The Ferrett – and quite a number of people – called the World Championships this past weekend a comedy of errors. And the next time StarCityGame covers a big Type I tournament, I’ll make sure to have a bottle of 80-proof brandy beside me before I read. A big bottle.
The week before GenCon, I had actually played in a Type 1 run by IAmFishMan from TheManaDrain.com. I had gone into it having not played for a month or so beforehand, hoping to have some fun with my Goblin Trenches Keeper. Long story short? I won the tournament and a new Beta Mox Emerald. I was feeling pretty invincible at that point and decided that if I won the World Championships, I would declare dominance over Type 1. Well, as it turns out, I won, but I’m still refusing to declare dominance lest I be viewed as a jackass.
The Final Product that Carl played was the result of no less than six active members of the Paragons (with more adding occasional input) debating, testing, and arguing about various elements of Hulk. But how did we develop it, why was it a solid metagame call, and what is the importance of the Paragons?
Never in a long-term metagame have so many combo decks competed. I suspect that only one or two will survive the culling that will inevitably ensue as combo players discover which deck is truly”best.” I think this is an inherently unstable mixture…. Or is it possible that there could be a balanced metagame with multiple combo decks vying for power and glory – thus bucking the trend of metagames of all times?
Perhaps the distinguishing feature of the Type One metagame since the restriction of Necropotence in 2000 has been the omnipresence of utterly domineering blue-based control decks. However, a combination of forces has conspired to wrest the upper tiers of the Type One metagame from Control’s exclusive, greedy clutches. Whereas the top tier was once defined as blue-based control decks, other decks began to seep in. Let me walk you through some of the most important decks in Vintage today, including Keeper, Forbiddian, Gro-A-Tog, TnT, MaskNaught, and Hulk Smash.
The sample vignettes continue with scenarios from Rector-Trix, Hulk Smash, and Mind’s Desire!
GenCon is just around the corner, and there’s less than a month to test the waters of the new metagame before the Type I tournament there. If I could accurately map out the metagame and give you a step-by-step idiot’s guide on how to play against every expected archetype, I’d fly on over and try to win the thing myself… But what I can do is show you several game situations you might expect to see against each major deck, and show you the optimal play.
Oscar’s article is so long today, it broke our format – so we had to break it into two parts. And speaking of broken, Oscar discusses Mind’s Desire and how it’s still warping the Type One metagame, even from beyond the grave of restrictions…
This year’s GenCon will be held on July 23-26 at the Indianapolis Convention Center, and the Tenth Anniversary celebration will feature a Type I Championship sponsored by Wizards. As such, I think it’s about time I discuss what The Deck will look like in a July environment… And discuss how stupid Mind’s Desire still makes the environment.
Decree of Annihilation’s cycle effect is incredibly powerful, but that makes you ask which deck it fits in. Obviously, it’s not something aggro, aggro-control and combo need. As for control, Armageddon was used in Type II to keep an opponent’s mana count down while a big creature beat down or an artifact-based lock held him tight. The 7-mana price tag attached to uncounterability precludes this. That leaves you with blue-based control decks with a red splash, but why would these mana-intensive decks want to wreck their own mana and hurt themselves more? Thus, I don’t think you’ll need to be sideboarding Stifles anytime soon.
When the Scourge spoilers first came out, people took a look at two cards. Mind’s Desire was the first (and with good reason, if you caught Part II of this series), and Parallel Thoughts was the second. I thought too many people misread Parallel Thoughts, though. Again, if I’m talking about five mana, then I want something as gamebreaking as Morphling or Memory Jar – and many bombs cost less.
This article will provide a much-needed introduction with the most important principles to understand about the Vintage Format as it currently exists. While it is addressed towards those who are interested in learning the format, I think many Vintage Adepts will find this article interesting as well… And it will serve as an excellent reminder for anyone who’s attending any Vintage tournaments at origins this weekend.
I answer more letters – this time from Aaron Forsythe asking about reprints, Wayne Alward bemoaning the sad fate of his created mechanic, and the most touching letter I ever received.
Each year, I put off the scheduled column for a week and sift through reader mail a second time. Today’s the day. I’ll answer questions on the Type One World Championships, defend my dislike of Back to Basics yet again, and try to calm Anthony Alongi the heck down.
Yes, we saw a handful of Legions cards in noncompetitive play and especially in theme decks. However, Carl Devos, a.k.a. Professor X, the Belgium chapter of the Paragons, is the only Type I player on the planet happy with the set, having used a few Morph triggers in his Vengeur Masque. (Apparently, some people see the silver lining in anything.) Anyway, Scourge is probably a more exciting set as third sets are wont to be
