Vintage 101: Cats in the Cradle
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 talking about this past week's Banned & Restricted Announcement, in which there were no changes to Vintage. In addition we're going to be looking at Challenge data from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Banned & Restricted Announcement June 30, 2025 - No Changes to Vintage
This past week was the Banned & Restricted Announcement on June 30, 2025. While there were indeed no changes to Vintage in this BnR, you can read the full article linked here as there is some blurb about Vintage, which I will discuss below.
Realistically, this is what I expected out of this BnR. I personally don't much care for Lurrus from a play pattern standpoint, and I do think that there could be a day to come where it might get banned, but overall the data shows the decks playing the card are currently well in line with the rest of the format, and I'm okay with making no changes at this time. I do think that there have been a fair number of impactful printings as has been called out here with Clarion Conqueror and Stock Up enabling non-Lurrus decks as well that I think the format is in a reasonable space.
And also, it is worth pointing out here that the card called out from Edge of Eternities is the one we discussed last week: Tezzeret, Cruel Captain.
I am a big fan of allowing metagames to organically solve themselves with new card printings, so I'm thoroughly excited that even Wizards recognizes that Tezzeret is a card that is going to have potential in Vintage. All in all though, this wasn't an exciting change or big change (or any change at all really), but it's fine and I think Vintage will continue to be just fine.
The next BnR is technically scheduled for after the first NA Eternal Weekend event and right before EU/Asia Eternal Weekends. I know that Wizards has already said if an off-cycle BnR is required for any eternal format like this, then they would, but I kinda doubt we'll see anything else get changed in the year 2025 and we'll be looking at 2026 for any possible changes (even unrestrictions, which would be cool).
As always, I'll continue working on regular metagame updates to see where the format is at periodically.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/26/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 45 players, thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck, and despite two Top 8 appearances, it had a less than 50% win rate. Lurrus PO and Other Lurrus did very well here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | parkss |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | _Shatun_ |
| Jeskai Lurrus | 3rd | morsaaa |
| Initiative | 4th | IpseVenenaBibas |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | AJV20 |
| PO | 6th | wongdeck |
| Initiative | 7th | Darkiundsa |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | DrPP |
Fair bit of Lurrus, sprinkled with some Jewel Shops and Initiative. At the end of the event it was Lurrus PO that won.
This is kind of what we've come to expect out of Lurrus PO. There's not much frills here to speak of frankly.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
Another fairly stock-looking list. Yixlid Jailer is a neat card that does some things against a variety of decks right now, which is cool.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/27/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 40 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was again the most played deck of the event, with a slightly better win rate this time. Esper Lurrus and Raker Shops both looked pretty good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| DPS TInker | 1st | desolutionist |
| Esper Lurrus | 2nd | WingedHussar |
| Raker Shops | 3rd | frostyyy_ |
| Doomsday | 4th | Tsubasa_Cat |
| Esper Lurrus | 5th | xDingusKhan |
| Initiative | 6th | luvadepedreiro |
| Initiative | 7th | Jumba |
| Initiative | 8th | LasVegasChaos |
Fair amount of Initiative in the bottom half of the Top 8, but the end of the event was won by DPS Tinker.
Have not seen a Dark Petition in Vintage in quite a long time, so that's kind of cool. Often feels like the card might have been eclipsed by Beseech the Mirror but here it is putting in some work. Pretty cool.
In Second Place we had Esper Lurrus.
Both Stony Silence AND Serenity says a lot about how people are viewing artifact-centric strategies right now. Seems very good versus Shops decks.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/28/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 47 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Lurrus PO was the most popular deck this time, and its win rate was okay despite having two Top 8s. Esper Lurrus, Doomsday, and Dredge all looked solid here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Lurrus | 1st | TheMagePower |
| Dredge | 2nd | -CAPS- |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | AJV20 |
| Esper Lurrus | 4th | _Chamytinho_ |
| PO | 5th | GengsKhan |
| Lurrus PO | 6th | Diem4x |
| Esper Lurrus | 7th | ReprintDarkRitual |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | HouseOfManaMTG |
5/8 Lurrus here, with some regular PO and Dredge in the mix. At the end of the event it was Dimir Lurrus that won.
Again, not a super frill-heavy list, which is fine. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, and clearly this deck is doing well enough.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
Much more aggressively slanted with Silversmote Ghoul in the mix. I like the main deck Chalice of the Void too if you can slam it on zero right off the bat, it makes up for a lot of different matches.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/29/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 33 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck here, but its overall win rate was not so good. Raker Shops, Dredge, and Oath all had solid win rates.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Oath | 1st | snoopy-magic |
| Lurrus Breach | 2nd | ice_nine_BIGFAN |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | Terminus0 |
| Lurrus DRS | 4th | Sommertroll |
| Raker Shops | 5th | crK |
| Dredge | 6th | oosunq |
| Dredge | 7th | Avaloon |
| Doomsday | 8th | SingPanMan |
Bit more varied here with some Lurrus, Dredge, but also Doomsday, Raker, etc. At the end of the event it was Oath that won.
I kinda like the RUG splash version here, especially since Wrenn and Six is such a cool card to play around with, and Stock Up continues to look solid with the Oath package. I might have to play around with this one.
In Second Place we had Lurrus Breach.
Solid looking list here. Main deck Ancient Grudge is kind of sweet, especially if you value Breach it. Pretty cool.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has things for us:
- kindamtg is playing Tinker Trucks. Check it out here.
- FiretruckModo is playing Void Mirror in Initiative. Check it out here.
- Morsaa has a video on their Top 4 Challenge run. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
OCELOT PRIDE.
SCAAAAAAAAAAM.
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!
