Vintage 101: Showdown of the Creators
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 taking a look at the Magic Online Creator Showdown 5K event that took place over this past weekend! This event is a monthly event for the MTGO Creator Program and this month it was Vintage! We've also got some Challenges to look at as well as a look at a paper event in August.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Magic Online Creator Showdown 5K - Vintage
This past weekend was a Magic Online Creator Showdown event. These events are specifically for those in the MTGO Creator program, and are a great way for a lot of streamers to be on playing Magic in a fun event. The events themselves are currently six round, double Elimination events. Those who do well in the event (4-2 or greater) get some sweet prizes up to $1250 in cash.
As part of the MTGO Creator Program myself, I indeed took part in this event. I won't talk too much about my experience because I did unfortunately hit a quick 0-2 elimination out of the event. It frankly wasn't my day, but I still feel happy with the deck I chose to play. I settled on Oath because I really like the deck, and I've had success with it before. I had picked up the current incarnation playing four Stock Up a week before and hit 5-0 with it, so I felt fine. I did indeed just lose a bunch to Reid Duke and Caleb Durward, so I can't reasonably complain because both of them had insanely good draws and I had some poor misplays. It happens. My list however, is still below so people can check it out. You can also find the VOD for the stream on YouTube over here.
I really liked Stock Up in this list. I've said it before, but if you can support this card, you should probably play four of them.
All in all there were 36 players for this event, which is pretty solid turnout. These events are primarily for the content, as all 36 players were streaming the event, and there was coverage provided by MTGO starting in Round 3.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Raker Shops was by far the most popular deck of the event, and honestly I'm not surprised. It's very popular currently, so a lot of Creators like to gravitate towards the popular thing. In addition, it is very good, and the deck has some pretty mind-blowing turns making for some fun content. Overall Raker did very well. I feel bad being a part of the 0% win rate for Oath because both Oath players went 0-2 elimination, but it's okay.
Let's take a look at the players who went 4-2 or better.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Lurrus | 5-1 | sandoiche |
| Raker Shops | 5-1 | maxtortion |
| Lurrus Doomsday | 5-1 | reiderrabbit |
| BUG | 5-1 | DB_Minh_Wins |
| Sphere Shops | 5-1 | LORiWWA |
| Lurrus Hermit Druid | 4-2 | shir kahn |
| Raker Shops | 4-2 | DB_CalebD |
There is some serious sauce in these players. Reid Duke, Caleb Durward (who both slaughtered me), shir kahn (aka Nico Bohny), LORiWWA (well known MTGO grinder), and even Maxtortion (Eternal Weekend 2024 Vintage Champion). It's just an insane spread of really strong players who all know Vintage very well.
Of these top decks, the big final match at the end of the day was between sandoiche and Reid Duke, with Reid Duke winning on LURRUS DOOMSDAY.
This deck looked consistently very powerful all day when Reid was on the main stream. Getting to play as a pseudo control/tempo deck with Psychic Frog but also having that Doomsday outlet was really cool. It was just incredibly fun watching this deck go off.
Sandoiche played a bit more of a traditional Dimir Lurrus deck.
This deck seemed a bit more in line with some of the major Dimir Lurrus decks we've seen. In fact, sandoiche was 5-0 going into the final round to face Reid, with Reid going into the final round at 4-1. Pretty insane end game boss match that's for sure.
Our resident EW champion played a very different deck for this event than what he won EW on, with Maxtortion registering Raker Shops over a Lurrus deck.
As noted it's not surprising to see many flock to this deck. It's looked quite good for a few weeks now and is very popular. I certainly was hoping for that to be the case, as the Oath matchup is generally positive overall (my own record against it in this event notwithstanding), and it definitely looked great for people to play here.
This event was a lot of fun, regardless of how things went for myself. I do think there's some long term improvements that could be made to the model of the Creator Showdowns, but I also appreciate that they offer them in the MTGO Creator Program.
Steel City Spectacular Weekend - Play for a Black Lotus!
There's a big weekend event coming up in Pittsburgh over at the David Lawrence Convention Center. This event takes place on August 14th-17th and is primarily a cEDH event, but there's some sweet Vintage side events. You can find all details here.
The first event is on Friday and is a 10 proxy $90 event in which the winner gets an Unlimited Black Lotus! Pretty sick prizing that's for sure. Prizes also go down to 16th, but the rest of the event is cash prizes only.
The second event is on Sunday the 17th and it is a Vintage 3K event. Entry fee is $70 and the prizing only extends to the Top 8. This event also is a 10 proxy event.
Vintage Challenge 32 3/13/2025
The first Challenge event was the Thursday event. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Both Raker Shops and Lurrus DRS were popular, with both having reasonable win rates. Sphere Shops and Dimir Lurrus also looked great, while Initiative and Jewel did not look good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Sphere Shops | 1st | _Shatun_ |
| Raker Shops | 2nd | Illao1 |
| Countervine | 3rd | duke12 |
| Lurrus DRS | 4th | i_b_TRUE |
| Raker Shops | 5th | Jumba |
| Lurrus DRS | 6th | PivoUlivo |
| Sphere Shops | 7th | nicoprietob |
| Eldrazi | 8th | pirol94 |
A smattering of Shops decks here, filtered by a few other things. At the end of the event it was Sphere Shops that won.
