Vintage 101: Crawl Out Through the Fallout
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're taking look at Universes Beyond: Fallout and whether there's anything out of those decks that could see play in Vintage. In addition to that we've got two Challenges over the weekend to discuss.
Without further do, let's dive right in!
Tick Tick Tick BOOM! Fallout Set Review
One of the big things spoiled over the past week was the four Commander decks from Universe Beyond: Fallout! This set of decks, based in the post apocalyptic Wasteland has a bunch of new cards that are legal in Vintage, but are there any that actually could see play? We did just get the Warhammer 40,000 decks on MTGO, so if it takes a while to get these ones on there as well that could be an issue with new cards seeing play, but I am curious.
These decks have a lot of different mechanics, from things like Squad (reused from Warhammer) to Energy counters and Rad counters.
Let's take a look at some cards!
The Bobblehead Cycle
This is such a weird cycle of cards and they all do something different, but the big one here is the Luck Bobblehead. Since these all cost Workshop mana, it would be amusing to see any of these see play, but a meme of making all the Bobbleheads work would be kind of funny. At least Charisma can make creatures which is interesting.
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine
This one is only sort of cute given that Vintage is one of the last few bastions of Oko, Thief of Crowns and Food tokens are occasionally relevant. Also Gingerbrute occasionally sees play.
Paladin Danse, Steel Maverick
A 3/3 Vigilance/Lifelink is pretty sweet already, but the kicker here is that this an Artifact creature (LORE REASONS PLAY FALLOUT 4) so it can be partially cast off Workshop mana. The secondary ability is kind of neat, being able to preserve your creatures if you need to.
Pip-Boy 3000
Being a Saga target makes this one something we have to talk about of course. Interesting enough there's a reasonable amount of creatures in something like Lurrus Saga (Bowmasters, Lavinia, etc) that could wield this equipment and allow you to profit off attacks. Being able to punch through another creature by giving a +1/+1 counter is good, but then also being able to untap some lands for post-main stuff is great. Even the loot effect is great. I really like this one.
Radstorm
Someone donate a decklist with this to Justin Gennari, stat.
Rampaging Yao Guai
There aren't a ton of green decks in the format really besides Oath and the crazy piles that absorbenthree plays, but I suspect something like this could go in the latter. Triple Green and being able to blow up all your opponent's Moxen seems VERY good. Even putting two mana in to catch all the Moxen and a Time Vault or something is great.
Securitron Squadron
Since this is an artifact and this is an additional cost to the spell, you can use Workshop mana for this thing's Squad ability. Each Workshop represents another Securitron which is interesting enough. If there wasn't a bunch of Null Rod and Collector Ouphe hanging about I would love to pair this with Hangarback Walker and make a huge army of Thopters off of it.
Silver Shroud Costume
I think what I find fascinating about this card is that it's a snap-on Equipment that grants both Shroud and can't be blocked. Getting in for that lethal damage and doing this at instant speed seems quite interesting to me overall.
Wild Wasteland
It's the Wasteland, you never know what you're gonna get...
Vintage Challenge 2/24
The first Challenge of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 62 players thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dredge was the most played deck, but it's win rate was not so good, as was some Shops and Initiative decks. PO did very well as did Turbo Vault Key and Countervine.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Paradoxical Outcome | 1st | Falkoneye |
| Lurrus Saga | 2nd | kasa |
| Lurrus Saga | 3rd | Condescend |
| Countervine | 4th | T1_Tinker |
| Turbo Vault Key | 5th | Sprouts |
| Breach | 6th | wiky |
| 4C Lurrus | 7th | unluckymonkey |
| Oath of Druids | 8th | JKnecht |
Quite a bit of Lurrus here. At the end of the event it was a Lurrus PO list that won.
Very straightforward list here, leaning on the power of Bowmasters and also Lorien Revealed. Definitely seems quite good.
In Second Place we had Lurrus Saga.
Seal of Cleansing is a super sweet card in a Lurrus deck for sure. I love seeing those kinds of things see play. Empty-Shrine Kannushi in the sideboard as an Initiative hedge is neat too.
Further down the Top 8 we had Countervine.
This is a nice and straightforward list. I am digging the Echoing Deeps in the sideboard here as a cute way of "recurring" Bazaar.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had 4C Lurrus.
Questing Druid seems like a pretty cool card here. Nice to see Ragavan and Dreadhorde Arcanist still hanging about.
Vintage Challenge 2/25
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was very popular here but it's win rate suffered a ton. Lurrus Saga, Turbo Vault Key, and Dredge were big winners here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Elfkid |
| Lurrus DRS | 2nd | Threpio |
| Lurrus Saga | 3rd | John1111 |
| Turbo Vault Key | 4th | kasa |
| Lurrus Saga | 5th | kobayui |
| Jewel Shops | 6th | ecobaronen |
| Jewel Shops | 7th | trinity |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 8th | scalo94 |
Interesting spread of decks here. At the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
Very solid and straightforward list here. Pretty much what we've come to expect out of Dredge these days.
In Second Place we had Lurrus DRS.
This deck is pretty cool. I like the spread of Lavinia and Bowmasters. Also March of Otherworldly Light is really cool out of the sideboard.
Further down the Top 8 we had Turbo Vault Key.
I always enjoy seeing Oswald Fiddlebender in decks. What a cool card overall. Also Portable Hole is sweet.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Jewel Shops.
Very much stock list of Jewel here. This deck is a pretty clean machine though, so I'm not very surprised to see no frills.
Around the Web
- FiretruckModo has a video on AggroVine! Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari always has some cool stuff for us.
- Montolio has a video on AsmoVine. Check it out here.
- Eric has an article on Surveil Lands in Doomsday. Check it out here.
- Brian Coval has a video on CounterVine. Check it out here.
- Dr_Yanitor has a video on Doomsday. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that League results are spread throughout the week, let's find some spice!
Absorbenthree always has some spice. This time they've got a deck with Mawloc from the Warhammer 40,000 set! This seems like a deck that could play Rampaging Yao Guai!
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for your continued support of the column and join me next week as we continue our journey into Vintage!
As always you can reach me at my Link Tree! In addition you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
