Vintage 101: Europe Eternal Weekend 2023
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be diving into EU Eternal Weekend held this past weekend in Prague! In addition to that we've got two Vintage MTGO Challenges to discuss.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Eternal Weekend Prague 11/19
This past weekend was the first of several big weekends with EU Eternal Weekend in Prague. The Vintage Championships event over this weekend had 125 players in it, which is quite reasonable for Vintage overall. This event was streamed, thanks to the tireless efforts of Anuraag Das, over here.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oath of Druids was the most played deck of the entire event, and it had a strong win rate in this regards. Lurrus Saga also did very well, as did Beseech Storm and Grixis Tinker. Combo Shops and other DRS variants performed rather poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Esper Tinker | 1st | Lukas Schwendinger |
| Lurrus Saga | 2nd | Hans Jacob Goddik |
| Grixis Tinker | 3rd | Moatzu |
| CounterVine | 4th | Eliott_dragon |
| Oath of Druids | 5th | Justin Gennari |
| Beseech Storm | 6th | Marin Lamr |
| Oath of Druids | 7th | Fabian Friedrich |
| Beseech Storm | 8th | Rodmanbcn |
A spread of Tinker, Oath, and Beseech Storm throughout this Top 8. At the end of it all, it was Lukas Schwendinger who won on Esper Tinker.
This is a really strong list for sure. Lorien Revealed has really boosted so many of these Urza's Saga + Tinker piles and made them much smoother to have mana.
In Second Place we had renowned Eternal Weekend Champion Hans Jacob Goddik.
This is a version of the deck I've certainly seen before, leaning on cards like Dark Confidant to churn through the deck and its efficient spells. Drown in the Loch is some cool tech for sure.
Also in this Top 8 we had CounterVine.
This is a highly clean machine of Bazaar action. It has a very proactive game plan for sure.
In the bottom half of the Top 8 we had our good friend Justin Gennari on Oath.
I really like the third Oko in the list. Seems quite good. Thoughtseize out of the sideboard also seems very strong versus combo decks.
Vintage Challenge 11/18
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. Due to the lack of data we don't know how many players played in this event.
You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here. Due to technical complications there was no data for this event, so let's look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Combo Shops | 1st | yPrincipe |
| BUG Midrange | 2nd | Trailovsky |
| Oath of Druids | 3rd | oosunq |
| Grixis Tinker | 4th | ReneRandrup |
| Combo Shops | 5th | kauffj |
| Esper Tinker | 6th | Capriccioso |
| Lurrus Saga | 7th | Mogged |
| Oath of Druids | 8th | random_deck |
Good number of Tinker and Combo Shops in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was Combo Shops that won.
This deck always does look quite powerful. It is definitely a very strong deck right now in the format.
In Second Place we had BUG Midrange.
Lorien Revealed making its way into this deck is not very surprising. The card is quite powerful and it also drops a card that DRS can eat late game. Even just one copy is great.
Further down the Top 8 we had Grixis Tinker.
Main deck Gorilla Shaman is a sweet inclusion here. Seems really cool.
Vintage Challenge 11/19
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Prison Shops was the most played deck of the event, but its win rate was rough despite a top finish. Both Combo Shops and Lurrus Saga had solid win rates as did Grixis Tinker and BUG. Doomsday did exceptionally poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | discoverN |
| Dredge | 2nd | furyure |
| Combo Shops | 3rd | Schiaveto |
| Beseech Storm | 4th | Capriccioso |
| Combo Shops | 5th | NathanLipetz |
| Lands | 6th | V4nquish |
| BUG Midrange | 7th | yoshiwata |
| Prison Shops | 8th | AFX |
Pretty reasonable Top 8 here overall. At the end of the event it was a UW version of Lurrus Saga that won.
Diving into UW instead of UB is interesting for sure. Seal of Cleansing repeatedly seems very good for sure with Lurrus.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
It has been interesting seeing the return of both Cabal Therapy and Bridge from Below to these Dredge lists. Seems quite interesting for sure.
Further down the Top 8 we had a really sweet Lands-esque build.
Perennial Behemoth as a Unearth Crucible of Worlds is super duper cool. This deck is really sweet.
Around the Web
- Channel Fireball has an article on what the best deck in Vintage is. Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari's video week is here!
- Bryant Cook has a video on Breach. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 lists here.
Painter PO is pretty daggone cool.
RUG Control is also really neat.
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!
