Vintage 101: Off the Beaten Path
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 looking for decks that are trying out new and different things! This is generally pretty difficult in Vintage for sure. In addition to that we've got a reminder on the upcoming BCD Vintage Open event, a small look at a London Vintage event, and two Challenges.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Doing Different Things - Vintage Spice?
One of the things I love seeing in Vintage is when people try doing things a little bit differently. This week is Spice Community week! I polled on the Vintage Streamer's Discord for some decks that looked fun and interesting and that community did an awesome job in getting me all sorts of wild things! Because this article is all Spice this week there is no Spice Corner. THIS IS THE SPICE CORNER.
So let's break some of these sweet decks down, shall we?
Thinkin' About Them Beans
Wilds of Eldraine brought Vintage a powerhouse card in Beseech the Mirror for sure, but it was a little uncommon that I feel has brought about a ton of unique approaches to deckbuilding and interesting decks. I'm talking of course about Up the Beanstalk.
This card seems like it should not be good in Vintage, right? There's so many efficient spells like Ancestral Recall, Moxen, and Lotus that casting enough mana value 5 spells to make this worth it seems difficult, right?
Turns out this actually isn't the case and this card is actually as pretty cool here as it is in other formats. Let's dive into some lists.
So first off, there are definitely more mana value 5 spells in Vintage than people would think. Just cards like Force of Will alone make for a bunch, plus cards like Gush, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and also neat cards like Ethereal Forager.
Also a good majority of pitch spells are expensive as well like Fury and Commandeer. This makes for a very interesting approach to playing the card.
This one has a similar slant to it, using cards that cost a lot but can be pitched for free to reap value off the Beanstalk. Lorien Revealed is pretty sweet across most of these lists because of the fact that it can be pitched for Force, is a land, and can also just be cast for five mana.
This goes deep on a similar slant to the RUG list, but instead gets to also play Bant level threats like Monastery Mentor to close the game out with. Seems pretty sweet.
Scamming for Fun and Profit
The "Scam" package has slowly overtaken a number of formats that it's legal in, beginning first in Modern and now finally finding some footing in Legacy as well where you get access to Reanimate as a way to get back the Grief. There's a number of cool shells you can do with this package. In the case of our first one, notmi is doing unfair Beseech the Mirror things with it.
Having both the Scam gameplay plus the typical Dark Ritual Storm gameplay with Beseech the Mirror is super interesting as the Scam package can easily clear the path for a good turn to kill the opponent. This list is pretty cool.
Another one that came up in the Vintage Streamer's Discord from user "admiral-vintage" was a sweet sweet Scam Sneak Attack variant.
Optimus Prime, Hero?!?! Saw in Half?!?!?! This list is SUPER fun looking. I definitely want to Saw in Half an Atraxa for insane value for sure. I am digging everything about this. It's definitely an insanely cool deck for sure.
Wrapping Up
Vintage is a wild place and you can do so much brewing in its space, you just gotta be open to the possibilities. I'm excited to see some more crazy stuff in the format ongoing. Thanks so much to the users of the Vintage Streamer's Discord for giving me some super sweet lists to share this week. You are all super awesome.
Buffalo Chicken Dip Vintage Open I - This Weekend!
A reminder that this weekend is the Buffalo Chicken Dip Vintage Open I! This event will be streamed and can be found on Twitch.
You can find out all of the information on their events on Twitter.
London Vintage Event 9/2023
There was a sweet Vintage event in London this past weekend. This event was ran at The Escape Bar by Francis Cowper and had 23 players in attendance.
You can find the Top 4 decklists for this event here. The winner of this event was our good friend Callum Smith on 8Cast.
Pretty sweet list. Looks like a ton of fun!
Vintage Challenge 9/23
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 63 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both Aggro Shops and Initiative were highly popular, with Aggro Shops having a stronger win rate. Dimir Lurrus decks also did exceedingly well as did Oath. Breach and Doomsday did poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Oath of Druids | 1st | Gregoriusil |
| Paradoxical Outcome | 2nd | Dafne17 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 3rd | discoverN |
| Lurrus DRS | 4th | Musasabi |
| Lurrus Dreadnought | 5th | CrazyDiamond513 |
| Aggro Shops | 6th | McWinSauce |
| CounterVine | 7th | Firetruck |
| Beseech Storm | 8th | sandydogmtg |
Very interesting Top 8. Lot of Lurrus decks, but the end of the event it was Oath of Druids that won.
This deck continues to have solid runs in these events. It's certainly very powerful, and it can do a lot of really strong things. A card that is certainly not be underestimated in this deck is actually Flash, as it can in a pinch refill your hand with cards by sacrificing an Atraxa.
In Second Place we had PO.
Very much a standard stock Saga PO list here. No real new cards to speak of, but sometimes you don't need to change what works, and this shell does do some work.
Also in this Top 8 we had Lurrus Dreadnought.
I absolutely adore Phyrexian Dreadnought. This deck is super cool for sure.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Beseech Storm.
Beseech the Mirror giving new life to Dark Ritual decks that aren't Doomsday is pretty great to see. I love that this card seems to be settling.
Vintage Challenge 9/24
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Lurrus decks were the most popular of the event and they had a solid win rate overall. Initiative also did very well as did Oath. Prison Shops had a very poor positionining here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Lurrus | 1st | Mogged |
| Oath of Druids | 2nd | TimesCAR |
| Oath of Druids | 3rd | PRINCEOFPERASIA |
| Dimir Lurrus | 4th | connormc02 |
| Lurrus DRS | 5th | DemonicTutors |
| Initiative | 6th | LasVegasChaos |
| Esper Tinker | 7th | Gerschi |
| Aggro Vine | 8th | vwxyza648204 |
Lot going on here. Lot of Oath and Lurrus. At the end of the event it was a split finals between Dimir Lurrus and Oath, with Dimir Lurrus being recorded as First.
This deck has continued to do quite well in the current format. It's got some strong angles and is very powerful.
The Second Place recorded list was Oath.
Veil of Summer is a cool card to have in the sideboard for sure. Seems quite strong to protecting your key spells.
Further down the Top 8 we had Initiative.
This list is very much a return to "what works" for this deck. The core of this deck is very powerful and it does a lot of really strong things.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had CradleVine.
Tear Asunder is kind of a sweet sideboard card. It can catch a large number of things and it's very flexible.
Around the Web
- Dom Harvey has a great article on Vintage on SCG. Check it out here.
- Justin Gennari's Content Roundup is here.
- Brian Coval has a video on Esper Samwise. Check it out here.
- FiretruckModo has a video on SqueeVine. Check it out here.
- Phil Gallagher has a video on Eternal Weekend testing. Check it out here.
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!
