Vintage 101: I'm Out on the Edge
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 very important spoiler from Edge of Eternities this past weekend at MagicCon Vegas. This one seems pretty impactful so talking about it now seems prudent. In addition we've got some Challenge data from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Out on the Edge... of Eternity
This past weekend was MagicCon Vegas, where we got our first look at some of the stuff coming down the pipeline. Specifically one of those big things was a first look at the next Standard set Edge of Eternities. EVEN MORE SPECIFICALLY it was one card that really stood out in a huge way on Thursday/Friday of last week.
That card? Tezzeret, Cruel Captain.
I'll say it right now. This is the clearest most Vintage-y spoiler of a card I've seen in a while. First off, Tezzeret is colorless, which is a huge boon for any Planeswalker in Vintage. Being colorless makes things like off-color Moxen and mana sources like Sol Ring/Mana Crypt/Mana Vault even better. Secondly, Tezzeret costs THREE generic mana, which is even bigger given that you can play land Mana Vault + him. It is nice that he isn't an Artifact Planeswalker though, because being able to cast this off Workshop would be super gross.
These factors play very well with Tezzeret's actual abilities. He comes in at 4 loyalty which is already quite a bit, but has no ability that adds loyalty outside of his static ability, but that static ability doesn't care if the artifact is a token or not, it just cares that it's an artifact. It seems pretty easy to generate loyalty with this guy to keep him alive, because more than likely a good number of his first two abilities are the bread and butter of this card.
The 0 ability is incredibly strong. Untapping any artifact or creature is great, being able to put +1/+1 counters on artifact creatures is more or less flavor text but also not out of the realm of possibility. The big thing here is being able to turn around a play of land Mana Vault plus Tezzeret into untap Mana Vault and deploy another card is very strong and nets you a Planeswalker with some raw power.
The -3 ability being gated to cards mana value 1 or less is kind of a big deal, and I'm happy that it is this way. This card would probably be instantly restrictable if it said mana value 2 or less, mainly due to the existence of Time Vault. This can't get Vault directly, but it can get functionally all of the mana rocks in your deck (Lotus/Moxen, etc.) while also being able to get cards like Keys AND Vexing Bauble / Chalice of the Void. It can get Walking Ballista or Stonecoil Serpent if you need to as well. It's an extremely flexible ability and important to remember that it specifically says mana value, not mana cost like how Urza's Saga works.
The -7 ability is something I don't expect to see very often, but heck putting counters on The One Ring and slamming in with an indestructible threat seems pretty sweet. It's the least impressive of the abilities on this card though realistically.
I have a feeling Tezzeret will be quite good in Vintage, and it will be definitely played. I have said before that I appreciate Wizards trying to organically give players something to play that isn't Lurrus, and this definitely fits that bill, so it will be interesting to see if it budges the needle at all. Regardless, this is a super strong Planeswalker and I'm very curious to see where it lands.
The Land 6
This past weekend a very special group of Seriosos got together for THE LAND 6. This was a paper Proxy event held by the folks at Team Serious (of which I am a part of) and is one of those "invitation-only" type events where everyone gets together for a weekend in a remote location and plays VINTAGE.
I wasn't able to attend, but TSI events are always fun, and I hope everyone out in the Team Serious sphere had a great time. I also donated a set of 3D Printed coasters (of my own design no less!) of Team Serious logos and stuff to the event for prize even if I couldn't make it.
You can find all the decklists from their event here. I just want to shout out the finalists here, with the winner being Duane Haddix and the Second Place being Nam Tran.
Two Shops fiends in the finals? Yeah that tracks for a Team Serious event.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/19/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the Vintage MTGO Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck of the event, and it had a reasonable 52.1% win rate. Sphere Shops and Dredge both looked solid, as did "OTHER LURRUS".
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative | 1st | _Chamytinho_ |
| Esper Lurrus | 2nd | TheMagePower |
| Sphere Shops | 3rd | Antarctica |
| Ocelot Lurrus | 4th | morsaaa |
| Dimir Lurrus | 5th | John1111 |
| Lurrus PO | 6th | Feski713 |
| Initiative | 7th | _Shatun_ |
| Sphere Shops | 8th | nicoprietob |
Fairly interesting Top 8 overall. At the end of the event it was Initiative that won.
