Vintage 101: Unrestrict This! Part 2
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 the Vintage Restricted list in 2025 with an eye of what could be unrestricted. In addition to that we've got some Challenges to look at from last week. Our set review for Aetherdrift will begin next week, so if there are any cards you would like me to cover out of this set please let me know in the comments below.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Vintage Restricted List - Part 2
We last left off in the L's of this series with Lodestone Golem in looking at the Vintage Restricted list and what could be unrestricted. Again, we are not going to be covering any of the fast mana cards because of how imbalanced they would make things.
So let's get right to it!
Memory Jar
Tinker targets have not been hot on a card like this in a long time, so it's possible that Jar could be unrestricted and potentially do a whole lot of nothing. There is something to be said about chaining Jars if you can keep going though, so maybe four times the effect over just one could be problematic, but at the same time it's not something we have a lot of understanding of just what it would do. It's definitely wholly possible it's very bad, since Bolas's Citadel exists.
Honestly, I'd be okay with trying this one and seeing where it goes.
Mental Misstep
Big nope. This got restricted because its best usage was always to counter another Misstep. Phyrexian mana in general is a real mistake.
Merchant Scroll
I have to imagine that if it's a tutor card it's probably not safe. Having multiple ways of searching up restricted cards kind of defeats the purpose of having restricted cards. In Vintage, that is counteracted by having to play multiple restricted cards that can hopefully do the same thing. Having a four of way to do that in addition to having the restricted cards still adds a ton more consistency and is not pleasant to consider.
Mind's Desire
It's weird. I'm going to probably catch some flak for this one, but I almost feel like this card could actually come off the Restricted List. Yes, the most broken thing to do with Desire is to hit another Desire, and yes, Vintage has a bunch more fast mana options than Legacy does in a number of ways to where its possibly better (and Desire is already unbanned in Legacy to very little effect). But still... I'd be okay with this. It's exciting, it's an interesting card where you don't always get there (even going high you can whiff on another Desire), and it would spur people to try some cool things.
Realistically, this is one of those cards that I would be curious trying just to see, and if it really is super broken it's not a very expensive card to re-restrict.
Monastery Mentor
We often talk about ways to get decks to not want to play Lurrus, and Mentor is certainly one of those cards that would give you pause on playing Lurrus over it if you had it as a four-of instead. I don't believe it's absolutely safe though. Mentor is a powerhouse of a card, and it wins games just by casting a few spells. Having multiples is really strong because you have to spend some resources to either fight over one or kill one of them, that the next one in line may leave you powerless to defend against it. It's probably not worth having back.
Mystical Tutor
Again, tutors being so cheap. I think this is fine where it is.
Mystic Forge
While this was restricted at the same time as Karn, the Great Creator and we never really got to see what the format would be like with only Karn restricted, I still imagine this is pretty busted even then. I had a lot of direct experience testing a Turbo Forge deck at that time, and it did some incredibly busted things, and now you have Glaring Fleshraker that only makes it worse.
Narset, Parter of Veils
Narset was definitely exceptionally egregious. Like most cards, finding another copy of her off her -2 was always exceptionally good. You could get two good uses out of it and then replace it with another one and keep going. But honestly? It is certainly a card that would get people not playing Lurrus if it were unrestricted. I doubt it ever happens, though. It would likely be very good still, but now we have stuff like Orcish Bowmasters that can ping it down and Psychic Frog can grow big enough and evasive enough to kill it in one shot if you have to tick it down.
I'd probably be okay with trying it if we're keeping more current modern threats around unrestricted.
Necropotence
I think it's likely this would just enable some really busted Doomsday stuff if it were unrestricted. It's a very powerful card, and likely would continue to be insanely good if you could have it show up more consistently.
Strip Mine
Big nope on this one. This can stay Restricted.
Thorn of Amethyst
Thorn is actually a card I could get behind as an unrestriction. It's a powerful effect for sure, but the format is just a lot bigger since the time this card went to a one-of. There's a bunch more cards that answer it now, and realistically it imposes an interesting deckbuilding restraint on the Shops builds needing to also play threats in addition to lock pieces.
It is a strong card, but I could see it happening. It happened at the same time that Mentor was restricted, but a lot has changed since then.
Tinker
As with most tutor cards, I don't think there's any world that sees unrestricted Tinker being a good thing.
Treasure Cruise
Cruise is definitely the most powerful of the two big Delve spells, and I don't think it would even be remotely safe to unrestrict. It would still be powerful and broken.
Trinisphere
While Thorn of Amethyst is likely an okay card that could come off the list, Trinisphere... is not. It's absurdly powerful and creates a bunch of non-games when it hits the field. Having more than one for redundancy is rough to fight through for a lot of decks. I don't think it would be a super positive experience at all.
Urza's Saga
This is arguably one of the more contentious restrictions in a long while, and just so happens to be the last restriction that occurred. I probably will continue to catch flak for the fact that I believe Saga was not the problem and that Lurrus presented a bigger issue (and still does) to Vintage gameplay in addition to the lesser extent of Lorien Revealed making everything feel rather free. Saga is unlikely to ever be restricted, but I do think it's possible it should have never been in the first place. People do seem to be happy with it being restricted at least.
Vampiric Tutor
This is another powerful tutor that is more than likely to never come off the list.
Vexing Bauble
The other most recent restriction is another one that I think could have been waited on that wasn't. I do think that Bauble might have needed to have been restricted long term, and it's fine for Wizards to have made the decision to do so, but I also know that people were trending down on the card overall by the time it was restricted that maybe it would have been okay longer term and we just didn't give it enough time.
That being said, it's said and done and not a card I would be eye'ing for unrestriction at this juncture.
