Vintage 101: No Changes for Vintage
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 about the BnR update from this week. In addition to that we've got some Challenges including a Showcase Challenge to look at. Something new I'm going to try doing for this, since a lot of Top 8s have a lot of repeat decks, is that the third deck I look at may be a deck outside of the Top 8 if there's something more interesting there.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Banned and Restricted Announcement 2/9/2026 - No Changes to Vintage
We had a Banned and Restricted Announcement this past week and surprise! There were no changes in Vintage. That being said, there was still some discussion from the BnR article on the format itself. You can check out the full BnR announcement here.
Let's see what Wizards has to say about Vintage.
So, yes, I am glad that Wizards does indeed call out the Nightmare Cat in the room. However that is where the buck really stops, and this is something I've noted a lot in past articles over the format's metagame health. Now to be clear, it's pretty obvious how much I dislike Lurrus, and I will actively go out of my way to seek decks that don't play the card wherever I can (it's why I love decks like Oath, etc.) However, despite my dislike of the card and the Companion mechanic in general even I have to admit that the diversity within the Lurrus macro archetype is very wide.
I do think that this blurb does a good job of calling out how easy it is to get pulled into the idea that all Lurrus decks are the same, and the disservice is that tracking all the Lurrus decks under a Lurrus macro archetype might actually hurt perception of the format as a whole rather than help it. Yes, we can accurately say you're going to see Lurrus a lot in Vintage, but the decks that use it are all widely different strategies. There's fair decks and combo decks, and even occasional outliers that seem interesting. In fact, during this past weekend's events, there's a number of new Grixis Lurrus variants that popped up. So while Lurrus is a card you are going to play against more often than not, the variety and diversity there tells me that this is actually rather healthy.
Overall, as well, the blurb also calls out decks like Initiative, Workshops, and Dredge all finding success and that even some traditional non-Lurrus versions of Lurrus decks are doing well. In short, Vintage is super fun, and it's a great format to find a deck you like and stick with. It's the big reason I tend to stick to things like Oath because it is a deck I enjoy the play style of and the power level of. It makes me feel like I am playing Vintage, and that's pretty great.
I am pretty happy with Vintage right now, so I'm fine with no changes. I would not mind an unrestriction, but that can be explored later on.
What are your thoughts on the BnR update? Let me know in the comments below.
Vintage Challenge 2/5/2026
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 52 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 of the event, but its overall win rate sat just above 50%. Jewel Shops and Lurrus PO both looked good here. Lurrus Breach did so poorly because it literally didn't win any matches.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jewel Shops | 1st | wongdeck |
| Lurrus PO | 2nd | _SickDraw |
| Lurrus PO | 3rd | trogdor1396 |
| Dredge | 4th | blackdecks99 |
| Oath | 5th | Sprouts |
| Grixis Lurrus | 6th | albertoSD |
| Grixis Lurrus Tempo | 7th | underdog111 |
| Esper Lurrus | 8th | Ark4n |
A lot of Lurrus variants here in a good variety of decks. At the end of the event however, it was Jewel Shops that won.
I think this is pretty much standard for Jewel as a deck. Sometimes you occasionally see more than one copy of Talon Gates of Madara, but there aren't a ton of flex spots in this deck realistically. If you're wanting to play The One Ring in Vintage though, this is predominantly one of the two decks to do it in (the other being Raker).
In Second Place, we had Lurrus PO.
Pretty standard-looking version of this deck. I do love that we live in a Vintage format where Wizard as a creature type is good enough that a card like Flame of Anor is a thing, and is also very good.
Further down the Top 8 we had a cool Grixis Tempo build with Lurrus.
So like, you get some Breach action, but you also get your Dragon's Rage Channeler and also new card Moonshadow! This list seems super sweet. I am digging it.
Vintage Challenge 2/6/2026
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 41 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.
Lurrus PO was the most-played deck of the event, and it had a pretty good win rate of around 53.8%. Dimir Lurrus also looked very good, as did Jewel Shops. Dredge did not do very well here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | DethFrmAbove |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | parkss |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | whiterenren |
| Jewel Shops | 4th | YES_i_accept_SPLIT |
| Lurrus Breach | 5th | discoverN |
| Lurrus PO | 6th | cicciogire |
| Jewel Shops | 7th | 4FunNoWin |
| Raker Shops | 8th | hermanomlg |
A lot of Workshops in this Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Lurrus PO that won.
Artist's Talent is pretty sweet. You get a bit of Breach and PO in this list, which is kind of sweet, too.
In Second Place, we had Dimir Lurrus.
This is fairly stock, but then we have a sick miser's Mana Drain hanging out and a single copy of Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student.
Outside of the Top 8 we had a Scam list!
