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    JACO

    @JACO

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    Website eternalcentral.com Location USA

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    Best posts made by JACO

    • RE: North American Eternal Weekend 2017 Metagame Breakdown

      @garbageaggro said in North American Eternal Weekend 2017 Metagame Breakdown:

      I think the problem with restrict misstep so people will be able to play better cards against shops, is that people won't replace misstep with abrade/fragmentize/swords etc, they will probably replace them with spell pierce, or more pyroblasts, and still lose the same way to shops and dredge.

      That all aside, isn't this the kind of meta people talk about liking. Everything has things it beats and things that beat it. If there was one thing that couldn't be beaten that would be a problem, but that isn't where we are.

      Discussions like these often tend to be muddled, but the clearest arguments in favor of restricting Mental Misstep should stand on their own merits, and have little to do with forcing blue players to change their decks in the face of recent Workshop performances (these changes should come anyway as part of metagaming and adapting your deck). Misstep is arguably a problem because of the lack of diversity it creates in the metagame as a whole, and all of the other things it pushes out of the metagame. This is essentially the argument that applied to the Legacy banning of Misstep, and there's a reason it only resides in Vintage currently. Whether or not that it will continue to exist as a 4-of or a 1-of is an open question, and there will be real consequences either way.

      We will be publishing ALL decklists from NA Vintage Champs later today as a downloadable PDF file on EC, and I can tell you from reviewing them line by line for two days that almost all of the non-Workshop Aggro decks are just flat out mis-built for this metagame. A lot of people are misjudging how to combat the current iterations of Workshops, and others are thinking that because they dedicate a card or two like Abrade main deck that's going to get it done (spoiler: it's fucking not). There's going to be a lot of hot takes over the next couple of weeks in regards to banning artifacts and/or Mishra's Workshop, and I suspect nearly all of them are wrong. I'll have more to say on this later, if I have time to get a Champs review article up. Need to finish publishing the Old School report and all Legacy Champs decklists, and then have time to reflect more on Vintage.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • North America Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      Full coverage, results, and all decklists from North America Vintage Champs 2019 can now be found on EC here:
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/north-america-vintage-champs-2019-coverage-decklists-and-results/

      alt text

      If you have a report you’d like to submit, an unlisted/missing decklist, photos from the event (please!), or any other data, please email eternal.central@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: October 17, 2017 Banned & Restricted announcement

      @bobbyvictory said in October 17, 2017 Banned & Restricted announcement:

      I spent money on cards that I don't even want to use anymore because there isn't anything fun these days that I enjoy playing. Tired of the same old bazaar/islands/shops strategies. I resent my decision to purchase these cards. Every vintage website, group and store that supports vintage should have a disclaimer that says:

      Vintage is bazaars/islands/shops only, you've been warned.

      Seriously, because If i had known this ahead of time, I would have never bought in. It doesn't make sense that the format with the largest card pool to choose from has the fewest playable options. It's downright stupid :(.

      I write this without trying to insult you, so please keep that in mind. Your words here and elsewhere create the distinct impression that you don't actually play the format, nor have paid any attention to it for at least the past decade. Vintage revolves around the most broken cards and strategies, and blue decks, Workshop decks, and Bazaar decks have been 3 of out of the top 4 strategies that have consistently risen to the top for over a LONG time (Dark Rituals and dedicated combo being the other, which is in a lull right now). Decks like Fish, Null Rod tempo things, and Colorless Eldrazi simply arise as reactionary forces to this when the metagaming is correct to do so.

      Restricting Workshop isn't going to do anything other than eliminate Workshop decks as a pillar of the format that prevent it from simply charging towards a 85-90+% blue dominated metagame (and yes, I realize not all blue decks are created equal that fit this category, and many have different strategic aims; I'm simply grouping these together for these simple-minded arguments). The critical mass of insane blue spells in Magic's history (many of which are already rightly restricted) are so much higher in power level that it will probably not ever become a format where blue doesn't appear in most of the best decks. It will also likely result in a lot of people quitting Vintage and moving on with their lives (if you do not believe this to be the case, you were not around when the blue apocalypse happened, and Brainstorm/Ponder/Merchant Scroll/Flash all got restricted in one fell swoop, and tons of players quit and set the player-base back massively). If you want Vintage to become a more broken and swingy version of the homogeneity Legacy has moved towards the past 3 years, restricting Workshop is a great over-reactionary idea that will lead to worse outcomes.

      posted in Vintage Community
      JACO
      JACO
    • Why Mishra’s Workshop, Lodestone Golem, and the Status Quo in Vintage are Necessary

      As titled, a holistic look at Vintage, and why nothing should be done about the Vintage Banned & Restricted List on April 4th.
      http://www.eternalcentral.com/why-mishras-workshop-lodestone-golem-and-the-status-quo-in-vintage-are-necessary/

