Vintage 101: Eternally Extravagant

Islandswamp

This week I covered a few of the decks to make top eight at Eternal Extravaganza 4. Spoiler alert: Thought-Knot Seer was pretty popular.
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Thanks to everyone who shipped me their deck lists early so I could get this out by deadline, I really appreciate it. Sorry to anyone who sent me a list but didn't make it into the article. Space is a real consideration, but there's always next week.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/vintage-101-eternally-extravagant

Islandswamp

@Islandswamp FYI I can take that image down if it's too obtuse. I was trying to find the logo they made for my column and I can't seem to find it. It's that Goldfish with an Ancestral Recall theme.

This was an awesome write-up! It's exciting to see the Eldrazi arms race play out similarly to the Modern one with Mark's build and the inclusion of World Breaker. This might be one of the easiest metagames for potential Vintage converts from Modern and Legacy to strategically grok too, let alone the price tag of the all-star decks.

themonadnomad

I'd like to see how the format would manage with LSG unrestricted now that people actually started trying to build new decks. Seems like most of these Eldrazi decks would do just fine.

Thewhitedragon69

@themonadnomad

Most of these Eldrazi decks would just squeeze in 3 more golems and be better.

arj

Excellent report. Eldrazi is really shaking things up.

Thewhitedragon69

I hate Eldrazi....but I love Eldrazi. So conflicted. On the surface (and especially in modern) it is a derpy "play big mana, cast undercosted giants" deck with little interaction. In vintage, there is actually some interaction like stax offered and even warping wails, dismembers, and other spells that offer a hint of interaction. Modern Eldrazi just makes me want to cry into a bottle of liquor. Containment Priest (which ISN'T in modern) and displacer is sweet and fun. Vintage Eldrazi offers me just enough interaction to keep my interest. I actually bought all the cards needed for a few versions of the deck, and it was dirt cheap. My friend and I were discussing the impact Eldrazi has for vintage. One thought is that it offers people a cheap entry into the format (outside of lotus and whatever mox you run), but the flip side is that it requires no big investment into the format and few cards port over into other archetypes, so your not really any more invested in the format. The main benefit I see is that Eldrazi players that buy in cheap will become exposed to the other decks in the format and dispell misconceptions of the format through gameplay. That may draw them further into the format and incentivze buy-in. I hope that's what happens.

10k

@Thewhitedragon69 Eldrazi made me put modern down and get deeper into Legacy. Then they came to Legacy... now I play Eldrazi in Vintage. I also love and hate Eldrazi haha.

EDIT: Thanks for the article @Islandswamp - great read. Mildly disappointed you didn't opt for "Did you think we'd seen the last of the Eldrazi in Vintage? I Thought-Knot. " in the opening paragraph.

Do you think these Eldrazi decks could run a couple copies of Thalia 2.0? Or is she better suited for a humans/hatebears? Seems like she could be a real beating in one of these decks.

garbageaggro

@feldon808 I think a hybrid probably makes the most sense. See my recent list from the TSI top 4 in the tournament results for what I am talking about, still running 4 displacer 3 TKS and new thalia. Deck felt really solid. I just wish I had some better sideboard options against Mentor (the card itself, the rest of the deck is fine, it is just fast mentors that i have been having problems with).