A Fine Vintage, Indeed

By Brian David-Marshall

Brian David-Marshall is a New York–based game designer who has been involved with Magic since 1994, when he started organizing tournaments and ran a Manhattan game store. Since then, he has been a judge, a player, and one of the longest-tenured columnists on DailyMTG.com, as he enters his second decade writing for the site. He is also the Pro Tour Historian and one of the commentators for the Pro Tour.

Worlds preview
The 2004 Magic World Championships are just around the corner, with opening ceremonies kicking off the event Wednesday, Sept. 1 in San Francisco. Randy Buehler sets the stage with this video preview (Windows Media Player, 20 MB).

Vintage is a tricky format.

I am not talking about the vast card pool and complex card interactions or even the steep supply-and-demand curve that pushes the prices of the most desirable cards ever higher. What's truly tough to gauge is the popularity of the format. Wizards of the Coast relies on tracking sanctioned events to take the temperature of a format, but there has been a thriving Vintage tournament scene that eschews sanctioning to allow competitors to play with up to five proxies in a deck.

On one hand, it has been great for the Vintage community. Not only are there more tournaments every weekend at which for them to sling their oh-so-expensive-spells, but there are bigger and better prizes being given away as well. Star City Games recently ran a proxy tournament and gave away the Power Nine for the Top 8 competitors to divvy up as the prize. It was a smash success and it seems to have inspired other organizers to join in the fun.

The increase in tournament activity has also led to a more vociferous dialogue about the format on various websites. A batch of new writers has sprouted up talking about cards and decks that make Standard and Block players just scratch their heads. There was even a terrific article on this very site by Steve Menendian, one of the new breed of Vintage writers.

I was very curious to find out how the recent popularity of the format would translate to last weekend's Vintage Championships that Wizards held at Gen Con Indy. The Championships meant that players would need to have all the cards -- no proxies allowed in a sanctioned event -- and that could have been a barrier for players who play in unsanctioned events. Of course, the exclusive piece of Mark Tedin's Timetwister artwork produced specifically for the winner was quite a draw.

More than 150 players decked out with their Vintage best showed up to play. In the end, Mark Biller hoisted the trophy and is currently looking for a nice spot on his wall to hang his own private version of Timetwister. Biller's Control Slaver (or Drain Slaver) deck took down David Allen's Aggro Workshop deck in two games. Allen did manage to get Biller down to one life in the second game but could not draw the crucial Fire/Ice he needed to force a rubber game.

Mark Biller

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (7)

4 Goblin Welder 1 Pentavus 1 Sundering Titan 1 Platinum Angel

Sorcery (6)

1 Time Walk 1 Tinker 1 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Demonic Tutor 2 Duress

Instant (19)

4 Mana Drain 4 Force of Will 4 Brainstorm 4 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Fact or Fiction 1 Mystical Tutor

Artifact (10)

2 Mindslaver 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Pearl 1 Sol Ring 1 Black Lotus 1 Mana Crypt

Land (18)

4 Volcanic Island 3 Underground Sea 4 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 4 Island 2 Darksteel Citadel

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Duress 3 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Red Elemental Blast 3 Flametongue Kavu 3 Old Man of the Sea 2 Mogg Salvage

Deal Another Hand

David Allen

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (14)

2 Su-Chi 1 Sundering Titan 1 Gorilla Shaman 4 Goblin Welder 4 Juggernaut 1 Triskelion 1 Duplicant

Sorcery (3)

1 Tinker 1 Time Walk 1 Wheel of Fortune

Instant (6)

4 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Ancestral Recall

Artifact (16)

1 Memory Jar 3 Crucible of Worlds 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Sol Ring 1 Black Lotus 1 Mana Vault 1 Mana Crypt 3 Trinisphere

Land (19)

4 Wasteland 4 Mishra's Workshop 4 Volcanic Island 2 Polluted Delta 1 Tolarian Academy 1 Strip Mine 3 Shivan Reef

Other (2)

2 Fire/Ice

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Trinisphere 1 Tormod's Crypt 4 Chalice of the Void 3 Red Elemental Blast 3 Rack and Ruin 3 Hydroblast

Deal Another Hand

Biller's deck abuses Goblin Welder and tries to either set up a board position where he can “tinker” away a Pentavite token each turn to take his opponent's turn with Mindslaver. With so many broken cards flitting about the Vintage metagame, why shouldn't he get to play with all of them -- regardless of whose deck they are in?

