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Vintage 101: Vintage Eternal Weekend 2020


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 diving into the results from all three Eternal Weekend Vintage events on Magic Online! In addition to that, we have two Challenges still to talk about, and of course our Spice Corner.

Without further ado, let's dive right into the thick of things!

Eternal Weekend 2020

This past weekend was the Vintage section of the Eternal Weekend events on Magic Online, and it appears as if they were relatively successful with the addition of the All Access Accounts. While we didn't pull the numbers that Legacy did, the numbers on each event were still very impressive for Magic's oldest and most powerful format. Furthermore, we saw plenty of action for Vintage streamers this weekend, and also plenty of powerful wizards pulling themselves onto Magic Online such as Joe Brennan, Randy Buehler, and even the veritable Rich Shay. From a particular standpoint, it certainly felt like Eternal Weekend. I unfortunately could not play this weekend, as I was out camping (and boy was it cold!).

Before we jump into the events themselves, I do need to take a moment to address a moment of unfortunateness from this past weekend. If you have yet to see the Reddit thread on this situation (as well as a very well put together article by Nick Miller on StarCityGames), it turns out there was a situation this past weekend in the Mishra's Workshop event, in which Andreas Petersen (Ecobaronen) appeared to be involved in offering his Round 10 Swiss opponent (Ziofrancone) compensation for a concession to potentially lock up Andreas' spot in the Top 8. This was found due to the fact that Ziofrancone was streaming the event, and began with Andreas asking him to concede, during which Ziofrancone responded by asking for Treasure Chests. The response was to move to Twitter, and during the stream an Alt-Tab from Ziofrancone showed the Twitter DM screen which shows a deal of compensation to be made between the two players. Andreas would lock in Top 8 and then go on to win this event.

I had a lot of personal upset upon hearing this. I've always had a pleasant experience chatting with Andreas, and he has always had this air of being a really solid player. However, as a journalist for all the happenings around this format we all love, the evidence is exceptionally hard to ignore.  At the time of this writing, there has yet to be a statement made by Andreas or Wizards on the matter, which makes sense since the situation is still being investigated. It is an overall bad look however for the Vintage format as a whole when the format is already trying very hard to have positive eyes on it. The conversations of this past Monday morning should have been around the awesomeness of Vintage and how cool it was to get so many players, but the conversation turned to this instead.

It is an incredibly unfortunate situation, but let's focus on the positive and the awesomeness that is the three Vintage Eternal Weekend events!

Eternal Weekend - Tolarian Academy

The very first Eternal Weekend event of the weekend was for a portrait of Tolarian Academy, and it had 252 players in it. Not too shabby really! Since Wizards only posts the Top 16 of each of these events, let's look at the Top 16 breakdown!

Jeskai was certainly very popular at the top tables of this event, as was BUG and Doomsday. This overall looks like a really decent Top 16 though, with quite a bit of represented archetypes.

Now let's look at the Top 16 in list form. As with the Legacy events I am doing the whole Top 16 since it is a superb accomplishment for these players to make Top 16 as large as these events were.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
BUG Midrange 1st Burrarun
Jeskai Xerox 2nd AMiracle
Doomsday 3rd WorldGorger974
RUG Xerox 4th Gernardi
Grixis Xerox 5th MartinMedMitten
Doomsday 6th CherryXMan
Golos Stax 7th Umeck
BUG Midrange 8th IDraftTheBeatz
Hogaak Bazaar 9th Womba
Jeskai Xerox 10th ANaturalDeath85
HollowVine 11th Jogee
Jeskai Xerox 12th Baby
Ravager Shops 13th Julian23
Jeskai Xerox 14th TajicYolo
PO Storm 15th Illig719
Dredge 16th PRGJJar

Some sweet names in this list, ones we know very well and have had some repeat performances in Vintage on Magic Online such as AMiracle, CherryXMan, a triumphant return by IDraftTheBeatz, and also a 9th place showing by one of Eternal Weekend's stalwart commentators Mark Hornung. Super cool to see!

At the end of the event, it was indeed however BUG Midrange that took it all down.

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This is a pretty solid and clean BUG list, filled with all the typical things we expect from the archetype. Two Tabernacles in the sideboard as well for the Bazaar matchups, and of course Energy Flux!

