Can you play use Jegantha, the Wellspring as a companion in a deck that contains an Aladdin's Lamp from the Arabian Nights Set considering the double 5?

@rat3de said in Workshop Aggro:

Not to mention the fact that it is just not a good creature for Shops decks...

Umori is always in your hand as kind of a free creature that is always available to cast. Aggro Shops always could use another creature with a decent power / Toughness that can also reduce the cost to play artifacts, very useful when you are trying to overcome Sphere taxing effects. It just takes the room of one sideboard slot.

@blindtherapy said in Workshop Aggro:

@daniel-worobec yes, but if you board in any of those cards this will not function as a companion in those games.

On game one before you sideboard it is useful and useful if you still have all artifacts in game 2 and 3.

@blindtherapy said in Workshop Aggro:

@daniel-worobec umori conflicts with dismember. it also conflicts with boarding in leyline, but i think that's about it.

According to the link here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ikoria-lair-behemoths-mechanics-2020-04-02

"Your companion's deckbuilding rule applies only to your starting deck, which is the deck you begin play with each game. It won't consider any cards in your sideboard, so those cards don't have to follow the deck-building rule."

So you can put whatever you want in your sideboard and not have it the Companion requirements limit your sideboard.

Umori, the Collector in Workshops

Since most Workshop decks are all artifacts and lands you can play Umori, the Collector in your sideboard as your Companion. I know there isn't very many colored mana sources to cast it but it only takes up one side board slot and I think it would be OK to but in two Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to help pay for it's cost. Also by adding Urborg in, your Ancient Tombs can produce mana without having to cost life and Mishra's Workshop can produce mana that can be used for other purposes than casting artifact spells, also good for Dismember.

Thank you Joe Dyer for interesting views on cards being banned in the vintage format.

Another aspect that cards will eventually be banned in vintage is a combination of time and the willingness to keep the game of Magic interesting. The goal of Wizards of the Coast is to keep the game going and to sell cards, these two objectives go hand in hand because selling cards generates profits to keep the game going. To keep the game interesting, new and often powerful cards are often printed every year. Lets take into consideration of what happened in 2017. Monastery Mentor made up a large percentage of the decks being played in Vintage, was then restricted and then the number of Monastery decks went down but Monastery Mentor is still one of the primary win conditions in Paradoxical Outcome decks even though being restricted. People play Time Vault and one copy of Manifold Key in their decks as win conditions as do people play Tinker and one copy of Blightsteel Colossus as win conditions; restricting Manifold Key and Blightsteel Colossus would have no effect. Now take into consideration Demonic Consultation and the new Thassa's Oracle, both win the game in combination with each other with Demonic Consultation already being restricted and only needing one Thassa's Oracle to win the game with; restricting Thassa's Oracle would do pretty much nothing. All three examples are a different way of winning the game and require different hate strategies to counter. It appears to me that Vintage in going to be dominated by one type of deck in the future where restrictions will do nothing. All you need is two of a variety of different combinations of cards to win the game. With the availability of tutors, draw spells, Serum Powder and the mulligan getting one of these three card combos into your hand is very likely along with ways to protect them, have disruption and being able to combo within the first couple of turns; and in such a deck a single Monastery Mentor will also work well. I am not sure if such a deck exists today and I also think that I am missing some combinations of cards that work well with both of them being restricted. I am however certain that as the game of Magic progresses there will be more synergies and combos made and that such a deck will dominate the format; where restricting cards will do no good and Wizards will be forced to ban cards to balance the format.

In regards to dredge decks. Is it safe to assume that you can take out Dredgers and put in some Once Upon a Time in place of those dredgers since it will find dredgers or and additional Bazaar of Baghdad? If so maybe 4x Shambling Shell, 1x Golgari Grave-Troll and 2-3 Once Upon a Time (maybe Hogaak too) may be enough to bring back Force of Vigor back to the Main Deck from the Side Board.

Does anyone have any math on this card in Dredge decks?

