Vintage 101: Bring Me That Horizon!
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 the first part of our Modern Horizons 3 set review! This set has a ton of stuff going on, so it will be interesting to see what this srt has in store for Vintage. We've also got some Challenges from last weekend to discuss.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Modern Problems, Modern Solutions
We're knee deep in the spoiler season of Modern Horizons 3 and whew, there is a lot going on in this set. Lots of big themes like Eldrazi related cards to cards based in nostalgia callbacks to older cards. Tons of mechanics, and tons of other things and there's just so much that we have to break this up into two articles. We're going to be talking about a lot of the big hitters of the set.
With that being said, let's go!
Vexing Bauble
We're starting hot right off the bat with one of the most contentious cards I would have to say of this entire set for Vintage. This card has provoked a ton of discussion simply because of how polarizing it is. Some folks are calling this broken and insane and possibly that it could even be restricted in Vintage, while others are saying that this likely just another Void Mirror.
Let's start by examining what this card really does. At its base level it is a card that can be fetched by Saga that does something very similar to other cards in the format, namely Lavinia, Azorius Renegade and Void Mirror. Unlike Lavinia and more like Mirror this card is symmetrical and this is huge I feel. Symmetrical hate effects can often be great but often can also be pretty damaging. This makes certain decks that may want this effect to mess up their opponent unable to cast their own free spells to deal with a powerful threat or makes it difficult for a player to utilize lines involving cards like Paradoxical Outcome, etc.
The upside is that you can cash this card in for a card, and PO can bounce it to allow it to unlock your zero mana artifacts. The downside of cashing it in for a card is that while you are able to then unlock your free spells, you're also unlocking your opponent's free spells. This could be bad in general.
I'm of the mind that this card is likely fine for Vintage. While it might end up seeing some play, I don't think it's so utterly broken that it gets restricted, and I don't think it's fully unplayable either as long as Saga continues to remain unrestricted. I also don't feel it's a 4-of either in many decks, and likening it to a card like Chalice of the Void is weird, because if you aren't putting this into playoff Saga, you're prone to this getting Misstepped or just Force of Negation'ed, and there's a huge swath of decks that can play around this and not even care.
It's also just fully possible that this ends up in the bin thanks to the Void Mirror effect and just eventually fades out into obscurity. This is a more than likely scenario for me, as these kinds of symmetrical effects make things rather hard on both players and it's just always more than possible that it hurts the controller of this more than it does the other player, while the other player is able to stock up for when you inevitably have to crack the Bauble to draw a card.
Necrodominance
This is yet another somewhat contentious card. It's definitely not Necropotence, and I do think OG Necro is still way better even with this being not restricted, as multiple copies do nothing because of Legendary, and honestly the secondary aspect of drawing the cards with this card versus what OG Necro does is way different especially as more and more people are playing Orcish Bowmasters in Vintage.
I think this is fine to exist and probably will see some initial play, but may fade into obscurity afterwards because OG Necro is right there even if it is restricted and it's still way better to play.
Null Elemental Blast
A blast effect that hits Lurrus is kind of cute and interesting, honestly. The fact that it's castable off C is really slick, and it looks like a fun card. There's not a ton of multicolor stuff to hit outside of Lurrus though, so this is fairly niche. It can also hit an Atraxa I guess, but again, somewhat niche.
Kozilek's Unsealing
This card is kind of neat. Casting Thought Monitor draws you five cards over two, and there are a lot of generally big things you can also cast like Frogmite and Myr Enforcer which is sort of interesting. It's whether or not there's a deck for it that really is interesting, which I don't think there is.
Ugin's Binding
This is another one that's weird to evaluate. On the front end it's just a bounce spell but then it can turn into a Cyclonic Rift if you need it to be. This may be more Commander-relevant than anything honestly, and not quite on the level of Vintage playable.
Harbinger of the Seas
Merfolk in general has been steadily getting more and more good cards in Vintage as of late, with cards like Tishana's Tidebinder being very recent to that deck. There's more and more Merfolk coming all the time and more of them with powerful effects. This being a Merfolk with a Blood Moon-like effect that gets rid of Saga, shuts off Bazaar and Workshop among other things, seems quite good. I can't imagine building Merfolk without this at this point in time.
Glaring Fleshraker
Eldrazi is a thing we just haven't seen for a long time in Vintage, and I don't know if this makes it work either. The wild thing you can do with this card though is that if you have two Sensei's Divining Top you can lethally damage your opponent to victory, because each casting of Top creates an Eldrazi Spawn that then triggers the second ability, then you can sac the Spawn to recast the Top, draw the other Top and repeat. I like cute infinite combos like that, but I don't know if it's good enough.
Wrath of the Skies
White Initiative decks have gotten a lot of love over time for sure, with the recent addition of Dauntless Dismantler. This card is sort of like the white Meltdown in that it can nab a bunch of stuff at once including your opponent's Sagas, zero mana artifacts, etc. It can even nab Oath of Druids if you need it to, which is really strong. I think this will definitely see some play for sure.
Mono Colored MDFC Cycle
Not only did Wizards extend the family of MDFC cards with lands on the back to a cycle of dual colored ones, we also now have a new cycle of TEN MORE mono colored ones that all can enter play untapped if you bolt yourself (pay 3 life). Previously the only MDFCs in this family were Mythics from Zendikar Rising like Agadeem's Awakening.
Having a bunch more of these improves a ton of redundancy in piles like Belcher/Oops, but the white one especially is a huge callout. We just talked about White Initiative decks, and those decks have often played Emeria's Call for pitching to Chrome Mox or flexibly playing as a land. Witch Enchanter does all of this, while also being a relevant creature type for Cavern of Souls PLUS being relatively castable at four mana WITH a very relevant effect of blowing up an Enchantment (such as Saga or Oath of Druids) or an Artifact.