In Second Place we have Jeskai Xerox.

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This is yet another very clean Xerox list. I always really enjoy the 1-of Daze in the main deck of these lists. Catching someone on a Black Lotus is always too good. Also, the Ashiok, Dream Render in the sideboard is pretty sweet.

In Third Place we have Doomsday.

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More Tasigur! I've had some people ask about that card, and the best estimation I have of it is that it's good in matchups that don't have the card Swords to Plowshares as a threat that can't be Bolt'ed or Decay'ed. Nevertheless it's certainly become a staunch inclusion in a lot of DD sideboards.

In Fourth Place we have a cool Grixis Xerox deck that sideboards into Breach kill.

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I love seeing new cards like Sea Gate Stormcaller, and I especially like that this sort of just like... sideboards into the Breach combo, so that if they don't know that you have it in Game 1, you can board into it and catch them off guard. Also, a Mind Twist which seems rather dirty with Stormcaller!

Since Sixth Place was Doomsday, let's move down to Seventh with Golos Stax.

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Again, these lists are not quite full on Stax because there's no Smokestack, but Golos is still incredibly popular and strong. We have both Karns showing up here as well to supplement the game plan, but no Lattice in the sideboard to take advantage of with Karn, the Great Creator.

Outside of the Top 8 I would again be remiss to mention Mark Hornung's Hogaak list in Ninth Place.

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Hogaak is exceptionally strong right now as one of the premier Bazaar strategies, and it's great to see Mark having done well in this event. Congrats on a really solid finish, Mark!

Eternal Weekend - Library of Alexandria

The second event of the weekend had close to 400 players (391 around there), and was for the Library of Alexandria painting. Let's take a look at the Top 16!

More Jeskai in this Top 16, but also plenty of PO and Hogaak. This particular Top 16 was a little less diverse than the first event's Top 16, but at the same time it doesn't ultimately seem that bad.

Now let's take a look at the Top 16 in list form.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Dredge 1st Wizard_2002
Doomsday 2nd Gerschi
Jeskai Xerox 3rd KevinCron
Jeskai Xerox 4th Tezzeret01
Golos Stax 5th StonePeanut
PO Storm 6th IamActuallyLvl1
Horror One 7th WingedHussar
RUG Xerox 8th 0inksterThePig
Hogaak Bazaar 9th Ehhh
U/R Xerox 10th Travis8427
Ravager Shops 11th StaticGripped
PO Storm 12th Tom_Basketball
Jeskai Xerox 13th Sarusta
Hogaak Bazaar 14th UnicornParadise
PO Storm 15th Enrichetta
RUG Xerox 16th Bosh N Roll

Lots of great names here, and a solid Top 16 overall. At the end of the event though, it was Dredge that won it all.

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One thing I've learned about Dredge over the years is to never count it out. Despite having a lot stacked against it with BUG and Tabernacles galore, the deck simply seems to find a way. This list is solid, thanks to Creeping Chill's newer inclusions into the deck amd Sickening Shoal in the sideboard.

In Second Place we have Doomsday.

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No Tasigur here, but instead a very interesting sideboard plan of Gurmag Angler and Cavern of Souls (for forcing through an Oracle). Also Eliminate in the sideboard is pretty sweet.

In Third Place we have good friend Kevin Cron of the So Many Insane Plays Podcast on Jeskai Xerox.

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I really like this list a lot and how clean it is. It's also really great to see Kevin out and about playing Vintage! Congrats on the finish, Kevin!

Since Fourth Place was also Jeskai, let's move to Fifth Place with Golos Stax.

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This deck has a few flex spots here or there like the other list, and this one opted to put its other Karn in the sideboard. Witchbane Orb is a solid inclusion to beat cards like Hurkyl's Recall. Main deck Sorcerous Spyglass is really strong right now.

In Sixth Place we have our good friend Justin Gennari on his old and reliable PO Storm.

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Sphinx of the Steel Wind is some sick Tinker tech for post board games for sure. Justin is a solid player and his results with this deck really show how much of a master he is at it.

