Vintage 101: Plundering the Vault
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're finishing up our look at Outlaws of Thunder Junction for Vintage. In addition to that we've got some big MTGO news, as well as two Challenges from this past weekend.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
What's In the Vault?
We're continuing our look at Outlaws of Thunder Junction here, with a focus more on the bonus sheet "The Big Score" and the Commander products. I'm also going to touch on a few of the Breaking News reprints that are relevant to Vintage.
With that being said, let's see what we can find! If you think I've missed anything below, please let me know.
Crackling Spellslinger
I think this card is probably so much better in Legacy than it is in Vintage, but the effect is pretty sweet for sure.
Esoteric Duplicator
This card is neat and has a cool effect but I'm not sure where it would go. It does a pretty unique thing though.
Lost Jitte
Unlike Legacy, more often than not Equipment doesn't make it into the list of things you want to get with Urza's Saga. I don't think this changes that.
Memory Vessel
This is definitely not the second coming of Memory Jar here. The fact that this card exiles itself and you can't rebuy it with Goblin Welder, while also giving your opponent the raw ability to actually use the cards they exile is rough.
Pest Control
This card is super sweet, honestly. The fact that it cycles still gets me, but it's very cool looking and seems quite powerful. It can sweep quite a few things in various decks and WB seems quite splashable for some decks.
Breaking News Reprints
The special frame bonus sheet for this set is Breaking News, which is basically a bunch of cards that "commit crimes". We actually got quite a few cards that see play in Vintage out of this reprint sheet, so here are a few that are good to note that we have seen around the format.
MTGO Announcement - Creator Program and More Challenge Events!
It's no secret that Daybreak Games has been truly killing it with Magic Online. Last week they announced their Creator Program, a new initiative to bring together Creators from all walks of Magic to make some sweet MTGO-centric content. It's with great honor that I note that I have been selected to be a part of this program! This is an amazing opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it. Also in the Vintage arena of things, our good friend Justin Gennari was also selected, so major congrats to him! He's been one of the format's primary ambassadors and has even take the time to let other Creators in the program know that if they want to learn Vintage they can come to him to learn.
In addition to this awesome new program, Daybreak is trial'ing new Challenge events throughout the week, including a new 32 player Vintage Challenge on Thursday mornings 8 AM PST as well as on Fridays at 3 PM PST. This is in addition to the two events on the weekend already. You can find all the updated times/days here. Thanks to Daybreak for more chances to play Vintage!
Vintage Challenge 4/6
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the mid afternoon Saturday event. This event had 62 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Lurrus Saga was the most popular deck of the event and it had a very strong win rate. Jewel Shops was next and had a reasonable win rate. BUG and Initiative did rather poorly as did Dredge and Oath.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | John1111 |
| Lurrus Saga | 2nd | kobayui |
| Doomsday | 3rd | discoverN |
| Jewel Shops | 4th | ecobaronen |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | Mmfood |
| Lurrus Saga | 6th | slaxx |
| Sphere Shops | 7th | McWinSauce |
| 4C Lurrus | 8th | unluckymonkey |
Quite a bit of Lurrus and Jewel in this event. At the end of it, it was UB Lurrus Saga that won.
Fairly stock looking list here. The inclusion of Timetwister as of late is pretty interesting though.
In Second Place we had Esper Lurrus Saga.
Some of the inclusions here like Seal of Cleansing are pretty sweet, and you can buy it back with Lurrus. Skullclamp out of the sideboard is kind of sweet too.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had 4C Lurrus.
I like this list quite a bit. It's got a bit of Jeskai old school love to it but also the RUG cards I like. Very interesting deck for sure.
Vintage Challenge 4/7
The second event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Lurrus Saga was again the most popular deck and it's win rate was great, as was Jewel Shops. Sphere Shops and BUG did poorly here as did Oath.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Saga | 1st | ThomasH |
| Jewel Shops | 2nd | oosunq |
| Breach | 3rd | TrueHero |
| Doomsday | 4th | Gerschi |
| Lurrus Saga | 5th | otakkun |
| Jewel Shops | 6th | AJV20 |
| Jewel Shops | 7th | trinity |
| Lurrus Saga | 8th | wiky |
Quite a bit more Lurrus Saga and Jewel Shops here. In fact, it was again Lurrus Saga that won this event.
Very similar list to the winner on Saturday here, but with the addition of Spreading Seas! I love that card in this format.
In Second Place we had Jewel Shops.
There is a strong looking list here. This continues to be a solid deck in the current format for sure.
Also in this Top 8 we had Breach.
Arcanist with four Ponder seems so cool for sure. I am digging it.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has some great videos for us this week.
- Montolio has a video on Aggro Shops. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are spread throughout the week, let's find some spice!
Sicarian Infiltrator in Tinker! Pretty 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!
