Vintage 101: The Modern Horizons Shuffle
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're diving right into the thick of the rest of Modern Horizons 2 preview season and what it means for Vintage. In addition to that we've technically only got one Challenge to talk about from last weekend in the Showcase Challenge. The regular Challenge on Sunday was interrupted by the issues that brought Magic Online down for a while during the event, so all of the prizes have been paid out for that and all the Top 8 competitors were paid out a First Place prize, but no lists were published because of the interruption. We also of course, have a Spice Corner.
Let's get right to it, shall we?
Everyday I'm Modern Shuffling
Modern Horizons 2 spoiler season is winding down officially so we're able to get a better picture of the cards that will provide an impact on Vintage. We talked a bit about some of these cards last week, mainly Grief. We've got the rest of the Evoke cycle as well, but also a bunch of other stuff to talk about.
Sanctifier en-Vec
Seeing as how Humans and Hatebears have been roaming around this is a card that is interesting but is probably not quite there. There are quite a few key cards that this misses frankly, namely all of the blue restricted cards (since they also get brought back by stuff like Mystic Sanctuary) and also stuff like Vengevine. This is borderline but probably not playable in the current Vintage climate.
Solitude
All of the Evoke cycle cards definitely work very well with Bazaar decks, and this one is intriguing since most of those decks aren't generally on white cards very often. I don't believe this one will particularly see play in these strategies as it's nowhere near on the level as Grief is in Bazaar aggro, but maybe in the white aggro / white weenie style decks having a plow you could theoretically cast with Moxen and a Lotus seems pretty good.
Murktide Regent
This card is yet another big Delve payoff in a format where Delve has been traditionally pretty busted. I don't know if blue decks can support more than the two Delve spells they already do (and Dig/Cruise are obviously miles better than a random big flying beater) due to sheer graveyard space in a game. If this does see play it might be in lists without either of the restricted Delve cards, but it also competes heavily with a bunch of the other stuff in the format like Arcanist, Mystic Sanctuary, and DRS. Neat card, not sure if it will see play, but it does get really big.
Subtlety
Another of the Evoke cycle, this is another one that is interesting since there are Bazaar variants that are blue heavy with Force of Will/Mindbreak Trap etc. but I don't think this one really comes close to the options those decks already are playing. A Memory Lapse effect is probably not what those decks want and they're never getting value out of the body ever, so this definitely seems like the weakest one of the cycle (well, outside of the red one).
Thought Monitor
I like this card a lot. If a blue Shops build or whatnot ever creeps back up this feels like a snap inclusion. A Thoughtcast effect is neat, but a Thoughtcast effect that can actually be cast using Mishra's Workshop to help pay for it doesn't seem too bad either, especially stapled to a flying body. This feels like a fun card if Void Mirror does actually see a ton of play and Shops has to adapt to just being a colored deck instead.
Dauthi Voidwalker
I have a sneaking suspicion this card is likely not playable in Vintage right now. It's yet another piece of graveyard hate, and while a 3/2 body that is unblockable is interesting, the sacrifice ability isn't likely going to be relevant at that point. I suspect the major place this could be okay with is in Two Card Monte as just another copy of Leyline of the Void since it interacts with Helm of Obedience in the exact same fashion.
Blazing Rootwalla
Basking Rootwalla has a buddy! This is interesting, but I don't know if 8 Rootwalla is a deck or not with Bazaar strategies. Still, having a lot of redundancy in these effects is not bad, and it might be okay with the fact that we're getting a new Squee effect plus regular Squee. I'll be curious to see where this card goes and if it is playable.
Fury
This is probably the worst of the Evoke cycle outside of the Blue one, only because a Sorcery speed Pyrokinesis is generally not what most Vintage decks want. It doesn't target players even so it doesn't seem so great at all.
Endurance
Outside of Grief this is probably the best of the Evoke cycle. This does a lot of wild stuff, from being able to blank Doomsday in response to the Thassa's Oracle trigger (by putting all the cards in the library and thus making Oracle's trigger do nothing relevant) to being able to actually save your own graveyard from exile hate (such as putting this into play in response to a Ravenous Trap). This is powerful for sure. A lot of the Bazaar decks that would want this already are already in green and casting Force of Vigor and a lot of them play Gaea's Cradle for Tabernacle purposes, so this is also potentially castable as well.
I like this card a lot for sure.
Gaea's Will
Giving Green a Yawgmoth's Will effect is a little weird, and I'm not sure if it is playable given that the only way to really make do with this is via a card like Dreadhorde Arcanist or something similar and that seems pretty counterproductive when stuff like Underworld Breach exists. I'm banking on this probably not being playable but that doesn't mean the effect isn't absurdly powerful.