I appreciate how resilient this deck is to its own Null Rod's in the main deck. It just does not care as long as it is capable of turning off the opponent's stuff and that mattering. Most of the cards here are just really strong even with it in play given that all the threats are so scalable.
In Second Place we had Raker Shops.
I played a bit of this deck while trying to sort out a deck for the Creator Showdown. It's very raw and powerful, but does occasionally lose to its own draws. Still just a very strong deck right now.
Also in this Top 8 we had Eldrazi.
This archetype doesn't see a ton of play, but I think it's quite good. MH3 really introduced a bunch of new Eldrazi that made things even better, and Kozilek's Command is absurdly strong.
Vintage Challenge 32 3/14/2025
The second Challenge event was the Friday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Raker Shops was the most popular deck here, but despite one Top 8 appearance its win rate was not very good. Initiative had a reasonable showing here, as did Dredge and PO decks.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | unluckymonkey |
| PO | 2nd | IamActuallyLvl1 |
| Countervine | 3rd | TaJoordan |
| Oath | 4th | duke12 |
| Beseech Storm | 5th | musasabi |
| Raker Shops | 6th | LucasG1ggs |
| Dimir Lurrus | 7th | Tunaktunak |
| Initiative | 8th | IpseVenenaBibas |
This seems like a rather reasonable Top 8. At the end of the event it was Lurrus PO that won.
The return of Forth Eorlingas! I think this card is quite good as a game-ending threat honestly. Thundertrap Trainer has also proven to look a lot better than it actually seems as well.
In Second Place we had PO.
Okay, sort of. Justin Gennari is famous for trying a lot of different things and finding new ways to jam different decks together, and this is no exception. Fleshraker + PO seems like a pretty insane combo when you can bounce all your mana rocks and then replay them for damage off Fleshraker, while also generating a bunch of colorless mana in the process.
Also in this Top 8 we had Countervine.
Very straightforward list, but I like the one copy of Subtlety in the main deck. Seems like a sweet card that can catch someone off guard if they're not thinking about it.
Vintage Challenge 32 3/15/2025
The third Challenge event was the Saturday event. This event had 48 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Raker Shops was the most popular deck, and it's win rate was great. The same is true of Sphere Shops, which was half as popular. Countervine, Oops, and Dredge all seemed pretty medium here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus Breach | 1st | desolutionist |
| Sphere Shops | 2nd | Navas |
| Raker Shops | 3rd | Jumba |
| Esper Lurrus | 4th | Miharu_Fuyumiya |
| Lurrus Hermit Druid | 5th | big-snack-enjoyer |
| Tinker | 6th | s8shock |
| Lurrus PO | 7th | unluckymonkey |
| PO | 8th | Bezerra_da_Silva |
Another reasonable Top 8. At the end of the event it was Lurrus Breach that won.
Solid looking list here. This deck's major game plan is the Breach plan, and it looks really strong. Also, rare Gifts Ungiven sighting!
In Second Place we had Sphere Shops.
Stonecoil Serpent being an incredibly good reason to play Swords to Plowshares at the moment is a big deal.
Further down the Top 8 we had Lurrus Hermit Druid.
I like this list quite a bit. It has some strong stuff going on. It gets to play out somewhat like a BUG list in a lot of ways, with a bunch of ways to interact with an opponent in that fashion, but then it has a sweet combo kill.
Vintage Challenge 32 3/16/2025
The final Challenge event was the Thursday event. This event had 32 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.
Raker Shops was the most popular deck here, but despite two Top 8 finishes, the deck's overall win rate was tanked at 40.9%. Esper Lurrus and Beseech Storm looked great here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Beseech Storm | 1st | musasabi |
| Lurrus PO | 2nd | unluckymonkey |
| Esper Lurrus | 3rd | _Batutinha_ |
| Lurrus Breach | 4th | desolutionist |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | medvedev |
| Raker Shops | 6th | SHAKELION |
| Doomsday | 7th | SingPanMan |
| Raker Shops | 8th | chanel-santini |
Some Lurrus, some Combo, some Shops. At the end of the event it was Beseech Storm that won.
Stock Up continues to look like a very powerful card, even making a deck like Beseech which has not bee around too much look even better than it did. Pretty cool.
In Second Place we had Lurrus PO.
This pilot won another event this past weekend with the same decklist. It's definitely incredibly strong.
Also in this Top 8 we had Doomsday.
Sort of surprised to not see any copies of Stock Up. I do like the post board juke effect of Abhorrent Oculus though. That card is really slick.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has some great stuff for us:
- Bryant Cook has a Doomsday video. Check it out here.
- Shir Kahn has a video on all his matches from the Creator Showdown. Check it out here.
- kindamtg has BUG Lurrus Combos. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
MERFOLKS X2
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!
