Vintage 101: Resting On the Foundation
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 poking a tiny bit at Foundations, a new "core" set for MTG. In addition to that we've got an update on Eternal Weekend NA Vintage Champs, and some Challenge data.
Foundations for Vintage?
A new set known as Foundations has been released, providing Standard with five years worth of goodies that don't rotate out. In addition to the main set, there is also a Jumpstart set that goes along with it, as well as Special Guests reprints.
This set is an odd duck because there are certainly a lot of new cards. However, with many of these new cards designed primarily for Standard, it's hard to side-eye anything that actually may see play in a format such as Vintage, where the barrier to breaking in means the card has to be really pushed. While there are some cards pushed for Standard, there's not much on hand for a format like Vintage.
That being said, let's look at the one card that did stick out, and some reprints.
Sire of Seven Deaths
While I would normally shy away from looking at a creature that costs seven mana and isn't an artifact (because of Workshop), the fact that Eldrazi has been re-gaining some amount of popularity in Vintage does mean that this card is worth a look. Many Eldrazi lists may play a creature like Nulldrifter or Devourer of Destiny, and this one is definitely a big problem if you can put it into play and start swinging. It has a bunch of keywords and is very difficult to remove, so maybe Eldrazi lists might find room for at least one.
Reprints
There are alson't a ton of reprints in this set for Vintage, either. In fact, as I perused the list, the only thing I really saw was a Special Guests printing of Grim Tutor, which doesn't see much Vintage play currently.
Honestly, I'm kind of okay with this set not really having much for Vintage overall. Usually these kinds of sets are pushed too hard, but with this being a Core set of sorts it feels like while it's a powerful set for Limited and Standard, that's the primary place it wants to live, and I'm fine with not having to worry about a set so close to Eternal Weekend NA.
Eternal Weekend NA Vintage Champs Update
Eternal Weekend NA 2024 is fastly approaching and we have an update on where the attendance lies for the Vintage Champs event. Currently, as of this writing, the event is sitting at around a little over 280 players out of a maximum cap of 1,000. You can find all of the event details here. I do expect that the attendance will go up a bit as we get closer to the event, but I don't believe it will be super high this year unfortunately.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/7
The first Challenge of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 38 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Initiative and Dimir Lurrus were tied for most popular deck, but Initiative didn't look too hot despite having two Top 8s while Lurrus looked really strong. Countervine and Oops also did well, while Oath didn't do so good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 1st | Tsubasa_Cat |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 2nd | Erik157751 |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | Butakov |
| Initiative | 4th | GzusReturned |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 5th | _Shatun_ |
| Initiative | 6th | _J0SE_ |
| Countervine | 7th | PintuMtg |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | medvedev |
Fair amount of Lurrus here, and in fact the finals was Dimir vs Dimir.
There's not much mincing going on here, as both lists are extremely close and pretty much the same down to just a few cards difference main deck and sideboard, which isn't a huge glaring difference overall when you're comparing how these decks function. Annul is kind of a cool option out of the sideboard in the second deck, but outside of that, this is super duper stock.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/8
The second Challenge of the week was the Friday event. Thanks to the data collected by Vintage Streamer's Discord, this event had 39 players.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Breach was super popular and despite having two good finishes its win rate overall was middling. Initiative looked good, as did Dredge and Oath.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Dogeminer02 |
| Breach | 2nd | Viatt |
| Initiative | 3rd | death_grips |
| Jewel Shops | 4th | Redhotphil87 |
| Initiative | 5th | _Shikamaru_ |
| Doomsday | 6th | Dave2187 |
| Breach | 7th | kalcin66rocks |
| Dredge | 8th | jagers_master |
Good amount of Initiative and Dredge, with the winner of the event beign Dredge!
Fairly common stock list right here as to how this deck is currently being built. People are definitely leaning hard onto having both Forces in the main deck, and it makes sense. There's a lot of decks you want to be able to combat early on while developing your game plan, and both Forces does that quite well.
In Second Place we had Breach.
I do appreciate seeing a list of this where you don't need Lurrus to make it good, and I think Breach is one of those decks where you absolutely don't want Lurrus right now. Hullbreacher and notably the Tinker package with Citadel seems very good for this type of deck at the moment, and not having access to those very "Vintage" effects with a Lurrus seems pretty bad for Breach.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/9
The third Challenge of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 54 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Oath was really popular here, and its win rate was right on the line. Initiative looked good, as did Countervine and Doomsday. Jewel Shops and Dredge seemed to do poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Scam Reanimator | 1st | WadeB |
| Breach | 2nd | FarmerLGG |
| Countervine | 3rd | Arukasnobnes |
| Oath | 4th | etoustar |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 5th | B-Carp |
| Doomsday | 6th | Dave2187 |
| Oath | 7th | frostyyy_ |
| Oath | 8th | The_Gerogerigegege |
Quite a bit of Oath here. Wildly at the end of the event it was Scaminator that won.
Taking some hard cues from Legacy pre-Grief ban is kind of sweet. Getting to Scam your opponent and then Reanimate Atraxa or Archon is still good across any format it seems.
In Second Place we had Breach.
This is largely the same list that did well in the previous event. I cannot gush over how much it's nice to see Dack Fayden as part of the Vintage biosphere again. Dack is definitely one of my favorite Planeswalkers.
Vintage Challenge 32 11/10
The final Challenge of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 33 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Lurrus was the most popular deck here, and it's win rate was very good. Jewel Shops didn't do so hot, despite a top finish, while Breach and Dredge looked great.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Breach | 1st | John1111 |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 2nd | bless_von |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 3rd | _Shatun_ |
| Dimir Lurrus Control | 4th | Mogged |
| Jewel Shops | 5th | EnihcamAmgine |
| Dredge | 6th | Munchlax446 |
| Dredge | 7th | jade-venus |
| Esper Lurrus Control | 8th | ecobaronen |
Lot of Lurrus here, but it was Breach yet again that did well and won the event this time.
Breach having this strong massive comeback lately is kind of sweet, and I would not be surprised to see Breach be a bigger player at Eternal Weekend NA upcoming here. I have to imagine it's going to be a solid contender for at least Top 8'ing the event.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
Very straightforward list here. There's not many frills here, and there doesn't need to be. The deck is lean and full of good cards, and that's about the best you can ask from a fair deck in Vintage right now.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari has a bunch lined up for us for a bit now.
- Andrew Markiton has a video on Dimir Lurrus. Check it out here.
- Revenantkioku has a video on Merfolk. Check it out here.
- Brian Coval has a video on Vintage Dredge. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Pyrogoyf Oath continuing to look excellent.
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 my Link Tree! In addition you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
