Great podcast, as usual gentlemen. I thoroughly enjoy it every time. You challenged the listeners to talk about a metagame that they enjoyed or thought was balanced.
I often think that people have rose-tinted glasses when remembering formats, and their preference usually comes down to when they played frequently and when they had success. I am guilty of that too.
I particularly loved the 2014/2015 format.
This is a result of playing frequently and also having personal success. That success was likely a result of workshop being underrated by the masses, but it was fun nevertheless. The reason I enjoyed the format so much was that there was (seemingly) a lot of meaningful choice within each archetype.
Workshop players could play 3-4 different version of workshop and hope to top8.
(Martello, Terra Nova, Stax, and the fading Metalworker)
Oath players could play 3-4 different variants of Oath and hope to top8.
(Traditional Oath, ShowOath, Salvager Oath, Burning Oath)
Combo players could play 3-4 variants of combo and hope to top8.
(Doomsday, Charbelcher, Steel City Vault, Tendrils)
Blue Players has multiple options as well.
(Big Blue, Delver, Blue Moon, Blightsteel, and even Fish or Standstill)
Now I suspect @Smmenen will tear this notion apart and say there were only a few viable decks (and might be right), but previous to the consolidation of Shops decks, it certainly felt like a wide open field, and people could play a deck they enjoyed, not solely what was optimal. This is an important facet for the contingent of players that are not "Spikes." I think once Ravager was "discovered" and Mentor was printed, the meta got real tight and narrow and you were taking a major penalty not playing Ravager shops or Mentor.
I personally feel this whole period was also right at the advent of MTGO playing a larger role in shaping the Vintage metagame (from 15 person paper tourney once a month to daily results of optimized decks). This too might have contributed to a narrowing of the field. Anyway, that's my perspective.
Other metagames that I enjoyed:
2003-2004- multiple versions of "keeper" were playable, mono black was viable, TNT was awesome, and gro-tog was still developing (memory is fuzzy on this time period).
1999- You mentioned hating the meta immediately pre-Urza, but I loved it. The trinity of Zoo vs MirrorU vs Necro I thought was a great battle, with viable side decks like reanimator, etc on the side. I think a meta like this would get real old in a modern environment, but I found it enjoyable then. But then Urza came along and almost killed Type 1.