Master of Death
Hey Squee! You grew up and became a Zombie! Yes, this is basically like a Squee that you pay 1 life for in the Bazaar decks. It's also both BLUE and BLACK, so it pitches to both Forces and Grief. That seems totally fine, right?!
Academy Manufactor
This card caught my eye because I thought it looked kind of interesting. If a 5C Shops deck ever popped up again this would be an interesting card because of the fact that it would work pretty well with cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns. This is certainly amusing for sure.
Nettlecycst
This has the right mana cost for a Shops deck, and comes with a built in creature. We already have Cranial Plating in the format but that does not give +1/+1, and it also counts enchantments too (sick Leylines!). I'm not sure if this is good or not but the fact that it comes with a creature already is more than enough to get me to go "hmmmmmm".
Mythic Society 5/26
As always every Wednesday Mythic Society is holding fun and awesome FNM level style Vintage events via Magic Online! Be sure to check out all these events and check out their Twitter for information on how to join.
No 4-0s this past week, but we do have a White Weenie deck at the top of the heap.
Definitely a neat list. Lurrus and the white aggro decks is actually super interesting given what you need to give up to play them, but I think they work pretty well. Seems like a lot of fun.
Our good friend Justin Gennari also had a blast with Painter.
New Commander card Ruin Grinder here is super cool, as a bit of a Wheel effect that can be Welded in and then back out to trigger it. It's really easy to pitch to the graveyard too because of the Mountaincycling ability.
These events are super fun and definitely really laid back, so be sure to dive into them if you plan on playing Vintage on Magic Online!
Vintage Showcase Challenge 5/29
The only Challenge this weekend was the Showcase Challenge event, the first of this current season. Thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamers Discord we know there were 127 players in this event! Not too bad! Showcase Challenges are events that require QPs to enter as the Top 8 of the event is qualified for the Showcase Qualifier at the end of the season.
You can find all the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
Definitely an interesting metagame overall. Despite being pretty heavily represented though, both Ravager Shops and Doomsday had a sub 50% win rate overall in the event, and it was instead Bazaar decks that had a really solid performance, as well as Eldrazi based decks. This is technically the last event before the release of Modern Horizons 2, so it will be interesting to see how that pans out for the format.
Let's look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Hogaak | 1st | SkneruzMcKwacz |
| BUG Midrange | 2nd | Falkoneye |
| Death's Shadow | 3rd | TrueHero |
| UW Eldrazi | 4th | BrokenPots_CB |
| UB Tinker | 5th | twinlesstwin |
| Ravager Shops | 6th | PTarts2win |
| Dredge | 7th | bparis15 |
| Dredge | 8th | Viceroy_ |
Pretty interesting Top 8 really, with a decent array of decks, but definitely plenty of Bazaar. In fact, it was won by a Bazaar deck in HOGAAAAAAK!
Hogaak is pretty powerful, I will not be surprised to see this as one of the decks that benefits the most from MH2's release. Archive Trap in the sideboard is most assuredly a hedge against Doomsday decks, and could honestly be one of the big reasons why Doomsday did so poorly in this event as more and more people are devoting sideboard slots to combat it directly.
In Second Place of this event was BUG Midrange.
Definitely a solid list. We're even seeing the effects of the Archive Trap conundrum hit this deck too with a one of in the sideboard. Very interesting stuff indeed if that is what is keeping Doomsday down and out.
Also in the Top 8 we had a sweet showing by Death's Shadow aficionado TrueHero!
This is a sick list. Sedgemoor Witch really plays nicely with the gameplan of sticking threats and playing spells to supplement them. It makes for a nice go-wide strategy to fall back on if your Shadows get dealt with and vice-versa.
We also had a showing by UW Eldrazi.
This list is truly something. Archons and Hullbreacher plus stuff like Thought-Knot Seer and a Sphinx of the Steel Wind for the Tinker value. This is like a sweet UW Taxes list. Also, check out Archon of Absolution in the sideboard for beating up on Bazaar aggro decks that often can't pay for all their creatures to attack. Really sweet.
This looked like an interesting event but we definitely are on the precipice of changes, so it will be really intriguing to see where we go from here into a brave new world of Modern Horizons 2.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has a few videos for us like always that are fun to watch!
The Spice Corner
METALWORKER.
When in doubt, JUND EM OUT!
Our good friend Matt Murray has some sweetness with BUG Witch, featuring Abundant Harvest.
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 Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon! In addition you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