In Seventh Place we have a deck that can only be utterly described as "Horror One" due to the fact that it plays Krovikan Horror and Hollow One. However, Winged Hussar has also recommended "Glint-Eye Xerox" for the deck as well.

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For those unaware, Krovikan Horror is essentially another Squee, Goblin Nabob effect in this deck. The addition of the two five colors cards here make up cards that can be pitched to both Forces, but can also be pitched to Contagion and Force of Vigor. It's certainly a super intriguing deck overall.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have RUG Xerox.

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RUG is a powerful and solid deck, utilizing the power of both Oko and Wrenn and Six along with creature threats like Goyf. Mystic Sanctuary is the real MVP of this list, however, and always will be very strong with Gush and W6.

Eternal Weekend - Mishra's Workshop

The final event of the weekend had 427 players and was for a painting of Mishra's Workshop. Let's dive right into the Top 16 breakdown!

One of the really cool things about these three events is how vastly different they really all were, and I think that speaks a lot to the regional influences Vintage has but also the rock, paper, scissors quality of the metagame right now, which is ultimately a really healthy place to be for metagame balance and diversity.

Now let's take a look at the Top 16 in list form.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Doomsday 1st Ecobaronen
Ravager Shops 2nd StaticGripped
RUG Xerox 3rd Bosh N Roll
Breach 4th Magni_93
Golos Stax 5th Antarctica
Hogaak Bazaar 6th Dan9In
BUG Midrange 7th Aylett
Dredge 8th MattB
Doomsday 9th Thiim
Oath of Druids 10th FatBoyByDay
BUG Midrange 11th VintageMaster87
Jeskai Walkers 12th Iziter
PO Storm 13th LimitedPower
Dredge 14th Jebidiah252
BUG Midrange 15th Futjee
Breach 16th SheaStrausman

Some powerful wizards in this Top 16! One name many might not recognize here is 11th place's VintageMaster87, aka Joe Brennan, the champion of Eternal Weekend 2019 and his powerful Black Lotus Elk. We also have folks like Brian Coval, and Niels Thiim in the mix as well.

This was of course the event with the unfortunateness, and so the official current result as recorded has Doomsday at the top of the event.

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Four Steel Sabotage is a real plan for Shops decks for sure, not to mention the three The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. Wild for sure the lengths that are required for certain decks to attack the metagame.

In what was a real treat to see this past weekend was people refiguring out the power level of Ravager Aggro Shops. My good friend David Lance showed this off by placing Second in this event with the deck, and it is certainly true that this deck is good.

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The biggest addition here is Fleetwheel Cruiser, affectionally titling this deck "Car Shops". Later on, we sat down with David in interview to talk about the deck and his run through this event.

In Third Place we have another good friend of ours, cohost of The Eternal Glory podcast and content creator Brian Coval on RUG Xerox.

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I have to admit I was sort of surprised to see Brian on something other than PO Storm, but this deck is very powerful and I love the Nimble Obstructionist in the sideboard. Also, it's worth noting that this is Brian's FIFTH Eternal Weekend Top 8, so some real hype here for him!

In Fourth Place we have Breach.

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Breach is great because it's basically a combo hiding inside a Xerox control deck, so it can play a pretty fair game and win that way or it can kill with the Breach combo. Not to mention for sideboarding the combo can be minimized because it's so utterly compact that cards like Sprite Dragon are very strong at enhancing the fair game.

In Fifth Place we have Golos Stax. It's worth noting that this player was the only undefeated coming out of the Swiss rounds!

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This is pretty spot on to the other Golos lists in these events that did well, but it is certainly impressive of a run to go 10-0 in the Swiss rounds. The sideboard Wurmcoil Engine makes for a good way to put a stonewall in front of Bazaar decks.

In Sixth Place we have Hogaak Bazaar.

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This particular list is splashing blue cards in so that it can cast Ancestral Recall and Time Walk. I see nothing wrong with that, those cards are very powerful after all.

In Seventh Place we have 4C Xerox.

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Lot of Planeswalkers in this list, from Deathrite Shaman (chortle) to Oko and Jace. These 4C conglomerates are pretty strong, but they're definitely pulled in a lot of different directions which makes them a bit vulnerable to Wasteland/Strip Mine, a weakness which Deathrite/Wrenn can help mitigate greatly. Still, they seem to work and look like a lot of fun!