Biller had fought his way past another Aggro Workshop deck played by Giovanni Conedera while Allen had made it past one of the more exciting decks to make the elimination rounds. Michael Simester's Goblin Charbelcher deck featured only two lands and was a dedicated combo deck. While most Vintage decks have some combo features, it is rare to see a deck with only one route to victory. In this case, Simester relied on getting out a Charbelcher and activating it to win. His only other option was to attack with Elvish Spirit Guides.

Giovanni Conedera

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (18)

4 Goblin Welder 4 Juggernaut 4 Su-Chi 3 Triskelion 2 Gorilla Shaman 1 Sundering Titan

Sorcery (3)

1 Demonic Tutor 1 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Wheel of Fortune

Artifact (13)

1 Memory Jar 4 Trinisphere 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Black Lotus

Enchantment (6)

3 Blood Moon 3 Chains of Mephistopheles

Land (20)

4 Mishra's Factory 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Wasteland 3 Badlands 2 Mountain 2 Swamp 1 Strip Mine

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

3 Chalice of the Void 3 Crucible of Worlds 3 Red Elemental Blast 3 Rack and Ruin 3 Coffin Purge

Deal Another Hand

Michael Simester

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (11)

4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Tinder Wall 3 Goblin Welder

Sorcery (13)

4 Land Grant 2 Living Wish 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Tinker 1 Wheel of Fortune 1 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Channel 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Timetwister

Instant (11)

2 Cabal Ritual 4 Dark Ritual 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Vampiric Tutor 2 Brainstorm 1 Ancestral Recall

Artifact (22)

1 Mana Crypt 1 Chrome Mox 1 Lotus Petal 1 Sol Ring 1 Mana Vault 1 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Chromatic Sphere 1 Mana Cylix 1 Memory Jar 4 Goblin Charbelcher 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl

Enchantment (1)

1 Necropotence

Land (2)

1 Tropical Island 1 Bayou

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Goblin Welder 1 Artifact Mutation 4 Xantid Swarm 1 Taiga 1 Uktabi Orangutan 1 Gemstone Mine 1 Scavenger Folk 3 Oxidize 1 Darksteel Colossus 1 Mishra's Workshop

Deal Another Hand

The rest of the Top 8 was rounded out by Nick Trudeau (lost to Simester in the quarterfinals), Stephen Menendian (lost to Allen), Tom Rotchadl (lost to Conedera), and Kevin Cron (lost by Biller). Trudeau's match with Simester was lightning fast -- it took a total of five turns (three in game one and two in the second). Trudeau conceded to Simester's Land Grant in one game when he revealed the combo to pay the alternate casting cost.

Simester claims his deck kills 30 percent of the time on turn one and 70-80 percent of the time on turn two if his opponent is not playing counters. He playtested 100+ hours with hundreds of goldfish hands. He only played two lands in his main deck, but the basic lands in his sideboard were there to get around Trinisphere. His secondary kill condition was Tendrils, and he described his deck as being like a puzzle -- every game is different and you have to put the right pieces together to win.

One example of such problem solving saw Simester with an active Welder and an unimprinted Chrome Mox in play. In his hand he had Lion's Eye Diamond, Charbelcher, and some nonessential cards. He played Lion's Eye Diamond and discarded the Belcher for three mana from the pseudo-Lotus. He welded the Mox for the Belcher and belched his opponent for the win. Fun stuff.

Menendian played a monoblue deck that was designed to foil the metagame. With so many Crucible decks running around to abuse Strip Mine and Wasteland, Menendian tried to give those decks no targets while denying them mana with Back to Basics and Energy Flux. Menendian's metagaming seemed prescient since he went 6-0 in the Swiss before conceding to his teammate Kevin Cron to ensure Cron back-to-back Top 8 appearances in this event (Allen also went back to back this year).

Stephen Menendian

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (6)

4 Ophidian 2 Morphling

Sorcery (1)

1 Time Walk

Instant (20)

4 Impulse 4 Mana Drain 4 Force of Will 4 Mana Leak 2 Counterspell 1 Misdirection 1 Ancestral Recall