Vintage 101: Interdimensional Spiders
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're talking all about Spiders and Omenpaths. In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Spiderseseses
A new Standard set is upon us, and this one has some pretty unique challenges overall. Spider-Man is the set, but due to how some of the crazy licensing deals work the set on Magic Online will not be Spider-Man, but will be called Through the Omenpaths. We've got both spoilers now, so I'm going to try to go through and determine what might be good for Vintage here, with a nod towards the fact that we'll show both cards for paper and MTGO/Arena so it's easy (I hope) to understand. This is in no particular order, really, and there wasn't a lot I saw for Vintage, but if I missed something please make sure to let me know in the comments!
Spectacular Spider-Man / Ademi of the Silkchutes
This is rather interesting because it's an effect you can rebuy with Lurrus. Making all your stuff get hexproof and indestructible whenever you need it is grand. Now you can only recast it from your graveyard during your turn, but that's more than enough because it can also be cast at Flash speed on your turn. Pretty neat effect honestly.
Arachne, Psionic Weaver / Yera and Oski, Weaver and Guide
So it's neat enough that you can cast this for W by bouncing something, and it also taxes things a little bit. Maybe bouncing White Plume Adventurer seems pretty groovy. The Initiative deck just has not a lot of space though overall in its deck construction, but it is cute.
Spider-Sense / Detect Intrusion
I don't really think this is that great, but being able to bounce a tapped creature for U and counter something is interesting at least. It does have to be a tapped creature though, which can be awkward.
Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon / Belion, the Parched
It's kind of cute that he gets bigger and then turns into an Island. But it also sort of protects him from some amount of removal. It does suck if he gets Strip Mine'd or Wasteland'ed though. Kinda funny if you think about it. At least he's two mana value and you can replay him with Lurrus.
Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor / Merata, Neuron Hacker
Adding counters to this card is not going to be difficult, since most decks should be able to add two counters a turn to her. At the very least, you can cast most things from hand that you want to cast. I doubt it's worth the effort though.
Spider-Punk / Kraza, the Swarm as One
Not going to lie, getting robbed on the art game here, but the art for Kraza is pretty sweet. Red Prison and possibly some form of a Boros Initiative deck really likes this effect. He's almost always coming in as 3/2 because of Riot, and making things uncounterable is just absurdly good. I'd love to see this get played in some Red Prison or Goblins decks.
Spider-Woman, Stunning Savior / Makdee and Itla, Skysnarers
I think there definitely was a period of time where this would be so good, but I think there are just better creatures that fit into the game plan of something like Initiative like Clarion Conqueror that shut down even more things than this.
Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade / Fizik, Etherium Mechanic
If Arcbound Ravager was still a thing, I'd love this kind of card. Being able to jam counters off for cards is great, but also a slightly bigger Steel Overseer? Pretty cool.
Steel Wrecking Ball / Temple Trap
If only Goblin Welder was a card again in current Vintage. This would be so groovy for that kind of deck. Alas.
Bagel and Schmear / Perfected Pastry
I guess it goes to show, no matter where you go into the Multiverse, you can always find good food.
Vintage Challenge 32 9/4/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 50 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage 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 pretty middle of the road win rate. Dimir Lurrus looked great, as did Lurrus PO. Dredge and BUG both had sub-50% win rates.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Lurrus | 1st | Montolio |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | bless_von |
| Tinker | 3rd | Erik157751 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 4th | Al1Baba |
| Sphere Shops | 5th | BERNASTORRES |
| Initiative | 6th | SirCervello94 |
| Lurrus PO | 7th | etoustar |
| Jewel Shops | 8th | LucasG1ggs |
Quite a bit of Lurrus here. In fact the finals was Dimir vs Dimir.
Both of these lists are so very similar, really. I do like Seal of Removal in Montolio's list though. Just being able to repeatably bounce things is pretty sweet.
Also in this Top 8 we had Tinker.
Four Hullbreacher Tinker, let's go! Pretty sweet list.
Vintage Challenge 32 9/5/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 33 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative again was the most played deck and despite two Top 8s, it's overall win rate was less than 50%. Doomsday looked stellar here, as did Raker Shops and Lurrus Breach. Dredge and Countervine both tanked hard.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | Tsubasa_Cat |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | vwxyza648204 |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | LucasG1ggs |
| Raker Shops | 4th | musasabi |
| Esper Lurrus | 5th | notmi |
| Initiative | 6th | wraaith |
| Dimir Lurrus | 7th | Capitano_CL |
| Initiative | 8th | hermanomlg |
Pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
Tamiyo definitely seems like a super sweet card for Doomsday. Just being very threatening with this card is really good. It's worth nothing that this is a Lurrus deck, so like, you don't get some of the more common sideboard jukes or main deck Street Wraith, so you're very much accounting for it a lot with the Tempo side plan.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
Not a lot here that's out of the normal. Very stock-looking overall.
Also in this Top 8 we had Raker Shops.
I think it's safe to say that Tezzeret definitely settled into the decks he goes in and that's basically it. Wild to think of when it felt like it was one of the more powerful Planeswalkers in a while, and I do think he still is. If Lurrus does ever go, it's probably a safe bet to consider that Tezzeret remains really good.
Vintage Challenge 32 9/6/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 56 players in it thanks to the MTGO Vintage Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Lurrus was the most played deck, and it had a pretty strong win rate overall. PO also looked good, while everything else was just above or below the board (but mostly somewhat below).
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Breach | 1st | thedeck84 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | luvdepedreiro |
| Dredge | 3rd | bennybo |
| Dimir Lurrus | 4th | TheKingGinger |
| PO | 5th | XShockWaveX |
| Dimir Lurrus | 6th | Navas |
| Dredge | 7th | wiky |
| Dimir Lurrus | 8th | John1111 |
Whew, lots of Dimir Lurrus here. At the end of the event it was Lurrus Breach that won, though.
The Mana Drain / Gifts Ungiven deck is super sweet. It seems like a very powerful deck for sure.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
You know the drill, not much here that seems off meta.
Further down the Top 8 we had PO.
Singleton PO is kind of amusing. This just plays all the Planeswalkers everyone likes and then some.
Vintage Challenge 32 9/7/2025
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 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Lurrus was the most played deck of the event, and the deck had a really strong win rate. The major outlier here was BUG at one copy, because well, yeah it won the event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| BUG | 1st | lordoflifegain |
| Lurrus Breach | 2nd | desolutionist |
| Dimir Lurrus | 3rd | discoverN |
| Lurrus PO | 4th | RatherBplayingMTG |
| Dimir Lurrus | 5th | luvadepedreiro |
| Oath | 6th | Wesal |
| PO | 7th | MyPotatoes |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | HazuhiroNakamura |
Fair bit of Lurrus here. At the end of the event, it was BUG that won.
Pretty solid-looking list here. What really pushes this is the Frogs and Collector Ouphe, which both look great.
In Second Place, we had Lurrus Breach.
Very much the same list that did well earlier in the week in a lot of ways. Seal of Primordium is a cute way to blow up enchantments and not need to splash into white, but it's already a spalsh as is into green, so I don't think that's super different.
Also in this Top 8 we had Oath.
Very interesting with the Planeswalker package. Haven't seen a Dack Fayden in Oath in a hot minute.
Around the Web
- BoshNRoll has a new video on Oswald Lurrus. Check it out here.
- kindamtg has a video on Humans. Check it out here.
- Doomsday like it's 2004!
- Justin Gennari has a video on Oath of Druids. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Lurrus Depths is interesting.
Merfolk!
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!