Rounding out the Top 8 we have Dredge.

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Again we see cards like Creeping Chill and Waste/Strip effects to take away things like Tabernacle. I'm a huge fan also of Chalice of the Void in the main deck of these types of things. It's just too good to ignore right now in the format as a restricted card.

Community Interviews - So So Many Insane Plays

As I noted earlier, one of the cool things about this Eternal Weekend event was seeing a lot of players come out of the woodwork to flex their Vintage muscles. One such of those players is our good friend Kevin Cron, cohost of the So Many Insane Plays podcast with Stephen Menendian, and a long time stalwart of the Vintage Super Leagues. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Kevin about his run through the weekend, as he placed Third in the Library of Alexandria event, and about his thoughts on the Vintage format.

First off, Kevin, thanks for joining us! For those that might not know who are at home, please take a moment to introduce yourself!

Greetings! I am a long-time Magic player (1994) and my preferred formats are Vintage, EDH, and draft.  I host the longest-running Vintage-dedicated podcast - So Many Insane Plays - with my great friend, Stephen Menendian. [We’re in the process of recording a very special - and long - 100th Episode Spectacular!]

Like most who are reading this, I am currently making the best of Magic during the pandemic by playing some webcam Vintage and EDH as well as my first official MTGO Vintage tournament, as part of Eternal Weekend 2020.

I love cats, Christmas, friends, alters, music, beer, movies, family, games, winter, football, food, and my wife!

You landed on Jeskai this weekend for your run into the Top 8 in the Library of Alexandria event, what led you to choose this deck?

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I have a lot of preference and muscle memory for multi-color control decks in Vintage.  They have been my weapon of choice for many years.  I don’t play on Magic Online normally so I wanted to choose a deck that I had a lot of built-in comfort with.  In addition, my limited testing and understanding of the current Vintage metagame taught me that Lavinia is a powerful disruptive element in many matchups (Bazaars, PO, Doomsday, etc.), so I took a recent Jeskai list that friend and active Vintage streamer - Jeremy Pinter - shared with me and amped up the main deck Lavinia count.

How do you feel about this strategy in the format right now? Any changes you’d make to this list going forward?

Jeskai felt very well-positioned all weekend, with the key exception of the Doomsday matchup.  The list I played had 4x Pyroblast and 0x Flusterstorm, and the Doomsday matchup is one where that particular distribution of counters is most punished.  Sure enough: I lost to Doomsday in the Top 4 of the second EW event, and again in the early rounds of the third.  For the third event, I shifted one of the 4 Pyroblasts to a Flusterstorm, and I believe it would be a good idea to find room for a second Flusterstorm in the 75.

One key reason for my success in the second EW event was my sideboard choice of Leyline of the Void plus Surgical Extraction for Bazaar matchups.  Combined with numerous removal options for Hollow One, the Bazaar decks really have to have almost ideal opening hands to win the post-sideboard games.  Lavinia combined with Leyline is nearly a lock for many modern Bazaar builds.

Any highlights or standout matches/games from this past weekend?

I defeated Golos Shops multiple times over the weekend with the classic combination of stealing their Crucible and resolving Energy Flux, but that’s not especially news.  In several post-sideboard games against Bazaar decks I had Leyline and either Lavinia and/or Teferi in play, rendering my Leyline impossible for them to remove.

My most satisfying game win came against 4C Leovold, where my opponent assembled turn one Wrenn and Six with turn two Wasteland against my deck with only a single basic Island.  I cleverly played fetchlands for three turns and then resolved Dack Fayden to steal their Mox, which gave me just enough mana over two turns to resolve Dreadhorde Arcanist and Lightning Bolt to take down Wrenn and Six and rebuild my mana.  This Jeskai list has very narrow options for fighting a resolved Wrenn and Six, so it was very enjoyable to thread that needle in a somewhat novel way.

What are your thoughts on Vintage right now as a format? Anything you would change?

I think Vintage is in a fine place.  There is a diversity of competitive strategies, and deck-building choices are available to target improving specific matchups.  There is no one best build of any of the numerous archetypes, which makes deck selection, building, and play all feel like meaningful choices.