      Your feedback here or on EC is most welcome and appreciated.

      posted in Vintage News
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: North American Eternal Weekend 2017 Metagame Breakdown

      Our NA Vintage Champs 2017 coverage post is up here:
      http://www.eternalcentral.com/vintagechamps2017/

      Incorporates Matt & Ryan's metagame breakdown above, as well as including ALL decklists in a single downloadable PDF (alphabetical by last name, with bookmarks by last name letter) and we'll be updating that page with more infographics, links to reports, and the YouTube playlist embed as it all becomes available. As WotC has chosen to continually ignore official coverage of Vintage and Legacy Champs, we'll try to make the page above the central repository for archival purposes of NA Vintage Champs 2017 (fully matching Legacy coverage coming soon, as soon as the decklists arrive in the mail). Stay tuned for further updates.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: North American Eternal Weekend 2018 Metagame Breakdown

      Great work as usual, gentlemen. I am really enjoying this metagame currently, and had a blast at Vintage Champs this year. So as to not create another distinct thread with Vintage Champs 2018 results, here is the full Eternal Central report with ALL DECKLISTS and so forth (mods can break this off in to its own thread if necessary for some reason).

      North America Vintage Champs 2018 Coverage, Decklists, and Results
      http://www.eternalcentral.com/vintagechamps2018/

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • NYSE Open VI (6) Coverage and Results

      NYSE Open 6 Coverage and Results, including ALL decklists, metagame breakdown, video embed, and massive photo report.
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/nyse-open-6-coverage-and-results/

      alt text

      Once again, a massive thank you to @Prospero for organizing everything and creating such a great experience for the community to get together.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: Datamining MTGO is about to get a bunch harder.

      WotC is doing this for the same reason they used to restrict publishing fewer decklists in The Duelist and The Sideboard magazines, the same reason they don't post the winning decklists from ALL grinders at the GP/Pro Tours (they only do a portion), the same reason they don't post results and winning decklists for each tournament on MTGO every day (they have dramatically narrowed what they publish from where MTGO originally started), and the same reason they proactively contact sites like MTGGoldfish and others to prevent them from scraping data.

      They are intentionally trying to slow formats from becoming "solved" by those with the time and inclination to mine big data. The less data there is, the more uncertainty there is about what the best cards, decks, and strategies are in a given format. It is certainly frustrating for anyone who wants to collect data to measure card and deck performance, but this speaks to the "discovery" line about gaming, and they will continue to do this going forward. We are supposed to trust that they'll make the best decisions with the data, but I don't know many people who trust WotC to do this with any good faith, especially in light of what we've recently seen.

      posted in Vintage Community
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: NYSE #4 - Complete Metagame Report

      @ChubbyRain said:

      Have other Gush pilots found the [DPS vs. Mentor Gush] matchup difficult? I'm curious...

      From the results we've read online, and the testing I've done with DPS vs. UWR Mentor Gush it has been about a 50/50 matchup, depending on deck configuration. The more Defense Grids you play main deck the better the match gets for DPS, as it invalidates a lot of the soft counters that Mentor and Gush decks rely on. Things like Xantid Swarm, Thoughtseize (takes opposing hatebears, TKS, and never misses usually make it worth the life), City of Solitude, and even Mind Twist (doesn't get Misstepped, and is better against more decks) are also very good tools for DPS and Gush Storm decks at the moment.

      I split my two matches against White Eldrazi (punting one of them) - Adding Mystical Tutor and Balance to complement the Walkers and Swords is pretty strong. Mindbreak Trap also can do work against their most broken openers. Alternatively, JVP is quite good if you can get him active, Baleful Strix is quite strong against them. Gush can definitely be built to beat Eldrazi and the Gush decks that did well made the necessary adjustments. That doesn't mean that Eldrazi is not a powerful deck - it certainly is.

      Jaco's version is likely much weaker against Mentor. The reason White Eldrazi has a strong Mentor matchup is the combination of Spheres and the big threats. Without the Spheres, Mentor can just go nuts and the deck is more susceptible to Supreme Verdict, which commonly sees play out of Mentor SBs.

      To give you some tiny data, I went 2-0 (4-1 in games) against UWR Mentor Gush (both having a small Bomberman package) at NYSE4 with Unpowered Eldrazi, and thought the match was generally in my favor against Gush decks of all varieties heading in to this tournament after having tested the past few months (which is why I simply couldn't justify playing 4C Mentor at NYSE4, which was my other deck sleeved up and ready to register). Null Rod and 8 Wasteland effects function similarly to 8+ Sphere effects. Balance can be very good against Eldrazi, but often comes priced in with losing most of your hand when casting it against an Eldrazi player who usually has 1-2 cards in hand. I believe I had my board reset by Balance, Engineered Explosives, and Toxic Deluge at NYSE4, and it didn't even seem to matter in any of the games. Eldrazi Mimic plus one other resolved follow up threat is usually enough to finish off your opponent in those situations because of the damage already incurred before a sweeper is cast. I remember beating Oath in a fun G3 after he resolved Deluge to wipe the board, then I cast an uncounterable Mimic and passed, and then I cast another large (non-Reality Smasher) creature the next turn, triggering Mimic, and the game was over.

