Vintage Championships 2016 - Decklists and Metagame Analysis

[ChubbyRain]

The biggest Vintage event of the year just took place and I have ~350 decklists sitting on my desk. I'll be going through all of them as many notable cards like Paradoxical Outcomes, Leovold ("Butters"), Emissary of Trest, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance made appearances outside of the top 8 and there are some rather sweet lists. Rather than make everyone wait, here is what I have done so far:

Top 8 Lists: http://www.cardtitan.com/coverage

Top 32 Lists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hn0nWS4yjIfBWC6noDEod8feXGeteNLIvvR9VwdTNkU/edit?usp=sharing

Top 64 Lists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QrcKcmR1aSCwMjjjaxsarYe67EAiiHTLOK9sqZ2aR6Y/edit?usp=sharing

I recommend checking out Reid Duke's Paradoxical Storm, David Fleischmann-Rose's Odd Oathstill, and Kurt Crane's "Red Meta", as examples of innovative lists that did well.

Update:
Every Single Decklist Played at Champs

*Except for Mukesh Ablack who we assume is on Colorless Eldrazi based on what his opponents told us.

Win Percentages by Archetype and SubArchetype

As always, thank you to Ryan Eberhart, my partner in crime, for his considerable help.

[BazaarOfBaghdad]

@ChubbyRain Thanks for your work on this. I've never played a cardboard event before: how do people register? Do they still just manually fill out a form or do they have electronic decklist registration options now? (If "no" to the latter, that would seem to be a big upgrade for the future as it saves time and errors.)

[thecravenone]

@BazaarOfBaghdad said:

@ChubbyRain Thanks for your work on this. I've never played a cardboard event before: how do people register? Do they still just manually fill out a form or do they have electronic decklist registration options now? (If "no" to the latter, that would seem to be a big upgrade for the future as it saves time and errors.)

It varies but for the most part, you still have to write your decklist the old fashioned way. The only tournament that has let me electronically submit a decklist was Grand Prix DC 2013, and even that was only for specific players - I can't remember if I got it for buying VIP or for having byes.

On a somewhat related note, I found it interesting that the decklists that the top 8 players were provided with had been typed and printed rather than using the decklist sheets that the players had turned in.

[Islandswamp]

Which basic lands did the nonsense lists run? I'm looking for something in my price range and as long as they're not guru I think I can build those.

[diophan]

@Islandswamp One ran 75 islands and one ran 75 plains. Clearly gush doesn't need to be restricted if you run 75 islands but no gush.

[thecravenone]

@Islandswamp said:

Which basic lands did the nonsense lists run? I'm looking for something in my price range and as long as they're not guru I think I can build those.

Be a super scrub and steal the basic lands from the draft station.

[rikter]

My favorite nonsense list to date was the guy who registered 59 Forests and one Lost in the Woods at GP New Jersey (Brainstorm mat). He insta dropped but I thought he should have run a few rounds since the deck has the chance to win vs creature based lists via decking/concession.

[Juggernaut GO]

I love the asterisk hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahaha

[i_b_TRUE]

Great write up, and still bummed I couldn't make it, but I'll be there next year :)
Not surprised to see no Pyromancer's in top 32, Mentor is much more powerful and consistent which annoys the hell out of me.
Not sure if people are still trying Grixis Pyro but to me since NYSE the deck is to slow not being able to keep up with Mentor and W Eldrazi which is another tough MU.

I also heard so much excitement over Leovold and Daretti. I thought Daretti would make a huge impact, but I think a Grixis Thieves/Control deck is also to slow vs Gush and all of the Sphere decks.

Leovold I was never a fan of, I thought he had no impact vs non U decks and the casting cost of BUG is difficult to assemble consistently

[garbageaggro]

Just wanted to say Kurt Crane's list was hilarious to watch and here about all weekend. Turns out unpowered hate can still be reasonable in the format!

[SpellBombFTW]

@diophan @ChubbyRain Do you have a way of isolating certain cards so that we can break it down by number of Ancient Tomb or Thorn of Amethyst decks to be specific? Thank you.

[Arcranedenial]

Thanks for the notice, I thought my Red-Meta deck was great for the weekend and could have easily made top 8. It should be noted the 4th Eidolon and the Mindbreak Trap would have been Leyline of Sanctity 3-4 but they couldn't be found :/

[Stormanimagus]

@ChubbyRain

Thank you so much for your hard work in assembling all this data. I do have one request, however. Could you subdivide the "Shops" archetype into the major archetype splits it had for the event (i.e at least in 2 parts)? What I mean is there is a very obvious difference between Ravager Shops Builds' approach (decks with Ravager and either TKS or Cars) and that of a Stax list with Crucible/Inventor's Fair and even Null Rod Main. I'm not sure how much of each list were at the event but these decks win in entirely different ways and thus are entirely different archetypes. Thanks!

-Storm

[vaughnbros]

@Stormanimagus They usually do the subarchetyping in their more thorough search of the lists.

[rikter]

Where does the Dungeons come from in "Dungeons and Dragons" Dredge archetype? The dragon part I get

[nedleeds]

@ChubbyRain thanks for compiling this, great meeting you and sacking virulent plague like a rhesus monkey. The variance gods clubbed me as I lost to tribal vampires next round and went and got hammered.

[ChubbyRain]

@SpellBombFTW - There will be a function to for that in the final sheet.

@Stormanimagus - We will definitely do that.

@rikter - It's what Sullivan Brophy calls the list. To be honest, it's mostly a way to fill in the "Deck name" category since most of the time Dredge just gets labeled "Dredge". I am definitely open to different naming conventions.

@nedleeds - Was nice to meet you too. Drink with friends was definitely the best part of this weekend for me.

[Islandswamp]

@Arcranedenial said:

Thanks for the notice, I thought my Red-Meta deck was great for the weekend and could have easily made top 8. It should be noted the 4th Eidolon and the Mindbreak Trap would have been Leyline of Sanctity 3-4 but they couldn't be found :/

I keep getting asked about budget lists for MTGO. I think yours might be cheap online, if you get a chance would you message me the list in text form? If i use it you'll get full credit of course.

[Arcranedenial]

@Islandswamp sent

[Water0]

@BazaarOfBaghdad Really? That wasn't you playing the Paradoxical Oath list? Man, I was rooting for you too..