TagVintage

So I’m actually playing Type 1 again. Along with this comes reading and posting on TheManaDrain.com about all sorts of things. One of these things was an announcement for a Type 1 tournament in Connecticut. This gave me a warm, happy feeling, because I thought it was a posting for one of Ray Robillard’s awesome sauce Waterbury tournaments. Alas, it was not, but there was still the allure of first and second place getting a Lotus. I decided to play Tog a bit more against people, and it was still doing well, but I had seen how broken Slavery was and I really wanted to play it…

Last week’s”all numbers, all the time” article elicited two requests for data, which was perfect, because this was my week of crazy midterms, so I needed material. The first request, from Rudy van Soest, was that I take my assorted collection of data and find some trends, so I compiled a listing of all the IsoKeeper builds from September on and tried to figure out the optimal build. The second was from JP Meyer, who said,”My loins are quivering in anticipation. I love the set breakdowns, but you know what I love more? When you list what cards appear the most per set.” How can you resist a request like that?

My purpose here is to present what I believe to be the gold standard for Tendrils-based combo at the moment. If you enjoy absolutely wrecking people as much as I do – instilling fear and intimidating based upon the strength of your deck, I present…

Steve Menendian sits down at the table and tells me that he has tested the Fish matchup a lot and is shaky about it, though he feels he can pull it out. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t playing Fish, and as Carl von Clausewitz says in his military philosophy, don’t stop your opponent when they are making mistakes! He plays a typical strong opening hand with plenty of mana acceleration. Steve drops a fat artifact which gets Annulled and then follows up with Mindslaver later, which hits Mana Drain, accelerating me into a Disk. At this point, Steve has the epiphany that I am not playing the little Blue men, but it’s too late…

Have you ever wondered just how much things like Alternate Casting Cost, Madness, Flashback, and your favorite mechanic affects the Type One environment? Are you curious to see how much each set is represented in Type One top 8s? Maybe you’re simply looking for a Magic article that features less blow-hard opinion, and more analysis based on facts? Whatever the case, Phil Stanton has the scoop, so all you need to do is check inside…

Like Steve Menendian wrote last week, Tog has completely changed around how the metagame in Type 1 needs to be viewed. This week, Knut’s asked me to look at how Type 1 would change without Tog. In terms of how the metagame would be changed, it’s pretty obvious. I’m going to focus on the various lessons that Tog has taught to Type 1 deckbuilders.

Just as I opened the year, so I’m now exploring the most prominent, large tournament results of February Type One. January was filled with”atomic” (Bazaar and Workshop) aggro, and now we’ll see a rebound of other categories, most notably control in the form of Hulk Smash.

In 1998 Cathy Nicoloff quipped about the Death of Sligh in Type 2,”Red’s primary problem is obvious. It has mucho death and no disruption. Any combo deck that can kill before red deals the final hammering can twiddle itself in peace for four turns without worrying.” Who knew that she’d be speaking truly about the death of aggro in Type I six years hence?

To most, Type One tournaments are twenty to forty people battling for a Mox at indeterminate intervals, or even smaller weekend gatherings. Not everyone has Power cards, proxy policies vary (most aren’t sanctioned events for this reason), and people will not be playing the absolute best decks (ah, Psychatog, how I hate thee so…). So today, I’ll explore some of the available data for small tournaments in January and February that were still big enough to get posted on www.morphling.de and try to find some insight into small metagames based on their differences with larger ones.

The basic elements of the metagame at the moment, are first, blazingly fast Aggro in the form of Madness and Workshop-based decks such as TnT and Oshawa Stompy, as well as regular Madness; second, Workshop Prison decks; third, Aggro-Control decks that are usually Fish or Dryad based; fourth, Control decks like Tog, Keeper, URphid, and Landstill; and fifth, Combo decks like TPS, Twister.dec, Dragon, and Rector. This metagame, in other words, has five major points – and multiple axes.

As for why Tog is the best deck in the current metagame, you’ll just have to read it.

Shunt

Okay, so Deflection and Misdirection should have been Red now? This pie business is sure confusing.

Anyway, Deflection was a chase card after Jester’s Cap back in Ice Age days, but it was just too tempo inefficient. Barring a Fireball for twenty, Deflection didn’t really do all that much for four mana, aside from having cute flavor text. Shunt, at three mana, isn’t all that different in Type I. Remember, this effect truly took off with Misdirection’s free cost.

Part of the success that players have comes not only from the cards in their decks, but how well they know the deck. This finally sunk into me two nights before the tournament, when I made the fateful decision to play my old standby, Ghey Red. The deck is built around mana denial. When your opponent cannot cast anything, feel free to win with Cloud of Faeries, otherwise known as the”Most Humiliating Death in Type One.” Supporting Blue’s counter power in Force of Will and Daze (a dark horse card if there ever was one) as well as Red’s artifact destruction and burn, the deck can buy a lot of time for beatdown. It packs one of the strongest sideboards in T1 and, despite everything it does to wreck, hardly anyone sideboards against it.

Phil Stanton is the best Type One writer you haven’t read. He’s logical, insightful, and downright entertaining. He’s even achieved the coveted JP Meyer Stamp of Approval! So with those qualifications, how can you pass up taking a peek at what”Dr. SylvanBunns” has to say today, which just happens to investigate whether there really is a lack of White in the Vintage metagame and what Wizards should do about it?

Oscar continues to look at Darksteel for more bang for his buck. Is he going to find any Chasey Lain videos here, or is”Cinnamon Buns” going to strike out with the Darksteel sorceries? Click on the link to find out!

I was thinking about doing the usual tournament report thing, but I played Tog four out of the seven rounds, and almost all of the games went the same way. Oh sure, I could’ve hammed them up a little more and all. I mean, it’s a lot more entertaining to read”FINALS: JP”The Irresistible Force” Meyer vs. Kevin”The Immovable Object” Cron, but giving you strategic advice on your Tog deck and how the various matchups should play out will save everyone time.