That said: there is extreme downward pressure on deck, card, and draw efficiency at all points in the format.  The aggressive/disruptive decks (Bazaars and Shops) are incredibly efficient, consistent, and powerful.  The combo decks are exceptionally resilient and fast.  You can’t stumble in draw or mana development and expect to win.  The format puts a great deal of pressure on preparedness, skill, and luck.  The format is both punishing and rewarding.

The only “change” I want to see in the format is a critical eye toward cards that can come off the Restricted List.  I suppose I also want R&D to dial back their power creep, but that’s not a Vintage-specific issue!

It is certainly great to see you back in the format for Eternal Weekend. Are there any shoutouts you’d like to make or any social media links you’d like to share?

I’m on Twitter at @KevinCron and my podcast is at @ManyInsanePlays.  We’ve not released an episode for a while, but that’s because we’ve produced a great deal of content for episode 100, which will come out... eventually.  Check out my pinned tweet for some insight into one of my specific passions: altered cards!

Shout out to all of the Vintage community members!  I desperately wish that we could be having a regular Eternal Weekend in person right about now.  I miss all of you, and those sparse, annual meet-ups we used to have.  If you’re so inclined, drop me a line on Twitter - or wherever.

Props to Lavinia for making me look good this weekend.

Thanks again for joining us, never forget that you are awesome!

Thanks to you, Joe, for continuing to produce your excellent Vintage content!

Community Interviews - The Rise of Ravager Shops

One of the big highlights of the weekend was seeing Ravager Shops do so well this weekend despite the incredibly small metagame share it took up breaking into the Top 16 of the Eternal Weekend events, however the deck seems like it was well suited for a metagame that was simply unprepared for it. All it really needed was a few tweaks to attack specific portions of the metagame, and voila Ravager Shops. I spent a little time talking my good friend David Lance about the deck and what drove his decision to play the deck this past weekend and where it currently sits in the format.

First off, thanks for joining us, David, and congrats on an impressive run this past weekend! Why don’t we start by having you introduce yourself.

Thank you, my name is David Lance, or StaticGripped online, whichever suits your fancy and I’m a Software Developer. I live in the Columbus, OH area and am a Cleveland native. I have been playing Legacy since mid 2016 and Vintage since early 2017 which is pretty early given I got into Magic itself while in college during Battle for Zendikar. The one big thing I do for the community is I run the Legacy Death and Taxes discord with some help from some great people in their own right. As for my resume I made Top 16 of both Legacy and Vintage EW in 2018 and Top 16 of Legacy EW 2019 with that in mind Eternal Weekend holds a special place in my heart.

Your weapon of choice this weekend was none other than Ravager Shops. What led you to settle on this deck this weekend?

To give some background knowledge I started off playing Dredge in Vintage because it was easiest to borrow for obvious reasons in paper, and then in Mid 2018 I started playing Survival and absolutely fell in love with the deck playing it up until quarantine shutdown.

As for this event I hadn’t been playing much Magic recently as Legacy EW and prep were the only matches of Magic I had played in 6 months, so I wasn’t even sure I was gonna play the event. As it would have it Cyrus Corman-Gill messaged me and some friends with this Ravager shops decklist on Tuesday 10/20.

I never got around to testing it for one reason or another, but watched my friend Jason Murray, aka luinil, play it a bit and was in for it. So with no prep I signed up for the Saturday night event and went on a tear going 8-2 making top 16, with how well the deck was performing I decided to wake up in the morning and run back the list. I woke up that morning and chatted with Cyrus about potential changes, made none, resubmitted, he submitted the wrong list on accident, whoops. In summary, Cyrus made a fantastic list attacking the format and I was just the goof in the pilot seat.

How did the deck feel all weekend? Were there any changes you would make to the deck going forward?

I felt the deck was absolutely fantastic all weekend, when I look at the metagame I felt that I was favored against most decks except BUG, Golos Shops, and some variants of PO. As for the reasons behind this I think the decklist had a lot of tools to fight the current format and people were under prepared for shops given its lackluster performances recently. The biggest change between recent lists and this one is the Fleetwheel Cruisers or as my friends kept saying “Beep Beep.” The cars lined up really well against the abundance of Tabernacles in sideboards and lined up well against Dreadhorde Arcanist when accompanied with a Mishra's Factory. The other idea behind the cars was they dramatically limited the ability for Doomsday players to cast Doomsday and pass when combined with the “haste” threats of Walking Ballista and Arcbound Ravager.

