Vintage 101: Five Decks for NA Eternal Weekend
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're looking ahead to North America Eternal Weekend in a few weeks and some decks you might consider for that event. In addition, we've got a few Challenges from the past weekend to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Five Decks for NA Eternal Weekend
Eternal Weekend North America is fast approaching, so it's a good opportunity to take a look at decks that could be interesting in the event to pilot. This list is in no particular order of strength or viability, and two of these decks are even Power-Less!
#1 - Oath of Druids
Oath is a solid deck to consider for EW. It is often one of the more popular decks in paper for players to bring because it leads to generally fast wins and it is most certainly a deck that really feels like you're playing Vintage. That's the biggest overall appeal to the deck, it feels like a Vintage deck. You're getting to dig for Power and Time Walk and other Restricted cards, and it's incredibly powerful.
A new card that has cropped up quite a bit in these Oath decks is Into the Flood Maw from Bloomburrow. This card has certainly proven its worth in being able to bounce any permanent while also giving the opponent a creature to use to trigger Oath with.
The one caveat of picking Oath is that Oath is a very popular deck, which can often mean that mirror matches can be more likely to occur. Oath mirrors are honestly really rough matchups, and as long as you can feel comfortable playing the mirror this might be a good deck for you.
#2 - Mono White Initiative
Initiative has had a wildly up and down time at Eternal Weekend, from winning the first event it was legal in for Eternal Weekend to settling into the format overall longer term. I still think this is a deck that is worth approaching for EW. Initiative has not changed hugely over time, but the advent of the new MDFC in the form of Witch Enchanter was a huge boon to the deck.
Initiative in general is still a very powerful mechanic, and it will still catch players off guard in a paper event. It has a wide array of strong matchups, and outside of tracking the Initiative in paper (which is actually fairly easy) it's not too complex of a deck to pilot.
The downside of Initiative is that the more top-end players of the format do know what the deck does and how powerful it is, and can play around it and through it, which can make it difficult to play at the top tables unless you really have a bead on the deck and its matchups.
#3 - Eldrazi
Modern Horizons 3 gave Vintage a bunch more playable Eldrazi creatures, but primarily the biggest and best of them is Glaring Fleshraker and Sowing Mycospawn. Both of these cards have formed the raw backbone of how Eldrazi is built now, creating a much more explosive and powerful deck.
Eldrazi can be a popular option for Eternal Weekend primarily on the back of the fact that the rest of the deck outside of the Power can be much cheaper, and it's also a deck that works really well as a power-less option for EW as well. It's an extremely aggressive strategy and something that can really put a player on the back foot with its array of cheap aggressive creatures.
#4 - Red Prison (Power-Less)
Red Prison is another deck that can be built in a power-less configuration, and it can be incredibly strong versus the field. New cards like Broadside Bombardiers and Pyrogoyf have really proven that they can aggressively turn the corner in a single turn, ending the game quickly.
The only major downside of this deck in a Power-less configuration is however the lack of Power to help muscle through early plays, and sometimes these decks will get eaten alive by raw Vintage openings from opponents, but as long as you can reasonably cobble together a Turn one play that leads to a win, this is certainly a deck to keep in mind.
#5 - Paradoxical Outcome
Old school PO is certainly a deck that could surprise people at PO. There's unlikely to be a large crowd actually playing the deck, and the restriction of Saga overall is a positive note for the deck's raw power. The biggest and newest addition to this deck overall is more rooted in sideboard cards with things like Consign to Memory.
PO is still a very Vintage-y deck, and it still does a ton of things that feel very in line with the format. The downside is that the deck is still a rather known quantity especially among players that do remember its power level earlier on, and the card seeing play in Jewel Shops means that people are keeping it in mind. Bowmasters especially is super problematic for this deck.
The Dark Horse - Nadu
This is my true Dark Horse for this event, and that's someone taking Nadu Combo and doing well with it. Nadu is certainly one of those cards that boasts a really insane power level, but I do think the deck is being slept on in Vintage currently. This is definitely a deck that could very well take people by surprise at EW, and has some cross-over with Legacy in that regards as well.
Just be aware of the downsides of this deck primarily being having to keep track of the Nadu triggers and all that jazz, because that is something you need to know when playing this deck in paper. Still, it would be incredibly interesting to see someone take this deck and perform well with it.
