Based on some feedback that I have gotten from some friends and viewing the sentiment from other channels, it appears that Old School is pulling some players away from paper Vintage.
I know personally I played in 2 major events where I travelled, one was Vintage at SCG Con and the other was the Old School Players Ball. I had fun at both events, and I noticed that the people who have the cards in paper and continue to invest in power and dual lands and other staples of both Legacy and Vintage are mostly Old School players.
There were a little more that 120 players at SCG Con and a little over 80 players at the Old School players Ball. The Old School events have exploded, this event was sold out in less than 8 hrs and I was on a wait list to even attend.
Given a choice in events I would choose to play Old School most of the time over Vintage right now even though I have been brewing in Vintage and building new decks.
Is there something happening here? The people I know that own the cards in paper are being more and more pulled into Old School and complaining about Vintage.
The Vintage tournaments are mostly all proxy and the attendance in events is going down. Legacy does not even do proxy and their attendance has been going up since the last 2 bans in the format. Modern is just exploding.
Vintage is very expensive to get into to play tier 1. Even Dredge which was the "budget" deck is not over $4000. That is nuts! Getting 4 Bazaar of Baghdad has gotten very hard and I get it. I bought mine like 13yrs ago and I do not even play Dredge, I usually loan them to my brother. I bought them to Dragon and I will occasionally play lands with them.
Is this hurting Vintage? How do you feel about the Vintage community? I like the guys in local area, the guys from Battle Creek, and Cleveland and Metro Detroit are awesome guys. But, a lot these guys play Old School and there is a sentiment that Old School is more fun. Does this hurt Vintage? What does this mean for paper events in the future?