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Going forward I’m not fully convinced about the Traxos, even if I did get to untap it by casting a Ballista for 0 in the face of a Tabernacle against my Quarters Golos Shops opponent. The card is good as a 1 of, but it's the first place I would look to change in the current metagame. Shops has a very fluid threat base depending on the metagame’s priorities.

Any truly memorable games that you had this weekend? Any highlight moments?

Two matches come to mind, one on Saturday in Round 10 against Doomsday and the other I cannot remember the specific round, but it was against Jeskai in the Sunday event.

Against Doomsday the game started off with countering my first four things, which meant at least they were low on resources and I had plenty of mana, but after that my opponent plays out a Tasigur which terrified me to say the least, a turn or two later I am able to create a 4/4 ballista while holding up hard cast Mindbreak Trap through Sphere off the back of Tolarian Academy, eventually, I am able to pump my Ballista trade the Ballista for the Tasigur in combat. I eventually close out the game hard casting a trap on a hard cast Street Wraith a line I never thought would have come up. Just Vintage I guess.

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The other game was against a Jeskai opponent, in Game One I was on the play and led with Foundry Inspector into Sphere, the tried and true Shops hand, my opponent conceding on their Turn 1. I do my best to hedge boarding in 3 Mindbreak Trap and 3 Pithing Needle thinking they are for sure a blue deck and hoping to get enough of the right cards to win against PO or 4C Walkers. In Game Two I end up winning by Mindbreak Trap on a Goyf and then eating my Pithing Needle with my Ravager for exact lethal. Not a particularly great story, but its memorable to me as I both my blind boarded cards came into play that made me smile.

How do you feel about Vintage as a format right now? Anything you would change about it?

Vintage feels like it is in a reasonable spot, hard to complain especially after having a 18-5 run with Ravagers Shops when people were calling for the death of Shops. I think there are a couple ways you could go with things, but I don't know if there are any good answers that would for sure improve things. I see a lot of conversation about restricting Hollow One, which I understand, but to me the “problem” with that card, if there even is one, is that the decks playing it are able to leverage so many pitch spells to meaningful interact. I personally think Force of Vigor and Force of Negation caused more of this problem than Hollow One. Given we are in the artifact format I don’t believe dealing with some big artifact creatures is a huge ask. Important that I love Survival so I’m more than a bit biased.

Another thought I’ve had is that it would be interesting to test out a format where Workshop is restricted and other creature decks could exist since every creature deck gets railroaded by Shops in its current form (looking at you Walking Ballista), but that also requires some pretty big B&R overhauls like unrestricting Thorn of Amethyst and maybe more, which I don’t see happening even if it is a cool thought experiment to me.

As always, it’s a pleasure to see you do well and I’m glad that you had a solid performance this weekend. Any final shoutouts before we go?

Yea I actually have a couple that are really important to me. First and foremost I want to shout out my fiancee Rachel for supporting me playing in both the Legacy Eternal Weekend events and especially the Vintage events this weekend. We were supposed to get married the day of Eternal Weekend: Workshop had COVID-19 not thrown a wrench into the situation. So yea.

As for some Magic shoutouts, the biggest shout outs to Cyrus for the list and the rest of the Nerdbirds, my Legacy friend group, who mean the world to me for cheering me on and keeping my head in the game as Top 8 approached. Last, but not least I can’t go without thanking Team Serious, the Ohio “based” Vintage community that got me into the format and has been nothing but welcoming from loaning me cards when tournaments come, to figuring out what people were on while I was in top 8, to last but most importantly being fantastic people no matter what.

Thanks for having me on Joe, and if Wizards sees any of this I hope they can see there are plenty of players who would love to play Legacy and Vintage, these full access accounts were amazing and the events to go along with them were fantastic.

Thanks for joining us again, and never forget that you are awesome!

Vintage Challenge 10/24

Our first Challenge event of the weekend was the normal during the day Vintage Challenge. Let's check out the Top 32 Metagame breakdown!