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel does not see a ton of play anymore, and hilariously most of the cards it works with like Hullbreacher and Narset aren't cards you can play in Lurrus. It doesn't even really see play in Lurrus because that deck wants to play Timetwister instead. Would Wheel be too broken as a four-of. Probably, but it's very exciting to build around.
Windfall
Similar to Wheel, this is another effect that probably would be pretty busted at a four-of, but would be exciting to build around. It hardly sees any play whatsoever at this point, and who knows if it would unrestricted, but it would be kind of a cool card that I'd be willing to give it a shot.
Yawgmoth's Will
Gaea's Will does exist, but the hoops you have to jump through for that card are pretty rough, while Yawg-Will is certainly a powerful enough card that as a four-of it would be quite strong. Value-Yawg Will's would be quite good and it's probably just not a card the format wants unrestricted.
Still, it would be exceptionally exciting for some people. Just, that it would be very good specifically for combo players looking for redundancy.
Wrapping Up
And there we have it! The Vintage Restricted list in a nutshell. What cards do you think could be unrestricted? Let me know in the comments below.
Vintage Challenge 32 1/23/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 36 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 datasheet here.
Jewel Shops was the most popular deck here, and it had a pretty solid win rate. Dredge also looked great. Both Oath and Doomsday seemed to suffer.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
---|---|---|
Dimir Lurrus | 1st | duke12 |
Dredge | 2nd | keiesu |
Jewel Shops | 3rd | GontiLordOfStuff |
BUG | 4th | lordoflifegain |
Initiative | 5th | golfsapao |
Dimir Lurrus | 6th | Erik157751 |
Jewel Shops | 7th | wongdeck |
Dimir Lurrus | 8th | LucasG1ggs |
Quite a bit of Dimir Lurrus here. The finals was split at the end, with the recorded winner being Dimir Lurrus.
A definite rise in Tabernacles I'm seeing. It makes sense since it's a really strong card to combat Dredge.
Speaking of Dredge, that was the recorded Second Place finalist.
Awkwardly I think Bridge from Below is pretty bad if more Tabernacles come into the mix since you won't ever keep those Zombies and it gives the opponent a ready-made way to sac one of their own creatures to nuke the Bridges. With Lurrus on board, getting back those creatures is pretty trivial.
Vintage Challenge 32 1/24/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 33 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 datasheet here.
Dredge was the most popular deck of the event, but its win rate was not so stellar. Dimir Lurrus did very well as did Esper Lurrus. Jewel Shops did poorly as did Oops.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
---|---|---|
Dimir Lurrus | 1st | Mogged |
Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | albertoSD |
Esper Lurrus | 3rd | vwxyza648204 |
Initiative | 4th | EdwardKenway |
Doomsday | 5th | _INF_ |
Doomsday | 6th | Tsubasa_Cat |
Dimir Lurrus | 7th | _Shatun_ |
Doomsday | 8th | ecobaronen |
Lot of Lurrus and Doomsday in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was a pair of Dimir Lurrus that were in the finals, so let's look at the first one.
The singleton Nethergoyf feels very much like a Max Gilmore special, and it's fun to see. I like it as a card conceptually in this deck because it's easy to recur with Lurrus without having to Escape it.
Let's look at the Second Place Dimir Lurrus list.
This one is a bit more stock overall. The main deck Dress Down and being able to recur it with Lurrus can be quite gross as you flash it in on your end step to shut off whatever the opponent might be doing.
Vintage Challenge 32 1/25/2025
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 37 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 datasheet here.
Dredge was again very popular, but its win rate this time was pretty reasonable. Dimir Lurrus was quite good here, as was Doomsday.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
---|---|---|
Lurrus DRS | 1st | CrazyDiamond513 |
BUG | 2nd | Sprouts |
Doomsday | 3rd | gr33nashe |
Initiative | 4th | LasVegasChaos |
Dredge | 5th | matttothec |
Lurrus PO | 6th | unluckymonkey |
Sphere Shops | 7th | svessesvv |
Jewel Shops | 8th | haqe |
Fairly interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was a neat Lurrus DRS list that won.
Plagon, Lord of the Beach is a wildly interesting and sweet-looking card. It works quite well here too since most of the creatures like Tamiyo and DRS all have greater toughness than their power. Very neat stuff to see.
In Second Place we had BUG.
The return of Caustic Bronco! This Snake Horse saw a reasonable amount of play when it released. It's cool to see it seeing play here.
Vintage Challenge 32 1/26/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday 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 datasheet here.
Initiative was the most played deck and despite a good Top 8 finish, it's win rate was pretty subpar. Dimir Lurrus also was just okay, while Doomsday and other decks seemed to prosper.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
---|---|---|
Doomsday | 1st | sixmp |
Sphere Shops | 2nd | Wesal |
4C Lurrus | 3rd | MyPotatoes |
Dimir Lurrus | 4th | albertoSD |
Initiative | 5th | _Chamytinho_ |
Lurrus Po | 6th | Minest110 |
Scam | 7th | M1KY |
BUG | 8th | yoshiwata |
Wildly interesting Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Doomsday that won.
Very straightforward list with very few frills. This is how to Doomsday if you want to Doomsday.
In Second Place we had Sphere Shops.
In that mix of Prison and Aggro here, with stuff like Patchwork Automaton and Stonecoil Serpent alongside your four Null Rod and a bunch of mana-producing artifacts. When it works, it works.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari always has some spice for us.
- Kindamtg has some Hermit Druid action. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook loves to Tinkah. Check it out here.
- FiretruckModo has some AggroVine content. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Mono Black Scam is super 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!