[Premium Article] Schools of Magic: The History of Vintage - 2007
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Chapter 15 (of 25) is now live. http://www.eternalcentral.com/schools-of-magic-history-of-vintage-2007/
Blurb: The Vintage format pivoted from the Gifts and Pitch Long era headlong in to a new Gush metagame in 2007. Dive into this exciting chapter in the History of Vintage to observe the metagame changes resulting from new sets, the tournament successes that propelled the format forward, and the unexpected twists and turns in the evolution of the great Schools of Magic.
There is a free excerpt here covering one of the biggest events of the year, and a big win by @Brass-Man.
This chapter is an important one, as every five years in the series (Chapter 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25), I recap and reiterate the thesis with a large historical table of decks and "schools" of Vintage/Type 1 Magic that includes each School's key elements and representations over time.
Chapter 10 was published in 2013, and since then, my thinking has evolved considerably with respect to School "classification" in one critical respect. The Five Major Schools remain the same, but I've reclassified Hatebears/Fish decks. It seems quite evident that they are not Comer School/TurboXerox decks. They don't use cantrips to bend down their mana curve, nor bend their mana curve down appreciably. They do use tempo threats and blue countermagic, but that doesn't make them TX decks.
I queried you all (readers) about this back in 2013 (see this thread), but after considerably thought and reflection, I've decided that Hatebears/Fish/Merfolk are actually descendents of the Lestree School. That may seem odd at first, but if you go back to the late 1990s, and look at the "Monkey, May I?" deck, and then only slightly later, the Miner/Monkey decks circa '97/98, this classification makes much more sense. Gorilla Shaman was incorporated into the Lestree decks as soon as it was printed, but it suffered from being really the only "utility" or disruptive creature until Dwarvin Miner saw print. In some respects, the UR Fish decks of 2004 look more like the Miner/Monkey decks then modern Fish decks, despite the re-centering of the archetype around Null Rod. So, it's not a perfect fit, but I think this reclassification makes more sense than calling the "Lestree School" "dead." I'd simply say that it's evolution, precipitated by the printing of far more utility creatures, has just been more pronounced away from it's origins. It's still the format's premier aggro deck (Reanimator is neither aggro nor combo, according to my classification scheme).
In any respect, the explanation for this shift is described in more detail in this chapter and the next one. But, when the book is complete, I will go back into the earlier chapters and edit/revise the large tables to reflect this reclassification.
Chapters 16, 17, and 18 are in the 'can' and under editing right now, so they should be published in relatively short succession, and the rest of the series, Chapters 19-25, are completely outlined at this point. Once done, I'll probably add a special "conclusion" section for the book.
In between the release of these chapters, I have in mind at least two "free" articles or "Schools of Magic: History of Vintage Special Reports." The first is on the history of the SCG series. This is done, but being spruced up for publication. I'll probably publish this during the holidays to market the chapters. And I'll probably do one or two other "freebies," including, perhaps, a history of the Vintage Championship and maybe a "top 10" coolest Vintage decks of all time list.
I look forward to your feedback, but I think people are really going to only appreciate this work once it's complete
The end is in sight!
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2007 was the best year for Vintage. That's when I really started getting into it. 4 Brainstorm 4 Scroll. You start with Gifts at the beginning of the year, Flash becomes a thing, and you end the year with GAT. And eventually Quirion Dryad became Tarmogoyf with Empty the Warrens. That GAT deck was probably the best deck of all time. And such an eventful year.
@Smmenen I can't believe something I wrote in a tournament report 10 years ago is going into a book thats so awesome. Thank you!
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Yes, thanks @Smmenen , absolutely love these articles!!
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@desolutionist said in [Premium Article] Schools of Magic: The History of Vintage - 2007:
2007 was the best year for Vintage. That's when I really started getting into it. 4 Brainstorm 4 Scroll. You start with Gifts at the beginning of the year, Flash becomes a thing, and you end the year with GAT. And eventually Quirion Dryad became Tarmogoyf with Empty the Warrens. That GAT deck was probably the best deck of all time. And such an eventful year.
@Smmenen I can't believe something I wrote in a tournament report 10 years ago is going into a book thats so awesome. Thank you!
2007 was a great year, which I'm also partial to for obvious reasons, but 2003 feels like the most interesting year in the history of the format. It didn't have the largest tournaments, but it did feel like a sea change.
That said, it is remarkable how much occurred in 2007, as observed. It may present one of the greatest hypothical 'what ifs' of any year in the history of the format. Had they only not restricted Gifts while unrestricting Gush...
When you pull back the lens, it really is remarkable how much the format changed year over year. From 2003 through 2009, the format is basically wildly different year over year. Remarkably so for a format that "never changes."
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@Smmenen sorry to necro this as i missed this post for not being online for weeks..i do hope Jamison's RG Beatz deck is included or mentioned in this..that deck showed that aggro/beat decks do have a place in the Vintage metagame and I'm still hoping that Zoo-like decks would proove itself again...
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Well, you will be happy to learn that it is indeed featured here. Not only that, but it is exemplary of contemporary iterations of the Lestree school of vintage magic. There is an extensive commentary on this point.
