Join the Mana Drain’s illustrious leader, as he steps forward and fills a gap in our current Vintage knowledge. Phil Stanton has been filling you in for months about the metagame at big tournaments, but what about more local tournies where you don’t get 100 players each week? If that describes what the type of tournament you play at, then you’ve come to the right place!
Oscar is back from his break to tell you that there are never any good new cards printed for Type One, ever. Okay, that’s not true… in fact, recent sets have been unprecedented in delivering strong new cards for Vintage play. Does Champions have any new creatures that will make Vintage players jump for joy? You’ll have to check inside to find out.
As Ben Bleiweiss mentioned in his recent article on Champions of Kamigawa and Vintage, Oath of Druids has been granted a very fun new toy in Champions of Kamigawa – Forbidden Orchard. After reading Mr. Bleiweiss’s article, my testing group and I decided that it was no longer a good idea to keep our pet project underground. Thus, here in all its glory, is an Oath of Druids deck for Vintage, designed to destroy the opponent in one attack. The build I have provided is for budget players, but this deck is easily adaptable for powered users as well.
What’s more awesome than awesome sauce? It’s Ben’s look at Champions of Kamigawa in Vintage! Last time around, Ben invoked the ire of the entire Vintage community with his less-than-respectful look at the Type 1 community and Fifth Dawn. Will this be another flamefest, or will the Vintage community heed Ben’s words and rally around his Vintage metagame instincts? Look inside, then post your thoughts in the forums!
Gifts Ungiven
It’s not quite Intuition, and it’s not quite Fact or Fiction. You can’t use it as a tutor for unrestricted cards like with Intuition, and your opponent chooses what you get, unlike FoF. There are still some no-win sets with this. Think Yawgmoth’s Will, Recoup, Black Lotus, and Lion’s Eye Diamond. There might also be some crazy combo kill with this as well. I’m not going to give up on it just yet.
The weeks leading up to the announcement I had been playing a lot of Drain Slaver/Crucible Slaver. With help from Mattieu Durand of Franceland and the rest of Meandeck, I was tuning a list and practicing with it for the weeks leading up to Waterbury. I won like, one match. So I gave up on it and played DeathLong. The rest is history… almost.
The field of the Championships was wide open with a variety of decks from all aspects of the metagame represented in one form or another. Even combo, Tendrils-based or otherwise, had a decent showing with a Goblin Charbelcher deck making it to the semifinals, something most wouldn’t have expected before the event. There was also another deck flying under the radar. Only a select few had the privilege of seeing it in action, and the name of the deck, whispered only in the dark, shadowy catacombs of the convention hall was… Revenge.
In the latest edition, Pip brings you the August Metagame Breakdown, the perceived fallout from the Banned and Restricted List changes, and the skinny on which cards might get restricted next!
The Vintage World Champion defends his title against all comers, slaying dragons, Smennendians, and Amish folks while lost in Pennsylvania, all in his own unique style (awesome sauce not included)!
There’s only one thing that I know at all about Type 1.5: that people have wanted a banned list separate from Type 1 for years in order to bring it out of the shadow of Type 1. Personally, I don’t know anything about any of the decks. I have no idea where any scenes are. I don’t know who the big shot players are. If I had to tell you what decks were good, I’d just have to make a totally unfounded guess. But I do know that the new bannings are good for the format, and I’ll tell you why.
So the DCI blew up the world at midnight Eastern time September 1st by splitting the Type One and Type 1.5 Banned and Restricted lists. Type One players have been clamoring for this ever since the perceived misdeed of the Earthcraft and Entomb restrictions (which has long been blamed on 1.5, though I’ve heard 1.5 players deny that it made any sense for them, either). If I recall correctly, some of the leading 1.5 players actually didn’t want a split for fear of list mismanagement, because their format is a small niche even compared to Type One. But let me explain to you here and now why this was an amazingly good decision for the DCI to make.
More than one hundred and fifty players came to Gencon to win an amazing piece of artwork and a sweet trophy. More importantly, they came to take their shot at the mantle of Vintage World Champion, but none of them were prepared to handle the return of Mono-Blue.
First off, I am going to say that I don’t think that Crucible of Worlds should be restricted right now. I just want to make sure to get that out of the way nice and early. I also want to level a formal outcry against the top 8 of GenCon. That top 8 was totally illegitimate, as it did not consist of 17 Four-Color Control decks, 9 Fish decks, and 6 GroAtog decks. In all seriousness, I thought that the top 8 was great and couldn’t have asked for a better one.
Top 8 match coverage including the finals and interviews with the top 4 including the new Type One World Champion, Mark Biller!
Through the hard work of our newest Featured Writer Ben Kowal, StarCityGames.com brings you match coverage from the Type I World Championships held at GenCon last weekend. All the Swiss rounds will be posted today and then the top 8 matches will be posted on Monday. Catch all the vintage action, only at StarCityGames.com.