This seems great.
"Flare" Cycle
The free cycle of Modern Horizons 3 is arguably much much much worse than the previous two Horizons sets, where we had bangers such as Force of Vigor and Grief. The Flare cycle I definitely believe does not fit too well into Vintage at all really, and I think that's fine. They're all relatively medium effects and they probably won't see much play here.
Vintage Challenge 32 5/23
The first Challenge event of the week was the 5/23 event. This event had 47 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.
Lurrus Saga was super popular in this event as always and despite a good finish it's win rate was dragged down a bit. BUG looked great and Jewel Shops also looked good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| BUG | 1st | littledarwin |
| Doomsday | 2nd | Jujkata |
| Lurrus Saga | 3rd | _Batutinha_ |
| Oath of Druids | 4th | etoustar |
| Dredge | 5th | McWinSauce |
| Jewel Shops | 6th | oosunq |
| 4C Lurrus | 7th | unluckymonkey |
| Oath of Druids | 8th | Jumba |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was BUG that won.
Very interesting list here. I like the addition of Uro here. Seems very cool. Tear Asunder in the sideboard is neat as well.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
Solid looking list overall here. All the hallmarks of a strong Doomsday list are all here, and multiple Ponder to boot!
Also in this Top 8 we had Oath of Druids.
Pretty good Oath list. I like the addition of Veil of Summer to the main deck. Seems quite good to either force things through or to bait countermagic with. The big thing here is no Tinker which opens up some spots.
Vintage Challenge 32 5/24
The second Challenge of the week was the 5/24 event. This event had 43 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.
Lurrus Saga remained popular with a much more improved win rate here. Oath also looked great, while everything else floated around the 50% mark.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | McWinSauce |
| Initiative | 2nd | bernardocssa |
| Oath of Druids | 3rd | 2radMTG |
| Doomsday | 4th | ScreenwriterNY |
| Lurrus Saga | 5th | _Batutinha_ |
| UB Tinker | 6th | IamActuallyLvl1 |
| Lurrus Saga | 7th | duke12 |
| Lurrus Saga | 8th | JakeTMS |
Good number of Lurrus decks here, but at the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
Fairly straightforward list here. It has been somewhat interesting watching how these decks have continued to evolve with going back to things like Bridge from Below. Given how popular Lurrus is, I'm actively surprised those decks aren't playing more things that punish Dredge every turn just out of sheer value.
In Second Place we had Initiative.
Fairly strong looking list here. This is one of the decks that definitely gets some upgrades in Modern Horizons 3 so it will be interesting to see how it adjusts.
Further down the Top 8 we had a showing by our good friend Justin Gennari on UB Tinker.
Supremely interesting list here, leaning on having access to both Wasteland and Saga by leveraging Lorien Revealed, much like how Lurrus decks have been doing, except in this case you get to play Bolas's Citadel.
Vintage Challenge 32 5/25
The third Challenge was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 51 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.
Lurrus Saga was again very popular and despite a top finish it's overall win rate was medium. Dredge also looked somewhat medium, while Jewel Shops and other blue control decks did well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| UB Tinker | 1st | Diem4x |
| Turbo Vault Key | 2nd | kalcin66rocks |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | _J0SE_ |
| 4C Lurrus | 4th | unluckymonkey |
| UB Control | 5th | WadeB |
| Jewel Shops | 6th | Peppembr |
| Lurrus Saga | 7th | Graciasportanto |
| Dredge | 8th | Wizard_2002 |
Fairly interesting Top 8 overall. The finals was split with the recorded winner being UB Tinker.
Very much the same list as Justin had played in the Challenge the day before, so very interesting to see that the list seems to be doing well. One of the most interesting things about this list is the complete lack of Tolarian Academy.
In Second Place we had Turbo Vault Key.
I feel like this deck is very criminally underplayed at the moment. It's a very good deck and continues to look great every time I've seen it post results.
Further down the Top 8 we had Dimir Control.
Not a Lurrus deck, but still leveraging the Lorien Revealed strategy. Hullbreacher seems very good for sure.
Vintage Challenge 32 5/26
The last Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday morning event. This event had 38 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.
Jewel Shops was actually the most popular deck here with Dredge/Lurrus/Oath all taking second. Jewel had a strong win rate, as did Lurrus though. Dredge weirdly enough did well in the event but had a less than medium win rate.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | discoverN |
| Dredge | 2nd | medvedev |
| UB Tinker | 3rd | RespectTheCat |
| Oath of Druids | 4th | etoustar |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | zzh |
| Jewel Shops | 6th | oosunq |
| Lurrus Saga | 7th | HanktheObese |
| Initiative | 8th | Sfugliatella2021 |
Definitely an interesting Top 8, and another showing of the UB Tinker deck. At the end of the event though it was Doomsday that won.
Fairly stock looking discoverN list for the most part. I like Spreading Seas tech spreading to other decks, which is cool.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
Fairly solid as to what we've come to expect out of this deck lately. I like Sickening Shoal out of the sideboard, that is sweet.
Also in this Top 8 we had Jewel Shops.
Pretty nice looking list. Even the addition of a single Hullbreacher in the main is very reasonable here.
My Video of the Week
My video this week for Vintage is fairly amusing. It's with a Vintage Fastbond + Valakut Exploration deck that we played in a league, thanks to Notmi from the Vintage Streamer's Discord. This was fun, but it definitely showed why we don't see more Fastbond at the moment in the format unfortunately.
Around the Web
- Shir Kahn has a video on BUG. Check it out here.
- As always Justin Gennari has some videos for us:
- Revenantkioku has a video on Doomsday from the 5/25 Challenge. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are throughout the week, let's find some spice!
HERMIT DRUID.
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!
