Vintage 101: Even More of that Strange Oil!
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 our final look at Phyrexia: All Will Be One and the Commander product as well since spoiler season for that set is now finished. In addition, we've got two Challenges plus a Super Qualifier to take a look at!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Doing the Phyrexian Shuffle
Now that the spoiler season for Phyrexia: All Will Be One is over, we can take a look at the rest of the set and what it could have in store for Vintage. In all reality, there wasn't much more that looked good, and even the cards we're talking about here may not be playable, but it is fun to see what could be!
Conduit of Worlds
Another Crucible effect is generally interesting enough and this one comes with a weird upside of being able to cast a permanent spell from the graveyard. I don't know if this is good enough since we just got a Crucible effect that can be unearthed for GG (Perennial Behemoth) and people just aren't really working on these weird kind of Green shops-esque decks for it to matter.
Soulless Jailer
I don't believe this card is any better than Grafdigger's Cage in the current format given that it doesn't stop cards like Bolas's Citadel at all. It stops Crucible effects mainly and Expressive Iteration if they exile a noncreature spell, but that's not insanely good. I think also this being a two mana value card means a lot given that other better effects like Cage can be nabbed with Urza's Saga.
Synthesis Pod
This is absolutely the wildest card design and it's not even in the main set, but in the Commander product as one of the Set Booster exclusive cards. The wild part about this card is that while it does require you to build around your opponent's deck to actually make it good (so you can't easily build your deck to abuse this) it does mean that there are a number of ways it can be abused in Vintage because of the fact that many Vintage decks have a lot of the same or similar cards. One such interaction here is the likelihood of exiling a Force of Will with this and nabbing your opponent's Bolas's Citadel because it's going to more than likely be the only six mana value card in the opponent's deck.
I don't know if this sees play or not, but it is an absolutely super cool card and I hope it does.
Vintage Challenge 1/28
The first Challenge this past weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 74 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.
Mono White was certainly very popular here and it had a solid win rate overall. Jeskai did quite well in addition as did Breach. The spread of decks here though continues to look pretty solid for an event like this.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono White | 1st | Wesal |
| BPK Pile | 2nd | brianpk80 |
| Hollow Vine | 3rd | Anonymous |
| Breach | 4th | thedeck84 |
| Jeskai Lurrus | 5th | Magicofplayer1 |
| Doomsday | 6th | sixmp |
| 4C DRS | 7th | ForsakenBalerion |
| BUG Midrange | 8th | albertoSD |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here with some wide array of stuff going on. At the end of the event though it was Mono White that won it all.
I think this deck is slowly proving that while its powerful, the format overall is absorbing it well and its now just settling into natural metagame forces, which is super sweet to see. It can still do well and win events, but it isn't always the best thing to be doing and that's excellent to see.
The Second Place finalist was none other than Brian Kelly playing... Brian Kelly.
There's usually just no words to describe Brian's deckbuilding genius. And this time, there are again no words. Only Brian can make Brian's decks work it seems, and that's okay because Brian is a powerful deckbuilder and strong player.
Also in this Top 8 we had Jeskai Lurrus.
This deck is definitely strong. Continuing to see Third Path Iconoclast here and it makes good sense. It does quite a bit off all the spells this deck wants to cast for sure.
Vintage Challenge 1/29
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event, which had 54 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.
Doomsday was at the top of the heap this week and it also had a really strong win rate. Mono White suffered hard this week, proving yet again that the deck is settling into the format overall. 4C DRS did insanely well with two pilots this event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| 4C DRS | 1st | Dazai |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | medvedev |
| Doomsday | 3rd | discoverN |
| Jeskai Lurrus | 4th | stunndog |
| Mono White | 5th | ecobaronen |
| Doomsday | 6th | SenpaiBlank |
| Grixis Wheels | 7th | Kuvalda |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | plaza23 |
Very interesting Top 8 here. Some combo, some Tinker, and some fair decks. Seems fun! At the end of it was a 4C Walkers pile that won it all.
Just getting to play all the busted banned Legacy walkers is worth it here. Unchained Berserker in the sideboard here for Mono White is definitely intriguing given how Mono White performed overall in the event.
In Second Place we had Oops!
The more streamlined this deck gets the better it really looks. It has a lot of powerful starts and can do a lot of strong things. Definitely keep an eye on this.
Also in this Top 8 was Doomsday by discoverN!
The three Subtlety in the sideboard here I can only assume is for Mono White, as is the Snuff Out since Subtlety is a "counterspell" of sorts that can buy the Doomsday deck time to win since it can get around Cavern of Souls. Very solid tech for sure.
Vintage Super Qualifier 1/29
In addition to everything else going on this week we also had a Vintage Super Qualifier event with the top four spots up for qualification to a Regional Championship event up for grabs! This event had 164 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.
Mono White was excessively popular in this event, but it didn't do well at all at a 48% win rate. Esper Tinker variants did reasonably well as did Doomsday and PO. Bazaar decks performed admirably as well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Hollow Vine | 1st | Anonymous |
| Mono White | 2nd | HanktheObese |
| Doomsday | 3rd | MaxMagicer |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 4th | Bullwinkkle6705 |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 5th | helvetti |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | LORiWWA |
| Mono White | 7th | Rooney56 |
| 4C DRS | 8th | Dazai |
Lot of combo/Tinker here but also some Mono White and DRS piles. At the end of the event though it was Hollow Vine that won it all.
This deck is quite powerful for sure, and for those wondering no we are not casting that Reaper King in the sideboard. It's there because it's a free card that pitches to every pitch spell in the deck!
In Second Place we had Mono White.
Chancellor of the Annex is leaking into this deck too from Legacy as a way to combat faster decks or decks that are able to have up free countermagic by just making it hard for those decks to cast those things in the first place. It's also a solid free pitch to Solitude or Chrome Mox when you need it, of which there are four copies of Chrome Mox here.
Also in this Top 8 we had PO!
I really like the Saga-less variants of PO, as they seem quite strong. Having access to things like Dress Down seems very powerful right now. This is a great list to start from.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has some sick stuff for us this week. Check out the videos below:
- Our good friend Phil Gallagher is playing some Crab Shack! Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku goes over the Top Ten Hottest cards from Phyrexia for Doomsday. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 lists here.
BUG Midrange with some Initiative? Seems sweet.
Death's Shadow with a side of Sedgemoor Witch? Super cool.
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!
