Vintage 101: After the Aftermath
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 a short break from last week's series on historical Vintage (which we will check into semi-regularly) to talk about March of the Machine: The Aftermath in addition to a few other upcoming sets we learned more about over the weekend at MagicCon Minneapolis. 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!
Marching Into Aftermath
Upcoming pretty soon here we have the followup to March of the Machine known as March of the Machine: The Aftermath. This 50-card small set is released on May 12th, and its boosters are released in the Magic Online store as the only way outside of alternate versions in Treasure Chests to acquire these cards, as this set is not draftable or designed for limited.
There's some unique cards here and a slight few that could possibly see play (very few really).
Coppercoat Vanguard
Unfortunately Vintage Humans is extremely fringe to the point of possibly just not existing in a world with White Plume Adventurer and friends, but this did use to be a deck and who knows maybe a new and interesting lord effect might get people to think about it again? Unsure.
Filter Out
This card is honestly super cool. It can deal with a number of different cards in play at once for a really low cost. Imagine being able to deal with a Null Rod, a Narset, Parter of Veils, and a Deafening Silence in play for only three mana. Or being able to deal with Spheres and Enchantments at the same time. It's like a Hurkyl's Recall in a sense, and while yes it bounces your own non-creature nonland permanents most of those are going to be Moxen so you can just get to replay them all.
Karn, Legacy Reforged
New Karn is a bit weird and a little win-more it feels like. At Five mana casting Golos seems to be a lot better in general. At best this is a 5/5 (due to the fact that he counts himself) for 5 with an ability to make a bunch of potential mana. Doubt there is a place for this but it's cute.
... & Beyond - A Look Ahead to Universes Beyond
This past weekend at MagicCon Minneapolis we did get a further look at some of the upcoming Universes Beyond product that is coming later in the year. Primarily one of those was a look at the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth set that is coming directly into Modern and below. We also got some preliminary information on the Doctor Who Commander decks but no concrete cards there.
Let's look at the primary important aspects of the Lord of the Rings set here, because that does include some interesting things. We'll also look at one card that has been spoiled for a while.
The Ring / The Ring Tempts
One of the new things being introduced in Lord of the Rings here is the Ring mechanic, otherwise known as "The Ring Tempts You" mechanic. There was a good amount of hesitancy in this mechanic before we actually saw it, and now seeing it I really doubt we will see this one see any play in Vintage. It is wholly reliant on having creatures and while it has some cool things it does, it is not even remotely close to something like Initiative. We will need to see what cards may have this mechanic on it, but sofar none of the ones really seem Vintage playable.
The One Ring
This a card we already knew about but I don't typically do set reviews before the set is fully spoiled, but I think this is worth talking about before spoiler season so it doesn't get lost in the fluff.
This card is really powerful. Vintage already has a number of ways to make this card really good by bouncing it with cards like Paradoxical Outcome, and I think this likely even as a one or two of makes Combo Shops quite interesting. You're going to have plenty of mana to cast this, and keys to untap and draw cards with exponentially. It seems very strong for sure. I would not be surprised to see this card show up at all in Vintage.
Vintage Challenge 5/6
The first Challenge of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 64 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.
Combo Shops was super popular here, but it's win rate was right in the middle of the road. Jeskai did exceedingly well, as did CounterVine. Prison Shops and Initiative Tinker did quite poorly here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono White Initiative | 1st | tajoordan |
| Combo Shops | 2nd | Cherryxman |
| Lurrus Jeskai | 3rd | HanktheObese |
| CounterVine | 4th | medvedev |
| Dredge | 5th | Lord_Beerus |
| Doomsday | 6th | discoverN |
| Lurrus Vault Key | 7th | Sprouts |
| Combo Shops | 8th | yPrincipe |
Definitely an interesting Top 8. Good number of Combo Shops, some Bazaar, and at the end of the event it was a split between the finalists. Let's look at the "technical" winner in Mono White Initiative.
Phyrexian Censor seems like a really good card for this deck for sure. Having 8 copies of Archon of Emeria is super powerful for sure.
The technical Second Place list was Combo Shops.
This deck continues to be super powerful in the current format, and I expect it to continue to get better long term with some of the printings we talked about above.
Also in this Top 8 is Lurrus Jeskai.
Faerie Mastermind seems like a really interesting card in this kind of deck especially when it is allowing you to draw extra cards. You don't get the upside of being able to mana sink here with a Hullbreacher or Narset, Parter of Veils in play to deny your opponent cards (or to make Treasures) because of Lurrus, but it seems strong here.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we have a sweet Lurrus Vault Key deck.
This deck looks super sweet. I always love seeing stuff like Goblin Engineer and Haywire Mite. Also, Yixlid Jailer in the sideboard is not a card I've seen in a while so that is super cool.
Vintage Challenge 5/7
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 42 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.
Combo Shops was again super popular, and its win rate was the best in the event at 75% win rate. Oath of Druids did very poorly as did PO and Prison Shops. Breach and Grixis Tinker did very well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Combo Shops | 1st | Cherryxman |
| Doomsday | 2nd | discoverN |
| Grixis Tinker | 3rd | Yamaro |
| Combo Shops | 4th | etoustar |
| Breach | 5th | duke12 |
| Combo Shops | 6th | yPrincipe |
| Lurrus Vault Key | 7th | Sprouts |
| Breach | 8th | thedeck84 |
Lot of Tinker and Combo Shops here. In fact, it was Combo Shops that won the event.
Displacer Kitten has definitely seemed to have proven itself in this deck as even just a one-of, because of how powerfully deterministic it makes killing the opponent. Definitely a deck to continue to keep an eye on for sure.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
Ray of Enfeeblement in the sideboard here as a way to kill many of Mono White Initiative's creatures is pretty sweet. Also highly amusing to see Dream Salvage, as a sort of way to draw out of the discards made by Bazaar decks. Super fun and cute.
Also in this Top 8 we had Grixis Tinker.
Hullbreacher and Sheoldred plus wheel effects is super groovy. I really like this version of the deck a lot.
Further down the Top 8 we had Breach.
Very interesting to see no fair creatures as a backup threat (or as win condition like Laelia) and to be so fully on the Breach plan. Sideboard-wise we've got some of the common hate effects like Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has some cool videos for us this week!
- Andy Markiton has some great videos as well for us this week.
- Fun video on Vintage Hogaak. Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku has a video on Doomsday in the 5/7 Challenge. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find the last week's 5-0 lists here.
Brian Kelly. Never change.
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!
