdigger’s Cage as a way to deal with the powerful enchantment. Abrupt Decay also provided the deck with another solid way of
beating Grafdigger’s Cage, especially against creature decks that packed a lot of counterspells and disruption.

It is interesting that Oath was already picking up steam early on in springtime before some of the later printings and metagame shifts aligned the stars
for Oath to become one of the format’s all around best decks later on in the year. I think this phenomenon really speaks to the fact that Oath of Druids +
Griselbrand when coupled with the backup plan of Show and Tell is simply a powerful deck regardless of whether or not one is likely to play against a bunch
of Fish decks or not.

The strategy is outright powerful all by itself and can only be made “more powerful” when conditions align such that lots of opponents are going to be
playing creature decks.

May: Journey Into Bazaar of Moxen

May started out with a bang and brought Vintage fans a new Vintage set with a couple of nice Vintage playable cards:

One of these cards is a bigger deal than the other.

Aegis of the Gods is a nice little niche sideboard card against Tendrils and Oath of Druids, but Mana Confluence is the stone cold real deal.

A strictly better City of Brass? Yeah, count me in for that…

Aside from being better than City of Brass (it doesn’t hurt when it gets tapped down by things like Rishadan Port or Tangle Wire) it also opens up the
possibility of playing more than four copies of City of Brass which previously didn’t exist.

I, for instance, played a deck at Vintage Championships this year that had four copies of Mana Confluence and two copies of City of Brass!

Mana Confluence is clearly a printing that will be felt for years and years down the road.

In May, one of the marquee Vintage events was held in Europe, the Bazaar of Moxen Vintage Open.

Bazaar of Moxen tournaments are always a huge deal because they are, by Vintage standards, huge tournaments! Only the absolute best decks can weather the
storm and crown a champion after nine rounds of swiss!

At the end of it all, Gwen and his Tezzeret Oath deck stood victorious!

The cool thing about this deck is that pre-sideboard, the deck is basically just a Time Vault combo deck with lots of counterspells and ways to set up the
combo. However, post-sideboard Gwen’s deck has the option to transform into a full-on Oath of Druids deck against opponents who plan on having creatures in
play!

Tezzerator

Gwen De Schamphlare

1st Place at Miscellaneous on 05-04-2014

Vintage

Creatures (3)

• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 2 Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalkers (4)

• 2 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (15)

• 3 Island
• 2 Underground Sea
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Library of Alexandria
• 1 Snow-Covered Island
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn

Spells (37)

• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Brainstorm
• 4 Mana Drain
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Time Vault
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Misdirection
• 1 Tinker
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Spell Snare
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 2 Mental Misstep
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Toxic Deluge

Sideboard

• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 4 Oath of Druids
• 2 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Misdirection
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 2 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 3 Swan Song

It is also interesting that the deck has the option to bring in Forbidden Orchard and a triplet of Swan Songs so that the Oath of Druids plan is
actually in play even against decks that don’t need to utilize creatures in order to execute their gameplan. Any opponent regardless of whether
they even use creatures has to be aware that a deck like this could be bringing in Oaths!

Are you noticing a trend yet?

Oath of Druids is by the middle point of the year becoming a major, major player on the Vintage scene!

June: Vintage Online and Conspiracy

Halfway through 2014 one of the biggest and most important events in the history of Vintage occurred and this event would forever transform the way the
format is played.

On June 16th, Magic Online released the Vintage Masters expansion which included digital reprints of the Power 9. For the first time ever the Power 9 would
be made available to online players, and thus, Vintage would be a playable format online.

Before Vintage Masters there was a Vintage “lite” format called Classic, but without the format defining Power 9 cards the format fell well short of the
exciting format we have all come to know and love.

Vintage Online came out of the gates as a format that people wanted to take part in. Digital Power 9 soared in price, and people were very excited to play
Vintage online.

As the format started to take shape online and a metagame began to develop, the metagame seemed to revolve around a trio of popular decks that appeared to
be consistently putting up very strong results:

U/R Delver

Chris Materwicz

Test deck on 12-23-2014

Vintage

Creatures (12)

• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Young Pyromancer

Lands (15)

• 1 Mountain
• 3 Island
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn

Spells (33)

• 1 Brainstorm
• 3 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 4 Gush
• 1
• 1 Misdirection
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ponder
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Preordain
• 1 Steel Sabotage
• 4 Mental Misstep
• 1 Flusterstorm

Sideboard

• 1 Hurkyl's Recall
• 2 Grim Lavamancer
• 1 Pyroblast
• 4 Ingot Chewer
• 2 Ravenous Trap
• 1 Dismember
• 4 Grafdigger's Cage

Delver of Secrets decks performed very well in the early going of Magic Online, but people seemed to agree it was likely because the deck was fairly cheap
to build… Oh, how wrong they would turn out to be as the lists got tighter and more refined!

June also saw the release of an Eternal-only expansion called Conspiracy which featured a big time Vintage printing of its own:

Vintage’s best Planeswalker?

Dack Fayden is a huge deal for Vintage. In a format where everyone’s manabase is made up of Moxes, it’s a planeswaker that is also an Annex with upside.
However, there are also lots of artifact creatures and artifact win conditions that float around in Vintage.

“I’ll take that!”

Oh, also there is an entire archetype that plays nothing but artifacts…

And, at the very worst it ticks up and casts Careful Study every turn!

Dack Fayden is a planeswalker that is tailor made for Vintage awesomeness, as all of his abilities are fantastic in a blue deck. Steal your opponent’s
stuff or draw cards? Is there anything more blue than that?

Well, not until they print a counterspell planeswalker…

And that brings us to the halfway point in 2014. Tune in next week for a full review of the second half of the year when things really started to heat up
and shift in tournament Vintage. Also, I will take a look to the future and make some bold predictions about what 2015 will hold for Vintage!

I’d like to wish everybody a safe and happy holiday. Cheers!