[Free Article] SMIP: Preparing for the 2013 Vintage Championship

[Smmenen]

Lots of Legacy players will be attending Eternal Weekend, so I wrote a primer you may find helpful!

http://www.eternalcentral.com/so-many-insane-plays-preparing-for-the-2013-vintage-championship/

http://www.eternalcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SMIPPreparingForThe2013VintageChampionship.jpg

Teaser:


I am in the Nick Saban school of game-day preparation: process is everything. Studies show that students who imagine themselves performing well on a test actually perform worse than a control group. The explanation behind this counter-intuitive fact is simple: performance is a product of preparation, and students who imagine themselves doing well are less likely to prepare as intensively. Process is everything: from what you eat, to how you sleep, to how you practice, and manage your life outside of that process.

In this article, I want to focus on one particular aspect of any preparation process: developing a gauntlet of decks to test against. I will offer some specific suggestions for decks you may wish to include on your gauntlet for the 2013 Vintage Championship, based upon my experience competing in the Vintage Championship (I have 3 Vintage Champs Top 8 finishes thus far).


One archetype that I did not mention in the article, but I think may be particularly useful entry for Legacy players is RUG Delver.

You can find both BUG and RUG Vintage lists here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=45703.0

2nd - Alex Delgado - RUG Delver

Maindeck:

4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Black Lotus
1 Brainstorm
1 Fire // Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mental Misstep
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Preordain
2 Spell Pierce
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Time Walk

Sideboard:

2 Trygon Predator
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nature's Claim
2 Pyroblast
4 Surgical Extraction


I will be happy to answer any questions. I hope you find this article helpful.

Enjoy!

[dunk]

So Olivia Voldaren is a Vintage card? Holy shit I want to play the format ASAP!

[Smmenen]

For Legacy players, there are some very obvious ports.

For Epic Storm/Combo pilots, Burning Tendrils is a very good choice, despite the Vintage nuances.

For RUG players, RUG is a very good choice, putting up tons of Top 16 finishes in last year Vintage Champs.

For BUG pilots, again an easy port:

BUG won the Bazaar of Moxen this year

1. Amadeus Kurz
Maindeck (60 cards):
Sideboard: (15 cards)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Null Rod
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Pierce
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Time Walk
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Trygon Predator
2 Scavenging Ooze


Lands (17):
1 Bayou
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Null Rod
4 Snuff Out
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Swamp
1 Trygon Predator
1 Wasteland
2 Yixlid Jailer

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=1752

[Kayradis]

Good article!

[afb0032]

Another great article as usual. Do you feel there is any paticular reason that combo hasn't been putting up many top 4 finishes recently in major events?

[Lemnear]

Another great article as usual. Do you feel there is any paticular reason that combo hasn't been putting up many top 4 finishes recently in major events?

Mishra's Workshop?!

[nedleeds]

Good overview. The two biggest tourneys since Bazaar of Moxen were the 80 man Gencon and the recent LCV 2013 September. Another deck that the article didn't touch on that might be accesible for legacy players who own g/w aggro cards top 8'ed the LCV

Hatebears or Haterator - a mix of hate cards (cage, stony, RiP) and hate bears (thalia, teeg, LRW, arbiter, AMC, kataki, toilet legionnaire, scooze, QPM)

Top 8 - Marcel Milià - G/W Beatdown "Turbo Pet"

Maindeck:

3 Cavern of Souls
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Savannah
1 Strip Mine
2 Temple Garden
4 Wasteland
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Leonin Arbiter
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Voice of Resurgence
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lotus Petal
1 Path to Exile
3 Stony Silence
2 Swords to Plowshares

Sideboard:

3 Mirran Crusader
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Nature's Claim
2 Rest in Peace
2 Serenity
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

The basic concept is obvious, play hate cards that asymmetrically hurt your opponent more than you. Play your fast mana in the form of men (ESG, Hierarch). Slam hateful 2 drops until your opponent is dead. The deck has so many choices for the men slots now you can really tweak it to hate shops, dredge or blue control. The g/w ones tend to run out of gas with no draw engine to speak of, if you have access to more duals Dark Confidant makes an excellent addition as does Yixlid Jailer in the board.

[2Rach]

Good overview. The two biggest tourneys since Bazaar of Moxen were the 80 man Gencon and the recent LCV 2013 September. Another deck that the article didn't touch on that might be accesible for legacy players who own g/w aggro cards top 8'ed the LCV

Hatebears or Haterator - a mix of hate cards (cage, stony, RiP) and hate bears (thalia, teeg, LRW, arbiter, AMC, kataki, toilet legionnaire, scooze, QPM)

Top 8 - Marcel Milià - G/W Beatdown "Turbo Pet"

The basic concept is obvious, play hate cards that asymmetrically hurt your opponent more than you. Play your fast mana in the form of men (ESG, Hierarch). Slam hateful 2 drops until your opponent is dead. The deck has so many choices for the men slots now you can really tweak it to hate shops, dredge or blue control. The g/w ones tend to run out of gas with no draw engine to speak of, if you have access to more duals Dark Confidant makes an excellent addition as does Yixlid Jailer in the board.
Is Sylvan Library no good? (Regarding Bob's addition)


Thanks for this article. Don't keep up with Vintage on a regular basis so it's interesting to see the format has become more creature oriented.

[nedleeds]

Sylvan Library is a good Magic the Gathering card.

[Smmenen]

Another great article as usual. Do you feel there is any paticular reason that combo hasn't been putting up many top 4 finishes recently in major events?

I'm not sure that's true. Doomsday has alot of recent Top 4 finishes, and Burning Tendrils, just a few months ago, had a bunch as well.

But, Mishra's Workshop decks are a deterrent to these strategies.