I think it is great that Mai, Scornful Striker is such a good card in this kind of list. Being able to Grief your opponent and then drop something like Mai to keep the pressure on is pretty groovy. Also, Tourach, Dread Cantor in the sideboard? Spicy.
Vintage Challenge 2/7/2026
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 55 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 of the event with a solid 57.1% win rate. Oath also did extremely well here. Initiative seemed to suffer a lot in this event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | CrazyDiamond513 |
| Jewel Shops | 2nd | _Shikamaru_ |
| Oath | 3rd | Wesal |
| Raker Shops | 4th | Mistakenn |
| Dimir Lurrus | 5th | HamAndCheese |
| Dimir Lurrus | 6th | CrazyMorango |
| Survival | 7th | juan89888 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 8th | Thalai |
Another bit of Lurrus decks, and in a seemingly flipped winner being Lurrus PO.
Hexing Squelcher spotted in the sideboard here. I expect we should see more of this card as players figure out how good it is.
In Second Place, we had Jewel Shops.
See, there are two Talon Gates of Madara! Things do change! I jest, this deck is just good the way it is and doesn't necessarily need a ton of tweaks to continue to be good.
Also in this Top 8 we had SURVIVAL.
It may not be the Survival of days of yonder, but it is still pretty amazing. I love that this deck could seem reasonable in 2026, with new cards Vibrance and Wistfulness. Survival is one of those archetypes when I started really getting into Vintage, so I absolutely love it.
Vintage Challenge 2/8/2026
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 33 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.
Both Jewel and Lurrus PO were pretty popular, with Jewel having an even win rate and Lurrus PO being below 50%. Sphere Shops and Raker Shops were the belles of the ball here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Sphere Shops | 1st | crK |
| Raker Shops | 2nd | musasabi |
| Initiative | 3rd | LasVegasChaos |
| Jewel Shops | 4th | Callenutg1 |
| Sphere Shops | 5th | _Shatun_ |
| BUG | 6th | lordoflifegain |
| Dredge | 7th | HazuhiroNakamura |
| Initiative | 8th | sokos13 |
While there's a good amount of Shops, it's otherwise fairly diverse. At the end of the event, it was Sphere Shops that won.
This seems rather straightforward and not very crazy, but I do love me some Wurmcoil Engine in the sideboard like the olden days.
In Second Place, we had Raker Shops.
This is yet another fairly straightforward list. I don't think there's a lot of experimentation you want to be doing with something like this, honestly, but at the same time no real innovation is occurring at all within these archetypes because the MTGO metagame does lend itself to playing what works well.
Outside of the Top 8, we had another sweet Grixis Lurrus build.
Main deck Hexing Squelcher is sweet, but it's also stuff like Ragavan and Tamiyo that got me enjoying this list.
Vintage Showcase Challenge 2/8/2026
This weekend was also the second Showcase Challenge event of the current Premier Play season. These events are feeder events where the Top 8 goes on to play in the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season, with a potential of making it to the Regional Championship. This particular event had 176 players, which is pretty solid! I always love seeing big Vintage events because they often tend to prove how great Vintage is.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Lurrus was the most played deck of the event and despite Top 8 it had a less than 50% win rate. Jewel Shops did very well here, as did Raker. Dredge did poorly in this event. Everything else though was just very reasonable, and the wide array of archetypes really showcases how good Vintage really is right now.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| BUG | 1st | Sprouts |
| Jewel Shops | 2nd | reojund |
| Raker Shops | 3rd | Blinkmoth-Nexus |
| Oath | 4th | Esocuro |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | TonyScapone |
| Dimir Lurrus | 6th | HJ_Kaiser |
| PO | 7th | choutin |
| Initiative | 8th | Wooded_Raptus |
This is a rather good-looking Top 8, honestly. At the end of the event, it was BUG that won, but with no DRS!
Kind of interesting to see this list without any copies of Deathrite Shaman, a typical staple card in this kind of deck. Murktide is pretty awesome though, and no DRS means you get to pack more heat for it.
In Second Place, we had Jewel Shops.
Be still my beating heart, this list has three Talon Gates of Madara!
Further down, outside of the Top 8, we had a resurgence of the Vault Key archetype.
Kind of more like Mono Blue Lurrus PO here, realistically. Still, you get to play stuff like Merchant Scroll and also main deck Portable Hole. Also, Oswald Fiddlebender is really sweet.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has some things for us:
- FiretruckModo has some Mono Black Hogaak action with Moonshadow. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
OMG HOGAAK.
What I Played This Week
I got bored and 2-3'ed a league with this pile of cards the first go around (which for a brew I found in a deck dump is pretty reasonable). I might keep playing this one for a bit because it plays a bunch of cards I really like. I didn't have any matches where the deck 0-2'ed me, so that felt like a solid starting point.
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 additio,n you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