Pretty cool range of decks here with a fair amount of PO in the mix, but PO didn't actually do all that well converting into the Top 8. It's ultimately very popular and can do well, but not always. That's a great place to be in my opinion.

Now let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Jeskai Xerox 1st BlueSkiesJ
Dredge 2nd Karatedom
Doomsday 3rd Ecobaronen
Doomsday 4th Kasa
Dredge 5th PRGJJar
BUG Midrange 6th Sprouts
Golos Stax 7th Boin
Jeskai Walkers 8th _Shatun_

Very interesting set of Top 8 lists here. Not much repeat outside of 2x Doomsday. At the end of the day it was Jeskai Xerox that won it all.

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This is a pretty solid typical Jeskai list. Instead of one Daze, this pilot chose to play two Daze, so that's pretty cool.

In Second Place we have Dredge.

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More of an old school Dredge list with Dread Return and big hitters lke Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Ashen Rider. ALSO Archive Trap!!!!

In Third Place we have Doomsday.

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This is the same list that Andreas played in the Mishra's Workshop event it appears. It makes a lot of sense if there was testing going on for the bigger event at the same time given the time frame of the early Sunday Challenge.

Fourth and Fifth Place were Doomsday and Dredge respectively, so let's move down to Sixth Place with BUG Midrange.

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Brain Freeze out of the sideboard is some super anti-Doomsday tech and I LOVE it. Almost as much as I love Archive Trap. Maybe.

In Seventh Place we have Golos Stax.

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Pretty standard Golos list, but there is some fun in the sideboard with double Wurmcoil and an additional God-Pharaoh's Statue.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have that sweet Jeskai Xerox/Walkers deck from last week.

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I really want to know how many times Niv-Mizzet was cast in this deck. Seems incredibly sweet. What a deck.

Vintage Challenge 10/25

Our second Challenge event of the weekend was the early morning Sunday event, so let's look at that Top 32!

Pretty solidly interesting Top 8 here, with some sweet decks. I always enjoy seeing Sharkstill appear in the events, as well as Hatebears!

Now let's take a look at the Top 8.

Deck Name Placing MTGO Username
Ravager Shops 1st Julian23
Jeskai Xerox 2nd Karatedom
Sharkstill 3rd Clockwork Dean
Breach 4th DiscoverN
4C Xerox 5th Federusher
Breach 6th Lenka
Dredge 7th Ger5559
PO Storm 8th Vashezzo

Pretty solidly pieced together Top 8 here, and some really neat decks overall. However, it was Ravager Shops (again!) that took down the entire event, piloted by our good friend Julian Knab from the Everyday Eternal podcast.

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Tangle Wire is a REALLY sweet card, and I know Julian said it was pretty good during the event. I love the look of this list, very strong and clean.

In Second Place we have Jeskai Xerox.

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The Jeskai lists have certainly re-coalesced into a solid stock listing with some minor flex spots in the main and sideboard. The creature suite of 3 Arcanist +1 Lavinia + 1 Snapcaster + Mentor also seems to pretty stock as well. Don't mess with the program, they always say!

In Third Place we have Sharkstill.

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Shark Typhoon is one of my favorite cards of 2020. The fact that it makes this deck possible brings me a giddy kind of happy.

In Fourth Place we have Breach.

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There's a sideboard copy of Feed the Swarm and that is honestly more exciting to me than the Breach deck itself. Also, Portent!

In Fifth Place we have RUG Xerox.

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I honestly am super surprised we haven't started to see Uro in these RUG Xerox lists. I have a feeling it would be pretty good given the low amount of removal that would deal with it. I do have to admit too the Crop Rotation package in this sideboard is pretty sweet.

Since Sixth Place was also Breach, let's drop down to Seventh Place with Dredge.

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Another Creeping Chill variant. This variant seems to be pretty solid and is putting up some great results in the current metagame.

Rounding out the Top 8 we have PO Storm.

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This list is much like the Bryant Cook lists with Sprite Dragon in the sideboard. It's a pretty powerful sideboard plan honestly, especially if you're already splashing red there's just no reason not to.

The Spice Corner

Never change, Brian Kelly. Never change.

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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!



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