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By: thewoof2, Christopher Gallon
Jul 10 2014 12:00pm
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Vintage Masters

Let me put it right on the table, I did predict the P9 average cost would be $230 and I was wrong.  Way wrong in fact, but as Mel Brooks said " As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes."  So where was I off?  I used math with assumptions on VMA pack EV and cost of the cards spoiled in VMA, but none of that matters because the major driver of costs are supply.  Not in my wildest dreams would I have suspected VMA drafts to fire at the rate they have been - every few minutes!  VMA cards are being pumped into the system at an amazing rate which in turn is pushing all VMA cards way down.  With my predictions of VMA I assumed the average Rare price in the set would end up being at a $4.95, again I was wrong, looking today the average price is $1.08!  Let me reiterate that number, $1.08 on average per Rare!  That is insane with the cards in this set.

So since the release of VMA what has been happening as compared to the old classic world?

  1. New players are entering the format at a high rate.  In classic we had a contained group of players with a small influx of new players joining our ranks.  Today I see many new faces now playing Vintage, many of these new players that I speak with were paper Vintage players that have now invested in MTGO.
  2. The tourney practice room is now very active with Vintage players and a variety of decks.  Previously to fire a game in the tourney practice room took literally hours at times, now these games are firing all day long with very little wait.
  3. Vintage events including Daily Events and Constructed Queues are firing with regularity and often.  I remember the days when I actually had to pay people's Daily Event entry fee to get them to play so we could fire an event!  It took immense coordination, paying people and luck to get a classic event to fire.  Nowadays Vintage Daily Events fire twice a day at times with 25+ players without any work.

This is great news for the future of Vintage, it shows we can enjoy a new time in our MTGO lives, a vibrant and active Vintage scene!  Everyday prices continue to fall and as the costs of VMA fall even more I can only assume more people will buy in and grow the community even more.  If in the past you could not afford classic, which is totally understandable due to the card costs, now you can get many of the staples for pennies on the dollar!  The future is looking bright so I applaud WOTC for their handling of VMA, now let's cross our fingers that the new Beta client doesn't ruin everything.

Vintage Daily Event 7/5/2014

Since the release of VMA I have played in two Daily Events, the first one I went 3-1 but didn't record the matches, so I will have to start the 7/5 event.  And of course I have started with Affinity, it was my mainstay in Classic and I am bound to give it a go in Vintage!  Let's start with the decklist:

Affinity Robots
Powered Up
Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
1 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Memnite
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Signal Pest
23 cards

Other Spells
1 Black Lotus
1 Cranial Plating
4 Genesis Chamber
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
4 Tangle Wire
18 cards
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
2 Gaea's Cradle
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Wasteland
13 cards

Cranial Plating

 

This deck is similar to the classic version but still unique in many ways, here are some thoughts on my changes:

  • Cranial Plating is a new add that I have liked thus far, with all the quick artifacts and evasion with Signal Pest it can do a lot of damage quickly.
  • Karn, Silver Golem is added as well mainly to assist in the MUD match-up.  It is versatile in that it kills the moxen, stops things like Crucible of Worlds and the big reason I added was to kill the (Chalice of Void)s.
  • I lowered the land count to 13, I feel this is the right count however I have had mana issues some games.  It is a tough balance but most games I have enough land and find myself hoping to draw a nonland card.
  • The 4x Thorn of Amethyst in the sideboard are critical in Vintage.  I find I bring them in game 2 nearly in all non-artifact match-ups.  They are so good I have contemplated maindecking them, my only fear is doing so would make my MUD match-up significantly worse.
  • I have 4x Tormod's Crypt to combat dredge, I might be overdoing it with these and the 4x Grafdigger's Cage.

On to the matches.

MATCH #1 vs Don Juan

Key Commentary:

  • Game 1 he had a slower hand and I was lucky in that my Tangle Wire slowed him further to give me time to pull out the win.  He did Mystical Tutor for a Rebuild which he could use on his upkeep but decided not to probably holding it for when he could win but I got Lodestone Golem's down stopping that plan.
  • Game 2 shows the power of Vintage, before even getting a turn he went off and killed me with Tendrils of Agony.  Good thing he had a turn 1 too because with my hand I could have made his life difficult.
  • Game 3 I got a turn 1 Lodestone Golem followed up with Phyrexian Metamorph copying it to shut him down.  My assumption he was playing a counterless storm deck, the only issue is without being able to Force of Will my turn 1 Lodestone Golem means game most likely.

MATCH #2 vs cjva

Key Commentary:

  • Game 1 the turn 1 Smokestack was a nice play and really stopped me when he was able to Ghost Quarter my Ancient Tomb.
  • Game 2 I got a fast hand and couples with a nice Tangle Wire topdeck it gave me the juice to pull out the win.
  • Game 3 he had to mulligan down to 4 cards although he did have some fight it wasn't enough to come back from the loss of cards.

MATCH #3 vs Coopes

Key Commentary:

  • Yes that is right, Game 1 I did Skullclamp 4 (Memnites) on turn 1, might be a record!  I did make a mistake that game but my draw and hand was so good it didn't matter much.
  • Game 2 I got wrecked by Ancient Grudge and the lack of real threats but even so I came to within 1 life of killing him, just needed one more artifact to sacrifice with Arcbound Ravager.
  • Game 3 Tangle Wires slowed him long enough for me to stabilize.  He also didn't have red mana until late in the game which might have been the difference stopping him from casting his artifact kill spells.

Game 4 my opponent conceded so Affinity went 3-0 in this Daily Event!  Looks like these robots aren't quite dead yet!

Woof

1 Comments

thanks Matthew & Zach. On by thewoof2 at Fri, 07/11/2014 - 22:13
thewoof2's picture

thanks Matthew & Zach. On the M2G1 sac decision to smokestack, I agree it was a tough choice, I felt like skullclamp was my only way out, essentially hope to draw a land and then clamp to draw hopefully a bunch of moxes and such that could be saced later to smokestack. That said if I kept cradle maybe I would be able to play more things to then sac to smokestack. Either way I think I had lost but definitely could have been a mistake.