The release of Modern Horizons has had a large impact on Pitch Dredge with the addition of Force of Vigor, Force of Negation and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. Dredge has also had to adjust itself to the release of War of the Spark with Karn, the Great Creator and Narset, Parter of Veils and the release of Core Set 2020 with Mystic Forge. Versions of Pitch Dredge have been tested over the past couple of months with some very interesting results. Based on the latest Dredge decklists from www.mtggoldfish.com for the past three weeks, it seems as though there has been a popular Pitch Dredge decklist that can possibly be established as a primary decklist for Pitch Dredge.

The following decklist was found on www.mtggoldfish.com was found 11 times over the past three weeks that did well on various Vintage Challenges and Leagues out of 20 total Vintage Dredge Decks:

4x Narcomoeba
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Shambling Shell
4x Stinkweed Imp
3x Ichorid
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Hollow One
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Ashen Rider

4x Cabal Therapy
1x Gitaxian Probe
4x Mental Misstep
3x Dread Return
2x Force of Vigor
4x Force of Will

4x Serum Powder
4x Bridge from Below
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Petrified Field

(sideboard varies)

Within the past three weeks there has been 4 decks that were the same as the above except for differing with 1-3 cards within the Vintage Challenges and Leagues.

So if you take the 11 decks that are the same, the 4 decks that are almost the same and there being a total of 20 Vintage Dredge Decks in the past three weeks of Vintage Challenges and Leagues; you basically have 75% of the decks being the same. This may be the new Pitch Dredge Deck.

Daniel Worobec

@neo_altoid recommended that I move this post over here so that more people can see it.

Using Hope of Ghirapur in KarnForge

Karn Shops is one of the top performing decks in the Vintage format but is often defenceless. In the N.Y.S.E. Open VI there were five Karn Shops decks in the top nine that seemed to rely on just 3-4 coppies of Defense Grid in the deck for protection. I propose that adding copies of Hope of Ghirapur would improve upon an already powerful Karn Shops.

I do say that Defense Grid is better to defend Karn Shops is than Hope of Ghirapur. My argument is that four Defense Grid is not enough to defend Karn Shops with and that multiple Hope of Ghirapur would help.
Hope of Ghirapur denies your opponent from casting non-creature spells on the second phase of a turn. Often is that all you need to win the game is to have a Karn, the Great Creator or Mystic Forge on the battlefield and Hope of Ghirapur can deny the opponent from using counter magic or other interaction that would stop a Karn or Mystic Forge.

Hope of Ghirapur is cheap to cast and is free with Foundry Inspector.

Manifold Key’s secondary ability can be useful to make Hope of Ghirapur unblockable if your opponent has a flyer to block with.

Hope of Ghirapur can make Karn Shops faster by slowing the opponent. It can take away half of an opponent’s turn by denying them the ability to cast sorceries, enchantments, planeswalkers, and non-creature artifacts for a turn. This is very helpful in slowing down fast combo decks such as Paradoxical Outcome, Dark Petition Storm and Karn Shops mirror-match.

Because Mystic Forge lets you draw many cards per turn, you can cast multiple Hope of Ghirapur turn after turn, preventing your opponent from counter your spells and casting non-creature spells during their turn for multiple turns. This could give you enough turns to assemble a Time Vault/Key or Karn/Mycosynth Lattice combination and lock your opponent out for the rest of the game.

Let’s take a look at the final match between Joe Brennen and Vasu Balakrishnan in the N.Y.S.E. Open VI. Vasu was playing Karn Shops combo with Mystic Forge and Joe was playing BUG Control. In game one Joe had a hand full of counterspells. If Vasu had a Hope of Ghirapur on the battlefield at the time, Joe would have been unable to cast most of his hand. In round two, Joe countered a Mystic Forge. If Hope of Ghirapur had attacked, Joe could not have played his Force of Will to counter Vasu’s Mystic Forge and Joe would have been unable to cast his Narset, Parter of Veils on his turn. The game may have turned out differently but these are just examples.

Thank you for considering using Hope of Ghirapur in Karn Shops. I look forward to seeing how Karn Shops evolves over the next couple of months and how it will perform at Eternal Weekend.

Daniel Worobec