Vintage 101: Timey-Wimey, Wibbly-Wobbly
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 taking a look at the new cards from the Doctor Who Commander decks and see if there's anything that could see play in Vintage! In addition to that we've got two Challenges to talk about and of course a Spice Corner.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Doctor Doctor, Give Me Some News
Another supplemental product is coming soon in the form of the Universes Beyond Commander decks for Doctor Who. These four Commander precon decks have a bunch of new cards in them, but for the most part not so many of these cards look that good for Vintage in terms of raw power level. There's a huge mixture of new mechanics and returning mechanics but many of those work solely in Commander or in formats like Planechase Commander.
Let's take a look at the cards that could function.
Banish to Another Universe
There's a number of decks that play a lot of historic permanents in white, but unfortunately this is probably nowhere near as good as Leyline Binding and that's easier to cost reduce and it has flash.
Cybermat
I actually like this card. It's a threat that doesn't care about Null Rod for Workshops, and it is usually going to get to swing and be unblocked because of Skulk. It's a strong mana cost threat too. I could see this seeing play.
Everybody Lives!
Honestly this card is kind of cool. It's a way for Mono White decks to effectively counter Thassa's Oracle or Tendrils of Agony if caught unprepared. While Angel's Grace exists and is somewhat similar, being able to protect your creatures from removal at the same time is nice, while also being a fog is solid.
The Moment
A Ratchet Bomb effect, of which there are a bunch that all don't see a bunch of play, but this one can save a creature so you can keep swinging after activating it. Might be interesting, but probably isn't super playable.
Reverse the Polarity
Sort of a weird pseudo-Mindbreak Trap effect here. It's cool but probably not versatile enough to be insane. Would probably rather play another Mindbreak Trap than this.
River Song
Ah yes, the fabled 1UR creature that does things about drawing cards. There's a bunch of these in Vintage, and they all look good on paper but inevitably fall flat in execution. River is at least sort of amusing with Brainstorm / Ponder / Preordain, but it's probably not good enough on its own to be playable.
Blink
Don't Blink. Blink and you're dead!
Vintage Challenge 10/7
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 65 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.
Oath was the most represented deck in the event and it had a just over 50% win rate. Lurrus Saga did very well here as did the Lurrus Vault Key deck. Combo Shops, AggroVine, and Grixis Tinker all did very poorly. Other popular and strong decks here were Initiative and Doomsday.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | John1111 |
| Lurrus Vault Key | 2nd | _BOI_ |
| Jeskai Lurrus | 3rd | Karatedom |
| Oath of Druids | 4th | xfile |
| Lurrus DRS | 5th | unluckymonkey |
| Lurrus Vault Key | 6th | Gerschi |
| Doomsday | 7th | ecobaronen |
| Initiative | 8th | 2legit2quit |
Lot of Lurrus in this Top 8 for sure. At the end of the event it was a split finals with the officially recorded winner being Lurrus Saga.
Mana Drain is a cool inclusion in this list. Seems very strong to hit a big play and then use the extra mana to put Lurrus to hand to cast Lurrus.
The Second Place recorded list was Lurrus Vault Key.
This deck has a cool sub-plan of PO that it can use to churn through the deck to get to its combo of trying to get Vault Key online. This is the most dedicated Vault Key deck in the format right now for sure.
Also in this Top 8 we had Oath of Druids.
I like the Gaea's Blessing main deck here. Still seems like a good thing. I think I would have been happy to play a copy in my BCDL list from last week.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Initiative.
Very solid stock list here it looks like. Got a lot of powerful things behind it.
Vintage Challenge 10/8
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 55 players in this event 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.
Lurrus Saga was the most popular deck here, but it's win rate was quite dragged down despite having two Top 8 finishes. Beseech Storm and Doomsday did very well, while every other deck was middle of the road or just below.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beseech Storm | 1st | desolutionist |
| Doomsday | 2nd | ecobaronen |
| Oath of Druids | 3rd | Gregoriusil |
| Dredge | 4th | vqxyza648204 |
| Jeskai Lurrus | 5th | lordoflifegain |
| BUG Midrange | 6th | HouseOfManaMTG |
| Lurrus Saga | 7th | BERNASTORRES |
| Lurrus Saga | 8th | ElfKid |
Interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was another split finals with the final recorded winner being Beseech Storm.
I like how powerful this list looks for sure. Beseech the Mirror has really revitalized non-Doomsday combo decks in the format and that's actually kind of nice because those play patterns are very familiar and easy to understand.
The Second Place recorded list was Doomsday.
Looks like a fairly stock list here. Not much in frills for sure, and no sideboard juke type stuff like Sheoldred or Murktide.
Further down the Top 8 we had Dredge.
Solidly straightforward list here. Looks very good and fun. Dredge is in a weird place at the moment so it's cool to see it doing somewhat well.
Also in the Top 8 we had BUG Midrange.
This is a nice list of typical BUG threats, and it looks powerful. My only surprise here is not seeing the restricted copy of Narset, Parter of Veils, but I think both Hullbreacher and Leovold do that extra job well.
Around the Web
- The VOD for the BCDL Vintage Open 1 is now live! Check it out here.
- Corey Baumeister posted some videos of the Manatraders series last month. Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari is dredging up some Necromancy. Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku has a Doomsday vid from the 10/1 challenge. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 lists here.
Delighted Halfling is a delight.
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!