Vintage Challenge 32 10/25
The first event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 37 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oath was the most popular deck of this event, and its win rate was pretty good. Dimir Lurrus also looked great, as did Dredge. Sphere Shops and Jewel Shops seemed to not do so hot here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Munchlax446 |
| Oath | 2nd | Devouring Commander |
| Oath | 3rd | Marcuzinho |
| Breach | 4th | Asa_Akira |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 5th | Golgarburr |
| Lurrus DRS | 6th | Tim24 |
| Esper Lurrus Control | 7th | EnihcamAmgine |
| Esper Lurrus Control | 8th | albertoSD |
Bit of Lurrus, bit of Oath. At the end of the event, it was Dredge that won.
This is a pretty solid-looking Dredge list. Being very back to basics without anything like Silversmote Ghoul or even Bridge from Below seems like a solid place to be for Dredge. It's an incredibly straightforward and powerful deck.
In Second Place we had Oath.
This is a super straightforward list based on the current ways Oath is built. I do like the Serra's Emissary in the sideboard. This is a card I would definitely be looking into if I was playing Oath right now as a sideboard option.
Vintage Challenge 32 10/26
The second event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 56 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Jewel, Breach, Oath all were tied for most popular deck. They all had really reasonable to strong win rates. Dimir Lurrus didn't do too hot here, and neither did BUG.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jewel Shops | 1st | Johnni |
| Oath | 2nd | etoustar |
| Breach | 3rd | discoverN |
| Oath | 4th | Marcuzinho |
| Breach | 5th | wiky |
| Other Lurrus | 6th | tao_bye_bye |
| Oath | 7th | PsiVen |
| Breach | 8th | Ayyyypeks |
Lot of Oath and Breach in this Top 8. At the end though it was Jewel Shops that won.
This is very much the stock list of this deck at this point. It would take quite a bit of something to move the needle on things played in this deck. It seems quite good though in this Top 8 versus the other decks here, especially Oath.
Speaking of Oath, it was in Second Place with a VERY sweet spin on the deck.
I recently played against this deck on stream, and while at first glance Pyrogoyf doesn't seem crazy it is absolutely insanely threatening once you realize that a second Goyf is likely lights out. Milling yourself with Oath is often putting this thing to a 6+ power creature, and right off the bat that's 6+ damage to the face, but then a second one triggers the ability TWICE (once for itself and once for the one seen coming into play from the one already in play) so that's another 12+ damage and that's not counting the fact that it mills more on the next Oath and maybe increases to 7+. Being four mana is also just reasonably castable from hand. We've seen Inferno Titan in Oath lists of old, this is just Titan+.
Vintage Challenge 32 10/27
The final event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 32 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Breach was the most played deck of the event and it had a super strong win rate. Dimir Lurrus, Jewel Shops, and Oath all did well, and the lone BUG player did insanely well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Breach | 1st | discoverN |
| Breach | 2nd | _Mago_ |
| Breach | 3rd | medvedev |
| Jewel Shops | 4th | AJV20 |
| Dredge | 5th | GigaChadSigmaMale |
| BUG | 6th | yoshiwata |
| Oath | 7th | PsiVen |
| Sphere Shops | 8th | crK |
So much Breach to go around, and the end of the event was two Breach decks. Let's look at the winner.
I am more amused at the sideboard copy of Lightning Bolt than anything, but it seems like Waterlogged Teachings truly has done a great job of cementing itself as a part of this deck in the long term. As a tutor effect it seems like a really strong card to run in multiples.
Let's look at the Second Place Breach list.
Yawgmoth's Will is a primary difference from the winning list, which like, the line of DT for Will, Lotus, Will, Lotus is still a tried and true Vintage heuristic that can work really well in Vintage. The other big difference here is in sideboard, primarily Sphinx of the Steel Wind over the Portal to Phyrexia in the main deck. Personally I really think Portal is a truly messed up card sometimes, especially in the more creature-centric Vintage, and it's a bit harder to get rid of.
My Video of the Week
I tried out some Clown Car Shops this past week on Stream. It was not superb, but we did play against a sweet Oath deck (that did well in a Challenge this past weekend).
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has some good stuff for us as always.
- FiretruckModo has a video on CounterVine. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Fleshraker Shops is kind of sweet.
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!
