Vintage 101 - Conquering Vintage
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 impact of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, specifically that of Clarion Conqueror thus far. In addition we've got some Challenges to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Conquering Dragons
We've got a week in on Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and definitely the biggest impact from the set sofar is fully on Clarion Conqueror.
It's not a real shocker that this card has worked its way into the Vintage format. It's a very powerful card and does a lot of things against a good portion of the format. Being able to act as a Null Rod that affects not only opposing artifacts, but also creatures like Psychic Frog and Planeswalkers is just so very good. It should also be no surprise that most of the gameplay out of this card has been out of Mono White Initiative (MWI).
Conqueror certainly fits right at home in these shells. Even if you have to play out a Chrome Mox which is shut off by doing it, it's a powerful turn one play in this deck. While it's shown up in a few other places (as we'll see in the event results), the primary home for this card definitely seems to be MWI. I would very much keep an eye on this card and this deck because it's definitely bound to increase its popularity by a lot, and it's already a pretty popular deck in Vintage.
In addition to Clarion Conqueror, some other cards that weren't quite on my radar for Vintage have shown up here or there. The first is Roiling Dragonstorm.
Ok, this one is kind of cool. Draw two discard one is quite good, but then you can pick it back up with something like Paradoxical Outcome and be able to do it again and again. Sure, you're never putting a Dragon into play, but you don't need to when you got PO. And it being just a source of card selection/card advantage is quite nice. You can even replay it from the graveyard with Lurrus. It's pretty groovy.
The final one I thought was interesting was Rakshasa's Bargain. My initial thought here went to Beans, but I did not really expect Scam.
It makes sense when you think about it. It pitches cards to the graveyard to be hit with Reanimate which makes a lot of sense, and it also fills your hand with stuff to be able to have countermagic or responses. Pretty sick idea honestly. It's also blue for Force of Will / Force of Negation so that helps a lot as well.
I'll be curious to see how much more we see out of Tarkir this go around. I know we've seen stuff like Cori-Steel Cutter in Legacy, maybe in Vintage?
Vintage Challenge 32 4/10/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 40 players in it thanks to the data collected by the 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 a Top 4 finish, it's win rate was less than 50%. Dredge and Oath both looked great here, while Sphere Shops seemed to suffer. Everything else hovered around that 50% mark.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Lord_Beerus |
| Initiative | 2nd | VitorCarvalho01 |
| Lurrus PO | 3rd | unluckymonkey |
| Beseech Storm | 4th | TonyScapone |
| 4C Lurrus | 5th | Kenzaburo |
| Oath | 6th | Capitano_CL |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | JTlemmon |
| Raker Shops | 8th | Marcola |
Pretty reasonable Top 8 here. At the end of the event, Dredge was the winner.
Very aggressively slanted version here with the Silversmote Ghoul thrown into the mix. Definitely looking to be on the beatdown here in most games.
In Second Place we had Initiative.
Thalia being back in this deck is quite interesting, given how prevalent stuff like Orcish Bowmasters is. This is a fairly standardized list otherwise though.
Also in this Top 8 we had 4C Lurrus.
Kind of an interesting list. Frog and Otter Wizard, but also Lavinia and a splash into red for things like Flame of Anor and Blast effects out of the sideboard. Kind of like an Esper splash Red variant.
Vintage Challenge 32 4/11/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 42 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dredge was the most popular deck and despite having a REALLY good finish it's win rate was still slightly less than 50%. Raker Shops and Doomsday looked great, while Lurrus Breach and Esper Lurrus looked not so good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | SilversRayleigh |
| Doomsday | 2nd | Bullwinkkle6705 |
| Raker Shops | 3rd | Illao1 |
| Lurrus PO | 4th | DrPP |
| Oath | 5th | _INF_ |
| Dimir Lurrus | 6th | Mogged |
| Dreadnought | 7th | mosh110 |
| BUG | 8th | Uzbek |
Fairly reasonable spread of Top 8 decks here. At the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
Very similar list to the one that won the previous challenge. Not much to speak of in that regards.
In Second Place we had Doomsday.
One thing that stuck out at me was a main deck copy of Chain of Vapor. Lot more decks are having more main deck cards that really threaten a deck like Doomsday's primary game plan that having just something that gets rid of one of those cards makes sense to combo off.
Further down the Top 8 we had a Dreadnought list!
Oh this list is really super sick. Having access to new card Clarion Conqueror as we discussed in the topic above, this is a very strong way to interact. Doorkeeper Thrull is the primary path to playing out a Dreadnought here, since it turns off the triggered abilities. Very cool list though!
Vintage Challenge 32 4/12/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 49 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dredge was the most popular deck again, and it did have a Top 8 finish but its win rate was again pretty bad. Sphere Shops looked great, as did Esper Lurrus. Most of the other things here sat just above or below that 50% cutoff.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | Jujkata |
| Esper Lurrus | 2nd | ziofrancone |
| Initiative | 3rd | medvedev |
| Lurrus Breach | 4th | thedeck84 |
| Initiative | 5th | LasVegasChaos |
| Sphere Shops | 6th | Tsubasa_Cat |
| Beseech Storm | 7th | AFX |
| Dredge | 8th | Lord_Beerus |
Fairly diverse Top 8. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
This seems like a fairly standard Doomsday list right now. Worth noting that there's not even a juke in the sideboard or anything like that. It's just all Doomsday, all the time.
In Second Place we had Esper Lurrus.
Not so long ago these decks were cutting Lavinia and now she's back. It's definitely one of the tools in their arsenal and it will wax and wane with the metagame for sure.
Further down the Top 8 we had Sphere Shops.
I think Scrawling Crawler has to be one of the best cards that Shops decks have gotten in a while, outside of stuff like Glaring Fleshraker being a thing. Having something that really works in a pure Shops deck is great.
Vintage Challenge 32 4/13/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Raker, Lurrus PO, and Lurrus Breach all were the most popular decks, and they all floated above and below 50% win rate. Oath looked really good here, as did Doomsday.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | sixmp |
| Lurrus PO | 2nd | reojund |
| Oath | 3rd | Wesal |
| Dimir Lurrus | 4th | Navas |
| Raker Shops | 5th | _Chamytinho_ |
| Oath | 6th | etoustar |
| Initiative | 7th | LasVegasChaos |
| Raker Shops | 8th | magiclaszlo |
This is a pretty good Top 8. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
Subtlety is a sick juke in the sideboard for beating certain creature cards. I'm digging it.
In Second Place we had Lurrus PO.
I still dig that Thundertrap Trainer is a cool card in Vintage. Otter wizards let's go!
Also in this Top 8 we had some Oath. Let's look at the higher placing one.
Minsc & Boo and Wrenn and Six being around is sweet, not going to lie. I love the RUG versions of this deck, and Stock Up seems to only have made it better. Main deck quadruple Pyroblast is so good.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has good stuff for us:
- FiretruckModo is playing new Tarkir cards in Dredge. Check it out here.
- DB3MTG has a Trophy Oath video. Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku has a video on Top 8 with Doomsday. Check it out here.
- Kindamtg is playing some Heavy Metal Tinker. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
This is a sick list.
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!
