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Vintage 101: Fire Up the Planisphere!


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 one particular new Final Fantasy card in Vintage. In addition we're going to be looking at Challenge data from last week.

Firing Up the Planisphere

Vintage has certainly been interesting sofar this year with new cards impacting the format. One of the more interesting ones from Final Fantasy has been Astrologian's Planisphere.

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What really makes this card interesting is the fact that it's sort of like a Quirion Dryad/Managorger Hydra type effect, where the creature gets continually bigger as you cast more spells and draw more cards, and sometimes spells that draw cards make this double big because it could be a card that also draws you your third card that turn. The card doesn't require you to do much to get it going, since it comes built in with a creature, and it triggers on both turns which can be easy to set up with just playing the cards you'd regularly be playing.

The nice thing about cards like these is the fact that they simply reward you for playing fair games of Magic. You don't have to jump through a ton of hoops to work with this. All you gotta do is cast spells and draw cards.

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One of the most interesting things about this card is that since it's an Equipment, you can also just re-equip to another creature and start gaining the benefit on that creature. This makes the item difficult to remove in general, but also makes it great in multiples. Cards like Dreadhorde Arcanist are solid with this effect. Being able to eventually flashback big spells with Arcanist just by playing the game is groovy.

Also, having synergy with Flame of Anor is so good, since the creature token made is a Wizard once it is equipped.

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In addition, being a permanent you can bounce with Paradoxical Outcome in order to replay it for value is also really solid. You don't need to worry that the token sticks around because you can keep generating them. In addition, this works really well with Lurrus given its mana value. Being able to replay it from the graveyard to keep up the pressure is powerful.

This is certainly one of the better cards from Final Fantasy, and I expect to definitely continue to see it around more and more.

Vintage Challenge 32 7/3/2025

The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.

You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.

Initiative was the most played deck and it did have a pretty good win rate. Dimir Lurrus, Dredge, and Lurrus Breach all looked good here, while Jewel Shops seemed to have suffered.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Initiative 1st bernardocssa
Lurrus Breach 2nd RUBAO_oDonoDoMundo
Dredge 3rd Wizard_2002
Stiflenought 4th littledarwin
Dimir Lurrus 5th O_danielakos
Doomsday 6th Tsubasa_Cat
Dimir Lurrus 7th LucasG1ggs
Dimir Lurrus 8th JakeTMS

Quite a bit of Dimir Lurrus here. At the end of the event it was Initiative that won.

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Very interesting list overall here. Void Mirror is certainly an interesting choice.

In Second Place we had Lurrus Breach.

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Gifts Ungiven and Mana Drain are certainly some cards that we've seen in this shell lately. Wildly interesting to see some of these things that previously didn't see play back at it.

Also in this Top 8 we had Stiflenought.

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Doorkeeper Thrull is just one of those super good cards that nobody realizes is as good as it is. You can definitely keep finding uses for this little guy, and things it shuts down randomly.

Vintage Challenge 32 7/4/2025

The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 38 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.

You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.

Initiative was again the most popular deck, but despite a Top 8 appearance, its win rate wasn't that good. Raker Shops and Other Lurrus decks did very well, while Lurrus PO didn't do well at all.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Raker Shops 1st frostyyy_
4C Lurrus 2nd morsaaa
Lurrus Breach 3rd Aigis
Raker Shops 4th LucasG1ggs
Sphere Shops 5th d00mwake
Tinker Storm 6th desolutionist
Dimir Lurrus 7th Maxtortion
Initiative 8th _J0SE_

Pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Raker Shops that won.

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The neat thing here is the implementation of stuff like Demonic Tutor as well as Portable Hole in the sideboard. Also, a full playset of Talon Gates of Madara is super.

In Second Place we had 4C Lurrus.

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This is a list like we talked about in the main topic of today's article. Really strong looking and Astrologian's Planisphere seems great here.

Also in this Top 8 we had Tinker Storm.

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Oh okay. Dark Petition Storm with the Tinker package. Still good it seems.

Vintage Challenge 32 7/5/2025

The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 54 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.

You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.

Lurrus PO was the most played deck and its win rate was very good. Jewel Shops also had a strong win rate, as did Countervine.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Lurrus PO 1st adamwasmo
Jewel Shops 2nd satu2112
Lurrus PO 3rd unluckymonkey
Jewel Shops 4th notmi
Raker Shops 5th billsive
Lurrus PO 6th Miharu_Fuyumiya
Countervine 7th karatedom
Dredge 8th SuperCow12653

Quite a bit of Jewel and Lurrus PO. In fact, it was Lurrus PO that won.

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This deck is definitely quite powerful, and leveraging cards like Thundertrap Trainer is a really strong way to play.

In Second Place we had Jewel Shops.

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This looks like a fairly solid stock list of Jewel. This deck doesn't have a ton of flex spots to it though.

At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Countervine.

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Boasting a sub-theme of Reanimator is kind of sweet, not going to lie. Atraxa, Grand Unifier still being the best Reanimation target is dope.

Vintage Challenge 32 7/6/2025

The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 32 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.

You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.

Lurrus PO was the most played deck, but its win rate didn't look great despite a Top 8 finish. Jewel Shops, Dimir Lurrus, and Sphere Shops all looked great.

Let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Dimir Lurrus 1st Tsubasa_Cat
Tinker Storm 2nd desolutionist
Sphere Shops 3rd crK
Doomsday 4th SingPanMan
Jewel Shops 5th _Shikamaru_
Jewel Shops 6th Terminus0
Oops! All Spells 7th ChessNight5030
Lurrus PO 8th DB_revenantkioku

Fairly interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Dimir Lurrus that won.

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Very much a stock list of this deck for sure. But if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

In Second Place we had Tinker Storm.

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Mind's Desire?! Mind's Desire.

At the bottom of the Top 8 we had a neat take on Lurrus PO.

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Cloud, Midgar Mercenary and Skullclamp! Wildly interesting for sure. If this wasn't in the Top 8 of a Challenge it would certainly be in a Spice Corner.

Around the Web

  • Justin Gennari always has some good stuff for us:
  • kindamtg has a video on Yuna Oath. Check it out here.
  • Brian Coval has a video on his Top 8 at NYSE. Check it out here.

The Spice Corner

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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 Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition, you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGO Vintage Discord.

Until next time!



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