      The main path to victory for Mentor from every playtest game I had was if the Mentor decks get a very fast start against any form of Eldrazi (ie. resolving a Mentor before Eldrazi or Workshop deck does anything relevant), but barring that they are usually on the back foot most of the game against the versions with 4 Cavern of Souls, as there is effectively zero working countermagic at that point, and even having 4 Swords to Plowshares is not usually enough to save you. Dark Confidant, JVP, and Young Pyromancer are all OK, but none really seemed to swing games like a turn 1-2 Mentor racing. The fact that dedicated Eldrazi decks are basically half creatures, and keep pumping out larger creatures makes it very winnable for both Tribal Eldrazi and White Eldrazi. Endbringer or Eldrazi Displacer can clean up the battlefield very quickly against Mentor if the board is clogged. This also ignores the ability for any deck to play Dismember, which matters more than you'd think.

      Mentor certainly can (and will) adapt to the results of the last month, but I think the other decks will keep adapting as well. I know I will (both with Eldrazi, and all of my other decks). I have read consternation about Gush (and Workshop) decks occupying a certain varying percentage of the metagame, but I can honestly say this is the most open Vintage has been to me since like 2002-2004, if people will take the time and put forward the effort to innovate, and I'm way more excited to play Vintage now than anytime in the past few years. We all know Monastery Mentor and Gush are synergistic and the best of breed/most efficient at what they individually do, but there are Thirst, Gifts, Landstill, and other combo decks out there that can be competitive in this metagame, and you just have to put the work in to tuning them. I had a blast at this tournament playing, meeting new people, and chatting up friends of yesteryear. The post-tournament meal was my highlight of the weekend, and I wish we could have had time for more of those. NYSE continues to be my favorite tournament each year, and I'm thankful for all of the hard work @Prospero and crew put in. I really look forward to seeing everybody that can make it to Eternal Weekend in Columbus this year.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: Thoughts on Eternal Weekend

      Regarding holding Old School on the day before Vintage Champs, there is not a lot of crossover from the people who wanted to play in the Vintage Prelim and those who played Old School, from those I spoke to. A surprising number of the people who played in the Old School tournament told me they came to Eternal Weekend specifically for Old School, which is pretty astonishing - and this happened last year as well. Just as in the past 2 years, most of the players I talked to said or wrote to me that the Old School tournament was the most fun they've had playing Magic in years. And I don't even know what the hell I'm doing as a tournament organizer (yet).

      The vast majority of Vintage players I talked to last year who played in the Vintage Prelim event the day before Vintage said it was a mistake, and they were unlikely to do so again in the future. Unless Vintage is all you play (or if you very rarely get to play), it is not very enviable to grind through an all day Vintage event for almost no reward on Thursday (or Friday), and then do so again the next day, especially for those who were planning on playing in yet another all day grind (Legacy Champs) the very next day bright and early. It's simply not worth the mental drain, when the optimal play is to save your energy and focus for the Champs events themselves, and spend the rest of the weekend enjoying free time and food with friends. Long travel times compound this problem. This is symptomatic of many all weekend events, and you can see this in the past when Waterbury has had like 120+ on Day 1, and then under 20 on Day 2.

      The other reason that the Vintage Prelim tournament attendance was down quite a bit from last year is because it was on a Thursday, and many people were not willing to take yet another midweek day off of work to travel on Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning) to play in what is essentially a very long side event for little reward. The reason that people are willing to come in early for Old School is because it's totally unique, and the casual atmosphere, imbibing, and fun that they have is often more rewarding than the rest of the weekend. I suspect that if the weekend schedule was changed to being something like Friday (prelim events)/Saturday (Legacy Champs)/Sunday (Vintage Champs), there would be more participation again next year, even in Columbus.

      posted in Vintage Community
      JACO
      JACO

    Latest posts made by JACO

    • RE: HollowBears miniprimer

      I like this deck, and based on our conversations the day of the event, I'd think about these small alterations if I was tuning my own version:

      1. Dropping the 4 Stonecoil Serpent, and adding more mana or interaction in those slots. The full suite of Deathrite Shaman seems very useful to me, for both triggering Vengevine as well as hardcasting stuff, should the game go a few turns, or as another tangential tool against Dredge and graveyard-centric decks.
      2. Anther option could be more off-color Moxen, to help more reliably power out the first turn Thalia or Collector Ouphe draw, which could help greatly when you know what deck you'e up against.
      3. 2-3 Lavinia would be another interesting choice, and could potentially be swapped in some of the floating slots. This would also keep the creature count up (for Vengevine triggering purposes).
      4. I think more graveyard hate is necessary in the sideboard against Dredge (likely the 4th Leyline of the Void, and maybe 1 more card).

