The Obligatory Vintage Ravnica: City of Guilds Review
10/07
JP tells you about the new duties he has assumed in the community while also providing the skinny on all the cards from Ravnica that should make an impact in the Vintage world.
#JPMeyer
9/24
To penalize or not to penalize, that is the question.
Round 4 Feature Match: Andy Probasco vs. Peter Magyar
9/24
Andy and Peter discussed the various sundry topics that one discusses while one is shuffling up before an Andy Probasco match. In this case, that meant talking about tomorrow’s Legacy event and horror that we Northerners always experience when driving through the Beltway while en route to the Richmond Power 9 tournaments. For those of you not in the know, Probasco was the runner-up at this year’s Vintage World Championships and one of the (pet) rocks of the Vintage community. Peter left his origins shrouded in mystery by telling us he was a Musician from New Jersey and nothing more.
9/24
The outstanding art of Christopher Moeller and a local Magic caricaturist are on display this weekend in Richmond.
9/24
What cards from Ravnica are going to be hot on the Vintage circuit? Two words and it rhymes with Aim uh... Musillade.
Semifinals: Andy Probasco vs. Jesse Pinchot
9/24
Both of our competitors are packing Shortbus Severance Belcher, since both of them well, are affiliated with Shortbus and all. Jesse won the die roll and went first, as usual.
Designing for Vintage 3: Block Mechanics
8/16
In general, these days blocks tend to be focused on such different themes that they aren't really very compatible with each other. Using Onslaught for an example, there were no Cycling cards and very few Goblins in Odyssey and Mirrodin, the two sets that were legal when Onslaught was and thus nearly every card in those decks came from either Onslaught block or from the basic set. In Type One however, blocks never rotate out. This gives deckbuilders the ability to plumb older sets for cards which can work along with a block mechanic. Some blocks have been more successful than others because of this effect.
Designing For Vintage 2: Rotations (and the lack thereof)
8/03
As everyone knows, Type 1 is defined as the format in which every card is playable, no matter how old or overpowered. This creates huge hurdles for new cards to overcome, since a card may already exist which is just better than you, but the huge number of possible interactions also open up many unique situations in which a very specific, situational card may find a place if it's the best (or in some cases, only) way to deal with it.
7/30
While walking through the tables during the first round so I could make a mental note of the deck breakdown I had just filed this under some sort of Sensei deck with Green for Crop Rotation or something. When I came back he was dropping Seat of the Synod and started chaining Thoughtcasts. Since I had absolutely no idea what this was, I hit him up for a deck tech article after he ID’ed with a teammate during the second round.
7/30
While looking through the decklists, an overwhelming number of Tinkers popped out. As expected, it was in all of the usual suspects: Gifts, Slaver, Workshop, and so on. The big surprise was not just how far Tinker had spread, but how frequently Darksteel Colossus was paired up alongside Tinker.
Round 7 Feature Match: Roland Chang vs. Charlie Krug
7/30
Charlie is a mechanical engineer from Kalamazoo who plays with the Detroit Magic scene. Roland is a student and the newest inductee to Team Meandeck. Charlie's packing a blast from the past with TnT and Roland is playing Stax, a deck that earned him a Top 8 at a previous SCG Chicago.
Quarterfinal Feature Match: Brad Granberry vs. Roland Chang
7/30
Kevin Cron: So Roland, how many games have you lost today?
Roland Chang: Zero!
Semifinals: Matt Morrison vs. Jim Erlinger
7/30
Erlinger: Not that again!
Morrison: What do you mean, "Not that again!"?
Erlinger: Because I can't cast anything, again.
7/27
There has been a long-running myth, which finally went away with the release of Mirrodin block, that R&D doesn't design cards for Type 1 and that there are only one or two cards per set which will see any play. Then, there are cards like Mind's Desire where R&D never even considered Type 1 during design but which end up being among the most powerful, environment-defining cards in the format. Designing for Vintage is a really tricky issue to work with, but that will be the focus for this series and the first place to start is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in Vintage: Proper Mana.
6/11
After a year-long wait, Aether Vial has started to show up en masse in Type One!
Round 3 - Chad Ellis vs. Rich Shay
6/11
Chad won the die roll 1,000,014 to Rich's uh, 9 or something. Both of them kept their opening hands and Chad led off Mountain, Skirk Prospector. Rich played a Flooded Strand (for Underground Sea) and then a Mox Emerald, which Chad needed to read. Rich cast a Demonic Tutor before ending his turn. Chad: "Judge! All of my opponent's cards are a million times better than mine!"
Round 5 - Rich Hoaen vs. Brad Loesch
6/11
Rich: "So after your deck draws a lot of cards like that, what does it actually do?"
Brad: "Well, it's supposed to drop Ravager and stuff..."
Rich: "No Disciple!?"
Brad: "Nope, I just go with Triskelion."
Quarterfinals - Joe Weber vs. Ugo Rivard
6/11
This match features Ugo, a member of the Montreal Type 1 scene with Control Slaver against Joe Weber, a local pro with more than twenty Pro tour appearances to his name. The deck he's running today is Four-Color Fish. "Wait - so my kind of deck is called 'Fish?'" Weber asked.
Finals - Peter Olszewski vs. Ugo Rivard
6/11
We've got an all-Canadian final here. Both players have hard-to-classify decks - Peter is running Gifts Belcher, but without the Goblin Charbelcher/Mana Severance combo, while Ugo has Control Slaver, but is running Gifts Ungiven in it.
The Obligatory Type One Saviors of Kamigawa Review
6/08
While I call these set reviews "The Obligatory...", I didn’t do one for Betrayers. Betrayers really didn’t seem very interesting and it was really hard trying to justify an entire article when the only card that I thought that would see play was Ninja of Deep Hours. In the end, I think that Umezawa’s Jitte is really the only other card from that set that is seeing play, unlike Champions where more and more cards are seeing play as time goes on. Saviors, on the other hand, looks packed with cards that appear to be both powerful, interesting, or both.