Vintage 101: The Guildpact... in Vintage?
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we'll be talking all about Leyline of the Guildpact in Vintage! In addition to that we've got two events from the weekend, one of which was the Vintage Showcase Challenge.
In addition, I'm going to be at Magic Con Chicago this weekend! If you are going to be making it out, please say Hi!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Guildpact Guildpact Guildpact
With Murders at Karlov Manor out in the wild, we've had an opportunity to see how cards from that set are impacting other formats, and in both Modern and Legacy Leyline of the Guildpact seems to be doing quite interesting things, but is it possible it could be doing things in Vintage as well? Last week we had a list in our Spice Corner utilizing it, and oddly enough there, hasn't been any other published results than that one, but let's look and dissect what is going on here.
The biggest thing this card is doing right off the bat is enabling full Domain for things like Leyline Binding and also cost-reducing Scion of Draco to two mana. This makes for some really interesting things to occur by having a 4/4 flier with a bunch of keywords but also extending those keywords out to your other creatures like Territorial Kavu. However that said, those payoffs while they are cool can also be clunky without this card in play. A nod to that aspect is the fact that the deck is playing Serum Powder and it's just expecting to mulligan to put a Leyline into play Turn 0 so it can do its thing, and not expecting to cast the card.
I'm not sure if there are other ways to approach this card, such as with stuff like Up the Beanstalk (I would be interested in exploring this one) instead of what amounts to an aggressive shell, but it is interesting to see if a card like this can make it in a format as efficient in Vintage.
I think problematically though the card may not find much of a home simply due in part to how the MTGO metagames often work, but it would be an interesting strategy to tinker with and find a happy medium on. The amount of Force of Vigor that can often float about to combat this deck also is interesting, since one of the things the Guildpact does not do is extend its color additions to cards in your hand or anything like that (if it did any of that, it would be slam dunk insane in Bazaar decks), so more often than not, a Force of Vigor is a big blowout for the deck.
I do think it would be interesting to keep tinkering with this card, and I would love to see if others have come up with their takes on it. Let me know in the comments!
Vintage Showcase Challenge 2/17
The first event of the weekend was the Vintage Showcase Challenge! This event feeds into the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season with the Top 8 receiving invites. This event had 205 players in it overall thanks to the Vintage Streamer's Discord. This is a solid turnout for sure.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Lurrus Saga was the most popular deck of the event, with a slightly less than mid-win rate despite the top finishes. Dredge did well, as did Turbo Vault Key and Doomsday. Lurrus DRS and Countervine performed poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | 416FrowningTable |
| Initiative | 2nd | YoungToast |
| Lurrus PO | 3rd | kasa |
| Initiative | 4th | LasVegasChaos |
| Dredge | 5th | minitaste |
| Doomsday | 6th | Enrichetta |
| Lurrus Breach | 7th | LuisMJ |
| Jewel Shops | 8th | ohN |
Interesting split here between Lurrus and Initiative, but it was Lurus Saga that won the event overall officially, as the finals was split.
The splash of white here for a single Plow in the main is pretty interesting. Usually with a splash you at least maybe see a Lavinia, but I do like the multitude of Containment Priest in the sideboard.
In Second Place we had Initiative.
Solid stock looking list here overall. Anointed Peacekeeper is a super interesting inclusion as of late, but it does a great job of shutting down Bazaar and Saga.
Further down the Top 8 we had Lurrus PO.
Straight Saga PO has not been seen for a hot minute really, given that Jewel Shops has been more popular. This list is pretty sweet. I love seeing Long Goodbye in the sideboard here.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Breach.
It is stunning how quickly Ragavan has exited the metagame overall here when it used to be very good in these kinds of decks, but Bowmasters has had a big say in that.
Vintage Challenge 2/18
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 40 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 datasheet here.
Initiative was quite popular here, but its win rate was less than 50% despite the top finish. Lurrus Saga and Other Blue Control decks did well, while Jewel Shops and Breach suffered.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | John1111 |
| Merfolk | 2nd | SingPanMan |
| Initiative | 3rd | _J0SE_ |
| Dredge | 4th | immvp |
| Mono Red Prison | 5th | MyPotatoes |
| Lurrus Saga | 6th | AlpInco |
| Aggro Shops | 7th | Sommertroll |
| Lurrus Saga | 8th | discoverN |
Quite a bit of Lurrus Saga here, so much so that it won the event.
Very straightforward list here, not many frills to consider here. Repeal is interesting for sure.
In Second Place we had Merfolk.
I think this deck has a lot of potential in the current format and not enough people are playing it. Hullbreacher is already really good, but Tishana's Tidebinder does some really powerful things.
Further down the Top 8 we had Mono Red Prison.
Wild! I know we saw a powerless version of this kind of deck do well at Eternal Weekend, so I'm sort of surprised it took this long for people to really pick up and run with a Powered version here. Broadside Bombardiers is powerful!
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Aggro Shops.
Incredibly aggressive and straightforward list here. God-Pharaoh's Statue is a cool inclusion that I haven't seen in a while.
Around the Web
- We even have a video on Guildpact Domain by riskydiceMTG. Check it out here.
- Charlotte Legacy League has a video on Esper Lurrus vs Oath. Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari has a video on 2024 PO. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Fastbond is always super cool.
Fiddlebender Shops is also sweet.
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!