      How relevant was Thorn of Amethyst in your experience? It seems incredibly powerful in theory, but I'm wondering if you had time to cast it on curve, and if it proved worth the slot.

      posted in Survival
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: Vintaholics Anonymous

      It seems like a handful of people "want a different feeling" for the format they grew up on, and time has passed them by as new, exciting, and powerful printings have changed the format. This isn't much different than those who grew up on ABU and then saw the printings of Urza's block and then Mirrodin block radically reshape the format (adjusted for those eras). The thing unique about Vintage is that it is specifically dedicated to be the eternal resting home for the hideous design mistakes of Magic past and present, even if we seek some semblance of balance every now and then. It is supposed to be wild and ever-changing.

      If you are looking for a different feeling, I don't really recommend ditching Vintage per se, but also take a look at diving in to some of the other retro formats out there that people are playing. I have been playing a good amount of Middle School, and there are other formats like PreModern or HyperExtended that are similar (also unpowered and much cheaper than Vintage and Legacy). If you are searching for something that is akin to 2000-2003 era Vintage, there is also a format known as Classic that you might find fun (1993-2003, pre-Mirrodin, fully powered). There is no shortage of player created throwback formats out there to capture a different nostalgia, and they are fun to mix in to your arsenal so nothing ever gets stale.

      posted in Off-Topic
      JACO
      JACO
    • European Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      European Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/european-vintage-champs-2019-coverage-decklists-and-results/

      alt text

      There's not much coverage of this out there (especially in English), so we put this together for you, along with a bunch of sweet pictures. Enjoy.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • 4Seasons Winter 2019 Vintage Coverage and Results

      4Seasons Winter 2019 Vintage Coverage and Results
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/4seasons-winter-2019-vintage-coverage-and-results/

      alt text

      There's not much coverage of the 4Seasons tournament (in Italy) out there, so we formatted the T8 decklists for publication for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: North America Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      North America Vintage Champs 2019 Top Performing Budget Decklists
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/north-america-vintage-champs-2019-top-performing-budget-decklists/

      alt text

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: North America Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      @wiley said in North America Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results:

      Top 8 list locations from the pdf in alphabetical order:

      Brennen, Joe - p.24
      Coval, Brian - p.57
      Eberhart, Ryan - p.77
      Franks, Justin - p.96
      Hockey, Brian - p.134
      Kieth, Jody - p.148
      Pinter, Jeremy - p.219
      Schatteman, Boston - p.241

      Huge thanks to Jaco and team for getting these put up like this. Already saw a lot of neat and interesting decks rolling through this, and I liked the artwork on brassman's sheet

      EDIT: 1st place unpowered list (Humfleet, Patrick) is on p.137

      Just updated the page for a section for the actual Top 8 lists, typed out on the web page. Will add a separate post for Top 8 Unpowered decks sometime later this week/weekend. Legacy Champs, Modern Champs, and Old School coverage on the way as well.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • North America Vintage Champs 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      Full coverage, results, and all decklists from North America Vintage Champs 2019 can now be found on EC here:
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/north-america-vintage-champs-2019-coverage-decklists-and-results/

      alt text

      If you have a report you’d like to submit, an unlisted/missing decklist, photos from the event (please!), or any other data, please email eternal.central@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • Asia Vintage Championship 2019 Coverage, Decklists, and Results

      Full coverage in English, including corrected Top 16 decklists, Top 8 playoff bracket, video feature matches, and more is now live on EC here:
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/asia-vintage-championship-2019-coverage-decklists-and-results/

      alt text

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO
    • RE: N.Y.S.E. Open VI - 7/20/19 - Long Island, New York

      @nybaseb2 said in N.Y.S.E. Open VI - 7/20/19 - Long Island, New York:

      Will decklists be posted anywhere??

      This was an amazing event!! (My first NYSE, taking 14th with Pitch Dredge) Its unfortunate to hear they won't be happening moving forward.

      Full coverage (including all decklists, metagame report, photos, and more) can be found here: http://www.themanadrain.com/topic/2841/nyse-open-vi-6-coverage-and-results

      posted in Vintage Tournaments
      JACO
      JACO
    • NYSE Open VI (6) Coverage and Results

      NYSE Open 6 Coverage and Results, including ALL decklists, metagame breakdown, video embed, and massive photo report.
      https://www.eternalcentral.com/nyse-open-6-coverage-and-results/

      alt text

      Once again, a massive thank you to @Prospero for organizing everything and creating such a great experience for the community to get together.

      posted in Official Tournament Results
      JACO
      JACO