Very straightforward and clean. Main deck Void Mirror is an absolutely intriguing choice. Really beats up on your Shops opponents if you can land it early enough. Also pretty much stops Raker in its tracks.
In Second Place we had Esper Lurrus.
The only major thing here is that there's only one copy of Stock Up. Prepping for a restriction? (This is a joke, I doubt it gets restricted)
Also in this Top 8 we had Sphere Shops.
Golos and friends are hanging out! Scrawling Crawler continues to be one of the coolest Shops threats, and it's awesome to see.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/20/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 33 players in it thanks to the Vintage MTGO Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was again the most played deck, by a lot. It's win rate was sub 50% despite two Top 8 appearances. Doomsday and a few other decks did very well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | Tsubasa_Cat |
| PO | 2nd | Al1Baba |
| Initiative | 3rd | _J0SE_ |
| Initiative | 4th | LasVegasChaos |
| Sphere Shops | 5th | Arca_de_Karn |
| Ocelot Lurrus | 6th | Montolio |
| Lurrus PO | 7th | IamActuallyLvl1 |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | unluckymonkey |
Fair bit of Lurrus and Initiative here, but at the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
The so-called "Tempo Doomsday" build is pretty neat. Frog being a threat that the opponent has to respect while playing around Doomsday is something.
In Second Place we had non-Lurrus PO.
I think it's great that Thundertrap Trainer is such a sweet Vintage card. It's really fun to see a Standard card like this be great in specific archetypes, but it doesn't feel overpowering.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/21/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the Vintage MTGO Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was still the most played deck (sensing a theme I feel like), but its win rate was even lower than 50% DESPITE still having two Top 8 appearances. Lurrus PO and Dimir Lurrus did very well as did OTHER LURRUS.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | Navas |
| Ocelot Lurrus | 2nd | Montolio |
| Dimir Lurrus | 3rd | John1111 |
| Initiative | 4th | VitorCarvalho01 |
| Initiative | 5th | RogeDeckWins |
| Breach | 6th | desolutionist |
| Esper Lurrus | 7th | Viatt |
| BUG | 8th | Uzbek |
Mostly a Lurrus and Initiative and Friends Storytime Hour here. At the end of the event it was Lurrus PO that won.
This deck has continually proven that it has some real raw power behind it. I am curious if anything changes with Final Fantasy being around, but I think it's going to take a lot to dethone this kind of strategy.
In Second Place we had the OTHER LURRUS deck, which was Ocelot Pride Energy Lurrus.
This list is sweet. I love the Energy core. It's a really cool core of a deck.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had BUG.
This a solid looking list and looks like a lot of fun. Frog looks great in this list for sure.
Vintage Challenge 32 6/22/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 36 players in it thanks to the Vintage MTGO Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative and Lurrus PO were both the top two decks. Both had interesting win rates, especially since both had Top 8 appearances.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | discoverN |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | John1111 |
| Tinker | 3rd | desolutionist |
| Initiative | 4th | Will_Split |
| Temur Tempo | 5th | Ark4n |
| Raker Shops | 6th | crK |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | ChessNight5030 |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | HouseOfManaMTG |
Very interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
discoverN is the GOAT of Doomsday, so it's awesome to see them back on the deck. Solid looking list overall.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
Very straightforward list here. I dig the sideboard options as well.
Also in this Top 8 we had Temur Tempo.
Haven't seen a Ragavan in a hot minute. Pretty cool to see. This also has a Karn in it, and that's amazing.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has some videos for us:
- Brian Coval has some PO. Check it out here.
- Montolio is doing some CATS. Check it out here.
- ValueBeforeVictory has a video on Top 4 with CATS. Check it out here.
- FiretruckModo has a video on the best Dredge deck from NYSE. Check it out here.
- kindamtg has a video on Dredge as well. Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku has a video on a Vintage Challenge with the wrong deck. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
MATOYA.
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!
