@Protoaddct I agree that Big Blue has gotten more toys than Ritual based combo as of late, but I don't see how restricting Workshop (and unrestricting stuff like Trinisphere and Lodestone Golem) helps in any way. Isn't the problem stuff like Mental Misstep then?
@protoaddct said in The Curious Case of Mishra's Workshop:
@hyperborea This strategy really only works if you believe in vintage being a binary format (maybe trinary if you count dredge) between shops and blue. The argument from many people is that the very existence of Shopsx4 keeps decks out of the format.
I think this debate still rages in the hearts and minds of everyone, it's just that everyone made their point and really all we can do is wait for the banned list announcement or a new set to come out with some other card that contributes to the discussion. Otherwise nothing has changed much and everyone is just beating the horse.
The best cards in the format are blue or artifact so the impression of binarism makes sense, but I think the issue is more about strategic diversity, and Shops plays a very important role as the tier 1 aggro deck in the format. For many, many years aggro simply was not respected in this format. I think more people just need to adopt the modal artifact destruction cards like Abrade and Kolghan's command and Shops will feel less OP. Oath is another way of preying on aggro decks, as Winterstar mentioned.
Are people still calling for a Shops restriction or did this blow over? My personal feeling was that blue decks just needed to start playing 8+ artifact hate spells between the main and SB. I think you're starting to see that now.
Take this Grixis Pyromancer deck (6-0 Vintage Challenge Dec 02, 2017): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/847695#paper
MD: 1 Dack Fayden
SB: 4 By Force, 3 Shattering Spree, (1 Mountain)
And this Team Leovold deck (6-0 Vintage Challenge Dec 16, 2017): https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/861860#paper
MD: 2 Dack Fayden, 2 Abrupt Decay, 1 Kolghan's Command
SB: 1 EE, 3 By Force, 1 Abrupt Decay, 1 Ancient Grudge
I think Kolaghan's Command and Abrade are underplayed and so are wrath effects.
I also support the Mental Misstep restriction-- to me it ticks all the boxes: (1) too good, (2) not fun, and (3) format warping/homogenizing. But I'm willing to see how the format evolves.
All this talk about functional reprints opens a big nasty can of worms. In the end, collectors and card shops will never be happy because they lose value.
What if WOTC implemented some kind of "stock split" whereby owners of RL cards are invited to trade them in for X copies which are worth 1/X of the original (in order to increase circulation/liquidity)?
I'm not sure how to do this and preserve exactly the value of the originals, since you are creating new value (since each copy has the same utility as the original, assuming they are tournament legal), but it doesn't seem impossible to execute if the original owners are compensated for this effectively.
Any economics experts here?
How do you reliably cast Jailer with only 7 permanent non-Caverns white sources?
Wurmcoil is trouble though... Maybe something like Cast Out is better.
That control slaver deck sure is lovely. I wonder what an updated version would look like? So much of the core is the same as Grixis Thieves (it even has 2 Notion Thieves in the SB!).
So Wasteland may be a thing again? Also, Poor Young Pyromancer.
@aceofjacks Points 2-4 make sense.
On your first point, I suspect your opponent is sideboarding out Mental Misstep in games 2-3. Also, the decks you bring in Cage against are usually running Wear//Tear/Fragmentize/Nature's Claim rather than Grudge.
What are you thinking about replacing the RIPs with? And how would you fit the Wardens in the maindeck?